A Tale of Two Indias - The Golden Triangle & Goa (Sep 2025)
After years of putting off this destination - I finally bit the bullet - after even more procrastination. Despite Asia being my favourite continent, I struggle greatly with stray dogs, and the rabies rate on the continent makes it even more difficult. Knowing Indian had the highest numbers of both meant I kept putting it off in favour of other Asian countries with (allegedly) slightly less strays. But having now visited so many countries on the continent, my options were beginning to run low. I decided at the start of 2025 that this would be the year!
I had just begun to get serious about my plans, looking at itineraries, airfares etc. when the Kashmir incident occurred in April, sparking a dangerous escalation between Pakistan and India. That scared me. I put the breaks on and decided to wait and see. By the end of May (as I was on my way to Morocco) tensions seemed to have eased so I thought I’d get back to planning in June and go as quickly as I could before something further happened. Knowing the monsoon season was about to start I figured September / October would be the earliest and decided to get something sorted on the return from Morocco. But then the fatal Air India event happened. This caused me to halt again. I’m not sure why as I had decided I didn’t want to fly with them. Reviews were mixed but there were a lot of negative ones about the quality and service and I didn’t want to chance it on such a long flight.
Then in August, the husband put his foot down and said - ‘If you intend to go to India this year stop procrastinating and book it!’ I booked, via a travel agent, to fly out the first week in Sep. The whole booking process was a drama in itself but by God’s grace, at the last minute, I switched travel agents and saved us a nightmare - but that will be covered in the do and don't section of my travel book one day, lol.
I booked Virgin flights (1st time I’ve ever been on a Virgin flight and not seen another black person), 5 star hotels (some questionable) throughout India and a private driver throughout the Golden Triangle section with a different tour guide in each city. The great Indian tour was about to commence.
Arrival
We ended up at the slowest immigration queue so when we finally got through, the conveyor belt with our luggage had stopped and our cases were thankfully at the side so we could just grab them and go. A lovely young lady by the name of Ackshra was patiently waiting for us and escorted us to our driver and then to the hotel and waited while we checked in. A little much as I’m not a fan of ‘hand-holding’ on holiday, but a lovely gesture. Room wasn’t ready as it was still morning so we wandered around the hotel and then I made myself comfortable and did some writing.
I fell into a long, deep sleep. Would have happily stayed there till the next morning but knew that wasn’t wise. Popped out for a light bite - Macdonalds, which I would never consider in UK but love checking out on holiday. The Indian chain only serves chicken and vegetarian options. There was a television showing a program on how food is sourced and prepared for MD. What was more interest were the videos following the progress of young employees
As hubby chilled in the room, I ventured down to the spa and had it all to myself - with the exception of the lady working there who insisted on following me to every station. ‘Here’s your locker.’ ‘Here’s the changing room’ - opening the door for me. ‘Here’s the shower’ - as she pulled back the shower curtain. She wasn’t there when I came out of the shower so I walked straight into the steam room. A minute later the door opens, ‘Are you starting with the steam? Aren’t you having a jacuzzi first?’ I declined the jacuzzi but didn’t tell her why. I had in fact forgotten to pack my swimwear, so as the spa was single sex, I kept a towel wrapped around me in the steam room and sauna.
India - part one - The Golden Triangle (heavy Hindi dominance)
I’m usually an early riser and don’t need an alarm but thankfully I followed my mind and set one the night before or I would never have woken early enough to shower, dress and have breakfast in time for our 9am pickup. I slept-walked my way through brekkie. Tried a few of the local foods but my stomach was a bit queasy for some reason so in the end I just had an omelet and streaky pork bacon. Then I visited the bakery area and took a sandwich bag full of baked stuff to have later.
Karan, our guide for the day, met us in the hotel’s lobby and we headed out again for the day with our driver Peeco. He took us around the entire Golden Triangle and was a blessing to have.
My main concern for the day, and this trip as a whole, was dogs. Though there were plenty it wasn’t as bad as it could have been as I had braced myself for the worst, dogs running around me constantly. The street exploration of Old Delhi was a challenge, especially when walking through the little alley ways where neither the guide nor hubby could be at my side and I was forced to walk past the dogs up close and personal. Lying, standing and walking dogs, but by God’s grace I survived.
Today consisted of Old and New Delhi visits. A walk along Chandni Chowk (Moonlight Square) provided some interesting sites and it was great watching the people of Delhi go about their ordinary business. There was a man cleaning the wax from a baby’s ear as it sat on its mother’s lap. Karan explained that they were known as Kaan Saaf Wallahs and identified by their red headwear.
