seemehear

If you’ve ever wandered around the South East corner of Glastonbury at 1am on a Saturday night, then parts of Old Delhi won’t shock you much – on sheer volume of chaotic scenes – but you do need to be on heightened awareness, this place is pretty wild. We decided to make this our first stop once we’d had a decent nights sleep.

I’ve been privileged enough to travel to India for work on several occasions (and I’ve loved it), but what I realise quickly is that all these previous trips have not prepared me for visiting India on a budget. Gone are the carefully executed plans of my regular hosts; gone are the easily accessible drivers that would shuttle me where I needed to be; gone is the luxury of a certain standard of hotel 😅 Delhi requires a significant investment of energy. It’s hot, it’s busy, and there’s an unlimited amount of noise to frazzle the senses.

All this considered I’m really excited for the Indian leg of our trip. We’re doing the classic well-trodden path of the Golden Triangle, which is comprised of Delhi, Agra (for the Taj Mahal), Jaipur and then back to Delhi. We’ve only given ourselves 8 days, but this feels doable. It’s also Carmen’s first time in India.

What strikes me straight away is just how savvy people are in Delhi for trying to get your business. I don’t think I’ve ever been approached as much – for a taxi, tuktuk, rickshaw, or other potential sale. You need to do a lot of “no thank you” while walking around. Even when compared to South India and wider Asia, there’s a level of intensity in Delhi which blows all expectations.

The thing you cannot ignore in India is just how beautiful the colours are. Everywhere you look there’s shades of intense blue, red and yellow, in all manors of hues and shades – most of which wouldn’t work on your living room wall – but here in India there’s something about the light that makes them gel.

We’re staying at a homestay in South Delhi, which we were reliably informed is a bit more relaxed than the hustle and bustle of the centre of New Delhi, or Old Delhi. If you’re non the wise to the term ‘homestay’ I say it’s an upmarket labelling of a bed & breakfast. Makes it feel a bit more fancy.

Our particular homestay is great – the hosts are kind, our room is clean & spacious, and the food is good. We’re also walking distance from a South Indian dosa restaurant chain called Carnatic Cafe that we sample straight away. Dosas are a bit like crispy pancakes, filled or not filled with a variety of flavours. We opt for a masala dosa which is served with 3 chutneys.

Food is a big priority for our time in India, there’s just so many delicious things to eat. Endless lists. Thali’s; idli’s; roti’s; dahl’s; lasi’s…. + all the masala chai and Indian style sweet coffee!

Our time in Old Delhi gets going at the Red Fort. It’s an impressive structure which has been around for the last few hundred years. We’ve started to take the opinion as we travel, it’s impossible to pay to visit each landmark or monument that we encounter. So, with this in mind we opt to view from the outside only. And on this occasion, this seems perfectly adequate.

The Red Fort gives Carmen her first encounter of what sometimes happens in India – you may get a request for a photo, a bit like you’re famous. This happens within 10 minutes of arriving at the fort, and she can’t help but laugh hysterically as I stand for a quick snap that I don’t really want to star in (it’s about 35º for one thing). From this moment she fends the requests off (which we do feel a bit guilty about, but who knows where that photo is going or who’s taking it?!) all this aside, it is a complement that someone wants a photo with you. Or maybe they’re just taking the ….

We wander through old Delhi taking in the scenes, and a delicious sweet treat – Traditional Jalebi with cream. Our wandering takes us to a mini celebration of colour, the one you’ve probably seen on tv, where coloured powered is being thrown. The deafening explosion of fireworks two metres from our ears is our call to move on.

Getting around Delhi is very different to yesteryear, there’s no more haggling with tuktuks or taxis, if you don’t want to. Taxi apps are very much here, and you can get a fair price easily. It does make you think, what is this doing for the simple Delhi transport economy, but it makes things a lot simpler. And it gets us from a to b to c with ease for our time in India. Also no need for cash for these journeys. Long distance walking just doesn’t seem the done thing – there’s no pavements for one thing – so you tend to be walking in the road, which feels a tad dangerous at times.

We had a few recommendations for an area called Hauz Khas, which we really enjoyed. Nice restaurants and shops, and good for a wander. There’s also a deer park. We went back to a place called Coast Cafe twice, for their amazing paratha.

