We're off to India next week and just squeezed in Bombay and Udaipur. Would love any shopping recommendations ...clothing, crafts and art.

Thanks!

You don't give the rest of your itinerary, so hopefully you aren't stretching yourself too thin on this trip. I know from your other posts that you have been to India before, so you should already understand about budgeting time and travel delays. FYI, gels and liquids are not allowed on flights from or within India any longer (I just spent the last week in India).

One of my best friends from Hong Kong just moved to Mumbai about 6 weeks ago, so I am using her shamelessly as a source, and we just spent a happy three days shopping around in between my business appointments there last week. I am not a huge fan of Mumbai as a tourist destination as there is very little to see, but it does have many good restaurants and some good shopping. Note that virtually all the places below also have outlets in Delhi and Atmosphere, the silk shop, has outlets in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata:

Shrujan
Saga Villa 38
Bhulabhai Desai
Road Opposite Navroze Apartments
400 026
Tel 22-2352-1693

This has wonderful handmade Kutch textiles, it is a cooperative and the profits benefit the women in Kutch, a very depressed region of Gujarat. They have beautiful silk embrodierd bedspreads and pillows and some clothing, mobile phone cases and other items. The selection is not huge, but the quality is unbelievable and the prices are very good. Definitely worth a stop. This is not to far from the Marine Drive area, I believe it is in Breach Candy.

Good Earth
Raghuvanshi Mansion
Raghuvanshi Mills Compound
11-12 Senapti Bapat mart
Lowe Parel
Tel: 22-2495-1954
http://www.goodearthindia.com

Home and bath accessories on the first floor, furniture and some bedding and curtains on the second. They also have a small wine bar on the second floor that serves snacks. Some very interesting items, their china with the little elephants is very cute; prices on bath items are very good. Their furniture is probably not interesting to you as you have to ship it home, but they have some great colonial-type pieces. Upstairs they have a small department with bed spreads and tissue-paper-thin silk curtains. The wine bar is worth a stop as well. This is about a five minute drive from the Shrujan shop and could be done together. If you are gong to Delhi, they have two outlets in Delhi, one of which is in the Shantushi Shopping complex which is a good place to shop in Delhi.

Atmosphere
Vaswani House
7 Best Marg
Colaba
Phone: +91 22 2283 1877
Wow, wow, wow what beautiful silk furniture fabric and curtain materials. Average at about 1600 Rupees a metre (about US$32 a yard), the designs and quality are just stunning. This shop is quite close to the Taj Mahal hotel. They also have a shop near to the JW Marriott hotel in Juhu beach, but as they don't have a website, I could not find the location. If you are staying at the JW Marriott, ask at the hotel, the shop is less than 5 minutes by car.

Soma
A-2 Amar Chand Mansion
16, Madam Cama Road
Colaba
Tel: 22 2282 6050

Hand-blocked cotton textiles. There are tablecloths as well as adult and children's clothing. A large selection. This shop is upstairs. This is close to the Taj Mahal hotel.

I assume you already know about Ravvissant, which has really unique silver items and some clothing, they have a large shop in Mumbai at:

131 August Kranti Marg
Tel: 22-2368-4934

For "art' that is kind of a tough one, as I don't know what type of art you are interested in (painting, sculpture, etc). Works by modern Indian artists are becoming expensive. You might go up to Bandra in north Mumbai and wander around some of the galleries there, I can ask my friend if she has any specific reccos.

Udaipur is a center for Moghul miniature paintings and you will see lots of it, look especially at the City Palace where there is a centre for training artists and they have paintings for sale; quality and prices are good.

If you are interested in bookshops in Delhi, I have a list as I spent Friday afternoon in Khan market and found some very good ones.

Sorry, the silver shop is spelled Ravissant.

Wow! Thanks for some great info. My heart is pounding!

We are actually spending time in Bombay because we are flying in there and spending 1 1/2 days and one night there before we fly to Aurangbad. In 18 days we are visiting Bundi, Chittiograph, Jaipur, Bhuj, Delhi (only 1 full day) and Udaipur.

I love textiles and just said to my husband yesterday I am going to look for fabric to redo some club chairs. And, if I find furniture I love I would consider shipping. I don't have a particular type of art I'm interested and might hang an "antique textile on the wall that I purchase.

