India 2024
Natasha and I got married in August of 2023. Since many of her extended family live in India, Natasha’s parents planned a reception in each of their home states for us in January of 2024. Despite being together for 10 years, this was my first trip to India. We visited five cities over two weeks, meeting family, seeing the sites, braving the traffic, and eating amazing food.
Itinerary
On consecutive weekends we had wedding receptions in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. We had six days in between in which we decided to do the “Golden Triangle” of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur which is the most popular trip for tourists.
Travel Day
Mom flew to Seattle to so we could all make the Qatar Airlines flight to Hyderabad (via Doha) together. 14+ hours in a plane is a long time. Unfortunately our neighbors were less considerate than those around us on our way to Nepal last year. Luckily, I had some fun movies downloaded and was able to settle into the long flight and get a bit of sleep.
We had a relatively easy transfer in Doha (meeting up with Nat’s dad, Ashish, and sister, Priyanka) and arrived in Hyderabad at around midnight local time. Natasha’s grandma’s driver, Rahmat, picked us up and drove us to the hotel.
Hyderabad
The next morning we slept in before meeting up with Nat’s sister and parents before getting our first taste of Hyderabad. For some context, Hyderabad is a major city of around 10 million people in the southern part of India and is the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. It’s where Natasha’s maternal grandmother (Ammamma) lives and is close to where Natasha’s mom grew up. It’s a big tech hub and home to some yummy spicy food, specifically, biryani which is a rice dish layered with spiced meat and saffron.
Our first day was primarily devoted to recovering from travel and eating. For breakfast, I had dosa and idli sambar with South Indian filter coffee, which is sort of like light espresso made with coffee and chicory with milk and sugar added. For lunch, I tried the hotel restaurant’s Hyderbadi thali (big plate with a lot of different dishes).
We spent some time with Ammamma in the afternoon (more coffee!) before heading to our first event of the trip. Unfortunately, my breakfast/lunch enthusiasm meant I was only at around 80% capacity for dinner at Falaknuma Palace.
Falaknuma Palace
Falaknuma Palace is a beautiful palace turned luxury hotel atop a hill with panoramic views of Hyderabad. It was built in the late 19th century and served as home of the Nizam of Hyderabad which was essentially the head of the princely state during the British colonial rule of India.
We were driven to the gate from which we took a golf cart along the cobbled path to the opulent front doors. Along the way we saw palm trees and peacocks before rounding the final corner.
We got a nice tour of the many rooms and the courtyard, learning a few interesting tidbits:
- The Nizam’s wife was 4'6" and had all of her furniture special made to be lower. The guide kept referring to the furnishings as “height centric”
- The dining table could seat 101 guests
- The bathroom used to have multiple water pipes for hot water, cold water, turmeric water, and rose water.
After the tour we met up with Nat’s mom’s family for dinner at the palace. It was fancy and delicious. I ate way too much (a common occurrence on this trip) and loved every morsel. Huge thank you to Raywa (Natasha’s cousin) for setting that up!
LV Prasad Eye Institute and Biryani with the Family
On our next day in Hyderabad we got a tour of the LV Prasad Eye Institute where Natasha’s mom used to work. It’s a super cool organization that helps people all over India from all economic situations get eye care as well as helping those with vision impairments transition back into life.
Afterward, we were treated to a lovely lunch at Prabhattamma and Shanti mamayya’s (Nat’s aunt and uncle) home. They as well as Niyatee (Nat’s cousin) made us home-made pulao (spicy baked rice dish) and many many other dishes. They took it easy on us with only half spicy :)
Golconda Fort
That afternoon we visited Golconda Fort, a 12th century fortress built atop a hill. It was many many steps to the top, and we found out about halfway up that our poor guide (who we hired officially through the front office) had just gotten knee surgery two weeks prior. Guy was a champ.
While in Hyderabad, a kite festival was going on called Makar Sankranti which celebrates the arrival of longer days. On the stairs on the way up Golconda Fort you could look out across the city and see hundreds of people flying kites on their roofs. Every once in a while you’d hear a big cheer…Ashish told us that that meant one kite had cut the string of another kite in a duel.
