julies

First a bit of background: We are in our mid sixties (just retired), and in 2012 we had a successful, independently-planned six week trip to India to some of the usual suspects and to quite a few more rarely-visited places. We had a great time and planned a return visit in 2014 for another extended period of time. What we choose to do is frequently not the typical tourist route, and we prefer to find lesser-known gems (we were successful on this front on both of these trips).

I'd classify us as moderate travelers who are willing to make some splurges, but we are definitely not super high end travelers, and we couldn't afford to be if we want to take regular trips of this length. Rooms we had ranged from $24 to $178 for our splurge at a lovely all-inclusive place. We don't need a lot of hand-holding, and we do not typically hire guides, preferring to use guidebooks and Internet research to make our trips. We'll sometimes hire a guide on site, but that is fairly rare. For our first trip we'd secured ten year visas, so that hassle about getting into India was now over.

So the plans were in our heads to make a return trip to India (probably southern this time around). But, then I saw a film about Nepal and decided it looked so interesting that I focused on making a visit to Nepal instead, thinking it would be a great complement to India. As usual for us, we did not book plane tickets until a month or six weeks ahead of time. We just seem to prefer the flexibility of making plans closer to departure time rather than booking months and months ahead of time.

After checking into ticket prices from the US, I discovered that it would be cheaper to fly into Delhi and then make our way to Nepal rather than just doing a round trip ticket to Kathmandu. So, I booked a six week trip in and out of Delhi as a gateway. Then, the planning began.

As I soon discovered through my research, it seemed like Nepal is good for perhaps two weeks of time unless one is doing a major trek. While we wanted to definitely do some walking, the purpose of our trip was not to do a major trek. So, the decision was to combine three weeks in India with three weeks in Nepal. We'd begin our trip in India in mid to end of February and then move into Nepal as the weather started to heat up.

Since we'd already spent quite a bit of time in India, I was already familiar with the travel hassle involved. For example, trains need to be booked waaaaay ahead of time, and this fact proved to be my nemesis once again on this trip. On the other hand, those budget flights can more or less be booked last minute, and it won't cost you much at all to wait to book. On our first trip I had been super happy with the agent we used to arrange a driver (and some lodging) for us, so I once again contacted Nikhil at TGS Travel for driver (and a few room) arrangements within India. But, this was not a trip where everything was set in stone and fully booked. I know we often drove our driver nuts because we'd change plans and move on to a different place than we'd originally intended.

From our first trip I knew about pacing for a trip to India and wanted not to cram too much in and wanted to eliminate most one night stops. Unfortunately, as you'll learn in my trip report for a number of different reasons, this idea soon fell apart, and our trip to India was fragmented with way, way too many one night stays. By the time we got to Nepal we were exhausted from moving around all of the time and wanted to settle into longer stays in places.

Here is our itinerary in India:
1 night Delhi (Delhi B & B)
2 nights Bundi (Dev Niwas)
1 night in transit at Indore (Lemon Tree)
1 night Maheshwar (Hansa Heritage)
2 nights Mandu (Hotel Rupmati)
1 night Bijaipur (Castle Bijaipur)
1 night Dhariyawad (Fort Dhariyawad)
1 night Udaipur (Jagat Niwas)
2 nights Bera (Castle Bera)
2 nights Chanoud (Chanoud Gahr)
1 night Pali area outside of Jodphur (Samad Sadar Palace)
1 night Pushkar (Dia)
2 nights Nawalgarh (Roop Niwas Kothi)
1 night Patan (Patan Mahal)

I'm exhausted once again just typing the list out of all those one night stays!

Our itinerary in Nepal (much more sensible!)

4 nights Kathmandu (Hotel Courtyard)
3 nights Balthali (Balthali Village Resort)
2 nights Nuwakot (Famous Farm)
3 nights Bandipur (Old Inn)
2 nights Pokhara (Mum's Garden Hotel)
3 nights Chitwan National Park (Jungle Villa Resort)
2 nights outskirts of Kathmandu (Chandra Ban Eco Resort)
2 nights Bhaktapur (Mila Guest House)

For those who quit reading this report here, we'd recommend everywhere we stayed in Nepal. In India we'd recommend nearly all of the places we stayed with a couple exceptions. Fort Dhariywad--a very definite no! Roop Niwas Kothi--probably would choose a different lodging in the area.

julies

The upgrade to economy plus on the long fourteen hour Newark to Delhi flight was worth it. With the extra legroom, we both actually slept for five hours or so.

In the evening when we arrived at the Delhi airport, we were surprised to see the same driver we had two years ago. And, even more surprised that he remembered us and even remembered that he had taken us to the Jaisalmer train then. We were even given the same room as last time at Delhi B & B. Last time we visited we'd been told that there was really no place to walk in the neighborhood, but this time we were given directions for a walk through this upscale neighborhood. We even managed to find the correct phone store—after asking in about three other phone stores. So, we were set up with a SIM card we hoped would work after all of our identity verification was finished. This trip we were smart enough to also buy a second SIM card so we could put it in our small travel computer and use a dongle for Internet access. Our last trip we'd discovered that in many places the Internet really isn't readily available, and it is better to be able to connect with a data plan using a dongle.

