Delhi was our first stop in India, where we met up with our friend Andrew, visiting us from London.

Our Nomadic Boys selfie with our friend Andrew visiting us from London

Bollywood

Bollywood is part of the large Indian film industry – a mix of Mumbai’s former name of Bombay, and Hollywood.  The industry dates back to 1913 when the first silent Bollywood film (Raja Harishchandra) was released.

Bollywood films are great fun.  They are extremely camp and melodramatic with a simple storyline to appeal to all.  They also involve a lot of singing and dancing so that you really don’t need to understand Hindi to appreciate what’s going on.

We watched the latest hit, “Bang Bang”, which inspired us to take this a step further…

Posing with the poster for the latest Bollywood hit, “Bang Bang”

Dancing in Delhi

We took a dance class with the brilliant Delhi Dance Academy, set up by handsome brothers, Arjun and Anant Sandhu:

Owners of the Delhi Dance Academy, Arjun and Anant Sandhu

Delhi Dance Academy

We were welcomed with a marigold flower necklace (“mala”), a red dot tikka painted on our foreheads and given snacks for the day.

Our class involved learning four different Indian dance routines:

1. Bollywood

First up was Bollywood, the one we were looking forward to the most.  Traditionally dancing in Bollywood films started with the introduction of sound to the cinema and was mainly classical Indian dance styles.  But over the years, the influence from MTV and Hollywood creeped in.

Now it’s all about cheesy dance routines with lots of attitude, hips gyrating and posh spice style pointing:

Posing with our Bollywood dance teacher, Manish.

2. Dandiya

Dandiya is a more traditional dance from the Gujurat region of India and popular in Western India.

It involves dancing in a circle with each person holding a stick (the ‘dandiyas’) in each hand.

Dandiya dance class with our teacher, Naina

Dandiya is usually popular during the Indian 9 day festival called Navratri.  Navratri is a Hindu 9 day long affair in late September/early October celebrating Goddess Durga and the victory of good over evil.

The Dandiya dance is the staging of the victory of Goddess Durga over the buffalo headed evil demon-king, Mahishasura.  It’s nicknamed ‘The Sword Dance’ because the dandiya sticks represent the swords of Durga.

The Dandiya dance is the staging of the victory of Goddess Durga over the buffalo headed evil demon-king, Mahishasura.

3. Bhangra

Bhangra is a high energy Punjabi (an area of North India) dance, traditionally used to celebrate ‘Vaisakhi’ (Sikh festival celebrating a good harvest season).

Bhangra is popular at Sikh weddings, parties, family celebrations and of course in Bollywood films.

It’s often danced in circles, uses a lot of arm and shoulder movement, and of course, lots of attitude:

Bhangra dance class with Anish

4. Belly dancing

Belly dancing is an Arabic dance not as popular in India because it is considered too risqué for such a conservative country.

Its actual origins are varied.  Some claim it’s originally a religious ancient Greek dance during fertility to help prepare girls for labour and was part of the delivery ritual.  Others trace it further back to a form of Egyptian social dance.

And, another explanation traces its origins to India claiming it spread throughout the Middle East with the migration of the gypsies.  The gypsies eventually reached Europe and Flamenco developed.

Belly dancing has occasionally been used in some Bollywood films.

Belly dancing lesson with Indu

And, here’s our video mashup of our four dance classes at the Delhi Dance Academy:

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Diwali is a popular Hindu festival celebrated over 5 days in October or November all over India and the Hindu community around the world.

Diwali is also called the ‘festival of lights’, celebrating the victory of light over darkness as well as marking the start of a new financial year.

Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and prosperity is the main deity honoured during Diwali:

Lakshmi – the goddess of wealth and fortune, is the main deity celebrated during Diwali

For us, it means lots and lots and lots of fireworks – everywhere, over 5 days!

A common sight in the streets of Jaipur during Diwali – boys lighting fireworks everywhere!

To prepare for Diwali, Hindus spring clean and decorate their homes and businesses.  On the main Diwali night, Hindus dress up in their best outfits, light up diyas (lamps and candles) inside and outside their homes and participate in family pujas (prayers) mainly to Lakshmi.

Then more fireworks follow and the partying begins.

Celebrating Diwali in Jaipur with our friend Andrew – every day during Diwali was like a colourful street party with lights everywhere.

Our favourite brand of fireworks – popular in Jaipur

Diwali in Jaipur: the Pink City

We spent Diwali in Jaipur, nicknamed, the Pink City.

Unfortunately, this nickname has nothing to do with the LGBT community but instead relates to a law requiring all buildings to be painted the colour of hospitality (ie pink)!

The view of the Pink City from up high at the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds)

This law in fact dates back to Queen Victoria’s visit to Jaipur in 1876: to prepare for her visit, the then Maharaja of Jaipur (Ram Singh) ordered the whole city to be painted the colour of hospitality (pink) to welcome her and her entourage.

The popular Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur – painted pink of course

Diwali in Jaipur was really special for us.  Diwali in itself is a colourful and quite spectacular Indian festival, but to be in the pretty Pink City during Diwali made it even more memorable.

Every day during the 5 days of the Diwali festival we experienced a friendly outdoor festival atmosphere as people took to the streets to celebrate, with fireworks going on till late in the night.

Stefan enjoying a delicious lassi with these girls from Gujurat visiting Jaipur for Diwali

Stefan enjoying Jaipur’s party atmosphere during Diwali

Elephant ride up to Amber Fort

Jaipur’s Amber Fort is the big stand out attraction in Jaipur where the old Maharajas used to live.  It dates back to 1592 when it was built by the Rajah Man Singh I.

Posing by Jaipur’s magnificent Amber Fort

The Amber Fort is located on the top of a hill and you can rent an elephant to take you up to its main entrance:

Sebastien found a more innovative way to enter the Amber Fort with this very unique elephant:

Sebastien’s innovative elephant ride into the Amber Fort

We were really impressed by the Amber Fort’s elaborate architecture and interior decoration:

Posing inside the Amber Fort with our friend Andrew

Nomadic Boys posing at Jaipur’s Amber Fort

Stefan posing by the beautiful mosaic walls insude the Amber Fort

The Hawa Mahal Palace

The Hawa Mahal is another popular palace in Jaipur.

Posing inside the Hawa Mahal Palace with our friend Andrew

The Hawa Mahal Palace was built in 1799 made with a high screen wall to allow royal ladies to observe every day life outside without being seen.

The intricate design of this palace as well as the views over the Pink City from up above were beautiful:

Spot a Nomadic Boy somewhere inside the Hawa Mahal

The views of the Pink City from the top of the Hawa Mahal Palace

The views from the top of the Hawa Mahal Palace

Indian wedding during Diwali

In the midsts of all the Diwali excitement in Jaipur, we were invited to attend a Muslim Indian wedding in a nearby village.

Indian weddings are big affairs and the entire village gets involved.  The wedding begins with the groom on his horse, covered with beautiful decoration as he (and the rest of the village) make the journey to the bride’s house where she is waiting for him.

During the wedding procession through the village, people are dancing, music is playing and money is offered to the groom and his family for good luck.

The procession eventually reaches the bride’s house where the couple are united and married, and the (very hungry) followers are fed:

The woman on the right with the pink sari made us laugh as she enthusiastically scoffed down her food

This was a lovely way to round of our Diwali experience in Jaipur, but after so much tourism, we were quite knackered.

Luckily we stumbled on this gem: Hotel Meghniwas, which has a lovely pool area and perhaps some of the best North Indian food we’ve had.  Surprisingly it was incredibly cheap and we definitely recommend to all travellers looking for some relaxing time when in Jaipur.

Relaxing at the pool of Hotel Meghniwas – an oasis in this busy city

A romantic meal at Hotel Meghniwas to end a busy few days celebrating Diwali in Jaipur

The post Diwali in Jaipur – ‘the Pink City’ appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Our friend Andrew joined us in India from London for his birthday.

After spending Diwali in Jaipur, we continued travelling through Rajasthan and then on to Khajuraho.

Car selfie with our friend Andrew travelling from Jodhpur to Udaipur

Rajasthan is India’s largest state and all about colours.  Jaipur is the pink city, Jodhpur, blue and Udaipur, white. It’s also packed with many temples, palaces and forts, which we set out to discover.

The Blue City: Jodhpur

Jodhpur was our first stop after leaving Jaipur.  It is famous for its large Mehrangarh Fort, which sits 150m high up at the top of a hill that looks out over the Blue City.

View of the Blue City from the Mehrangarh Fort. It is name the Blue City because all houses around the fort are painted blue

Jodhpur is called the Sun City or Blue City because the buildings surrounding the fort have traditionally been (and continue to be) painted blue by locals.  It’s not entirely known why, but our favourite reason was because it was seen as a way to repel bugs.

The view of the Blue City from Mehrangarh Fort at sunset

The Mehrangarh Fort in Jodphur has been the site for many Bollywood and Hollywood films.  The most famous and one of Stefan’s favourites – Batman: The Dark Knight.

The Mehrangarh Fort was used as the location for many films including Batman: The Dark Knight

Don’t remember this being featured in the Batman film…the inside of the Mehrangarh Fort

At times we also felt we were celebrities from a film set with the usual requests by Indian tourists to pose for photos.  Naturally, we were only too happy to oblige:

Sebastien posing with these cute children at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur

Andrew posing with these cute children at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur

The White City: Udaipur

Udaiipur was our next stop, also known as the White City due to the many white coloured buildings in the city.

Jagdish temple in central Udaipur, one of the many white buildings which give this city its nickname

The most famous white building in Udaipur is the Lake Palace, a little island oasis on the Lake Pichola of Udaipur.

The Lake Palace island is another example of the many buildings that gives Udaipur its White City nickname

The Lake Palace is another Indian building popular in films, such as in the James Bond film Octopussy.

Stefan trying to be all James Bond inside the beautiful Palace Island (now an expensive posh hotel)

We watched some incredible Indian dances in Rajasthan.

This dance is called Bhavai and originates from the West Rajasthani communities where women used to carry pots of water across the desert for long distances with obviously very good balance skills:

We were particularly astounded by this 67 years old lady who had 11 pots on her head weighing 12kg.  The weight of our backpacks is around 12kg!  We huff and puff carrying that on our backs, but to carry this on our heads? Just wow!

Sebastien posing with this incredible lady who was balancing 11 pots on her head weighing 12kg

Temple bum fun in Khajuraho

We departed with our friend Andrew in Udaipur and took the train to Khajuraho in the heart of India for some temple bum fun:

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient erotic carvings at the temple at Khajuraho

Khajuraho’s temples are famous for their carvings, which depict various central ideas of Hinduism. But for us, the erotic carvings were the standout attraction (especially as we were now fed up of seeing another temple / palace / fort):

Stefan giggling at the erotic carvings at the temple in Khajuraho

A 69er erotic carving at the temple in Khajuraho

Man and horse love with shocked woman watching on

We also met this charming group of colourful young girls who were touring India together and wanted their photo taken with us:

Nomadic Boys wondering if these saris would fit us for our next big night out in town

After our travels in North India it was back on the train for our next stop in the City of the Dead – Varanasi.

Spot the Nomadic Boy in this 3 tiered bunk bed

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Varanasi is an incredible city in North East India based along the Ganges river, considered sacred to Hindus.  It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (since around 11th or 12th century BC).

A beautiful sunrise over the sacred River Ganges

The river banks of the Ganges in Varanasi are bordered by almost 100 ghats.  The ghats are long flights of steps, which lead down to the sacred river.