KBR Park
The next morning, Nat and I were wide awake at around six (yay jetlag) so when her mom asked if we wanted to go for a walk at the park, we said yes. Going for a walk was refreshing because one does not simply go for walks in India.
A brief aside on walking around in an indian city….
There are no sidewalks. When there are sidewalks, there are often many obstacles or people driving on them. There are no real crosswalks. There are a lot of cars. There are even more motorcycles. Sometimes cars and motorcycles go the wrong way down roads. Most roads are packed. Walking in India is difficult. Unless you’re in a park.
Okay back to our morning walk. KBR park is huge and is right beside ammamma’s apartment, so Nat’s mom walks there all the time. Dirt trails lead you through a nice tree filled area where you can see many peacocks.
After our jaunt we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our lunchtime reception.
Reception
The ballroom in our hotel was beautifully adorned for our reception. After taking some sweaty pictures out in the sun, I got to meet many of Natasha’s extended family on her mom’s side as well as many folks with whom her mom previously worked.
And as with all things on this trip, there was more great food. They even served pan (a candy like digestif wrapped in a betel leaf). I love it, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
The event was beautiful, and a huge thank you is in order for everyone that put it together. Apologies if I’m missing anyone on this list!
- Shanti mamayya and Prabhattamma (Nat’s aunt and uncle) for coordinating everything India
- Ammamma (Nat’s grandma)
- Shobha and Ashish (Nat’s parents) for coordinating from the US
- Rahmat and his connections for set-up, planning, and anything else that was needed.
Hussain Sagar and Birla Mandir
That evening we checked out a couple more tourist attractions, starting at the giant Buddha Statue in the middle of Hussain Sagar (a big lake).
Apparently this giant statue fell into the water when it was being erected, killing multiple people that were on the barge with it, and then it was a two year todo to fish it out and get it mounted on it’s plinth.
Nearby was the bronze Babasaheb Ambedkar (Founding Father-esque guy in India) Statue which was also quite impressive at 125 ft tall. Compare to the Buddha at 58 ft.
Next up was the Birla Mandir, a large Hindu temple on a hill. The drive up the hill came to a standstill, so we all decided to abandon our driver and walk up ourselves. It was a really beautiful temple but you can’t take pictures inside unfortunately so I have to use an interweb picture.
Ammamma’s House and Charminar
The next day was our last in Hyderabad so we stopped by Ammamma’s for lunch (and good coffee) before heading to the airport. Her cook whipped up some excellent Pav Bahji with some Sitaphal (custard apple) for dessert.
Since we didn’t have time to visit it directly, we took a bit of extra time on our way to the airport to drive by the Charminar (“four minarets” in Urdu) in the old city center. It’s a cool piece of architecture built in 1591 to commemorate the end of a plague. The traffic around it was intense though, hence the obstructed shot.
After a bit of a smog delay, we boarded our Indigo flight to Delhi.
New Delhi
We made it to the capital of India during the late evening, and it was obvious on descent that the smog was going to be oppressive. As the smoke from the vehicles and industry of 21 million people mixes with the seasonal fog, it creates a dome of smog over the city. You could even see it inside the airport!
Our hotel was again super nice, built around a huge atrium. A flower covered Ganesh was there to greet us in the lobby.
It was actually somewhat chilly while we were in Delhi (40s to 60s degrees Fahrenheit). Most Indian hotels don’t have heaters so the rooms felt great to Natasha and me. Mom kindly borrowed a space heater from the front desk :) It did mean that breakfast was quite chilly since it was open to the atrium on one side and had big windows on the other.
Government Buildings and India Gate
We got a nice breakfast before pickup for our Delhi tour. After picking up our guide, we made our way to the government buildings….which we kinda got to see.
The morning on our Delhi day was pretty smoggy so the first few sights were pretty obscured. Plus much of the government building area was cordoned off for the upcoming “Republic Day” festivities on January 26th. It commemorates when the constitution of India came into effect in 1950. Because of this we were only able to see the India gate from a distance in the car, and I wasn’t able to snap a good picture.
