Like most everyone else in the program, I took every chance I had to explore around India. The NGO I was interning at normally held the work week from Monday to Saturday but I was lucky enough to get Saturdays off so that I could do as many trips as possible. Below I’ll give a brief description of some of my best trips.

UDAIPUR: My first weekend getaway was to Udaipur, the city of lakes. Just a quick 45 minute flight from Jaipur, I arrived early in the morning to the city and made my way around the street getting a quick breakfast and making my way to the City Palace where the royal family still lives. I was able to get a tour for a fair (non-tourist) price and made my way around. True to its name, there are lots of lakes surrounding the city. Some you can get to on foot and other on a Tuk-Tuk. for 500 rupees per day, I rented out a moped and visited all of them driving. It was such an exciting experience driving in India and I really think it’s not as hard as people make it out to be (keep in mind this is not Delhi or Bombay).

JODHPUR: The following weekend I spent some time in the scorching hot city of Jodhpur. Jodhpur is known as the blue city for the area of the city that is covered in blue paint, supposedly to cool off due to the extreme heat. Here in Jodhpur I also spent some time at the fort/ city palace and walked around exploring. As we were in the peak heat season reaching over 120 degrees fahrenheit, there were very little tourists and the city itself was very empty. Luckily my hostel had a pool and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I spent a large amount of my time there that weekend.

AGRA: My last weekend-only trip was to Agra. The great thing about Jaipur was that it was so central in western part of India that it was never more than 8 hours by bus to any of the places I traveled to. Such was the case for Agra, leaving around 6 am and arriving a bit past 11. Agra itself was not the largest city ever, but seeing the Taj Mahal up close is such a surreal experience that cannot be explained or compared to anything. I was able to go around 4 pm and stayed until past sunset. Just sitting on a bench and watching people as the sun went down was one of my favorite memories in India.