View of the ghats from our sunrise boat ride – here the swastika is part of the ‘Jain’ ghat

Alongside the ghats of Varanasi, many fascinating aspects of Indian life take place at all times during the day.

Life along the ghats of Varanasi, such as this man cleaning his teeth

We stayed at Kesher Guesthouse, which was minutes walk away from the busy ghats but in a quiet location, and also very cheap.  We spent an entire week in Varanasi just walking up and down the ghats and being completely awed and mesmerised by it all.

Laundry at the ghats

A common and quite fascinating site at the ghats is watching people *wash* their clothes in the river (!) then lay them out to dry across the many stairs.

Women doing their laundry in the Ganges river

We asked our guesthouse to wash a load of our clothes and were reassured when we saw they had a washing machine instead of using the Ganges!

Laundry drying by the ghats after a thorough *clean* in the sacred river

Bathing at the ghats

The sacred Ganges river is worshipped as the goddess ‘Ganga’ in Hinduism:

Icon mosaic of the Goddess Ganga found by one of the ghats

Hindus pilgrims come in their numbers to bathe and pray in the holy river at sunrise.

Hindu pilgrims travel from far to pray and bathe in the sacred river

Bathing in the Ganges is believed to wash away a lifetime of sins, meaning you can reach nirvana as opposed to being endlessly reincarnated.

Hindu pilgrims come from far to bathe and pray in the holy river

Hindu pilgrims praying and bathing by the ghats of Varanasi

Hindu pilgrims praying and bathing by the ghats of Varanasi

Praying at the ghats

Everyday at sunset at the main Dashashwamedh Ghat, large crowds of pilgrims of all ages gather to pray and chant with the priests performing the spectacular ganga aarti ceremony:

Priest leading the ganga aarti ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat

A priest leading the ganga aarti ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat

Woman praying with child at the Dashashwamedh Ghat during the aarti ganga ceremony

Ganga aarti is a choreographed ceremony led by a group of young priests. The priests chant to synchronised drum beats, waving candles and incense sticks in the air in an elaborate pattern.

The atmosphere at the ganga aarti ceremonies is mesmerising and incredible to experience.  We spent almost every evening during our stay in Varanasi watching it.

We also noticed people gathering every night at a smaller nearby Chowki Ghat to light an elaborate pattern of candles.  Then, they would communally pray and chant together around their magnificent creation until the candles died out.

Little girl lighting candles at the Chowki Ghat for pilgrims to pray and chant around

Hindu pilgrims gather at the ghats of Varanasi to light candles and pray together

Cremations at the ghats

Hindus cremate their dead because they believe this releases the deceased’s spiritual essence from the physical body so it can be reborn.

Fire is the chosen method to dispose of the dead because it is believed this purifies the body and will scare away harmful spirits, ghosts and demons.

A public cremation at the burning ghat Manikarnika

Families of the deceased gather with the corpse at the ghats for it to be burnt in public.  After the cremation, the ashes are scattered in the Ganges, which returns you to the earth, representing the circle of life.

A corpse ready to be cremated at one of Varanasi’s “burning ghats” (the Harishchandra Ghat)

The Marnikarnika and Harishchandra ghats are devoted to public cremation ceremonies and are therefore nicknamed the ‘burning ghats’.  Indian women are not allowed to attend the public cremations because it is believed their cries or sobbing may disturb the ascendency of the soul to nirvana.

Large piles of wood are stacked at these two burning ghats and the right amount of wood is carefully chosen to completely incinerate a corpse.

The huge piles of firewood at the main burning ghat of Varanasi (called Manikarnika)

An average of 80 bodies a day are burnt but this is slowly being reduced by the Indian government to prevent pollution.  Slowly, bodies are being cremated elsewhere and only the ashes are dispersed into the Ganges.

Yoga by the ghats

A yogi meditating by the ghats of Varanasi

Given the intense spirituality that the atmosphere around the ghats evoke, yoga and meditation are popular, especially at sunrise.

We met Vishnu Shukla via Couchsurfing who is a yoga teacher.  Vishnu took us for a sunrise yoga class by the ghats.

Sunrise yoga with Vishnu with a view of the ghats of Varanasi in the background

Seb photobombing Vishnu’s yoga sunrise class

However, despite Vishnu’s best efforts, we don’t think Stefan quite *got* it:

Yoga with Vishnu: Stefan trying and failing to get his leg over his head; Vishnu showing how it’s supposed to be done

Ghats of Varanasi: pollution

Unfortunately the Ganges is also one of the world’s most polluted rivers.  It flows through some of the most crowded cities of India, which release their untreated sewage into it.

An unfortunate and common sight at the river Ganges

On one of our many evening strolls by the ghats, we stumbled on these two boys defecating into the holy river:

We saw these two boys taking their evening pooh out in the open and into the Ganges river!

Unfortunately, for this reason amongst many others, we did not join the crowds of Hindu pilgrims to bathe in the river.

All of these activities, practises and rituals made Varanasi our favourite destination in India, one which we will never forget.

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India has a variety of many many tasty foods.

So many, that we could spend months…years trying to blog about it!  Instead we decided to shout about our favourite and most memorable Indian foods and drinks.

#1 CURRIES AND INDIAN THALIS

Thalis are popular throughout India and are an inexpensive foodgasm of various small pots of different curries and other treaties.

The curries are usually vegetable, dal (lentils), meat or fish. The other treaties include curd (yoghurt) and spicy chutney or pickle and it is usually served with rice and sometimes roti bread.

Indian Thali is similar to Nepalese daal bhat and Sri Lankan ‘rice and curry’.

A very spicy fish based thali in Kochi, Kerala, South India

Thalis kept us very very happy during our travels in India.  And, as there is no universal way to cook them, each one always tastes different meaning you will never get bored with them.

“Are you REALLY going to eat all of that by yourself Sebastien???!!!!”

#2 TANDOORI AND CHICKEN TIKKA

The tandoor oven is a cylinder like clay or metal oven in which food is cooked over an intense fire.

Tandoor cooked foods are popular in North India, in particular two of our favourite Indian foods: tandoori chicken and chicken tikka.

Tandoori chicken cooking in an Indian tandoor clay oven

Tandoori chicken and chicken tikka are bright red/orange dishes, which have been marinated with yoghurt and spices like garam masala (a blend of various ground spices like peppercorns, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg etc), garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper and red chilli powder (which gives it its colour).

Tandoori chicken is cooked with the bone on and is usually marinated over night.

“OI! Hands off my tandoori Sebastien…get your own!” cries a hungry Stefan

Chicken tikka is boneless and cooked as skewers.

In the UK, the tikka was developed to be served with a spicy sauce and hence the famous “chicken tikka masala” was born (yup you read right, this famous Indian food dish is in fact born in the UK not India!)

Stefan with red tikka on forehead about to go face down on a plate of red tikka chicken – see what he did there? :)

#3 PANEER, HEAVENLY INDIAN CHEESE

Paneer is another yummy favourite of ours, popular in north India.

Paneer is a soft white fresh cheese, which doesn’t melt (Stefan compares it to a softer version of the Cypriot halloumi cheese).

Stefan about to go face down in to this delicious paneer curry

Paneer is used to make a variety of tasty curries, popular with vegetarians.

Amongst the many different types of paneer dishes, we particularly liked mutter paneer (with peas), palak paneer (with spinach) and kadai paneer – so named because it is cooked in a “kadai” pan, similar to a Chinese wok but with more depth:

A kadai is similar to a Chinese wok but with more depth

South Indian food

South Indian food is unique because of the use of coconut as a base for almost every dish.

The spices used are differ a little bit from North Indian cuisines, for example, cumin is more popular in north India whereas in the south, tamarind and mustard seeds are preferred.

#4 SOUTH INDIAN BREAKFAST CURRIES

A curry for breakfast?  Yup, and they’re damn tasty!

South Indian breakfasts commonly comprise ‘wet’ based dishes like sambar (a fragrant vegetable soapy daal lentil broth) and coconut chutney.

They are usually served with dosas (rice/lentil based pancakes) and idlis (small cylinders of pressed rice, like savoury cakes), which are used for dipping.

South Indian breakfast of sambar lentils broth with idli rice savoury cakes for dipping

Another popular breakfast dish, particularly in Kerala, is puttu (or pittu).

These are steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut and served with side dishes like chickpeas curry.

Sebastien showing off his freshly made puttu during our cooking class in Kochi, Kerala in South India

Puttus are made in a specifically designed phallic shaped steamer:

Sebastien posing with phallic shaped puttu steamer

#5 BARFI, INDIAN SWEETS

India is an awesome place if you have a sweet tooth.  Barfi are small square or diamond shaped Indian treaties made from condensed milk and sugar.

Different types of barfi include badam (almonds), pista (pistachios) and kaaju (cashew nuts).  Fruits are also used to enhance the flavour, like mango and coconut, as well as spices like cardamon and rose water.

Barfi are delicious and completely captivated us, especially in this barfi bakery in Jaipur:

Stefan posing with staff of this barfi bakery in Jaipur (selling his favourite barfi treaties)

Our favourite Indian drinks

#6 LASSI

Lassi is the popular yoghurt based drink in India, which can be salted or sweet.

The traditional salty lassi is more popular in North India and flavoured with spices like ground cumin.  They reminded us a lot of the salted yoghurt drink, ayran, popular in Turkey and Arabic countries.

Stefan enjoying a salted lassi with this group of girls from Gujurat who were also touring Rajasthan, North India

Sweetened lassis are flavoured with fruits instead of spices.  The most popular is banana and mango and taste more like smoothies or milkshakes.

The Blue Lassi shop in Varanasi is popular and serves up some of the tastiest lassis we’ve tried in India

Another popular lassi is “bhang” lassi, made from cannabis buds and leaves mixed into a paste with milk, ghee and spices.  And yes, it’s apparently legal in most parts of India.

#7 CHAI, INDIAN TEA

India is one of the world’s largest exporters of tea along with China and Sri Lanka.  Chai is the Indian (and also Greek!) word for tea.

An Indian chai is usually served milky and very sweet.  Even more special is the delicious Chai Masala, which is milked tea flavoured with lots of spices like cardamon, cloves, cinnamon and many others.

Chai Masala is delicious and we highly recommend it.

Stefan’s chai selfie – Indian chai masala is delicious!

The post Best foods and drinks to try in India appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Ahhh India India India, you caught us by surprise!

We struggled with you at first, but after a while you really grew on us…a lot.

We now het the whole love hate India thing people keep referring to when they talk about you and with hindsight, we do love you and want to come back very soon.

Here’s a few of the reasons why we love hate India and why we want to return for more.

#1 HATE INDIA: traffic chaos and mayhem in India

The first thing that greeted us when we set food in India and came out of New Delhi station was the complete traffic chaos and mayhem:

One of the first things that greeted as we arrived in India was the chaotic traffic of Delhi

The chaotic traffic is particularly more prevalent in Northern India.

This motorbike negotiates its way through the Jaipur traffic with its colourful passenger

With such a large population (almost 1.3 billion) and with one of the highest population densities in the world, it’s not surprising to see so many people everywhere.

But it is impressive to see so many people, cows, motorbikes, rickshaws and more people coexisting peacefully in one big disorganised mess.

Trying to cross the road during a traffic jam in Old Delhi was a particular memory that summed up the chaos in India:

#2 LOVE INDIA: beautiful world wonders!

