I needed more than one post for our awesome time in India! I wrote about our general itinerary in a separate post, but this is where the gushing really starts. Here are my top 10 things I loved about India!

1. Our group and our guide

First and foremost, our group and our guide absolutely made our trip. WOW, did we luck out. With our tour guide, I feel like a kid who got the best teacher at school. Anjali is a fierce, funny, knowledgeable, patient, witty, warm badass and I loved her instantly.

She is an absolute master of her craft, and shepherded the seven of us around this crazy country with so much skill, while making it look effortless. One minute she was educating us on the caste system, the next she was wrangling rickshaw drivers, the next she was taking us to eat the most incredible food. We are so fortunate to have gotten such a great guide! I also love that Intrepid is actively working to hire more female tour guides. This article does a great job explaining the challenges they face, and Anjali and her tour guide sisters are definitely some of my heroes.

We also REALLY lucked out with the other people on our tour. Lucy, Howard, Fiona, Francine, and David feel like family now. These affable Aussies and Kiwis were so much fun and I loved having long conversations with them about India, Australia, New Zealand, America, politics, history, our own lives, and everything in between. We also had a blast exploring together, finding cups of chai everywhere, supporting each other through questionable bathroom situations and heartbreaking stray dogs, and all of the moments big and small in between for two weeks. As I tearfully told them in the hotel lobby in Delhi on our last night, they now have a piece of my heart.  Fi posted a great tribute to our group, and I hope we see them when we go Australia and New Zealand some day.

2. Cooking class in Udaipur

This was an absolute highlight for me. Fi, Francine, Ben and I took a two hour cooking class where we, along with our skillful brother and sister teachers, made three vegetarian dishes, pulao (rice with veggies), homemade chai with our own ground up herbs and fresh ginger, chapati (bread), and my new favorite snack, fryums. This was the absolute best food we had in India. I think I’ll have dreams about it, and once we get settled Ben and I vow to find the nearest Indian grocery store stat.

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3. Bundi!

I was so enchanted by this pretty little city. It was my favorite stop. I loved the charming heritage property we stayed at, with all kind of reading nooks and fountains, along with the ever-popular beer-and-bonfire time. The food was delicious. Once we dragged ourselves away from the hotel, our tour was fascinating. The first stop was an incredible large and elaborate watering hole for the community. During monsoon, women gathered here to wash clothing and socialize. Sounds like my kind of scene!

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Next, we took an amazing tuk tuk ride and saw the best view in India. A kite festival was starting while we were there so kites were always dancing around the sky, everywhere you looked.

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Finally, a tour of the Bundi Palace captured my heart. This property isn’t super well maintained or swarming with tourists, which just added to the mystery and romance. The intricate balconies and carvings everywhere, the gardens, the odd bat hanging from the low doorways, everything was just so full of imaginative potential. Best of all were the murals we found in a few rooms, including an entire suite covered in blue, white, turquoise and gold scenes. The intricacy and emotion in these panels…I could have stared at them all day. What a treasure.

I just really loved it there.

4. The Taj Mahal

My heart almost stopped when I first glimpsed the white lattice work through the equally impressive red gate. I couldn’t believe how MASSIVE this lovesick temple is, and stepping through the gate was one of those “pinch me” moments. The beauty of this shrine needs no further words from mere-mortal me, although I’d like to note it is ridiculously easy to get that iconic picture. You do not need to be a good photographer, because this is the most photogenic building in the world. It just GLOWS and the picture takes itself. It IS hard to get a picture on the Diana bench. We didn’t even try.

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It was almost as fun watching people take pictures as it was looking at the Taj Mahal. So much posing! So much Instagramming! So many people trying to take that picture where they hold it from the top! So many sort-of sketchy men trying to take your picture!

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5. Food and Chai

I absolutely love Indian food. Before my wisecracking father can point out that he’s never heard me say I loved Indian food, let me give some backstory: I fell in love with Indian food at Mughal Gardens on St. Paul street in Baltimore during my first year teaching. This restaurant, which sadly is no longer there, was a cavernous space full of delicious chicken tikka masala and papadum, and when my friends and I would go there, we VERY RARELY saw anyone else. So we had this emporium of deliciousness to ourselves. I have so many good memories there with my Baltimore friends, and a takeout run there made any miserable teaching day better.

We ate so well in India. I ate my weight in butter chicken. Other highlights include the South Indian restaurant with delicious thalis and dosas that Fi, Francine, David, Ben and I courageously found on our own in Jaipur (crossing the street to get to it was an adventure in and of itself!), tandoori chicken in Agra, and a barbeque during our glamping experience with chicken and paneer seasoned so well that we were all begging the staff to tell us the secret in the sauce. I also loved all of the snacks we found, and any of the honey-drenched desserts we were offered.

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Beverages deserve their own glowing paragraph. Every lassi was scrumptious, and another Indian drink I got really into was soda with lime and sweet/salt. I never quite knew what the sweet/salt combo was (it seemed chunkier than just table salt and sugar? Maybe special varieties?), but I drank that whenever I could find it. Kingfisher beer made all of us very happy around the bonfire each night.

Finally, THE CHAI. We were chai HOUNDS. I loved seeking out chai with my group members, and we all bonded over these steaming cups of goodness. I probably averaged to about two a day for fifteen days (some days more, some days less), so I’m guessing I consumed at least thirty chais during our time in India. Granted, these aren’t honking big Starbucks cups. These are little dixie cups from a man on the train with a thermos, a couple of dudes with a pot at a roadside stop, or a china cup in a hotel garden. Each was a little different, from spicy to sugary, and even when I was trying not to consume liquid on the train in order to avoid using the train toilet (just trust me on that one), I couldn’t resist a cup. Much like the mint tea in Morocco, I love that this taste will always take me back to India.

