CFW's Mini-report from India
 

Thought I would just take a moment to do a quick report and thank everyone for all the helpful recommendations. So far, everthing has been great. Travel agent in Delhi, Arvind at Castles and Kings, who was recommended by Bob, has provided outstanding service -- no glitches, good guides and drivers in each destination, and totally punctual airport pick-up by a local representative. They even arranged for a driver to bring a folder with our hotel vouchers and e-ticket info to Jodhpur that my DH left in the hotel in Udaipur! Can you imagine arriving at the airport in Udaipur and realizing you had left all trip info & vouchers at the hotel with no time to go back & retrieve them. The Castles & Kings rep called the hotel which had the folder, and immediately said "No problem, Madam, we will send car. Not to worry."

Hotels, which I arranged directly have been great. Meridien in Bombay near the airport (for stay-over just to connect with flight next a.m.), Hilton in Udaipur (fabulous service, beautiful comfortable hotel with charm), and Taj Hari Mahal in Jodhput.

More later.

Glad you had a good trip. Look forward to hearing more about it. I'm sure it must have been a relief to get your folder back!

carole....sounds fabulous....hope it continues to work well...have you been given my $150 yet?? we need to buy groceries....

Hi Carole - thanks for checking in. We look forward to all of the details.

Carole -- looking forward to more TR!

Glad your trip is going so well! Hope you're loving India. Looking forward to more.

Bob, You can go the the grocery store! Met Arvind, and your $150 is safe and secure with us ... unless of course we do some more shopping in Delhi. Will send you a check as soon as we get home. E-mail me your address.

Meantime, the trip has been perfect. Can't say enough good things about Castle & King. Fabulous service and not a single glitch.

In particular, our guide in Jaipur, Dev, was one of the nicest people we have ever met, and we just seemed to hit it off from the moment we met at the airport. On the second day of our visit he took us to the village where he grew up and his family still lived, and it was an amazing experience and a unique opportunity to get a glimpse of life in an Indian village -- quite an eye-opener, especially considering that about 80% of the population of India still live in villages.

Another highlight was a visit to an SOS Children's village in Jaipur, which we had arranged in advance. SOS is a world-wide organization that has set up "children's villages" in countries around the world with clusters of group homes for orphaned and abandoned children. We first learned about them when we saw one of their villages in Luang Prabang. Before coming to India we looked further into the orgnization and decided to become a contributing sponsor to their village in Jaipur. What an amazing place. They provide a home and community for about 150 children who they care for in small group residences of 10 children, mixed ages & genders, in a family-like setting with a house mother or house-father. They care for the children, send them to school & college or trade school, and remain the "family" through-out the child's life. When we were there, a woman who had grown up in the village was visiting with her husband and young daughter. It was wonderful and very moving to see such a warm and happy environment for these kids.

Now in Varanasi before returning to Delhi & then home.

we really like dev as a person as well.....i have been in contact with him once or twice since...

we had a bit of a hard time understanding him sometimes however...

isn't the experience like you had going to his village the most rewarding thing when it happens!!

maybe we can have meat again, as we have been living on pop tarts...

will send address...

B&K

if you do more shopping make sure it is a palace sized rug or a stone of more than 10K