Our overall India 🇮🇳 Experience

What an amazing opportunity to visit India with Bri & Ross. 

We literally just tagged along, they did meticulous planning of all transport, restaurants, hotels, hire cars, sightseeing and if it hadn't been for that we doubt we would've ever bothered to come to India at all! It's definitely a chaotic place but also some extremely amazing buildings, scenery and sights!!

So we are so glad for the experience, much of India is very similar to Uganda, Africa but I especially have been surprised firstly by the city of New Delhi, it was way better than I ever expected.  

Staying at the foothills of the Himalayas was an amazing time and a dream come true for Deane.

The scenery we've seen on the long road trips between cities has been interesting and diverse depending on the area travelling through.

India is such a huge country!

We have found 99% of the people very friendly, extremely helpful and humble. 

Sometimes we would be walking along the street and they just join & walk alongside you asking you a myriad of questions about anything and everything. When you say New Zealand and cricket they are even more interested!

There are some very religious practices in India, they have shrines everywhere with little buddahs sitting in them and they renew food, water & insense sticks regularly.

Deane chatted with a couple of guys that started asking him questions, they were Hindi and said in their religion there were 86,000,000 gods to choose from 🫣 

Deane said to them that thankfully he believed in the only One True God! That got them very interested and started asking even more questions, they were genuinely interested and Deane & Ross shared the Gospel of Jesus with them. They said they were interested to go buy a bible, so we prayed for them then & there 😊

Last Night in India

It was a very long and slow drive from Jaipur to New Delhi, we had to go to our first hotel to collect the suitcase we had left there and Ross had to collect some money he was owed by the hotel.

Then we drove to our hotel near the airport, Bri & Ross were flying out at 2am, we were staying 2 nights until our flight.

Ross and Deane were keen for their last meal in India to be Butter chicken.  Ross did some research and we ended up at the Daryaganj Restaurant, owned by the grandson of the inventor of the butter chicken recipe.  It was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

It was a fabulous way to end our month in India 🇮🇳 😊

Transport around India

We have used the train once and to save a 14 hour road trip we took 2 flights from Chandigarh to Udaipur.

Here in India it is not common to rent a car but to hire a car & driver and thid is the best option 👌 

Pickup and dropoff is at a prearranged time & location and you are able to make toilet & food stops along the way.

Ross was so well organised and had planned the roadtrips perfectly in advance.

It has been great way to see loads of scenery along the way in the comfort of a 7 seater vehicle for a very reasonable price. Most of the time it has either been the same as public transport and even a couple of times it has been cheaper!!!

The drivers range in age & ability, the highways between major cities are very good, side roads are what you would expect in a 3rd world country!

The drivers have this annoying habit of tooting the horn everytime they want to pass another vehicle or if they feel nervous someone will pull out in front of them. It is such a terrible habit and after 5 hours with some of the drivers it becomes exhausting .... should've invested in some ear plugs!!! I bet there are many people in India that are partially deaf.  

The other thing the drivers of cars and trucks do is hang all these streamers and stuff from their vehicles to ward off the evil spirits.  

Diwali Festival

It was the Diwali festival while we were in Jaipur, a Hindu religious festival which we didn't get into but it was interesting to see the lights on houses & buildings in preparation 

Jaipur Bazaar & city sights

Surajpole Gate

Just some extra photos of this amazing Gate, the Indian people love to have their engagement & wedding photos taken at "historic places" and they always wanted a photo with us too 😊 

Jaipur- the Pink City

Our last week in India was spent in the City of Jaipur, known as the 'Pink City" a very busy city with a big mix of old and modern

We had a fabulous air bnb with separate lounge area which made it great to be out and about most of the day but relaxing to be in after dinner.  Restaurant options were many and nearby, with dinner costing no more than $16 per couple.  We tried lots of local dishes, some of our favourites and some new choices too.

Deanes favourite Indian fries and springrolls yum😋

Bri & Ross had a great list of local attractions and experiences.

We visited the ..... Amber Palace & fort

Jal Mahal on Man Sagar Lake

Another stepwell, which was pretty amazing

We did a private Indian Cooking class, which was good but not quite as hands on as we had expected

Lots of walking around the City and Bazaars (markets) which was crazy busy

Our last day we spent pampering ourselves,  nails (hands & feet foe us girls only) and haircuts.

Ross found a great $2 haircut option for Bri but the entre time the hairdresser was trying to add on wash, massages, facials, blow Aves etc to increase the price.  He actually got a bit grumpy when Bri said haircut ONLY NOT extras 🤣