India

We arrived safe and sound in Delhi on June 25, 2014 and made our way by taxi to our hotel - Hotel The Royal Plaza. It is probably one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in. There was marble everywhere and they inspect every car that goes in/out of the hotel for bombs. Haha. They use a mirror to look under the car, then pop the trunk and sometimes the hood of the car also. It was crazy! I was actually shocked with how much security there was in India in general. We weren't meeting our friends Heather and Adam until June 26th when they arrived so we had our first day in India to ourselves. We hung out in the hotel for a little bit and then decided to go and explore the area we were staying in, which was called Connaught Place. Connaught Place is a huge round-about in the middle of New Delhi, with a few markets, parks and tons of restaurants and shops around it. We basically walked around the entire round-about before stopping at a little restaurant for dinner. We stumbled onto Gino's; an Indian restaurant owned by an Indian man who currently lived in Michigan. He was in Delhi visiting family and checking in on his restaurant so we had the chance to meet him after dinner. He was very nice and gave us his card and told us that if we had any issues while we were in India to call him. After dinner we continued our walk and we discovered quickly that India was very busy, very hot and very crowded.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then waited in our room to hear from Adam and Heather. It took them longer then expected to get to the hotel from the airport so we didn't meet up with them until early afternoon, but it was so nice to see friends. After a quick catch up in the lobby of their hotel, we made our way to find some lunch. We had originally decided to walk back to Connaught Place and grab some food but as we were walking there this gentleman stopped us and told us there was a protest going on and that we should avoid the area. He suggested we go to a street that had a bunch of restaurants on it near India Gate. He even got a tuk tuk for us and made sure the driver knew exactly where to take us. We thought he was so nice and thoughtful looking out for us. It took us a few days to realize but he was actually lying through his teeth and he had a scam going with the tuk tuk driver. We saw the whole thing in action a few days later. Again, someone stopped us and told us their was a protest. By now we didn't believe him so we declined his help and kept on walking. We then saw him get into the tuk tuk that was conveniently waiting by the side of the road and drive off together. But we totally fell for the scam the first time! Anyways, we had lunch at this suggested restaurant and then made our way back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. Once we felt a bit refreshed from our swim we walked back up to Connaught Place for dinner and had an awesome meal at a place recommended in the Lonely Planet, Pind Balluchi.

The Water Temple - one of the sites our tuk tuk driver brought us to

 

Adam wasn't feeling great the next day. He seemed to be developing a cold, so we decided to take it easy. We went to visit the Red Fort in Old Delhi, which was pretty awesome to see. Tons of history there, but so hot!! And we stupidly decided to make our way there at 11am so we were walking around outside when the sun was the highest in the sky. We quickly learned our lesson and agreed that the majority of our sightseeing would now be happening in the morning! We decided to walk through our first bazaar in Old Delhi after the Red Fort. It was so busy and there were so many people trying to sell you things; it was madness! We lasted about an hour walking around and then decided to have lunch. We ended up at a restaurant recommended to us by the taxi driver who dropped us off at the Red Fort - Punjabi By Nature. The food was awesome and it was so reasonably priced that we ended up there a few more times while we were in Delhi. We relaxed the rest of the day and treated ourselves to another swim in the hotel pool!

The four of us at the Red Fort

 

We were heading to Agra the next day and we were supposed to go by train, but there was a bit of a mix up between the train tickets and the train was going to be over 2 hours delayed so we ended up deciding to take a taxi to Agra instead. And, to be honest, with 4 of us in the taxi, it wasn't much more expensive then all of us on the train. But the time we spent at the train station was so interesting. There were hundreds of people coming and going constantly, everyone was staring at us white people, no one respects the 'line up' at the ticket window and they are constantly jumping in front of you and the people watching was amazing. At one point a drum band came into the station and into the ticket office and then pretty much turned around and left. It was hilarious. But it was so amazing to see how the women dress - so colourful!!

Our day in Agra basically consisted of the Taj Mahal. We hired a car and a tour guide that took us to the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was spectacular! First of all, it wasn't that busy and it wasn't that hot. But also the Taj is just so beautiful! We spent a few hours there just checking out the grounds and the mausoleum itself. Having the guide was awesome because he could tell us so much about the history behind it. I didn't want to leave - I just wanted to stare at it all day. Unfortunately Agra doesn't have much more to offer than the Taj Mahal so we took it easy the rest of the day and hung out at Adam and Heather's luxury hotel!

