India had been on our checklist for a while, but due to our personal restrictions on travel dates—tying us to the peak summer months—we were never able to make it happen. But this year was different. Thanks to a long-awaited congress in Australia, we had to move our travels to early autumn. Besides, it matched Pedro’s milestone birthday and… India is on the way to Australia anyway, right?
With a bit of hectic planning and a lot of help from our super grandma, who bravely took over our bunch of kids, we managed to get two weeks to travel the world. First stop: India.
But before that, we had to resolve another tiny challenge: fitting everything into relatively small backpacks. Obviously, we weren’t taking a suitcase… The two-week itinerary included super-hot weather in India (with possible monsoon rains), fresh wilderness in Australia (temperatures dropping below 10°C), and four days at a congress requiring a bit more formal outfits—not exactly our standard adventure gear. So, even though we didn’t need to pack tents, sleeping mats, or cooking gear, we still had to squeeze in jeans, shirts, sweaters, and shoes, while ensuring they wouldn’t get dirty, wet or smelly during the first part of the trip. With a bit of help of some vacuum bags, tape, and a lot of squeezing, we made it all fit.
Let the adventure begin!
Arriving New Delhi
There was no direct flight to get to New Delhi on the date we had to travel, thus we had a scale in Qatar. Not a big deal and normally not even worth mentioning but I was so impressed with the airport itself that it had to get a special comment.
If you ever need to scale a few hours in Doha, be sure you’ll have a lovely place to relax and enjoy your waiting. They have a full-fledged botanical garden inside the airport with its own microclimate, loads of natural plants and places to sit down or even lay down for a nap. Just make sure you are attentive to your times as the area doesn’t even have the usual airport sounds with announcements etc. that was the most pleasant scale in all our travels.
Anyway, getting back to the main line of the story.
After two long flights and a genuinely nice scale we finally arrived New Delhi early in the afternoon. And, unlike normal tourists, had no driver waiting for us. No transfer pre-booked. Nor did we take a taxi with a very persistent drivers offering their services the second you step through the door. No. We took public transport.
I have to say that the metro was pretty decent and nothing too weird happened there. The fun part started once we left it. The closest stop was around 30-40 minutes’ walk from our hotel so we thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk after so many hours of flights and sitting. Loaded in with jumbo backpacks and an extra backpack with camera and essentials from the flight. Probably not the brightest idea of our lives, but it immediately made us realize that India is far away from our European comfort zone. I believe we don’t have a single picture from this first touch with the local reality. I mean, we knew that India is smelly, dirty, and quite poor, but one thing is knowing it, and another thing is experiencing it.
So, we walked. Fast. Without stopping. Trying not to step on people sitting in the street, nor all kinds of rubbish, as well as not to get in the way of fighting monkeys. We were more than noticeable for the locals and had scammers trying to divert us from our way every few minutes. Crossing the streets was a challenge in itself as we were staying in a very busy and centric area of the city. In other words, it was an immersive and authentic experience. We like authentic. Especially looking back in time, being cosy in your safe place. But at that specific moment I have to admit it was a little bit hard to enjoy.
After calming down first emotions in the tranquillity of our hotel room and changing our completely soaked clothes (sweat, not rain) we were ready to go exploring again. No big plans as it was starting to get late, and we were really tired. Just a walk in the neighbourhood and find a place to have dinner.
The walk in Rajiv Chowk area was a bit of the same: no impressive views, loads of people and scammers on every corner. They really have their techniques to lure you into conversations and are very persistent, walking by your side for quite some time and trying to convince you to visit a tourist centre, a shopping centre, or any other centre. And they all have good intentions and are simply walking that direction because of a “dance class” or whatever other activity, repeating they are just being polite and trying to help. Did we ask for help? I guess we did look pretty lost on the first day but over the course of a week in India you realize that no matter your face, no matter your clothes, a European without a guide is a target.
Another challenge was to find a place to eat. India is famous for gastrointestinal issues all tourists face so we were really cautious on what and where to eat, avoiding street food and suspicious restaurants. It’s not an easy task as the places don’t have huge windows to have a peek inside before you actually enter (as we are so used to) and stopping to check things in Google maps in the middle of that crowd meant submitting yourself to the mercy of scammers that will immediately try to “help” you.
