Crazy, chaotic and cool - this is exactly how I pictured India, and that's exactly how it was. That's not to say I was prepared for it to be like that. We woke up from our travel haze in a hotel on a super busy street in Delhi, thinking we could handle it because we'd been to Asia before.
Let me tell you. Travelling India is nothing like travelling South East Asia. One attempted scam, 14 days of stomach cramps, and a travel insurance claim later, I'm here to delve into our interesting trip to India.
We booked our return flights to Delhi with Emirates on the 1st January, still buzzed from a New Year's Eve pondering about the promises of 2020 (ha!). And we had internal flights booked from Rishikesh to Varanasi, then on to Goa before heading back to Delhi - we knew 17 days would probably feel too short, but we're also not backpackers anymore.
Delhi - 2 nights
Agra - 1 night
Jaipur - 1 night
Delhi - 1 night so we could split up the journey to Rishikesh
Rishikesh - 3 nights for Holi festival
Varanasi - 4 nights
Goa - 4 nights
In hindsight, if I could do it again, I'd spend an extra night in Rishikesh and lose a night in Varanasi (by this point I was done with Indian cities - as cool as they are). But also in hindsight, I wouldn't be daft enough to think 17 days flitting across the length and breadth of India was a good idea. So, there we go.
We were welcomed into India in no other way than I would expect - huge crowds, disorganised queues and a whole lot of confusion. Because the Coronavirus was just getting under way, there were extra queues, temperature checks and pointless form filling (we literally had to fill out two forms that said we came from China/Thailand and that we didn't have Coronavirus)... don't even ask. We were passed to none English-speaking people who didn't understand us, and then stood in a huge queue where no one really knew what they were doing, to get our visas stamped. All in all, it took us about 4 hours to get out of the airport.
I travelled with one other friend, and neither of us are huge fans of flying. I really wanted to book a sleeper train from Delhi to Rishikesh but surprisingly they'd all sold out. I'd been recommended Kalka Travels by a friend who travelled India solo - Kalka Travels is a company that can sort you out with private drivers and tours, so we arranged to have a private driver take us around the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur) and drop us off in Rishikesh. It's a great way to get around India, but actually I'd only recommend it if you've got a bit more time on your hands because it is exhausting driving that long! I'd also recommend giving yourself a bit more time than we did if you're doing the Golden Triangle. You probably only need 2 nights in Agra, but Jaipur seemed like an interesting place that I could have easily explored a little more (plus, if I had more time I'd have gone to Udaipur too).
Delhi was definitely not for me. It could have been the area we were in (Paharganj) but I was just totally overwhelmed - it was noisy, polluted, chaotic... apart from our hotel staff, no one was friendly, and we also narrowly avoided a tuk tuk scam (although they did still drop us in the middle of a busy junction with no idea where we were). I also felt on edge wherever I was, like I wasn't totally safe. This could be to do with the moment after being dropped off in said busy junction, wandering blindly around and coming across locals sitting in the back of a pickup truck with what looked like missiles (after learning of the deadly Delhi riots not long before) but who knows?! Either way, I can safely say I won't go back to Delhi again.
Agra was definitely a change of pace - it was more laid-back, the street we were staying on had more of a backpacker vibe (the hostel, Madpackers, was also friendly and welcoming). And I could imagine it actually being a fun place to hang out for a few days when it's in-season. We basically headed to India just at the beginning of the whole Coronavirus pandemic, and the further we got into our trip, the less tourists we encountered. We didn't have a long time to explore Agra - we basically went to tick the Taj Mahal off our list - but it was definitely worth it. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable, and he got us there for sunrise - although surprisingly, there were already a lot of people there, which was what we were trying to avoid. Still, it's an experience I'll never forget. I used the Klook app to buy a skip-the-line ticket before we got there, and it definitely paid off - plus, it was only about £14!
Jaipur was next on the list. We stayed at Blue Beds Backpackers and I'd definitely recommend it - it was cheap, the rooms were huge, and they had an entertainment team who organised bar crawls, cooking lessons, street food tours etc. We really wanted to get stuck into some street food (without trying to rely on our own instincts to try and pick the good places from the bad) but due to the Coronavirus, the hostel had cancelled their tours. So, we found Hidden Jaipur, which is run by a guy called Raju - he's a one-man team and he was so friendly, and took us to some unbelievable places. Unfortunately, this is where I picked up food poisoning (that plagued me for the rest of the trip!) - my mate, Kirstin, was totally fine and the only thing I had that she didn't was the masala chai tea, so I'm going to say it was that. No reflection on Raju's tour though, I would still recommend doing it!
If you want to know a little bit more about my favourite street food dishes, then check out my post on the 7 dishes you should absolutely try when travelling India. Yummy dish pictured below, included.
