“The future depends on what you do today - Mahatma Ghandi”
Oh India, where do we start. The magical Taj Mahal, majestic forts and vibrant colour everywhere. We won't easily forget our experience in India. It's a country full of culture, art and tasty food (which your body may not agree with some of the time). Jonny had been to India 10 years ago and he couldn't believe how much the country has developed, everyone has a smart phone, only two people per motorcycle (mostly) and it was less dirty than he remembered. It was a country that he was really excited to show me. It also made extra special as my sister Sophie joined us on the final leg of our 6 month adventure and we couldn't wait to see her!
Delhi is a city bursting with energy, especially Old Delhi which retains more of the character and chaos. The one thing I really struggled with to begin with was just the constant staring. We'd been in other places where we were stared at for being a minority but they were more polite about it, they'd ask for your picture rather than just taking your picture anyway!
India taught me to be confident. You had to be. You have to be sure of yourself. Any anxiety has to be put aside, otherwise you just won't embrace India in all it's entirety. We experienced a roller coaster of emotions from being rejected by hotels for being 'white British' to playing with kids with Polio and other disabilities and praying with them in their Hindu temple. From getting slapped by a monkey to a complete stranger driving us a few miles to an ATM and to our next destination just out of kindness. Turning up at 7am for our train only to find out its delayed by 7 hours. Making friends with locals on our long train journeys. Getting told off for walking along a fort wall to playing cricket with kids at any opportunity. You learn to appreciate all the good that this beautiful crazy country has to offer.
Walking along the spice market (Chowdi Chouk) in Old Delhi was truly an experience not to be missed, we were uncontrollably sneezing, even the locals were! There was chaos, dust and spices that filled the air. Make sure you ride on a bike through Chowdi Chouk. One of our favourite areas in Delhi was the old street market of Paharganj. You can search for incense, leather goods, large antique shops and get henna. It is also well known for local food spots.
Here are some of the highlights:
Stayed in a tent amongst orange trees in Northern India
Sneezed loads at the Spice Market in Old Delhi
Learned how to wear a Saree and wore it to the Taj Mahal
Seeing a tiger In the window of old ruins
The kindness of strangers
Visiting a school for disadvantaged kids and praying with them in their Hindi temple
Crazy mountain road bus journeys to the Himalayas
Incredible mountain thunderstorms
Chapattis and curries
Colourful and narrow streets
We left Nepal after a few weeks hiking in the mountains. We were tired after the hiking and the long journeys to and from Kathmandu. However, the leg massages and a few days eating pizza by a lake left us ready to tackle India. India was our final country of a 6 month adventure that we couldn’t believe was coming to an end. We love travelling and the thought that this trip was coming to an end was a bit painful. We had absolutely loved the whole thing. Every moment offers experiences and stories. We had both grown and learned so much. We had become so much better at travelling and rolling with the punches that were sometimes landed. The good far outweighs the difficult times and you start to realise that things will always go wrong its just you become better at dealing with problems.
We landed in Delhi and admired the New Delhi International airport. It was big, clean and calm. We found a taxi driver to take us to our hotel. He confirmed that he knew it and we set off. Not long into our journey he kept saying that there was a festival and that roads were closed. He eventually pulled over to a tourist information shop and took our bag inside. We were very confused at this point and asked to just be dropped off at our hotel. Eventually after talking to the tourist shop representative in English, and showing on Google maps that our hotel was just around the corner we left again in the taxi. The roads weren’t closed and we parked outside the hotel at which point the driver tried to rip us off again. Little did the taxi driver know that he was carrying two passengers who had been hardened by 5 months of negotiating with taxi drivers. We grabbed our bags and walked into our hotel. We collapsed on our beds at our hotel. It was near the New Delhi train station and had lots of tuk tuk’s to catch into town. We washed and sorted our bags out before grabbing some dinner and watching some TV before sleeping.
The next day we explored Connaught place in central Delhi. We found a Nando’s (didn’t think we’d find one in India) and decided to have something familiar for dinner but we were looking forward to all the curries and fresh naans we would demolish over the next couple of weeks.
In the evening, we ventured over to India gate and the government buildings and had a beautiful sunset as we explored the British built government buildings. We also met a family who let us play some cricket with them. In between India gate and the government buildings is a long straight road with grassy park areas on either side. Family and friends gather to play games in the cooler evenings.
We had one full day in Delhi to explore some of the sites before heading to Agra on a train to see the Taj Mahal. We got up and called over a tuk tuk to take us to the Qutub Minar Tower. It is a very impressive red tower standing at over 70 meters built more than 700 years old.
