Monday, December 2, 2019


Tips and Advice for India.


Must Haves on our Menu!


Kachori  – A roti filled with onions and veg, lentils, or a sweet one (the onion was our favourite) and then deep fried. We had our first taste of this and is special to Jaipur.

Water chestnuts seem to be sold in most market places. I’d never had these before and they are so delicious! We also had the experience of heading out on a boat in Bijaipur and saw them being harvested. If you see them black in the markets, don’t panic, they have been boiled. Still tasty but not as nice as the fresh ones.

In Udaipur we tried some extra special Samosas in a small restaurant suggested to us. Their specialty is samosas in a bowl with yogurt and chutneys. Super tasty and like nothing you’ve tasted at home.

Betha Sweets are made from condensed milk and boiled to make a solid almost coconut textured sweet treat. We had Betha with pistachio but naturally there are hundreds of flavours to choose from.

Kulfi is a milky ice cream and comes in various flavours, we sampled Kulfi in Mumbai at a street food market and not ashamed to say that we had several servings!

Whilst in a Goa you must try their local spirit (only in Goa) called Fenny. Its made from the fruit of a cashew nut. Be warned it has a kick. – We’ve been told there is also a coconut one but we didn’t get round to trying this.

When in Goa all I can say is, you are by the sea. Eat the fish, its Delish!

It is customary in India to eat with your right hand (possibly using you left had for a spoon to scoop up onto breads). We didn’t quite get the hang of tearing bread with one hand but we did get used to scooping sauces and dishes up with all the amazing assortments of bread on offer. Embrace eating with your hands, after a few days it feel quite normal!

Points to remember!


In most of our hotels there was a million light switches half of which we couldn’t for the life of us work out what they did. I swear I must have been turning on and off some poor old locals kitchen lights down the road.

Being tall and blonde and a woman in India was quite a challenge, more so in some of the rural areas as westerners are not a common sighting. In the villages just a smile and a happy wave was all people really wanted, However in the cities I found people much more aggressive to wanting photos with me or their family members. So just be prepared. It took a lot within my soul to remain patient and calmly say ‘no thank you’ towards the end of my trip.

ATM points all over where we travelled in India were reluctant to give us money. We travel with a monzo card which allows you to take money out with no bank charges abroad – I would highly recommend getting one of these, you can download the app and they will send you a card through the post within a few days. However some card machines here still did not allow us to take money out. Most places now are starting to use contactless and card machines more but just be aware if you need cash take a few transactions out at one time ( you can only take out 10,000Rupees(just over £100) out at one time)as you never know when you will be able to get to a cash point that works for you again.

Always carry toilet paper with you! There are a few ‘neat and clean’ toilets about when you’re on the road but they are few and far between and are unlikely to have toilet paper in them. Always be prepared eh!?

Embrace the difference and enjoy your trip!

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