Eight Days in India

For a wonderful jumble of smells (both good and bad), monkeys and oxen in the streets, street food, landmarks, scams and genuine people. If you’re curious about this country: go!

You hear all sorts of things about India – how chaotic it is, that there’s a lot of traffic and noise. I felt that we had prepared ourselves so thoroughly, mentally, for the transition from peaceful beaches in Sri Lanka that what we actually encountered almost felt anticlimactic.

Yes, the streets are teeming with people, cars and every imaginable kind of object, but after almost four months in South Asia you actually become a bit immune! What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the very clear divide between rich and poor, and the air quality.

In winter, Delhi becomes highly polluted due to the cold air and the lack of systems for handling emissions, which led to an air quality index of 498. Apparently, this is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day!

We all caught a cold, and I came home coughing and wheezing.

There are huge contrasts in this enormous city; stately buildings and wide avenues, and communities that live under a bridge and keep warm with a miserable little fire. It was unsettling to drive past Modi’s palatial office, only to turn the corner and see families with many children living under a tarpaulin on the sidewalk.

Our itinerary was the classic “Golden Triangle”, which is apparently just a tourist term and not something the locals are familiar with.

We spent one night in Delhi before driving to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. It was absolutely amazing! The next day we took a bus on to Jaipur, which is also called the “Pink City” because all the buildings are pink. I thought it looked like a huge gingerbread town.

Here we had three days to explore the old town and browse shops and treasure troves, as well as visit the many forts and palaces around the city. This was probably my favorite city of the three places we visited.

It was so lovely to stroll around, and not least to learn about all the fascinating history (which unfortunately can’t all fit into a single blog post).

We tried many different kinds of snacks and drank lots of masala chai from the street stalls. The tea we bought in restaurants couldn’t compare to what we got on the street. We ignored all the advice and ate a lot of street food, and it went fine every time. No stomach trouble during the whole trip (including Nepal and Sri Lanka!).

We actually really wanted to travel by train between the cities, but this should preferably be booked a month in advance, so unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets.

Being the obvious “Type B” travelers that we are, we landed at the airport in Delhi with only one night booked and no plan.

But it turned out to be a nice trip anyway. From Jaipur we went back to Delhi. We were pretty exhausted, and everyone in the group started feeling homesick.

We passed the time in peaceful parks, with long café visits and still plenty of good food.

Even though it felt good to finally get on the plane home to Norway, I’m so grateful for that last adventure and cultural experience I got from 8 days in North India!