Namaste - my first week in India!

As many say: it's impossible to describe this country, you have to see it. And smell it. And - especially - taste it!

Everything Indian-experienced friends predicted or warned me of happened of course: arrival in Delhi at 5 a.m. and the hotel taxi nowhere to be seen, found a taxi into town with apparently vision-impaired driver who hit the rail on the side of the highway and continued driving as if nothing had happened, he had no clue where the hotel was, after driving around for a while he dropped me in the darkest quarter of Delhi so I had to find it myself, the street full of garbage, beggars, stray dogs , all very scary - but I found the hotel, which did not have my reservation (even though I got an email confirmation), and so they put me in their most expensive room, which was a total dump etc. etc. But I was still happy I had arrived in one piece.

The next day I set foot out on the street and after 5 mins I thought my head would explode. My hotel was in the middle of a busy bazaar, people approaching me from all shops I walked past, "come here, look here, Madam", kids following me, clinging to me begging, Rikscha drivers stopping offering their services, the air dark with exhaust fumes and smoke from little fires that the beggars burn on the sidewalk to warm themselves (it was actually quite chilly), this all happening simultaneously while I try to find my way.

Crossing my first street was a big achievement. Approximately 5 lanes of traffic, donkey-carts, mopeds, rikschas and people all going into different directions, blowing their horns like mad, no sign of a traffic light or even a pedestrian crossing - the best method is to stand behind a local and when he starts, close your eyes and run as well.

I got through the chaos, and moreover was really lucky to meet the right people. At the end of the day I was all set with a new family accommodation, a 20-day-travel plan with all reservations and bookings made (which apparently is difficult to manage yourself because it is high season).

So now I am on a tour of Rajasthan, sharing hotel rooms, a car and our very nice chauffeur Sureis with Ilaria, an adventurous girl from Italy. It is an intense time filled with impressions and information, every second day we arrive in a new place - but it is the best way to see some really impressive parts of India in not too much time and without too much hassle.

We started with Pushkar, a beautiful pilgrim town, where we successfully completed all the typical tourist activities in a day: meeting some Sadhus (holy men), but also plenty of locals, who showed us the tents in the desert where they live; I took some more or less successful (but fun) music lessons of sitar and flute, then saw the sunset on a camel and got my hands painted with henna, drank countless Chais, went shopping... At the end of the day I even met a Brazilian tourist guide who is studying music in Varanasi, so I got my second Sitar lesson already arranged plus a local tour guide for the city :)

The next stop was Jodphur, also very beautiful with the massive Maharaja Fort, then Udaipur with the magic palace on the lake, which was not quite so magic because there is hardly any water in the lake at this time of the year - it was the palace surrounded by mud, and today we arrived in Jaipur, especially famous for the Hawa Mahal (palace of the winds) and its excellent shopping (the latter will take more of our time tomorrow than the sightseeing I reckon :)

To see a small selection of my pictures, click on the album below:

India 2010