manipal, coorg, palolem, and hampi got their own posts because i visited each of them multiple times and because they will always be special places to me, but i was lucky enough to get to see a lot of india while i lived there. while my adventures from 2012 onwards are pretty well documented online, this post is dedicated to the places i got to visit in those initial years.

mysore.

aside from hampi, mysore is probably the place i went the most. being only a 3-hour drive from bangalore it was an easy day trip or a great stop on the way to coorg, and the mysore palace is a showstopper of a place to see. also the meals at rrr were excellent and i made friends with one of the shop owners near the hotel where we always stayed and he would give me free sweets because our groups always bought so many snacks from him. i don’t know if or when i’ll go back to mysore, but i always had a great time when i was there.

gokarna.

gokarna was our beach getaway if we didn’t have the time or money to get to goa. back then om beach was still moderately unknown and you could rock up without having booked anything and find a cheap place to stay pretty easily. one of my favorite trips was when alex and i needed a break from all the people at home and quietly booked bus tickets and took off for a weekend of peace and quiet and beach. it wasn’t as clean as goa and some of the locals could be a little frustrating, but it was always the perfect getaway at the perfect time.

savandurga.

i only got to savandurga twice, but both times i loved it. it’s a giant monolith outside bangalore, and if you time your visit correctly you can get to the top in time for sunrise and enjoy some incredible views. the rocks in karnataka really are different, and savandurga is one of the best.

rajasthan + agra.

in 2007 when i had just returned to bangalore dimple was taking one of the interns traveling in north india and akis and i asked to tag along. i had never been to rajasthan or seen the taj mahal and took advantage of the opportunity and we had such an incredible trip. from the hawa mahal to an overnight camel safari in the desert to sunrise hikes in pushkar and finally to seeing the taj up close and personal, it was a trip i will never forget.

mahaballipuram.

mahaballipuram is where we would take the bigger groups since there was a hotel that could accommodate everyone and they had a pool we could use, but more than the pool or the proximity to the beach my favorite part of mahaballipuram was that either on the way there or the way back we would stop at dakshina chitra, an incredible heritage museum dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the south indian states. there is so much to do there, from walking through traditional homes of the different states to meeting artisans from all over india who come there to sell their wares. you can also have a traditional south indian thali or yummy dosas for lunch, either of which will lull you into a perfect nap for the remainder of your drive. coorg is top of the list for places i want to return to, but mahaballipuram and dakshina chitra are pretty high up there as well.

munnar.

on my one and only trip to kerala we took a group to cochin, we did a day trip on the backwaters of alleppey, and we spent a fantastic few days in the hills of munnar. it’s so stunningly beautiful you almost think it’s fake, and i had so much fun frolicking through the tea fields; i especially enjoyed visiting one of the tea plants to see how the tea leaves are processed and packed. oh and the kathakali performance we attended in cochin was also very cool.

delhi.

i’m giving delhi its own section because even though i was there for the briefest time during 2007’s rajasthan visit, i spent more significant time there in 2012 before and after my ipsp in nepal. first i spent a week with maggie and mitchell as they were wrapping up their time in india and getting ready to head home, and then i spent two weeks with rob just as he was arriving back for an extended stay that turned into 4 years. mitchell and i spent lots of time on the hop on-hop off bus visiting some of the sights around the city and relishing the air-conditioning, and rob and i spent our mornings running in lodi park and our weekends exploring. delhi remains a complicated city for me, but i’m grateful for those adventures with my friends.

bombay.

even though i didn’t spend significant time in bombay until i lived there in 2012-2013 in what i refer to as my “second indian era”, i’m including it here since my time in bombay was really only possible because i had so many friends from my first era who had moved there by the time i arrived and who housed and fed me and showed me around and generally helped me acclimate to the city. my time spent in bombay broadened my relationship with india and gave me the chance to explore more of country, and i will always be thankful i had the opportunity to make a childhood dream come true.

honorable mentions.

these are the places i’ve written about elsewhere since they were part of my second and third eras, but i also want them to have a place within this post, so here are some quick snippets:

• nongriat — land of the stunning living root bridges and where i got to adventure with two of my best friends
• pune — where i got to attend one of the best music festivals i’ve ever been to
• pondicherry — it took me until 2016 but i’m so glad i finally made it there
• mussoorie — if i ever disappear look for me here

my family who live in india often joke that i have seen more of the country than they have, and honestly most of it was because my job included leading groups on trips which i loved. i will always be partial to south india, but truly it’s a beautiful country from top to bottom and east to west and i am forever grateful to have seen so much of it.

xx