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India – March 2015 – some food, hotels and views we experienced
This past March Luis and I went to India for our 12 year anniversary together. It was amazing. I would say it is not a trip for everyone, but I am definitely glad that we went. The food was amazing. Here are a few dishes we enjoyed there, and mixed in are some pics of where we went and stayed. Please see the captions for information about each picture 🙂
Our first Indian food meal in New Delhi was amazing. Our Hotel, Hotel Palace Heights, is a hidden gem, and I HIGHLY recommend staying there. They have an amazing restaurant, Zaffran, right in the building and they are extremely friendly and accommodating. The hotel is clean and in a great location. My only issue would be that the bed could be a little more comfortable. But I loved the staff there, especially the chef! Pictured here is Dal Makhani, garlic butter naan, chicken tikka masala, a mango lassi and lamb. It was AMAZING.This is the view at sunrise from out hotel room at Hotel Palace Heights in New Delhi. We spent the first day of Spring in the heat of New Delhi, while it snowed back home, HA!Dessert and masala tea in the room at Hotel Palace Heights in New Delhi. ❤ Gulab Jamun, Kulfi, & Mango Lassi too. This is the best gulab jamun I’ve ever had. Zaffran, the restaurant in the hotel, is SO good. We were so lucky to find a place with such amazing food, that is also able to be sent right to our room!This is a picture I took from inside of our Rickshaw ride through Old Delhi. Quite an experience. What a busy busy place. Very dirty too. Unfortunately our driver tried to swindle us in the end. But overall it was a really cool experience we had here.The Lotus Temple, Bahai Temple. It was so beautiful here. It felt so spiritual. A temple for all religions. This group of girls on the right were about the 7th group of people to ask to take a picture with me, so I asked if I could take a photo of them 🙂 At least people started to ask instead of sneakily trying to take pictures of me when I wasn’t looking. I thought I was paranoid, but they really were! I couldn’t get a straight answer as to why really, but I got “because your personality is greater than mine”, “because you are our guest”, and this last group of girls came up smiling and giggling and started saying “you’re so beautiful”. Not sure which was the truth or what, but apparently my Indian friends back home told me it is because they probably thought I was a celebrity and that people in India are not used to seeing people with my skin tone, or that wear lipstick, or shorts and skirts for that matter. My friend/coworker, Ramya, said when she was a kid in India she was always in awe when she would see Americans.Naan Bukhara. We almost ordered this giant naan accidentally! How beautiful is this? The naan there was amazing but there is no way the two of us could’ve eaten this haha. Bukhara New Delhi is no joke. It is amazing. If you go to New Delhi you have to eat here. Make sure you make a reservation. It is located in the ITC Maurya Hotel. I have to check out the location in NYC sometime.Bukhara Grill in New Delhi is the truth. I pretty much got the same combination of food every where I went in India, but Dal Makhani and lamb with naan is my jam! Dal Bukhara is so delicious, and their sikandriraan (tandoori lamb) was SO good. Unbelievable. We also had butter naan and roti. Always have to have red onion with cumin and lime. You have to get over to the ITC Mayura to eat at Bukhara Grill if you are ever in New Delhi.The people from the restaurant, Zaffran, in Hotel Palace Heights delivered us this breakfast to our room at 5:30am on the day of our trip to Agra. It was amazing of course. Not a fan of the beans ever, but everything else was delicious. Masala omelet, papaya, mango juice, aloo paratha. Yum.Taj Mahal in Agra was just absolutely breath taking. You can not understand from photographs what it is like to be there. Such an amazing story of love too ❤The cows are truly worshiped here. This one is resting in the shade in a pile of food next to the dumpster, with this beautiful woman wearing gorgeous colors in the foreground. India was not for the faint of heart. That is for sure.This is 2 men hanging out at dusk in Rajivchowk, Central Park of Connaught Place, New Delhi. This was the night before we left from New Delhi to travel to Jaipur.I am not a chip person really, I’m more of a sourdough pretzel girl, but Lays India Magic Masala chips are SO good. I took home like 15 bags of these 🙂 My first time having them was in the New Delhi airport on the way to Jaipur.We arrived to our hotel, Four Points Sheraton, in Jaipur just in time to watch the sunset from our room. The hotel was very comfortable and the food in the restaurant was pretty good. The presentation of the food was not that great though so I don’t have any pictures to show. But they upgraded our room just because they knew it was our anniversary, which was really nice. The best part of this hotel was the massages by the pool. I wish I could remember the name of the girl who gave me mine, because she was great.I was very happy to find indian ramen in Jaipur at the supermarket below the hotel to bring home. I actually had my first one last night and it was tasty. Not soupy, more like gravy and noodles. Top Ramen FTW.If anyone can please get me more of these, or tell me where I can get them, other than India, please do!!! I’ve had the southern spice one so far and immediately regretted not getting a million more of these. Act 2 spicy popcorn is so freaking good. I can’t even find these online ANYWHERE 😦Mendhi (henna) that i got in Jaipur. If only I had known that getting this done is supposed to be free. lol obvioulsy overpaid haha but it came out absolutely beautiful. I picked up some henna, maybe I’ll try it on myself sometime. I wish I knew someone who would always do it for me. I loved having it on. No permanent tattoos for me, not interested.The streets of Jaipur. The textile markets. So colorful and busy.This was our first fully vegetarian meal in India. Tan