In this post, we talk about the different questions I asked about India before my trip that I now know the answers to!
I don’t personally know a lot of people who have been to India so it was particularly hard for me to prepare this time around. I had a lot of questions about the weather and clothing and though I tried to Google my way through, it was hard to get specific answers (and I wasn’t able to find a lot of helpful things online) So in an attempt to help some of you who are thinking of going next time, here’s a simple list which I hope would be useful!
1. What is the weather like in India during December?
It’s important to note where exactly in India you’re going. I understand that in the northern parts, it could even snow sometimes. We visited Delhi, Agra and Jaipur during our 7 day trip from December 24-30 and weather was around 7°C-15°C. It was also foggy during the first 3 days so it was a bit cooler than we expected!
You go to India thinking it would be all flowy dresses and sandals but this is quite impossible during December! 😉
2. What clothes should you pack/wear for a trip to India in December?
I guess this also goes for every other place in the world where the weather is similar at the time of your visit (averaging 10°C).
As I didn’t expect such cold weather, I only brought one thick jacket for the entire trip (eep!) so layering my clothes kept me warm and alive. I wore a thermal inside, layered 2 long-sleeves on top plus wore my jacket during colder moments. I would take the jacket off during pictures most of the time because it was a dull gray colored one. Haha!
Speaking of colors, I’m a big fan of being colorful all the time and since it’s harder to be colorful at cold places (not practical to bring a lot of heavy different colored coats!), what I do is make sure everything else, aside from my coat, is colorful such as my tops and pants. I also like playing around with my accessories like my headbands and shades (love my bright blue shades which I wore almost every single day!)
By the way, people kept on asking me if I wasn’t cold wearing my leggings (haha!) but it was weird because I really wasn’t! I got those thicker ones with fleece lining inside so it kept me warm enough. I love wearing leggings to trips because they’re light to pack and they look nice! 
3. Is it dirty, poor and smelly?
Actually this is a question I got asked a lot when I told my friends that I would be going to India.
Before I start, please don’t start getting all worked about people being discriminating/prejudiced. It’s a common misconception from people who know very little about a certain place; of course the only thing they know are the stereotypes they see in the media. (Just as I once met someone from Malaysia who asked when we said we were from the Philippines: “Isn’t it scary there, full of military soldiers walking around in guns?”)
This is a shot I took from our bus window as we were en route to Fatehpur Sikri. Poverty in India is really widespread (check out statistics online). We encountered a lot beggars and we passed by a lot of make-shift houses. But since we joined a tour, we were a bit pampered and were shown only the tourist spots (which in a way were “controlled environments” as you can put).
But as far as smell goes, I’m happy to report it was not at all smelly! Hehe. If you have other questions, just leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to answer them!
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