Hi Everyone! Well, I just got back from a 13-day long trip to India. I visited 5 cities, and saw as much as I could in 13 days. It was a very intense experience – I saw some incredible sites, but also found it very stressful at times. I think India’s a pretty difficult place to deal with on your own. I often wished that I’d been traveling with someone else, both to share the experiences, and also to help deal with some of the insanity.
Here’s some of my experiences…
Day 1 (Delhi) – My first stop was Delhi, which I was told was going to be the most ‘intense’ city. But, I decided to jump in with both feet. Delhi definitely lived up to its reputation. The traffic is unbelievable, and the drivers are constantly honking their horns. It was pretty much a solid traffic jam all the way from the airport to my hotel. And, as we got into the city, I confirmed that there are actually cows wandering around in the streets.
I checked into a hotel in the Paharganj area, which is in between Old Delhi & New Delhi. The streets were crowded with cars, cows, bikes, and pedestrians. The Parharganj area is near the New Delhi train station, and is also a popular area with backpackers. I wandered around for a while, exploring & taking it all in.
My hotel room was one level above street level, and had a balcony. The view wasn’t super great, and I discovered that evening that the balcony would allow me to hear the honking of traffic late into the night.
Day 2 (Agra) – Got up early, and headed to the New Delhi train station. Even at 6am, it was bustling with activity. I almost got fooled by 2 different guys who stopped me & told me that I had to get my ticket (which was printed from the internet) stamped. But, when the 2nd guy started to lead me out of the station & across the street, the little voice in my head said “Hey CB, remember that rule about not going with strangers???” So, I ditched that guy & went into the station & found a guy in a railway uniform. He confirmed that I didn’t need my ticket stamped.
Anyways, I got on the train & headed out to Agra. I booked a driver & a guide for the day, and was off to see the sites. We saw Agra Fort, which is an enormous red sandstone structure. Even though only 5% is open to the public, we still wandered around for over an hour. We also visited Akbar’s tomb, Itimad-ud Daulah, and had a obligatory stop at a carpet factory. There they showed me how carpets were hand woven, and gave me the opportunity to shop for one.
When we were at Akbar’s tomb, I ran into a snake charmer outside. He was sitting there with a basket on the ground. As I approached, he took the lid off, and inside were a couple of cobras! They immediately puffed up their hoods, and stared at him. They struck at him a few times, but my guide told me that they had their fangs & venom glands removed. Still, I wasn’t going to get too close.
Finally, we were on to the main attraction – the Taj Mahal. It’s an incredible structure, and definitely lives up to its reputation. We wandered around, and I took tons of pictures (including the obligatory one in front of the reflecting pool – I had to wait in a long line) We were there in the late afternoon, so after exploring for a while, I got to witness the Taj at sunset. Awesome!
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel (with another brief shopping stop at a marble shop). Oh well, the shopping stops were worth it – he was a good guide. He knew what he was talking about, and was able to tell me a lot of things that the Lonely Planet hadn’t included.
Day 3 (Delhi) – Had to take a 6am train back to Delhi – it’s the only one I could get a seat on. Well, it was scheduled at 6am… it really left at 7:30. So, I arrived in Delhi in the late morning & shared a cab up to Connaught Place with a couple other people. I hadn’t booked a place to stay in Delhi, which was a big mistake. It wasn’t too much fun wandering around in the sun carrying both my big & little backpacks. I eventually found a place. It had no AC, no windows, and a noisy ceiling fan. But, I decided I could tolerate it for 2 nights. So, I killed the roach in the bathroom, put my stuff down, and headed out to explore the area.
Connaught Place is listed as a good place for tourists to go because of the large # of hotels, restaurants & travel agencies there. I found it to be hell, though. Definitely the most unpleasant place in Delhi. I have never felt so preyed upon. I was constantly approached by guys calling me ‘friend’ and trying to take me to whatever travel agency or shop was giving them a commission. Even when I asked 2 guys where an internet café was, they wanted me to come with them to their friend’s shop. I said no, but that didn’t stop them from following me around for a few minutes. Eventually I asked a police officer if he knew where a net café was. He referred me to another guy that was standing there, who proceeded to take me to a travel agency. But, not to worry, he said – I could surf the net on the computers in their back office. Eventually, I found a net café on my own.