Feb. 21—overnight train Delhi to Bundi

Since our train to Bundi didn't leave until ten at night, we had the driver take us around for some sightseeing in the afternoon. Delhi is not our favorite place by any means, and for us bits and pieces of Delhi rather than long days are just fine. We settled on visiting the Red Fort and Old Delhi. The Red Fort was different than we had expected. It was a large expanse of space with all different sorts off buildings and greenery. Apparently the British had destroyed many of the original buildings during the nineteenth century.

To us, Old Delhi was nothing but the very worst aspects of India. It is crazy, filthy and chaotic. We had to join in a group of people to even be able to get across the street since pedestrians are low man on the totem pole. Then, we were continually hassled by guys wanting to guide us around or to give us tuk tuk rides. Apparently here there is supposed to be good junky souvenir shopping, which didn't interest us anyway, but we escaped within ten or fifteen minutes and headed back to the parking lot where we were to meet our driver. We'd wanted to visit several famous mosques, but it was Friday, and the driver told us we'd never be able to get near them. And, since we'd read that one of them holds 25,000 people, they were definitely off our agenda.

Prior to being dropped off for dinner we drove by the area where the presidential palace and governmental offices are located. This is definitely a different atmosphere and feel than Old Delhi, and it is amazing what a difference a few miles can make. I'd picked a nice-sounding, not-too-expensive restaurant out of the guidebooks, and it turned out to be a Delhi yuppie haven. Service was impeccable with waiters hovering all over us at all times. They even had finger bowls, which I hadn't seen in decades at home and I suspect they'd mystify our kids as to what they were supposed to be used for. Yet, to me, it seemed somewhat uncomfortable and a bit obscene to be spending as much on dinner for two here as most of the people on the street would be lucky to make for several full days of work.

Our train was 1AC, but we once again remembered that this first class might be the equivalent of say third of fourth in a European train. Our compartment of four had two other guys—one was getting off at Kota, and he went promptly to sleep snoring throughout the night. Our other cabin mate kept us awake for a couple hours because he was trying to figure out where to get off the train around two am. We weren't annoyed because we would have been in the same boat since there are no announcements as to stations and no way to figure out where you are. And, we'd forgotten how hard those train beds were. There wasn't much sleep to be had this night.

Feb. 22—Dev Niwas in Bundi

On our last trip to Rajasthan we'd wanted to visit Bundi, but we just didn't have time to fit it in. So, this trip it was a priority.

Sure enough when we got off the train we saw the guy from our hotel Dev Niwas holding up a sign with our names on it. We got in the hotel's fancy tuk tuk for the five kilometer ride to the hotel from the train station. As is so often the case in India, we were dropped off in a tiny alley way in front of a building that didn't seem all that impressive. That is until you enter the courtyard of the large, old haveli. By a little after ten we were checked into our deluxe room ready to collapse (I'd reserved a deluxe room knowing that we'd want to have room to spread out and get organized and that we'd be spending a lot of time in the room just recuperating from the journey). Jet lag and a few nights of not getting nearly enough sleep had hit us. Although we'd initially thought we'd be ambitious and do some sightseeing, we ended up spending much of the day just relaxing in our room. That, and we were trying to figure out how to really get our phone working because we need to call the bank at home. This was an exercise in frustration—the phone wouldn't work until we'd made three or four calls to their help center, and we'd gotten locked out of our online bank accounts with the only option to get everything working again a phone call. The manager was fabulous and helped us immensely and even took our SIM card to put in his phone so we could call the bank.

Finally, after lunch we were ready to emerge from the calm of the hotel. The street scene outside the haveli's door was the typical small town India scene that is so fascinating to walk through just seeing life in all of its aspects so out and exposed. We walked for an hour or two before returning to the peace of the hotel. In many ways, we felt that this hotel has one of the best locations in Bundi (better than those immediately at the foot of the palace) because of the great views it offers from the rooftop restaurant.

day 4 —Dev Niwas, Bundi

By morning we were feeling somewhat more rested and decided we'd make a day of it visiting the ruins in the hill above Bundi. After breakfast we set off with our walking poles to fend off the monkeys we'd all been warned about. We were also glad we had the poles for the hike up and down the steep hill. The ruins were fascinating, and we spent a couple hours wandering through them. The palace itself was somewhat a let down in comparison to others we've seen in India. It needed a lot of maintenance, and only parts of it were open to the public. There were a few rooms that originally had some gorgeous paintings. One of the rooms was kept locked because some of the painting was done in 24K gold and had been defaced by people who were scraping off the gold flakes. So, the guard had to let us in the locked room. Here, as in many other locations in India, we had a hard time discerning who were the paid employees of a place who are supposed to help you and who are the hanger-around guys (and, they are all men; no females in positions like this anywhere) who are looking for tips. This became a pretty common theme at most of the places we visited during our trip.

