I can’t believe it has been A YEAR since I went to India and I’ve yet to formally write about it on my blog. (I did share some real-time updates while I was there that you can read here and here.) Part of the reason I haven’t written about my trip yet is because of the pandemic. With all travel halted for months on end, it didn’t seem timely to be posting about travel of any sort. But the main reason I haven’t written about India is because it’s a place that is so hard to put into words. Almost anything you read about this country will offer the caveat that you just have to experience it firsthand via your own 5 senses. Only now, a year later, do I feel removed enough from the exhaustion/anxiety of being there to properly appreciate and miss the craziness.
Capturing the culture and atmosphere in words seems impossible, so what I’ve decided to do is keep this really informal and conversational and just tell you about my time there–the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wrote about my trip to Iceland in a similar way, through sharing photos and telling stories. There’s already so much information out there about where to go and what to do in these popular countries, so I’m not going to add to that. This will be more of a personal scrapbook that will hopefully help you imagine what traveling to India is like. Of course feel free to ask me any questions about specifics if you need recommendations for your own trip!
Let’s start at the beginning. When I was planning my year off work to travel, India didn’t make the cut. It was a place I dreamed about visiting more hypothetically than literally. But then my cousin/favorite travel buddy happened to have 3 weeks free to travel at the same time as me, so we obviously decided to book a trip. The world was our oyster–we could go basically anywhere. Even though the thought of traveling around India was slightly intimidating, we kept coming back to it during all our brainstorming sessions. We considered practical things like how kind it would be on our budgets and the fact that we’d rather go together while we had the chance, but more than anything, it felt like a real challenge, a place for real travelers. When we both realized we couldn’t stop thinking about India, we booked our flights to Delhi.
It might seem like 3 weeks is a lot of time to explore a place (especially when most Americans only get 2 weeks vacation per year), but India is massive. We quickly realized while trying to plan a rough itinerary that we couldn’t fit everything in in that amount of time. We didn’t have time to do meditation retreat Eat, Pray, Love-style, we didn’t have time to beach hop through the south, we didn’t even have time to make it to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). We knew without a doubt that we wanted to see the Taj Mahal, so we decided to stay in Northern India and explore a few cities there. Even staying in the north, we had to take multiple 10+ hour train rides and a flight. Like I said, India is massive.
In hindsight, we should have broken up our time in cities with some nature because visiting city after city (in a country with 1.36 billion people) was overwhelming. But overall I was happy with our itinerary. We started in Delhi, then headed to Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, and back to Delhi for our flights home. You can see where those cities are on the map below.
I remember being sooooo anxious when I was boarding my flight from Chicago to Delhi. I had just quit my job and moved across the country–there were a lot of life changes going on. I was very tired and wondered why I didn’t plan a relaxing beach vacation to kick off my travels haha. Everything I had read about India said to be prepared to have your senses blasted, but I don’t know if that’s something you can prepare for. I was nervous. Not to mention people kept making comments about the safety of traveling in India, about me needing a bodyguard, which is not helpful at all. PSA: If you have not personally been to a country yourself, don’t offer advice about its safety. I knew I would travel smartly and that many women go to India, and I didn’t want/need more stress in the back of my mind.
Also, we were visiting when the air quality across the country was at extremely dangerous levels, so bad that we considered cancelling the trip. A combination of factors led to the toxic air–this article describes it really well if you want to know more (it’s an interesting read). Being exposed to the air could be as bad as smoking 50 cigarettes, and as a non-smoker, I was not thrilled about that. I’m having trouble breathing just thinking about it lol. All this to say, there were a lot of nerves and if my cousin wasn’t meeting me there, I might have chickened out! I’m obviously so glad I didn’t. Ok so let’s get into the actual trip and start sharing photos and stories 🙂
Delhi
Ellen and I landed in Delhi and miraculously found each other in the airport. It was the middle of the night which was not ideal. Being two white girls with blonde hair made it more than obvious that we were tourists. I would have preferred to be in a cab with a foreign man during daylight, but we didn’t really have a choice. There are options for cabs that employ female drivers, but we didn’t go that route (I can’t remember why). Anything you read about India will caution you to look out for scams. We avoided getting scammed by the cab driver which was a win, but we soon realized that Ellen had been scammed by the man selling SIM cards at the airport (and he tried to scam me too). What a welcome to India haha. He got an extra 400 rupees off her, about $5.40 USD.
