India Trip Report: Was it Incredible?? Heck YES!!
 

I got the idea to go to India based to a large degree on a trip report I read on this Forum by a lady who was overwhelmed (in a good way) by the country, the experience and her tour company. I thought, "man, I gotta experience that" and so I started communicating with the company she booked with, called India Invites (more about them in a few) 2 years ago; well long story short, but it was only this September when I was able to actually take this long anticipated trip. Now I won't try to compete with the luscious detail of St.Cirq's report (I remember that name from the European boards a few years back) but I can fill in on details and recommendations. In a nutshell, my trip was FLAWLESS! Amazing! The trip of a lifetime!! Every dream I had of the magical experience I wished to have, was delivered in full and then some. Now for the details...

i am laughing as somehow i do not equate flawless with india???

The first word I have to say, and apologies to all if this whole post comes off like one big advertisement for the company I booked with, (no, I don't work with them, or have any affiliation other then an extremely satisfied client) but honestly, they went above and beyond the call of duty.

Tour Company: India Invites
www.indiainvites.com
This poor company, I had it all booked, ready to go and was about to send payment in 2006 but had to cancel at the very last minute.(for anyone interested you can find out why I was grounded if you do a search on this forum for a thread called Thailand Trip report including near death experience) I was curious to find out if they would remember me, and sure enough they did. They put together a nice customized itinerary that I was changing up until a week before we left (oh the emails) despite my "high touch" expectations, I never had to wait over 24 hours for a return email! When the last payment we wired was mysteriously returned to our bank, the owner of the India Invites told me I could wait until we met with him (mind you on the LAST night of our trip) to pay; What a risk, I can't think of another company that would make that offer.
Anyway so here goes:

Flights: Malaysian Airways, Lord have Mercy!!! I don't recall reading that we had to stop in Taipei AND Kuala Lumpur.. seriously, I must have booked the WORST series of flights available to and from Los Angeles to New Delhi. The trip home was nearly 40 hours! Next time, I am going through Europe. But the price decent at about $750 PP round trip excluding tax, I don't know though,next time, I would shell out the additional $$ for a more direct route.
Three years later (JK well my skin LOOKED 3 years older after being exposed to plane air for that long) we arrived in New Delhi and were greeted by the first of many marvelous guides, Ashok who was with us for our Delhi stay. He was very chatty, and his daughter had hand painted our welcome sign, India Invites presented us with a lovely embroidered document case with our travel vouchers etc. And we were off to the Taj Hotel in Delhi.

Hotel: The Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi was wonderful! I have heard that it was in need of renovation, well we must have gotten one of the renovated rooms because it was STATE OF THE ART! (they have a nice gym as well with all machines in good condition) nice staff and good location. I would stay there again.

I'm all ears, but..flawless? You're sure it was India?

Yep guys, Flawless from a logistical perspective.. :) oh there were monkeys eating bugs at my bedroom door and a few near fatalities on the drives..some hot sweaty moments but yeah.. flawless..LOL

oh yeah and some yellow daal that had to have been made with bug spray, river mud and refuse..that wasn't flawless, but isn't that part of the lure of India... ??

So Delhi, yep we did all of the touristy stuff; the most wonderful thing to me was waking up in the hotel with a pigeon trilling at my window and realizing I was in India! We saw the monkeys at the government buildings, India Gate,Gandhi Memorial, Lotus Temple, Old Delhi (which we got to via the new ,fancy, oh so freakishly clean, metro system)
WORD OF WARNING! WATCH YOUR FEET IN INDIA! Feet are in a position to become casualties in the worst way. If the pedi-cabs don't get you, the bus drivers will. I spent the whole time hopping around the streets in mortal terror at having my toes smashed off, seriously it makes stepping in poop the least of your worries :)
We had a wonderful time with our guide Ashok, he had studied in the US and was super chatty about arranged marriages, Hindu Culture, Tibet, the roundabouts in Boston, you name it. He was fabulous. One of my pet peeves are guides who know "the book" but heaven help you if you ask them a single thing outside of their practiced "patter" they get stumped. Its really unsatisfying. I experienced this a great deal with one guide in Egypt. Ahhh I want my money back now.
That evening we saw a fun folk dance show, and have the first of several surprise complimentary dinners from India Invites. In short a great day to start off the trip.