Actually, Connaught Place isn’t that bad at night. I went back after sunset one evening, and found it to be very pleasant. There were lots of people out enjoying the cool evening weather. The only difference was all the people that usually harass the tourists weren’t there. All of the travel agencies & other commission-paying shops had closed, so they had left for the day.
Day 4 (Delhi) – This was my day to see as much of Delhi as possible. I booked a day tour with a government tourist agency. Yeah, it felt a little rushed at times, but I got to see a lot of things with a pretty knowledgeable guide. In the morning, we saw Jantar Mantar (which is an enormous celestial observatory & sundial – pretty impressive, considering how long ago it was built), a Hindu temple, and after a brief shopping stop, the Bahai Temple (which is shaped like an enormous lotus).
For lunch, I re-learned what Dosa is. I’ll tell you what Dosa isn’t. Dosa isn’t enough for lunch. It’s a very thin pancake, made from lentil flower. It’s served with a few sauces, and sometimes comes with some potato in the middle. I had had it one time in Little India in Singapore, but had forgotten what the name was. As soon as I got it again in India, I remembered “oh yeah, this won’t be enough”. But, the downside of organized tours is that sometimes you don’t have enough time to go get something else. I had a big dinner that night.
In the afternoon, we went to Qutb Minar. It’s an enormous tower (the tallest in India, at 73 meters). It’s stood up to the hundreds of years (almost a thousand now) very well, although some of the surrounding buildings haven’t fared so well.
We then went up to the Red Fort in Old Delhi, dodging cows in the street along the way. The Red Fort is another enormous structure, and it’s the place that the Indian Prime Minister raises the Indian flag every Independence Day.
We then headed south, stopping briefly at Raj Ghat – where Gandhi was cremated, and then heading down to our final destination, Humayun’s Tomb. The complex is incredible, and was my favorite stop on the tour. I’m glad it was the last place we visited, because the guide told us that we could drop off from the tour & stay if we wanted. I stayed an extra hour, watching sunset.
Day 5 (Mumbai) – My next stop was Mumbai (formerly Bombay). I was optimistic that Mumbai would be easier than Delhi, and for the most part it was.
I got a hotel in an area called Fort, towards the southern end of the peninsula. Not too far from the famous Victoria Terminus train station. It’s an enormous building, with a strong British influence in the architecture (like many buildings in Mumbai). There are gargoyles and other animals all over the building, and there’s a huge statue, called ‘Progress’ at the top of the center dome.
I wandered around the Fort area for a while, checking out all the cool British architecture. Bombay University looks like it belongs in Europe, and there are English-looking double-decker busses driving around everywhere. I came upon one building that was being painted. The painters were about 5 stories up in the air, standing on bamboo scaffolding that looked barely tied to the building. I have no idea how they didn’t fall. After a bit of wandering around in Fort, I decided to head up to Chowpatty beach to watch the sunset & relax… or so I thought.
Chowpatty beach is a popular place for locals & tourists to hang out. There’s stuff to eat, things for kids to do, and it’s a great place to watch sunset. After arriving, I sat down, had a cup of chai, and started to enjoy the evening.
There are a lot of malish-wallahs (head masseurs) wandering around the beach. I’m not sure if they have any formal massage training, but I read that it’s one of the things that you should do at this beach. Throughout the evening, a bunch of them offered me head massages, and eventually I agreed - I guess they wore me down. Actually, my shoulders were kind of sore from carrying my backpack.
The massage was ok. It definitely made my shoulders feel better. The head massage portion was a little intense – just like the Lonely Planet says, “Well… it’s soothing when he stops”. The weird part was that while the massage was taking place, about 6 Indian guys came up & stared at me, standing only a few feet away. I’ve read that it’s not uncommon to get stared at, but it was still uncomfortable.
