{"id":518,"date":"2014-10-29T03:35:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T03:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagostins.com\/?p=518"},"modified":"2014-10-29T03:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T03:35:26","slug":"17-things-weve-loved-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/?p=518","title":{"rendered":"17 Things We’ve Loved about India"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. The People.<\/strong>
    \nSuper friendly people everywhere that just want to chat. To ask where you\u2019re from, how long you\u2019re here, tell you about their city, the culture. It was amazing \u2013 true genuine hospitality and friendliness. Everywhere!<\/li>\n
  2. Diwali Lights.<\/strong>
    \nIt is the festival of lights and, boy, do they decorate accordingly! There are Christmas lights everywhere \u2013 it\u2019s really festive and puts you in a fun mood. And while the strings of lights were cool, my favorite part were the little candle flames everywhere giving off this warm glow.
    \n\"IMG_0156\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Rick is a celebrity. Photo ops!<\/strong>
    \nWe had a lot of folks asking to take photos with us. It was quite funny to us. And as soon as we would say okay to one guy, there were 10 more that appeared wanting pictures too! Like they were just waiting for the first brave guy to ask. We humored just about everyone that asked\u2026 even when it meant we were standing around for photos for 15 minutes. And we just get a picture with them too \u2013 because, why not? It\u2019s fun\u2026 but the staring does get a little weird after a while. Crazy eyes!
    \n    \"Being<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Party Cows.<\/strong>
    \nWe call them Party Cows \u2013 they were painted and decorated for Diwali and all over the streets. There were also Party Donkeys, Party Goats\u2026 pretty much if you could get it to stand still for long enough, it was painted!
    \n    \"Party<\/a>
    \n\u201cParty until the cows come home\u201d \u2013 uh oh, I think the cows came home. Knock, knock.<\/li>\n
  5. Jaipur Shopping Festival.<\/strong>
    \nIn celebration of Diwali, Jaipur has a huge shopping festival. The stores decorate their store fronts with crazy elaborate scenes \u2013 it\u2019s like NYC at Christmas.
    \n    \"Diwali
    \n<\/a>Popular Indian night club? Nope, just people waiting to get into the temple for Diwali.<\/li>\n
  6. Diwali.<\/strong>
    \nOk, I know that\u2019s three things for Diwali, but it was so fun! Everyone was super friendly on the \u201cbig night\u201d of Diwali Oct 23 when we were in Jairpur. Cheery people shouted down the street at us \u201cHappy Diwali\u201d\u2026 came out of houses to tell us \u201cHappy Diwali\u201d.    \"Diwali<\/a>There are also poo sculptures involved. Not so sure on what these mean or what they are for (or if it’s real<\/em> poo), but all over the streets on the 24th there were little \u201cgingerbread man\u201d sculptures made of poop.<\/li>\n
  7. Street Food.<\/strong>
    \nThe best food we\u2019ve had on the trip so far! Street food in India is delicious. From dahl and chapatis, to lassis, to samosas with curry flavors inside. We basically never really know what it is, but if it\u2019s popular with the locals and there\u2019s a line in front of the cart, we\u2019re in! The flavors have been incredible.
    \n    \"Street<\/a>
    \nWe are in Delhi until this evening, so\u00a0more street food is in our near future!<\/li>\n
  8. \u00a0Sunsets.<\/strong>
    \nAbsolutely stunning sunsets. Everyday. So the cause may not be so sexy\u2026 I think a lot of it has to do with the pollution, but the results are amazing.
    \n    \"Sunsets<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Palaces.<\/strong>
    \nLots and lots of palaces. I think Udaipur had the best ones! We spent 4-5 days in Udaipur, it\u2019s a beautiful city, said to be the most romantic city in India. I can see why, it\u2019s set on a couple of lakes and has beautiful palaces surrounding the lake, and even in the middle of the lake.
    \n    \"Palaces<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Marwari Horses.<\/strong>
    \nI loved getting to ride them so much,     it\u2019s a separate post<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  11. Trains.<\/strong>
    \nThe trains are awesome. You can get everywhere by train\u2026 and it\u2019s like a moving hotel if you get an overnight one (awesome for us budget travelers!). And it\u2019s a nice, comfy hotel \u2013 I think I got my best sleep on the trains in India. And you wake up and you\u2019re in your next destination.<\/li>\n
  12. Henna.<\/strong>
    \nIt really is beautiful how intricate the designs are.
    \n    \"Henna\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Taj Mahal.<\/strong>
    \nPretty impressive place.
    \n    \"The<\/a><\/li>\n
  14. Elephants and camels everywhere.
    \n
    \n<\/a>    \"Elephants<\/a>
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  15. Tuk tuk rides.<\/strong>
    \nAlways an adventure \u2013 but far better than to be in one, than dodging them on the street, they can be ruthless.
    \n    \"Tuk<\/a>
    \nPay up, buddy! No free ride here!<\/li>\n
  16. \u00a0Rooftop cafes.
    \n    \"Roof<\/a>
    \n<\/strong><\/li>\n
  17. “Everything is possible!\u201d \u2026 and \u201cit\u2019s not possible\u201d<\/strong>
    \nWe heard both. A LOT. We made a wonderful friend in Agra who took care of us at his rooftop restaurant every night we were there. The first time we walked in we were greeted warmly and told \u201cwhat would make you happy? Everything is possible!\u201d
    \n    \"Everything<\/a>
    \nOn the flip side, when someone here wants to say no to your request (like \u201cMay I take a picture of your shop?\u201d or \u201cMay I have another beer?\u201d near closing time)\u2026 the answer is a very proper sounding \u201cNot possible.\u201d It\u2019s very disarming\u2026. We\u2019ve come to find it kind of endearing and funny now. But there\u2019s a little part of me that always wants to argue, \u201cIt\u2019s not really that it\u2019s \u2018not possible\u2019, sir. I think what you really mean is you don\u2019t want to!”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We have one\u00a0last day in India to enjoy the wonderful culture, people, sights and flavors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The People. Super friendly people everywhere that just want to chat. To ask where you\u2019re from, how long you\u2019re here, tell you about their city, the culture. It was amazing \u2013 true genuine hospitality and friendliness. Everywhere! Diwali Lights. It is the festival of lights and, boy, do they decorate accordingly! There are Christmas lights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,44],"tags":[43,40,35,45,11],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-lists","tag-animals","tag-food","tag-india","tag-lists","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}