Yet, amongst all the chaos, India has some of the most beautiful temples, palaces and forts we’ve ever seen:

The Mehrangarh Fort of Jodphur was used as the location for many films including Batman: The Dark Knight

Nomadic Boys posing at the beautiful City Palace in Jaipur’s Pink City centre

…including the Taj Mahal mausoleum of course:

Sebastien contemplating our blog at the Taj Mahal

#3 HATE INDIA: the intense poverty

Travelling through India, the intense poverty is so in your face and commonplace.  This was an aspect of India we really struggled with, particularly in the north.

After a while you almost get used to seeing crowds of poverty dotted around almost everywhere: barefoot children who’ve not washed in a long time, people begging, families sleeping in the streets or train stations.

People sleeping rough at the New Delhi main railway station

This was one of many sleeping rough on Delhi’s streets

#4 LOVE INDIA: really charming charismatic people

The people make this love hate India relationship better all the time. They are so charming and very animated: there is never a dull moment and wow do they love having their photo taken with us foreigners!

Nomadic Boys wondering if these saris would fit us for our next big night out in town

Stefan sharing a tasty lassi in Jaipur with this lady from Gujurat who was touring India with her family

Sebastien posing with these really cute children at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort

And some of them we found to be particularly, er, charming!  He he he:

Charming lad about to bathe in the Ganges at Varanasi

Another charming lad this time after his bath in the Ganges river in Varanasi

#5 HATE INDIA: open sewers and lots of pooh

Just when you get charmed by the very fun people, you almost miss falling in one of many open sewers everywhere.

This was a love hate India thing we reluctantly got used to over time. In place of a pavements throughout India there are open sewers. And they’re not pleasant.

Agra’s open sewers running alongside the roads with this piglet going about its daily rituals inside

And having cows roam freely inevitably means large amount of cow pooh everywhere.  But, as this is pooh from a sacred animal, it will get decorated in this, er, beautiful way:

We frequently saw lots of the cow pooh in the streets being decorated in this elaborate way

In fact we noticed it wasn’t just cow pooh we noticed in one of the Indian trains…

Major fail! Someone really missed in this Indian train from Delhi to Jaipur

#6 LOVE INDIA: the cute head wobble

The side to side head wobble is one of our favourite love hate India memories.

Is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or a ‘maybe’?

We did find that the more enthusiastic the head wobble, the more likely it means ‘yes’ and a shorter one is more likely to mean ‘no’.

Although it didn’t seem quite as authentic when Stefan tried it:

#7 HATE INDIA: Indian trains never on time

Train travel in India is certainly a highlight and a great way to admire the Indian landscape.

But, an unfortunate reality we found travelling through India was that trains are frequently at least around 2/3 hours late…

People waiting for 4 hours for their delayed train to take them to Delhi

We waited for 4 hours for our delayed train at Agra to return us to Delhi…our train from Udaipur to Khajuraho was delayed by 3 hours because the engine broke down and had to be replaced…our train from Khajuraho to Varanasi was almost 3 hours late for an unknown reason.

Engine broke down during our train ride from Udaipur to Khajuraho and we had to wait 3 hours for a new one to be brought to us

But we quickly learnt you just need to swallow it, sit back and enjoy the ride!

Silly train fun during our journey from Agra to Delhi

#8 LOVE INDIA: colour colour LOTS of colour

Colour followed us around in India and another reason why we fell in love with her.

Stefan posing with this group of shy Indian girls at the Taj Mahal

The saris worn by Indian women are incredibly beautiful:

Colourful bazaar in Jaipur

Some of the cities are even nicknamed after a colour like the ‘Blue City’ (Jodhpur) or ‘Pink City’ (Jaipur).

Diwali in Jaipur is a particularly special time to be in the city when it is more colourful and bright then ever.

Celebrating Diwali in Jaipur with our friend Andrew – every day during Diwali was like a colourful street party with lights everywhere.

And the buses in Kerala were decorated in this colourful way (before they set off zooming dangerously on the roads):

A colourful and beautifully decorated bus of Kerala, south India

#9 LOVE HATE INDIA: the Indian helicopters and their annoying drivers

The tuk tuks in the big cities will induce quite a strong love hate India feeling.

On the one hand, you will quickly grow to hate the tuk tuk drivers at times. They can be very disingenuous, trying to scam you, claiming your restaurant/hotel is closed and instead take you to where they can get a commission.

Whist you can refuse to pay them if they do this, it wastes time and leads to an inevitable confrontation (or tantrum if you’re a hungry Nomadic Boy).

Tuk tuks are a lot of fun but a lot of the drivers can be a pest

But, on the upside, tuk tuks are an economical means of getting around. And they are a lot of fun…especially when they go against the crazy flow of Indian traffic…

#10 LOVE INDIA: food food food paradise

We got very lucky and didn’t get the famous ‘Delhi belly’ bowl syndrome most travellers to India fall victim to.  We were very careful to avoid all non bottled water, steered clear from all street food but we did buy our fruit from the many street sellers.

We had a great time trying and loving all the different varieties of Indian food, from the paneer curries of the north to the tasty coconut based dishes of the south like sambar with dosa.

Indian food kept these two greedy boys very happy (but did spark quite a few arguments as well):

‘HANDS OFF YOU GREEDY FRENCH MAN THAT DOSA IS MINE!!!”

#11 LOVE INDIA: grandiose weddings

An Indian wedding is an honour to be invited to and attended one in the village of Amber near Jaipur.

Indian weddings are massive events, particularly in rural areas where the entire village community gets involved.

At this Indian wedding at Amber village, the entire community got involved

Anywhere between 100 and 10,000 people attend to watch the groom in a covered costume draped in money (a sign of good luck) leave his house, on horse, to go through the village to the bride’s house where the ceremony takes place and the hungry revellers are fed.

The groom at the wedding is covered in traditional dress and money (for good luck)

Being the only foreigners, we stood out. So everyone wanted to speak and pose for photos with us, especially this group of cheeky boys who followed us during the entire procession:

This group of boys followed us round during the entire wedding procession asking for their photos with us

The Indian wedding sums up the love hate India feeling we felt travelling here. It is chaotic, loud, extremely colourful and heaps of fun!

Read this article by our friends With Husband in Tow for more about traveling in India in comfort.

The post 10 interesting facts about India, we love or hate it appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Just as we were getting ready to dress up with dramatic colourful saris on the Delhi gay scene and show off our bhangra and dandiya dance moves we learnt from our Bollywood dance class, we discovered that being gay in India has become illegal, again.

More specifically, a very old law dating back to 1861 (Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code), which criminalised bum sex with up to 10 years in jail was invalidated by the Delhi High Court in 2009.

Lots of excitement and pink euphoria followed. But in December 2013, the Indian Supreme Court reintroduced Article 377, stating it was for the government to strike it down.

Although the Supreme Court recently announced plans to review this law, gay India has been forced firmly back in the closet.

Protests in India against the offensive Article 377

Article 377 specifically criminalises anal sex with up to 10 years conviction:

“whoever voluntarily has carnal [ie sexual] intercourse against the order of nature

with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment…”.

We found this slightly contradictory coming from a religion with quite a colourful sexual history as shown on these ancient carvings at Khajuraho Temple in Central India:

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient erotic carvings at the temple at Khajuraho

As a result of the anti gay laws, the gay scene in India has been forced underground.

Gay parties are advertised by word of mouth or limited social media. Using Grindr we were able to tap into the scene in Delhi and found the invite only gay party for that week taking place at the Knight World Cuisine Lounge at Connaught Place.

The venue of the weekly gay party when we were in Delhi: Knight World Cuisine Lounge by Castle 9

It was a fun night out in Delhi until the police raided it at 1am looking for their weekly bribe from the club promoters! Nobody was arrested and this is apparently the norm in gay clubs India.

At the club, we made friends with a sweet young Indian gay couple, who go by their anonymous nicknames of Nick and Rhys.

Nick and Rhys have an excellent blog about their relationship. The boys agreed to our Q&A about gay India and gay life in Delhi but on condition they are anonymous.

Enjoying a romantic moment at the famous Taj Mahal

#1 Namaste Nick and Rhy!  Welcome to our blog, please introduce yourselves

Hello Nomadic Boys! Welcome to India and to Delhi. We are Nick and Rhys, medical students living in Delhi and have been together for nearly 5 years.

#2 Why are you anonymous on your blog?

N: Since Article 377 was re-instated into law, it has effectively become a validation for all sorts of bullying and harassment of the LGBTQ community in India. Added to the social stigma we face, it is just too risky to be openly queer in India especially for young folks like us.

R: Being anonymous on our own blog is not our choice, neither do I like it. But since both Nick and I belong to very traditional families, we have no option but to hide our identities, so that we can express ourselves and still have no worries of being outed. Even on Grindr for example, it is rare to see anyone with their real names on display.

Indian traditional society remains largely conservative and frowns on homosexuality

#3 Are you out to anyone at your work, friends or family members?

N: I came out to my dad, but this went horribly wrong. After lots of tears, screaming and visits to psychiatrists and counsellors we agreed to ignore the issue to preserve his sanity, and mine.

R: I am out to most of my closest friends, but not to anyone in my family, or else I would be thrown out of the house. 

Young puppy love…these two cute Indian puppies in Varanasi reminded us of Nick and Rhys’ young love

#4 Is there a risk to your job prospects in India if you’re openly gay?

N: Oh no, of course not!!! I can’t imagine this very conservative homophobic society having any problems at all bending over and coughing for a *gay doctor*!  Ha ha ha!!

R: For us it is a huge risk because I don’t think anyone would want to be examined by a “gay” doctor, no matter how qualified he or she is.

#5 Do you think the situation will improve for the LGBT population in India?

N: It has improved in the sense that there is much more visibility for LGBTQ issues than ever before but that also results in a much more violent backlash.

R: I am hopeful it will get better eventually but at present it seems a very slow process, especially when you see the antipathy in society.

Anti gay protests in India gives a very sad blunt message to its LGBT community

#6 Are there any pride or other public gay events in India?

R: Well, not many people know this, but Kolkata led the way in 1999, hosting India’s first ever gay Pride event called the “Rainbow Pride Walk” with 15 people attending. But it wasn’t until summer 2008 when large Pride events started to take place for the first time in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pondicherry.  

Delhi Pride 2008 – the year when large summer pride events started taking place in cities across India

N: Queer Film Festivals are also gaining popularity. The first one took place in Kolkata in 2007 and then in Mumbai from 2010 (called Kashish).

The Kashish Mumbai International Film Festival going strong since 2010

#7 Any advice for LGBT travellers visiting India?

R: It’s really not as bad as the law makes it out to be. Yes it’s illegal. Yes society is fundamentally conservative (where else in Asia isn’t it?) but there’s a huge gay population here waiting with open arms to welcome gay tourists.

N: As you boys found out, having a Grindr profile definitely helps you connect with gay locals and find out what is happening in the local gay scene. And of course, putting all the gay stuff aside, India is rich with so much history, beautiful temples, incredible food and so much culture to discover.

The Nomadic Boys discovering one the many beautiful palaces in India – the City Palace in Jaipur

#8 Why do (straight) boys hold hands and cuddle up in public? Doesn’t this make it easier for you? 

N: Boys holding hands in public is cultural in India. It is a sign of friendship amongst men but nothing to do with sexual orientation at all.

R: Personal space and privacy take a back seat when you live in a very crowded place like India. Hence holding hands and touching are not frowned on.  

N: But strangely enough I feel more comfortable holding hands or hugging my straight male friends in public than Rhys. I think it’s because we have been brought up with such a restrictive moral code that any display of affection for your partner is considered ‘wrong’. So however much we want to shake off those homophobic feelings, they still linger.

Boys walking in Jaipur holding hands

#9 And finally, if gay marriage was legal in India, who’d propose first?