Early morning at the Taj Mahal

 

We left Agra the next day. Again, we meant to take the train, but it was full by the time we tried to book it so we ended up back in a taxi again. The drive from Agra to Jaipur was long, but it was neat to see some of the country. I think it was good that we had a sort of lazy day in the car because although Adam was feeling better by now, Heather had gotten his cold from him and wasn't feeling very good. We made it to Jaipur around 4pm and had a cooking class booked that night at 5pm. We quickly checked into our hotels and changed and then made our way to the Jaipur Cooking School for our cooking class with Chef Lokesh. It was such a fun night. Chef Lokesh taught us so much about Indian cooking and we got to make so many delicious dishes. Honestly, there was so much food! It probably could have a fed at least 10 people, but the 5 of us managed to put a pretty good dent in it!

Steph making some naan with Chef Lokesh overseeing

 

The next day was July 1 - Canada Day! I even wore my Canada sunglasses that my mom sent me away with almost 10 months earlier to celebrate! In the Lonely Planet book we had, had outlined a 3 hour walking tour of Jaipur that hit a lot of the major sites so we decided to do that for the day. Our first stop was Iswari Minar Swarga Sal, which is a tower in the middle of the city that has a spectacular view from the top. Then we made our way to the Tripolia Gate and the City Palace. The City Palace was beautiful and I think my favourite was the Peacock Gates inside. They had 4 different doors leading to this courtyard, each decorated in a peacock theme and dedicated to a different season (Summer, Spring, Winter and Monsoon). From there we made our way to Jantar Mantar which is an an observatory that is full of tons of different astrological devices. We hired a guide for the tour and I am so glad that we did because we would not have known what one thing was without him. We finished our walking tour off at the Temple of the Wind and then hopped in a tuk tuk to take us to the Water Temple just outside of the city centre. We also got to see some camels along the way. We were going to make our way back to the Johari Bazaar but instead stumbled upon a jewellery store near the Water Temple and spent some time browsing and shopping in there. That night we took a taxi to another temple - I'm honestly not sure what the name of the temple even was because everyone called it the Monkey Temple. There were hundreds of monkeys there, it was crazy! We spent a couple of hours just walking up to the temple and watching the monkeys. We even saw a monkey steal a pair of shoes from someone who was inside the temple...little buggers!

Us in front of the Spring Peacock Gate

 

That was all the time we had in Jaipur, which was a shame because we all really liked the city. But we had to make our way back to Delhi the next day because our time in India was almost up. On our way back to Delhi we stopped off at the Amber Fort, which was absolutely stunning. We had an awesome tour of the fort and spent a couple of hours there. The detail, the architecture and the history was just amazing. It was probably one of the highlights of our trip to India. Then we hopped back in our taxi and made our way back to Delhi. I am pretty sure we also saw the first of the monsoon rains to hit India. It was raining so hard and the winds were just crazy. It sure was a sight to see. And most people told us that that was nothing compared to what they would get in the next couple of months.

On our last day in Delhi we basically just shopped till we dropped. Adam and Heather needed to get some souvenirs for family and friends and I just like to shop so off we went. We had a lot of time to kill that day because we didn't have to get to the airport until 11pm for our 2am flights. So, we walked around Connaught Place, shopped, had a leisurely lunch and dinner and hung out at the hotel before making our way to the airport. Then it was bye bye India and hello Canada - that is after almost 24 hours in transit. We arrived home in Toronto on July 4, 2014 and were greeted by our parents - they actually clapped and cheered.

It is hard to believe that our travels are over. We have had a year full of the most amazing experiences. We have challenged ourselves and grown so much individually, as well as as a couple. I look back on the experiences
that we have had over the year and I smile. I cannot believe it is over already, but I am excited to see what the future has in store for us in TO. Thank you to everyone who has read and followed along with our blog. It was been a really amazing experience writing it. I can't wait to share even more stories and photos with you all when we see you next.

Thanks for reading

xoxo