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6. The Street Theater: Indian TV!

During our first train ride from Delhi to Agra, despite my laptop and kindle trying to lure me in with their charms, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the window. Then, during a long bus ride, I spent most of it looking out. My seatmate for that ride, Fi, and I agreed that watching the world go by from trains, cabs, busses, bicycle rickshaws and tuk tuks is Indian TV, and it is the most entertaining thing around. There is SO MUCH TO SEE. Every type of person crammed onto scooters, from three teenage boys to an entire nuclear family with a kid smooshed in the middle of two adults, hanging on for dear life. I loved seeing the women clad in beautiful saris whiz around on motorbikes like sparkling dragonflies. Cows rummaging through trash or stopping traffic in the middle of the road. Monkeys. Pigs. So many dogs.

I also loved the honking. Say what!? Let me explain. Honking in India doesn’t mean “Get out of my way, you mother***er!” or “What the hell are you doing, asshole!?” No. Never. Honking in India means “I’m coming! Just wanted to let you know!” Or “Go ahead!” It’s gentle and friendly and didn’t bother me once. Some of the trucks and busses had melodious horns with several notes so the whole thing sounded like a fun circus.

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There also seemed to be entire roadside communities. I saw people bathing, shaving, hanging out and snacking, getting their hair cut, clustered around stalls selling the most beautiful vegetables, kids playing and waving at us in every tiny village and big city. People walking around with all many of item (wood, herbs, washing) balanced on their heads. Everyone is beautiful and colorful. My kindle and phone didn’t stand a chance.

7. Royal Palaces

There is a huge amount of poverty in India, but boy did those historical 1%-ers live well. The beautiful and sprawling palaces were everywhere and each more beautiful than the last, reaching a crescendo in Udaipur. Highlights include the Agra Fort where Akbar the Great slept in a room fanned by women hidden behind walls before hanging out with his harem of 400 ladies:

The incredible Winter Palace at the Jaipur Amber Fort with a mirrored and bejeweled room:

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The aforementioned Bundi murals:

And the everything in the Uidapur Palace.

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Pictures really don’t do these places justice. You just have to go and prepare to have your jaw drop many, many times. Plus, all of these places have monkeys hanging out on the walls!

8. Village Walks

An aspect of our Intrepid tour that I really liked was that we didn’t just stick to big cities and fabulous palaces. We also visited several smaller villages and cities and were able to walk around them and get a glimpse of how people live their life all over India.

The first time we walked around a village outside of the Madhogarh fort, I felt a little weird about it. I didn’t want the people to think we were ogling at them or judging their life in any way, so I felt very shy. However, after talking to Anjali and my group about it (the people in my group were champion village walkers so I really learned from them), I feel reassured that the people know we aren’t looking down on them or exploiting them. Anjali said they are honored and proud of their homes and that people from far-away countries want to visit them and ooh and aah over their ridiculously beautiful children. And I realized that if a group of tourists from India were walking through my neighborhood in Denver to see how typical Americans lived, and I happened to see them while I was walking my dog, I would be happy to smile, wave, and even let them take my picture if they asked nicely. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable doing it without a tour guide, though, so just another reason why I loved being with our group so much.

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9. Bonfires and Kingfishers

Expect in the big cities, nearly every place we stayed built a big bonfire every night that we enjoyed while drinking Kingfishers. It was a great way to have long conversations with my groupmates, enjoy the warmth (Rajasthan is cold in the winter!), and recover from the hard work of being a tourist each evening.

I actually have no pictures of our many bonfires and beers, but they were a really special part of our trip. You’ll just have to believe me:)

10.  The Colors

This one is kind of obvious, but as a lover of color and a person who has been wearing a very practical, mostly black wardrobe for several months, I loved the color in India. The clothing, the painted trucks, the marigolds, the temples, everything seemed to have a splash of rainbow vitality. We got a little crazy and had some clothing made in the beautiful fabric in both Jaipur and Udaipur, so when we see our friends and family next we may have just a little bit of that colorful India flair!

11.  BONUS: Bollywood!!!

I have to include our magical and hysterical night at the Raj Mandi theater (rightfully voted as one of the most fun movie theaters in the world!) in Jaipur where we saw the Bollywood film Simbaa. Everything about this experience was a rollicking good time. The dance numbers! The ridiculous overacting done with a wink and a nod! The romance! The fight scenes! The amazing audience who screamed, whistled, hooted, and hollered! This was one of the most fun activities of our whole time in India, and there was popcorn.

An interesting aspect of the film we saw is that although it had ridiculous dance numbers and a romance scene that involved at least seven outfit changes but not one kiss on the lips (Bollywood films are famous for never showing on-screen physical affection), the plot actually involved a quite serious topic that is a huge issue in India: rape. The movie involved a rape victim getting justice and the women in the town participating in some vigilante revenge, and I realized that such a popular industry with a huge audience tackling this topic is so important. If Bollywood is portraying rape and sexual assault of women as unequivocally NOT OKAY, that will hopefully have a huge impact on the perceptions around this issue in India. Anjali told us there have been similar films about access to toilets and female menstruation, so yay for Bollywood! Social justice AND dance numbers! I’m in love.

Actually, we are both in love with India. While EVERY country has been special to us, India is a place we definitely want to come back to. We’ve just scratched the tiniest bit of colorful surface, and we want more. I can’t wait to come back!