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What an amazing adventure! India is truly incredible with everything in extreme--extreme beauty, extreme culture, extreme wealth, extreme poverty, extreme traffic, but most of all, this is a country of extremely kind and generous people. Yes, India can be daunting and frustrating at times, but we believe that's what makes this trip so special. It takes a bit of work, but with proper planning, patience and an open mind, what we get back is so much more than any effort we may have exerted to make this trip one of the most amazing experiences of our life. We are seasoned travelers with multiple trips to SE Asia and to some extent, these past trips definitely helped us appreciate and handle India (although nothing can truly prepare you for India except for actually being in India.)
We started our trip in Kerala as we wanted to beat the monsoon and we're glad we did as the season arrived early this year (almost a full week early) and we left a day or two before the rains began. We are going to post more about Kerala, but it's definitely a must for anyone planning a trip to India and one must spend
at least a week here--3 days for backwater tour and another 3 or 4 days for the hilltop region where you see beautiful tea farms as far as the eyes can see.
Our more tradition tour of the Golden Triangle called for a start in Delhi with hired car and driver for the tour of Rajasthan. We highly recommend this method as you will have the flexibility to tailor your itinerary that suits your needs. However, if you are pressed for time, one can fly to major cities like Udaipur, Jaipur and Jodhpur--however, you will likely miss the Shekhawati area with its beautifully painted Havalis as there's no convenient way to fly into the region. We realize flying is not the preferred way of travel for some of the people and certainly train travel has its "charm", but we found flying to be convenient and a valuable time saver.
Our highlights are similar to many other bloggers on this site, so won't repeat them again, but what's interesting is some of the similar experiences we all had as we traveled in India (e.g., locals asking to take our picture, having to wear a very colorful "coat" at Jami
Masjid and the sheer sensory overload of Mumbai and Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk.)
Some of the highlights from the road slightly less traveled include Ellora caves (if you only have time for one cave, choose Ellora over Ajanta. If doing both, we recommend starting with Ajanta as you will appreciate Ellora much more after touring Ajanta), the Poddar Havali in Nawalgarh, visiting a home of a Bishnoi villager and the most amazing temple thus far of our trip--Adinath Temple in Ranakpur.
I'm glad we ended our adventure with Varanasi, the ghats and crematories, crowds of friendly people at the Ganges River, walking around charming streets... makes me feel that I have finally seen India. Even though I won't miss the crazy driving, incessant honking, watching what we step on, and pollution (natural and unnatural)... I will miss India.
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