The next day it was UP early for a long drive to the airport for our flight to Varanasi. We flew Jet Airways they were nice and interestingly served full meals on every flight we took, this particular one had Subway sandwiches.. which I found rather odd.
We were picked up in Varanasi airport by yet another fabulous guide and THE BEST DRIVER IN INDIA!
A NOTE ABOUT DRIVING IN INDIA: Ok, does anyone remember the scene in the first Star Wars movie, where Luke Skywalker is learning how to use the Force and is blindfolded, trying to fight a little robot with a light saber? The object of this is to learn how to "use the force" to "see" where the attacks will come from with his mind, rather then his eyes. Ok, seriously the drivers in India have gotten this "drive with the mind" thing down pat. They can "feel" the opposition. They can sense when another car is driving on the wrong side of the road barreling down on them, they "see" cars with no tail lights at night. They can high risk pass on blind curves, past elephants, around pedestrians, over rubble, through goat herds. If you feel that your driver does not have this metaphysical skill, then take my advice and fire him ASAP.

I'm hooked - keep it coming. We visited Agra, Jaipur, Ranthambore and Delhi in 2005 with Compass Tours - we also did not pay until we met with the owner the end of our trip.

Varanasi: Well I hate to "shoot the pay off" into this report right here, but in my opinion, Varanasi was THE highlight of the trip. I must have been the most over-awed human being on the planet. I wept at the evening prayers, at the beggar with no hands and cup for money strapped to his stump, I could barely breath watching the sun come up over the Ganges (we took a sunrise boat ride, just us, our guide Santo and the boat man)
Everything got me in the gut, the chants,the ladies bathing, the cremations, the poverty, the spirituality, the Indian-ness of it all. It's more then I think a human brain, at least my feeble So. Cal brain can describe. The humanity is palpable, but the spirit is visible. It's upside down. Baby, you ain't in Kansas any more. Whew, even thinking about it now, gives me goose bumps..
On the practical side we had a funny hotel experience. I had asked to be moved from the Ramada to the river side oh, about 3 days before we left " I want a real India experience, I don't care about amenities, I want to be close to the action, who cares if it's a little run down and dirty".. says I to India Invites..
India Invites "well we found you a room at Palace on the Steps, but it's really very basic, we can always change your room if you don't like it"
Thyra "No we will love it I am sure we don't mind roughing it for the experience".. ahh remember that.

Wow, if "flawless" and "India" now belong in the same sentence, and "freakishly clean, metro system" applies to Delhi it's clearly been too long since I was there! (Not that I hadn't been coming to that conclusion anyway, reading dogster and now St. Cirq.)

Great report going here, Thyra, glad to see another convert to Varanasi.

OK. so we get to Palace on Steps hotel.. OMG the staff was so sweet, nice, young guys, do anything for you types. The location was crazy good, right on the river, old World Heritage Palace, LOADS OF CHARACTER our room had a hexagonal additional room with surround views of the ghats and the river, and it had a restaurant! How much better can it get?? I REALLY, REALLY LOVED it....... for 32 minutes!!! That was how long it too my partner to notice the stream of angry red ants crawling in through the broken air conditioner (well if not all the way broken, then I would call it feeble) and the plague-like hopping grasshopper/locust hybrid bugs all over the floor.. the walls, the shower.. the bathroom, the bedspread.. which explains why the lizards were in there.. plenty to eat. YUM. They are super crunchy underfoot, I can attest to this. Which also could explain the population of screaming monkeys that were stationed outside of the door licking these bugs off of the ground (hey these were some pudgy primates, let me tell you)Prashant (owner India Invites) called me when we got there and asked if everything was ok) before I knew it, I was saying "yes sure, what a great location, everything is perfect" AHH. but it was a great location and we did spend the night there (it was right next to the evening prayers) we slept fully dressed with our socks in our sweats.. (flashback to my 1985 back packing trip to Europe with my best buddy) we decided to order some food (see bug spray yellow daal above) so we ended up on white rice and nan..
NOTE ABOUT FOOD: Whenever I travel dodgy places (Egypt, Kenya, Burbank) I follow the "if you can't peel it, don't eat it" mantra like my life depends on it.I eat strict vegetarian, and only cooked veggies I avoid juices and any veggies with high water content. I brush teeth with bottled water and check all bottled water seals.. knock on wood.. I have spent a LOT of time overseas and been free of Delhi Belly/Mummy Tummy etc (well except for one late night McD's run, Vienna/ 1997 that put me off mayo for life). That being said nearly every meal was a wonderful cooked meal of delicious Indian food. Even b-fest!! Which you think would gross you out.. but no way! I got hooked on these fried bread-y things and this milk boiled rice stuff and wow.. it was all terrific, I never got sick of the flavor of the food and I ate Indian at every meal for 2 weeks! I did bring high protein power bars for this trip; one for every day to keep my protein up since I won't eat dairy either.