The romantic notion of an Indian train journey 🚂

In the planning stages of this trip, we both romanticised about train journeys in India. This has clearly been inspired by films like the Darjeeling Limited or the various travel docs we’ve watched over the years. So when it came to Delhi departure day, we were very much looking forward to our train to Agra, even if it was a relatively short journey.

Checking train status or departure times in India is not a simple task (especially when the state run train website is down) and it takes me a little while to learn that our planned train is running 4 hours late. With this knowledge we’re still not sure if it’s accurate so we head to the station to double check our options. The train is late, so we take a tuktuk to a nearby cafe to sit somewhere comfortably. We end up getting out of our tuktuk in the wrong part of town, there is no cafe, but there are some very strange looks. Have we arrived in in the wrong part of town, is there a wrong part of town?! If anyone knows, please inform us. We quickly retreat and get another tuktuk elsewhere. Shoutout to the Hollywood meets Bollywood movie poster themed cafe that was run by a nice man who let us sit for 2-hours.

On our return to the station, we’re met with golden hour light, which makes every person in the station look incredible. We can’t help but spend time capturing the moment. The Indian railways romantic dream is becoming a reality.

15 minutes later we’re on our platform looking excitedly for the Vande Bharat Express. What we discover is another 4 hour delay. We’re both reasonable people, we don’t mind a delay, we can read, watch, do some travel planning. But we decide to cut our losses and get a car to Agra before it gets too late. Who’s to know whether 4 hours becomes another 12. And we are on a tight 8 day schedule after all.

Our intercity uber driver arrives swiftly. A grand total of 2,500 rupees (£22) will get you from Delhi to Agra over 4 hours. Not bad value for money, at least we think.

A friend from Central Asia greets us for the journey – Our chariot is powered by LPG GAS and needs to be refuelled every 80-100km. It appears we’re learning about the pro’s and con’s of this particular fuel type 😂 what I later realise is that every taxi we travel in, in India, have two fuel gauges, one for petrol (which is generally alway empty, and another for LPG, which is cheaper, but less efficient).

It’s a good journey to Agra, slow, but good. Our young driver has clearly made the trip on many occasions and he has a sense of calm. We pass through several toll gates and his automatic payment sensor lets us pass. What we don’t realise is that all these tolls are getting added to our bill (the bill we never expected as we agreed a price in Uber). What a treat it was to arrive in Agra and need to ask the night porter of our hotel to lend us some money to pay the Uber driver. Luckily he abides, which we repay promptly the next morning.

Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal – a wonder of the modern world.

I think it’s fair to say we’ve heard mixed reviews when it comes to Agra. Some say don’t venture further than the Taj. It’s tough, the Taj has had the biggest tourist pull for a long time, and with that comes a major impact to a town. Yes, it is a bit grim in the surrounding area, but there’s also some really nice places to stay. I think the one element that saddened us in Agra and also elsewhere while travelling through northern India was the rubbish. There’s a lot, and it’s at a level which makes you wonder how it can be corrected. Is this a tourism impact, or a social issue. Or just the sheer scale of the country.

Time for the Taj

The Taj at sunrise does not disappoint. Well, it does disappoint a little 😂 we can’t buy tickets as they’re not taking card payments at the moment, but that’s swiftly corrected by me jogging through a labyrinth of streets to find a cash machine (it’s 5:30am and I’m non-stop sweating) While Carmen buys them online 🙃 As I attempt to cool down I’m warned by a local shop owner to watch out for the monkeys. Not a second after he finishes his sentence two of these monkeys nearly land on my feet. And they do appear particularly wild – rabid eyes and mouths – they’ve probably had enough of tourists like me. I quickly move elsewhere.

Once we enter the gates we’re blown away by the scale and detail. The crowds aren’t too big and you can still get a decent photo. They’ve protected the Taj fairly well – no food or drinks, and little slippers for when walking on the marble. You can’t help but enjoy walking around, it’s vast. And there’s other buildings to take in. Visiting at sunrise is wise, the lights good, it’s not too hot, and crowds are smaller. It also means you can head back to your hotel for breakfast once you’ve taken it all in.

The tale of the Taj being constructed is bittersweet. It was commissioned by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the tomb of his favourite wife (wonder how many he had?). After many years of construction and eye -watering sums of money ($800m in todays money) his son became tired of his father’s spending and in-prisons him in the nearby Agra Fort, where he then has to watch the fort being built from afar until his death. In reality his investment has created one of the best known buildings in the world, a considerable asset for India.