It was a beautifully warm day and clear sky. The red dirt baking underfoot, we wanted to explore the lotus temple next but noticed that several sites were closed on a Monday. We headed back to Connaught place as Hannah wanted to buy a Saree to wear at the Taj Mahal. We didn’t really know what a good price for one was and I am sure we paid way more than we should have but it was already made which meant we wouldn’t have to find a seamstress to finish it.
After some dinner we eventually got to sleep as we had an early start to catch our train. The Agra bound train didn’t leave from the New Delhi station and we had to catch a 30 min taxi to Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station. We were booked onto the 1st class car. Someone must have left the window open on the carriage as the whole place was full of buzzing mosquitos. Eventually when the AC made them disappear.
Our hotel was within walking distance of the Taj Mahal and we could just see part of the complex from our balcony. We got some lunch at the hotels restaurant and then made plans to go to the site of the Black Taj Mahal opposite the Taj Mahal. We were told this would be a great spot to watch the sunset over the Taj Mahal. We then needed to get back to the hotel as it would be a 4am start the next morning to try and get first in line for the sunrise viewing of the Taj Mahal.
Its never fun to wake up at 4am but we wanted to enjoy the majestic Taj Mahal at sunrise. Whilst in the queue, I did think will it really be worth all this effort of getting up at the crack of dawn?!! I would recommend it to everyone who has this landmark on their bucket list. The stillness and beauty of this incredible statement of love at sunrise is a memory that I will never forget.
The Taj Mahal is so beautiful and one of the best things we did in India. Yes it was busy, but after the mad initial rush it did calm down a bit but it is the Taj Mahal after all! This iconic building is under threat due to high levels of pollution, decreasing water levels within the Yamuna river and you guessed it, bug poo. The Taj Mahal is dependent on the river for it’s foundation for moisture and as levels decline further this will start to make the limestone dry and crack. We hope that appropriate actions are taken to preserve and protect this landmark and the environment that surrounds it.
After spending a few hours exploring the Taj Mahal we went back to our hotel and had some breakfast before napping for a few hours. We then went and explored the local village before heading to a couple of viewpoints to watch the sunset over the river and Taj Mahal. It was a beautiful evening and the light and views were fantastic. The second viewpoint was an old ruined fort with towers. We knew from research that we would have to pay some sort of bribe to get past the homeless people who make money off the few people who know about the spot. They were drunk when we got to the fence and asked for a ridiculous price. We said no and offered 50 rupees, they said no and so we started walking away. The mans wife then got up told him off and accepted our money before opening the gate for us.
The views were definitely worth the haggling and after the sun and light had finally faded we headed back towards our hotel as we had another early start the next morning to catch our train to Ranthambore to hopefully see some tigers.
When we arrived at the train station heaving our bags onto the platform we looked at the train numbers and found where our train would be arriving and leaving from. We noticed some delays and then found our our train was delayed by 7 hours! My experiences of trains in India had always been good and generally on time. I guess in such a big country and such big journey distances that any delays can quickly add up to hours worth of delays. It was frustrating because we could have stayed in bed longer in the comfort of the hotel.
Eventually it did arrive and it was my first experience of a second class train in India and it was alright. More crowded but everyone had their own assigned seats so not bad. The seats are not the most comfortable though as they are just the night train beds, so they can quickly become uncomfortable after a few hours.
Ranthambore National Park
I was really excited about the prospect of seeing tigers in Ranthambore national park. I had watched programs when I was younger about their famous tigers and it was awesome to finally be on our way to see some.
We were staying at the guest house of one of the rangers and only local photographers were staying there. All the western tourists were in the fancy hotels being ferried back and forth on big buses to and from the national park.
Ranthambore had wild pigs running around town. We tried to get an Indian sim card in town but we were told we would need to wait till we got to Jaipur to visit an official operator store. India was by far the most difficult country to get a SIM card. We were told we would need to fill out forms and provide passport sized photos. It was a bit of a headache but would make our lives easier once we got one.
We booked ourselves onto a sunrise safari and went to bed excited. Knowing our luck though we wouldn’t see any Tigers but could only hope we got lucky.
We planned to do two trips into the national park into two different sectors. Our first venture into the park was a sunrise trip in a 4 person open top jeep. Our second trip would be in an open top canteen jeep which can hold a lot more people and this would be around sunset.