After a few minutes, the massage was done. The guys were still there staring, so I got up & left. Two of them decided to follow me! As I went from place to place on the beach, there they were. Even when I stopped to sit down on the beach & chat with another tourist, they sat about 30 yards away & stared at me the whole time. When I got up & left, once again, they followed. Eventually I’d had enough, so I walked up to them and told them that I knew they were following me & to get the hell away from me. To my surprise, they said ok & left. Weird.
After that, I went up to the food vendors to get a bite to eat. I got some Bhelpuri. I don’t really know what it is, and didn’t understand the guy when he tried to explain it. But, it was good. It’s weird, though – basically every food stand at the beach was selling pretty much the same thing. Not much variety.
Day 6 (Mumbai) – The next morning, I woke up & decided to get away from the city & head out to Elephanta Island. It’s about 1 hour away from Mumbai by ferry, and has some temples carved out inside caves. So, I headed down to the pier, right in front of the Gateway of India - an enormous structure, built for to commemorate the visit of King George V.
The ferry took us through the busy Mumbai harbor, and past the naval yard where I saw an Indian aircraft carrier. There were also tons of freight ships, and a Panamanian ferry that was transporting busses across the harbor. Not really what I expected to see in India.
Elephanta Island was interesting. After you get off the pier, and up the several hundred steps where tons of people are selling souvenirs, you get to the caves. There are 5-6 caves on the island, all carved out to various degrees. The main cave has numerous sculptures from the Hindu religion. Some of the sculptures are estimated to be over 2000 years old. I was amazed how well they’ve been preserved.
I also made the (very hot) hike up to the top of the island, where there are 2 enormous canons that were once used to defend the harbor. Under each of the canons were a series of tunnels & rooms dug out of the rock. I think they were used to store ammunition & as emergency escape routes. I liked them because it was cool inside. :-) Oh, and I’m really glad I brought my Camelback on this trip!
There were also lots of monkeys on the island, mostly going about their own business…
I took the ferry back to the mainland, and wandered around the Colaba area for a while. It’s an interesting mix of tourist areas, and local markets. I stopped at a restaurant named Leopold’s for dinner. It’s really popular with travelers, and was quite crowded when I got there. There weren’t any tables available, so they had me share a table with an older Dutch guy. This guy was at his wit’s end. He’d been traveling around India for about 5 weeks, only because his airline tickets couldn’t be changed. He was very excited to be going home the next morning. I think he’d had enough of India about 4 weeks earlier.
Right as I sat down, he ordered a raspberry Snapple. They brought him a mixed fruit Snapple. He got this look on his face, shook his head, and turned to the waiter & said something like “why is it so hard for you to bring me what I asked for?” Then, as the waiter was about to take it back & get what he wanted, he opened the bottle & said that it would be fine. I couldn’t help but laugh.
He actually turned out to be a very nice guy to talk to. We chatted through dinner about our experiences in India, as well as other places that we’ve traveled. We sat around chatting, and got some desert. I got a strawberry smoothie, which was surprisingly served in a pint glass with the Leopold’s logo on it. I had to have it, so the waiter added it to my bill. Another glass for the collection!
Day 7 (Mumbai) – My last day in Mumbai, I wanted to get out & see as much as possible before I moved on to my next destination, Aurangabad.
One of the things that I’d wanted to see in India was a dhobi ghat - a traditional Indian municipal laundry. I read that the Mahalaxmi dhobi ghat, towards the north side of the city, was good to see, so I went down to the train station to head up there.
The train ride was an experience in itself. This was a city commuter train, so I had expected something along the lines of the subway in Singapore, or the skytrain in Bangkok. Oh no. This was an old school train. No automated ticket machines – you stood in line & got a piece of paper from the ticket window.
