Ancient India 🇮🇳

Dear readers,

At the end of may, we had a day off for Buddha Purnima so we decided on a spontaneous trip to India to see the Taj. I have to say that India has never really been on my bucket list but I had to see it now that we were so close by.

The flight to Delhi was just over 200 euros and took just over 2 hours so it was quite handy. We landed at 6 pm and had planned to do the whole trip on a train since the train network was complimented before. However, I was immediately told by my more India-experienced friends that two girls cannot take a train alone in the dark and that we shouldn't do it anyway. My colleagues, who has travelled India a lot, gave us a contact to a tour company that organises everything from just car rides to whole tours with hotels and guides. We had already made all our bookings so we only requested a car. We paid 21 000 Indian rupees for the whole 4 days including everything related to the car.

The driver was waiting for us at the airport and once we sorted out some coffee and cash, we headed out towards Agra. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get sim cards at the airport because the only service was under maintenance but the Noble House tour company provided us with our own WIFI portal for the trip. The ride to Agra took around 4 hours so we made it to Joey's Hostel at midnight. You could see the Taj from the window as advertised but the hostel was good for exactly one quick night - the aircon was either on full blast at 16 degrees or off because the staff took the remote and the sheets were avoidable.

The next morning, we had an alarm at 4.45 and met up with our guides at 5.15 am. They were locals that our driver connected us to. They asked for 2000 rupees for the day, I don't know how they showed up with two people. It was okay to have a guide and they gave us some good details on the history. However, I wouldn't say it was compulsory but it was very cheap and handy. A photographer also tagged along when we started and he took some pictures he said we could purchase in the end. I have to say, this was useless. At this hour, the park was empty and we didn't need him to ''make space for us'' to get peopleless photos. He also ended up taking a ridiculous 150 photos and wanted to charge us a euro each. We carefully selected 4 photos and he was pretty pissed but the pictures were really bad and we managed to get much nicer ones on our own!

The photo above is from the side of Taj which turned out to be the best, most beautiful spot with no one there! Everyone goes crazy with the first view of it from the front. Apparently, you are not allowed to spin on this floor for security reasons. Our guides were so funny.

We also visited inside the building but you cannot take photos there but you can see the amazing details on the marble brilliantly and the tomb of the wife.

We returned back to our hostel to pack our things and have a quick breakfast. Then we headed back out to meet the guides again and visited the Agra fort. It was beautiful and also gives you a good view of the Taj.

We also visited a marble making workshop on our way out and it was really cool! I had no idea about the details of Taj, how many gems it has, why, and how they are made - all of this was absolutely amazing to see.

The temperature rose to 46 degrees during this day so we didn't have to fight for views with so many tourists, it was exhausting with so little sleep but it was surprisingly calm and spacious. I would recommend visiting outside or at the very end of the tourists season and being up very early to see all the best places in Agra.

In the afternoon, we drove to Jaipur which was our main highlight for the trip. The ride took around 5 hours with a stop. We only had dinner our first night and headed to bed. We stayed two nights at the Laxmi Palace Heritage Boutique Hotel which was stunning. We were up bright and early the next day to combat another hot day in India.

Jaipur was absolutely stunning and we started off from the Amber fort that spans around the mountains surrounding Jaipur. It has one of the longest walls in the world and a great view over Jaipur. We noticed they sold these combination tickets at the entry and decided that it would be very cost friendly for us. The ticket cost 1 100 rupees per person and we visited the following: Amber fort - Nahargarh fort, Hawa mahal and Jantar mantar (cool astrology park). I would have also loved to go to the Sisodia rani gardens but sadly, we didn't have the time. We also visited Birla Mandir which didn't cost us anything and was worth it (that beautiful white temple in the photos).

We spent the evening by our hotel pool, ate well on the rooftop and watched a traditional Indian dance show. Would highly recommend Jaipur and this hotel to everyone. While Taj is compulsory, there's not much else to see in Agra but Jaipur is a lovely city with great food and much to explore. We even managed to squeeze in some shopping.

After Jaipur, we drove to Delhi where we stayed at the Sun Court Hotel Yatri which I wouldn't recommend but it was surprisingly hard to find anything because we needed a location near the airport and many were already booked out. This hotel also looked much better online! The Indian elections took place the morning we were flying out so we had to head to the airport really early - it was completely empty! So we spent our last night touring around, eating Italian food and shopping. I guess Delhi is compulsory due to the airport but I wouldn't plan to stay there for long.

Thanks again and I'll get back to you with more updates!

Mira