We ended up entering one of the very few restaurants that had windows and looked fairly ok. The food was tasty, but, to our disappointment, no beer to wash off our anxiety.
It was still quite early when we got back to our hotel room to have a proper rest and plan the next day.
Exploring the multiverse
The second day in India had lots of plans in it. After all, it was Pedro’s birthday and there is no better way to celebrate it rather than doing what you love – explore the world. After having a fancy hotel breakfast with live music, we left our backpack in the reception and went out to explore the city. Properly.
First, we took a tuktuk to get to Red Fort. It dropped us in front of it, although the actual entry gate that was opened at those hours was almost on the opposite side, so we had to walk quite a bit to get to the entry point, witnessing on the way crowds of locals making their living in every possible way, children smelling glue (quite shocking, really) and the never ending hectic traffic.
Note: for those who want to visit Red Fort, make sure you know which entry gate you need to avoid unnecessary walking.
When we finally reached the entry gate, had to face a new reality. There are two lines and two price lists: one for locals, and one for tourists – 10 times the price. Not that it’s expensive for European standards but just feels weird. And more than the price, it feels weird to just skip the queue because there was literally nobody in the tourist one. And then you learn to queue for the security check, men and women in separate queues and cabins so you might end up splitting and having to wait for each other, although it wasn’t the case this time (no tourists, remember?).
It was early in the morning so the place wasn’t too crowded when we entered and the vast spaces once inside the fort really make you feel like in another world, forgetting the mess you just left behind on the other side of the fence. We spent a couple of hours exploring the premises of the fort, enjoying architectural styles that are a bit different from what we are used to.
After that, we exited right where the driver dropped us off and headed to the Chandi Chowk – the old market area – right in front of the Red Fort. OK, again, no photos. What happens in Chandi Chowk stays in your mind, not in your camera. Seriously, it was not the place to take photos. The crowd was so immense and so poor, having people, motorbikes, bikes, and animals trying to pass, that we were just carried with the flow of this mixed mass. The passage was getting narrower and narrower every minute and at some point in time I almost started freaking out trying to find the exit. And definitely, there were no nice stands with people selling food or spices or nice crafts. It was more like a landfill with piles of used and broken objects, some very basic clothes, shoes and other necessities.
We finally managed to get out of the market and, trying not to call too much of attention of tuktuk drivers and scammers, looked up the way to go to the closest mosque, Jama Masjid, that we saw standing tall when we arrived in the morning. Some helpful people tried to show us an alternative entry which we kindly refused and entered through the main stairs, like normal local people.
Having to take of the shoes to enter was another awkward moment, not because of lack of knowledge about it, but because of the fact that you don’t want to leave them behind and also because walking with your bare feet in the context of the dirt that you witness in Delhi is somewhat troubling. But luckily the floor inside was pretty decent, although extremely hot. It was difficult to walk in the area that didn’t have shade. And another new experience – people staring to ask to take selfies with us. OK, I understand that Pedro in a skirt looks a bit funny, but still…
After we wondered a bit more around the area, trying to keep ourselves to the bigger streets and thinking what to do next. In theory, our plan was to dedicate all day to that area but after just half a day we felt quite saturated and decided to change the plan.
So, we hopped on another tuktuk and took a ride all the way to India Gate. I have to say that riding a tuktuk in India is an experience in itself. The speed, sudden moves, constant beeping, and all kinds of transport going in any direction surely adds strong emotions. Combine it with some weird and unexpected things you see one the way (like goats tied literally in the middle of the street) and you get an amusement park adrenaline rush for just a couple of euros.
After the craziness of the market, the India Gate area was a relief. It’s quite common in India to run into police fences all of the sudden popping out in the middle of the street. We never got asked anything at those and passed without a blink, but later you start realizing that those fences are not for tourists. They are for locals. Or probably for certain locals to be more precise. Once again, we found ourselves in vast and empty spaces, with a bit more local wealthy tourists crowded around the main India Gate monument, but apart from that, you really feel like in another reality.