All of this took us close to four hours, and we came back to the hotel for a quick lassi before heading out on our rickshaw tour the hotel had arranged for us. We hadn't known exactly what the tour included but decided to go anyway. It was a wise decision. Bundi is home to many elaborate step wells, and the ones our guide took us to are gorgeous with elaborate carvings. We never would have been able to find these on our own, We also went to the lake and small palace where Rudyard Kipling visited. Our final stop was the maharajah's palace where they used the small pool to lure animals for the shoot. Well worth the 500 rupees. Our day was complete when by early evening we learned that my waitlisted train ticket for tomorrow from Kota to Indore had finally been confirmed! For over a week we'd had one confirmed ticket and one wait-listed ticket, and we really would have been punting if that ticket hadn't come through confirmed.

day 5 — Lemon Tree, Indore

We'd made arrangements to be picked up by a driver and taken to Kota where, before boarding our train to Indore, we'd spend time on the Chambal River on a boat. This is India's cleanest river and is unique in that it flows from south to north. The fact that much of it has extremely steep cliffs, combined with the fact that there is only one large city on the river (Kota), has made it inaccessible for the most part and thus not prone to the trash and pollution that plagues so much of India and its rivers.

The guide was excellent and knew the river well, having had a boat on it for thirty years, We saw a nesting fishing owl, an Egyptian eagle, unusual vultures, a Himalayan eagle, a kestrel and many crocodiles sunning themselves on the river's banks.

After the boat journey we had lunch, and the taxi dropped us off at the train station for the ten hour train ride to Indore.

I had booked a room at the modern Lemon Tree Hotel in Indore and had arranged for a pick-up at the train station. We never were picked up (it was getting close to midnight when our train arrived) and finally decided to arrange to take a tuk tuk to the hotel where we were told the driver couldn't find us (unlikely!), and we were still charged for the pick-up even though we'd had to arrange our own transportation. This was a nice hotel, but we ended up being charged quite a bit more than I had thought we'd be charged according to our reservation.

Kathie

Thanks for getting this report started, julies! I feel exhausted reading your India Itinerary! Looking forward to the details of how this happened... a good cautionary tale, I expect.

julies

I am on a roll now and am going to keep going.

Kathie--Yes, this next portion of my report reveals the snowballing effect of how that many one night stays can happen. In one instance we did it to ourselves by deciding that a place we were planning to stay two nights just didn't call to us for any more than an overnight stay. And, then, we had the one disaster of our trip as far as lodging, and that compounded the problems even more, leading to more one night stays.

day 6— Hansa Heritage Hotel, Maheshwar

Since we had arrived and settled into our Indore hotel so late (around midnight), we slept in for a while and headed down to the restaurant towards the end of the time that the “free” breakfast was to be served. We were glad we'd made the effort because it was quite the spread with a wide variety of both Western and Indian and Chinese foods, and it filled us up for most of the day.

We'd had the Lemon Tree arrange for a driver to drop us off in Maheshwar where, based on positive things I read about the town, we planned to spend two nights. On our way to Maheshwar we wanted to make a detour to visit Omkareheshwar which we had read was an interesting place to spend a couple hours observing the religious pilgrims. Unfortunately, there were communication problems with us being misled as to how long it would take to actually get to Omkareshwar. We didn't realize this until we'd been driving for a while, and there was no way leaving Indore around noon we'd be able to get to both places. So, we skipped the side trip (really out of the way) to Omkareshwar and instead went directly to Maheshwar thinking there would be enough there to keep us occupied for a day and a half. We were wrong!

There are not many lodging options in Maheshwar (or dining options). Aliyah Fort sounds lovely but was way beyond what we'd wanted to spend. I'd read good things about Labooz' Cafe and rooms in the entrance gate to the fort, but we were unable to make any sort of connection with them ahead of time. So, we booked into the pretty basic Hansa Heritage Hotel for two nights.

We had so loved Varanasi and its ghats on our last trip that we assumed (incorrectly) we could spend lots and lots of time in Maheshwar just wandering the riverfront. We were disappointed, and after about two hours of exploring and strolling along the river we knew that one night was going to be enough for us. So, we headed back to the hotel to have dinner and make a plan to move things forward a day and leave for Mandu the next morning.

There really is not much available in Maheshwar as far as a restaurant or place to eat out, and all guests at the hotel just used the hotel's service for ordering food from the dhaba across the street. Everything is veg, and there is basically a set menu. And, the guests eat at tables in the front room of the hotel that kind of reminded us of a garage. But, we had an enjoyable dinner in the dark (all the power in town had gone out) chatting with the other guests, all of whom were from Europe. And, during our evening of conversation we learned about a gadget we'd never heard of and might be interested in purchasing for future travels because it is both handy and purchasing one is a charitable act—Waka Waka Solar charger-- http://us.waka-waka.com/products/


day 7 -- Hotel Rupmati, Mandu

We had to do some juggling to do as far as shuffling our plans a bit. We needed to move our reservation up a day in Mandu and also call Nikil at TGS to make sure our driver could pick us up a day earlier than planned, and we needed to shift all of our already booked room plans. Plus, we needed to get our hotel in Maheshwar to find transportation for us to Mandu. The hotel in Maheshwar was a tad disappointed that we were leaving a day earlier than planned, but we'd decided we'd had enough of the town. At breakfast some of the other guests were making plans to take taxis to Omkareshwar for the day, and I suppose we could have done that too. But, by this time we'd already set in motion our plans to move on.

