Let's start with the preparation before going to India. Of course, I did a lot of reading because we decided not to get any tour package (except in Kashmir) and wanted to do this on our own. And we survived guys so you can do it too. The key is, a lot of reading. Okay?
Visa
Visiting India require a visa and you can apply it at the India Visa Centre at Straits Building, it is near the Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad. Take the LRT and alight at Masjid Jamek station and walk for less than 10 minutes and you'll arrive there, without having to worry about getting a parking for your car, because to find a parking in that area is brutal and if you find one, prepare to fork out at least RM20 for the parking fee. Ridiculous.
Before going to the visa centre, please fill in your form ONLINE. No handwritten form will be accepted and if you don't do this, prepare to pay RM20 for the people at the visa centre to fill the form for you. DON'T BE LAZY and save yourself the RM20. Prepare 2 sets of India visa sized photos (2" x 2") on a white background. Attach a copy of your IC, passport and confirmed return flight tickets together with the form.
This happened to us; we were told that we have to choose the 6 months visa duration with multiple entries instead of the 1 months with single entry that we chose. The person at the front counter told us that is the new regulation and we had to redo our form ourselves or pay RM20 to get the centre to fill our new forms, which we didn't want so we walked around to look for cyber cafes and to play tourist in our own city. KL can be really nice to walk around and there's a nice kopitiam around the corner so we had our breakfast and walked to UTC Pudu to print our new forms.
So, remember when you fill in your visa, choose the 6 months duration with multiple entries.
The tourist visa fee is RM189.56, to be paid when you submit your application at the counter. The visa will be ready in 3 working days and only can be collected between 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm.
E-Tourist visa is available but we didn't bother because the fee is in USD, considering the exchange rate right now, we rather not pay in USD (we're basically cheapskates, HAHA).
More information available on India Visa Centre website.
Packing
Before you go, check the weather in India so you can pack accordingly. In February, the weather in the northern part of India is cold and chilly. It was even snowing when we were in Kashmir so we packed all of our 'baju kepuk' (down jackets, people) and thermal wears (Uniqlo has some excellent Heattech pieces, Long Johns are also perfect) and gloves. In Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, it gets colder at night or even during the day, so pack light jackets and some knitwears, bring that cashmere sweaters you so afraid to wear in KL scorching hot weather.
We brought along prescribed medicines and get your charcoal tablets, motion sickness pills and the diarrhoea pills. Trust me, you need this.
Bring wet tissues and hand sanitizers and your deodorants.
Pack some food like Maggi cup, biscuits and Apollo cakes. You don't want to be hungry in India.
Money
Due to the recent demonetization, we had to carry a lot of 2,000 rupees notes with us, which frankly is too big when the thing you have to pay in India is just a few hundreds rupees at once but we managed. We exchange our money at Mid Valley, at the usual counter and got lucky at another counter behind CIMB Bank at The Gardens because they had the 500 rupees notes so we were set. Don't forget to activate your credit and debit cards for overseas transactions. India uses the PIN system and you can just key-in your usual pin like you do in Malaysia.
I think that's about it for the preparation.
You're set for India!
