What a start! While we just arrived in India a couple of days ago, it already welcomed us with quite some crazy and unexpected experiences.
After over 15 hours of travelling from Johannesburg to Mumbai and another 12 hours delay of our flight to Varanasi, we finally made it to our Hostel. Unfortunately, the struggle just kept going for some time:
- First Philipp’s luggage with all his video equipment got stuck at the airport in Mumbai (probably because of his “not allowed” solar charger).
- Afterwards our taxi driver from the airport to the Hostel was messing with us and basically let us wait another hour in a locked car.
- Reaching our dorm in the hostel we realized that everybody in our room had food poison and was either throwing up all night or even had to go to the hospital for a couple of days.
- And last but not least, my small backpack got stolen as we entered the train on our way to Agra (we still don’t know how that really happened).
India didn’t really make it easy for us in the beginning and we just thought, yep that’s quite a good start 😅
Nevertheless, everything is back on the track and getting better and better from day to day. From a proper feeling of the country and its people, to reaching out to some local food and learning how to appreciate the beauty of India.
So as we slowly adapt to the culture of India – Varanasi also welcomed us with another sweet surprise on our second day of arrival. The traditional Holi Festival (also known as “The Festival of Colors”) was taking over the whole city and its people (and cows) from young to old. And hell yeah…it was by far one of our most unique experiences we ever experienced.
Not only did we have to take a super long shower to get rid of all the color afterwards (Philipp has still “pink” hair), also the guys of our Holi group sometimes had to become some real heroes while they tried to protect us ladies against a punch of crazy/drunk/unrestrained guys on the streets of Varanasi. All in all, the whole day was a real intense experience we definitely didn’t want to miss out. From the amazing group of our hostel (without them it wouldn’t be possible), all colors, to the whole vibe and the dancing on the streets – simply wow: (more photos on our facebook account)
Sooo yey! India is quite an experience so far and we are already looking forward to Agra and Delhi during the next couple of weeks.
Stay tuned!
Cheers, Melanie & Philipp
PS: Fingers crossed that we don’t get any food poison 😅
Worst experience so far: Getting robbed on the train on our way to Agra. Ouch!
