India is fascinating and colourful, interesting and unique. India is also frustrating, disorganised and exhausting. In India it seems that everything is possible. The time in India is running at a different pace. India is full of history, art and culture. And as many travelers say: Either you love it or you hate it 🖤.
Here is a diary from the first part of our journey which included:
So the city that welcomed us in India was Jodhpur. And I think that it was the top place to start our trip with. I arrived and wore leggings but in a few moments, I realized that it is much more comfortable and safer to just wear some loose trousers so that no Indian eyes stared at me.
JODHPUR – the blue city
We arrived in Jodhpur in the afternoon and took a tuk-tuk to our hotel. It was my first tuk-tuk ride in my life and I found it really cool. The driver tried to show us some places around and at the end he wanted some extra money for it. We didn’t give him anything and he got pretty angry. During the ride, I felt pretty anxious and wasn’t suddenly that sure about the idea of traveling in that chaotic land. There were so many people, cows and things around. It was loud and stinky. The road was terrible. So many things at once! Probably this ride was for me the moment of the “cultural shock” that everyone was talking about before we came to India. Our first accommodation was called “Shyam Palace” and it was a homestay. Some other couple from England was also accommodated there and we were offered 2 times to smoke a joint with them but it was the last thing that we could even think of. We were really exhausted and couldn’t even breathe properly. In the beginning, we felt the difference between the air in Europe and the local air immediately. However, we got used to it pretty fast.
We went for a walk in the evening and everything felt so exciting and interesting. Just walking in the streets was super entertaining. We didn’t actually need anything else. I witnessed the first Hinduistic mass. Some woman was ringing a bell for maaany maaany minutes and it was really loud. I came to see it for a few moments but couldn’t stand the noise. The point of the constant ringing is to bring the one who is praying to the state of full concentration.
For the next day, I booked a free tour but they canceled it at the moment when we were waiting on the meeting spot. The reason was The Republic Day. In India, they have two different days that they celebrate and which might be confusing. The Republic Day and The Day of Independence. One is celebrated in January and the other one in August. So don’t exchange them.
We decided to visit the Mehrangarh Fort and were surprised how expensive were the tickets. But only for foreigners. It is common in India that the tickets for foreign tourists are 30 x more expensive than for the Indians. Nevertheless, it was our first place to visit so we paid the entrance and went inside. It was our first and also the last fort that we visited in India. We found the others pretty unnecessary to visit and observed them always from outside (including rhe Red Fort in New Delhi, the Agra Fort and Amber Fort in Jaipur). In the afternoon we also visited Jaswant Thada. This wonderful mausoleum is built out of intricately carved sheets of marble.
On the next day we visited Umaid Bhawan Palace which is a residence of the former Jodhpur royal family and it serves also as a luxurious hotel. The museum was not really interesting and I decided to not go to every possible touristic place anymore.
PUSHKAR – the holy city
We went to the Pushkar by a local bus. We were only 3 or 4 on the bus and had some complications since the driver didn’t come on time and tried to reach us by phone. However, we booked the bus online before we came to India so we put there Czech number. So no one could reach us. That day I had really terrible headache. With every step and move, I felt my head would burst. And all horning cars didn’t really make it better. So from that day, I started to wear earplugs literally all the time I was outside. We slept for 2 hours in our hotel and went for a walk afterwards. Close to our hotel was some travel agency with 3 Indians who looked like native Americans and were pretty scary (but really helpful!). We booked our train and bus tickets there (since it’s pretty complicated to do it online in India) and changed money.
Pushkar is a city with a soul. It is a pilgrimage site for Hindus and Sikhs. Once you are there you feel the “holiness” of the place. It is very calm and everywhere are walking people with some colorful signs on their foreheads. Everywhere in the center are tourist shops with beautiful clothes which I would normally not appreciate that much but it was the only place where we could buy something nice to wear (silk stuff and so on).
We witnessed a few weddings (and not only there but during the whole time of our stay in India) and were also part of them. Indian people REALLY CARE about their weddings. Some of them organize really huge parties with perfect sound system and psytrance music for 1000 people and more.
Here are pictures of weddings that we accidentally came across while walking through the city of Pushkar:
Our second day in Pushkar we decided to watch the sunrise from one of the Pushkar’s hills on which the Savitri Temple is situated. We didn’t get to the top when the sun started to rise but it wasn’t a big deal since we enjoyed that time during the whole way up. We were annoyed by monkeys all the time and my enthusiasm from seeing monkeys was fading away with every new coming day in India. Monkeys ARE annoying.
