Exploring India

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...