India 2019 (Part 2)
In Jaipur we visited The Amber Fort, situated high on the hillside, featuring decadent mirrored Hallways and lush Gardens and Courtyards. Definitely worth a visit, but it does get crowded as it’s a very popular tourist attraction. My favourite part of Jaipur was the Walking Street Tour. We did this in the early evening with a guide. We mingled with the locals, sampling some of the local cuisine including Samosas, Kulfi, Lassi, sweets and ice cream.
There were lots Arts & Crafts which is all so much more fascinating to see with a local guide who can explain and translate. We met a man who re-plated old pots and pans over a charcoal fire by hand which was quite a spectacle to watch. There was a Wedding Fayre taking place so there were hundreds of people buying cards, dresses, outfits, home utensils etc. A great cultural experience.
On our last day in Jaipur we visited The City Palace and the Jai Singh Observatory. The Observatory was superb. It houses 18 observational instruments which have been used for hundreds of years to accurately measure the position of the sun, star and planets and are still fully functioning today. Some real, working history. From Jaipur we flew to Varanasi to see the Ganges. The Ganges is a very sacred place, and our first experience of it was a Thanksgiving Festival which was interesting to watch, despite not really understanding some of the rituals involved. The next day we re-visited at sunrise, approx 5.15am. The Ganges is a pilgrimage destination for many Hindus, so even at this time, many were bathing to wash away their sins Most interestingly, many Hindus choose to spread the ashes of their loved ones in the Ganges and up to 200 cremations can take place daily. To keep things balanced, in the afternoon we visited Sarnath which is one of the most important Buddhist Pilgrimage Centres in India. It is here where Buddha first began teaching. There is a beautiful garden, large commemorative Stupa (large mound) and museum to walk around. And after nearly a fortnight's worth of sight-seeing, we thought rightly that we would be ready for a rest! So we factored in almost a week in Goa to finish our Indian adventure. Goa is an incredibly popular beach destination with golden sand stretching for miles. The main Beach Season in Goa is October to April where the temperatures are around the mid to late 30’s. It's a dry heat, rather than humid but watch out for the mosquitoes! It is very clean and unspoiled, the sea is lovely and warm and there's lots of beach shacks to get very cheap beers and snacks.
There are three main resorts: Baga Beach, Candolim Beach and Calungute where we stayed in a small, modern boutique hotel right on the beach. All the resorts are all next to each other and all very much the same. The towns can be lively, if you want them to be, so can cater for the young but the older ones like me can just relax and eat in the vast array of restaurants. Like most major resorts, you can get any international foods you like, but of course the main dishes are Indian so if you like Indian food there’s no better place. We spent roughly £20 on average for Indian starters, mains, sides and a few beers, so I would recommend accommodation of B&B only.
We really enjoyed India and are so glad we maximised our time there with the help of the Travel Counsellors network. I genuinely don't think the holiday would have been as authentic doing it another way. Some of the best experiences were because of the local information and contacts. The highlight was certainly the Taj Mahal, but all of our destinations offered something unique and different. When all western cities have the same shops and attractions, there is something very special about walking in parts of the world that haven't changed in hundreds of years.