R: Nick please answer!!

N: Oh that’s an easy one… since Rhys asked me out the first time around with a proper ‘down on his knees’, slow waltz routine, the proposal to marry would come from me. And Rhys has warned me that it better be fabulous, with a dramatic dress…or else!!

Nick you’ve been warned: the wedding proposal better be fabulous!

For more about our adventures through Malaysia, please check out our India travel video:

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The post Gay India: Interview with gay couple from Delhi appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

India shocked us but we quickly fell in love with it as we made out way through this beautiful country and colourful culture.

We spent a month dancing through India, from Bollywood dancing in Delhi to visiting the breathtaking monument of love, the Taj Mahal, through Rajasthan, over to Varanasi then down south to Kochi in Kerala.

Spending Diwali in Jaipur also made this trip very special for us.

In total we took over 200 video clips of all the places we visited in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Khajuraho, Varanasi, Kochi and taking a house boat in Kerala.

Sorting our India videos to keep the most interesting was the hardest part. Putting it all together was the fun part.

We hope you enjoyed our video of India.

The music used in this video is “Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai” by Mika Singh and the software used to create this movie is: MAGIX Edit pro 2013.

The post Our India video travel diary appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

The backwaters of Kerala are a network of inter connected canals, rivers and lakes with a number villages.

One of the highlights for travellers in India is to rent a house boat in Kerala and drift along the backwaters for a day or two and watching the world go by around you.

Stefan relaxing on our houseboat as we drift through the backwaters of Kerala

Naturally this was high up on our Wish List of things to do in India.  It is however quite pricey, around 6,000-8,000 Indian rupees (around £60-80 / $95-125) a night.

But, it’s a splurge that is well worth the experience.

Where to find the house boats

There are several places in Kerala you can use as a base to start your house boat cruise, but Alleppey is the most well known and popular.  It has a large number of boats (around 1,000), which far outstrips demand for them.

The house boat base in Alleppey is called “Finishing Point” on Google Maps and is around 20 minutes walk from the centre of Alleppey (or 5-10 minutes on a tuk tuk):

The house boats usually depart around midday and return the following day at 8am.

If you go to the Finishing Point area after midday, you will only see the boats which have not been rented out.  Most of the good ones will most likely be out on a cruise returning the next morning.

Therefore, if you want to see the house boat before you commit to it (and we strongly advise you do this!) you should go on the morning you intend to leave at around 8am.

The house boat Finishing Point area in Alleppey where there are around 1000 boats stationed

Our tips for picking a good house boat in Kerala

Captain Stefan steering our house boat, “Why Not”

1. Do not book anything in advance!

If you do, you will be paying an agent’s commission on top of the cost, making it even more expensive then it should be.

Perhaps the only exception to this rule maybe during peak periods like on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve or Diwali when the better boats will most likely be booked up in advance.

Captain Seb steering our house boat called ‘Why Not’

2. Inspect the boat before you commit to anything

Another reason not to book in advance is because you won’t be able to see the boat beforehand.

The quality of the boats varies quite a bit even between boats of the same price range.  A good or bad quality boat really can make or break your entire experience.

We went to Alleppey the day before and stayed at the excellent Venice Castle Homestead as a base to go the following morning to inspect the boats.

The decoration in our house boat’s bedroom

3. Speak to others disembarking

When you arrive at the ‘Finishing Point’ area at 8am, try to catch the passengers who are disembarking from their cruise and ask them how they found it.  Did they like their boat?  If not, why not?  How much did they pay?  Which boat was it?  etc

This will give you a good idea of which are the best boats at that point in time, the ones to avoid and the likely costs of each.

Captain Seb at the helm of ‘Why Not’ steering us through the backwaters of Kerala

4. Try to inspect as many boats as you can…

…until you’re satisfied.

We found the best boats to be located right in the central point of the boat ‘Finishing Point’ area. The further away we went from here, the quality of the boats got noticeably worse.

5. Get a boat with an upstairs deck

Try to get a boat with an upstairs deck as well as a downstairs eating area.  You will have your own personal space upstairs to relax in and view the world going by, separated from the staff downstairs.

Always try to get a boat with a top deck for extra viewing and relaxation pleasure

6. Other things to look out for when inspecting the boats:

• Mattress:  test the quality of the mattress as we saw some really bad ones and some really nice ones.
• Bathroom:  check the bathroom in each boat you inspect as some are hideous and stink, others far better (NB: none of the boats we saw had hot water).

The bathroom of our house boat decorated with a purple theme

• 1 bed or 2 bed:  if it’s a 2 bed boat and you want it all to yourself, make sure you clarify this with the boat owner (unless you’re happy to share with another couple).
• Mosquito nets:  check the beds have a good mosquito net.

Our 4 poster bed with mosquito net on our house boat

• Air conditioning or fan:  check if it has working AC (if you want it) or if it only has a fan, test it out to ensure.
• Clarify your meals:  clarify which meals are included, ensure your preferences are noted and some also give you bottled water, tea and coffee throughout the cruise and fruit snacks in between meals.

We were offered this lovely fruit basket on board our house boat on top of all our meals

• Electrical sockets:  check there are working electrical sockets to charge your phone and camera and actually test them if possible.
• Toiletries / towels / bedsheets:  check these are provided or whether you’ll have to bring your own.

We may be sounding a little bit picky, but if the above are not included you can use this as leverage to haggle down the price.

8. Haggle, haggle, haggle!

Finally, once you found a few boats you like, haggle the price with the boat owner as much as you can to bring the price down.

The boat owners are after all making a tidy profit from this very touristy enterprise, so with the money you save, you can use it to tip the staff on board at the end.

We rented a house boat for a day called ‘Why Not’ and negotiated it down to 6,000 rupees (around £60/$95) from the 7,000 (around £70/$110) initially quoted to us by its owner.

Our house boat was called ‘Why Not’

Life on board the house boat

This experience is basically one big luxurious splurge!  You have an entire boat all to yourself, with your ‘team’ of people working for you to make your journey as pleasant as possible.

We had our very own on board chef, captain and (ahem) boat boy:

Stefan posing with our chef, captain and our, er, house boy (who helped out the chef and captain)

Upon arrival we were greeted with a lovely fresh coconut drink:

A refreshing welcome on house boat with a very tasty coconut drink

We then spent the majority of our time on the upstairs deck just relaxing and watching the world around you drift on by.

Sebastien relaxing on our houseboat as we drift through the backwaters of Kerala

As you relax on board, you will watch the local life of the backwaters taking place around you, like children being picked up from school by boat, locals going from one side of the river banks to the other, women doing their laundry…

People of the Kerala backwater villages as you drift by, this boat was picking up this group of children finishing school

We saw many people doing their laundry in the waters we drifted by on

This man was picking his son up from school by boat

And the best part?  The incredible food, which you will be SPOILT ROTTEN with!  Our chef made us a delicious lunch and dinner and then a really tasty breakfast.

Two very happy greedy boys tucking into a delicious south Indian breakfast of sambar and idli on board the house boat

We found that 1 day was enough for us.  Some people do 2-3 days but this will depend on your preference (and budget!)

We were very pleased with our house boat experience and would highly recommend this experience to all travellers.

A lovely sunset over the backwaters of Kerala

The post How to book a houseboat in Alleppey? appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Don’t get us wrong, we absolutely fell in love with India.

But its government just has major problems accepting its LGBT community.

A very old law dating back to 1861 (Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code) criminalises gay sex with up to 10 years in prison. This was invalidated by the Delhi High Court in 2009, but in 2013, the Supreme Court reintroduced Article 377.

In January 2016, the Supreme Court announced it would review this decision, but until this is done, being gay in India remains a crime.

Protests in India against the offensive Article 377

We couldn’t find any evidence of Article 377 being enforced, but its very existence is a symbolic slap in the face to the LGBT community.

We interviewed a gay Indian couple anonymously who said that Article 377 is used by the authorities as a validation for all sorts of bullying and harassment of the LGBT community, in particular the Indian police who use it as a way to get bribes.

We experienced this first hand in Delhi.

Policeman in Delhi

THE GAY SCENE IN DELHI

Our first stop in India was the buzzing and chaotic city of Delhi. It was our entry point into the country and our base to visit the Taj Mahal.

As a big city with over 10 million, we were expecting it to have an active gay community. Unfortunately, most online resources about gay bars or clubs in Delhi were outdated.

Since 2013 when the Supreme Court made being gay illegal, there are no openly gay hangouts. If there were before, now they were closed down and everything forced underground.

One of our favourite mobile apps for our travels is Grindr, to connect and meet locals, and our experience in Delhi was a classic example. Using Grindr, we were able to tap into the scene and discover the venue of that week’s party: Knight by Castle 9 at Connaught Place.

So, dolled up and ready to party, we hit the town.

Heading for a gay night our with our friend Andrew in Delhi

The gay party itself was a lot of fun. It was heaving full of locals dancing and drinking, having a good time.

Just as we whipped out the selfie sticks to start capturing the evening, a burly bouncer quickly took us aside and sternly told us that all photography is strictly prohibited. They were only trying to protect their clientele who were naturally sensitive about their family or work finding out they’d been to a gay place.

Suddenly at around 1am the music stopped.

All the lights were switched off and window blinds pulled down.

Everybody was asked to stay inside the club, be silent and under no circumstances, go outside.

The police had arrived!

Everyone in the club was blazé about it. This happened at all their parties. It was just the way it had always been.

We, however were freaking out…

• What if we have to go to some dodgy Indian prison cell?
• What’s the number of the UK/French embassy?
• What are your rights if arrested in India?!

Our Indian friends reassured us, explaining the policemen were simply looking for a bribe from the promoters and would leave everyone else alone.

It was just the way it had always been.

The venue for the gay party when we were in Delhi

We waited for around 20 minutes. At one point one young guy tried to leave through the back door, but the burly bouncer smacked him and told him to wait inside to avoid antagonising the police.

Eventually the policemen’s bribes were settled and everyone was asked to leave via the back door, one by one, and go straight home.

No one got hurt. No one was arrested. And most shocking for us, nobody seemed to care!

This was all part of an average gay night out in Delhi.

Although we were able to laugh it off afterwards, we were so shocked that this is what the Delhi LGBT community have to live with every day.

Our “we were nearly arrested in Delhi” tuk tuk selfie on the ride back home

THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN LONDON!

Back home in London, or anywhere else in Western Europe or North America, this would never, ever in a million years happen!

Any police presence in Heaven or XXL would be to protect us from something, not for a bribe! Our Police even have their own float at London Pride and let us kiss them and take silly photos with them.

Sebastien the angel kissing one of our friendly policemen at London Gay Pride parade

We were just shocked that in India, the very people who are supposed to protect you are instead the ones you have to bribe to leave you alone.

We truly hope the Indian Supreme Court takes the initiative in its review of Article 377 to make the correct decision and repeal it once and for all!

SHOULD GAY TRAVELLERS BOYCOTT INDIA?

On the contrary!

We strongly believe that gay travellers should not boycott travelling to countries with anti-gay laws.

As a foreigner you will be quite safe. No one wants any embassy issues, least of all the police. More importantly, going there as a gay traveller you would not only be helping to raise awareness with everyday folk that gays are like any other person, you would also be supporting your local sisters there.

And let’s face it, India has the potential to be very gay: with a population of over 1 billion, there’s statistically over 100 million gay boys waiting to party with you!

Oh – and have you seen some of the carvings at religious places like the temples of Khajuraho?!

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient temple carvings in Khajuraho

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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The post That one time we almost got arrested for being gay in Delhi appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Delhi was our first stop in India, where we met up with our friend Andrew, visiting us from London.