We visited the Ultimate Warrior Site, then headed towards the main India Gate monument, posed for quite a few selfies (at this point it was still funny), then crossed the whole Kartavya Path, stopping calmly to enjoy monkeys playing with water (I guess the sign “no swimming” only applies for those who can read) until there was nowhere else to go and then, all tired, walked back to the closest big street to catch another tuktuk and finally go have dinner (we skipped lunch as we didn’t miraculously stumble into any decent restaurant or at least a supermarket to buy a snack in all day, which kind of became a norm for us in this trip).
The restaurant for dinner we’d preselected the night before calmly in our room, checking the reviews etc. After all, it was Pedro’s birthday and we wanted to finish it with a good Indian meal. Kwality indeed had excellent quality food, and drinks, and atmosphere. And by any means we couldn’t find that restaurant the night before just wondering around (we actually passed through it) as the entry didn’t look any special, just a door with curtains, God knows what’s inside…
And inside you find another example of multiverse, fancy people, meals that cost what tuktuk drivers earn probably in a month, all clean and shiny. I guess it’s the contrast between the poor and the rich, crowds and vast spaces, dirtiness and impeccable shininess that makes you realize just in one day that India is a multiverse made reality. And those worlds don’t really mix much.
Just after having our fancy dinner, we picked up the backpacks from the hotel, jumped onto another tuktuk and headed to the train station to catch our night train to Varanasi. And once again we were thrown to the other side of reality, seeing the floor of the waiting room all covered with people, entire families, sleeping and eating on the floor, meanwhile a tiny minority can enjoy a separate waiting room dedicated for the 1st class.
It was the departure place of the train, so no delays and smooth boarding allowed us escape once again to our peaceful retreat in a private cabin to finish the day with the birthday candle (brought from home) with no cake or even a cupcake to stick it in.
Welcome to the holy city of Varanasi
An overnight train is actually an incredibly good way to move around in India. You save time and hotel night + get to experience the world-famous Indian railways. The only inconvenience is that you really need to book those well in advance if you want to get a higher-class ticket and they sell out pretty fast. We like authentic but were not ready to travel 3rd class in India with everything that it means😊
Arriving Varanasi was just as expected: crowds of taxi and tuktuk drivers attacking you like vultures, making hard even to pass through. We managed to get to the outskirts of the parking lot trying to find a calmer place to check for next steps, when some random guys again approached us for selfies. By now we were smarter and only agreed to that once they helped us bargain a decent tuktuk to get to the old town of Varanasi where we had booked our hotel. This also made us realize how much overcharged we were the day before, yet given the relative price in euros it’s kind of ridiculous to bargain and more than a good price we wanted to get to a specific place which we didn’t have a clue how to pronounce or explain.
The drive was surprisingly long, and the driver dropped us way before we were expecting to arrive because security forces didn’t allow drives to pass deeper in the old town. So once again we had to walk some, carrying our 3 backpacks. If Delhi looked hectic, Varanasi was so much more intense that it’s hard to even describe. Immediately we got into the moving mass, with no options to go faster or slower. At least we were moving the same direction as almost everyone else.
There are several main streets in the old town of Varanasi that are quite big, but once you have to turn into smaller streets to find a restaurant or a hotel it gets just crazy. Narrow, dark, dirty and with the smell so thick that you can almost chew it. These will be interesting 3 days!
With a bit of wondering around we managed to find our hotel, which looked fairly decent although I couldn’t stop feeling all the time the building was moving.
We dropped our things and went out to explore the old town visiting quite a few ghats in our way. Ghats are a series of steps leading down to sacred river and are associated with spiritual, cultural, and social activities, such as bathing, prayers, or cremation ceremonies, especially along the Ganges.
Ganges waters were extremely high as the monsoon season was ending. Thus, all the boats were “parked” and all the stairs, which looked so beautiful in the photos we checked before visiting, were submerged, forcing all ceremonies to move to the terraces of the buildings. Yet every ghat was fully busy during the day with people queueing for their spiritual submerge in the holy brown colour water. Not only they were washing themselves, but they also drank it which was shocking to see as Ganges is the most polluted river in the world.