The train itself only had a few benches in it, so most people stood. It was crowded, and I was very glad that I wasn’t traveling during rush hour. There was no air conditioning – just the open windows & doors. A number of guys were hanging out of the doorway to catch the breeze, and to be the first to jump off of the train as it was about to stop in the train station. While I was in India, I read that some guy had died while getting off a train that was slowing down at a station. He mis-stepped, and fell under the wheels. I also read that it’s a somewhat regular occurrence.
So I got to the dhobi ghat, and watched the activity from the bridge overhead. There were hundreds of people (dhobi wallahs) washing clothes there. All of the clothes were soaking in big basins of soapy water. The dhobi wallah would take each piece out of the basin, and beat it against a concrete ledge for a few minutes. I’m surprised that any clothes can survive more than a few washings like this. After watching the clothes get washed for a while, I wandered around in the neighborhood next the dhobi ghat. It was an interesting area – I think it was one of the poorer parts of Mumbai. Shops lined both sides of the streets, and people’s homes were built directly over the shops. There were no stairs – people had to use ladders to get in & out of their homes.
I was pretty much ignored as I wandered through this area, which was kind of refreshing. People were going about their business. I noticed a lot of barber shops there – men still get shaved at barbers is still pretty common in India.
After a while, I decided to get on the train again & head south towards Crawford Market. After getting off the train, I had to walk quite a way to get to the market. I stopped at some restaurant along the way for lunch, and had a terrific meal of potatoes & vegetables, and 2 bottles of raspberry soda. They wouldn’t let me take a picture of the restaurant, though, so I can’t remember the name. I guess they just lost some free advertising.
I made it to the Crawford Market. It reminded me a lot of the Weekend Market in Bangkok, except almost all of the shops were selling silk or other types of fabric for saris or suits. I wandered around for a while, constantly telling people that I didn’t want to buy a suit or shirt. Then the heat & fatigue got to me, and I headed back to the hotel to get my stuff & head to the airport.
That afternoon, I made the 1-hour flight from Mumbai to Aurangabad on a little commuter prop plane. Definitely the smallest plane I’d been on before. It was really interesting to fly on one.
We touched down in Aurangabad – a relatively small city in India (I think about 1.5 million). I was excited to be there. I had heard a lot about the Ajanta & Ellora Caves, and was looking forward to seeing them.
Day 8 (Aurangabad) – The Ajanta Caves are about 2 hours away from Aurangabad. There are about 30 caves carved into the steep cliffs on the outer edge of a horseshoe shaped river valley. The caves were carved around 2000 years ago, and are all Buddhist.
Most of the caves had elaborate paintings of Buddha’s life all around the inside walls, and on the pillars. I hired a guide to take me through a few of the main caves and explain the artwork.
It was a really hot day out at the caves, and I was once again glad to have my camelback with me. I hiked across a small bridge & up to the top of a little hill to get a view of all the caves at once. I stopped & had a cold bottle of Pepsi (actually, I think it was an Indian soft drink, but it tasted just like Pepsi) that some guy with a cooler was selling at the top of the hill.
Even though it was a pretty hot day, and the Pepsi guy recommended against it, I decided to hike up to an even higher viewing point, to get an overall view of the caves. It took about 20 minutes to climb the hill, but it was worth it.
Day 9 (Aurangabad) – The next morning I went out with the same driver to see the Ellora Caves, and a few other sites around the city of Aurangabad.
Our first stop was at Daulatabad Fort, which was by far my favorite stop of the day. I really had no expectations, but it turned out to be a fascinating place. I could have spent a lot more time there. If I get back to the area, I’ll definitely go back.
My driver dropped me off, and warned me about the “very cheating men” that were already surrounding the car, outside of the first of 7 walls protecting the fort. I walked right past them & into the fort. At first, I wasn’t going to get a guide, but I’m really glad that I did.
The fort was built in the 14th Century by a sultan from Delhi. He decided to march all of his subjects from Delhi to this new area, build a fort, and then march them back to Delhi 17 years later. In the process, he found a way to kill off most of his subjects.