Sukh in Jaipur. Right across the street from the hotel, but about a 15 minute walk to get around the divider and back to it! Papri Chaat, spicy paneer, dal makhani (of course) red onion and naan. It was delicious. Rajasthan eats.Colors of Rajasthan at the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Saree not sorry 🙂I fed this little monkey this piece of clementine. So cute. This was at the Galtaji Temple. A monkey temple 🙂 Jaipur, Rajasthan.These were residents of the Monkey Temple, Galtaji. They wanted us to take a picture of them. They were so sweet and happy. Everyone in India is happy. It is quite amazing. Jaipur, Rajasthan. This was the last place we visited before we left to fly south, traveling through Bangalore and ending our trip in South India – Kerala. This is the first picture I took from our hotel room when we arrive in Kerala. The Leela Kovalam Resort, in Thiruvanathapuram, is breathtakingly beautiful. It was hot out. The food here is delicious, but buffet style, so sorry, no pics of food from here. But I highly recommend this hotel. It is gorgeous. The rooms are really nice and very comfortable.I went in the Arabian Sea for the first time in my life. It felt so great to get some salt water on my face. I love the sea and ocean. The Leela Kovalam Resort has their own section of private beach. Thiruvanathapuram, India.The infinity pool at The Leela Kovalam Resort in Thiruvanathapura, Kerala, South India. Paradise.I had jalebi for my first time. It is not my favorite dessert in the world, but it is definitely really pretty. South Indian bakery.We were lucky enough to stay on a luxury houseboat in Kerala. What an experience. We had a crew of 3 guys who took us on an overnight trip through the backwaters of Kerala and cooked all of our meals for us. This is shrimp, tomato chutney and fresh fried fish. It was so fresh and flavorful. So delicious. Lakes and Lagoons really took care of us. The bed on our private boat was very comfortable. Just wish the AC worked a little better haha. It also took 3 hours to fill the Jacuzzi lol. We stayed on the Devas Indulge.Peoples homes along the backwaters in Alleppey , Kerala, South India.This is a view of our houseboat from the canoe ride we took into the sunset. The front left is where we had our meals and hung out, above that on the top of the boat is a covered deck we could relax and lay out on, and on the right you can see our bedroom with the shade drawn. This was such a cool experience. Alleppey Backwaters, Kerala, South India. Lakes & Lagoons Devas Indulge. Thankfully I had sea bands on me 🙂 because I needed them!This is one glorious mango tree along the backwaters that we saw from our luxury houseboat in Alleppey, Kerala.This was a very flavorful meal that we had on our way to our hotel, winding through the roads of Munnar. Fried chili chicken, and egg biriyani. Munnar, Kerala, South India, Eats.After our 7 hour car ride, the longest car ride I have ever been on, climbing and winding up the mountainside that is Munnar, we came upon this breathtaking view. This is the view from our hotel at the Ragamaya Resort in View Point, Kallimaly, Rajakkad, Munnar, Kerala, South India. This resort is apparently far away from main Munnar, which we never got to see due to my planning, but just staying at this resort is very comfortable and an experience in itself. I Highly recommend this hotel. I have never experienced anything like this view in my life. Their beds are extremely comfortable and the food here is so fresh and delicious.This is Luis relaxing on the super comfortable lounge chairs at the pool at the Ragamaya Resort. Only downside is that there are only 2 of these, but thankfully we were the only ones trying to use them when we visited. You can not beat the view from the edge of this infinity pool in Munnar. WOW.We had dosas for breakfast along with masala tea, ginger tea and juice. Along with the fantastic view. Ragamaya Resort. Traditional south Indian breakfast.otherwise you will waste your time there being stuck in the bathroom sick. By this time, about our 11th or 12th day in India, I hadn’t had a single raw vegetable or cube of ice, haha. ALL I wanted was raw veggies. I didn’t want to see another soft cooked vegetable! I crossed my fingers, since I knew the Ragamaya Resort had their own filtration system for the whole place, and ate this salad. Thankfully I did NOT get sick and this was very very very delicious. It was topped with fresh black pepper and mint grown right in the region. The Pink Cooler was lemon juice, also grown around the corner, litchi juice and grenadine. So refreshing. This was our last day before our 26 hour commute home. I was very lucky that I was able to purchase the bent glass napkin holder pictured in the background, since it was one of the last ones they had available. I now use it as a vase on my desk at work 🙂This was our very last meal in Munnar at the Ragamaya Resort. If you are ever going to Munnar you HAVE to stay here. Like I said, it is not a place to stay if you want to go to the city of Munnar regularly, as it is at least an hour away, but for the experience that this place is, it is a must. I freaking loved the fried chickpea chips they served in a basket on the side of everything.ne thing we learned on the way to India is to grab extra seats as soon as you can! So knowing that our flight from Mumbai to Newark was the longest flight of our trip we each grabbed rows for ourselves the moment we realized no one was sitting in them. BEST decision EVER. 16 hour flight. So clutch. Air India.
I am Visual/UX designer at B&H Photo Video by day, a yogini by morning and a foodie at all times. I love to eat, cook, spend time with my long time boyfriend & our 4 dogs, and travel as much as possible to see beautiful places and eat as much as possible. View all posts by Jaye Rose Lindner
One thought on “India – March 2015 – some food, hotels and views we experienced”
Oh Jaye!!! I wish I had known you were going there!
Jaye's food and travels blog 
Oh Jaye!!! I wish I had known you were going there!
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