“Did we actually go there?” One retiree’s three weeks of beautiful chaos in India

Postcards Home ….

Each week, Emily Darlow sits down with a member of the Starts at 60 community to hear a travel story worth telling. This week, South Coast NSW retiree Colin McMaster finally makes it to India – six years after the pandemic packed his bags for him.

India has a reputation that arrives long before most travellers do.

Friends warn you about the crowds, the traffic and the sensory overload. Travel forums are filled with advice about scams, stomach bugs and culture shock, while glossy social media reels focus on marble palaces, colourful saris and luxury train journeys through Rajasthan. For many Australians, India sits somewhere between dream destination and complete unknown – fascinating enough to spend years talking about, intimidating enough to keep postponing.

Yet tourism to India continues to surge, particularly through regions like Rajasthan, where travellers chase the romance of painted cities, ancient forts and sprawling palaces once home to Maharajas. It is a destination that rarely leaves people feeling neutral.

For South Coast NSW retiree Colin McMaster, the trip had already been planned once before.

Originally booked for 2020, the long-awaited Indian adventure was postponed by the pandemic, packed away alongside passports and itineraries for several years before finally being revived. When Colin and his wife eventually revisited the trip, the couple refined their priorities, focusing less on trying to see everything and more on the experiences they wanted to remember.

“We dusted the plan back off and revised what our must dos were,” Colin said.

Travelling alongside their 23-year-old daughter and later joined by her best friend midway through the journey, the family eased themselves into India with several nights in Delhi before travelling deeper into Rajasthan.

For Colin, one of the first surprises came almost immediately after landing.

“Surprisingly, the layout of New Delhi reminded us of Canberra,” he said, after having lived in the capital for nearly two decades.

“Wide sweeping boulevards and huge roundabouts. Traffic is a tad busier though.”

Outside those ordered streets, however, was the India they had expected – bustling markets, crowded laneways, constant noise and traffic systems seemingly powered by the car horn.

Rather than attempting to tackle the entire country in one trip, the family concentrated much of their time in Rajasthan, one of India’s most visited regions, known for its royal history, painted cities and sprawling forts.

Their itinerary moved through Jodhpur, Jaipur and Agra, alongside a stay at Chhatrasagar, a luxury camp overlooking a lake teeming with birdlife.

Jodhpur, often referred to as the Blue City, became one of the defining moments of the holiday.

Looking out from their hotel window across the ancient step well below and towards the imposing Mehrangarh Fort rising in the distance, Colin found himself having the kind of travel moment people spend years chasing.

“This is exactly why I came here,” he remembered thinking.

While Rajasthan’s grand palaces and Maharaja history fascinated him, some of the strongest memories came from far smaller and more personal encounters.

Food quickly became one of the defining parts of the trip.

In Jaipur, the family stumbled across a local Rajasthani restaurant recommended to them during their stay, where huge plates of rich curries arrived alongside icy cold Kingfisher lagers, a novelty Colin had apparently been looking forward to long before the plane landed in Delhi.

“Always love Kingfisher,” he laughed. “Great to have one in country.”

But it was not the polished restaurants or major tourist attractions that lingered most vividly afterwards.

One evening in Jodhpur, the family found themselves inside the home kitchen of local woman Rekh Sharma, hidden behind her tiny spice shop. What began as a cooking class slowly turned into something far more personal, with relatives wandering through the house to introduce themselves and ask questions about Australia while dinner simmered away nearby.

By the end of the evening, Colin said they no longer felt like customers.

“We quickly became part of the family,” he said.

Like many travellers arriving in India for the first time, the McMasters found the country both exhilarating and exhausting in equal measure. The noise, crowds and intensity were exactly what Colin had expected, but careful planning stopped the experience from becoming overwhelming.

A self-confessed spreadsheet planner, he deliberately resisted the temptation to cram too much into the itinerary, allowing room for slower mornings, afternoons by the pool and unplanned wandering through local markets.

That slower pace became especially important once the family arrived in Goa. After Rajasthan’s constant movement and sensory overload, the former Portuguese colony offered space to breathe again.

For Colin, one of the biggest lessons of the trip was learning not to overreach.

“Don’t try to tackle all of India in one trip,” he said.

Instead, he believes travellers are better focusing on a handful of meaningful experiences and leaving themselves a reason to return.

Still, among all the forts, markets and meals, one memory now sits above everything else.

Arriving at the Taj Mahal before sunrise, the family watched the marble slowly shift colour as the morning light crept across the building and the crowds gradually gathered behind them.

Weeks later, back home on the NSW South Coast, Colin still finds himself replaying the moment in his head.

“We still pinch ourselves,” he said.

“Did we actually go there?”

If you are thinking of traveling to India, contact the team at Travel at 60 who can help with all your travel needs.