The mighty subcontinent

Sunset over the Thar desert

“Ah, India!”, the only response I’d been given from travellers each time I asked them inquisitively, “What’s India like?” As its now the eve of our return to India (or “real” India at least) from our forays in Nepal and now the far northern state of Sikkim, I can completely understand what “Ah, India!” and the similarly double-meaning tourist board slogan “Incredible India!” actually mean...

 

Going back to our arrival in New Delhi (which part of the city is being referred to as “new” I’m not sure) we followed the Lonely Planet’s suggestion and made a bee-line for the backpacker district Parhganj which every morning literally felt like we were stepping onto a surreal film set. The street scene is hard to describe as it was such a sensory overload but here’s an idea – imagine a narrow, extremely dusty alleyway, line it with market stalls and pushy salesman, add sacred cows and scabby dogs, fill it with a continuous traffic jam of cycle-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, put people everywhere both with colourful saris and without shoes, at times smell a whiff of an unbearably unpleasant odour (which quite possibly was human “waste”), and throw in a hefty dose of European travellers. For some reason we were often mistaken as French (on the trip we’ve either been thought of as French, Australian or Israeli – take a guess at the last one...) so we managed to avoid being collared into buying t-shirts, incense and small Gandhi figures and kept our heads down!

Hectic Delhi by day

And of course just as busy at night

Being thrown around in the back of a rickshaw (very different to driving on UK roads...)

Away from Parhganj, Delhi has several interesting sights – firstly we had a stroll around Connaught Place which was the heart of the British Raj and resembles Bath’s Royal Crescent, Indian-style. There’s also the Mughal king’s Red Fort and India’s largest mosque – both complete with bare-faced tourist scams. We also had our first taste of India – a lunchtime snack of south Indian thali and dosa (a huge crispy pancake) as well as an authentic curry in local but highly regarded Muslim curry house.

This one was maybe a step too far for Elizabeth "queen of pancakes"

Delhi's Red Fort

From Delhi we moved on to Rajasthan, “The land of kings”, which isn’t an understatement. Every town has its own claim to fame, most with huge fortresses perched high on hill tops. First stop was the “blue” city of Jodhpur – we stayed in a tiny blue townhouse with a fantastic rooftop view across the city, took a tour of the fort, sampled the “best saffron lassi in India” and treated ourselves to a slap-up dinner on another atmospheric rooftop with a view of the fort at night. 

Views over Jodhpur

  

  

From Jodhpur we travelled to Jaisalmer aka the “golden” city. Jaisalmer is in the western part of Rajasthan, out in the Thar desert close to Pakistan. The town itself is quite small but the main draw is camel trekking out into the desert. 

 

 

Exhausted after a day on the camel

Rising with the sun on a sand dune

 

Having never ridden a camel before I can report that its rather uncomfortable, camels tend to suffer from trapped wind and it is nothing at all like riding a horse. Nevertheless we persevered through the sweltering forty-plus degree heat, watched the sun set and spent the night on top of an extremely peaceful sand dune. Jaisalmer also introduced us to bottomless thalis – a dish found throughout India consisting of rice, chapattis, vegetable curry, pickle, curd and one or two other things. In line with restaurant etiquette the waiter is required to refill the dishes as many times as the customer demands – thali has since become a staple part of our diet.

Our last city of Rajasthan was Udaipur, the “lake” city. Taking a tip from the couple we’d been on the camel safari with we arrived at a newly opened hotel and found ourselves to be the only guests staying there. We paid a severely discounted rate of little more than a fiver a night and had a gorgeous room with window seat to read our books on and were treated like family by the owner.

We decided it was time to try our hand at Indian cooking so organised a cookery class with the hotel owner (who until recently has been calling himself the “Delia Smith of India” until someone had to break the news that Delia is actually a woman) - the food we made was delicious, probably more to do with the fresh ingredients than any skill of ours...we were told our chapattis looked more like the shape of India than the round shape they ought to be. 

Udaipur's Lake Palace

 

Learning more about Rajasthan’s history and the rule of the maharajas at both a haveli (ornately decorated traditional home) and the city palace (where scenes from James Bond Octopussy were filmed) we spent the evening stretching our limbs at a yoga class.

Inside a haveli

No trip to the north of India can be complete without visiting the Taj Mahal so next stop, Agra.