India In Retrospect

On the eve of our departure for the Nepal border, we're reflecting a little over everything we've experienced on our almost 4 weeks in India. "Too little time", we always tell people when they ask why we haven't gone to this place or that, and why we have to leave so soon, but we both feel like we've made the most of our time. Of course there are loads more places to see, India is an enormous country, with far more people, far longer distances, far bigger cities, far more fantastic sights than we were imagining. "Seeing all of India" would take for ever, and frankly, it would be quite an exhausting journey.

The traveler, with Lonely Planet and a handful of string beans
(10 rupees for three days' worth of heavy munching), resting in Agra Fort.

Travelling like we've been doing, with a couple of days in each place, is great in that it lets us fit in a whole lot of highlights in a limited amount of time, and we have certainly been lucky with our pick of visits - every place has been a true highlight, it's impossible to compare or rank them, and no visits have felt like a mistake, no stops have felt too long. On the other hand, ever since Goa and Hampi we haven't really taken the time to settle in and get to know a place properly, we've just taken in the best of the cities, allowed ourselves to be pampered, eaten at the best select few restaurants, visited the very best sights. Also, although every stop has been entirely unique, something completely different, they've all been India. Even Goa. Here in magical Varanasi, the holiest of holy cities, a place unlike any other on earth, it's also just another Indian stop: The food is fantastic but getting familiar, the streets exhilarating but always stressful, the people we meet have the same customs, the same good and bad habits. We've had our mind set on Nepal for the last couple of days, anxious to move on. It may sound strange that we were discussing the practicalities of Himalaya trekking while watching the Ganges river evening ceremony, but that's the case.

So what have we loved the most about India? Here are some points we want to highlight, that we've kind of brushed by lightly on the blog so far.

The food

Oh my goodness, where to begin. Ever since we got to Goa, with its tourist-friendly (but entirely new to us) menus, we've been wowed by Indian food. Although dotted with burgers, pizza and pancakes, Goan cuisine specialized in coconut sauces, tangy spices and fantastic, fresh sea food. We'd usually order two different curries to share, along with some rice, chapati or naan bread (garlic naan, more often than not). Hampi, still tourist friendly, gave us a good taste of the famous south Indian cuisine. One favorite from here is the masala dosa, a thick-breaded wrap with filling veggies inside. Moving away from the tourist places, we got a better impression of Indian everyday cooking, and street and train food (we've been extremely careful). They like breading and deep-frying stuff, and the steaming hot, triangular samosas for 10 rupees (1 NOK) are hard to resist. There's also the ever-present chai, a spicy tea with milk and sugar - the latter in absurd amounts if it's pre-mixed; I prefer it when they bring you the sugar bowl separately, and you can choose to add less than the five tablespoon standard.

The delicious meal at Ganga Fuji in Varanasi was quite representative:
From top left: Vegetable raita (tzatsiki-like side), spinach mushroom curry, kashmiri curry,
garlic naan, and a colorful biryani (rice dish)

Even after moving out of the strictly vegetarian areas, we've steered largely away from meat. Partly because of the slightly higher risk of insufficient preparation, but mostly because we simply haven't missed it much with all the amazing and new vegetarian dishes. We've grown to just use the hindi names for our favorites: Aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), fried dal (lentils), anything with palak (spinach), and anything Kashmiri (a style that usually includes adding some applish fruit and cashewish nut to the dish in question). It's been fun discovering the regional variations as we traveled through the different states. Gujarati food (sampled in Ahmedabad), lighter, sweeter and seemingly prepared with extra care, was a pleasant surprise. Rajasthan brought meat back on the menu in the form of mutton - often much more tasty than the rather half-hearted chicken dishes. For while strict veganism is found only in patches, the aversion  towards eating the holy cows and pigs is all over India, and this has given rise to loophole inventions such as chicken burgers and mutton bacon!

The famous Blue Lassi lassis. This is from our second visit.

The last one that needs a mention is the lassi: a milkshake-like drink/desert based on curd (natural goat's milk yoghurt) and added any variety of flavor. Favorite flavors have included cardamom, mango, pomegranate and Gujarati special, but the India-wide search for the best lassi undoubtedly reached its conclusion here in Varanasi, at the well hidden yet well visited Blue Lassi. They are hand-churned on the spot in hand-made clay pots, and over 70 varieties are on the menu. After waiting for ages in the tiny, blue room overlooking the street where funeral processions regularly march down to the burning ghats, you get ridiculously excited when your dream-combination lassi (pomegranate-chocolate? blueberry-orange? saffron-pistachio?) arrives overflowing in the clay pot. And it's so, so good. But Blue Lassi masterpiece or regular plain, I'll miss them.

The history

We've taken in so much history while we've been here, and India has so incredibly much to offer in terms of old stuff. There are 30 world heritage sites, for starters. Rather than giving a history lecture here, I'll mention how neat it has been that the different places we've visited, snapshots around the country in between skipping large stretches, have offered us glimpses into so many different historical eras. We've traveled from the Portuguese colonial churches in Goa, to the temples and palaces of the Vijayanagar kingdom (ca. 15th century AD) in Hampi, from the Victorian London-influences in Mumbai to long-lost civilizations on Elephanta Island, from the Arab feeling in Ahmedabad's mosques and walls to Udaipur and Agra's decadent maharaja legacy, and the holy Ganges in Varanasi, as old as the Hindu religion itself. Supplemented by a few museums and a very helpful guide book, it feels like we've been learning by osmosis while we've been here, just soaking up information. And we've stayed clear of the famous "temple fatigue", where one amazing site just blends into the next, though I have a feeling the Nepal stay will be dominated more by adventure than sightseeing.

This magnificent mosque stands right next to the Taj Mahal. Ever heard of it?
No, neither had we.

Temple fatigue? From Hampi.

The smiles

We've been whining about many Indians, and my oh my can the rickshaw-drivers, vendors, scammers, massagers, hagglers, horn-honkers and paan-spitters be annoying. But there have also been plenty of times we've been blown over backwards by how helpful and genuinely friendly Indians can be. Some I'll remember for a while are the people running our hotel in Sawai Madhopur, who shared their fire with us and taught us some Hindi, the socially, artistically, environmentally conscious restaurant owner who took us for the artisan tour of Udaipur, the student in Mumbai who stopped us on the street only so he could practice his English and show us around town for the afternoon, Manoj of course, and the many families we've met on our train rides, who with limited English always would talk to us as much as they could. While I was feverish on the train from Hampi to Mumbai, Alex was dancing Gangnam Style all morning long with the kids in the neighboring compartment!

Curious Indians seem to associate only one thing with Norway - the midnight sun and all-day nights for a few weeks in the far north. But they've got it a bit wrong, and they always ask us something along the lines of "Is it true that they don't have day and night in Norway?". Others don't know Norway at all; they don't understand that we've answered their question, and keep repeating "Your country! Your country!" until we pronounce "Norway" with a rolled R, and say "North Europe" or something. Among the tourist profiteers most will claim they have a friend from Norway, and we've heard that many of the people constantly asking to take photos with us (some don't even ask first, they just rudely grab our arms and point at the camera) do it to be able to brag to friends or show future customers their European friends. But then again, the laughs shared by the locals over cups of chai are sweeter than even the chai itself.

Happy kids in Hampi.

Okay, till next time India. It's been great. Now: Nepal ohoy!