How about carpets?

It has been about 5 years since I have bought a carpet in India, so I don't know that I can recco a particular shop. My friend in Mumbai is not looking for carpets for her new house, so I know she doesn't have any current reccos. There used to be a carpet shop in the Sheraton in New Delhi which was excellent, albeit on the more expensive side, I am pretty sure it is still there and would be worth a look:

Shaw Art Palace, the Carpet Shop
Shop No. 9, Hotel Maurya Sheraton
Diplomatic Enclave S.P. Marg
New Delhi 110021
Tel: 91-11-302-3080, 91-11-611-2233 ext. 1946
Fax: 91-11-302-3080

Another good place to look in New Delhi is the state-run handicrafts emporium on Janpath, down the street from the Imperial Hotel and near the Connaught Circus area:

Central Cottage Industries Emporium
Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan
Janpath,
New Delhi
Tel. : 23725035(Direct)
Fax : 91-11-3328354

This is fixed price, but their prices are lower than the Sheraton; although their selection is not as good. They will also ship for you. They are very reliable, and they take credit cards.

Jaipur also has some carpet shops, but you really need to watch your prices here, and this is where knowing what a rug would cost at home is helpful, as I found that prices here were quite inflated and never bought rugs in Jaipur for that reason.

In any shop which is not fixed prices, bargain very hard. If you are carrying the rug with you, bargain based on paying cash; if you are shipping, bargain based on a credit card. A Visa or MasterCard is preferred to an Amex, as Amex charges the merchant a higher fee.

You should definitely do some comparison shopping for carpets before you leave on your trip. Although prices are lower in India generally, it is good to have an idea of what US prices are, esp if you want a big rug that you will have to ship, as shipping can outweigh the cheaper rug prices.

Also note that if you ship the rug, the rug's value is NOT included in the US$800 duty-free exemption you get from US Customs for items you bring back with you, so you may have to pay import duty on the rug when it arrives into the US. Between this and the cost of shipping, it is sometimes better to check it in as luggage. If the rug is 9 by 12 or less, the carpet shop can actually fold it into a square (albeit a heavy one) and wrap it, and you can check it with your luggage. If you are flying business class, you are usually allowed to check 3 items per person these days, so check your allowances before you leave. However, bear in mind that you will have to lug it around with you for the trip, so if you buy it in Mumbai, you will have to carry it with you for quite a while, and domestic baggage rules may be different, so you may have to pay excess baggage for domestic flights. However, assuming Delhi is your last shop, it might be possible to arrange to have the carpet shop ship the rug to your hotel in Delhi for a small fee, or if they have a shop in Delhi, then to their shop in Delhi and the shop could deliver it to your hotel if you can collect if from the shop. If you do this, pay by credit card rather than cash in case the rug never shows up in Delhi.

If you find a fabric you like at Atmosphere, they have a shop in Delhi, and you should be able to arrange to have the fabric sent to the Delhi shop; this may be necessary in any event as they may not have the fabric you like on hand in the yardage you need. Their Delhi shop is about 5 minutes by car from the Oberoi hotel. The Delhi shop should also be able to arrange to deliver it to your hotel if you can't get to the shop.

On more suggestion for fabrics, this time in Jaipur. I hope this shop is still there, I last visited it in 2001 and it is on my list to get back to now that I am back living in Asia. I just Googled it and found that the address still seemed to be good, but could not find a website. The shop had really great quality hand-blocked cottons, he supposedly makes fabrics for Liberty of London. He had a lot of bedspread and curtain material, I don't know that it would be heavy enough for upholstery. His shop is a bit of a mess, so don't be put off, the fabrics were in a room at the back. He also seems to have seconds at very cheap prices, so if you want undamaged goods, look quite carefully.

Ridhi Sidhi Textiles
9, East Govind Nagar
Amber Palace Road
Jaipur
tel: 91-141-633134
fax: 91-141-632968

Personally, if you only have 1 day in Delhi, there is so much more to see there that I would not bother with shopping for carpets.

Along a similar line...I wonder whether it's worth it to spend any time in Mumbai at all on my trip.

