I don’t know if or when I would have ever visited India if it hadn’t been for the wedding of acquaintances from Berlin to which I was invited. I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that we didn’t want to miss this opportunity and wanted to fill the trip to the wedding with as much India as possible.
The Travel Plan:
• Land in New Delhi and spend 3 days exploring the city along with Agra.
• Continue by train to Jaipur the Pink City for some culture and lots of food
• Then off to Mumbai and 3 days exploring the city and shopping for wedding clothes with friends of the bride and groom.
• Off to Nashik its Wedding time!
• Back to Mumbai and digest the experience
The first days:
Starting from Munich on a cold January morning, we flew via Abu Dhabi to New Delhi where we landed at around 3 am in a pleasant 20 degree weather. As soon as we left the airport, we were offered numerous transport services despite the late hour, but as we were too tired to negotiate after the long flight, we decided to use Uber, which I can only recommend to everyone, as it is easy and cheap.
Barely 15 minutes after getting into the Uber car we were greeted by India in the form of crazy traffic, I thought I was used to dangerous driving styles from my travels through Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka but I found out that India is in a different league. On the motorway in reverse, 6 cars side by side on a three-lane road, suddenly a herd of military camels (no joke, probably 20 animals with soldiers at 3 o’clock in the morning) and honking without a break.
The first day in Delhi was dedicated to organisational things like organising a sim card and exploring the neighbourhood for shopping and eating. As soon as I left the hotel to find the shop for the sim card I realised, yes Daniel you really are in India. Busy streets, new smells, sounds and impressions all at once it just felt surreal.
Crossing the main square near our hotel we were immediately inundated with offers of all kinds, from transport services to guids to parties and drugs, but when we made the mistake of saying what we really needed we were literally pushed into a shop for sim cards, a new thing we learned, in India you have to say no more consistently. When we finally got our Vodafone card for the equivalent of 7 euros with 1.5 GB per day, we could move on to the more exciting task for the day: Eating.
Everywhere in India you can find countless chai stalls and the interesting thing is that every stall seems to have its own recipe, no chai tastes like the other, sometimes a little more ginger, sometimes more clove, just always different and so we tried our way through the chai stalls in our neighbourhood and were reminded again why we are here.
The next day we took a private taxi to Agra to explore the Taj Mahal, on the way there I realised for the first time that I can’t see more than 200 metres and asked the driver if it was fog or air pollution, the answer was fog but after a few days in India I wasn’t so sure anymore…
Taj Mahal an unexpected surprise:
Arrived in Agra we went to the Taj Mahal and again I was surprised. I thought it was just another tourist attraction and took it with me as it was not far away and I thought why not when we are here but when I stood in front of the gates of the Taj Mahal I was really amazed! I would not have imagined it to be so huge and majestic and I highly recommend going early in the morning to avoid the crowds of other tourists!
Delhi’s traffic and sights
The next days we explored some of New Delhi’s sights and tried to visit a market, the famous Chandni Chowk, on this day I realized again that the traffic is absolute madness and driving through Delhi’s streets during the day is another level, I felt like I’m getting a panic attack because of the sensory overload and feeling cramped by all the cars around us. All the hardships were worth it though, Humayun’s Tomb (considered a blue print for Taj Mahal), Jama Masjid (one of the largest mosques in India) and especially Qutub Minar were absolutely worth seeing.
The train to Jaipur, the pink city
We wanted to see as much of India as possible, which is why we chose the train as our means of transport to Jaipur. The ticket for the 2nd class train costs about 1300 Indian Rupee (at that time about 15 Euro). The journey takes about 6 hours but you should definitely expect more. We decided to take the 8 a.m. train and boarded the surprisingly empty train on time. There were only beds to sit on, no seats as is usual in Europe. The first hour of the journey is to get out of Delhi and was not easy, during the journey you pass the slums of this mega city and become aware of your privileges for the first time when you see the poverty in which people live and are forced to wash and go to the toilet outside without privacy. The drive was quite quiet and the landscape slowly changed from cultivated mustard fields to a dry, almost desert-like landscape.
A ride with detours
Across from us, an older Indian couple got on and after a while we started talking. When they asked about the destination of the journey and learned that it was to go to Jaipur, they looked at me in astonishment and replied that this train does not go to Jaipur, I thought it was a joke but after a few seconds without laughing I realised that it was not. A few hours earlier the train company sent a text message to the guests that there would be no stop in Jaipur today, but it was a pity that I didn’t use my German sim card with which I bought the tickets in Germany. At this moment I could experience the helpfulness of the Indians for the first time, the older couple immediately set everything in motion to find out how to get to Jaipur, thank God we were able to change trains at the next stop an hour later and take another train.
In the middle of nowhere:
In the middle of nowhere we were standing at the track with our luggage for the next 6 months and didn’t know where to go, nobody really spoke English and could help us until I witnessed the second time the helpfulness of the Indians, a young man who suffered the same fate as us became aware of us and helped us to organise a new ticket and to find the right train so that we finally arrived at our destination.
Jaipur the Pink City:
When we arrived in Jaipur at the end of January, the Makar Sankranti (Jaiput Kite Festival) was just ending, with children and adults flying kites all over the city. Jaipur has a rather desert-like climate and was always around 21-23 degrees during our stay. the old city is full of markets and small shops as well as street food stalls and most of the houses are built with the same stones which give off a reddish pink glow and give the city the nickname Pink City.
In Jaipur you can experience culture on every street corner and you should definitely try the lassies here for which the city is famous, also Hawa Mahal and Ambor Fort are a must in my opinion.
Mumbai the next Mega City:
When we arrived in Mumbai you could immediately feel the difference to North India, it was more humid and warmer, almost tropical, the city is greener than Delhi and in my opinion a bit cleaner but the traffic is still a madness, in Mumbai we mainly went out to eat and shopping to be properly dressed for the upcoming wedding to our surprise it is harder to get an Uber in Mumbai than in Jaipur or Delhi. The bride and groom’s friends met us at a shop where they had been buying clothes for themselves for ages and gave us good advice on what to buy and then tips on where to eat in the area, overall Mumbai was quieter, not because of the city but because my body needed a break.
The wedding begins.
From Mumbai it was a 5 hour drive to Nashik, a town in the mountains known for its wine and pilgrimage sites. The wedding also took place on a vineyard and roughly consisted of two parts, Haldi ceremony (turmeric ceremony) and the wedding itself the next day. It is difficult to recount the experience without rambling on, which is why I keep it short and call it an incredible experience.
Back to Mumbai
Back in Mumbai, we had to digest the experience and took it easy, limiting our activities to eating out, a cooking class for typical Bombay dishes and a visit to the cinema to see the new Shah Rukh Khan film, which was a surprisingly great experience.
Good by India and hello Indonesia