The following day we explored the Pink City, spending most of our tour in the City Palace. We opted for the full tour, so we could see the section of the palace that the royals still live in, which cost INR3500 (about £35) - it was absolutely breathtaking, so if there's only one palace that you can afford, make it this one.
I'm just going to skip over our second stay in Delhi - it wasn't any better than the first. We stayed in the same area, in a really awful hotel (where someone tried to get into our room in the middle of the night - twice!). So, yeah, definitely not a fan of Delhi. Instead, here's a nice photo of two guards in Jaipur's City Palace.
Rishikesh was one of the places I was looking forward to the most out of our whole India travel itinerary - to be honest, I wanted to visit Agra and Jaipur to tick off the must-see Golden Triangle, but I classed Rishikesh as the place where our holiday would really start. We picked Rishikesh as the place to celebrate Holi Festival - something that has always been on my bucket list. We knew it'd be mental, so we wanted somewhere a little smaller and more chilled out. It was definitely the right decision - I wrote a blog on our Holi Festival experience, here.
I loved Rishikesh. It's nestled at the foot of the Himalayas, so the surrounding scenery is beautiful. People always ask the question, mountains or beaches... can't I just have both?!
We picked our hostel, Shivshakti, for the activities they did (sunrise trek, ganga aarti ceremony, cooking classes, yoga etc.) but actually, most of the activities didn't take place and the hostel itself was really basic. The staff were super friendly, so I guess it depends how much you can hack budget hostels - turns out, we can't really hack them anymore. We're getting old. We did get to go to the Ganga Aarti ceremony, which is an ancient fire ceremony hosted every night to give thanks to the River Ganga, and that was incredible - a must-see for sure. I'd go back to Rishikesh in a heartbeat - it was definitely more catered to tourists, so it doesn't give you the kind of local experience you might be craving, but it's easily placed to travel further north and also for treks into the Himalayas (both of which I'll be doing whenever I next visit!).
Apparently you can fly directly from Rishikesh to Varanasi, but it turns out the flights were all fully booked so we had to fly via Delhi which ended up taking us about 6 hours. After the rush of Rishikesh - we weren't ready to leave - we were excited about our stay at GoStops Varanasi because, again, there were tons of activities to get up to and it had great reviews... we had an email about cooking lessons, sunrise boat trips, yoga etc. But when we turned up, it was dead and no activities were running. This is where we really started to notice the effect Coronavirus was having on tourism - we spoke to tourists flying back home early, locals were avoiding us and covering their mouths, and to be honest, tourists were hard to spot. The streets were busy, but I think our India experience would have been wholly different if it wasn't for the virus. Nevertheless, I wrote a post on what we got up to in Varanasi anyway.
Last but not least - the final leg of our journey - we headed to Goa, excited at the prospect of sandy beaches, hippy vibes, and sunshine (the weather up until this point was dire - uncharacteristically so, apparently... typical!). This was another indirect flight, this time via Mumbai. You could literally count the amount of people on our plane with one hand, which should have been our first clue as to what we were about to encounter. We didn't care though - we only had a few days left, and it was actually sunny when we got off the plane. Score!
We stayed in a place called The Retreat in Anjuna, which was super basic but it was right next to the beach - however, if I were to go again (which I will) I'd splash out on something nicer. But by this point, we were used to being underwhelmed by our accommodation.
Coronavirus was all anyone could talk about by this point, the beaches were dead - restaurants were serving us on our own (shoutout to the cute little cafe, Eva's, which was about the only place that remained a little buzzy), and we could never fully relax. Our hotel in Delhi, which we were due to stay in the night before our flight out of India, cancelled our booking as they didn't want us staying there, and places were closing all around us (even the British Embassy in Goa was closed - which was particularly helpful when I was calling to figure out what to do!). We kept hearing about people's flights being cancelled, and we were terrified of being stuck in India, unable to get back. So, with two days to go, we coughed up the cash, bought a new flight to Delhi and headed back home two days early.
I have to say, I've never been so excited to return home after a trip.
Would I recommend travelling India? Yes. But only if you really want to go. It's not relaxing by any stretch of the imagination! If you do want to go, I recommend having a read of my India travel tips and things to know before you go.
India had been on my list for a while, and I knew it was going to be uncomfortable and difficult in parts (and at the best of times) but Coronavirus overshadowed the whole trip, and I think if it wasn't for this, I would have enjoyed myself a lot more. There were parts I loved and parts I didn't, and I know I want to go back - up to the north, back to Rishikesh and further. And back down to the south, for more time in Goa, a little stint in Hampi, and over to Kerala.
You can find all my India travel info and blogs on my dedicated India travel page.
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