We also visited one of the two burning ghats of the city, witnessing bodies being carried wrapped in some cotton cloth and decorated with flowers for their final wash (in the same river that people are drinking…) and cremation. Sadly enough, even these sacred places were full of scammers that get angry if you refuse to pay for looking around. They take advantage even of the dead. However, I must admit that even if we walked a lot in very poor areas and met a lot of scammers, at no point did we feel unsafe about us or our belongings.
After a long and very hot day of wondering around, we found a restaurant to have early dinner (still keeping ourselves to two meals per day diet) where the waiter was really nice and gave us some good advice (free of charge for once) about what to see and explained why we were having difficulties to find a boat trip and see the city from another side. Apparently, due to high waters and very strong current, only the biggest tourist boats were operating at the time, and they were simply fully booked.
With our stomachs full of very filling Indian dishes, we went back to one of the ghats to see the Aarti ceremony. Like locals, in the crowd, although there quite a few attempts to lure us into apartments with terraces for better views. Now, I must admit that it was an experience. Between the pushy crowd, extreme heat (+38º C with loads of humidity and real feel of 45ºC) and no liquids, surviving the ritual for an hour and a half was quite a challenge. Not even in a sauna I sweated like that. But we stayed, watching people celebrating the ritual, feeling the vibe and suffering the heat all together. Surely not as beautiful as it looks from the boat but definitely more authentic. Hindus were in the ghat, not in the boat.
After suffering this craziness, we walked back to our hotel, crossing with some cows on our narrow street, and were grateful for the fresh shower and air conditioning in the room.
You can’t escape belly issues in India
With all our efforts to stay safe with the food, it got us anyway. So, we had to take it easy and reduce our activities a bit. However, we managed to walk all the way to Durna Temple, which was around an hour walking from the hotel. Given the heat, it was quite a challenge.
Visiting the temple wasn’t easy as they didn’t allow to bring in any mobiles or cameras and we were definitely not leaving them outside with our shoes. Thus, we had to take turns.
I have to say that the temples were a bit of a disappointment in this trip. They are supposed to be sacred places, meant for praying, but every time it was just a crowd of people, noisy and messy. You can’t just enter and sit down for a calm moment. You enter, circle it with a flow and exit – in this case even exiting was physically difficult due to the pushiness of the people, all trying to leave first.
After visiting the temple, we turned to Assi Ghat that had a tiny bit more of the stairs visible and clearly less people than in the centre, so the atmosphere was much more relaxed.
However, not having a place to sit (the stairs look nice in the photos but really not welcoming to sit on them) we couldn’t stay long and decided to grab a tuktuk, get back to the hotel, let our bodies and bellies recover a bit and plan the next day.
Feeling a bit better, we sneaked out for an evening walk when the heat was not so heavy. Although we saw a few other tourists in the city, one could count them on the fingers, thus it was hard to pass unnoticed. One curious thing about Varanasi was that Pedro got really popular there with his shaved head! A bit more time and he’d perfectly blend in between Buddhists that just came out of their Ganges wash ritual.
Looking for spirituality
The first two days wondering around Varanasi we couldn’t but notice and outrageously long queue of people waiting to enter one particular temple – Shri Kashi Vishwanath. Having investigated a bit about it and learned how to enter (you can either queue and enter for free or pay and enter through a VIP queue, which is still a queue but much smaller), we went to a visitors’ centre to book out entry. Yet we didn’t know that we would be grouped with some other people and get a guide that would take us there.
The temple was beautiful, surrounded by extraordinarily strong protection as it has part of it covered in thick layer of gold. Inside – yet another crowd, all queueing just to pass though the centre altar and give their sacrifice. It was a bit sad to see that even there people were hurried and quite literally pushed, giving them not more than 1-2 seconds to throw in their flowers and whatever else they had in their baskets. No cameras or phone were allowed so once again, no photos from the inside, only the memories in our heads and a thread on our wrist that the guide put us on after passing through the whole thing.