On our first trip to India we'd wanted to visit Mandu, which consists of 15th and 16th century Islamic edifices built on a very large plateau which was selected as a building site because of its defensive capabilities. The problem is that Mandu is kind of out in the middle of nowhere in Madhaya Pradesh and not exactly on any usual or easily reached tourist route. So, getting there takes effort and time. We're glad we made the effort this trip and took the time to explore Mandu. In fact, after exploring there for a while, I wished we'd had three nights there rather than the two I arranged. The buildings are spread out in a nice rural area, and it takes a while to visit them all. Some have been restored, and some are more in ruins.

The drive to Mandu from Maheshwar only took a couple hours and was interesting, especially as we started to climb up the the plateau on which Mandu is located. An issue with Mandu is that there are not too many places to stay that are considered “nice”. We'd done our research and decided upon Hotel Rupmati which is close enough to the center of town to walk but is isolated and quiet (not that anything in Mandu is too much hustle and bustle). When we arrived in early afternoon, our taxi driver drove into a modern looking motel-type structure set in pretty extensive grounds overlooking a gorge. The hotel definitely has many shortcomings (maintenance and cleanliness) but is probably the best of the bunch in the area. While in Mandu, we went by the three major lodging options, and this is definitely the best located and the one with the best outdoor amenities.

The hotel's location is great with seating areas outside of the rooms facing over the gorge thus providing lovely, expansive views. There is also a nice garden area where one can sit and eat outdoors, and it is a peaceful and quiet location. The food in the restaurant is quite good and very reasonably priced, but the restaurant itself reminded me of a school basement cafeteria. We ate all of our meals here during our stay. And, if you visit Mandu, stay with the veg options only everywhere because power in the Mandu area goes out all of the time, so you'll never know how long things may have been sitting without adequate refrigeration. In our two day stay, the power went off about ten times with outages ranging from a few minutes to a couple hours. If you stay at this hotel, make sure you have flashlights or headlamps because the hotel doesn't do anything to accommodate guests when there are power outages.

We got settled and went out to the garden to have a snack before starting out on a walk to explore the area. The walk into town is not bad at all, maybe ½ to ¾ of a mile. We like to walk and just check out our surroundings, so this made for a good way to spend the rest of the daylight hours. Renting a bike to cycle around the Mandu area was one of our plans, so while walking into town we checked out the local bike rental place that is on the road between the Rupmati and town. Bikes were really cheap, and we made plans with them to pick up two in the morning.

We got our bearings in town, walked around a bit, and visited Ashrafi Mahal (the Palace of Gold Coins) with its adjoining tomb. This is only partially restored and not as interesting as other edifices we saw in Mandu, but it is worth exploring. The other edifices in the center of the village we decided to wait on until the next day when we planned to spend the day visiting the ruins. While walking back to the hotel, we got caught in the rain—something that we never even thought could happen in India in February. This was to become a theme in Mandu because we had rain every day we were there. Locals were astounded too and pointed to this as a sign of climate change.

day 8 – Hotel Rupmati, Mandu

After breakfast we walked down the road to pick up our bicycles. After trying out a couple, we finally settled on two that were somewhat reasonably sized for us. At home we are recreational bikers, and we have fairly decent bikes so our expectations may be a teeny bit high. But, these bikes were something else. One speed., heavy and slow. Even on flat surfaces we felt like we were pedaling uphill into a head wind on flat tires. On some of the uphill portions, I just gave up and walked the bike. But, the area is so expansive that cycling is the way to go unless you have a driver (we hadn't booked ours until the next day) or take taxis. And, cycling is an enjoyable way to see the countryside.

It was an uphill ride (I ended up walking my bike up the final approach) to Rupmati's Pavilion which is probably one of the most visited edifices in the entire Mandu area. This is a palace that was erected so a military leader's mistress could have views of the river winding a thousand feet below. Here we Americans were a popular tourist sight, and we are now featured in many of the photos Indian tourists were taking.

Today we encountered another very strange weather occurrence that had all of the locals shaking their heads and referring to climate change and global warming. The end of February is supposed to be without rain, and yet in the late afternoon we once again saw the storm clouds quickly gather and let loose. This was not a minor sprinkle; this was torrential rain accompanied by hail that quickly covered the ground like a 2” or 3” blanket of snow. Lucky for us when this hit we were back in the bazaar part of town visiting the lovely Jama Masjid and Hoshang Shah's Tomb complex. We'd left our bicycles outside and were walking the grounds when the rain and hail hit. Along with all of the other visitors we ran as quickly as we could to take cover within Jama Masjid.

We really enjoyed the day and Mandu, cycling between both the more heavily-visited and lesser visited ruins. In fact, we realized that we could have actually used another day in Mandu because we hadn't seen everything and should have stuck with our original plan to have our driver pick us up on March 1. Oh well, too late. We'd already rescheduled once and couldn't do it again. In fact, as we found out the next morning, our driver had spent the day driving from his home in Jaipur and was spending the night in a small establishment in Mandu.


day 9 Feb. 28 – Castle Bijaipur, Bijaipur

When I made our itinerary, we knew that from Mandu to anywhere in Rajasthan would be a fairly long drive, so we were prepared. So, when we decided to move everything up a night because of leaving Maheshwar early, I'd asked Nikil if we could go straight to our next stop Fort Dhariyawad which is in very southern Rajasthan. He called but, they didn't have any rooms available a day earlier than we booked. So, we needed to find a different place to stay for one night somewhat within the vicinity of the area we wanted to be in. He suggested Castle Bijaipur and called there for us. They had a room, so it was a go, and it wasn't too far out of the way.

