Reflections on India

As our amazing time here in India comes to an end I find myself thinking back to how I felt as we boarded our plane in Australia, Delhi bound, and how differently I feel now. From the time we started planning this trip, India was squarely fixed as a “must-go”, there was no way we could complete this trip without a journey through this incredibly foreign place that would be a complete 180 from everything we know and have seen. But I think at the time of planning the trip, even leading right up to getting off our flight in Delhi what was going through me was excitement, but it was nervous, anxious excitement….and frankly a bit of fear. Before coming here I think my feelings were more that I was going to enjoy the challenge and appreciate India, but not necessarily Love it. Sitting here now after 7 weeks, I could not have been more wrong. I absolutely LOVE India…..and the love 

affair surprisingly came on very fast. 

My guard started to come down quickly even from the moment we started in Delhi, yes it was loud, dirty and chaotic, but it was surprisingly tolerable, and even fun beyond my expectations. But I think my love affair, and Jonny’s too, truly started when we visited our first stop in Rajasthan, which happened to be Jaisalmer, this is when all my Indian preconceptions were really blown away and we saw some of the amazing things that India really has too offer.  From that point on each new place we visited had something new to offer us and blew us away in different ways. There is some much more to India then horns and crowds of people, although there is plenty of that too, there are amazing landscapes, hundreds of years of culture and amazing varieties of culture, fun wildlife and unbelievable experiences to be had.  But what I think captured my heart most of all about india and truly made this experience was the people. The people here are so incredible, even with so much poverty, so much hardship, endless hours of work and very few of the western comforts that we all get to take for granted, as whole they are a loving, friendly and welcoming bunch, with a hilarious but very innocent fascination with white people.

I would recommend a trip to India to anyone who has a sense of adventure and a desire to experience something totally new. If you come expecting the comforts of home then you will be seriously disappointed, but then hey…what is the point of leaving home. Yes it can be loud, chaotic, and dirty, but mostly it is fascinating, welcoming, delicious, altering, exciting and at some points even relaxing (ok this is only in some parts).

After 7 weeks in India it feels like we only got to snack on the sampler platter. We bit off a bit of the south, some of the north and bits and pieces from the middle, but there is still so much more we would love to visit.  A return trip to India to explore some of the many, many places we did not get to (Mumbai, Goa, Hampi, Tamil Nadu, Leh, Amritsar….. the list is long) has already been added to the quickly expanding “future vacations list” that this trip has sprouted. At this point we have vacations already planned until we are 40. India……….. we will be back. 

OOO_Talia