Both of our SIM cards weren’t working yet as we took the cab from the airport to our hostel in the dead of night. We put our faith in the universe that the driver would take us to the right place since we couldn’t follow along on our phones, and we got our first glimpse of driving in India (and our first taste of toxic air). The lines on the roads are so heavily disregarded I’m not even sure why they’re there. After worrying about where the driver was taking us for a solid 20 minutes, we pulled off the highway and onto a dark side street beyond a gate. We could make out fences and buildings behind them but couldn’t see any signs saying our hostel was there.
Our driver stopped the car in front of one of these nondescript buildings and started to get our bags out, but I froze in my seat. “Ellen, look,” I said to my cousin because I just noticed two eyes staring at us through the iron fence right where the driver was ushering us out of his cab. Ellen and I looked at the two eyes, then at each other, and without words decided that this was where we were being left, like it or not. We had to hope for the best. We tried to get the driver to verify with the 2 eyeballs that we were in the right place (and that we weren’t about to be murdered) without much help. The man with the eyeballs opened the fence and revealed a long white beard. We tentatively walked through the fence (the cab had already driven away) and were signaled by the man to walk upstairs. We were still creeped out but then we finally saw signs for the hostel and made it inside with a sigh of relief. India was already wrecking havoc on our nerves haha.
In Delhi we stayed at Madpackers Hostel which was the best place we stayed BY FAR throughout the whole trip, so I wanted to shout them out! All the other hostels we stayed in were fine, not horrendous but not good either. It’s India, though, so our expectations for accommodation were low. And the prices are so cheap you can’t really complain.
After our first sleepless night of laying there listening to traffic (India is LOUD 24/7), we woke up ready to get out and explore. We realized that we both had not planned anything, but that’s the wonderful thing about staying in hostels. All it took was eating breakfast with other travelers and striking up a conversation. Before we knew it, we had a guy from Australia join us (miss you Chris!) and we all headed out to see Humayun’s Tomb. Since it’s been a year, all the facts and figures are a bit hazy, so I won’t be getting too detailed with that kind of stuff.
I remember the three of us walking the few blocks to the metro and being so hesitant to cross the street because there aren’t many traffic rules being followed. Little kids ran up to us and pulled at our clothes, begging. There was trash and grime everywhere. But the metro was seriously SO nice and modern which I wasn’t expecting. Then, we emerged into chaos. The streets were packed to the brim with people and shopping stalls, the air full of smog and the sound of beeping vehicles. Right as we stepped out of the metro, someone threw trash into a makeshift bin and what appeared to be dust rose up into the air. On second glance, it was actually thousands of flies, the density of them shocking.
The highlight of our time in Delhi was probably the food tour of Old Delhi that we booked through our hostel. I was so excited to eat in India but was slightly intimidated because I can’t really tolerate spicy food. I also didn’t want to get food poisoning, so the tour was our best option because it took out all the guesswork. We knew we’d get to try amazing food from spots that wouldn’t make us sick. And we had the best guide ever who answered all our questions and made the day so much fun (miss you Sushi)! I survived eating the spiciest, most flavorful food of my life (my sinuses have never been so clear lemme tell ya!) and got to experience Old Delhi with all 5 senses. We also stopped into the spice market, and the air was thick with so many different smells to the point that we all started sneezing immediately upon crossing its threshold. I remember being truly exhausted after the few hours that the tour lasted–being out in the streets of India will do that to you.
Nothing else really sticks out from our time in Delhi, but I’m sure I’m forgetting something we did. I had the best time meeting fellow travelers and swapping stories over beers on the rooftop. It felt good to be experiencing hostel life again! After Delhi, we were off to Varanasi on an overnight sleeper train. We were lucky enough to snag first class tickets for this one. Train tickets book up months in advance just FYI. If you ever plan your own trip I’d book tickets sooner rather than later. You can always cancel if you don’t end up needing them. I say first class but this is India we’re talking about lol. We at least had a private compartment with a door that locked though.
Varanasi
After surviving our first train journey in India, we arrived in Varanasi in the very conservative, religious state of Uttar Pradesh. We were totally emerged in India here, cows ruled the roads and the stares from men were incessant even when we were completely covered up from head to toe. Varanasi is a fascinating place, though, perfect for getting some insight into Hinduism and the caste system that’s alive throughout India. It’s exhausting and almost impossible to find alcohol (you really crave a drink after the anxiety of the day haha), but I’m so glad we went.
