ye-travels.org


Best (and Worst) of India

Here we have some of our best and worst moments of our 87 days in India, we've also put together a gallery of our favourite photos which you can visit if you don't feel like ploughing through our gazillion photos. The gallery is available here.

Our FAVOURITE Towns/Cities
According to Yann:
1- Darjeeling
2- Kolkata
3- Leh
According to Emilie:
1- Darjeeling
2- Leh
3- Kolkata

Our FAVOURITE "Tourist" Activities
According to Yann:
1- Being the day's first viewers of the Taj Mahal
2- Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri
3- Jasailmer Fort
According to Emilie:
1- Taj Mahal
2- Sunrise boat trip on the Ganges at Varanasi
3- Merangarh Fort audio tour in Jodhpur
4- Golden Temple in Amritsar

Most DISAPPONTING Places/Activities
According to both Yann and Emilie:
1- Jasailmer camel "safari" (noting that it was too hot and Emilie was too sick to be doing it)
2- Bollywood movie in Jaipur, where's the choreographed dancing? (we weren't disappointed with the venue though, the Raj Mandir Theatre)
3- McLeod Ganj, as one blogger referred to it: Tibetan Disneyland

"CHEAP and BEST" Food
According to Yann and Emilie:
1- Varanasi thalis (rich, buttery, all-you-can-eat and dirt cheap)
2- Kolkatan street food
3- Agra "tourist breakfasts" (15 rupees for eggs, toast and jam, fruit and COFFEE)

Our FAVOURITE Dishes
According to Yann:
1- Paneer butter masala (chunks of cheese swimming in rich creamy curry sauce)
2- Palak paneer (more cheese this time with spinach)
3- Samosa chaat (pieces of samosa covered with tomato sauce, curd, herbs and other delicious things)
4- Masala dosas (large flat pancakey things wrapped up and filled with veggies or cheese or whatever)
According to Emilie:
1- Samosa chaat
2- Fresh warm chapatis dipped in curry gravy
3- Paneer butter masala
4- Fresh curd and local fruits

BEST People-watching
According to Yann and Emilie:
1- Varanasi ghats
2- Morning puja at Ladakhi monasteries
3- Golden Temple, Amritsar

BEST Scenery
According to Yann and Emilie:
1- Tso-Moriri Lake
2- Himalayas from Sikkim villages
3- Darjeeling: mountains and tea plantations

MOST Challenging Experiences
According to Yann:
1- Trying to keep Emilie from losing it
2- The heat in Rajasthan and Delhi
3- Uncomfortable long distance bus travel
According to Emilie:
1- The 50+ degree heat in Delhi
2- Recurring bouts of traveller's diarrhea
3- Local perception of Western females

Things that made us the MOST Uncomfortable/Annoyed
According to Yann and Emilie:
1- Non-stop approaches from touts/scammers
2- Annoying hippy types
3- Cows and stray dogs in the streets (but the cows make a way bigger mess)

HIGHEST Concentration of Annoying Hippy Types
According to Yann and Emilie:
1- Varanasi
2- Delhi (Pahar Ganj)
3- Pushkar

For those interested in our expenses, we have updated our homepage with our financial information for India (less than 2500$ CN in 3 months, not too shabby?), it is available here

3 comments:

Josh said...

Bonjour Yann et Emilie,

Quand allez-vous retourner au Canada?

Josh

YandE said...

Salut Josh,

On revient au Canada lorsque ma mere prend sa pre-retraite ;-)

a plus tard,
Yann

super-maman said...

Bonjour Josh,
il y a une passe de ski pour la saison 2007-2008 déjà achetée pour Yann et Émilie, alors...

Maman Nicole