India takes everything you think you know about travel and rearranges it: Rajasthan, Varanasi, and Kerala
Mika Soren
India doesn’t ease you in.
You arrive, and within twenty minutes you have more information than you can process: the noise, the colour, the smell, the crowd, the heat, the auto-rickshaw driver at the airport who quotes a price, and the second one who quotes a lower one, and the third one who just starts driving. It’s a lot. It stays a lot.
And then, somewhere around the end of the first week, something shifts.
You stop trying to process it all and start just being in it. That’s when India becomes extraordinary.
Rajasthan: the big circuit, done slowly
Rajasthan in the northwest is where most first-timers go and the logic is sound: it concentrates a large proportion of India’s most visually spectacular architecture into a manageable circuit. Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Udaipur. I did it over three weeks by local train and occasional bus and it was the right amount of time.
Jaipur (the Pink City). The Hawa Mahal (the pink honeycomb facade), Amber Fort on the hill outside town, the City Palace, the observatory (Jantar Mantar). All genuinely worth visiting. The old city inside the walls for the street market chaos. The gem and jewellery trade that runs through the whole city. The chai at the street stalls for 10 rupees.
Amber Fort specifically: go early morning, hire a guide for the fort (the context transforms the experience), walk up rather than taking the elephant ride. The views back over the lake and the walls are very good.
Jodhpur (the Blue City). The houses in the old city are painted blue (originally to designate Brahmin residences, now just a tradition). The Mehrangarh Fort above the city is the best fort in Rajasthan by some margin: the interior collections, the views over the blue city below, the audio guide (narrated by various people including a surviving descendant of the royal family). Budget half a day for the fort.
Walk down from the fort into the old city’s clock tower market for the spice and vegetable stalls. Eat at a rooftop restaurant with a fort view in the evening. Every restaurant in Jodhpur has a fort view. They’re all slightly different.
Jaisalmer. In the Thar Desert, a living fort-city of golden sandstone. People actually live in the old fort (one of the few in India with a living population). The haveli (merchant mansions) outside the fort with their intricate carved facades. Camel safari in the dunes outside town: do the overnight version, sleep in the desert, the stars in the desert in Rajasthan at midnight are not dimmed by any light from any direction.
Pushkar. A sacred lake town, the only temple to Brahma in India, ghats around the lake, the desert fair in November (one of the largest camel fairs in the world). Small, a bit backpacker-centric, the streets around the lake meditative in the early morning before the tourist activity starts.
Udaipur. The most beautiful city in Rajasthan. The Lake Palace hotel floating on Lake Pichola (you can go for a drink or lunch even if you’re not staying). The City Palace above the lake. The old city in the streets behind the ghats. A boat ride on the lake at sunset for the views back to the city and the hills. This is the one I’d stay the longest in.
Varanasi: the most intense place I’ve been on earth
Varanasi is not a comfortable experience. It’s the experience that stays with you longest.
The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. The holiest city in Hinduism. The city where Hindus come to die, believing that dying in Varanasi guarantees moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth). The burning ghats (Manikarnika Ghat specifically) where bodies are cremated on wooden pyres on the banks of the Ganges, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
I stayed three days. I’ve been in few places that asked as much of me.
The ghats at dawn. Hire a boat for the sunrise. From the river you see the whole arc of the ghats: pilgrims bathing, priests performing puja, the burning ghat at the far end with its smoke. The scale and the age of it and the fact that this has been happening continuously for three thousand years is not something you can quite absorb at once.
The burning ghat. Go to Manikarnika Ghat in the evening. Stand on the steps above. Watch. Don’t photograph (people will ask you not to and they’re correct).
It’s not morbid in the way you’d expect.
It’s the most matter-of-fact confrontation with mortality I’ve encountered: life and death and ceremony happening simultaneously and continuously, boats going past, a dog sleeping on the steps, someone selling marigold garlands nearby.
The old city. The narrow lanes (gallis) behind the ghats are a labyrinth. Get lost in them. You will find temples at every turn, chai shops, silk weavers working on looms, cows who have right-of-way. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple (the main Shiva temple) is significant and always crowded. The lane outside it runs along the side of the Gyanvapi Mosque in a way that is historically fraught and visually extraordinary.
What I ate: Simple thali (the complete meal: dal, sabzi, rice, roti, pickle, raita) at any small restaurant. The chai is extraordinary in Varanasi. Lassi (the Varanasi version is very thick and comes in clay cups you smash after drinking). Thandai if it’s Holi season. Don’t eat the street food from stalls directly next to the river.
Kerala: slow and correct
Kerala in the southwest is as different from Rajasthan as possible within a single country. Tropical, green, coastal, quieter. Backwaters, spice plantations, tea gardens, beaches that are better than most people’s mental picture of Indian beaches.
The backwaters. The network of canals, lakes, and rivers running behind the coast from Alleppey (Alappuzha) south. Rent a houseboat for one or two nights: the boats are converted rice boats, they have a cook on board, you drift through the network slowly, past rice paddies and coconut palms and village life happening at the water’s edge. The evening on the water, the dinner cooked on board, the morning mist: excellent.
Munnar. A hill station in the Western Ghats, surrounded by tea gardens that cover every hillside in a manicured green. The drives between Munnar and the coast (three to four hours through the mountains) pass spice plantations (cardamom, pepper, cloves growing wild-looking on farm plots) and through forest where wild elephants are sometimes visible from the road.
Varkala. Cliff-top beach town, the better beach destination in Kerala if you’re not going to the Andamans. Red laterite cliffs above the beach, a good swimming beach below, a line of restaurants along the cliff path, remarkably unfrantic given how good it is. Swim in the morning, eat lunch on the cliff, repeat.
Kerala food. Fish curry and appam (lacy rice pancakes) for breakfast is a real thing and it’s excellent. Sadya: the Kerala feast served on a banana leaf, a dozen vegetable preparations, a papad, payasam dessert, all eaten with the right hand in the correct order. Rice, fish, coconut in every form.
Practical things
Go slow. India punishes speed. Trying to do too much in too little time produces maximum stress. Give each place more time than you think you need.
The stomach adjustment. Most people experience some digestive disruption in India regardless of care. Carry oral rehydration salts. Eat from busy places with high turnover. Avoid ice unless you’re certain of the water source. Bottled water throughout.
Trains. The Indian Railways system is one of the great travel experiences: vast, occasionally on time, full of chai vendors walking the aisles, spectacular for long-distance routes. Book ahead. The sleeper class is fine for shorter journeys; 3AC (three-tier air-conditioned) is comfortable for overnights. The 12A (first class AC) is genuinely comfortable.
eSIM availability. India has specific regulations around eSIM for foreign visitors that limit options. I’ve put together a detailed breakdown of what actually works for international travelers in India because the standard advice online is frequently outdated.
India takes everything you think you know about travel and rearranges it.
Go slow. Eat the thali. Get on the boat in Varanasi at sunrise.
It stays with you longer than anywhere.
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