Every aspect of the fort was built around keeping people out, and it did a very good job. My guide told me that the fort was never taken by force (but it was conquered by bribing the guards, or so the story goes…). There are 7 walls built around the fort, which is placed on top of a huge hill. Each wall is probably 30-40 feet high, and 10-15 feet thick. The doors are staggered & placed around corners to prevent elephants from getting a running start & bashing them down. And, most of the doors have spikes on them to further deter elephants (although my guide told me that invading armies got around this by putting camels between the elephants & the doors – kinda like pincushins).
Inside most of the doors, there would be 2 more doors – one to the left & one to the right. While the invading army was trying to figure out which door to break down, the defenders would be throwing hot coals on them. Apparently, the dead ends were usually put on the doors to the left (because, according to my guide – Indian’s usually turn to the left. Hmmmm…. I haven’t verified that yet.)
After the 7 walls, we reached the hill with the fort at the top. 3 sides of the hill were carved to a near vertical cliff. And, the hill was also surrounded by a moat, which was filled with crocodiles & poisonous snakes.
After crossing the moat, we found ourselves at the entrance to a huge maze carved into the mountain. It was incredibly dark, and had lots of wrong turns built into it (some would loop around, and some would lead to steep slopes that would drop invaders into the moat). After you got through the maze, there were only a couple hundred steps to the fort.
After a while at Daulatabad, it was time to move on to the Ellora Caves.
Where the Ajanta Caves put much more emphasis on paintings, the Ellora Caves’ emphasis was on carvings. All of the temples & sculptures were carved out of a gentle sloping hill from the top down, over the course of hundreds of years. There are Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain caves in the group (34 caves in all). I found the Hindu caves to be the most interesting. They seemed to be the most elaborate, and the sculptures were much different than anything I’d seen in other countries.
The main attraction at Ellora is the Kailasa temple. It’s enormous – it’s the largest monolithic sculpture in the world, and it took over 150 years to carve out of the rock. The structure itself is a multi-story temple with incredible sculptures all over it.
I seemed to be a moving point of curiosity amongst the Indian tourists at Ellora. I was stopped several times by families asking to take my picture, or wanting to pose in one of my pictures. I also came across a group of teenagers who followed me around for a bit. One of them started walking next to me (staring the whole time). When I turned & said hi to him, he got a panicked look, shook his head no & walked away.
After the caves, I was pretty beat. It was another really hot day & I was dehydrated despite having my camelback. I was ready to call it a day & head back to the hotel, but the driver said I should go to the last 2 (brief) stops on the tour. I’m glad I did.
The next stop was Panchakki, which is an old water wheel in Aurangabad. Water is piped in, and used to turn a wheel that runs a mill. There wasn’t much to see there, but it was fun to stop for a few minutes & watch kids throw crackers into the water for the fish. They must have been hungry – it looked like a school of piranhas in there.
The last stop of the day was Bibi-ka-Maqbara, which I had heard referred to as the “baby taj mahal”. It was surprising how similar the architecture was. It was much smaller & less ornate than the Taj Mahal, but it was also less crowded.
Day 10 (Cochin) – Most of today was spent in-transit. I flew from Aurangabad to Mumbai, and had a 2-hour layover there before flying to Cochin. I was glad to spend my time at the Mumbai airport. It’s definitely the nicest of the airports that I’d seen in India. They had a decent restaurant, a bookstore, and an internet café, which is rare.
I landed in Cochin, which is a city in Kerala – a state in the southwest corner of India. I found a hotel to stay at through the tourist desk at the airport, and grabbed a cab for the hour-long ride to Fort Cochin. Traffic was better in Kerala than in Mumbai or Delhi, but by this time in my trip I was getting really sick of the constant honking of horns.
The hotel that they recommended turned out to be really nice. It was an old Dutch bungalow, with only 6 or so rooms. The whole place had a colonial feel to it, which made me forget about the mosquitoes that were buzzing around in my room. Ok, they were still a nuisance, but I jacked up the A/C & covered up when I went to sleep. It seemed to do the trick.
