I recently returned from India and WOW! What a magical country it is, it certainly is a place that we should all experience once in our lifetimes. I’m blown away by just how good it was – it really overloads your senses every step of the way.
Paul Hurdsfield was a friend who gave me some great tips before I arrived and they really did help, so make sure you do a bit of research or ask a mate for a few pointers. There’s so much going on you do need to prepare.
I could wax lyrical for pages and pages about reasons to visit India, I know you don’t have that much time so here are my top 3!
The Food
After all the advice Paul Hurdsfield kept telling me about the food in India and how good it was, I knew it would be good but not that good! You genuinely look forward to every single meal. Eat as much as you can when you’re there because I promise when you get back on the plane you will already be missing the food. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it now. Sitting down for lunch and dinner, ordering a butter chicken with garlic naan bread and of course a big Kingfisher beer is heaven. It is a million miles better than the Indian takeaways back home.
The Chaos
This might be a strange one to add because usually you like to avoid chaos but you just can’t in India. There are so many people, cars, rickshaws, cows, buses and more in the major cities it feels like it is an organised chaos. After the initial culture shock you soon get used to it and it end up being quite good fun. I loved sitting at a restaurant or bar which looked out on the road so I could watch the chaos going by, you’ll always see a crazy sight you’ve never seen before which is mind boggling – usually an overloaded truck or bike with a family of 7 squeezed on to it.
The Taj
This is the highlight of every trip to India (well, the food runs it pretty close) and for good reason. The Taj Mahal is a stunning work of architecture and you don’t really get a sense of just how big it is when you look at the pictures. Even if you’re not a big fan of places like this, I promise that you will sit there staring at the building because it has a mystical aura. Even though there are thousands of people there, it’s amazing how calm and quite it is, I think that’s because everyone else is just as mesmerised as you are.