Our goal of this blog has been to convey the truth about our travels and not limit to the highlights. With that in mind, India is a country that everyone should visit. We didn’t have enough time there and I can’t wait to go back. But, it’s a tough place to travel.

Before we landed in New Delhi, we had just spent 6 weeks in Southeast Asia. We thought this had desensitized us, but the poverty, pollution, filth, traffic and treatment of people in India is overwhelming. Pigs and cows eating garbage in the street. Adults and children defecating in the streets. And, the honking. The honking! Traffic in Southeast Asia is hectic, but it’s oddly synchronized. In India the drivers are aggressive and out for themselves. There are more shocking things about the country, but it’s unfair to focus on them because we also encountered some of the nicest people, amazing culture, incredible food and outstanding architecture. The truth is, nothing can prepare you for India.

New Delhi

It starts before the plane even touches down. You can’t see the city through the pollution.

As most of the trip has gone relatively smoothly, it was time to shake things up a bit. Two days before we landed in New Delhi, President Morsi suddenly pulled the 100 and 500 rupee note out of circulation [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37983834]. His intent was to combat corruption as India is a cash based economy. He was successful in his mission, but it caused chaos for the common folk. And for tourist, it was incredibly stressful.

We spent most of the time collecting cash. We only carried one debit card and the daily limit was 2,000 rupees, about $30. If you could find an ATM that wasn’t out of cash, the lines were hours long. We learned two things: 1) There is a women’s line and it is typically much shorter and 2) Find an ATM with an armed guard and get into the women’s line with your best wide eyed terrified tourist look to get waved to the front.

Once we had our precious cash, we had to spend it very carefully. Tickets for Taj Mahal were 1,000 rupees per person. But, we also needed bus tickets and money for food. On top of that, we planned on taking a train to our next destination. Because of all this, we spent 7 days in New Delhi mainly in ATM lines.

We did a lot of walking in search of ATMs. The streets of New Delhi are diverse. You will never know what you’ll find at the next turn.

Visiting the India Gate is a classic activity.

The food in India is wonderful. It was the highlight of the trip. At times we needed help on where to start, but the staff was usually friendly. One place claimed to be the creators of butter chicken. They had pictures of Gordon Ramsay in their kitchen. Whether it was real or not it did’t matter as it was amazing!

As our friend Ryan said, “The hustle is strong in India.” We wrote about scams in Vietnam, but that’s trivial compared to India. Do they really think people fall for the “sorry your hotel burnt down, you need to come with me” trick?! Yes, that happens. It becomes exhausting. Every encounter and transaction has to be monitored otherwise you’ll be paying 10x what you should or you won’t be taken to where you asked. It’s unfortunate, because you have be on guard during every conversation.

We learned that you can’t book train tickets online unless you have a local phone number, so we went off to the station to find the tourist counter. And wouldn’t you know, we fell for the “tourist office is closed” trick and were whisked away to a legit looking tourist office in the Connaught Circle. The place looked official and everyone was extremely professional but when they tried to convince us that it would cost $700 USD to see Taj Mahal we felt defeated. We sought refuge at a nearby Starbucks.

A kind man at the table next to us sensed our stress and discouragement and started talking to us about India. One thing about Indians is that they acknowledge the difficulties of their country, but are also very, very proud of India. At the end of the conversation, he gave us the number of a travel agency that could get us to the Taj Mahal. Based solely on our interaction with him, we went to the place. It was sketchy. It was a closet-like room, run down and operated by older Indian man. We went for it and booked all our train tickets and arranged a bus to Agra. We were all set to move on from New Delhi.

Agra – Taj Mahal

Trust test #1: would our bus arrive at 5am? We stood outside our hostel waiting for the bus in a sea of Tuk Tuks with their drivers sleeping in them. At 5:20 we called the travel agency, but didn’t get an answer. However, at 5:45 a bus stopped in the middle of a 4 lane road, opened the door and yelled at us to get in. It didn’t look anything like the brochure but we were happy that we appeared to be on way. We were the first on and as we picked up other passengers we noticed we were the only foreigners. Hmmm. The ride to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is, was long.

Along the way a guy jumped on gave a 30 minute speech about some sort of juicer he was selling. He actually sold a lot before getting dropped off in what seemed to be the middle of no where.