I was desperate to try street food but very wary of Delhi Belly. Karan took us to a vendor he said was ‘safe’ but I only tried a little because I still feared DB especially with the hectic schedule planned for the first week. We later visited Haldiram's, a popular Indian chain specialising in street food and sweets. Everything was delicious. I couldn’t believe a fresh hot samosa was 20 pence. The samosa pastry was very different to what we have in the UK - firmer.
The bicycle rickshaw was a great experience, not for the faint hearted. The day included visits to Jama Masjid, Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Connaught Place, India Gate, Raj Ghat (a beautiful memorial complex dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi), Humayuns Tomb (often referred to as the precursor to the Taj Mahal) and Qutub Minar (tallest brick minaret in the world).
When I asked the guide about churches, because I wanted to attend one the following morning (Sunday), he interpreted it as me wanting to see a church today and added an impromptu visit to a Catholic church to today’s agenda. The Lotus Temple wasn’t on the agenda either but I asked to drive by for a photo. It wasn’t visible from the road so, forgetting my fear of dogs, I jumped out the car and ran toward the attraction for a photo.
Discovered a bar near the hotel that served food. Ordered butter chicken and a mutton biriani thinking it would be mild, as in the UK. Nope! The butter chicken was hot and the biryani had a little kick. The garlic naan and paratha were great - and thus kicked off the habit of Indian breads for breakfast and dinner every day.
I happened upon a forex booth and negotiated a rate of 118 (from 110) in a money exchange place. First time I had ever haggled for currency exchange. I knew that was the rate being offered elsewhere and agreed to change slightly more to obtain it. It was quite difficult finding a forex in the UK that had rupees in stock so only managed to get a few before flying out. Many of the major establishments accept credit cards - bigger restaurants, hotels etc but many of the roadside stalls, markets etc that I visited still hailed cash as king so it’s important to carry cash with you.
An early morning start for the drive to Agra which was mostly on a motorway not to dis-similar to the UK.
It was a very smooth drive from Delhi to Agra with hardly any other vehicles on the road. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s a quiet stretch of the motorway or because it was Sunday. It was great looking outside and seeing Indian life pass by. Workers on the side of the motorway, pedestrians, other vehicles - some smaller cars, motorbikes, buses, and an ambulance. There were also some really cool, and slightly peculiar road signs. My favorites were ‘Over speeding will invite prosecutive’, (maybe seeding is fine but not over-speeding?) and ‘Please drive slow, life is precious,’ which I thought was beautiful.
Agra sightseeing was not the best experience for me. Seeing the Taj Mahal was great as it had been on my tick list for years but the overall experience was very underwhelming. The guide, in my opinion, was not up to par and not as good as the guide from Delhi. He was in an incredible rush (not sure why as the agency we booked through had prebooked him) and it was difficult keeping up with him in the humidity - the kind where your clothes soak through. He was also interrupting others (Indians) who were trying to take photos / videos to give us an advantage of taking our shots - or him taking shots of us. Why didn’t we have to wait our turn like everyone else? I apologised to some people on his behalf. Then there was the whole spiel about his 2 children, 8 and 3, who were so expensive and how tough he found it as he only worked from Oct through to Apr. I had to bite my tongue from pointing out we were at the beginning of Sep and he was working so….. Hubby was different and in the end gave him a bigger tip than the Delhi guide who had actually been a lot better.
After the Taj, there was another very hurried visit to the Agra Fort.
The intention in the evening was to visit a hotel next door to the hotel but it looked a little deserted and a dog was blocking one of the entry ways. An auto rickshaw driver seized the opportunity and said he'd take us to some restaurants. Fare - 20 rupees each for a round trip! I interpreted that as he was taking us to somewhere with a range of eateries. It turns out he took us to a restaurant in a very quiet area, with no other diners and said he’d wait for us. I wasn’t comfortable and asked to be taken to an area with a few restaurants. He proceeded to take us to another stand alone restaurant. This one had diners but looked a little too fancy for me as I wasn’t ‘dressed’. We asked to be taken back to the hotel but he persisted and took us to another location - I declared I’d check out but it would be the last one. It was a nice modern looking first floor cafe with a fine dining restaurant upstairs. Both were vegetarian. Opted for the cafe style floor and the food was nice. Though my chickpea curry had a little too much kick for me, the parathas were lovely and so was the veg biryani. I knew what was awaiting us after we left - there just happened to be a shop next door and the owner wanted us to pop in. I pre-warned hubby that I’d be making our excuses and told them we had to be taken back to the hotel pronto. Gave the auto rickshaw driver more than he quoted and collapsed exhausted into bed for some shut eye before the next day’s journey.
