Le Voyageur's Top 5 on India

Less than a week before my trip and I still have so much to do. But I thought I would take a break to ruminate on a faraway place that is dear to me. More than anywhere else on the planet, I have spent the most time visiting India.

The Top 5 Things I Love About Visiting India:

5. Playing hours upon hours of rummy with Mum to pass the time on the plane flight.

4. Consuming all of the wonderful goodies that don't taste the same anyhere else:

• Drinking a kullad full of cold salty lassi on a sweltering summer afternoon.
• Eating hot, freshly made chaat from a street vendor as a mid-afternoon snack.
• Meetha Paan... enough said.
  

3. Taking a ridiculously long train ride (see point above about playing rummy) over the course of an entire day to travel about 250 miles, and forgetting all about it after seeing your grandmother's wrinkled and beaming face.

2. Lying on a cot in an open-air room on a balmy summer night, comparing the number of stars in the sky to the number of geckos climbing the walls.

1. The absolute joy and amazing hospitality with which your family and friends greet you.