Jama Masjid
Next up was the beautiful Jama Masjid, a mosque in Old Delhi that was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (Same guy behind the Taj Mahal) and built between 1644 and 1656.
Red sandstone as seen here was quite prevalent in many of the sites in the “Golden Triangle” portion of our trip. I believe much of it was quarried in the nearby state of Rajasthan.
Bicycle Rickshaw through Chandni Chowk
After out tour, at the gates of Jama Masjid we hired a couple of bicycle rickshaws to ride us through the Chandni Chowk, a super old market full of narrows lanes and a huge number of shops. Again, brought to you by Shah Jahan.
That ride was super fun, but it’s unbelievable how cramped and busy that market is!
Raj Ghat (Gandhi Memorial)
Next up was the Raj Ghat (~Royal Steps) which is a black marble platform in memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. It marks the spot of his cremation in January 1948.
Humayun’s Tomb
We also saw the tomb of Humayun, the second Mughal emperor (ruled 1530–1540), father of Akbar who was one of the greatest rulers of the age. Humayun’s Tomb was completed in 1572 and has some similarities to the Taj Mahal, but with red sandstone as the predominant material and without the minarets.
One anecdote I remember from visiting this monument was that each of the surrounding tombs (and there were many) were incredibly opulent and seemed to be given out willy-nilly to all of Humayun’s friends and family. This included an opulent tomb for the like of his barber and his favorite elephant.
Rug Expo
Every one of these tour days had a “local handicraft demo” where they show you how some local product is made and then welcome you to purchase something if you so choose. I won’t say it’s a hard sell, but I will say they are quite good at selling. And I’m a sucker for buying some nice souvenirs.
In Delhi, the local handicraft on display was carpet making. So after they gave us chai and cookies to munch on during the demo, the friendly man unrolled like 40 beautiful rugs…we went home with one of them.
Lotus Temple
After taking out a mortgage for a rug, we grabbed a bite to eat and then drove near the Lotus Temple (Bahai faith) for some pictures from a distance. It’s free to go in, but because of that, the line is exceedingly long. Definitely a cool stop for the architecture.
Qutb Minar
The last, and most impressive, stop on our tour was the Qutub Minar, a 240 foot tall tower built of interlocking sandstone that was completed in 1220!
Like so may of these types of monuments, the pictures don’t do it justice. This minaret is huge, and it’s so impressive that it’s held together purely with interlocking stone.
Afterward we parted ways with our guide, and I fell asleep in the car on the way home like a boss.
Agra
Our final morning in Delhi comprised of another chilly breakfast with yummy food downstairs in our hotel. After the tip was given, the staff brought us a slice of cake reading “Happy Journey” and then took pictures with us. It was both very nice of them and somewhat bizarre.
After that experience, we climbed in our car for the roughly four hour drive to Agra. It took us two hour to get from Delhi to Agra, but it took us two hours to get from our side of Delhi to the Agra side of Delhi. India traffic sucks. Eventually we got on the highway, stopping once for some lunch. I had chole bhature and chai in a clay mug.
One thing I noticed was that the highways were really nice between the cities of the “Golden Triangle”. Especially when compared to the disorder of city roads in India.
We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a while before heading to the Taj Mahal!
Taj Mahal
I’ve seen a few impressive tourist attractions around the world (Eiffel Tower, Great Pyramid at Giza, Roman Coliseum, etc.), but the intricacy and grandeur of the Taj Mahal was impressive. Plus it has a cute love story! Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died during child birth (of their 14th child) decided to build the grandest structure in the world. So…I guess it’s less cute and more sad…but still a memorable story.
The main thing to note is the size and the intricacy of the decoration. All the stonework is hand carved and all the designs are inlaid, not painted. So all the Arabic calligraphy, the flowers, everything, all ground down to size and glued into place.
