Incredible India

I’m not the first person to say this but India is an amazing country with an extremely rich culture and beautiful landscapes. I had the pleasure to do a small tour around Rajasthan, one of the biggest states in India.

The Wedding

During my studies in Paris I met a good friend that got married in her beautiful hometown Jaipur, pink city and capital of Rajasthan. When she invited us to her wedding we all got super excited !

Rocking traditional clothing

A traditional indian wedding is an incredible opportunity to see up close their customs and not to mention how to party Indian style ! I didn’t know this but apparently it’s customary to dance Bollywood style dances for the married couple. Many of the couple’s family and friends performed some kind of traditional dance in a big stage, yes, even us coming from Europe ,and little-to-none dancing skills, had to dance. I have to say it was super fun though quite a challenge to learn all the steps in one day ! Only a couple of my friends actually prepared the dance before the trip, some of us got the news one day before !

Mehndi Decorations

There were many mistakes and laughs during our performance but at the end several people were amazed that we managed to learn all that in just a few hours, I was feeling quite happy with myself I must say.

The wedding lasted for 3 days and at the end I felt like I wanted it to keep going, I was having so much fun and eating so many delicious things ( more on that later ).

Friend during main event night

Travelling by train

Probably the easiest and most affordable way to travel around India is by train, unless you’re going to travel long distances, in that case air travel is the right choice. For trains you do need to buy your tickets a long time in advance because they disappear quite quickly.

We did took an overnight train once, I do recommend taking first class for these kinds of trips, you manage to get a good-night sleep and it’s pretty comfortable, also, very affordable. Other classes are ok too, though I wouldn’t recommend them for overnight trips.

Friend in train

Food

Indian food, what more need I say ? These weren’t culinary vacations but more of a eat-everything-you-can vacations. I do love Indian food, specially if it’s spicy. Warning though, if you have a sensitive stomach you should definitely stay away from anything spicy. Another thing, drinking tap water is probably a bid idea, honestly, I drank some masala tea in the streets and I had no problem, maybe because water was boiled before, but a friend of mine drank some hand-made juice and got super sick before the wedding, at least it was almost at the end of her trip.

Eating vegetarian, eventhough if it’s not yor thing, being in India is a great opportunity to try out amazing vegetarian dishes. There are holy Hindu towns, like Pushkar, were there is no meat, so sometimes you really have no choice.

Pushkar Lake

Pushkar Streets

Things to look out for

New Delhi is a beautiful monster, huge city with many things to do, you’ll have an amazing time, but, yeah, there’s a big but (no pun intended), it’s quite easy to bump into people trying to scam you. When we got there, and apparently it’s a common one, the rickshaw (tuk tuk) driver told us the street of our hotel was closed due to a religious ceremony. Instead he took us to what was supposed to be the Tourist office. Luckily I had bought an internet package for my vacations so after a quick search on the Google machine I realized that the place he took us wasn’t the official Tourist office ! We immediatedly got off and took another rickshaw that took us to the right address. Apparently the scam consists of taking you to a fake Tourist office and forcing you to buy expensive and fake guided packages.

Auto rickshaw

Travelling at your own pace

All in all India , or in my own experience Rajasthan, is an amazing touristic destination. I definitedly recommend it. As I mentioned, there are a few things to watch out for, but if you’re careful and you plan your trip correctly, you’ll have an amazing time. Travel at your own pace, take time to appreciate what makes India an amazing place. Incredible India indeed !

The mythical Taj Mahal

Typical dance

A view of Lake Pichola (Udaipur)

Thanks for reading !