The air in Varanasi was very bad. Every night there are cremations on the riverbank, so just think about adding all that nastiness to the already horrible air quality. It was smokey and disgusting and didn’t feel like our masks were doing enough lol. You also have to remember that the river is the main source of water for the city… crazy, but what we know about water borne disease is apparently not enough to stop the extremely devout from using the water every day–to bathe and wash clothes and drink. They filter the water before distributing it for drinking but I’m not convinced it’s done well enough. One of our days there we were drinking “filtered” water from the hostel, and Ellen happened to look at her water bottle after we had both already drank a lot of it… There was stuff floating around in both our water bottles, and Ellen instantly started gagging and ran to the bathroom. We couldn’t speak about what we saw in the water because we both would have vomited, but it looked extremely like ash. And we were in a city that cremated an average of 120 bodies per day and dumped that into the river for religious purposes. Fun times! To say we were ready to leave Varanasi was an understatement.
Agra
Next we were headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. It wasn’t going to be easy, though. The train to Agra was meant to take 10 hours, but it took over 16. We were in third class, and it was a horrendous 16 hours, but still not the worst train ride of our trip. We met a man who spoke English sitting across the aisle from us. He was accompanying a female family member and her child on their train journey because it can be dangerous for a woman to travel alone. He watched out for us too which was greatly appreciated. Also, the way they book the trains is they try to put all the females together in one car, which is nice and made us feel more comfortable being around mostly women. We finally got to Agra at 2 a.m. (instead of 8 p.m.) so we couldn’t go to the Taj at sunrise like we were planning. We slept and got there at 3 p.m. and hired a guide which I recommend doing.
The Taj Mahal is absolutely stunning. There’s really no way to describe its beauty in words and photos don’t do it justice either. If you’re on the fence about visiting India or not, it’s worth going just to see the Taj Mahal, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
Jaipur
After a quick stay in Agra, we were on to Jaipur, the Pink City, and it was such a breath of fresh air (well not literally, the air was still toxic). We just felt more relaxed. Jaipur is in a less conservative state called Rajasthan. We noticed more Indian women out and about, even at night, we got less attention and stares, and it was easy to find alcohol. By this point in the trip we desperately needed a drink (or five). So we grabbed a Kingfisher Strong from the bar across the street (a bar across the street! 🙂 ) and joined the nightly food tour. My favorite dish was aloo tikka, sweet and spicy at the same time and so delicious! We were sitting at a picnic table at a food market when an Indian wedding parade went by, such a cool experience.
Our one full day in Jaipur was spent at Amber Fort, Hawa Mahal, and Patrika Gate a.k.a. so many photo ops! We also did some shopping and bartering, and I bought myself a gorgeous scarf which was the one souvenir I really wanted to get. We were well and truly delirious by this point, the inside jokes adding up like crazy! We also had a super fun night at the hostel with other travelers. Surprisingly, tourism seemed quite slow during our trip, so social nights were extra special.
Jodhpur
We arrived in Jodhpur and our first day there I felt really ill, so we had a much needed chill day. Luckily our hostel had a gorgeous view of the Blue City from its rooftop.
Jodhpur is home to Mehrangarh Fort, which you can see towering over the city in my photo above. Out of all the forts and tombs we visited in India (not counting the Taj Mahal, that was obviously the best) Mehrangarh Fort was my favorite. It was built in the 1400s, and seeing things so intact from that time period is really quite trippy. We did the full audio tour, which I highly recommend, because the history of the fort is fascinating. There’s still so much opulence preserved throughout and incredible artifacts you can see too, like elephant seats and armor.
Besides the fort, we did some shopping in Jodhpur and had one of our favorite meals at a restaurant in town. By this point we were ballsier and would just walk in front of oncoming traffic to get around because that’s what we saw all the locals doing. We also frequented a cafe called Cafe Royale ClockTower. One visit there we met a Canadian couple and ended up talking to them for over an hour about travel life and the Western comforts we were all missing. It reminded us how reinvigorating a good conversation can be. We also met the owners of the cafe and set up a birth chart reading with them for the following night. That was such a cool experience, having our birth charts read by an Indian guru who didn’t speak any English haha. You have to give in to the mystical a bit when in India 🙂
Udaipur
Our final stop of the trip was Udaipur, the City of Lakes. We wanted something more tranquil to end our time in India…lol. There weren’t any train options from Jodhpur and we were so exhausted from public transportation anyways, so we decided to book a private car for the 5 hour drive. We stopped off at Ranakpur Temple along the way, which is a Jain temple that was SO intricate and stunning, but I was tired/over sightseeing and didn’t take any photos. I wish I had some pics to look back on, but at least I was super present in the moment while I was there. It was seriously beautiful, though, you should check it out on Google.