Our Nomadic Boys selfie with our friend Andrew visiting us from London

Bollywood

Bollywood is part of the large Indian film industry – a mix of Mumbai’s former name of Bombay, and Hollywood.  The industry dates back to 1913 when the first silent Bollywood film (Raja Harishchandra) was released.

Bollywood films are great fun.  They are extremely camp and melodramatic with a simple storyline to appeal to all.  They also involve a lot of singing and dancing so that you really don’t need to understand Hindi to appreciate what’s going on.

We watched the latest hit, “Bang Bang”, which inspired us to take this a step further…

Posing with the poster for the latest Bollywood hit, “Bang Bang”

Dancing in Delhi

We took a dance class with the brilliant Delhi Dance Academy, set up by handsome brothers, Arjun and Anant Sandhu:

Owners of the Delhi Dance Academy, Arjun and Anant Sandhu

Delhi Dance Academy

We were welcomed with a marigold flower necklace (“mala”), a red dot tikka painted on our foreheads and given snacks for the day.

Our class involved learning four different Indian dance routines:

1. Bollywood

First up was Bollywood, the one we were looking forward to the most.  Traditionally dancing in Bollywood films started with the introduction of sound to the cinema and was mainly classical Indian dance styles.  But over the years, the influence from MTV and Hollywood creeped in.

Now it’s all about cheesy dance routines with lots of attitude, hips gyrating and posh spice style pointing:

Posing with our Bollywood dance teacher, Manish.

2. Dandiya

Dandiya is a more traditional dance from the Gujurat region of India and popular in Western India.

It involves dancing in a circle with each person holding a stick (the ‘dandiyas’) in each hand.

Dandiya dance class with our teacher, Naina

Dandiya is usually popular during the Indian 9 day festival called Navratri.  Navratri is a Hindu 9 day long affair in late September/early October celebrating Goddess Durga and the victory of good over evil.

The Dandiya dance is the staging of the victory of Goddess Durga over the buffalo headed evil demon-king, Mahishasura.  It’s nicknamed ‘The Sword Dance’ because the dandiya sticks represent the swords of Durga.

The Dandiya dance is the staging of the victory of Goddess Durga over the buffalo headed evil demon-king, Mahishasura.

3. Bhangra

Bhangra is a high energy Punjabi (an area of North India) dance, traditionally used to celebrate ‘Vaisakhi’ (Sikh festival celebrating a good harvest season).

Bhangra is popular at Sikh weddings, parties, family celebrations and of course in Bollywood films.

It’s often danced in circles, uses a lot of arm and shoulder movement, and of course, lots of attitude:

Bhangra dance class with Anish

4. Belly dancing

Belly dancing is an Arabic dance not as popular in India because it is considered too risqué for such a conservative country.

Its actual origins are varied.  Some claim it’s originally a religious ancient Greek dance during fertility to help prepare girls for labour and was part of the delivery ritual.  Others trace it further back to a form of Egyptian social dance.

And, another explanation traces its origins to India claiming it spread throughout the Middle East with the migration of the gypsies.  The gypsies eventually reached Europe and Flamenco developed.

Belly dancing has occasionally been used in some Bollywood films.

Belly dancing lesson with Indu

And, here’s our video mashup of our four dance classes at the Delhi Dance Academy:

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

The post Our dancing lesson with Delhi Dance Academy appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Diwali is a popular Hindu festival celebrated over 5 days in October or November all over India and the Hindu community around the world.

Diwali is also called the ‘festival of lights’, celebrating the victory of light over darkness as well as marking the start of a new financial year.

Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and prosperity is the main deity honoured during Diwali:

Lakshmi – the goddess of wealth and fortune, is the main deity celebrated during Diwali

For us, it means lots and lots and lots of fireworks – everywhere, over 5 days!

A common sight in the streets of Jaipur during Diwali – boys lighting fireworks everywhere!

To prepare for Diwali, Hindus spring clean and decorate their homes and businesses.  On the main Diwali night, Hindus dress up in their best outfits, light up diyas (lamps and candles) inside and outside their homes and participate in family pujas (prayers) mainly to Lakshmi.

Then more fireworks follow and the partying begins.

Celebrating Diwali in Jaipur with our friend Andrew – every day during Diwali was like a colourful street party with lights everywhere.

Our favourite brand of fireworks – popular in Jaipur

Diwali in Jaipur: the Pink City

We spent Diwali in Jaipur, nicknamed, the Pink City.

Unfortunately, this nickname has nothing to do with the LGBT community but instead relates to a law requiring all buildings to be painted the colour of hospitality (ie pink)!

The view of the Pink City from up high at the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds)

This law in fact dates back to Queen Victoria’s visit to Jaipur in 1876: to prepare for her visit, the then Maharaja of Jaipur (Ram Singh) ordered the whole city to be painted the colour of hospitality (pink) to welcome her and her entourage.

The popular Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur – painted pink of course

Diwali in Jaipur was really special for us.  Diwali in itself is a colourful and quite spectacular Indian festival, but to be in the pretty Pink City during Diwali made it even more memorable.

Every day during the 5 days of the Diwali festival we experienced a friendly outdoor festival atmosphere as people took to the streets to celebrate, with fireworks going on till late in the night.

Stefan enjoying a delicious lassi with these girls from Gujurat visiting Jaipur for Diwali

Stefan enjoying Jaipur’s party atmosphere during Diwali

Avoid elephant rides up to Amber Fort!

Jaipur’s Amber Fort is the big stand out attraction in Jaipur where the old Maharajas used to live.  It dates back to 1592 when it was built by the Rajah Man Singh I.

Posing by Jaipur’s magnificent Amber Fort

The Amber Fort is located on the top of a hill but sadly elephant rides are offered, which we strongly advise to avoid. Sebastien instead found a more innovative way to enter the Amber Fort with this very unique elephant:

Sebastien’s innovative elephant ride into the Amber Fort

We were really impressed by the Amber Fort’s elaborate architecture and interior decoration:

Posing inside the Amber Fort with our friend Andrew

Nomadic Boys posing at Jaipur’s Amber Fort

Stefan posing by the beautiful mosaic walls insude the Amber Fort

The Hawa Mahal Palace

The Hawa Mahal is another popular palace in Jaipur.

Posing inside the Hawa Mahal Palace with our friend Andrew

The Hawa Mahal Palace was built in 1799 made with a high screen wall to allow royal ladies to observe every day life outside without being seen.

The intricate design of this palace as well as the views over the Pink City from up above were beautiful:

Spot a Nomadic Boy somewhere inside the Hawa Mahal

The views of the Pink City from the top of the Hawa Mahal Palace

The views from the top of the Hawa Mahal Palace

Indian wedding during Diwali

In the midsts of all the Diwali excitement in Jaipur, we were invited to attend a Muslim Indian wedding in a nearby village.

Indian weddings are big affairs and the entire village gets involved.  The wedding begins with the groom on his horse, covered with beautiful decoration as he (and the rest of the village) make the journey to the bride’s house where she is waiting for him.

During the wedding procession through the village, people are dancing, music is playing and money is offered to the groom and his family for good luck.

The procession eventually reaches the bride’s house where the couple are united and married, and the (very hungry) followers are fed:

The woman on the right with the pink sari made us laugh as she enthusiastically scoffed down her food

This was a lovely way to round of our Diwali experience in Jaipur, but after so much tourism, we were quite knackered.

Luckily we stumbled on this gem: Hotel Meghniwas, which has a lovely pool area and perhaps some of the best North Indian food we’ve had.  Surprisingly it was incredibly cheap and we definitely recommend to all travellers looking for some relaxing time when in Jaipur.

Relaxing at the pool of Hotel Meghniwas – an oasis in this busy city

A romantic meal at Hotel Meghniwas to end a busy few days celebrating Diwali in Jaipur

For more information about awesome festivals in India, check out Sid’s awesome post about Holi 2017 in India.

Watch our video as we danced our way through this incredible country:

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

The post Spending Diwali in Jaipur: “the Pink City” – India appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

During our big trip in India, we divided our time between the North and the South, with a brief stop over in the middle in Khajuraho.

In the North we celebrated Diwali in Jaipur then continued travelling through Rajasthan and on to Khajuraho.

Rajasthan is India’s largest and most colourful state. Literally, all the cities are nicknamed after a colour: Jaipur is the Pink City, Jodhpur is blue and Udaipur nicknamed the white city. This is also the place to see some of the country’s most beautiful temples, palaces and forts. Khajuraho, further south, has a large temple complex, famous for some very erotic carvings.

The Blue City: Jodhpur

Jodhpur was our first stop after leaving Jaipur.  It is famous for its large Mehrangarh Fort, which sits 150m high up at the top of a hill that looks out over the Blue City.

Jodhpur is called the Sun City or Blue City because the buildings surrounding the fort have traditionally been (and continue to be) painted blue by locals.  It’s not entirely known why, but our favourite reason was because it was seen as a way to repel bugs.

The view of the Blue City from Mehrangarh Fort at sunset

The Mehrangarh Fort in Jodphur has been the site for many Bollywood and Hollywood films.  The most famous and one of Stefan’s favourites – Batman: The Dark Knight.

The Mehrangarh Fort was used as the location for many films including Batman: The Dark Knight

Don’t remember this being featured in the Batman film…the inside of the Mehrangarh Fort

The White City: Udaipur

Udaiipur was our next stop, also known as the White City due to the many white coloured buildings in the city.

The most famous white building in Udaipur is the Lake Palace, a little island oasis on the Lake Pichola of Udaipur. The Lake Palace is another Indian building popular in films, such as in the James Bond film Octopussy.

The Lake Palace island is another example of the many buildings that gives Udaipur its White City nickname

We watched some incredible Indian dances in Rajasthan.

This dance is called Bhavai and originates from the West Rajasthani communities where women used to carry pots of water across the desert for long distances with obviously very good balance skills:

We were particularly astounded by this 67 years old lady who had 11 pots on her head weighing 12kg.  The weight of our backpacks is around 12kg!  We huff and puff carrying that on our backs, but to carry this on our heads? Just wow!

Sebastien posing with this incredible lady who was balancing 11 pots on her head weighing 12kg

Erotic temple carvings in Khajuraho

The Khajuraho Temples in Madhya Pradesh are amongst the most beautiful medieval monuments in India. They are the largest group of Hindu and Jain temples in the world, although only around 20 remain today from the original 80 built. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built during the Chandella Dynasty between AD900-1130.

The temples are scattered over an area of 9 square miles, featuring a range of really intricate carvings depicting the traditional lifestyle of women in the medieval ages. This includes some very erotic carvings, which has become their most popular feature today.

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient erotic carvings at the temple at Khajuraho

It is believed that the erotic sculptures are a way of giving importance to the love of life and to general wellbeing. During the medieval era there was a common belief that having erotic sculptures or alankaras would bring luck and considered auspicious.

Stefan giggling at the erotic carvings at the temple in Khajuraho

A 69er erotic carving at the temple in Khajuraho

Man and horse love with shocked woman watching on

After our travels in North India it was back on the train for our next stop in the City of the Dead – Varanasi.

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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Varanasi is an incredible city in North East India based along the Ganges river, considered sacred to Hindus.  It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (since around 11th or 12th century BC).

A beautiful sunrise over the sacred River Ganges

The river banks of the Ganges in Varanasi are bordered by almost 100 ghats.  The ghats are long flights of steps, which lead down to the sacred river.