A few hundred meters from my hotel were the famous Chinese fishing nets. The nets get tipped into the water, and after a few minutes, a team of guys halls them out – hopefully full of fish. The nets are counter-weighted with large stones, and they’ve been around for hundreds of years, so it was pretty interesting to see. I snapped a few sunset pictures of the nets – most of which would have looked much better without all of the trash strewn along the beach.
After wandering along the beach for a while, I grabbed some dinner at a nearby restaurant & then went to watch a traditional Indian music show. The show was 3 guys – 2 on drums, and one playing a wooden flute. The sound was really interesting, especially one of the drums – which sounded like dripping water when the guy hit it a certain way.
Day 11 (Cochin) – I woke up and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at the bungalow – fresh pineapple, toast, eggs, and tea. Then I decided to wander around & see what Fort Cochin – the area at the northern part of the Cochin peninsula is called. As I left the bungalow, I noticed a lot of smoke on the roads. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was - people had just swept their trash into piles & were burning it. They did this every morning, which made it a little tough to breathe.
I took an autorickshaw over to an area called Jewtown (not the most p.c. of names, huh?). The only synagogue in the area (probably one of the only ones in India) is located here, along with tons of spice shops, which makes the area smell fantastic. I wandered around, letting my nose enjoy the scents, and then couldn’t resist buying some spices to take home.
I took in another show that evening. This one was a traditional dance show. I couldn’t believe the costumes & make-up the dancers were wearing, considering that the theater wasn’t air-conditioned. I was hot just sitting there.
Day 12 (Cochin) – The backwaters is a series of lakes, canals, rivers, etc… that are just inland from the ocean, and stretch through much of the state of Kerala. They’re the reason that I included Cochin as part of my trip, based on the recommendation of a friend (thanks Trupti!). I joined on to a day trip through the backwaters, along with about 20 other people.
It was an incredibly relaxing way to end my trip. Where as much of my trip was spent in larger cities, dealing with congestion & constant honking horns, the backwaters were nearly silent. Our boat had no motor – it was propelled by 2 guys using long bamboo poles. They pushed us along for seven hours, moving from large lakes, to very narrow streams (where the bushes along the banks were spilling into the boat).
We made a number of stops along the way. We first stopped along the riverbank to have some coconut water. Later, we stopped at a small plant where small clam shells were made into a really fine powder used for cement. For lunch, we stopped on a small island & had a Thali lunch – small servings of several types of food, served on a bananna leaf. Finally we stopped at a place where we were shown how coconut husks were dried, shredded, and then woven into a surprisingly strong rope.
I had debated doing an overnight backwaters tour vs. the day tour. If I had chosen the overnight one, I would have been on my own on the houseboat. I decided on the day tour instead, and am glad I did. I met a couple of really cool people on the tour – an American woman from San Francisco, and 3 English people from London. We decided to meet up for dinner after the tour was over. I was glad to have a few people to chat with on my last night.
Day 13 (Cochin) – With only a few hours left, I tried to cram a bit more of India in before I left for Singapore. I woke up early, and after breakfast caught a ride over to the Dutch Palace – a small palace that was built with a Hindu temple in the courtyard. It’s now been turned into a museum. I met up with one of my friends from the previous night, but we didn’t stay long. It was really hot inside, and there were two huge tour groups going through at the time. So, I grabbed an autorickshaw back to the hotel, with a quick stop at a Hindu Temple along the way. Then, it was time to start the trek home.
It was another close call getting to the airport, but I did get my flight. I flew from Cochin to Bangalore, but decided not to go out sightseeing. It was around 6pm, and most of the interesting sites would be closing soon. Plus, I was in no mood to deal with any more traffic madness. So, I grabbed my iPod (which I’ve found to be invaluable when traveling), and killed a few hours listening to some podcasts.
The flight back to Singapore went pretty quick – it’s only about 4 hours. But, it was tough to sleep on the plane, and I had to work the day I got back (my flight landed at 7am). So, it was kind of a tough day at work. :-)
