Fun things to do in India

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What better way to experience India than to wander in the streets - looking at all the colour, the sights, the people. We were based in Connaught Place and spent a good deal of time mixing with the locals and looking at the way people lived their day to day lives.

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Visit the National Rail Museum. This is a fascinating place where you can see all the different types of trains that have been used throughout India. We spent half a day wandering around looking at all the different types of locomotives and trains.

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Eunuchs play a very important roll in India, originally employed in the palaces of Moghuls to protect their Harems without causing any danger to the women as they could be trusted. Often Indian families were so poor they would castrate one of their sons so he could be employed by the palace, then provide an important income for his family. Nowadays the eunuchs in India are seldomly castrated but wear make-up and dress in saris, and attends births, weddings, opening of businesses. This is supposed to bring good luck and they are paid for this. They will sing and dance and often you will see them performing outside the circus, and they have their own caste, Hirja, often living in their own communities and adopting young boys and forcing them in to prostitution. Of course, there is still a great deal of discrimination against them. We managed to catch them in action at the Pushkar Camel Fair, they were entertaining people outside the circus, hoping they would buy a ticket.

Delhi or “dilli” as most residents would say is a great and a vibrant city. It’s got so much culture that you would be surprised - all bustling together with the shiny and modern buildings. A must on every tourist’s list would be Connaught place or central Delhi, Red Fort, the old parts of Delhi known as Chandni Chowk and the newer more posh areas of Delhi. Each of these sections has their own charm and glamour.

Water and coke are pretty cheap and easily available. But if you really want to quench your thirst then there is nothing like beer to quench your thirst and give rest to those sore muscles after all the walking that you have done. There are plenty of beers available and believe me when I tell you that I have tasted quite a few. In Delhi, I tried out the local Indian beer called Godfather Strong and boy; this is one of the best that I have tasted in a long time. I was told that it’s available all over India and quite popular.

The real bargain!

This was quite by chance, but while searching some history of Godfather beer, I stumbled on this website called http://godfatherzone.com/findyourpub.php which gave me the whole listing for pubs in Delhi by area. Now that’s what I call service, because I didn’t find any other website that was exclusively dedicated to finding pubs by the area in a city. The listing gives you the name of the place, phone, timings, cost of a beer, and a Google maps for the destination. In fact many pubs have happy hours during the business hours and this means a double delight for travellers like you and me.

While I have seen these kinds of websites in the US, I thought it was pretty awesome that they have such websites in India too. Must say, India does love its beer and pubs. The next day, I visited “Dilli Haat” which is bang opposite INA market in South Delhi. “Haat” means local village marketplace in Hindi and you can get incredible deals on handicrafts from all parts of India. Negotiate really hard and you can get the prices down. The negotiation will go back and forth, because even the shopkeepers love to bargain. Moreover, they will always quote a higher price for the tourist, so a ground rule for you…always quote 50% of what they say. Remember your dollar is worth Rs 50 approximately and you can get really good stuff here when bargaining especially for all the folks back home. Now with a bit of shopping done for my girlfriend back home, I wanted to have a chilled glass of Godfather beer!

The Chilled evening!

With that in mind, I headed straight for a very popular café cum restaurant known as Blanco in Khan Market, that’s not too far from Delhi Haat. This is an ideal place to relax, because it has American and European style cuisine which is awesome. While they did have Godfather Strong on their drinks menu, it seems that day they had just managed to run out of it. Well! To quench my thirst, the server recommended that I try out Kingfisher or a Godfather Lite. Having tasted Godfather Strong, I was all in for Godfather Lite. This was a surprisingly good beer. I was told that it has a unique 25 days brewing cycle containing the best malted barley and good quality German hops. The taste was really refreshing and I would definitely recommend it for all the beer lovers.

With my baked fish and Godfather Lite at Blanco and loads of shopping bags, I called it a day finally. Oh yes, Delhi is a great place to visit and with its colorful markets, restaurants and people, you would never want to go back. But the next day, I had an early morning flight to Mumbai…the city of Dreams and I am really looking forward to it.

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The capital is a large city, where our guide tried hard to split it in two: the old and new Delhi. Well, there are differences, but for a western mind the most remarkable details are the cultural differences present in both areas of the city, making the separation something artificial. We had not much time to see it, but enough to appreciate the presence of several stages of history and the strength of development.

Delhi is a place that I would visit again with pleasure.

I had a wonderful trip to a beautiful Ashram in India, to be more exact, in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh. As a single woman it was just great for me to be a month long in a secure atmosphere but still experience the culture of this country.
I participated in an Ayurveda Yoga Holiday, got daily massages and weekly yoga workshops and even a Panchakarma treatment. All i had to do was to book - they picked me up at the airport, brought me to the Ashram, helped me to find my way around town and markets, it was just great.
And I lived in a real Ashram, with the Indian family and some other people from Europe and USA.
I would have been scared to reach India all on my own, without anybody to help me, so that was perfect for me. I loved the family, was treated very well and felt relaxed and young after all those pampering Ayurvedic treatments and the delicious Ayurvedic food!
Here is the link: http://www.jaisiyaram.com/ayurvedicyoga.htm
And the best thing for me was that the

Normally, indian men go to the barber shop for shaving the chin, trim the mustache, plukkking of hair in the nose and ears, and a face massage.

My boyfriend really enjoyed the many visits to the barber shop. He usually do this himself, but in India the cities has many barber shops, and the headmassage afterwards are usually hard but good. The barber, his friends and other customers thought it was very funny when my boyfriend asked him to shave his chin and head.

You'll need to decide on what you're after! There are the gorgeous backwaters & temples of Kerala (best reached by flying down!), or Rajasthan - the state full of palaces & old grandeur. Then there are popular pilgrimage sites like Varanasi, or the Ajanta caves and Ellora caves near Aurangabad (250 miles from Mumbai).

For some beach relaxation you have Goa!

Coming back to Rajasthan, there are so many worthwhile places. But ones not to miss are Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Jaipur. Other places there are Bikaner, Pushkar, etc.

There's Ranthanbore National Park if you're after wildlife.

Corbett National Park (where Bill Oddie's photographer pal was fatally mauled by a tiger) is in Uttaranchal, near Delhi.

Then there are the hill-stations like Nainital, Dalhousie, Mussoorie, etc in the northern or north-eastern parts. And Srinagar in Kashmir is lovely.

Many people love visiting the Golden temple in Amritsar, Punjab. The capital Chandigarh is nice too, and then people head for Wagah border to see the India-Pakistan border ceremony! Very theatrical ;-)

So, what aspect do you want to focus on? You could actually mix in a few different types..

And to maximise your time there, I'll suggest flying. There are lots of budget domestic carriers, with superb deals for advance purchases.

However, you must experience the local rail in Mumbai - quite a unique experience!!

Plus by all means you could do a long distance rail journey, ideally overnight, if you plan well. There are special ticket quotas for foreigners, so availability isn't a huge problem.