It’s hard to talk about the Golden Triangle as a whole as each city that makes up this monumentous sight seeing triad is so diversely different from the next.
Our journey began in New Delhi having flown in from Kathmandu with food poisoning our first day in the city was about survival! We decided to take the metro from the airport on the shuttle express to shidvadhi stadium rather than New Delhi station as we had heard negotiating your way from one side to the other (where we needed to be in Paharganj) can be tricky. From the station we jumped straight into an auto rickshaw to our hotel. So came the 1st and 2nd of many more New Delhi scams which I will explore in more detail another time along with the best way to travel around India!
We arrived delirious in the midst of the equally manic and vibrant market street of Main Bazaar Road that was to be our home for 2 nights and were immediately blown away by the buzz of the place. Market sellers everywhere singing out their produce to every passer by louder than the next. Every type of horn blowing in the background along with the jingling bells around the wandering city cows as if all choreographed centuries ago and the melody passed down the generations. Delhi maybe the capital but it feels as though the city has not changed much over the years. Arriving weak and feeling pretty rubbish we had no choice but to head straight to the sanctuary of our hostel bed and sleep.
Luckily we both woke the next day after a mammoth sleep feeling back to our selves again and ready to take on Delhi! We booked a taxi for £5 to take us sightseeing for the whole day (11am-6pm) and also give us a bit of an insight into the history and present day life of people living here. We managed to get round all the stunning mosques, forts, tombs, monuments and temples even fitting in a lunch and dinner break and some nice spots we found en route. All the sights we were taken to blew us away in one way or another. The stunningly intricate 17th century Jama Mashid mosque that allowed you to view the whole city from its tower was incredible.
The impressive Red Fort of the Mughal empire looked inpenitrable even today so I can only imagine how it must’ve looked when it was originally built.
It was all about the atmosphere at Ghandis memorial. It features a never ending flame and is surrounded by the most beautiful gardens. Tip: visit in the morning before the floor has had chance to heat up. As with many of India’s monuments and temples you need to remove footwear and even the grass around the edges didn’t give my poor feet any relief!
Walking around Isa Khan’s old tomb walls made me feel as though we had actually stepped back in time to the 1500s or on to the set of jungle book! Thought that a giant orangutan was going to come out at any point 😂
Humayun’s Tomb was our first glimpse at a Mughal palace and gave us a real taste at what was to come at the Taj Mahal. This tomb was exquisite and at the time I couldn’t imagine that an Indian palace could be any more perfect…
There are so many sights in Delhi and lots of blogs that explain the best to see but we had the most incredible hassle free and easy day using the taxi I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Delhi to try it also. We didn’t even haggle on the price being new to India so I’m sure you can get a better deal than we did and we found the all day taxi to be cheaper than taking an auto rickshaw.
The next day we took the metro to Hays Khan village. This part of Delhi in the South is known as a quirky, arty town full of great places to eat, drink or have coffee. There are many shops selling art in all forms and boutiques with a wide range of products and clothing. We absolutely loved the change in pace here and gladly spent all day hopping from one cafe and bar to the next watching the world outside pass us by.
The added bonus is that the town is surrounded by ancient walls and has a huge park and lake. Perfect for exploring as none of the walls and rooms within the buildings were off bounds and the trees around the lake gave relief from the sun on a romantic evening stroll.
So concluded our trip to Delhi! After a bite to eat it was time to pick up our bags from the hostel and to go and catch our sleeper bus to Jaipur.
Pink is my favourite colour so naturally I would love Jaipur if it loved up to its name as the pink city. And it did! Painted in 1875 to welcome queen Victoria as the hospitality colour. The city itself is surrounded by the pink walls with grand entrance gates into it on the main routes whilst high in the surrounding cliffs line the forts and their walls.
In Jaipur we took an auto rickshaw for the day costing £10 (we tried to haggle him down but he wasnt budging)! Again he was very knowledgable about the city and took us to all the sights without being asked to including various forts, temples and palaces.
The best being the Amber Fort. It was enormous and had walls that stretched across the surrounding hillside for miles.
This beautiful hall of mirrors is located within the Amber Fort Palace giving me major interior design inspiration for my house when I get back to the UK!
I’ve also been thinking how I can have my own floating garden…
Whilst in Jaipur we went to see the latest Bollywood release ‘Banjo’ at Indias famous cinema, Raj Mandir which I would also highly recommend anyone visiting Jaipur. I think we were very lucky as Banjo was a great watch even though it was in Hindi which made the experience even more fabulous.
And so on to the final leg of our Golden Triangle tour. We took the morning train to Agra with the intention of having a chilled day in the Indian sun to visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise the following day. But on booking our onward train ticket to Mumbai we found most were fully booked meaning we had to see the sights at sunset the same day. So a quick shower and change and out for late lunch and sightseeing to my most anticipated sight in India!
I seriously can not describe to you how incredible the Taj Mahal is. I don’t know if it’s because you see it all the time in pictures for years and years or if it is just awesome but being there even when walking around it and touching the walls just didn’t seem real. It was like stepping into a painting or something. The colour of the marble makes the palaces intricate detailing so prominent but at the same time it melts away into the sky infront of your eyes as you step away. I’m not describing it very well I know but that’s because you just have to go to know what I’m on about. We didn’t go at sunrise so there were lots of people around all wanting selfies with us and one of the towers had scaffolding around it. But it didn’t matter. I was smiling like a Cheshire Cat the whole time I just loved it. I’d been looking forward to seeing it forever and I was not disappointed. It was perfect. And to think a bloke designed and had it built to show his love for his lass… Hope G has been inspired!
We enjoyed the best curry we had tasted in north India in Agra that night but we left the next day to Mumbai as away from the magnificent Taj Mahal and good food there really wasn’t that much else going on and we found the people there to be the least helpful and nice.
So that concludes our experience of the Golden Triangle! Advice I can give? Take it all in your stride. If you get ripped off it will probaly only be for a few pence but always offer lower than asking price as on our first day in India we said the name of our hostel to someone who immediately halved the price he had quoted saying “oh you stay in budget place so I give you better rate!” Above all, be confident as there are scams which I will explore in another post. I won’t lie, certain aspects of negotiating around India has been challenging but when you feel done with India, it then reminds you how utterly incredible it is and you fall for it all over again ❤️
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