View of the ghats from our sunrise boat ride – here the swastika is part of the ‘Jain’ ghat

Alongside the ghats of Varanasi, many fascinating aspects of Indian life take place at all times during the day.

Life along the ghats of Varanasi, such as this man cleaning his teeth

We stayed at Kesher Guesthouse, which was minutes walk away from the busy ghats but in a quiet location, and also very cheap.  We spent an entire week in Varanasi just walking up and down the ghats and being completely awed and mesmerised by it all.

Laundry at the ghats

A common and quite fascinating site at the ghats is watching people *wash* their clothes in the river (!) then lay them out to dry across the many stairs.

Women doing their laundry in the Ganges river

We asked our guesthouse to wash a load of our clothes and were reassured when we saw they had a washing machine instead of using the Ganges!

Laundry drying by the ghats after a thorough *clean* in the sacred river

Bathing at the ghats

The sacred Ganges river is worshipped as the goddess ‘Ganga’ in Hinduism:

Icon mosaic of the Goddess Ganga found by one of the ghats

Hindus pilgrims come in their numbers to bathe and pray in the holy river at sunrise.

Hindu pilgrims travel from far to pray and bathe in the sacred river

Bathing in the Ganges is believed to wash away a lifetime of sins, meaning you can reach nirvana as opposed to being endlessly reincarnated.

Hindu pilgrims come from far to bathe and pray in the holy river

Hindu pilgrims praying and bathing by the ghats of Varanasi

Hindu pilgrims praying and bathing by the ghats of Varanasi

Praying at the ghats

Everyday at sunset at the main Dashashwamedh Ghat, large crowds of pilgrims of all ages gather to pray and chant with the priests performing the spectacular ganga aarti ceremony:

Priest leading the ganga aarti ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat

A priest leading the ganga aarti ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat

Woman praying with child at the Dashashwamedh Ghat during the aarti ganga ceremony

Ganga aarti is a choreographed ceremony led by a group of young priests. The priests chant to synchronised drum beats, waving candles and incense sticks in the air in an elaborate pattern.

The atmosphere at the ganga aarti ceremonies is mesmerising and incredible to experience.  We spent almost every evening during our stay in Varanasi watching it.

We also noticed people gathering every night at a smaller nearby Chowki Ghat to light an elaborate pattern of candles.  Then, they would communally pray and chant together around their magnificent creation until the candles died out.

Little girl lighting candles at the Chowki Ghat for pilgrims to pray and chant around

Hindu pilgrims gather at the ghats of Varanasi to light candles and pray together

Cremations at the ghats

Hindus cremate their dead because they believe this releases the deceased’s spiritual essence from the physical body so it can be reborn.

Fire is the chosen method to dispose of the dead because it is believed this purifies the body and will scare away harmful spirits, ghosts and demons.

A public cremation at the burning ghat Manikarnika

Families of the deceased gather with the corpse at the ghats for it to be burnt in public.  After the cremation, the ashes are scattered in the Ganges, which returns you to the earth, representing the circle of life.

A corpse ready to be cremated at one of Varanasi’s “burning ghats” (the Harishchandra Ghat)

The Marnikarnika and Harishchandra ghats are devoted to public cremation ceremonies and are therefore nicknamed the ‘burning ghats’.  Indian women are not allowed to attend the public cremations because it is believed their cries or sobbing may disturb the ascendency of the soul to nirvana.

Large piles of wood are stacked at these two burning ghats and the right amount of wood is carefully chosen to completely incinerate a corpse.

The huge piles of firewood at the main burning ghat of Varanasi (called Manikarnika)

An average of 80 bodies a day are burnt but this is slowly being reduced by the Indian government to prevent pollution.  Slowly, bodies are being cremated elsewhere and only the ashes are dispersed into the Ganges.

Yoga by the ghats

A yogi meditating by the ghats of Varanasi

Given the intense spirituality that the atmosphere around the ghats evoke, yoga and meditation are popular, especially at sunrise.

We met Vishnu Shukla via Couchsurfing who is a yoga teacher.  Vishnu took us for a sunrise yoga class by the ghats.

Sunrise yoga with Vishnu with a view of the ghats of Varanasi in the background

Seb photobombing Vishnu’s yoga sunrise class

However, despite Vishnu’s best efforts, we don’t think Stefan quite *got* it:

Yoga with Vishnu: Stefan trying and failing to get his leg over his head; Vishnu showing how it’s supposed to be done

Ghats of Varanasi: pollution

Unfortunately the Ganges is also one of the world’s most polluted rivers.  It flows through some of the most crowded cities of India, which release their untreated sewage into it.

An unfortunate and common sight at the river Ganges

On one of our many evening strolls by the ghats, we stumbled on these two boys defecating into the holy river:

We saw these two boys taking their evening pooh out in the open and into the Ganges river!

Unfortunately, for this reason amongst many others, we did not join the crowds of Hindu pilgrims to bathe in the river.

All of these activities, practises and rituals made Varanasi our favourite destination in India, one which we will never forget.

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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India has a variety of many many tasty foods.

So many, that we could spend months…years trying to blog about it!  Instead we decided to shout about our favourite and most memorable Indian foods and drinks.

#1 CURRIES AND INDIAN THALIS

Thalis are popular throughout India and are an inexpensive foodgasm of various small pots of different curries and other treaties.

The curries are usually vegetable, dal (lentils), meat or fish. The other treaties include curd (yoghurt) and spicy chutney or pickle and it is usually served with rice and sometimes roti bread.

Indian Thali is similar to Nepalese daal bhat and Sri Lankan ‘rice and curry’.

A very spicy fish based thali in Kochi, Kerala, South India

Thalis kept us very very happy during our travels in India.  And, as there is no universal way to cook them, each one always tastes different meaning you will never get bored with them.

“Are you REALLY going to eat all of that by yourself Sebastien???!!!!”

#2 TANDOORI AND CHICKEN TIKKA

The tandoor oven is a cylinder like clay or metal oven in which food is cooked over an intense fire.

Tandoor cooked foods are popular in North India, in particular two of our favourite Indian foods: tandoori chicken and chicken tikka.

Tandoori chicken cooking in an Indian tandoor clay oven

Tandoori chicken and chicken tikka are bright red/orange dishes, which have been marinated with yoghurt and spices like garam masala (a blend of various ground spices like peppercorns, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg etc), garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper and red chilli powder (which gives it its colour).

Tandoori chicken is cooked with the bone on and is usually marinated over night.

“OI! Hands off my tandoori Sebastien…get your own!” cries a hungry Stefan

Chicken tikka is boneless and cooked as skewers.

In the UK, the tikka was developed to be served with a spicy sauce and hence the famous “chicken tikka masala” was born (yup you read right, this famous Indian food dish is in fact born in the UK not India!)

Stefan with red tikka on forehead about to go face down on a plate of red tikka chicken – see what he did there?

#3 PANEER, HEAVENLY INDIAN CHEESE

Paneer is another yummy favourite of ours, popular in north India.

Paneer is a soft white fresh cheese, which doesn’t melt (Stefan compares it to a softer version of the Cypriot halloumi cheese).

Stefan about to go face down in to this delicious paneer curry

Paneer is used to make a variety of tasty curries, popular with vegetarians.

Amongst the many different types of paneer dishes, we particularly liked mutter paneer (with peas), palak paneer (with spinach) and kadai paneer – so named because it is cooked in a “kadai” pan, similar to a Chinese wok but with more depth:

A kadai is similar to a Chinese wok but with more depth

South Indian food

South Indian food is unique because of the use of coconut as a base for almost every dish.

The spices used are differ a little bit from North Indian cuisines, for example, cumin is more popular in north India whereas in the south, tamarind and mustard seeds are preferred.

#4 SOUTH INDIAN BREAKFAST CURRIES

A curry for breakfast?  Yup, and they’re damn tasty!

South Indian breakfasts commonly comprise ‘wet’ based dishes like sambar (a fragrant vegetable soapy daal lentil broth) and coconut chutney.

They are usually served with dosas (rice/lentil based pancakes) and idlis (small cylinders of pressed rice, like savoury cakes), which are used for dipping.

South Indian breakfast of sambar lentils broth with idli rice savoury cakes for dipping

Another popular breakfast dish, particularly in Kerala, is puttu (or pittu).

These are steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut and served with side dishes like chickpeas curry.

Sebastien showing off his freshly made puttu during our cooking class in Kochi, Kerala in South India

Puttus are made in a specifically designed phallic shaped steamer:

Sebastien posing with phallic shaped puttu steamer

#5 BARFI, INDIAN SWEETS

India is an awesome place if you have a sweet tooth.  Barfi are small square or diamond shaped Indian treaties made from condensed milk and sugar.

Different types of barfi include badam (almonds), pista (pistachios) and kaaju (cashew nuts).  Fruits are also used to enhance the flavour, like mango and coconut, as well as spices like cardamon and rose water.

Barfi are delicious and completely captivated us, especially in this barfi bakery in Jaipur:

Stefan posing with staff of this barfi bakery in Jaipur (selling his favourite barfi treaties)

Our favourite Indian drinks

#6 LASSI

Lassi is the popular yoghurt based drink in India, which can be salted or sweet.

The traditional salty lassi is more popular in North India and flavoured with spices like ground cumin.  They reminded us a lot of the salted yoghurt drink, ayran, popular in Turkey and Arabic countries.

Stefan enjoying a salted lassi with this group of girls from Gujurat who were also touring Rajasthan, North India

Sweetened lassis are flavoured with fruits instead of spices.  The most popular is banana and mango and taste more like smoothies or milkshakes.

The Blue Lassi shop in Varanasi is popular and serves up some of the tastiest lassis we’ve tried in India

Another popular lassi is “bhang” lassi, made from cannabis buds and leaves mixed into a paste with milk, ghee and spices.  And yes, it’s apparently legal in most parts of India.

#7 CHAI, INDIAN TEA

India is one of the world’s largest exporters of tea along with China and Sri Lanka.  Chai is the Indian (and also Greek!) word for tea.

An Indian chai is usually served milky and very sweet.  Even more special is the delicious Chai Masala, which is milked tea flavoured with lots of spices like cardamon, cloves, cinnamon and many others.

Chai Masala is delicious and we highly recommend it.

Stefan’s chai selfie – Indian chai masala is delicious!

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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Ahhh India India India, you caught us by surprise!

We struggled with you at first, but after a while you really grew on us…a lot.

We now het the whole love hate India thing people keep referring to when they talk about you and with hindsight, we do love you and want to come back very soon.

Here’s a few of the reasons why we love hate India and why we want to return for more.

#1 HATE INDIA: traffic chaos and mayhem in India

The first thing that greeted us when we set food in India and came out of New Delhi station was the complete traffic chaos and mayhem:

One of the first things that greeted as we arrived in India was the chaotic traffic of Delhi

The chaotic traffic is particularly more prevalent in Northern India.

This motorbike negotiates its way through the Jaipur traffic with its colourful passenger

With such a large population (almost 1.3 billion) and with one of the highest population densities in the world, it’s not surprising to see so many people everywhere.

But it is impressive to see so many people, cows, motorbikes, rickshaws and more people coexisting peacefully in one big disorganised mess.

Trying to cross the road during a traffic jam in Old Delhi was a particular memory that summed up the chaos in India:

#2 LOVE INDIA: beautiful world wonders!

Yet, amongst all the chaos, India has some of the most beautiful temples, palaces and forts we’ve ever seen:

The Mehrangarh Fort of Jodphur was used as the location for many films including Batman: The Dark Knight

Nomadic Boys posing at the beautiful City Palace in Jaipur’s Pink City centre

…including the Taj Mahal mausoleum of course:

Sebastien contemplating our blog at the Taj Mahal

#3 HATE INDIA: the intense poverty

Travelling through India, the intense poverty is so in your face and commonplace.  This was an aspect of India we really struggled with, particularly in the north.

