It’s high time! Almost 2 months ago we returned from our trip to India and I still haven’t managed to publish my blog articles… Soooo: We started in mid-February. 3 weeks in India. A couple of days in the North (Golden Triangle), then on to Pune for an Indian wedding of a friend of mine and afterwards about 14 days in Kerala and Mumbai. A full program – as always 🙂
11.02.-12.02.2017 Delhi
We flew to Delhi via Doha where we arrived very tired and jet-legged so fell into bed straight away. In the afternoon we went for a first walk in Old Delhi. Our accommodation was located in Paharganj, a bit of a walk from Old Delhi. Slowly but surely the streets started to become busier and busier… People, rickshaws, motorbikes, vendors, shops that stretch out onto the streets,… Above our heads low hanging power cables and monkeys climbing around on exactely these. In addition lots of noise, horns every couple of seconds! A fascinating, but after a while also exhausting chaos!
Even if this chaos for us was already a sight by itself, we still wanted to visit some famous buildings on our tour: The Red Fort and the big mosque, Jama Masjid.
Both are fantastic and should definitely be visited. Unfortunately we were annoyed for the first time by the much higher entrance fee for non-Indians. In Europe, you would call this discrimination… I don’t mind at all donating a bit more money for the development of the country, but charging European entrance fees in a country like India can only be called a huge rip-off!
Next day, we explored Delhi by metro and went from one highlight to the next. Delhi is huge and the distances except for Old Delhi are not very pedestrian-friendly. Luckily there is a good metro, but sometimes you need a tuk tuk in addition to get from the metro stop to the sights, a couple of kilometers further. First we still walked to the Lakshmi Narayan Temple, then took the metro to visit Qutb Minar, an old ruin site quite far outside the center of Delhi. While the temple was a quick visit, you can definitely spend around an hour at Qutb Minar, walking around the impressive ruins.
The Lotus Temple, which resembles the Sydney Opera House, is interesting from the outside but there’s no need to stand in line to go inside where basically just an empty hall awaits the visitors. What was fun and fascinating were the masses of Indian visitors who all wanted to use us as their photo models. One photo, another one,… always really nice and sweet, but at one point it’s enough 😉 Afterwards we passed by the Humayun Mausoleum which was very impressive. One of our highlights in Delhi! Purana Qila, the old fort, was also quite nice in the end but we were already a bit too tired to fully appreciate it. Still, would recommend going there.
13.02.-14.02. Agra
The following day we took an early train to Agra. Taking a train in India is an adventure by itself although we were actually lucky with the train and class we had booked – the wagon was not overly full and there was not even any delay. Once we arrived in Agra we took a moto-rickshaw to our guesthouse and then started our sightseeing tour – a full program from the impressive Agra Fort to the beautiful Baby Taj to the boring and over-priced park Mehtab Bagh from which you had a hazy view (lots of smog!) of the Taj Mahal. We also just walked around Agra a bit, actually a nice city and most tour groups are just sticking to the Taj and the area around it.
And then we decided to visit precisely this one (the Taj Mahal) on the same day still as well. First we had wanted to wake up early to see the sunrise at the Taj, but since the sky was grey-ish blue / smoggy at all times of the day at the moment, we spared ourselves the early wake up 😉 I’m sure there are a little less people in the early morning hours, but we weren’t bothered too much by the other tourists. The lines were very short in the afternoon, we were able to pretty much walk right in… through the big gate where suddenly you are standing right in front of the Taj Mahal! An incredible sight which definitely gave me some goosebumps! 🙂 How a building can trigger something like that? No idea, it’s difficult to describe. Even though I had seen thousands of photos of the Taj already, standing right in front of it just knocked my socks off! It has a mystical feel and somehow seems to float… You just have to experience for yourself I guess! 🙂
The second day in Agra, we actually left the city and went on an excursion to Fatehpur Sikri, an old ruin site located approximately 2 h away from Agra. We went there with an extremely rickety old bus on bad roads… But it was worth it! The site as well as the little town itself are pretty and well worth the effort of getting there.
15.02.-16.02.2017 Jaipur
Then it was time to change cities once again! Once again we took the train, this time to Jaipur. We were less lucky that day: The train was delayed for 2 h – well, we could have slept longer I guess! 😉 At least we still had about 2 h once we arrived in Jaipur for a first stroll around the „pink city“ of India. I would probably call it „terracotta“ and not pink, but it’s pretty nevertheless!
On our second day in Jaipur we had a busy sightseeing program planned. First we passed by Hawa Mahal again (Palace of the Winds) which was beautiful in the morning light. From there, we took a public bus to Amber Fort which is located a bit outside of Jaipur. After visiting a couple of forts over the past few days, we now arrived at the definite highlight of all forts! Amber Fort captivates you already through its setting on a hill, surrounded by further photogenic mountains/hills (the definition depends on nationality 😉 ). We walked around here for a couple of hours during the midday heat and mainly enjoyed the different views. So if you are visiting Jaipur, don’t miss out on visiting Amber Fort!
17.02.-19.02.2017 Pune
Now it was wedding time! We took a flight to Pune where we arrived in the middle of the night at our hotel. The next 3 days were filled with a bit of shopping to get some Indian accessories and clothes, relaxing at the hotel pool and of course – the wedding itself. An Indian wedding takes a couple of days, and we participated on 3 of them at 5 different events. The whole thing started Friday night with the „dance practice“, Saturday noon we women got henna on our hands and in the evening everyone was invited to the big (main) party. Sunday morning the official part in the temple followed, and in the evening there was a reception in a beautiful garden with an amazingly delicious buffet. It was SO pretty! There was always lots of delicious food and drinks and there was lots of dancing. Everything looks even prettier with the Indian dresses and of course more exotic than a wedding you know from home. Here are a few pictures whereas I „borrowed“ some from other guests since it didn’t feel it would have been appropriate for me to be taking pics with my big DSLR 😉
After the wedding, we made our way to the South – Kerala was waiting for us with its backwaters, tea plantations and beaches… But more about that in my next post 🙂
Just Booked A Trip 
Ein Gedanke zu „India Part 1 – Golden Triangle & a wedding“