Stego's FAQ on India travel (Weather 1/1)

Subject: Wheather in Goa and Bombay (October).

Date: 18 May 95

From: Shrikant Ranade <[email protected]>

Just a word of caution about the weather: October is the second-hottest month in Bombay (May is the hottest). Goa is only about 300 miles south of Bombay, so I imagine the weather there will be similar. Weather-wise, you will find travel to these parts a lot more enjoyableif you visit in November. (October is fine in northern India e.g. Delhi.)

Subject: Weather and accomodation in May-July.

Date: 16 Mar 96

>...

Monsoon season starts at around Mid-July. Expect very intense dry and heat conditions before that. Rains can get pretty heavy (leading to floods most of the time) in Monsoons.

>...

Well.. this is not the best of times to be in N.India.

The best time is around Sept.-Dec. Perhaps you should head towards S.India (pretty good at the time you intend to visit).

>...

You can expect modern conveniences in cities like New Delhi, but don't expect anything much in other smaller cities. Most budget hotels have their airconditioning broken (deliberately?) at that time of the year. Food and travel is slightly more expensive and diseases (malaria, diorrhoea) are rampant at this time.

Subject: India trip in June-July, various tips.

From: Wayne Humphreys

Date: 13 Apr 96

Maitreya wrote:

> I am a student planning a trip by myself to India, probably northern, in

> June or July and would like any info on a few things:

> -Is it possible to find cheap places to stay without making

> reservations before arriving?

> -How much money should I plan on spending each day (no fancy

> hotels or anything)?

> -What kind of clothing, shoes are appropriate for three weeks or so?

> -Any standard medications I might want to take?

> Any other ideas would be appreciated also.

>-Thanks

>-paul Hi I have just spent six weeks in India. The time of the year you are going is very hot so be prepared for hot weather and sleepless nights. I would suggest you bye the "Lonely Planets" guide to India. In this it will give you a list of places to stay in each town you visit, how to get there and prices. This type of accommidation does not normally need to be reserved. It is quite easy to live on $US70 per week. Sandles are probaly the best foot wear in India. Have injections against typhoid, hep A and B and take Malairia tablets. If you can travel by train, second class reserved, or goverment buses,do so, as they are safer and you meet interesting poeple.

normally you dontneed to book very far in advanced usually a couple of days, no need to book for buses. If you would like more info send me some specific questions and I will gladly answer them.

Wayneh

Subject: India by bike in June

From: Thora Jonsdottir

Date: 16 Apr 96

Hi there, I've travelled in India 2 times, March last year and this last February. My husband took a bicycle trip few years back, starting in Delhi going to Lhasa via Kathmandu. There were 3 of them and being on a bike in this time of the year was quite horrendous. The rain cools things down a bit but the edges of the paved roads and of cours the dirt-roads will be quite muddy. They stayed in small villages in their tents and also where they could find cheap accommodation. When they finally reached Kathmandu, they hung out there for 6 weeks just to recover from the heat.

It might be a better idea to postpone your trip to the fall.

Anyway, best of luck to you, don't forget to plan on getting diarrhea. Also spare parts can be hard to find, take all the finer stuff along with you. For the rougher stuff, the Indian people can repair almost everything!

Greetings,

Thora Jonsdottir

Subject: India in July: traveler's hell?

From: [email protected] (Jeyandran Abraham)

Date: 18 Apr 96

Hi, July in South India is extremely hot. I was there in July 1993 in Madras (capital of Tamil Nadu) and temperatures were above 100F. I was in Madras again in December of 1995 and the weather was really nice.

Jeyandran

Subject: India in July: traveler's hell?

From: [email protected] (Peter Selk)

Date: 20 Apr 96

[email protected] wrote:

: Is the heat really oppressive, will the moonsoon ruin my trip? How

: regional is the bad weather?

India is about as large as Europe, so it is pretty unreasonable to to expect one unified answer to these questions. My own experience is confined to the area of the Gangetic plain from Calcutta up to Delhi, which includes popular tourist areas such as Varanasi, Agra and Khajurao.

There, the July weather is pretty warm but not unpleasant -- nothing like the really punishing heat of May and June, before the rains. The monsoon in this region consists of a big thunderstorm or two every day, with sunshine the rest of the day. The country has turned green, and is very pleasant on the whole. My wife, who is from Goa, reports that west of the Ghats (i.e. along the narrow western strip of coast, including Bombay and Goa) July is much worse, and can includes whole days of clouds and rain.

Just from reading, I believe there would be at least the following other variations: hill stations are different and probably rainier, Rajasthan is desert, and the southeast around Madras is drier.

By all means go in July if that's when you have time. Unlike the October to May period, hotels are uncrowded.

--Peter Selk--

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