Well after one bleary night of hoppin, crunchin, leapin and sweatin' we decided to call Prashant and tell him, "you know, maybe the Ramada isn't so bad after all". The poor staff looked heartbroken when we were leaving (all logistics and transfers handled seamlessly BTW) and I made some comment like "it's not you, it's that I am afraid of the monkeys.." which isn't exactly true.. but it seemed like everyone would except that. The staff carried our minimal luggage through he infamous (and FABULOUS) "Narrow lanes" of Varanasi to our waiting A/C mini tourist van and RAMADA here we come.. it may have been a crazy night, but we were both really glad we stayed there it was truly a hysterical and priceless experience, which I was grateful for.. but only one night.. PULEESE!
We had a great time touring in and out of Varanasi and a great night sleep in the Ramada (spotty hot water to be sure but 100% bug free so there you go). I worked out in their small but clean gym.
One of the best things we did in Varanasi was to take a really long drive out of town and then boat back all day, stopping at villages along the way, often times we were the only tourists in these places... and it was great my partner, RW sort of looks Indian.. in fact a couple of people said he looked like some Bollywood star,,, I don't know if this was the cause of it, but everywhere we went he was swarmed with kids (luckily he loves kids) me. By comparison,I am a petite, 40 YR red-headed Irish lady...that probably like some crazy evil being.. I was pretty well stared at and left alone! :)
NOTE ON BEGGING/VENDORS/PAN HANDLING
OK everyone may not agree with this, but I found the hawkers in India to be really mellow compared to other places I have been to. Seriously, it's amazing that I have not exploded in a bound-for-hell fireball, given the curses heaped upon my head by irate Egyptian hawkers. Also, I never give anything to beggars; not pencils for kids or coins or candy or anything (though I am a pretty good tipper). I usually find a nice, registered charity that works in the country I am visiting before I go and I donate as much as I can directly to the charity.. it doesn't make you immune to street children, but it makes you feel like you tried, in a very small way,to do something that will really make an impact..for this trip I did Asha for Education
www.ashanet.org they provide training and life skills for street children in India.

Well despite the crowds and the noise and the nuttiness I was REALLY really sorry to say "adios" to Varanasi. I know that this particular location gets a bad rap occasionally, but I must admit, when my mind drifts back to the sublime delirium of India, it is Varanasi I see, not the Taj Mahal.
That being said, our next stop was Agra. We flew back to Delhi and then had this crazy,CRAZY like, life affirming drive out of town to Agra in the darkness. We hadn't eaten since B-fest that morning and by the time we got to our hotel the Jaypee Palace.. we were getting cranky.
This hotel was the only Non-Taj property (at least I don't think it was a Taj) we stayed in besides he Ramada and the afore mentioned, Palace on Steps, and if I had to describe it, I would say it seemed like India's version of a Vegas hotel. The most amazing hing about it to me was the splendid fragrance.. What the heck was it?? Like kinda, soapy-jasmine like-incense-clean-florally, thing! I loved it. This hotel is massive, gaming rooms all sorts of stuff, we high tailed right to the buffet were entertained by a adolescent magician going table to table in a funny hat. Now this wouldn't seem like that big a deal but we saw magicians in funny hats working tables at a few places we ate?? What's up with that? They were friendly and all, but it seemed just so random.
The next day is was sunrise over he Taj,, and I am sure there are Fodorites who can better express/describe what seeing this monument live is like. It is breathtaking! Everyone should try to see it. We had another great guide, Amir who took us all over town for a wonderful day visiting several interesting sites but in Agra, for me, the Taj Mahal was IT.

"this crazy,CRAZY like, life affirming drive out of town to Agra in the darkness." Crazy - undoubtedly. Life affirming? Not so much - more like death-defying! If you HAVE to travel at night in India, you're MUCH safer on a train.