Incredible India

So we were thrilled and privileged to be able to jet off to INCREDIBLE INDIA for our Easter Holidays.

I'll do a sequential post of the actual things we saw and did next, but the synopsis is that it was an awesome holiday and somehow the longer I am back from it, the more I loved it. Which is odd, but I think India takes a while to seep it. It is a little overwhelming and frustrating and confounding while you are there. Also our trip was very short and pretty action packed so I think we needed a while to assimilate and process it all....

This pretty neatly sums Indai up:

A Rough Guide to India: "It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does humanity present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues. Enriched by successive waves of migration and marauders from distant lands, every one of them left an indelible imprint which was absorbed into the Indian way of life. Every aspect of the country presents itself on a massive, exaggerated scale, worthy in comparison only to the superlative mountains that overshadow it. It is this variety which provides a breathtaking ensemble for experiences that is uniquely Indian. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India would be to describe or understand India completely..."

In a nutshell it was amazing. (Even though I must be honest a lot of the time I was thinking 'but not quite as nice as Thailand' - as that is still my first love and everything there is just better and more).

India's charm  though  is the chaos and madness and vagaries.  You never know quite what is going on, or what you are going to get, or where you are going. There is never a direct yes or no answer either. That head bobble means anything from, yes, no, maybe, later, not on your life, I have no idea what you want, I am going to do what I want anyway, yeah right, huh ?, lol, whatever! etc.

It's funny when it's not frustrating. In fact most things are amusing if you manage to keep your wits and sense of humour.

Basically it is a land of extremes and contrasts: Crazy, humid, dirty, loud, tasty, confusing, entertaining, spicy, poor, dusty, beautiful, fun, colourful, exhausting, opulent, magical, bustling, HOT. incredible!

We did all sorts of things and everything from super cheap, cheerful and dirty  (even a slum tour ) and cockroach ridden places to high-end luxury and even got bumped up to a 5-star suite luxury hotel with butler (I kid you not!) in Mumbai, when our booked hotel was full because the Mumbai Indians were staying there for the IPL. So we really had a vast spectrum of experiences.

The boys loved it. I am always impressed with how open they are to new experiences and how they roll with stuff and lap it all up - as do I. So it is really fun travelling with them.

As I said it's not as pretty, friendly, organised, spiritual , cheap (in fact India is surprisingly NOT cheap a lot of the time in terms of shopping and accommodation & transport esp) or accessible as Thailand is, and it was really hard not to compare the 2 constantly, but it definitely was quite an amazing experience and I am very glad we went.

More to follow...