The journey to Jaipur from Agra was almost as opposite as you could get to the journey from the Delhi-Agra journey - and I absolutely loved it! Delhi-Agra had been on the equivalent of a UK motorway. The roads leaving Agra however were a lot more village-like and later turned into more of an A road. But it was getting to that A road that provided the most road entertainment I’d had so far on this trip. The roads were lined with market stall vendors selling mostly fruit and vegetables but there were also some book stalls amongst them which I thought interesting. It was nice watching locals go about their morning routines. We passed noisy rickshaws and buses packed with commuters.
But it was the cows that amazed me most. Roaming the streets, walking any which way through traffic as drivers skill-fully dodged them. Our driver had to slam on his breaks and swerve once to avoid a cow-collision.
I also had the opportunity to see the living conditions of some residents. The poverty in Asia & Africa never ceases to sadden me. I remember my first trip to Asia, China in 2006, where I saw people and children living a way I had never seen before. The small glimpses I saw on this trip seemed to surpass that. Small one room shacks with no clear signs of sanitation. Compared to some of the utter wealth exhibited in other areas by some Indians - the mind boggles. The rich / poor divide in some countries I’ve visited vastly exceeds what I see in the UK.
Our guide for Jaipur was called Veena and explained that she was one of a handful of female guides in India. In her 60’s and having done this job for over 20 years, she was a font of information. We visited the Amber Fort and had a jeep ride to the top. City Palace, Jal Mahal (Water palace). There was Hawa Mahal, the popular pink building. I had the opportunity to visit the shops around the area and purchased some bright yellow trousers.
We visited the newly reopened City Palace Museum learned a lot about the young Maharajah of Jaipur, Padmanabh Singh, of whom Veena was clearly a huge fan. We also saw his residence.
There was also a funny episode of the man trying to sell me a bag at the Amber Fort. He started asking for 100, just 100 he said and I thought, ‘how can a bag be 100 rupees? I know India is cheap but wow!’ Such was his insistence as he followed us down that I decided, despite not actually wanting the bag, that I would purchase it, believing my sister or mother would make use of it. No sooner had I pulled out the 100 rupee note, he informed me that indeed it was 100 dollars and not rupees. I couldn’t help laughing. I informed him that as I was in India I had rupees and not dollars. So it suddenly turned into 5,000 rupees and made its way down. The further down the hill we got, the more the price dropped but by then I had lost interest in the product I did not want from the beginning. By the time we returned to the jeep, the desperate vendor had reduced his rate to 500 rupees. On entering the jeep, Venna, who had spoken to him in their language, informed me that she had told him from the beginning to offer it for 200 rupees. Wow, interesting.
Outside of the hotel breakfasts, Agra and Jaipur saw us eating vegetarian meals every evening as all the restaurants nearby were vegetarian.
I had purchased a very light raincoat for this trip as I’d read Monsoon rains were likely to linger into September and I was a little disappointed I didn’t experience any rain on the Golden Triangle triangle but also thankful as I don’t know how I’d have contended with all we did in downpours of rain.
Part 2 - Goa (lot more christian, catholic dominated)
This was my first time flying with Indigo and it was pleasant. Our seats were right at the very front of the plane and I secretly felt all that leg room was wasted on me. Travel agent must have pre-booked us a meal. Chicken sandwich, snack and drink. But I didn’t have room for anything on the 2 and a half hour flight as I was very full from the amazing meal in the lounge. Encalm Lounge was great and I loved the chicken curry and fresh made parathas. There was also a live rice station, though I didn’t much like the rice. The lounges at Heathrow need to step up!
It was dark out for the drive to the hotel but I could still see the contrast from the part of India I had just left.
The resort was situated on the beach. A beach filled with running dogs. Lots of them. I had earmarked a restaurant along the beach to try. Trying to get to it though was a nightmare. I had been told repeatedly that the dogs turned feral at night. I tried my best to keep my eyes straight a head and ignore the dogs but it wasn’t possible. A one point there was a small pack of around 8 to my right and several others running in front, behind and on the left of me. Turns out the restaurant I wanted to eat in allowed stray dogs so we went to another one further along the beach.
Goa was a much slower pace than the rest of India and we spent a lot of time chilling. We booked Wilson, taxi driver we met at the beach entrance to hotel, to take us to church on Sunday.
The rain I so desperately longed for finally came and thankfully on a day when I had planned to remain at the resort all day.
I noted a male dominance when it comes to serving. Hotel in Goa had all male staff, waiting, cooking, only 1 lady who checked us in.
Music at the resort was played unfiltered. F words, N words and S words played at the pool with very young children. Maybe staff did not understand the lyrics……
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