JAIPUR – The Pink City
Jaipur one of the cities that people visit when they have only 1 week in India and arrive in New Delhi. The so cold “Golden Triangle” is the typical route for many people arriving to India (New Delhi – Jaipur – Agra). However, it is not that interesting and I think you don’t really get the idea of the Indian culture when you only visit these three cities. Jaipur is well known as “pink city” because of many houses in the city center which are colored in pink. In 1876, the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria visited India on a tour. Since pink denotes the color of hospitality, Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur painted the whole city pink in color to welcome the guests. It was then that Lord Albert exclaimed Jaipur to be a ‘Pink City’, and hence the name. The city was super touristic (for India – which means that we met maximal 10 white people during the whole day:D the rest of the tourists were Indian).
We spent the first day in the city center and the second day on the hills around. I personally really loved the second day. The views and the long walk! Indian people told us that it is not possible to walk on those hills since it is full of tigers. So that it is terribly dangerous! Well. We didn’t meet any tigers, we didn’t meet any walking people either. Just some guy selling tea next to the road.
AGRA – The city of TAJ MAHAL
Agra is a very small city so it is even more visible how many tourists come because of the Taj Mahal. We had a really nice view from our hotel from which we could see the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, it was not illuminated in the night. We met some guy from Israel on the rooftop who told us about his travel experience and about his life. His single life. With a lot of money and a lot of time to travel. On the rooftop was also some English guy sitting and we all four agreed that there is literally nothing to see in Agra except of Taj Mahal (and the Agra Fort which we found to be very boring).
We visited the Taj Mahal before the sunrise at 6 a.m. to prevent long queues. The place was for me at least a little bit disappointing. Very very expensive entrance, many people already before sunrise, the Taj Mahal itself wasn’t that impressive.. in general… not worthy to pay the high ticket price for it I think.
There is not much to see in Agra besides the Taj Mahal. If you are into the old huge buildings you can enjoy the Agra Fort (and want to pay the entrance). We just went for a walk and discovered a few temples on a river where were many poor people and we felt really weird walking there. Before I didn’t have a weird feeling while walking in the streets in India but in that place, I was a bit scared. Many children begged us for money and held our hands and touched us and it was really uncomfortable. Begging in India is something that everyone has to get used to. It is not possible to give money to everyone and sometimes it is hard to reject.
VRINDAVAN – The Birth Place of Lord Krishna
Close to Agra is a small holy city called Vrindavan where Lord Krishna was born. It is a place which is not touristic at all and is not really well known for foreign people. And these facts make it be so special! I really loved it there. It was full of Indians and everyone greeted us with two words: “Hare Krishna!” The “hare Krishna” isn’t apparently used only for greetings but also when people want to apologize or just say something to not be quiet. In Vrindavan were really many temples but not very well maintained. Somehow I really liked that because one could feel the history of the place a lot.
VARANASI – the sacred city and the city of burning people
What an experience to visit Varanasi! Varanasi was actually one of those places that I definitely wanted to visit in India. However, I didn’t know at all what will this city bring to us. It really exceeded my expectations. I think that everyone who visits India should visit Varanasi since local people say that it is the “Mecca of India”. Every Hindu should visit the city of Varanasi at least once in life and take a bath in the Ganga river. And if they are lucky and their family has enough money than they have also the chance to get burned there.
I really like in India that people face reality and death directly. Varanasi is the only city in India where pyres burn 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because the city is believed to be so sacred, the demand for funerals here is high. It is really interesting and touching to see the families patiently waiting and watching the burning bodies of their beloved ones. I will not describe the whole thing which is happening in Varanasi because I think that I would not be able to describe such a complex topic properly. I found a wonderful description in this National Geographic article.
In Varanasi, it also happened to us that we didn’t really check the accommodation that we booked and it appeared to be a disaster. The hotel that we were supposed to stay in seemed to be really luxurious and had 4 stars but it didn’t have any reviews which appeared to be very unlucky. When we arrived, there were just a few guys cleaning the area and didn’t have any clue that someone was supposed to come. The whole place was really scary and looked dirty. Somehow they gave us their phone and let us to speak to some guy who started to persuade us that the area is perfect for staying in. “Calm and far from the city center” – well, might be good for people who WANT to be far from the city center. However, the only thing why we visited Varanasi WAS it’s city center so the hotel was really not suitable for us. We were already so exhausted that we decided to just book some expensive hotel in order to take a proper shower and to have a calm night on a normal bed.
The second hotel that we booked was pretty fancy. Well, it actually only looked fancy but wasn’t really that good as I would expect for that price in India. There were bodyguards. And breakfast. And clean beds and hot shower. That was it. For us, a perfect match on that day.
CONCLUSIONS
I think that the northern part of India is worth visiting when you want to dive into the Indian culture and the Hindu religion. I really loved every city that we had the chance to visit but after a few days, the whole atmosphere and the overpopulation became very tiring. I am happy that we combined the trip to the north with the trip to the south. I admit that we didn’t need to fly that much during our trip but I think that it was really worth seeing both. The chaotic north and the wild south.
