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When we landed in Delhi airport we were prepared for hassle like we had never experienced before. Thankfully the worst was the people working at the information desks shouting at us to get our custom: ”madam, madam we offer best price, come, come!” In the end we opted for the black cabs that the so- called “bible of travel books”, the life saving Lonely Planet recommended. We were to be honest not expecting the motor- way that took us into Delhi, a big Western affair!

The India we were expecting hit us all to soon at the first traffic lights when two little beggars no more than 6 or 7 started banging at the windows pointing to their mouths and shouting for rupees! Rupees! Nothing really prepares you for this but the taxi man drove on warning us to not let our windows down. We had paid for him to take us to the hostel we had reserved before we left Sri Lanka.

He dropped us off at the bottom of the Par Ghanj saying that the hotel could not be reached by taxi but that there was a hotel close by he could take us to run by his brother! All the taxi drivers are into this as they get commission from the hotels. But we insisted and walked up to our hostel.

The main bazaar on the paragon is the craziest place I have ever seen: huge water buffalo roaming the street, which incidentally was dug up here and there with open sewers on show and the overall smell of sewage is still with me to this day! Kids hanging out of your arms looking for food, rupees, anything really, beggar women doing the same and the police literally beating them off with sticks as its bad for business and the travel agents trying to drag you in to send you off on a package deal somewhere. We had to dodge all the auto rickshaws which kept pulling up in front of us trying to drag us into their vehicles and then all the cycle rickshaw drivers hissing at us to move out of the way or else!! It’s mental! We had been forewarned about the S**t guns (little kids have toy guns filled with, you guessed it! In an attempt to get them to clean your shoes! I swear its true!

We checked into our hotel room (remembering our friends word of advice “don’t look at the walls”) sound advice in this case. Our first Indian bathroom consisted of a bucket, wash hand basin and a western style toilet, no squat toilets just yet! But even this was bliss as the water was nice and warm, God were we soon going to abandon toilet roll in favour of the hand and a small bucket?
We had the joy of a roof top restaurant on top of our hostel that overlooked all Delhi, but as the pollution was particularly heavy that day no sights to be had, lots of horn blaring and cows mooing though! We had the joy of our first lassi, which was a type of curd drink and I had a delicious aloo gobi and garlic chapatti. So far so good!

Delhi in early February is quite chilly and having just spent 3 weeks in Sri Lanka in constant 30- degree heat we were freezing. Soon we were sitting drinking chais and wrapped in blankets like all the others! We had spent our few weeks in Sri Lanka in virtual isolation as there were not so many backpackers as there were older German and French retired couples (so be warned) so the novelty of there being so many other travellers on the roof top was brilliant. Its great how easy it is to get chatting to others when you are away.

We were in conversation with a veteran traveller: ”Mr by the Book” in no time whom had our entire travel itinerary planned out for us by the end of the conversation. He was just ticking off the places one by one I don’t know if he could even remember where was where. But the great thing about India is that you can go around as quickly as you want or like us see what you want and not what you “must” and spend as long or as short a period in a place that you want. This was pretty much our philosophy for our entire trip.

We left after a relaxed and shopping filled week in Delhi for our first real on the road experience.
We booked ourselves on a second- class sleeper train on the recommendations of our well- travelled associate. We were told we would not need a fan as the weather had not yet started to heat up and the sleepers were fine. I nearly cried when I saw the train the next morning. It was just chaos, families were literally hanging out the doors.
We fought our way to our seats after saying no a hundred times over to samosas, crisps, shoe-cleaning, floor- sweeping, cuddly toys, peanuts, chai and coffee from all the vendors that hop onto the train at each stop. We were seated in between two families from Bombay (Mumbai) who looked after us on the horror of a journey.

They were laden down with all the latest electrical equipment and draped in golden jewellery. They fed and watered us and made us take pictures of them and we had to get in photos with them, all Indians love pictures, being in them and taking them!

We spent 36 hours on that train covered in dust, experiencing dead heat like I never knew before and swapping stories of different cultures with our captivated Indian audience all the while being constantly stared at and touched by all on the train, as we were the only whities! The journey was well worth it as were the many other life threatening bus journeys we embarked upon.

A few weeks spent on the paradise like Palolem beach in Goa followed by a week catching the sights of the ancient and royal city of Hampii got us well versed in India culture. Impossible to try and reach Bombay by train from Hampii we set off for Rajisthan on numerous bus journeys up through central India.

Places like hippy and commune central: Pune can well be avoided as can Indore. Arungubad too has nothing much to offer but you can book a bus to go and see the ancient 2000 years old Ajanta caves famous for all the wall paintings frescoes and metres tall Buddha statues.

Rajisthan was amazing but quiet dry, as they have not had a proper rain there in a few years. It’s a holy city so as a result it’s forbidden to eat eggs, meat and drink alcohol (Tough being Irish!) It’s a great place to meet other travellers and really relaxed. But you need to know how to handle the holy men that pray by the lake as they offer to pray for all your friends and family (for a small fee of course!) and can become quite aggressive when you wont agree to hand over large amounts of rupees in exchange for a blessed flower to throw in the lake! We went across to visit the Taj Mahal, which was just beautiful. It was like being in a fairy tale all that white marble and the grounds were so well kept too. As the sun sets the colour changes the building making it even more magical.

Unfortunately there was an overwhelming smell of sewage in the air in Agra itself and tourists have to pay 20 times more than the locals to see it.
After about 3 and half months we reached the Himalayas, which would have been one of the highlights. We spent the most of it in Dharmsala in the midst of Tibetan refugees after fleeing from Tibet, Buddhist monks and lots of other travellers. It’s a welcome break from the madness of the rest of India as life goes by at a much slower pace and there are endless things to do.

For one there is a “bar” and an off licence. There are endless cookery courses, yoga and tai chi classes and Buddhist philosophy lessons to take. We met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, climbed numerous mountains and ate chocolate cake a lot. It’s also a beautifully breathtaking place to see.

So all in all we spent about four and a half months in India. Was I glad to come in the end? Absolutely. It is a planet all to itself. Most days you have to mentally prepare yourself to go out. It’s like going to battle! And people automatically assume you are filthy rich just because you are Western! The dirt and the sickness that hits often and hard are character breaking and physically draining. I don’t know if I would ever go back but I would recommend it to anyone with a sense of adventure.