Onto Jaipur

I know nothing about Jaipur and I like it. Expectations can ruin. What greets us is a more relaxed city than Delhi or Agra. We’re staying in the side of an old fort, called Le Fort. It’s a bargain price and has a really nice interior.

As the sun sets we watch the local children from our roof top battle kites in the sky. We’re told this is a popular game for kids across Jaipur and wider India.

The host/owner of our homestay is on-hand to give Carmen recommendations for her many questions 😅 ahead of venturing out for the evening, where we indulge in a few cocktails in a bar called Native.

At breakfast we decide to hire a tuktuk for the day (£9) to experience as much of the city as possible. This was a sensible decision and our homestay owner recommends a guy called Saif.

Saif has just started a tuktuk tour guide business and he’s keen to impress. He zooms us around a selection of the main sights. First up is a traditional yoghurt Lassi from the oldest place in town, which is delicious. It’s served in a terracotta mug that is thrown away after each use! I think we’d both like to keep our cup, but we resist.

Saif insists we visit Gaitor Ki Chatriyan (basically the royal cemetery), which wasn’t on our list, but we’re glad he recommended it. It’s super quiet and has a set of beautiful pagodas arranged around gardens.

We visit the Amber Fort, arguably much more impressive than Delhi’s Red Fort, sat on the hill high above Jaipur. We really enjoy the views and wandering around (and for once we do opt to buy a ticket, well worth it at £4).

Next up is a Step Well – this term was new on me, it’s essentially a stepped structure going deep into the ground where water would fill up like a well, and local people would come to drink, bathe etc. There’s loads in India and they all have a certain Escher painting-like quality to them.

Jaipur is home to Man Sagar Lake, which is famed for the Jal Mahal (meaning water palace) that was built in the middle of the lake for entertaining guests of the then Maharaj. Duck hunting was the order of business for guests, hence why it was built right in the middle of the lake, half submerged. Amazingly it’s standing after all these years. Surely they’ve had major damp issues. It was fully renovated a few years back and is apparently beautiful inside and on top, but due to certain political issues, no one is allowed to visit. Boo.

We were then on to the famed Hawa Mahal for a few photos. A slightly odd structure, built purely for royalty and guests to view the streets below, from small windows. Our homestay owner informed us that it’s not necessary to visit inside.

Saif is keen for us to visit a couple of places that manufacture goods (no doubt there’s a potential kick back if we buy something), little does know he know that we’re in hard no purchase mode, well, at least we think 🤔

The fabric factory we visit is instantly likeable, they’re crafting patterned fabric for European shops, they claim for the likes of Liberty and Anthropology. We quickly learn they can make clothes in any style. Without too much consideration I’m buying a tailored shirt and Carmen is buying trousers. There goes the no purchase will power. Both are delivered promptly to our homestay later that evening. Another classic India experience ticked off 😂

Tuktuk stops are made at a great lunch spot – where we eat dosa’s, samosas and an amazing deep fried paneer sandwich. A final stop is made at Carmen’s favourite Indian pyjama shop (Anokhi) to do some browsing, but amazingly little purchasing. Phew.

On our second evening in Jaipur we visit Bar Palladio in the grounds of the Jaipur Palace. A nice spot to reflect on Jaipur over a drink or two, before we head back to Delhi.

Can we revive the Indian train dream?

Yes we can, we’re on our way back to Delhi on a train and they’re serving us breakfast, and we’re only 15 minutes late. In a reality we’re not travelling on that classic Indian train we think of, we’re in an air conditioned modern carriage taking in the views. It’s still a great way to travel back to Delhi.

On our final day we spend a few hours at a recommended jazz bar where there’s free daytime music before arriving near Qutab Minar for sunset – one of the oldest structures in Delhi. We maintain our non-ticket buying and get a good view from a nearby rooftop bar. For the price of a beer we get to watch the sunset and Qutab Minar. Bargain.

Our final meal in Delhi is at a restaurant called Juggernaut, serving yet more southern Indian delights in a really nice building. Big thali’s, more dosas (this time in the form of mini cones like a Cornetto!).

8 days was ample in India for this trip. There’s loads to do, see, eat, so I’m 100% sure we’ll be back. I’ll miss the delicious vegetarian food that is so accessible, but I also know that Nepalese food ain’t bad either. Kathmandu, we’re coming for you 🇳🇵