Even the gates were incredible. The picture above shows the front gate (“Royal” gate if I remember correctly). Notice all the inlaid art in the white marble. Also notice the eleven lined up domes on each side. They represent the 22 years it took to complete the monument between 1632 and 1653.
You can see a lot of similarities between the earlier built Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. That one was missing the minarets and was far less elaborate.
The Taj Mahal is all about symmetry. It looks the same no matter the side from which side you look at it. In fact, the mosque built on the grounds of the Tomb on the side facing Mecca has a useless (for it does not face the correct direction) but equally opulent copy directly across from it.
So if you get a chance to make it to India, I can’t recommend the Taj Mahal as a destination enough. It was magnificent. However, if you’re not into incredible ancient architecture, there were monkeys hanging out around the campus that should keep you entertained.
Buying a Table
After our afternoon of gawking at inlayed marble we had another “demo” where we got to see how they make the inlays. The rug folks were cool. These guys were magic.
In the picture above, the man in red is using a metal tool to scratch out a pattern in the marble. The man on the right looking directly into the camera is using a hand-cranked wheel to grind fancy colorful stone into exactly the right shapes to be inlaid.
The pieces on the bottom right are about the size of your thumbnail and have around ten individual pieces of stone, ground to the perfect fit and glued together.
Again they asked us to take a look around their show room (with chai of course), and needless to say, we wound up buying something.
The $10,000 full dining room table was a bit out of our price range (lol) so we opted for a beautiful ~12 inch side table that now stands proudly in our basement. It has something like 1,600 pieces!
With our second mortgage of the trip in place, we called it a night, ready to head to Jaipur on the morrow via the ancient fortress city of Fatehpur Sikri.
Fatehpur Sikri
About an hour outside of Agra lies the former capital of the Mughal Empire, Fatehpur Sikri. Founded by Akbar, it served as the capital of the empire for 14 years from 1571 to 1585 before being abandoned due to swelling population and limited access to water. There were rooms for the emperor and his three wives. Judging based on the size of each wive’s accomodations, there was definitely a favorite.
Our guide met us at Fatehpur Sikri. As with the other sites, everything was exceedingly ornate.
A few other fun notes…
Akbar’s roughly 15x15 ft bed was elevated about 8 ft above a chamber that would be flooded to help it stay cool. Three was also a secret door that lead directly from the quarters of his lady friends (not wives) to his bed chamber.
There was also a “squishing stone” for corporal punishment, where those condemned to die would have their melons smooshed by an elephant!
Jaipur
We parted with our day’s guide and drove to Jaipur, stopping for another roadside bite along the way. We saw some fun stuff along the way.
We made it to Jaipur by early evening. It’s a desert city amidst the red standstone hills and camels were more prevalent on the sides of roads. We had some time before hotel check-in so our driver took us to an elephant village on the edge of town.
Elephant Village
Elephants have a long history with humans in Jaipur and are thus a big tourist attraction in the area. It’s common for tourists to ride elephants up to the Amer Fort. Since this was a late recommendation of our driver and knowing that many tourism-focused elephant facilities around the world have poor ethical records, we did not ride the elephants. But the place was well kept, so we decided to spend an hour hanging out and feeding sugarcane to an elephant named Chanda.
This was my first time up close to an elephant, and they are impressive animals. Along with being enormous, it was so fascinating to see Chanda’s trunk in action. It was both stronger and more dextrous than I would have guessed.
After getting back to the hotel, we looked up the place, and it seemed that while probably not up to the highest global standards of animal well-being, it was generally a good facility for the animals. We are glad we got to hang with Chanda. That night, I did a bit of shopping for some new Indian clothes on the street behind our hotel.
Amer Fort
The next day we followed a similar pattern and picked up our guide on the way to our first tourist attraction for the day: Amer Fort. Built by Raja Man Singh, a General of Akbar’s, the fort was begun in 1592 and continued to be added to for centuries. It continued to grow until Sawai Jai Singh II founded the city of Jaipur and made it his capitol. The fort sits atop a large hill outside of Jaipur and has a 12 km defensive wall around it, ranking it pretty high in terms of longest defensive walls in the world. The Great Wall of China is of course #1.
