Would you look at that - we've finally made it to freaking India. After years of talking about it, planning it, speculating about daily budgets, culture shock and Delhi Belly we're here. And yet again I'm reminded that when I travel, I'm like the dog in the dog's diary thing. Everything I see, do, taste and experience is my new favourite thing. Obviously I love being on holiday, having an agenda set pretty much entirely by me and not having to do the dishes for a month. But I also love the constant newness, encountering something utterly foreign, figuring out different money, researching for months and yet still being surprised by how little I know about certain places and cultures and negotiating different mores and methods of communication. And India give you all of that stuff in SPADES. And it's all my new favourite thing.
So four days in the highlights are many and I've already taken hundreds of photographs and eaten some of the nicest things I ever have (no sign of DB yet) and I'm sure there's plenty more of all of that to come.
Today is Diwali (The Festival of Lights and Hindu equivalent of Xmas Day). As a first timer it's hard to know what Delhi, Jaipur and Agra would be like on a normal week but they're pretty fun, noisy and crazy busy this week. The scrum to get into the general sleepers on the Jaipur-Agra train was pretty incredible (Ker and I were in allocated seats so it was much easier at our part of the train). Last night we sat on a relatively peaceful rooftop (imagine 1,000 voices shouting, a 100 horns honking and massive rockets going off every few seconds - but 50 metres further away than they have been for the last eight hours) and looked down over strings of tinsel and fairy lights and across at intermittent, random fireworks and I for one was pretty stoked with our timing of the trip. It was a shame to miss the RWC final in Auckland and associated party but I think Diwali at the Taj might be about to put that in perspective. Standby for confirmation.
So four days in the highlights are many and I've already taken hundreds of photographs and eaten some of the nicest things I ever have (no sign of DB yet) and I'm sure there's plenty more of all of that to come.
Today is Diwali (The Festival of Lights and Hindu equivalent of Xmas Day). As a first timer it's hard to know what Delhi, Jaipur and Agra would be like on a normal week but they're pretty fun, noisy and crazy busy this week. The scrum to get into the general sleepers on the Jaipur-Agra train was pretty incredible (Ker and I were in allocated seats so it was much easier at our part of the train). Last night we sat on a relatively peaceful rooftop (imagine 1,000 voices shouting, a 100 horns honking and massive rockets going off every few seconds - but 50 metres further away than they have been for the last eight hours) and looked down over strings of tinsel and fairy lights and across at intermittent, random fireworks and I for one was pretty stoked with our timing of the trip. It was a shame to miss the RWC final in Auckland and associated party but I think Diwali at the Taj might be about to put that in perspective. Standby for confirmation.
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