Reading suggestions · India

I want to go to Pathra, the temple town, this afternoon. The boss knows a taxi driver who can get here really quickly. The distance isn’t too far, but we’re moving slowly behind lots of trucks that keep stopping. The temples of Pathra are right by the road, out in the countryside, surrounded by rice fields.

We left as a couple from October 20 to December 11, 2025, for our second trip to India, and our first time in Rajasthan, plus Mathura and Agra, which are in Uttar Pradesh but right on the border, and a 4-day flight hop to Varanasi.

Type “Kerala 15-day trip” into a search engine, or ask an AI for recommendations. Here’s what you’ll get: “Day 1: Cochin. Day 3: Munnar. Day 6: Thekkady. Day 9: Backwaters. Day 11: Beach.” Munnar, Periyar, Alleppey, Marari... Exotic names lined up like on a TV travel show. Buses drop you off, photos follow one after another, and the backwaters suffocate under engines and waste.

This journal recounts a trip to Rajasthan that’s already over a year old and that I’m only now getting around to writing up. The summer of 2024 marked my return to India—my tenth trip—after six long years away since my last solo wanderings in Tamil Nadu back in 2018 (the journal for which is published on this site).

Why not play to win your next vacation?

We’re offering a little game (okay, fine, it’s not a walk in the park—you’ll have to do some digging!) with DirecTravel: the prize is 5 nights for one person at the Nilaya Experience guesthouse, in the heart of Kerala, India.

Friday, April 18 Night in Guwahati Before leaving the guesthouse, I drop off a small bag that I’ll pick up when I return. I take a tuk-tuk at 7:40 AM to get to the sumo departure point for Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.

Before I begin, I’d like to thank Michèle Buisson and her “Misha’s travel journals,” which really helped me plan this trip. It’s tough to find information about this part of India—it’s so different from the “more traditional India.”

I’m strolling along the ghats and taking a shared rickshaw with a family to Vrindavan, a city of temples dedicated to Krishna. I visit several of them while wandering through the lively streets amid a crowd of devotees.

I’m adding my small contribution to the reopening celebration by posting this travel journal from India, which we did in January 2024. There were four of us—two couples—and we spent three weeks looping through Rajasthan, stopping in Delhi and Agra (which, as everyone knows, aren’t actually in Rajasthan).

Big lovers of India, where we’ve been six times, my co-traveler husband and I decided to explore Rajasthan this time around. And if we waited so long to come here, it’s because we were dreading the tourist crowds in this state. But thanks to the timing (late March to early April 2024, which is starting to get really hot) and Aleph’s great tips, we were very, very far from mass tourism.