Please weigh in which alternative is better:

Alternative 1:
* From Aurangabad, train to Mumbai.
* Half or full day sightseeing tour of Mumbai. Overnight in Mumbai.
* Fly from Mumbai to Jaipur
* Hire driver/guide for Golden Triangle tour starting in Jaipur: Jaipur, Agra, Delhi. Fly home from Delhi.

Alternative 2:
* From Aurangabad, fly to Delhi
* 1 night in Delhi
* Hire driver/guide for Golden Triangle tour
* Agra, Jaipur, drive back to Delhi
* Delhi tour and fly home.

Alternative 2 involves 1 night in Delhi and dealing with Delhi airport. That would have been my 3rd time at Delhi airport. And 4 times total for the trip. Alternative 1 allows me to see Mumbai instead and also cut down on driving time in Golden triangle--Jaipur/Agra/Dehli. Instead of Delhi/Agra/Jaipur/Delhi.

What do you think? Or it's still too much running around?

Thanks.

JC...I'll leave your question to be answered by someone who is experienced.

Cicerone,
Thank you for your time and thoughts...it is greatly appreciated!

My question is meant to the general forum. Maybe I should start another thread.

Thanks.

If this were my trip, I would skip both Mumbai and Delhi. I would take a train to Mumbai or hire a car and drive to Mumbai and then take Jet, Spice Jet or Air Deccan to Jaipur. I would probably choose the car over the train only because the Central train station in downtown Mumbai is located in the Colaba area and it would take you about 1.5 to 2 hours to get to the airport from there by taxi. There are suburban train stations in Bandra and Andheri which are in north Mumbai near to the airport, and you might be able to get off in either station on the train from Aurangabad; however, these stations may be on the suburban railway line and not on the long-distance rail line coming from Aurangabad, so if that is the case you might have to go into Mumbai and switch trains, which would kind of defeat the purpose. (Suburban rail lines are also super crowded, take first class for sure if you do this). I could be wrong about this as I know very little about local train stops in Mumbai, so do check on this. If you could get to Bandra, Andheri or another suburban train station near to the airport, that would save you a lot of time and would be a good option over driving. You might ask your hotel in Aurangabad if there is a station on the main line from Aurangabad near to Mumbai domestic airport where you could get off the train rather than having to go all the way into downtown Mumbai.

IMO to spend only a day in either Mumbai or Delhi is sort of a waste. From the Marine Drive area to Mumbai airport will take you about 2 hours during the day or early evening, and can often take 3, I know people who have missed their flights because they were stuck in traffic getting to the airport from the Oberoi hotel area. (Even late at night it will take you over an hour.) If you want to stay on the beach in the Juhu area at the JW Marriott, that is closer to the airport, but then if you want to sightsee in the Marine Drive area, you will have 1.5 to 2 hours in the car each way; and about the same if you stay out at an airport hotel. Traffic in Mumbai is just vicious in my experience. Delhi is better, about an hour into the city if you time if right, but for one day this just seems too much when you could be spending time in Jaipur or other parts of Rajasthan.

If you have already been to Delhi, much as I enjoy the city, you don't necessarily need to go again esp for one day. There is certainly plenty to see in Delhi, so if you really have to pick one, I would pick Delhi, but really I wouldn't bother with either on this trip. Mumbai really does not offer enough to the tourist, IMO, to merit going there, esp for just a day. I would never go to a city just for the shopping, and there simply is not enough to see in Mumbai IMO as a tourist (others differ on this view). If you wanted to spend the last few days of a trip there at a beach place like the JW Marriott waiting for a flight out, relaxing and doing a little sight-seeing that would be OK I think, but as a quick stop over between places, I just think it is a waste of time, money and effort.

If you still want to consider Delhi versus Mumbai, remember that for Delhi, your internal flights will be at the domestic airport, not the international one. The domestic airport is much smaller than the international one. It is not really any nicer, but is less crowded, and check-in lines are better and it is a bit less crazy overall than the international one, although the gate areas can be very crowded as there are usually not enough seats for the passengers (the international airport has plenty of seats, it is getting into the airport, baggage screening and check-in, unless you re in business class, which is the crazy part).

