India turned the volume up on everything. Including my autism.

When everything arrives at once

There’s the India you see in photographs. The Taj Mahal in soft morning light. Beautiful courtyards. Pink buildings. Colourful clothes and intricate architecture. Then there’s everything happening outside the frame.

The horns. The crowds. The traffic. The piles of rubbish. The smell of burning that seemed to linger in my nose and throat. People approaching you while you’re trying to take in somewhere you’ve never been before. Very little of it politely waits its turn.

I can find somewhere fascinating and still want a quiet room afterwards. I can appreciate what I’m seeing while also feeling that I’ve reached my limit. Those things can exist together. For me, that was one of the biggest lessons of this trip. Loving a destination doesn’t mean finding every moment comfortable. And needing a break doesn’t mean you’ve failed to appreciate it.

Delhi: beauty with the volume turned up

Delhi was where that contrast felt particularly strong. There were places that made me stop and look properly, surrounded by a city that seemed determined to keep moving. Old Delhi’s spice market was a whole experience in itself. The colours, the activity, the smells and oh, so many chillies.

You can watch a video of somewhere like that, but it won’t quite prepare you for being in the middle of it. Your eyes are busy, your ears are busy, and your nose has taken on a full-time job. It was fascinating. It was also a lot.

That’s something I want to be honest about when talking to clients. “An assault on the senses” sounds exciting in a brochure. In real life, it can be exciting, tiring and overwhelming within the same hour.

The Taj Mahal, and who you wish was beside you

The Taj Mahal was one of those places that brought me back to the reason I travel. For all its scale and beauty, at its heart is a love story. That was what stayed with me. And my biggest regret wasn’t about the photograph I took. It was that I wasn’t there with my husband. Some bucket-list moments make you realise who you want standing next to you. We spend so much time thinking about where we want to go. Sometimes we should give just as much thought to who we want to share it with.

Because seeing somewhere extraordinary and sharing that moment are two different kinds of memory.

The Pink City was my favourite

Jaipur was my favourite stop. There was still noise, traffic and mess. It hadn’t suddenly become a perfectly polished version of India. But it felt cleaner and calmer than some of the other places we visited, and that made a difference. I found it easier to enjoy what was in front of me when I wasn’t quite so overwhelmed by everything around it.

That’s useful knowledge for my work, too. The most famous stop on an itinerary won’t necessarily be the one a client loves most. Sometimes your favourite place is the one where you finally feel able to settle into the experience.

Jaipur though, seemed to have it all. Incredible sights, amazing shopping, beautiful people and a pink hue that soothed my soul...

Finding a different pace in Ranthambhore

Adding Ranthambhore gave the trip a change of rhythm. 

After the cities, being out looking for wildlife brought a different kind of focus. Watching, waiting and scanning the landscape rather than trying to process everything at once. There was still anticipation. I was certainly still scanning for stripes and spots. Seeing a leopard was a highlight. But wildlife doesn’t perform to order, and that’s part of the experience. You have to pay attention to where you are, rather than simply tick off what you came to see. 

For me, this is why a wildlife extension can add so much to a Golden Triangle itinerary. It gives you another side of India and a chance to breathe between the busy days.

The bits that don’t make the brochure

I don’t want to write about India as though the difficult parts weren’t there. The rubbish was there. The burning smells were there. The poverty was there.

Being approached by people begging brought up uncomfortable questions about helping, exploitation and where money might actually end up. I couldn’t know every person’s circumstances, and I don’t think it would be fair to pretend I could. But that uncertainty was part of what made it difficult. You find yourself questioning your response. Am I helping? Am I making something worse? Am I becoming hardened because I don’t know what to do? There isn’t always a neat answer.

Equally, I don’t want to reduce a whole country to the things that made me uncomfortable. India is people’s home, with everyday lives carrying on around the places we’ve travelled thousands of miles to visit.

It deserves more than either a glossy sales pitch or a list of complaints

The quieter moments mattered too

Some of the moments that stayed with me were much smaller.

Learning about the significance of cows, and hearing that the cow gets the first chapatti and the dogs get the last. A simple detail, but one I loved.

Then there was the “lone swan” installation at Gandhi Smriti, with its reflection on the soul’s final journey. After so much activity, it invited me to stop.

That was another side of this trip: moments of stillness and reflection sitting alongside all the noise. They didn’t erase the chaos, but they gave it balance.

What this means when I plan India for someone else

Experiencing India has reminded me that a good itinerary needs more than a list of impressive sights. It needs a pace that suits the person travelling. That might mean fewer packed days, time to recover after a busy excursion, a quieter hotel or a wildlife stay between cities. It also means an honest conversation before departure about what you may find challenging.

I don’t want clients arriving somewhere expecting a filtered photograph and wondering why nobody mentioned everything happening around it. I want them prepared enough to enjoy the experience, with room to pause when they need to.

Would I recommend India?

Yes. With honesty, and with thought about who it’s right for.

India challenged me. Sometimes it overwhelmed me. It also gave me beautiful, moving and unforgettable experiences. Some moments were difficult. Some were extraordinary. And sometimes they happened almost side by side. That is part of what made this India: raw, beautiful, chaotic, thought-provoking and impossible to sum up neatly.

Not all travel needs to be pretty.

But the way we talk about it should be honest.

And if India is on your “one day” list, that’s where I’d start: a proper conversation about what you want to experience, what might challenge you, and how we build a journey you’ll remember for the right reasons.

My Biggest Surprise? You become the tourist attraction!

I went to India expecting to take photos but I hadn't quite appreciated how often I'd be asked to be in everyone else's.

People wanted pictures with me where ever we went. Suddenly, you're posing with strangers when you were only trying to have a look around yourself.  You've come to see the sights, and somehow you've become one. Move over, Taj Mahal. Cath from the UK has arrived.

It was unexpected, often lovely, and occasionally a bit overwhelming - especially when my brain had already been processing 'a lot'. Some days you embrace your newfound celebrity status. Other days you'd just quite like to admire a building without having to appear in somebody else's family album. 

So just another thing I hadn't expected from India - Even the sightseeing comes with a plot twist...

Cath Reese | Escapes by Cath

Safari Stories & Ocean Escapes
Cath.reese@travelcounsellors.com