People had warned me about India, about its intensity and volume and scams. I was cocky, thinking that after all of my travelling it wouldn’t phase me. But it did. India was bloody hard work. And it was delicious in its reward.
I saw my time in India as an introduction to the country, as a brief exploration on my way over to Nepal. I wasn’t trying to see it all, or understand it all. In fact, I had no real aim whilst there. I was simply present in India for 2.5 weeks, letting all it had to offer wash over me. So don’t expect any interesting history insights from this post! Perhaps a different mindset would have been better. I feel like if you travel to India you need to really travel to India. You need to have a proper plan, you need to have done your research beforehand, you need to have read up on the history. Because once you’re there? You’ll have no time for anything other than simply being there.
An overview of places I visited
- Delhi
Crazy, filled to the brim with people, dirty, filled to the brim with life.
I walked out of the metro station and was introduced to India - the warmth of the air and the smells, the loudness of cars honking, the bustle, the colours. I had the biggest grin on my face as I walked the short distance to the hostel, peering at the street food. I arrived to the hostel at 8am and couldn’t check-in until 1pm, but a truly wonderful man let me sleep in his (empty) bed in the meantime. I really love travellers. The best part of Delhi was being surrounded by other travellers again, and I was really lucky in having the best group of people to explore with. Together we tackled the craziness of Old Delhi, where our noses were assaulted by spices from the market and our tastebuds were wooed by the first of many delicious meals; the Akshardam temple, where we were impressed by its scale but strangely disappointed to learn that it was built in 2005; and Humayun’s Tomb which was made my favourite by its jungle interior and multitudes of hawks and kites flying overhead. The narrow, pedestrian streets of Delhi are what make it in my opinion. Every inch of street real estate is taken up with restaurants, grocery shops, street food carts, repair shops and tea (or chai) stands. People crawl over the potholed road like ants. Mopeds (or scootys) weave through, upsetting the natural flow. The air quality was atrocious most of the time. There was an appalling amount of poverty in Delhi. The streets of Old Delhi were lined with homeless people, often with disabilities. People put themselves in positions that you would only do if you were completely desperate, for example a young man who only had the use of one arm pulling himself along the ground through an insanely busy market street, people having to step over him. The dirt and poverty were everywhere. I can understand why people don’t love Delhi, and I wouldn’t say I loved it either. But I liked it. It was a crazy city, but I was allowed to move amongst the craziness and just witness it. No one cared about me, they were too busy cycling ricksaws, carrying huge sacks on their head, shepherding children, conducting business deals. I liked Delhi.
- Rishikesh
The yoga capital, at the foot of the Himalayas, felt softly disingenuous.
I heard about this place once I’d reached Delhi, and was sold after the phrase “yoga capital”. I loved practicing yoga here. I’ve gotten into the habit of practicing daily whilst travelling, and being able to do it on the terrace of my hostel, looking out at the mountains and the river Ganga was beautiful. The classes I took were challenging and exhilarating. There was something so special about practicing yoga in India that I wasn’t fully expecting. The town was also nice, a lot quieter than Delhi of course, but still with a bit of chaos made up of cows and mopeds and shop keepers. It was nice to be in nature, but it wasn’t quite as calm and natural as I’d hoped. There was a lot of rubbish and the town was quite built up. The Ashrams (centres for meditation and yoga) seemed quite commercial, and the aarti and satsang we attended (a worship of the river and spiritual Q and A respectively) were led by an extremely american woman who gave off strong cult leader vibes. The main bridge of the river Ganga, connecting the two sides of the town, was closed meaning the only way across was a long walk to the next bridge or a boat ride. The men running the boat service were dishonest and just nasty people which really took away from the spiritual atmosphere. We went white water rafting which was fun. I spent Valentine’s Day here which is my favourite day of the year, and very much enjoyed treating myself to a delicious breakfast and some new jewellery!
- Jaipur
The pink city, dirty, hot.
Jaipur should be more pleasant to visit than it is. The buildings are commonly pink, made of the local pink stone. There are so many palaces (Wind palace, Water palace, City palace) and temples (Monkey temple, Sun temple…) and forts (Amber fort, Jaigarh fort, Nahargarh fort). The only one that was especially beautiful was the Amber fort, which has a hall of mirrors that is undeniably impressive. Both the City palace and Amber fort were mazes of courtyards with open-sided halls in the middle, where the King would have public assemblies. These were beautiful. As a foreigner in Jaipur you often had the feeling you had a target on your back. The shouting from tuktuk drivers, beggars and shop keepers was relentless. The two tuktuk drivers I did have in Jaipur both seemed to be spiritual teachers, and they spent the journeys spouting all sorts of life advice.