On the way to Amer Fort we had to pass through some small streets, which can get jammed up by traffic.
Before starting the climb (drive) up to the hilltop, we stopped at the Panna Meena Ka Kund step well which was a 16th century structure used to collect rainwater. It looked very M.C. Escher.
We made it up to the fort, avoiding the hawkers outside. We could see the folks coming up on the elephants. Yet again, we were met with incredible architecture and ornate decoration as we walked around the four level fortress.
On the second or third terrace was an interesting room. Since it was apparently a superstitions no-no for ladies to sleep under the stars, the King of Jaipur constructed this ornate hall of mirrors (brought from Belgium). The ladies of the court (harem?) would sleep in this hall with with candles lit on the floor, making the ceiling and walls twinkle like stars.
We kept thinking that it might be easier to just give the ladies a bit more freedom…but spending a bajillion gold pieces on Belgian mirrors in the 16th century is cool too I guess!
While at Amer Fort we probably saw five different couples getting engagement pictures. It kept happening though that the tourists would want a picture with the brides who were dressed to the nines. This can be seen in the above pic where 15 German tourists are taking pictures with the bride while the groom just hangs out in the wings.
Another fun bit from the Amer Fort were the secret passageways that allowed the King to visit his wives discretely without the other wives seeing.
Furthermore, our guide told us about these other passageways that were built to help the main wife get around while wearing all of her jewelry, which when combined with her clothing weighed about as much as she did. So they built ramped tunnels and a wheelchair to wheel her around the grounds!
Jal Mahal
On the way to city center where our other attractions awaited, we stopped by the lake front to see the Jal Mahal or “Water Palace”, which was built in the 18th century as a summer retreat for the royal family. It’s closed to the public so we were only able to see it from afar.
On the lakefront we grabbed some coconut water, our first “food truck” for the trip.
Just Say No!
I’m happy to say that we finally said no at our sales stop during a tour. The friendly guide took us by a gem shop, which is what Jaipur is apparently known for, to see a “demonstration” and buy something if we liked. None of us wanted or needed any jewelry so we were finally able to leave one of these experiences with our wallets intact. One for three!
Jantar Mantar
Next up was the 18th century astronomical instrument playground of Sawai Jai Singh II. Directly in the old city is large paved area holds probably 25 different astronomical instruments that allow one to view calculate the different celestial movements with astounding accuracy for the time. The most impressive was the “Samrat Yantra”, or Supreme Instrument, which is an 89 foot tall sun dial that is accurate to within about 2 seconds.
Rajasthani Thali
Our guide took us to an nice restaurant in the old city for lunch. We took a an auto-rickshaw through the very busy streets, before having to CROSS the street, which is an exhilarating experience in India. Essentially you all walk in a line, and whoever is facing oncoming traffic holds their hand out, daring drivers to run them over, while everyone else hides in fear behind that person.
Ashish and I both got the full Rajasthani Thali (thali means plate). While I liked some of the dishes a lot, this was probably my least favorite of the three thali’s I had while in India.
Hawa Mahal
On the back of another rickshaw (and with another street crossing) we made it to the Wind Palace or Hawa Mahal. Built in 1799, the palace was a place for the royal women to observe street festivities without being seen. This was accomplished with a giant facade to the building with hundreds of tiny windows carved out of sandstone. This makes for an impressive structure, but also has the effect that when backlight was extinguished, those inside the honeycombed windows could lookout without others being able to see in.
Rounding out the day
We had a bit more time for the day so we visited the Albert Hall Museum to see some art and artifacts (including a mummy!). Then we visited a Ganesh temple where mom proceeded to stick her hand on the vermillion dispenser, essentially covering her hand in red-orange paint :) We parted ways with our guide and enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel. On to Ahmedabad, our final destination, the next morning.
Ahmedabad
The next day we took a small plane to Ahmedabad.
We settled into our hotel before heading to out for dinner with Ashish’s side of the family.