Mumbai domestic airport is brand new and is really surprisingly nice. No restaurants or shopping or anything, but very modern, clean and well-run. Adequate seating in the gate areas. Of course this is not any reason to choose Mumbai over Delhi.

Although you probably know this,just in case the above is not clear, I am not suggesting you rent a car and drive yourself (which is insane in India) I am suggesting you hire a car with a driver...

Cicerone, thanks for the very detailed info on Mumbai and Delhi.

My dilemma is where to spend 1 night before the Golden Triangle(GT) tour. Delhi is where I enter India and planning to spend 1 or 2 nights before going to other places. Eventually, I get to Aurangabad. But I don't want to circle back to Delhi, spend 1 night, and do the GT. And then come back to Delhi and fly home. That would mean touching Delhi airport 4 times!

So the problem is what to do from Aurangabad.

1) Train (or fly?) from Aurangabad to Mumbai. Sightsee for 1/2 day. Overnight in Mumbai. Fly to Jaipur. Do Jaipur-->Agra--> Delhi (2 legs of triangle)

OR

2) From Aurangabad, fly to Delhi (with a 1 hour stopover in Mumbai). Stay 1 night. Then do Delhi-->Agra-->Jaipur--> Delhi (3 legs of triangle).

I thought doing option 1 is slightly better, as I don't have to keep on going back to Delhi and I also get to cut one leg out of the golden triangle.

Any other routing options you see would work, so I can skip Delhi and Mumbai altogether? There are no flights from Aurangabad to Jaipur. Even if I get a ticket from Aur to Mumbai and then buy a different ticket for Mum to Jai, the wait time in between would be too long. Might as well spend that time sightsee Mumbai.

I know this is quite complicated, all because I really want to see Ajanta and Ellora caves!

Thanks for any help!

Could you give me your whole itinerary, and how many days you have on the ground? That might help me figure out a better schedule. What are your interests in India, and specifically, why do you think you want to see the caves at Elora and Ajanta? Do you have a particular interest in Buddhist art? If you don't, then frankly to add the caves to what sounds like a short trip to Rajasthan may not be worth it. You might want to save them until you do a trip to the west coast of India, like Goa and Kerala.

Alternatively, is it possible to route your international flights so you can fly into Mumbai and out of Delhi? This would allow you to go directly to the caves first, then on to the rest of your itinerary. Or you could do the reverse and fly home out of Mumbai. Either way would save you some backtracking I think.

I am going to be in India myself all next week, so may not be able to respond, but as a start you might want to look into doing some changes to your international flights if you really want to go to the caves.

Cicerone, thanks for your reply. Ajanta caves are what I'm most looking forward to on this India trip. Ever since I learned about it years ago, I've always wished to go see it one day. And I've been doing a lot of reading/research on the caves, so it's definitely top on my list. It's like the Sistine Chapel of India!

Also, I've booked our tickets already using frequent flyer miles, and we're going to stop by Paris first because we're flying Air France. With this stop I can't have an open jaw ticket in India unfortunately.

Anyhow, here's my tentative itinerary for mid Nov:

* Day 1 (Sat). Arrive Delhi at 11 p.m.
* Day 2 (Sun) Sightsee newer parts of Delhi to help ease into the place.
* Day 3-6 (Mon). Afternoon flight to Hyderabad. Stay in Hyderabad for 3 or 4 nights. We have to visit some people.
* Day 7. Train from HYD to Aurangabad in the afternoon. Get there at night.
* Day 8. Full day at Ajanta Caves
* Day 9. Ellora caves + one or more sights in Aurangabad
* Day 10. Train or fly to Mumbai? Train takes 7 hours, but Mumbai airport w/ traffic congestion might end up taking as much time.
* Day 11. Sightsee Mumbai. Evening fly to Jaipur.
* Day 12. Sightsee Jaipur.
* Day 13. Morning departure for Agra. By train or car? Want to see Fatehpur Sikri too. Overnight in Agra
* Day 14. Sightsee Agra.
* Day 15. Morning train back to Delhi. Shop. Fly home at 2 a.m. on Day 16.