- Agra
Come for the Taj Mahal, leave quickly after!
The Taj Mahal is pretty cool, but how much of that is because it’s The Taj Mahal and how much because of the actually building is debatable. Either way, I felt something flutter in my belly when I first set eyes on it. I enjoyed visiting it at sunrise, even if it was so hazy we couldn’t actually see the sunrise. Along with another girl, I explored the small residential streets around the Taj and we saw the daily life of India. Young children playing with stray puppies on the street. Old children walking back from school, shouting interesting english phrases at us (for example, “you’re hot and sexy” and slightly ruder ones…). Women carrying items on their heads. Laundry hanging down buildings.
- Varanasi
The Holiest city, burning bodies, strange calmness.
Varanasi is an intense place in its purpose. It is the Holiest city in India and Hindus come here to openly cremate their loved ones as its believed if the body is washed in the river Ganga and cremated here, the soul will reach Nirvana and not be reincarnated. Some bodies are not cremated for a few different reasons, their bodies are tied to a weight and dropped directly into the river instead. High priests because they are too holy; pregnant women because they carry a not fully-formed life inside; young children because they have not yet committed any sins; lepers as the water is believed to purify them; and people bitten by a cobra (not sure on the reason for this one!). The narrow streets back from the river are filled with cafes and street food and textile shops. As you stroll along you need to be ready to jump into a doorway on hearing the sound of bells as this signifies a body is on its way down the street, being carried on a bamboo stretcher and covered in orange fabric. There are two Ghats (steps down to the river) where the cremations take place, one big and one small. Nothing can really prepare you for going to visit these. I sat on the steps of the larger one, looking down at the 10 or so small fires where bodies burnt. The heat was intense, and I could feel it on the side of my face. The smoke filled my nose and mouth. My eyes were locked on the torso of a man burning. A mouthful of spit flew over my shoulder, from the man sat above me, splattering on the ground and breaking my gaze. Bodies waiting to be burnt lay on the ground, covered in the orange sheets, with cows and goats roaming amongst them, stopping to sniff and being shooed away by the family members. The ground was covered with ash from the wood and the bodies. Members of the Aghor religion strip to just a sheet covering their waist and rub the ash over their bodies and faces. Back from the Ghat the streets are filled with wood and scales. It takes around 7kg of wood to burn a body. The floor of the street is filled with hair, with the eldest male of the family of the deceased needing to shave their heads and beards before washing the body in the river. I’ve never been so close to death, and the casualness of it all was astounding. I attended the sunset aarti here and it was a much more authentic experience than in Rishikesh. I took a sunrise boat journey on the river and this was enjoyable too. This should’ve been the most intense place of my visit to India, and in some ways it was, especially culturally, but it’s where I at last felt calm. I ended up staying for 5 days and I fell into the rhythms of the riverside town of burning bodies.
- Gorakhpur
Indian hospitality, a wedding.
I met lots of wonderful people in Varanasi, including two Germans and a Swiss who were also heading to Nepal to trek next, and an Indian guy called Ayush. Ayush invited me to travel with him by train to his town, just outside of Gorakhpur, to stay for a night before driving me and the others to the Nepal border. I of course accepted the invitation! At his home I was treated to a delicious and seemingly never-ending breakfast prepared by his mother and sister. He took me on a tour of the area, to a forest and temple and through agricultural fields. We went to a Bollywood film in the cinema. And then I was informed that we would be going to a wedding that evening! Everyone knows how amazing Indian weddings are so I was very excited. Ayush’s sister provided me with a kurti to wear. The wedding was as colourful and loud and big as I’d imagined it would be. There were fireworks, pyrotechnics, drones, the works! There was so much food and Ayush made sure I tried it all. The weirdest item was the freeze-dried oreo that was shoved directly into my mouth by one man, with the icy smoke billowing out of my nose and mouth. I was the novelty white person it seemed, and had pictures taken with the bride and many others! It was a very special experience.