The grounds here are beautiful, and overall it is a nice place to stay. Our room,was lovely and spacious, with a small terrace off it it . While many people would probably be thrilled, aspects of this experience just seem a bit contrived for us. We arrived at the same time as a group. Visitors enter to the sound of the musicians beating time for your entrance and are greeted with garlands and a tikal on your forehead. Perhaps if we had arrived as sole travelers, this greeting wouldn't have been the same, but our arrival coincided with that of a group.

In the evening there is a bonfire in the outside bar area with musicians playing. To us, this whole bonfire/ musician scene seemed a bit like a way to increase bar sales rather than a way to provide for guests' comfort and to enhance the overall experience. The owner made a quick, perfunctory stop by to welcome us, but this too seemed to us just a formality so guests could say they'd met some minor Indian royalty. Perhaps this is the type of thing that appeals to some, but it is not us and is not as authentic an experience as we have had at other similar properties. However, if it is what you want for an experience, come stay here and you'll have a lovely place to stay at what we thought was a very reasonable rate. They had on offer some spa type things and a few excursions, but since we were just there for a one-nighter, we didn't partake of any of their offerings.

Even though there were only perhaps a dozen guests, dinner was served buffet style (not our favorite by any stretch of the imagination) and, as far as spices, definitely was toned down for western palates.

sartoric

Oh yes, please keep rolling, very much enjoying this (and gathering ideas)

Thanks !

Kathie

Ah, yes, the snowball effect. Looking forward to more.

Cattail

Me too. Looking forward to reading more.

dgunbug

Enjoying your report. I'd love to return to india and see other places. Always interested in new ideas.

julies

day 10 – Fort Dhariyawad, Dhariyawad

This place turned out to be the one disaster of our trip and another of the reasons we had a string of one night stays! And, I'd chosen this place with Nikil's stamp of approval. Oh well; I guess that one bad choice in six weeks isn't that bad a percentage. Now I can look at the experience in those terms, but when we were there, we were fuming.

Fort Dhariyawas is outside of the usual Rajasthan circuit, and we thought we'd have a unique and authentic experience. It was also the only place during our entire trip that required full pre-payment in full. I now know that I will never do that again. Their policy is no refunds even if they are at fault. This place was so bad that we decided we'd rather forego the money we'd paid for the second night than endure a second night there.

We've spent eight weeks in India in the past couple years and have stayed at many different heritage properties, so we can make valid comparisons. At close to 6,000 rupees per night his place is vastly overpriced for what it has to offer and the rundown condition it is in. As far as we are concerned, it might be acceptable at half the price they are asking.

Where to begin? From the moment we arrived we got bad vibes. With no greeting or welcome at all, our suitcases were quickly deposited in a gloomy room with only one small window. Then the non-English speaking porters disappeared, and we were on our own with no one even around to talk to to ask for a change of room. Finally, after a half an hour we were able to locate the “manager” who spoke English, and he changed us to a different, lighter room. When I then asked him about all of the various activities promoted on their website, he was clueless. And, of course, the only thing that drew us to this out-of-the-way property was the activities they offer. He then did come up with a proposal for the evening trip to view the flying squirrel sanctuary.

When we discussed the evening safaris with the “manager”, he had mentioned 5:45 to us as a safari departure time. At 5:15 we went down to the garden and sat. There was no one around at all, no one came to check with us about anything or even to see if we'd like a drink—very, very unlike what is the usual in India as far as service expectations at these smaller royal estates. We sat until nearly 6:00 at which time the only English-speaker on the premises, the “manager”, finally came and asked us if we planned to go on the safari. We told him we had been sitting there since 5:15, and no one had ever approached us about the safari or asked if they could get us anything, so we had no idea what was going on. The typical India experience is that waiters/servants are hovering all of the time, so this lack of service was really different from the norm.

Then we found out that the person who was to take us on the safari didn't speak English. We were lucky because our kind driver speaks English and volunteered to come along as a translator. At this point the “manager” who we found was the only English speaker on site that day hopped on his motor bike and left for the night.

The safari is itself to see the flying squirrels is a complete joke. We were driven to the national park sanctuary where there is a circular stone bench. There we sat and waited for the magic hour when ONE squirrel emerges from its den in the tree and climbs out on the branch maybe to fly away (we didn't see it do this).

In the afternoon, about an hour after our arrival, we had tried the hot water. There was none. All of our requests about this seemed to get no response or a response that it just needed to heat a bit longer and perhaps we hadn't turned on the geyser long enough. Oh, did I mention the fact that there were several panes of glass missing in the windows in our room, so a large lizard came in? And, the carpet is a ragged, worn-out version of indoor outdoor carpet and the ceiling fan sounded like a freight train was in the room so the fan was unusable.