Dinner and Karaoke
That night we spent the evening with almost all of Natasha’s paternal grandfather’s extended family. Ashish’s cousins Shital kaka and Ritu kaki hosted all of us. We met lots of folks and enjoyed a wonderful Gujarati thali dinner.
After dinner we adjourned to the living room to sing “karaoke,” except without accompanying music. The family sang many old Hindi and Gujarati songs. Natasha, Priyanka, and I sang Eight Days a Week by the Beatles.
Reception #2
The following day was our second reception at our hotel. We donned our second set of fancy duds and took pictures in the hotel garden. The food was again over the top (and wonderful). I think there were probably twenty different dishes. I finally tried Priyanka’s favorite dessert, Rasmalai, which is now top two favorite Indian desserts for me. We met more of Natasha’s dad’s family and many of Natasha’s parents medical school classmates.
Another thank you is in order to everyone who made this beautiful event happen. Again, apologies if I miss anyone!
- Ritu kaki (Nat’s Aunt)
- Falguni kaki (Nat’s Aunt)
- Shobha and Ashish (Nat’s Parents)
Family Dinner
After digesting for a few hours, we were invited to another family dinner at Ashish’s material cousins’ house that evening where we had homemade pani puri, crispy wheat bread pockets filled with legumes and dipped in cool spicy broth. I also got to try some new snacks before dinner like toasted green chick peas in the shell and ponk which is normally a street food where sorghum is roasted and mixed with different crispy, sweet, and spicy accompaniments.
Final Day in India
We made the best of our final day in India, visiting Gandhi’s Ashram and the Adalaj Step Well outside of Ahmedabad.
Gandhi’s Ashram
This was a cool historical spot where Gandhi lived (when he was not imprisoned) and taught his followers about nonviolent tactics for gaining independence for India. It’s also where he began the Salt March.
After the visit to the ashram, we got lunch at a restaurant which had some exciting dishes.
Adalaj Step Well
Lastly, we went to the Adalaj Stepwell about 30 minutes outside of Ahmedabad. It was built in 1498 and looked significantly different than the Panna Meena Ka Kund near the Amer Fort in Jaipur. This one was long and skinny with columns supporting the higher levels. We walked down the steps about five stories to reach the pool of water.
After this, we hung out with some cows and monkeys in the parking lot. All over India the cows just wander in the streets, often with garlands around their necks. The monkeys were cute, but apparently you must be careful with your valuables around them or they might be stolen and ransomed back to you by monkeys wanting food.
Since our flight was in the middle of the night, we went back to the hotel for an early dinner. I got my money’s worth, opting for the Indian buffet one last time.
Traveling Home
Natasha’s Mom was staying in India to hang out with family for a few more weeks while Natasha’s Dad was heading to a volunteer medical camp for childen he participates in each year. The rest of us flew together to Doha and then we split off to Seattle, Dallas, and Boston.
Since flights to the US often leave in the middle of the night from India, we left the hotel at midnight for the airport. We had tried to get some sleep that early evening but due to the Ram Mandir celebrations that started about 30 seconds after laying down, that proved difficult. I was able to stay awake on the flight to Doha (finally watched Gandhi), but I zonked out hard on the flight to Seattle.
Other than the lady next to me having the black lung and coughing violently every 15 minutes, the flights were uneventful. I watched Jodha Akbar which had many shots from Amer Fort. Brandon picked us up, and we were soon on a walk around our neighborhood in Seattle.
Concluding Thoughts
India is vibrant and chaotic. With so many people doing so many things, it’s amazing 1) that anything can get done and 2) how easy it is to get some things done. For example, getting flower arrangements for a wedding in the US would need to be planned months in advance. Natasha’s parents had to give final word on flowers ~36 hours before our reception!
Nat and I are super grateful to Shobha, Ashish, and the rest of the involved family for planning two wonderful events and an action packed week of travel in between. It was so fun to meet all the people, see all the sites, and dip my toe into the giant pool of India.
There’s so much more history, culture, amazing food, and sites to explore. We are excited for our next trip!