Why I found travelling India so difficult
Transport
You can only book trains in India if you have an Indian bank account. So for foreigners this is a big problem! You have to rely on hostel staff booking them for you, and sometimes charging you a commission, or finding a kind Indian person to help you out. It’s the same for many bus booking platforms. Once you’ve managed to book a train or bus you should expect it to be delayed or cancelled. Both of the trains I took actually left on time, but both arrived an hour late. One bus was an hour and a half late. One bus was cancelled, a fact I only found out after I called them to confirm I was waiting in the right location. There are no bus stations, but individual pick-up points which are different for practically every single bus. Getting to these is hard work. Getting anywhere in cities is hard work. The public transport is seriously lacking, and the craziness of the roads and lack of pavements means walking is impossible too, so you are forced to go by tuktuk. Let me introduce you to my new least favourite thing in the world. Getting a tuktuk was the most unpleasant experience ever. This is a sweeping statement, but the drivers were all both extremely desperate for money and extremely lazy. This meant that they would quote an absurd price for the journey, and then refuse to haggle and happily return to sitting in their tuktuk. Then the next tuktuk driver would take his turn and we’d repeat the stupid interaction over and over again until eventually someone would agree to take us for a reasonable price. Often only to pull over after 100 metres and then demand a higher price again. It was so unpleasant and I tried to mainly use uber to order tuktuks, or just avoid them all together. The actual rides were entertaining once you’d accepted your high risk of death on the insane roads where lanes exist only as markings, not in reality. India drives on the left hand side of the road, but I think I was only on that side of the road about 60% of the time.
Walking around
My chosen method of exploring a country is definitely on foot. I like to stroll around a city all day, looking around and taking it all in. This just wasn’t possible in India. There were some areas where you could walk around, and I did enjoy this. But even in these you couldn’t fully immerse yourself in gazing around as you had to constantly deal with tuktuk drivers intercepting your path and trying to pick you up, not taking no for an answer, with beggars following you down the street, with children grabbing hold of your arms and not letting go, with people wanting a selfie with you just because you’re white. It was a lot, and left me completely exhausted after just a short time exploring. I learnt to adopt my most aggressive bitch face when walking around, to try and dissuade any of these negative interactions. You also had to watch where you were stepping constantly, something I learnt the hard way in Jaipur when I let myself gaze at the pink buildings for a second when walking, and ended up sliding my entire foot through a huge pile of cow poo! This did make me laugh however, breaking me out of my hardened exterior. A man running a fruit stall nearby gestured for me to come over and he laughed with me as he helped me clean up my foot with old newspapers and water. At the end of the day I wanted to escape into a calm oasis to rest and recoup, sadly that wasn’t normally available which brings me to the next issue - the hostels.
Hostels
I have stayed in some bad hostels, and plenty of good ones. The ones in India were mostly bad. They were really dirty and cramped, with the air quality especially bad in most (I’m talking mould on the floor of the bedrooms not just the bathrooms). There were other travellers in them, but also lots of Indian people using them as cheap hotels for business trips which created a strange vibe sometimes. Indian people have certain habits that aren’t the most pleasant for westerners, for example the hacking they often do in the morning to clear their throats. It’s insanely loud and echoes around all of the hostel, and the remnants of it are often seen in the sinks. I also stayed in one of my favourite hostels ever here, it was the Horn Ok Please in Jaipur and I could not recommend it more, I wish I’d stayed longer!
Personal reasons
Whilst rafting in Rishikesh I got my phone wet and it completely died. This sucked and annoyed me quite a lot! Very luckily I packed my old phone with me as a back-up, so was able to use this and it saved me having to splash out on a replacement phone. But the camera isn’t as good and that made me pretty sad for a bit. But I’m over it now! Honest…
An even more personal reason is that my Grandpa really wanted to visit India, and we had talked about travelling here together. Before we had the chance he became ill and then passed away a few years ago. He would’ve loved so much of the craziness in India. Seeing weird things like people offering to clean my ears on the street made me think of him and how much he would’ve enjoyed it, definitely being the one person to take them up on their offer! Whilst thinking about him always makes me smile, knowing he wasn’t able to experience India made me feel pretty sad.
It really wasn’t all bad
Despite all of these challenges, I did enjoy India. It’s so full of life and colour and energy. Whilst lots of my interactions with locals were not particularly pleasant, I had some that really were. Mostly in Varanasi. When I attended the aarti here the women around me suddenly became overjoyed by my existence. Spontaneously they all started cooing at me, touching my hair and cheeks, tucking my hair behind my ear so they could kiss my forehead, squeezing my arms. I couldn’t keep up with how many hands were touching me! And all the while they were peering over me as I sat down, all wiggling their heads in the characteristic Indian way, beaming from ear to ear. When I wiggled mine in return this set them off even more, making their wiggling even more intense and their squeals of delight even louder! It all happened so quickly, and it was really wonderful.
One of my favourite things about India was the painted signs everywhere. Advertisements on walls, shop signs and markings on trucks and tuktuks are not printed signs stuck on, but hand painted pieces of artwork. It’s a small thing but I noticed it everywhere, and enjoyed it every time.
India was a lot, and it was really hard work and left me exhausted. I don’t think I could travel around the North (the South is apparently more relaxed) for more than 3 weeks at a time, I bailed out after 2.5 this time! But it was worth the effort. It’s definitely a place like no other!