After a while you almost get used to seeing crowds of poverty dotted around almost everywhere: barefoot children who’ve not washed in a long time, people begging, families sleeping in the streets or train stations.

People sleeping rough at the New Delhi main railway station

This was one of many sleeping rough on Delhi’s streets

#4 LOVE INDIA: really charming charismatic people

The people make this love hate India relationship better all the time. They are so charming and very animated: there is never a dull moment and wow do they love having their photo taken with us foreigners!

Nomadic Boys wondering if these saris would fit us for our next big night out in town

Stefan sharing a tasty lassi in Jaipur with this lady from Gujurat who was touring India with her family

Sebastien posing with these really cute children at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort

And some of them we found to be particularly, er, charming!  He he he:

Charming lad about to bathe in the Ganges at Varanasi

Another charming lad this time after his bath in the Ganges river in Varanasi

#5 HATE INDIA: open sewers and lots of pooh

Just when you get charmed by the very fun people, you almost miss falling in one of many open sewers everywhere.

This was a love hate India thing we reluctantly got used to over time. In place of a pavements throughout India there are open sewers. And they’re not pleasant.

Agra’s open sewers running alongside the roads with this piglet going about its daily rituals inside

And having cows roam freely inevitably means large amount of cow pooh everywhere.  But, as this is pooh from a sacred animal, it will get decorated in this, er, beautiful way:

We frequently saw lots of the cow pooh in the streets being decorated in this elaborate way

In fact we noticed it wasn’t just cow pooh we noticed in one of the Indian trains…

Major fail! Someone really missed in this Indian train from Delhi to Jaipur

#6 LOVE INDIA: the cute head wobble

The side to side head wobble is one of our favourite love hate India memories.

Is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or a ‘maybe’?

We did find that the more enthusiastic the head wobble, the more likely it means ‘yes’ and a shorter one is more likely to mean ‘no’.

Although it didn’t seem quite as authentic when Stefan tried it:

#7 HATE INDIA: Indian trains never on time

Train travel in India is certainly a highlight and a great way to admire the Indian landscape.

But, an unfortunate reality we found travelling through India was that trains are frequently at least around 2/3 hours late…

People waiting for 4 hours for their delayed train to take them to Delhi

We waited for 4 hours for our delayed train at Agra to return us to Delhi…our train from Udaipur to Khajuraho was delayed by 3 hours because the engine broke down and had to be replaced…our train from Khajuraho to Varanasi was almost 3 hours late for an unknown reason.

Engine broke down during our train ride from Udaipur to Khajuraho and we had to wait 3 hours for a new one to be brought to us

But we quickly learnt you just need to swallow it, sit back and enjoy the ride!

Silly train fun during our journey from Agra to Delhi

#8 LOVE INDIA: colour colour LOTS of colour

Colour followed us around in India and another reason why we fell in love with her.

Stefan posing with this group of shy Indian girls at the Taj Mahal

The saris worn by Indian women are incredibly beautiful:

Colourful bazaar in Jaipur

Some of the cities are even nicknamed after a colour like the ‘Blue City’ (Jodhpur) or ‘Pink City’ (Jaipur).

Diwali in Jaipur is a particularly special time to be in the city when it is more colourful and bright then ever.

Celebrating Diwali in Jaipur with our friend Andrew – every day during Diwali was like a colourful street party with lights everywhere.

And the buses in Kerala were decorated in this colourful way (before they set off zooming dangerously on the roads):

A colourful and beautifully decorated bus of Kerala, south India

#9 LOVE HATE INDIA: the Indian helicopters and their annoying drivers

The tuk tuks in the big cities will induce quite a strong love hate India feeling.

On the one hand, you will quickly grow to hate the tuk tuk drivers at times. They can be very disingenuous, trying to scam you, claiming your restaurant/hotel is closed and instead take you to where they can get a commission.

Whist you can refuse to pay them if they do this, it wastes time and leads to an inevitable confrontation (or tantrum if you’re a hungry Nomadic Boy).

Tuk tuks are a lot of fun but a lot of the drivers can be a pest

But, on the upside, tuk tuks are an economical means of getting around. And they are a lot of fun…especially when they go against the crazy flow of Indian traffic…

#10 LOVE INDIA: food food food paradise

We got very lucky and didn’t get the famous ‘Delhi belly’ bowl syndrome most travellers to India fall victim to.  We were very careful to avoid all non bottled water, steered clear from all street food but we did buy our fruit from the many street sellers.

We had a great time trying and loving all the different varieties of Indian food, from the paneer curries of the north to the tasty coconut based dishes of the south like sambar with dosa.

Indian food kept these two greedy boys very happy (but did spark quite a few arguments as well):

‘HANDS OFF YOU GREEDY FRENCH MAN THAT DOSA IS MINE!!!”

#11 LOVE INDIA: grandiose weddings

An Indian wedding is an honour to be invited to and attended one in the village of Amber near Jaipur.

Indian weddings are massive events, particularly in rural areas where the entire village community gets involved.

At this Indian wedding at Amber village, the entire community got involved

Anywhere between 100 and 10,000 people attend to watch the groom in a covered costume draped in money (a sign of good luck) leave his house, on horse, to go through the village to the bride’s house where the ceremony takes place and the hungry revellers are fed.

The groom at the wedding is covered in traditional dress and money (for good luck)

Being the only foreigners, we stood out. So everyone wanted to speak and pose for photos with us, especially this group of cheeky boys who followed us during the entire procession:

This group of boys followed us round during the entire wedding procession asking for their photos with us

The Indian wedding sums up the love hate India feeling we felt travelling here. It is chaotic, loud, extremely colourful and heaps of fun!

Read this article by our friends With Husband in Tow for more about traveling in India in comfort.

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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Just as we were getting ready to dress up with dramatic colourful saris on the Delhi gay scene and show off our bhangra and dandiya dance moves we learnt from our Bollywood dance class, we discovered that being gay in India has become illegal, again.

More specifically, a very old law dating back to 1861 (Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code), which criminalised bum sex with up to 10 years in jail was invalidated by the Delhi High Court in 2009.

Lots of excitement and pink euphoria followed. But in December 2013, the Indian Supreme Court reintroduced Article 377, stating it was for the government to strike it down.

Although the Supreme Court recently announced plans to review this law, gay India has been forced firmly back in the closet.

Protests in India against the offensive Article 377

Article 377 specifically criminalises anal sex with up to 10 years conviction:

“whoever voluntarily has carnal [ie sexual] intercourse against the order of nature

with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment…”.

We found this slightly contradictory coming from a religion with quite a colourful sexual history as shown on these ancient carvings at Khajuraho Temple in Central India:

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient erotic carvings at the temple at Khajuraho

As a result of the anti gay laws, the gay scene in India has been forced underground.

Gay parties are advertised by word of mouth or limited social media. Using Grindr we were able to tap into the scene in Delhi and found the invite only gay party for that week taking place at the Knight World Cuisine Lounge at Connaught Place.

The venue of the weekly gay party when we were in Delhi: Knight World Cuisine Lounge by Castle 9

It was a fun night out in Delhi until the police raided it at 1am looking for their weekly bribe from the club promoters! Nobody was arrested and this is apparently the norm in gay clubs India.

At the club, we made friends with a sweet young Indian gay couple, who go by their anonymous nicknames of Nick and Rhys.

Nick and Rhys have an excellent blog about their relationship. The boys agreed to our Q&A about gay India and gay life in Delhi but on condition they are anonymous.

Enjoying a romantic moment at the famous Taj Mahal

#1 Namaste Nick and Rhy!  Welcome to our blog, please introduce yourselves

Hello Nomadic Boys! Welcome to India and to Delhi. We are Nick and Rhys, medical students living in Delhi and have been together for nearly 5 years.

#2 Why are you anonymous on your blog?

N: Since Article 377 was re-instated into law, it has effectively become a validation for all sorts of bullying and harassment of the LGBTQ community in India. Added to the social stigma we face, it is just too risky to be openly queer in India especially for young folks like us.

R: Being anonymous on our own blog is not our choice, neither do I like it. But since both Nick and I belong to very traditional families, we have no option but to hide our identities, so that we can express ourselves and still have no worries of being outed. Even on Grindr for example, it is rare to see anyone with their real names on display.

Indian traditional society remains largely conservative and frowns on homosexuality

#3 Are you out to anyone at your work, friends or family members?

N: I came out to my dad, but this went horribly wrong. After lots of tears, screaming and visits to psychiatrists and counsellors we agreed to ignore the issue to preserve his sanity, and mine.

R: I am out to most of my closest friends, but not to anyone in my family, or else I would be thrown out of the house. 

Young puppy love…these two cute Indian puppies in Varanasi reminded us of Nick and Rhys’ young love

#4 Is there a risk to your job prospects in India if you’re openly gay?

N: Oh no, of course not!!! I can’t imagine this very conservative homophobic society having any problems at all bending over and coughing for a *gay doctor*!  Ha ha ha!!

R: For us it is a huge risk because I don’t think anyone would want to be examined by a “gay” doctor, no matter how qualified he or she is.

#5 Do you think the situation will improve for the LGBT population in India?

N: It has improved in the sense that there is much more visibility for LGBTQ issues than ever before but that also results in a much more violent backlash.

R: I am hopeful it will get better eventually but at present it seems a very slow process, especially when you see the antipathy in society.

Anti gay protests in India gives a very sad blunt message to its LGBT community

#6 Are there any pride or other public gay events in India?

R: Well, not many people know this, but Kolkata led the way in 1999, hosting India’s first ever gay Pride event called the “Rainbow Pride Walk” with 15 people attending. But it wasn’t until summer 2008 when large Pride events started to take place for the first time in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pondicherry.  

Delhi Pride 2008 – the year when large summer pride events started taking place in cities across India

N: Queer Film Festivals are also gaining popularity. The first one took place in Kolkata in 2007 and then in Mumbai from 2010 (called Kashish).

The Kashish Mumbai International Film Festival going strong since 2010

#7 Any advice for LGBT travellers visiting India?

R: It’s really not as bad as the law makes it out to be. Yes it’s illegal. Yes society is fundamentally conservative (where else in Asia isn’t it?) but there’s a huge gay population here waiting with open arms to welcome gay tourists.

N: As you boys found out, having a Grindr profile definitely helps you connect with gay locals and find out what is happening in the local gay scene. And of course, putting all the gay stuff aside, India is rich with so much history, beautiful temples, incredible food and so much culture to discover.

The Nomadic Boys discovering one the many beautiful palaces in India – the City Palace in Jaipur

#8 Why do (straight) boys hold hands and cuddle up in public? Doesn’t this make it easier for you? 

N: Boys holding hands in public is cultural in India. It is a sign of friendship amongst men but nothing to do with sexual orientation at all.

R: Personal space and privacy take a back seat when you live in a very crowded place like India. Hence holding hands and touching are not frowned on.  

N: But strangely enough I feel more comfortable holding hands or hugging my straight male friends in public than Rhys. I think it’s because we have been brought up with such a restrictive moral code that any display of affection for your partner is considered ‘wrong’. So however much we want to shake off those homophobic feelings, they still linger.

Boys walking in Jaipur holding hands

#9 And finally, if gay marriage was legal in India, who’d propose first?

R: Nick please answer!!

