Himachal Pradesh is next on my wish list for India, where there are some Tibetan monasteries. I’ll be sure to report if/when we get there. So glad the door is not firmly closed to India for you.

shelemm, thank you for your suggestion.

sartoric, I would love to learn about Himachal Pradesh through your eyes. I've thought about Himachal along with Ladakh. Then again, I'm also interested in the temples in the south (Thanjavur, Madurai) as well as Darjeeling and Assam for tea.

Thanks, again, for sharing such a detailed report and photos -- as well as your candid feedback about your experiences. You've given us a lot to think about as we get serious about planning (likely now for 2026, though).

ms_go, you're welcome. Hope your planning goes well and that you eventually get to India. In spite of the issues, we were glad we finally made it there. Do you have plans for other travels in 2025?

Next up for us is a return to Vietnam. As always, we are constrained to about two weeks, so we are focusing in the south plus Hue/Hoi An. We've previously spent time in the north. Hopefully you're planning something interesting for 2025, too!

ms_go, what a coincidence. We are planning for Vietnam in the spring. This would be our first visit. We intend to also return to Japan next year, in the fall.

tripplanner, I finally got a chance to catch up and read the rest of your trip report today! The return from Japan really wore both my husband and I out and it took me a while to martial the concentration to read your report! It is a fantastic report! Your writing is splendid and your photos are terrific. I’m always in awe at how much you manage to see! It brought back many memories for me - mostly positive, but some negative memories of the touts and feeling uncomfortable in a few places, though we never experienced any real harassment. I try to compare it to Egypt and I think the latter was more intense, though it’s been 12 years now since we’ve been to Rajasthan and 6 years since we went to the south including Mumbai. I do wonder, too, if the pandemic (and some of the political issues) have intensified India’s difficulties.

I’m so sorry that you ended up with such a negative feeling about India though I understand that - it is an overwhelming country with more than its fair share of problems. I’m especially sorry to hear that the drivers were pressuring you to stop in the shops and factories. In our experience, the guides generally did this BUT once we told them we’re not interested, they stopped. Our experiences with the drivers both in the north and the south were wonderful and every one we had were helpful and kind. Again, I’m sorry you had a negative experience and, if you feel any of the drivers overstepped their role, I’d hope you might let Indian Panorama know. I was so pleased to hear you worked with them and so disappointed to read that you had problems with their drivers.

We did love Rajasthan and the photos of those places that we also visited were wonderful and brought back great memories! Kumbalgarh (it always sounds to me like a Harry Potter locale!) and Ranakpur were wonderful - 2 places that are remarkable. The Chand Baori step well is one of the most remarkable sites - and we did see a few more stepwells. And so many other photos of places that we enjoyed!

And about Varanasi - I thought it one of the most remarkable places I’ve ever been. One of the most intense, without any doubt - but it’s a place that I was glad we got to see and experience. To me, it captures so much about India and very worth seeing.

progol, thank you for your comments and suggestions as always. We had three drivers through Indian Panorama, and two were excellent; one of the three was really pushing us to shop but we didn't let it impact us too much.

I am in agreement with you regarding Varanasi. Varanasi along with Bodhgaya, Udaipur, and Delhi were among our best experiences.

We expected some level of aggression in Agra but was totally blindsided by Mumbai. Had we not ended our trip in Mumbai, we would have had a significantly more positive overall impression. I do wonder though how much recent events have impacted India, although in my interactions on the ground, I've heard both positive as well as negative.

Did you find the South to have the same level of intensity? Some for example have conveyed that they felt the touts to be less aggressive.

We bluntly told our guides in both China plus Morocco that if they even once tried to steer us to any kind of shopping emporium, then they would receive exactly zero tip at the end of our time together. With the former, I even went so far as to put that in writing sent as a warning to the guide's boss a month ahead. In both cases, we went on to clarify that we normally tip well, as long as our wishes are respected.