Let me know if this is reasonable. I don't like it that we move around too much. An alternative is to cut out Mumbai and Jaipur altogether. From Aurangabad, just fly back to Delhi and spend the rest of the time in Delhi and Agra. But is that a waste?

Any suggestions would be welcome, as we haven't booked anything internally yet. Thanks!

Also, I hope I have enough time to see Delhi? Old and new Delhi?

Thanks.

See this link for transportation options to and from Aurangabad:
http://www.ajantatours.com/airtrain.htm

There's an overnight from Hyderabad to Aurangabad, and also an overnight from AUG to Mumbai. But they're 2nd class sleepers, and I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable taking overnight train. Anyone has done this route?

Thanks.

First of all, Hyderabad is a really interesting place, and I think you will really enjoy it. I assume the people you are visiting will take you around to the places you will want to see like the Muslim market area, but if you want suggestions let me know. It is quite an interesting city. If you can get a copy of a book called The White Mughals by William Dalrymple (who has written several other very good books on India, including City of Dijiins which are stories about Delhi) before your trip, this would be good to read as it will give you a good history of Hyderabad, as it was quite powerful and the Nizams were very colorful. If you can get out to the Golconda fort that is worth a visit for sure. The food is wonderful and the people are very nice, and you will see a Muslim-majority city which will give a nice contrast to the Buddhist temples in Aurangabad and the Hindu-dominated north (Muslim mughals and architecture notwithstanding). If you want a recco for a pearl shop in Hyderabad, let me know (your friends may have recccos), my boss bought some beautiful ones on her last trip there, I have not been brave enough after a bad experienced buying fake ones in the PRC some years ago...I buy things in Hong Kong from someone I know and trust at this point.

Anyway, armed with my map and some airline guides, here are my suggestions for itinerary:

Can you reverse the order of you trip and do Aurangabad before Hyderabad? I ask because you can fly Indian Air from Delhi to Aurangabad. This would really be ideal as you could then skip Mumbai completely with this routing. From Aurangabad, you could fly to Hyderabad, as there is an Indian Airlines flight that leaves at 5:20 pm arriving Hyderabad at 7:20 pm, which would be preferable IMO to the long day or night train trip. (Flights the other way from Hyderabad to Aurangabad don't work nearly as well time-wise, as they take 7 hours with a long layover in Delhi required, take a look at the schedule). From Hyderabad you could then fly to Jaipur, as Kingfisher Airlines has a daily flight at 8:25 am which would put you in Jaipur around 1 pm.

Train Hyderabad to Aug – are you sure of the length of the day train time between Hyderabad and Aug? I thought it would take as long or be just a bit shorter than the night train (12 hours), but if the day train is only 6-8 hours or so as you seem to indicate (you say "leave afternoon arrive at night&quot, then I would take the day train over the night train. You will get to see the countryside for at least part of the time, and I personally never get any sleep on night trains, even if they are first class. You may end up getting very little sleep and being so tired you don't enjoy the caves. FYI, on the link you gave above, the only train I see is the night train that leaves Hyderabad at 17:30 and arrives at 6:22 am. I don't see a day train at all. I have no luck with the Rail India website, so I don't even use it any more, I ask a hotel to check, but if you say there is a day train (your friends in Hyderabad told you?), I believe you, but you might want to check.

If you can't reverse the order of your trip, then I think I would fly from Aug to Mumbai, but what I would do is take the last flight out of Aug in the evening, and stay out near the domestic airport, and then take the first flight out of Mumbai to Jaipur the next day. I would skip Mumbai, and spend more time between Jaipur, Fatephur Sikri and Agra. There is a daily Indian Airlines flight from Aug to Mumbai that departs at 5:20 pm and arrives at 6:05. There is then a Jet Airways flight that departs at 6 am and arrives into Jaipur at 9:15 am. There are about a half dozen hotels in the airport vicinity, the Hyatt is probably the best in terms of price, but there is a Sheraton, the Leela Kempinski and others as well. The Sheraton has an outlet of the Dumpukht Restaurant from their Dehli hotel, which is excellent. Even if you don't stay there, it is a good place for dinner. (You could almost walk between the hotels, they are very close.)

Cicerone, thanks for a very detailed and good suggestion! Let me look into your suggested routing to see if it works for us. This is great!