Exploring India

We did it. After eleven days in the North of India with only one or two nights in every destination and a total of two flights, four trains and countless taxis and tuk-tuks, we made it to Goa relatively unscathed. By relatively I mean having to have a tetanus shot in the bum after cutting myself on a metal lock. When I got to the hospital and sat on the bed, I began to roll up my sleeve. I was then told to actually lie down on my front, which I thought was strange, and comically when the nurse started rolling down the back of my shorts I began to wonder where Kea had actually taken me. The jab cost 150 Rupees, about £1.50 and I was treated like absolute royalty throughout my visit. I was rushed through on entry, met by the hospital manager and treated instantly. See my previous blog where I comment on this form of white privilege . You do naturally feel guilty when in these situations but the people here insist and they want to help you, often providing preferential treatment for being...

If I have spoken to you over the last two months you probably would have heard the following short story. I knew that during our trip to India, Kea and I were to visit Ahmedabad to stay with my friend’s extended family who live in the nearby town of Anand. I was also aware of the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium (named after the current Indian Prime Minister), a stadium built for the Cricket World Cup two years ago, and its mammoth capacity of over 100,000 people. On a whim, I searched to see if any cricket was scheduled during our visit. I thought at the very least a stadium tour would be good, to see some local/regional cricket would be great but an international match of some sort, amazing. To my utter disbelief, I saw that India was scheduled to host England in a one-day international match the day after we planned to arrive. It was as if the stars had aligned. A bowler bowling to a batsman in four stages. India vs England Back to black Ahmedabad was like most large cities we ha...

At the time of writing we are over ten days into our trip and every day we find ourselves learning something new about the people of India, their traditions, customs, religions and way of life. Being such a diverse country, every village, town and city maintains its own cultures whilst most of the time still partaking in the wider regional and national cultures. Having to this point only visited the regions of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, I cannot confidently comment on the whole of India, just of my experiences to now. As a precursor to what is to follow, I’d like to explain that not once have I consulted Google or other information outlets during my time so far. I have chosen to learn from the people which has allowed me to come to my own conclusions, perspectives and assumptions, some which might be wrong. I apologise if I offend anyone reading this or if I have misjudged something, it is all done out of genuine fascination and total respect. We learn by being vulner...

Agra, home to the world-famous palace and burial site, the Taj Mahal. Here we met the first friend of our travels, Nate. A chef by trade, Nate told us of how he’s lived in Berlin for the last seven years after moving from Cambridge. He’d been solo travelling India for some time and was pretty seasoned in how to get around whilst fending off opportunists. Nate was a real travelling type with a calming demeanour and a warming aura, a spider-web tattoo in one ear, several facial piercings, further body tattoos and these wonderfully colourful headpieces. Up before the crack of dawn, Kea, Nate and I experienced one of the world’s wonders together. The sun rose at 7.00am with a gentle greeting to the day ahead and before long its musky yellow began to light the morning sky. By 7:30am the sun had transformed the white marble of the southeastern corner of the great mausoleum into gold. A breathtaking sight. The Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world We left by 9:00am, gladly...

As I sit on the train from Agra Fort to Jaipur on day three of our journey, we have already encountered what makes this giant country unique. And finally, a moment to be able to reflect and put proverbial pen to paper. Our flight from London Heathrow to New Delhi set the tone for what we were to expect for the first part of our trip. Up at the crack of dawn, we proceeded to catch the transfer bus to Heathrow Terminal 2. Like always, you really don’t need to be at the airport so early anymore but because everyone’s Dad insisted on getting to the airport four hours before a flight when you were a child, the tradition still seems to ring true no matter how old and autonomous you are. In fact, you know the times are changing when your mum offers you a plastic bag for your liquids three times before saying farewell but when you arrive at the airport they are no longer a thing (due to a new machine that can do something probably strange but ever so efficient when scanning your bags). Anyway,...