INDIA
It took me nearly 2 years to write this blog post, with the global pandemic still disrupting our lives and travels I never found the motivation to revisit my last trip. India is a country I wanted to visit for a long time and I managed to do a 3 week JOURNEY there just before the world went into a global lockdown. This is what I enjoyed the most during the trip, as much as I could remember after all this time. I hope you enjoy my India travel blog
My interest in India started after watching the movie " The Best Marigold Hotel" and in specific, I had the desire to visit Jaipur and see those amazing architectures.
I want to start the blog with one of the quotes from the movie and it captured the experience I had in India:
" Initially you're overwhelmed. But gradually you realize it's like a wave. Resist, and you'll be knocked over. Dive into it, and you'll swim out the other side."
The trips started in Delhi then continued to Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur and finally Mumbai. These are the things I enjoyed the most for each of the cities ( I am trying to pinpoint with Google map locations as much as I can remember).
DELHI
Shri Laxmi Narayan Temple (Birla Mandir)
This is a very vast temple with a nice garden to explore with side temples dedicated to Shiva, Krishna and Buddha.
Humayun's Tomb
This tomb is declared UNESCO world heritage since 1993. Definitely one of my favourite architecture in Delhi with the red tones of the building contrasting the greens of the garden. Definitely, I appreciated this more than the overrated Taj Mahal, but I will talk about this later in the blog.
Lodhi Street Art
this probably has to be my favourite place in Delhi. You can literally spend a whole day exploring all the streets in this quarter and you will see amazing pieces of Street art, taking over whole buildings and adding even more colours to an already very colourful India. Be prepared to walk a lot here or, apparently, you can also rent bikes: we walked!
Safdarjung's Tomb
Diwan- i-Aam
Diwan- i-Aam is inside the Red fort, this is a great place for pictures. The intricate arches and the perspective are a great combo for amazing pictures. Go early in the morning or you will have to wait a while before you get a chance to take a picture without people. The Red fort didn't really impress me but there was a small theme park just outside and that was fun to see.
Chandni Chowk
Busy market area in Delhi but I really enjoyed exploring the streets and immerse myself in the colours and noises of the bustling market.
Agra
The only reason people visit Agra is the TAJ-MAHAL. We travelled by train from Delhi. This time we didn't book a driver to take us around ( since there is nothing else but Taj Mahal) but we discovered UBER TUK TUK: you can book a tuk-tuk through the Uber app and it was super cheap. Each ride was around 0.4 Euros.
Agra possibly was the worst place I visited in India and again I got super underwhelmed with another Wonder of the World. The same happened with Machu Picchu, the great wall of China and the pyramids of Giza. I guess it is the pressure of everyone saying how amazing these places are that unconsciously I get disappointed as the expectation and the build-up is always greater than the experience. I found the Taj Mahal pretty small, I was expecting this HUGE building!
At least the area around the palace was extremely clean because Trump was there just 3 days earlier. We only stayed 2 days in Agra, at this point the situation of Covid was getting serious and we were monitoring the news and keeping a close eye on recommendations from the Swedish embassy to check if we had to come back home earlier.
JAIPUR TRAVEL HIGHLIGHTS
My favourite place in India! We travelled from Agra by train and we spent around 4 days in the city. Jaipur was the main reason I travelled to India and it didn't disappoint! Beautiful architecture, amazing colours and equally amazing food.As in Delhi, we hired a driver for a couple of days to take us around to see the sights and for the other days, we continued with Uber Tuk Tuk.
Gaitore Ki Chhatriyan
Panna Meena ka Kund
this was definitely a bucket list place and I was so happy to visit it. I was expecting it to be a huge complex but in reality is pretty small, yet very beautiful with the geometry and the patterns of its architecture. You are not allowed to walk on the steps and this is actually a really great thing so you can admire it without Instagrammers ruining others experiences by taking 200 million selfies. Really recommend visiting this place.
Jaigarh Fort
Monkey Temple
Patrika Gate
Another favourite place in Jaipur and definitely a must if you are in the city! this gate is super colourful with very intricate arches and patterns that make it the perfect place for photoshoots. Since it is so good for pictures, expect many people there and many people also doing professional photoshoots. I had to wait a while before being able to get some shots without people, so you either go early in the morning or wait for that golden second!
Hawa Mahal
UDAIPUR HOLI FESTIVAL
We travelled to Udaipur by train from Jaipur. We arrived in Udaipur just in time to celebrate Holi! This is again something I had on the bucket list for a long time! Since covid-19 was getting more serious (still not a global pandemic) all the celebrations were scaled down. We decided to celebrate Holi on our own on the rooftop of our hotel to take pictures and then we headed out to take pictures of locals full of bright Holi colours. Even tho it was a scaled-down celebration it was still fun to celebrate it in India and hopefully one day I will go back to have a full-on experience.
Jagdish Temple
Udaipur City Palace
Street Art
I was surprised to see some street art pieces in Udaipur. If you walk around the old city and explore its street you can find some interesting pieces! This "Little Prince" once is definitely one of my favourites!
MUMBAI
this was my last stop on the trip. We flew to Mumbai from Udaipur. The day we arrived the Global pandemic was declared by the WHO. We decided to spend the last 2 days in the city before flying back to Sweden as we didn't want to get stuck in India because of Covid-19.
I didn't get a chance to explore Mumbai as I wanted but I am sure I will be back. These are some of the places I managed to visit before flying back to Malmö.
India was amazing and I only managed to see a small part of it. When travelling will be easier again I will definitely go back to see more and eat MORE butter chicken!
Signing off this blog post with yet another quote from the movie that inspired this trip:
"Everything will be all right in the end and if it's not all right, then it's not yet the end"