After the “safari” we returned for dinner and discovered that we were left for the night with not one person available on the staff who could communicate with us. And, we discovered that the hot water still did not work. We were told, through sign language, that our choices were to put up with it or to move to a smaller room that was not made up. So, in the morning in a $100 a night room, we had to get buckets of hot water delivered so we could take a bucket shower. I've done bucket showers before, and they are fine in certain types of establishments. But, at an establishment at this price and at this level, it is completely unacceptable.

To top it all off, after dinner we were sitting in the garden relaxing for a bit. At 9:30 the staff signaled to us that it was time for us to go to our room because they wanted to go to bed and let the dogs loose for the night. So much for the guest being the god as is the oft quoted axiom in India.

On a positive note, the food at dinner was good and the staff (other than the manager) did seem to be trying. And, the morning expedition to the local tribal area and dam was very interesting. But, these things do not in any way make up for all of the shortcomings of the place. Apparently the owner was away and busy with a family wedding, so this may have just been an exceptionally bad day for them. But, any responsible owner would have well-trained backup staff to adequately replace him when he is not there to supervise. And, the idea of offering guided tours by people who only speak Hindi is absurd.

day 11 – Jagat Niwas, Udaipur

We had called our agent Nikhil about the disaster that Fort Dhariyawad was and told him we intended to leave. Nikhil did intervene and phone the owner asking for a partial refund and did get a small part of our already-paid money back. But, we were so fed up that even if there had been zero refund we were going to leave anyway. So, we needed a suggestion as to what to do with the one night we now had available before we were supposed to arrive at our next destination—Castle Bera.

Nikhil suggested a night in Udaipur, and we decided to do just that. On our last trip we'd stayed at the Jagat Niwas Hotel and liked it a lot. So, a quick phone call got us a room there. (I was becoming more and more happy that we'd bought an Indian SIM card for our phone because we were using the phone much more than we'd anticipated.) Our trip was now deteriorating into a bunch of one night stays in a row, the exact opposite of what we wanted. But, we opted for this rather than staying in a place where we were miserable.

Since we'd visited Udaipur two years earlier, we didn't feel the need to do much sightseeing or anything very touristy. And, we spent quite a bit of time just at the hotel itself. On our first trip we'd booked one of the hotel's much-requested rooms with a jokhara overlooking the lake. A jokhara is nice but in reality not particularly useful. You climb up in it and sit on the mattress propped up with pillows. This time we had a room on the upper level that had a small terrace with table and chairs. I think perhaps the terrace was for all guests, but, since it was right off of our room, no one else even thought to use it and we enjoyed just sitting out there. As we remembered from our earlier trip, the hotel's restaurant has lovely views over the lake but is a bit pricey compared to other local places. We had an afternoon snack in the hotel's restaurant, walked around town for a while and returned to the restaurant for dinner. By breakfast we'd decided to go somewhere cheaper and found a nearby hotel with a rooftop with semi-decent views and food at about half the price.

As were ready to leave Udaipur we got one of those e-mails no one wants to get when on a trip. There was a major problem at home with our house. The damage was already done, but we had a major mess on our hands and had to decide what to do about it. Should we continue on with our entire trip, continue on with part of our trip, or just call it a day and go home a month earlier than intended?

From the title of my trip report, I guess you can figure out the answer to what we eventually (after a week of much agonizing) decided to do.

dgunbug

We got an email during our first trip to the orient - informing us our bedroom was flooded. Not fun. Waiting for the rest of your story.

progol

Great report, julies. Your first trip and report were invaluable in my own planning for our 2013 trip to Rajasthan, India, and we went to Fort Dhamli as I was fascinated by your experience there. We also worked with Nikhil, and found him very helpful and accommodating throughout our trip.

We did go to Bundi on our first trip and loved it -- I squeezed one night into our itinerary, and I would've loved a second night in the town, but we were so glad to have gotten there at all. It's a special town - small, with a tourist infrastructure but not the crowds, with a wonderful ambience.

We saw some of the stepwells, which we loved, and I would've loved to see more. Interestingly, we loved the palace, despite its general rundown air, as we saw many remarkable rooms, with gorgeous paintings and tile work. The colors of some of the paintings were strong and we had time to absorb the feeling of the place as there were so few people around. We did meet one of those "hanger-around" guys, but he was great in getting us into several closed-off rooms that were not obvious to us at first.

I love the way that you mix your destinations up with less-touristed places with the major locations (tho the first 3 weeks does sound tiring!). And I admire your drive to continue your trip despite the news from home.

I also love the link to the waka-waka products--these look like great travel products as well as socially-conscious ones.

Thank you so much for writing such great reports! They are wonderful!