The first stop of our tour was the Agra Fort. As we neared, our tour guide hoped on the bus and explained that he will buy all our tickets. Naturally, he wanted more than what the price of the tickets were, but everyone else paid so we obliged.

The fort was very impressive.

You can just see Taj Mahal through the smog.

You enter the Taj Mahal through the forecourt.

This is the first view of Taj Mahal.

It’s breathtaking. What was surprising was how small inside was. The marble room and walls are extremely thick and take up most of the space.

A clean up project is underway and you can visually see the discoloration the smog has caused.

As we walked back to the bus, the guide began his hustle. He demanded we pay him for his services but we were told by the agent it was apart of the price. Luckily, we had a good excuse as we didn’t have any cash and there was no where to get cash.

We thought after the Taj we would go back to Delhi. Nope! We learned why we were the only foreigners on the bus. It turned into a Hindu shrine tour! We had no clue what was happening. Eventually we made it back home at 2am.  This gave us a few hours sleep before we headed Jaipur.

Jaipur

Trust test #2: are the train tickets we bought at the agency legit? The most frustrating part about the hustle in India is that no one cares about it and its allowed to happen. On the other side of security, past the metal detectors and ticket check, an official looking guy tried to say our train was cancelled. All this happened RIGHT IN FRONT OF A REAL TRAIN OFFICIAL. We were pros now. Isabelle snatched the ticket back and along we went.

It was Isabelle’s birthday so lunch was where ever she wanted to go. Typical.

Jaipur is called the Pink City for all its pinkish buildings around the city.

And we thought the ATM lines in New Delhi were bad. This line was hours and hours long. But, we had another humbling experience when the security guard waved Isabelle to the front. And, no one in line seemed upset by it.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Indian style. Isabelle ordered her favorite; 3 different versions of the tasty cheese, paneer.

Isabelle wanted a sari for her birthday, so sari shopping we went! It’s a fascinating process trying to find the perfect one out of the thousands each store has. She decided on a peacock blue colored one. It took just a day for the seamstress to make the top and many YouTube videos of how to wrap it to get to a semi decent looking wrap!

For the touristy stuff, we took an Uber (FYI- thank the Lord for Uber in India) to the Amber Fort. This awesome old fort has a ton of twisty hallways, beautiful gardens, and a secret tunnel to another fort! By far the coolest fort we have seen.

Udaipur

Udaipur likes to call itself “The Venice of India.” It is a little city on a giant lake with buildings right on the water edge. It’s not Venice, but it is peaceful. We can’t decide the best part about Udaipur. It’s a tie between the ATM that had NO LIMITS (hooray we had money…lot’s of money!), not being able to hear honking from our guest house, or the local cooking class.

Udaipur is known for their miniature paintings. This wall is an example of the style, but the are usually done on post card sized canvases. The detail is incredible.

We took a cooking class ran by a mother and son duo out of their kitchen. She understood enough English to walk us through making a curry, roti, masala chai tea, and a rice dish. It was all amazing. It was a nice evening of eating, learning and making friends with locals.

Goa

We boarded a plane for a quick flight to Goa for a 3 night 4 day yoga retreat at Kranti Yoga. Kranti is a yoga teacher center who takes in visitors for holidays. Right on the beach, the center has little bungalows and a kitchen staff to feed you. You take a class from an advanced student 3 times a day. We were a bit disappointed with how Western the place was. But, the price, the food and the instruction was great! We have never been so sore before.

Mumbai

Our last stop in India was Mumbai. Mumbai is an interesting place. Fancy cars and houses are abundant but equally is the poverty. We saw some sights of Mumbai like the gate and museum. So much history in one place at the Prince of Wales Museum, aka-Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. Beautiful old, colonial architecture galore. And of course ate some delicious food.

Something like 40% of people live in the slums in Mumbai. One of the largest slums in the world is at the heart of the city, Dharavi (Slumdog Millionaire).

What we are most proud of after visiting India is that we escaped all Delhi belly. There were definitely some sketchy places we thought for sure this is where we get sick but stuck to our rules of only eating piping hot food and used our Steri Pen on even bottled water. What traveller can say that?!