We still hadn’t made it to Udaipur, but we were happy to be in a private car. We thought we’d finally be able to relax, but we quickly realized that’s never an option in India lol. The road was so scary, winding up and down the mountainside, not wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other. There was blind spot after blind spot, and I thought we’d for sure crash into someone head on rounding one of the curves. At one point there was a bus coming at us on a road that wasn’t big enough for 2 cars. I don’t know how we managed to squeeze by. I was clenched so tight with nerves that my jaw hurt. Then as we were rounding another curve, a car came flying at us. The car slammed on its brakes and didn’t hit us, but it also didn’t get far enough to the side to get by. It literally scraped the whole side of our car. Why the driver didn’t stop and reverse as soon as he hit our car I’ll never know. The drivers both got out and started yelling at each other and then both drove off. Ellen and I looked at each other in disbelief. When we finally made it to Udaipur, we almost couldn’t believe it.
We met up with a friend we had bumped into in Delhi and Varanasi and were so happy to explore Udaipur with him. Our first night there we had drinks on the rooftop and were looking forward to hearing how his travels had gone since we saw him last. It was the loudest night of the whole trip. I still laugh as I think back to all of us trying to hold a conversation by yelling at each other from 5 feet away. I think some sort of wedding or celebration must have been going on because in addition to the call to prayer and normal traffic sounds, there was also music. Extremely loud music. It somehow kept getting louder and louder. Ellen said she was going to find out where it was coming from and tell them to turn it off. I laughed so hard hahaha in your dreams girl! After we realized that we couldn’t hear each other even when yelling from close range, we called it a night, but the noise didn’t stop for hours.
As a very independent, self-sufficient, and confident woman, it sucked to admit that I preferred being out and about with a man. It just made things easier–we got less attention and felt safer. So the next day, we set out for a look out point with our friend Tom. We took the craziest rickshaw ride ever, followed by a gondola, to get there. I’m not a fan of heights, and gondolas make me nervous even in first world countries, but the view was beautiful.
We decided to walk back to our hostel after that, and I kid you not vehicles were swerving towards us on purpose. My nerves were shot to hell. I screamed so loud as a honking motorcycle came right at me as I tried not to fall into the open gutter on the side of the road. After the accident on the side of the mountain, the never ending noise, the goat stampede, the rickshaw rollercoaster, the gondola ride when I’m scared of heights, and now this, I had had enough and needed a break. I went back to the hostel (after waiting for a cow to stop blocking the entrance) and cranked John Mayer in my headphones while laying in a calming yoga pose lol. After an hour or so of that and a shower, I was feeling better. Ellen complimented my eyeshadow as we were getting ready for dinner but I wasn’t wearing any hahahaha. At least the shade of my tired eyes could be seen as a nice eyeshadow color in India.
We were coming towards the end of our trip and really wanted to take a cooking class before heading home. I highly recommend all the food related activities in India–this cooking class and the 2 food tours were definitely highlights of our whole trip. I had the best time and learned so much at this class in Udaipur (and ate way too much food).
We were a bit nervous about flying in India, but our flight back to Delhi was unremarkable and fine as far as I can remember (I feel like I would remember if a flight wasn’t fine haha). We booked another night at our favorite hostel, Madpackers, and got a bottle of Delhi wine which wasn’t half bad. We reminisced on the craziness of the trip and admitted we were more than ready to get back to the States. Well then of course my flight was delayed haha. Ellen left and I was in India alone waiting for my flight to be rescheduled. I made it back in time for Christmas, though, so it was all good.
Like I said at the beginning, India is hard to describe. It’s a sensory overload that you can’t imagine until you’re there experiencing it. There’s so much more that happened that I didn’t touch on in this post. It’s vibrant and lively and full of beauty. It’s filthy and loud and full of poverty. India has so much to teach, about history, culture, religion, food, yoga, astrology, people. Even on slow travel days where you “chill” and “don’t do anything,” India will give you a wild story. It will get into every part of you, an insane rush that travel souls search the world for. Despite being completely exhausted, I had the most incredible time in India and would 100% go back.
If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading! And HUGE thank you to Ellen for going through all this with me, love you so much! I will cherish these insane memories forever.
So beautifully written!!! I cherish this post more than anything! Thank you thank you for putting our experiences down in pen and sharing it!!! I laughed out loud to all these crazy memories!! Love you sista!
So fun to reminisce. My memories with you are my favorite and these are some of the craziest haha. Love youuuu! Chaiiiii??