Desert royalty or valley romance — India's two biggest bucket-list trips, one impossible ranking. Everyone asks which to do first. We still don't have an answer.
Desert royalty or valley romance — India’s two biggest bucket-list trips, and one genuinely impossible ranking.
Rajasthan gives you dal baati churma, ker sangri, the sheer richness of a proper thali. Kashmir counters with wazwan — rogan josh, yakhni — a completely different register of rich altogether. Rajasthan’s heat works in your favour by evening, forts lighting up, rooftop dinners cooling off. Kashmir’s cold is the entire point — houseboats, bonfires, layers as part of the aesthetic rather than a workaround.
Scenery-wise, Rajasthan is India performing at full volume: colour, forts, camel silhouettes against the horizon. Kashmir is India whispering: green, water, and a quiet that Rajasthan never quite reaches for.
Everyone asks us which one to do first. We still don’t have an answer, and at this point I don’t think we’re supposed to.
— Suparna