Ok bit of an odd one here, but has anyone done any running in India (Mumbai and Bangaluru in particular)? Heading over for work in first part of March for the first time and while I assume I will be relegated to the hotel dreadmill (given congestion, security, etc.) I thought I would check with the collective in case I am (hopefully) wrong.
The Washington Post just had a story about how the air quality in New Delhi is like smoking a pack a day (or was it more?). Mumbai is similar. I visited in Mumbai in 2018 for a conference and stayed a few extra days for tourism. You can literally see the smog dome over the city. For that reason, I would not encourage outdoor running.
While we were doing sightseeing in Mumbai, I did see some folks who presumably were from the city running along a sort-of park area along part of the bay - it's not an extensive area. There really aren't a lot of good places to run. The sidewalks are tiny, jumbled, and packed with people. The streets are packed with traffic. There must be SOMEplace where the locals run, but I'm not sure it would really be worth seeking out.
I have never been to India however my non running husband has been several times for work. He essentially wasn't allowed to leave his hotel without an escort/driver.
This is a huge thing. If you haven't been there before, you will be surprised about the level of security. For my conference, I stayed in a medium-good hotel, and we still had to go through security and x-ray machines to get into the hotel. All travel between the hotel and the university for the conference was in cars + drivers, and when the cars brought us back, the security people examined them (i.e., mirrors to look underneath the cars, look in the trunks) before we were allowed in.
When I stayed extra for sightseeing (my husband joined me then), we got a high-end hotel because the exchange rate meant it wasn't that expensive. All of that previous security was heightened, and there was an armored military vehicle parked outside the hotel entrance...you know, just in case.
It's definitely a very different experience.
But if you do get a little time for sightseeing, take advantage of it. Lots of museums, etc., and even when you pay the non-citizen prices, it's all still very cheap.
Two other suggestions:
Probably you know to be careful to drink only bottled water and not tap water. Make sure you know the provenance of the bottles, as enterprising individuals will refill plastic bottles to look like new. When walking around, we considered buying a lemonade from a vendor....then saw that you had to drink it all right there, give the non-disposable glass back, they rinsed it out, and then filled it for the next person. Food preparation cleanliness is not universal.
Get a roll of toilet paper and keep it in your bag; most public bathrooms will be out of TP, and unless you know how to use the rinsing hoses (forget what they are called) by each toilet, you will literally be SOL.