Our great Fes guide (an aged man named Ali) once took us aside and explained sotto voce, "Look...I must take you into this next upcoming carpet shop. There is no choice." I forget how he worded the rest of his earnest explanation to us then but I got the impression that for him to be seen walking by leading tourists without taking them inside, could have serious repercussion for him as a local. Perhaps the shop owners were a powerful family, maybe connected to local organized crime? Dunno. In any case, respecting Ali's honesty, we went inside smiling to drink the tea and patronize the salespeople.

In India, I was alone and tried the same hard policy regarding unwelcome shopping stops. I could see them coming and more than once sternly said to the guide: "What is happening? Why are stopping here?"
The single time when my query came too late, I did in fact end up buying some lovely inlaid tea coasters (used them again today). But in return I drove a ruthless bargain there, even at one point striding towards the exit after calling bluff/shrugging.

The first trip that my wife and I took together (already by then veteran solo travelers) was to Turkey back in '90. That first joint trip taught us all about carpet salesman, the hard-sell and like that.
That experience has since served us well.

*OP TP, forget if I mentioned it already, but have you heard Rahman's musical soundtrack to the Indian movie 'Water'? Great stuff! It was playing at the Little India cafe where I had thali today.
I am done. The cobra.

tp,
I went back to my trip report of our second visit to India to jog my memory and, lo and behold, I discovered I never finished it! And so, I just added our visit to Elephanta Island, which we really enjoyed a lot. I’m sorry your experience of Mumbai really colored your trip, though I do understand how that can happen.

I don’t recall the south as quite as intense as Rajasthan and the other regions you visited, but we also found that the poverty, particularly in Tamil Nadu, hit us much harder on our trip in the south. And, to be honest, we found the region less exciting than Rajasthan. We found the southern temples fascinating to a point but, after a while, the experience was very repetitive. And Kerala was lovely but it wasn’t nearly as exciting as our first trip - though we did love Cochin for its history. We did love our first trip to Rajasthan, though, and whatever hassles we experienced really didn’t overshadow our excitement of being there. I truly don’t remember the touts that much - what I do remember are those times when we got stared at on a train platform or when we were traveling through the desert on camels (a day trip). But we had the agent accompanying us on the train platform and felt protected then. I think we’re more or less immune to the touts by now, having traveled through Morocco, Egypt and India!

zebec, I haven’t but thanks for the recommendation on the soundtrack. Will look into it. In terms of the shopping, we never gave in to the one insistent driver. We did do some shopping here and there, but all on our own.

progol, appreciate the comparison between north and south as it informs how much we would miss out if we didn’t go back. Perhaps someday we will but there are also so many places we haven’t checked out yet and places we want to return to.

Thanks for the ride
 

I have just savoured your eloquent report and photos of your visit to the North of India. Fabulous.
I have not been north but I have a had couple of trips in the South. Our last trip, at the end of 2019, was a circuit beginning and ending in Chennai. We had a wonderful driver with us for 6 weeks. He adhered to our "no shopping at friends/relatives' places". He was a great driver (important for an ED nurse), had great knowledge and sense of humour. Our trip was organised by a New Zealander, Tim, in partnership with Indian Panorama. I suspect our trip requirements were different from yours and I'm not sure whether it is different in the north. With one exception, we only stayed in places with less than 10 rooms. The exception was where we stayed in a hotel of about 30 rooms and observed the Deepam festival in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. It was a stunning and enlightening experience. We were two of very few anglo people with millions of pilgrims.
I never felt hassled. I loved the people, the colour, the food. I'd return to India in a heartbeat. Had Covid not arrived on the planet, I probably would have done so. Unfortunately, one does need to be fairly fit to enjoy India. So I'll sit back and vicariously enjoy the trips others are prepared to share. Thank you for taking me along with you.

You’re welcome natandmiriam. Glad you made it to India and hope you get to the north someday.