India

Benefits: To witness Hindu rituals; everyone speaks English; Goa and its combination of beaches and history; Lucky to avoid the monsoon

Concerns: the mix of high temperatures, poverty, some dirty & noises places; difficult to find western food when you need a break of Indian food; Time (not 4h neither 5h ahead of GMT but 4h and 30 min!!!)

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Places visited (& days): 16 days from the 14th May till 31st- Bombay (2); Goa (7); Delhi (2); Jaipur (1); Agra (1); Varanasi (3)

Transport (time or distances): Flight from Dubai to Bombay (3 hours); Bus from Bombay to Goa (620 km - 14h); flight from Goa to Delhi (2h15); Bus from Delhi to Jaipur (6 hours): Bus from Jaipur to Agra w/o A/C!!! (5h30); Train from Agra to Varanasi (it should have taken 9 hours but by mistake it took me 15 hours!); Flight from Varanasi to Kathmandu (1 h).

Currency: Rupee (INR) - 1 Euros = 54,5 INR


Funny Experiences :

The fact that i am not married is very difficult to be understood by some Hindus (for some Muslims as well). To avoid very long conversations and a lot of questions sometimes I had to say that I was married or if not at least engaged!);

Trip from Agra to Varanasi: I thought that Varanasi was the last stop so when the train stopped at 6.00 am and some new passengers came in, I just turned around and kept sleeping. Later on I asked one of them, at what time we should arrive to Varanasi. He answered that we had already passed Varanasi (around 45 min ago!). I jumped out at the first stop and took a train back. At that time I was travelling on 1st class, A/c, in a fast train. To come back to Varanasi there was no A/C, the train was crowded and to make 42 km it took us 3 hours.

I got very often confused with the time (just at the end of my journey in India did I understand that India was 4h (and 30 min!!!!) ahead of GMT

Bombay girls, who never ask for money but just food

I have to assume it was a shock when I landed in India coming from Dubai. Glad that at least I landed in Bombay (sorry Mumbai). I spent here 2 days. A lot of green areas, nice buildings and a lot of interesting sights that I visited (Gateway of India; Taj Mahal Palace Palace & Tower, University of Bombay, St Thomas' Cathedral; Victorious Terminus; Prince of Wales Museum, Mahalaxmi Temple; Mani Bahavan; the Elephant Islands just one hour by boat)

Rajabai Tower - Bombay

 

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victorious Terminus)

Gateway of India

After 2 days I decide to leave since there was still a lot to see in India. I then took a bus to Goa. During my trip I met Vinod, an Indian guy who was living in Goa and running a shop selling mainly T-shirts. I could not sleep during the trip and therefore asked the driver if I could seat next to him (at least I could enjoy the view and the crazy way how they drive). He said no way, but I insisted and stayed. In fact, it was a risky decision since there was no belt and driving in India by night it is not the funniest thing in the world.

The first 4 days I mainly covered the north (Calangute, Baga, Anjuna, Vageitor) and centre of Goa (Painjin, the actual capital) and Old Goa (the former capital). I was so surprise to see how big Goa was, that I decided to rent a motorbike to cover the long distances and enjoy the landscape.

Paragliding during sunset (No, it wasn' t me!) at Calangute beach were I slept my first 4 days

One of the funny Indians that could not believe that I was not married

Vagator Beach (North of Goa)

Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Panjim)

As a Portuguese guy, visiting Old Goa has a special flavour. There were a lot of sights to visit and I was glad to have my motorbike otherwise it would have been impossible to cover all the city on one day: Se Cathedral, Convent & Church of St Francis of Assisi; Basilica of Bom Jesus, Church of St Cajetan, Church of St Augustin, Church & Convent of St Monica (just to name some sights)

Se Cathedral (Old Goa)

Chapel of St Catherine

For the remaining 3 days of the week, I decided to go to the south to Palolem (it took me 2 hours by taxi to make the 80 km that separate Calangute from Palolem).

There is not so much to see here apart from chill out on one of the best beaches that I have ever seen (I Loved Palolem!!!)

Palolem Beach

I stayed on a great "camp" (can´t remember the name) 5 metres from the sea. Lovely place to relax. During the night, I had the first signals of the monsoon with some showers. This mixture of showers and the sound of the sea on the back is unforgettable!

Unfortunately the monsoon time was arriving and it is somehow sad to see everyone in a hurry to demolish all the huts that served for accommodation.

Family helping to demolish the huts (Lucas, Kresna & Chendo)

Fishermen at Palolem beach (South of Goa)

From Palolem, I took a cab back to the airport to take a flight to Delhi.

I didn't enjoy Delhi so much probably because it was still very hot, crowded and all the horns blowing around were really though!

I visited the Red Fort, Jama Masjid (mosque), Humayun's & Safdarjang's Tombs and Connaught Place

One of the autorickshaw that I "stole" to visit the city

At the Red Fort I met Ben, a nice English guy. He was also travelling on his own. We spent the day visiting all the sights together.

Quick dinner, Ben was leaving that night to Pokara (Nepal) while I was leaving to Jaipur the day after

The Safdarjang's Tombs

So after 2 days in Delhi I moved to Jaipur (the pink city jam packed with people, animals, cars, rickshaws...)!

The Hawa Mahal

Here I visited the Hawa Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Montar (the observatory) and 10 km away the impressive Amber (the ancient capital)

Next stop Agra to finish the so called Golden Triangle (Delhi, Jaipur and Agra). The main attraction here are the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. I was really curious to visit the Taj Mahal specially after having been to the pyramids and Petra.

I wanted to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal and therefore I arived at 6.00 am, when the gate opened. The first picture as usually was "the Tuga with the Portuguese flag" but at that time I was caught by a security guard (glad that I managed to run away very quik)

The Taj Mahal

My only concern of the vist was the unfair price they charge to foreigners compared to Indians. I had to pay 750 (Rs) which is around 14 Euros while Indians just pay 20Rs!!!

The great views of the Taj Mahal from the Yamuna River

Then, I took a train from Agra to Varanasi which took me almost the same time as doing Paris-Lisbon on my Inter-Rail in 1989 with my friend Joao Lampreia (what a time we had together!)

The crowded train (going back to Varanasi)

 

Varanasi, the Holy city for Hindus (Shiva). Here the main attraction is the Ganges river with its Gahts where we can see some rituals, as people coming for a "religious" bath and at Manikarnika gaht and Harishchandra ghat, where we can see bodies to be cremated.

Purification bath at Assi Gaht

Cremation ritual at Manikarnika gaht



Man watching from the Gangs River the cremation ritual