We saw lots of beautiful animals on both safaris but obviously we had come to see tigers. Our guide got word that there was a tiger on a nearby hill and as we got over there lots of the other jeeps soon started arriving. We could just make out the head of a tiger moving onto of the hill. We couldn’t really count it as a sighting but it was cool to know that they were there.
Our evening trip into the park was into the sector where they have the famous old Ranthambore fort and other ruins where the tigers now rule. We did see tigers on this trip sleeping in the window of an old fort tower and one bathing in the lake. They were still far away to really get any photos but it was fun to watch them in such a beautiful environment.
Over the couple of days that we were in Ranthambore other photographers at the guest house kept showing us the photos they were getting and how they were seeing 8 or more tigers on their safaris. It just made me want to come back for a few weeks and spend as much time in the park as I could. The prices of the game drives were incredibly cheap for a safari especially when compared to the price you would pay for a game drive in Africa.
We found a hotel a few minutes walk from our guesthouse that had a pool. There wasn’t anyone else around and we decided to use it on a couple of the afternoons we were there. It was a nice break from the heat and we had fun relaxing in the sun.
Jaipur
The pink city was our next stop, it was a relatively short train ride from Ranthambore to Jaipur. We found a nice little hotel at the foot of the rock where the fort was built on top of. We were within walking distance to the top and the views at sunset were fantastic.
There is so much to do in this city we didn’t do half of the things that we wanted to do with the time were were there. We did finally manage to get a sim card though. It was a good to finally be able to search things whilst on the go.
Jodhpur
Jodhpur was my favourite place when I visited India twice more than 10 years ago. It was a fantastic experience to spend more time in the actual city this time than I did before.
We had booked a hotel in the city on booking.com which looked safe and clean. When we arrived the guy at the desk told us they were fully booked and moved us on. We thought it was strange but possibly just walk ins had taken the rooms and the hotel had not updated the websites. However, the next hotel also said we couldn’t stay there and then the third hotel told us we could not stay because we were ‘White British’. I wasn’t happy and decided to stand my ground and find out why they wouldn’t let us stay, I had booked this third hotel on booking.com and requested them to cancel as I didn’t wanted them ticking the no show box and us loosing money. They refused to do this and forced us out of the hotel, some guys outside came to see what was happening and had a go at the hotel staff. It was an eye opening experience not being allowed to stay somewhere because of our nationality. We were confused and just wanted to find a hotel as it was now past mid night and there were a few drunk people around. We felt like we weren’t in the best area of town. I called a much more expensive hotel, more than we had spent on a hotel since Bali, the guy said we could stay there and we jumped in a taxi and left.
The whole experience left us angry and frustrated but also humbled because this is the only time we have experience rejection because of our skin colour and nationality. It reminded us of all those who experience this every day and that we have a lot to be thankful for.
We loved the views and the history of the massive Jodhpur fort. We spent pretty much all day exploring the vast complex and reading all about the rajputs that once ruled the area.
After the previous week in Jodhpur, we were invited to stay at the WelcomHotel Jodhpur 5 star. This was perfect as we had two nights left in Jodhpur before returning to Delhi. The hotel was situated outside of Jodhpur in the desert and was an oasis. The hotel was fairly new and was a contemporary building That had beautiful interior decor. We felt like we were the only guests there. Apart from a few businessmen at breakfast in the mornings there really wasn’t anyone else there. We had the pool all to ourselves for two days. The weather was 40 degrees plus and the water was perfect.
The breakfast was fantastic and the choice of flavoured milk, cooked or continental breakfasts got us excited to start the day. We had a super comfy bed over looking the pool. Everything was clean and it all felt like the place had only just opened. It all felt a little isolated and a little out of place. We were told that most people would avoid the desert at this time of year because of the heat. This suited us and we made the most of our relaxing time. The hotel had the most beautiful spa. It was the type of place you could go and end up not leaving for days.
We were even shown around one of the presidential private villas. There was only two on site and the were absolutely massive. At the time we were there we were told a Bollywood star was staying in the other villa. The rooms were massive as was the lounge area. The private infinity pool was a beautiful piece of paradise.
After a couple of very relaxing days we were suddenly back at the Jodhpur train station surrounded by people going everywhere. We had a 12 hour night train back to Delhi. We were on our way back to bustling Delhi to say goodbye to my sister and only be there for a couple of nights before the start of our journey to the north.
Our hotel helped book our train tickets for the final part of our Indian adventure. We had a friend book our other journeys and it was pretty complicated to book train tickets in advance in India. It seems fairly restricted to citizens who have a national identity number. Our next stop was to Northern India and go and get some fresh air before our final return home.
