(Originally posted 18 April 2016) Everyone raves about visiting India, but we were nervous. We had not done much background investigation on the possible points of interest to see, and we knew it would be a sensory overload right from the onset. We, therefore, started liaising with a tour operator before we arrived to help guide us through this chaotic country.
This decision has had its pros and cons. We have had someone holding our hands throughout the trip – right from landing at Delhi airport – so getting around has been easy, and any language barriers have not affected us with someone available to interpret quickly. Instead of how we handled Vietnam and Cambodia, immersing ourselves right into the thick of it, we initially had short excursions to a particular site. We then were returned to the safety of our hotel.
During our brief interactions at popular tourist sites, we found the local people to be abrasive and brutally open that they were out to see how they could make a buck from you. In retrospect, how could we expect more if we weren’t prepared to have more meaningful interactions ourselves?
Our first few days left us amazed by the spectacular architecture, each fort or palace outdoing the previous one. Still, our time so far left us feeling negative about our experience with the people, and this opinion was in stark contrast to what others had been saying about India.
India, like a good curry, reveals her wonderful flavours slowly. Each day we were blown away by the locations we were seeing and slowly started engaging more and more with the locals (besides the photo opportunities). Without our guide or driver leading the way, we began walking through the markets, talking to children on the streets and buying our supplies at local corner stores.
Bit by bit, our pessimism faded through our travels from New Delhi to Agra and then all around Rajasthan. We are visiting our last city in this province, Udaipur, and woke up this morning with a noticeably different attitude. Instead of being excited about what we are going to see, we are more interested in who we will meet.
Featured image: Taken at Amber Fort, Jaipur