N: Oh that’s an easy one… since Rhys asked me out the first time around with a proper ‘down on his knees’, slow waltz routine, the proposal to marry would come from me. And Rhys has warned me that it better be fabulous, with a dramatic dress…or else!!

Nick you’ve been warned: the wedding proposal better be fabulous!

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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India shocked us but we quickly fell in love with it as we made out way through this beautiful country and colourful culture.

We spent a month dancing through India, from Bollywood dancing in Delhi to visiting the breathtaking monument of love, the Taj Mahal, through Rajasthan, over to Varanasi then down south to Kochi in Kerala.

Spending Diwali in Jaipur also made this trip very special for us.

In total we took over 200 video clips of all the places we visited in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Khajuraho, Varanasi, Kochi and taking a house boat in Kerala.

Sorting our India videos to keep the most interesting was the hardest part. Putting it all together was the fun part.

We hope you enjoyed our video of India:

The music used in this video is “Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai” by Mika Singh and the software used to create this movie is: MAGIX Edit pro 2013.

The post Our India video travel diary appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

The backwaters of Kerala are a network of inter connected canals, rivers and lakes with a number villages. One of the highlights for travellers in India is to rent a house boat in Kerala and drift along the backwaters for a day or two and watching the world go by around you.

Naturally this was high up on our Wish List of things to do in India. It is however quite pricey, around 6,000-8,000 Indian rupees (around £60-80/$95-125) a night. But, it’s a splurge that is well worth the experience.

We highly recommend checking out eKerala Tourism for some of the best Kerala Tour Packages including some of the best backwater destinations you can reach on a houseboat.

Stefan relaxing on our houseboat as we drift through the backwaters of Kerala

Where to find the house boats

There are several places in Kerala you can use as a base to start your house boat cruise, but Alleppey is the most well known and popular.  It has a large number of boats (around 1,000), which far outstrips demand for them.

The house boat base in Alleppey is called “Finishing Point” on Google Maps and is around 20 minutes walk from the centre of Alleppey (or 5-10 minutes on a tuk tuk):

The house boats usually depart around midday and return the following day at 8am.

If you go to the Finishing Point area after midday, you will only see the boats which have not been rented out.  Most of the good ones will most likely be out on a cruise returning the next morning.

Therefore, if you want to see the house boat before you commit to it (and we strongly advise you do this!) you should go on the morning you intend to leave at around 8am.

The house boat Finishing Point area in Alleppey where there are around 1000 boats stationed

Our tips for picking a good house boat in Kerala

Captain Stefan steering our house boat, “Why Not”

1. Do not book anything in advance!

If you do, you will be paying an agent’s commission on top of the cost, making it even more expensive then it should be.

Perhaps the only exception to this rule maybe during peak periods like on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve or Diwali when the better boats will most likely be booked up in advance.

Captain Seb steering our house boat called ‘Why Not’

2. Inspect the boat before you commit to anything

Another reason not to book in advance is because you won’t be able to see the boat beforehand.

The quality of the boats varies quite a bit even between boats of the same price range.  A good or bad quality boat really can make or break your entire experience.

We went to Alleppey the day before and stayed at the excellent Venice Castle Homestead as a base to go the following morning to inspect the boats.

The decoration in our house boat’s bedroom

3. Speak to others disembarking

When you arrive at the ‘Finishing Point’ area at 8am, try to catch the passengers who are disembarking from their cruise and ask them how they found it.  Did they like their boat?  If not, why not?  How much did they pay?  Which boat was it?  etc

This will give you a good idea of which are the best boats at that point in time, the ones to avoid and the likely costs of each.

Captain Seb at the helm of ‘Why Not’ steering us through the backwaters of Kerala

4. Try to inspect as many boats as you can…

…until you’re satisfied.

We found the best boats to be located right in the central point of the boat ‘Finishing Point’ area. The further away we went from here, the quality of the boats got noticeably worse.

5. Get a boat with an upstairs deck

Try to get a boat with an upstairs deck as well as a downstairs eating area.  You will have your own personal space upstairs to relax in and view the world going by, separated from the staff downstairs.

Always try to get a boat with a top deck for extra viewing and relaxation pleasure

6. Other things to look out for when inspecting the boats:

• Mattress:  test the quality of the mattress as we saw some really bad ones and some really nice ones.
• Bathroom:  check the bathroom in each boat you inspect as some are hideous and stink, others far better (NB: none of the boats we saw had hot water).

The bathroom of our house boat decorated with a purple theme

• 1 bed or 2 bed:  if it’s a 2 bed boat and you want it all to yourself, make sure you clarify this with the boat owner (unless you’re happy to share with another couple).
• Mosquito nets:  check the beds have a good mosquito net.

Our 4 poster bed with mosquito net on our house boat

• Air conditioning or fan:  check if it has working AC (if you want it) or if it only has a fan, test it out to ensure.
• Clarify your meals:  clarify which meals are included, ensure your preferences are noted and some also give you bottled water, tea and coffee throughout the cruise and fruit snacks in between meals.

We were offered this lovely fruit basket on board our house boat on top of all our meals

• Electrical sockets:  check there are working electrical sockets to charge your phone and camera and actually test them if possible.
• Toiletries / towels / bedsheets:  check these are provided or whether you’ll have to bring your own.

We may be sounding a little bit picky, but if the above are not included you can use this as leverage to haggle down the price.

8. Haggle, haggle, haggle!

Finally, once you found a few boats you like, haggle the price with the boat owner as much as you can to bring the price down.

The boat owners are after all making a tidy profit from this very touristy enterprise, so with the money you save, you can use it to tip the staff on board at the end.

We rented a house boat for a day called ‘Why Not’ and negotiated it down to 6,000 rupees (around £60/$95) from the 7,000 (around £70/$110) initially quoted to us by its owner.

Our house boat was called ‘Why Not’

Life on board the house boat

This experience is basically one big luxurious splurge!  You have an entire boat all to yourself, with your ‘team’ of people working for you to make your journey as pleasant as possible.

We had our very own on board chef, captain and (ahem) boat boy:

Stefan posing with our chef, captain and our, er, house boy (who helped out the chef and captain)

Upon arrival we were greeted with a lovely fresh coconut drink:

A refreshing welcome on house boat with a very tasty coconut drink

We then spent the majority of our time on the upstairs deck just relaxing and watching the world around you drift on by.

Sebastien relaxing on our houseboat as we drift through the backwaters of Kerala

As you relax on board, you will watch the local life of the backwaters taking place around you, like children being picked up from school by boat, locals going from one side of the river banks to the other, women doing their laundry…

People of the Kerala backwater villages as you drift by, this boat was picking up this group of children finishing school

We saw many people doing their laundry in the waters we drifted by on

This man was picking his son up from school by boat

And the best part?  The incredible food, which you will be SPOILT ROTTEN with!  Our chef made us a delicious lunch and dinner and then a really tasty breakfast.

Two very happy greedy boys tucking into a delicious south Indian breakfast of sambar and idli on board the house boat

We found that 1 day was enough for us.  Some people do 2-3 days but this will depend on your preference (and budget!)

We were very pleased with our house boat experience and would highly recommend this experience to all travellers.

A lovely sunset over the backwaters of Kerala

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

The post How to book a houseboat in Alleppey? appeared first on Nomadic Boys.

Don’t get us wrong, we absolutely fell in love with India.

But its government just has major problems accepting its LGBT community.

A very old law dating back to 1861 (Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code) criminalises gay sex with up to 10 years in prison. This was invalidated by the Delhi High Court in 2009, but in 2013, the Supreme Court reintroduced Article 377.

In January 2016, the Supreme Court announced it would review this decision, but until this is done, being gay in India remains a crime.

Protests in India against the offensive Article 377

We couldn’t find any evidence of Article 377 being enforced, but its very existence is a symbolic slap in the face to the LGBT community.

We interviewed a gay Indian couple anonymously who said that Article 377 is used by the authorities as a validation for all sorts of bullying and harassment of the LGBT community, in particular the Indian police who use it as a way to get bribes.

We experienced this first hand in Delhi.

Policeman in Delhi

THE GAY SCENE IN DELHI

Our first stop in India was the buzzing and chaotic city of Delhi. It was our entry point into the country and our base to visit the Taj Mahal.

As a big city with over 10 million, we were expecting it to have an active gay community. Unfortunately, most online resources about gay bars or clubs in Delhi were outdated.

Since 2013 when the Supreme Court made being gay illegal, there are no openly gay hangouts. If there were before, now they were closed down and everything forced underground.

One of our favourite mobile apps for our travels is Hornet, to connect and meet locals, and our experience in Delhi was a classic example. Using Hornet, we were able to tap into the scene and discover the venue of that week’s party: Knight by Castle 9 at Connaught Place.

So, dolled up and ready to party, we hit the town.

Heading for a gay night our with our friend Andrew in Delhi

The gay party itself was a lot of fun. It was heaving full of locals dancing and drinking, having a good time.

Just as we whipped out the selfie sticks to start capturing the evening, a burly bouncer quickly took us aside and sternly told us that all photography is strictly prohibited. They were only trying to protect their clientele who were naturally sensitive about their family or work finding out they’d been to a gay place.

Suddenly at around 1am the music stopped.

All the lights were switched off and window blinds pulled down.

Everybody was asked to stay inside the club, be silent and under no circumstances, go outside.

The police had arrived!

Everyone in the club was blazé about it. This happened at all their parties. It was just the way it had always been.

We, however were freaking out…

• What if we have to go to some dodgy Indian prison cell?
• What’s the number of the UK/French embassy?
• What are your rights if arrested in India?!

Our Indian friends reassured us, explaining the policemen were simply looking for a bribe from the promoters and would leave everyone else alone.

It was just the way it had always been.

The venue for the gay party when we were in Delhi

We waited for around 20 minutes. At one point one young guy tried to leave through the back door, but the burly bouncer smacked him and told him to wait inside to avoid antagonising the police.

Eventually the policemen’s bribes were settled and everyone was asked to leave via the back door, one by one, and go straight home.

No one got hurt. No one was arrested. And most shocking for us, nobody seemed to care!

This was all part of an average gay night out in Delhi.

Although we were able to laugh it off afterwards, we were so shocked that this is what the Delhi LGBT community have to live with every day.

Our “we were nearly arrested in Delhi” tuk tuk selfie on the ride back home

THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN LONDON!

Back home in London, or anywhere else in Western Europe or North America, this would never, ever in a million years happen!

Any police presence in Heaven or XXL would be to protect us from something, not for a bribe! Our Police even have their own float at London Pride and let us kiss them and take silly photos with them.

Sebastien the angel kissing one of our friendly policemen at London Gay Pride parade

We were just shocked that in India, the very people who are supposed to protect you are instead the ones you have to bribe to leave you alone.

We truly hope the Indian Supreme Court takes the initiative in its review of Article 377 to make the correct decision and repeal it once and for all!

SHOULD GAY TRAVELLERS BOYCOTT INDIA?

On the contrary!

We strongly believe that gay travellers should not boycott travelling to countries with anti-gay laws.

As a foreigner you will be quite safe. No one wants any embassy issues, least of all the police. More importantly, going there as a gay traveller you would not only be helping to raise awareness with everyday folk that gays are like any other person, you would also be supporting your local sisters there.

And let’s face it, India has the potential to be very gay: with a population of over 1 billion, there’s statistically over 100 million gay boys waiting to party with you!

Oh – and have you seen some of the carvings at religious places like the temples of Khajuraho?!

Back in the old days, anal sex seemed to be the norm in India judging by these ancient temple carvings in Khajuraho

FOR MORE FROM OUR TRAVELS IN INDIA, CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO:

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