Later, we walked to the outskirts of the old town where the cars can already reach, called an uber and went to Sarnath, an area a bit outside of Varanasi where Buddha gave his first teaching, thus being one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists. It was a beautiful area, much calmer than the old town of Varanasi. We spent some time relaxing from the noise and smells of the city in the archaeological museum.
After that, we wandered between the ruins, a deer park and Dhamekh Stupa. For the first time we saw someone sitting down in peace and meditating. It was yet another moment of multiverse reality.
Outside the museum and park area there’s also plenty of places to wander around freely, jumping from temple to temple that are much more tranquil and inviting for a moment of contemplation.
Having met in the hotel some other (very very few) tourists we’ve learned that most of them just hire a driver for the day and visit the must-see tourist attractions that belong to the fancy side of the multiverse world. Their impressions of India were clearly different from ours. When traveling in India you can choose the reality you want to see. Although we suffered through some inconveniences, I’m really glad we saw both sides. It makes you reconsider your own values and empathise to some extent (I don’t think it’s possible to empathise fully without experiencing it for yourself) what it means to be someone from the lower casts in India.
After spending most of the day in Sarnath and visiting quite a few different temples that were much nicer and less crowded than in Varanasi, we came back to the city for yet another dinner in a restaurant that had a rooftop terrace, to appreciate for the last time the size of the city and the scope of poverty.
With our stomachs full (and finally digesting again) we picked up our backpacks from the hotel and went for the last walk through the streets that we knew quite well by now, to reach the outskirts and get a uber for the train station that was away from the city.
This time, our night train wasn’t departing from there, but just passing through, which meant some delays, unclear track and just a few minutes to board which made our waiting time a bit more nervous. Yet everything turned out ok and once again we were in our tiny private cabin for the night ride to Agra.
The mighty Taj Mahal
We arrived Agra in the morning, yet not early enough to see Taj Mahal in a sunrise. Agra was clearly different from Delhi o Varanasi, much more touristic and cleaner. Obviously, it’s a must see when in India and a beautiful place. But having just witnessed the tremendous poverty of the people, it was painful to even think how this scope of inequality happens and coexists right next to each other.
After spending an hour in the premises of Taj Mahal, we went out for a walk, crossing a big and completely empty park (just us and the monkeys) to reach Agra Fort – a huge fortress with multiple buildings and the views to Taj Mahal.
In Agra everything looked a bit more civilized and touristic: hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, golf buggies for elderly, the metro… No cultural shock if you only visit this place.
When the evening was approaching, we found ourselves a nice restaurant with a rooftop terrace, views to Taj Mahal and sunset. We were the only clients – the tourist season on the last week of September hadn’t started yet
Back to New Delhi
Agra is just a couples of hours train ride from New Delhi, so we were back to the hectic city without bigger surprises. This time we stayed in a different area, a bit less centric, in a neighbourhood surrounded by a fence and several entry points with two layers of armed guards. Yet another reality, with old ladies walking their breed dogs and watering flowers, probably only leaving the neighbourhood with private drivers.
We settled in and went for a walk to visit Humayun’s Tomb that was in a huge park just on the other side of the fence. Lovely park, interesting buildings. But that’s pretty much all we can say. The other side of the multiverse is much more impactful.
To finish our trip in India we went back to the same area we’ve started just some days ago. It didn’t look that hectic anymore after Varanasi, we were pros on crossing huge streets and avoiding scammers. However, the food in Kwality didn’t taste quite the same and I almost felt guilty for eating yet another dinner in a restaurant with so many people barely making their living outside those walls.
It was an impactful trip. Not exactly what we expected, no yoga, no meditations, but a pure meeting face to face with multiple realities of Indian society. A bit tiered of emotional swings of the trip, we packed our hot weather clothes back in our backpacks and got ready for the next stop of the trip – Australia.
Last breakfast in our fancy terrace of a fancy neighbourhood and off we go to the airport for a 12-hour flight to Sydney.
Let's go wild! 