traveltoestwoIndia with the Locals
May 20th 2008 05:23
At the age of nineteen, I journeyed to India with my family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins included. This trip had been in the planning stage for forty-two years – ever since my mother and her family left India for Sydney.
We experienced New Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Agra, Cochin and Goa. My aunts and uncles spoke to the locals. We ate off stalls in the street. We wandered through the markets, spending up a storm. We ate at all the local (or dodgy) restaurants. At each and every place we experienced something new.
In New Delhi we saw the Red Fort, we bought carpets at a local Emporium and we saw Ghandi’s cremation site. We had an Indian wedding in the driveway of our hotel and we spent almost four hours wandering the underground markets. My uncle sang songs of peace and danced with a group of local university students at the entrance to a tomb and we experienced New Years Eve – Bollywood style.
Driving to Agra, we passed three accidents and a Sikh parade before arriving at the vision they call the Taj Mahal. An important tip, go to the site as many times as you can. As the sun changes, so does the appearance of the Taj. If you want peace, sunrise is the quietest and most beautiful time.
On our first night in Jaipur, we took part in an Indian wedding procession, dancing with the groom and his family. We saw all the palaces and managed to sneak into a movie set starring the famous Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai. We rode elephants, took part on Kite Fights and after buying fireworks from a local stall, we headed to the promenade at nightfall.
In Udaipur, we stayed in the palace grounds where the Maharana lives. The rooms were beautiful and spacious, looking out onto the lake and the infamous Lake Palace. We played cricket with the locals, wandered down the colourful street, chatted to some schoolkids, saw the palace and cruised around the lake in our own private boat.
While I could go on forever about our experiences in these cities, by far the highlight of our trip was Bombay (Mumbai), where my mother and her family lived. We saw 221 Ballasis Rd Bycalla Bombay (my mother’s childhood home), we saw the apartment where my grandmother and her siblings grew up, we saw the racecourse where my grandfather used to bet and we went and visited all of my ancestors’ graves. We went to where my grandparents were married and the school that they all attended. And we visited the midwife who delivered my mother and her sisters.
Of course, we saw the tourist sites as well. We drove along Chowpatty Beach (where we also ate off stalls on the sand), we went to Malabar Hill, and we saw India Gate. We watched the Dhobi-wallahs, the outdoor laundromat and watched as the Dubbah Wallahs delivered home-cooked meals to those at work.
India is a beautiful and culturally rich country. I was lucky enough to experience it with semi-locals who spoke the language, knew what to eat and where to go.
We experienced New Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Agra, Cochin and Goa. My aunts and uncles spoke to the locals. We ate off stalls in the street. We wandered through the markets, spending up a storm. We ate at all the local (or dodgy) restaurants. At each and every place we experienced something new.
In New Delhi we saw the Red Fort, we bought carpets at a local Emporium and we saw Ghandi’s cremation site. We had an Indian wedding in the driveway of our hotel and we spent almost four hours wandering the underground markets. My uncle sang songs of peace and danced with a group of local university students at the entrance to a tomb and we experienced New Years Eve – Bollywood style.
Driving to Agra, we passed three accidents and a Sikh parade before arriving at the vision they call the Taj Mahal. An important tip, go to the site as many times as you can. As the sun changes, so does the appearance of the Taj. If you want peace, sunrise is the quietest and most beautiful time.
On our first night in Jaipur, we took part in an Indian wedding procession, dancing with the groom and his family. We saw all the palaces and managed to sneak into a movie set starring the famous Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai. We rode elephants, took part on Kite Fights and after buying fireworks from a local stall, we headed to the promenade at nightfall.
In Udaipur, we stayed in the palace grounds where the Maharana lives. The rooms were beautiful and spacious, looking out onto the lake and the infamous Lake Palace. We played cricket with the locals, wandered down the colourful street, chatted to some schoolkids, saw the palace and cruised around the lake in our own private boat.
While I could go on forever about our experiences in these cities, by far the highlight of our trip was Bombay (Mumbai), where my mother and her family lived. We saw 221 Ballasis Rd Bycalla Bombay (my mother’s childhood home), we saw the apartment where my grandmother and her siblings grew up, we saw the racecourse where my grandfather used to bet and we went and visited all of my ancestors’ graves. We went to where my grandparents were married and the school that they all attended. And we visited the midwife who delivered my mother and her sisters.
Of course, we saw the tourist sites as well. We drove along Chowpatty Beach (where we also ate off stalls on the sand), we went to Malabar Hill, and we saw India Gate. We watched the Dhobi-wallahs, the outdoor laundromat and watched as the Dubbah Wallahs delivered home-cooked meals to those at work.
India is a beautiful and culturally rich country. I was lucky enough to experience it with semi-locals who spoke the language, knew what to eat and where to go.
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