Kathie

Oh my, you did have quite the series of disasters. So sorry.

julies

I forgot to mention a new environmentally-conscious product we took with us. We hate to keep throwing away plastic water bottles, so we use platypus bottles regularly when traveling because we can just fill them from the tap. But, this concept doesn't work in places where the tap water isn't pure. On our first trip to India we'd buy those huge two gallon jugs of water and take them with us from place to place (when we were travelling by car) and use them to refill our platypuses. But, for this trip we had read that in Nepal even bottled water can sometimes be pretty iffy. So, we looked around at different types of water purifiers. We ended up buying this great product for purifying water with UV rays. It worked like a charm, and we never bought a bottle of water. It isn't cheap, but we figure we'll have it for future trips too.

http://www.camelbak.com/allclear

We live in a hundred year old house in the far, frozen north of the US where there was a horribly long and bitterly cold winter this year. Our boiler for our hot water heat went out, and the house had frozen up. Cast iron radiators had split, the toilets had broken from the ice in them, and plumbing was gone. After much agonizing and going back and forth on the issue, many phone calls, and even checking with the airline about changing tickets, we finally made a decision to stay and continue on with our trip. The damage was already done, a mitigation company had been called in, and the house had been stabilized. We figured we could deal with it when we got home.

In retrospect this was such a wise decision. We thought that this would be a pretty quick fix. Wrong! Despite the fact that we have what is supposed to be one of the top insurance companies in the US, this entire experience has been a nightmare, and those people who told me we would still be dealing with it in the fall were correct. We still have no water to the second floor. The heating system has been partially torn out, and the real demo and reconstruction is finally scheduled to begin in a week. So, a word from the voice of experience, if you live in a cold climate and are travelling in the winter do not just rely on having someone periodically check on your house. Make triple sure you have a notification system that immediately creates a warning if the heat goes out. We were told that in cold weather once the furnace/boiler quits it does not take long for the entire plumbing system and (in our case) hot water heating system to freeze up.

uhoh_busted

I am enjoying reading your report, "warts" and all. Looking forward to hearing about your stay at Chanoud Gahr. We really were impressed with the job those two brothers are doing, not only with the wonderful place they have inherited, but with the surrounding town. It was one of the most interesting and welcoming places we've ever stayed. AND I also want to hear about Nepal...

Kathie

What a horrible disaster in your home! It should be fixed just in time for you to go away this winter...

The UV works very well for bacteria, not as well for viruses, and works poorly for water that isn't clear. In my experience in Kathmandu, the tap water was probably not clear enough for it to be fully effective. (Fill a sink with water and look at it - it's sort of a brownish green color.) I'm glad to hear that you did fine with the UV light, but be aware of when it might not work as well.

Looking forward to more of your adventure!

julies

Kathie--

The camelback actually does treat viruses. Our understanding is that it is not effective say if someone wants/need to filter something like stream water with particulates in it. However, it does work on tap water.

Yes, the house will probably be finished just as we want to escape again this winter......And, for our next trip we will be installing an alarm that directly notifies the heating contractor's office if there is a failure.

Back to the Indian portion of our trip:

Days 12 & 13 Castle Bera, Rajasthan

We visited here two years ago and enjoyed it so much that this is the one place from our first trip we decided to return to. The Thakur owner, Winku, has focused his life on tracking leopards and other wildlife in his vicinity. And, he has also trained six superb guides to assist him. We had leopard sightings nearly every safari last visit and hoped to replicate that success this trip. We did; we saw several leopards on three out of the four early morning and late afternoon safaris. On one morning safari we saw hyenas because the guides know where their dens are and are able to predict their habits. And we also saw lots of birds, crocodiles and monkeys in the local countryside which is absolutely beautiful and greatly adds to the enjoyment of the trip. For those interested in nature and wildlife (and having a nice place to stay), Castle Bera is an excellent option. And, in many ways it is probably better than many of the national parks because it is a more personalized experience and isn't subject to all the rules and guidelines (and hordes of people) that are a part of a national park visit.

Winku is a congenial host who runs a great operation and loves to sit and chat (and drink) with his guests in the evenings. Rooms are definitely period furnishings and are extremely spacious (more like suites). Since there was a group from Gujarat who were also visiting the estate, we were in a different room from last time, and this one also had a small terrace sitting area outside. And, there is even a mini fridge for your beverages.

The visit was another success, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely once again. Except, this time we were trying to balance the early morning safari and the late afternoon/early evening safaris with making lots of calls to the US to make some decisions and check on the status of the house. With an 11 ½ hour time difference from home it was not an easy task to connect with people. And, of course, we needed to do this in the one portion of the trip where we were really fully scheduled with time-dependent activities.

Days 14 & 15 – Chanoud Gahr, Chanoud

Chanoud Garh, a few hours north by car of Castle Bera, is another historic property owned by a minor royal family in Rajasthan. It has recently been redecorated and opened its doors to guests as the equivalent of a five star property. Our suite of rooms was absolutely gorgeous and very well done. Several siblings (in their 30s maybe) manage the property and devote themselves to their guests, and they do a great job. Their father is the equivalent of the local lord, and during our visit he was presiding over a gathering of local men who had come to discuss the celebration that was being planned for the first Holi celebration of the family's first-born grandson. As we had learned on our last trip, the first Holi for a baby boy is a major event that involves the immediate family, extended family, and the local villagers. It is like planning for a wedding or an elaborate bar mitzvah or quincenera. The premise of a visit at Chanoud Garh is that guests will be treated as family, served home-cooked meals from favorite family recipes, be told all about local customs, and be introduced to life in the adjacent small village.

As seems to be typical in most of these historic places that now cater to guests, it is kind of assumed that you will arrive in the early afternoon for lunch, and that is how it worked out for us. As was true of every meal we had here, the food was delicious, made from special family recipes and different from the fare that is typically served to guests at the historic places. Two women from Canada were the only other guests during our stay, so we also spent some time chatting with them. Where are the Americans? I don't know. On our entire six-week trip we only saw a couple of Americans, and that was in the really major tourist places. Lots and lots of French though!

As far as activities here, the first afternoon we were shown around the estate itself. Guests are lodged in the front and totally renovated section of the estate, while family resides in the separate quarters at the back. Our second day we were treated to a slow and thorough guided visit to the local village. We were actually out for nearly four hours after breakfast walking through the village and visiting various places and people. We settled in and did our own thing for a couple hours after lunch and then went out on a jeep expedition to see what would be the local equivalent of desert flats or sand flats. It was a very interesting way to end up the day at a very nice venue that was definitely worth our little splurge. As I mentioned earlier, we balanced out different types of places to stay with some being more budget and a few higher end and most more mid-range.

Day 16 – Samad Sadar Palace

After my pre-bookings at Bera and Chanoud Garh, once again I had some nights to fill. I'd purposely left things open for a couple nights so we could decide last minute what to do and where to go. We're okay with flexibility and a bit of winging it, which I know a lot of people aren't. Plus, we were in shoulder season and weren't trying to get to the super popular locales, so we weren't too worried about finding a good place.

(In fact, on the entire trip we only found three places we were interested in and would probably have visited if they weren't booked up. One was the place where the Best Marigold Hotel was filmed. They happened to be filming the sequel exactly when we wanted to visit. Another was a place on the outskirts of Udaipur that offers horse rides into the surrounding countryside. They are very small and were booked up with a group trail ride that was to last for several weeks. Then, there was the one night that Fort Dhariywad was not available when we wanted to come in a night early. When we got there, we saw why. A small French tour group was leaving just as we arrived.)

Back to what we actually did on this trip. An acquaintance had recommended Samad Sadar Palace as one of her favorites in India for a time when people want to do absolutely nothing except sit around and relax for a day or so. At this point in our trip, what with continuously moving around and trying to deal remotely with the crisis at home, this idea was sounding pretty good.

Samad Sadar Palace is an Art Deco “lodge” set high on the shores of a fairly saline lake in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And, other than walking around the grounds, looking at the views, and a short trail by the lake there is absolutely nothing to do. The staff were helpful and one man even came up to us as we were strolling the grounds and pointed out to us various wild animals hiding in the shrubs near the shore.

I'd called a couple days earlier, and they had a room for two nights if we wanted it. This was an understatement about availability; the place was totally deserted other than the large staff of servants. When we arrived we were given our choice of several different room (suites really) and chose one with an adjacent terrace with great views over the lake. Since the place is large and was completely empty, what was really strange to us was that when the sole other guests (an Indian businessman and his daughter of about ten) arrived, they were given the room right next to ours, destroying what would have been a perfect sense of solitude. Other than emerging for breakfast in the morning, they spent the entire time in their room (with room service). They kept their door which opened on to the shared terrace propped open (so we could hear everything) and watched tv or talked on the cell phone all of the time. Very strange.

Here my husband's one bout of illness on our trip set in, so he retreated to bed for most of the late afternoon and night emerging only for an hour or so to go to the dining room for dinner. By morning he was feeling better and ready to move on. If he'd still been ill, we would have stayed another day, and I would have spent the day on the terrace reading. This proved to be a good one night relaxing place for us, but we knew right away that we didn't want two nights there. We know ourselves well enough to know that an afternoon and evening of just sitting and reading and relaxing is enough for us; we get antsy and need some options for activities.

Kathie

Loving your report, julies.

The light reliably killing viruses is something new. I'll have to read about that. When I last investigated that, it did not kill all viruses, and water that had any cloudiness or color to it was harder for it to manage. Thanks for the info.

We also have 10 year India visas, and we are considering where we want to go next in India. Your two reports will help inform our decisions.

sartoric

I'm also enjoying your report julies. We'd love to return to India, such a diverse and complex country.

If it's any consolation, hearing the news about difficulties at home whilst away may be slightly better than arriving home to find said difficulty surprisingly laid out before you.

On New Years Day one year, we arrived home to a flooded apartment - flooded with sewerage from the second floor apartment. Tree roots blocking exit pipes were the culprit, causing all drains etc to overflow. In later years it was made into an interesting story. Hope you can do the same.

Thanks for the detailed info about your trip, it really helps those who might want to follow.

pintuhs

Hi Julies,

I read all your journey details and I just wanted to inform that you missed some most important and must visit places in India. Like Kutch, Some part of Gujarat like Gir forest, patan vav and many more places. Whenever you come next time don't forget to visit those places.

julies

Visiting India is like saying I'm going to visit the United States or Europe. It takes many trips and a lot of time to do it justice. I think (maybe) our next India trip may be to the south and Sri Lanka.

Yes, I am hoping that a few years on down the road I can look at the house mess as just another story in my life, and I keep telling myself that we are getting some nicely redone things out of this that the insurance company is paying for.

I always read trip reports here when planning our journeys, so that is why I am hoping to pay back with mine.