Our 1st Trip to India--6 Weeks in (mostly) Rural, Less-visited India
 

My husband and I just got back from a very enjoyable six week trip to Rajasthan (primarily smaller, less-known and less-touristed places), Orchha, Khajuraho, Varanasi, Corbett park and many places in Uttarkhand. So, it is time for me to fill all of you in on how it went. Although I’d done much of the reading, researching, planning and thinking early on, our actual trip was really pulled together at the last minute because we bought our plane tickets only eleven days before we left. And, ticket prices were pretty stable so we didn’t pay any more than we would have if we’d bought them six months earlier. I know some of you early-planners are probably rolling your eyes, but it worked well for us. We were travelling in more shoulder season, and I only ran across a couple lodgings that didn’t have room for us with this relatively last minute planning. The major problem we had with trying to arrange a more last-minute trip was with the trains. This was so frustrating because I have never before been anywhere where trains are booked up months in advance and where their availability actually can determine your trip options.

Last July or August my husband and I started thinking about taking a major trip to India—probably late January into mid March. So, I started haunting the various traveler forums online, and I checked out a slew of books on India out from my local library. The more I started reading and researching, the more confused I became as I started to realize that saying I am going to take a trip to India is like saying I am going to take a trip to Europe—waaaaay too big of a place to easily visit in one trip. The challenge was how to narrow down where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. Another challenge for me was that some things happened in our lives that made us change the timing of our trip so we ended up going from the last week of February until the start of April rather than the end of January to mid-March as we had originally planned. Thus, I had to create a completely different itinerary than we’d originally thought about because that one month window drastically changes the weather patterns in India, and we knew we did not want to cope with extreme heat. For example, I just looked at the weather for Jodphur; right now it is 104F/40C. Not for us!

We are very well-travelled and have done lots of international travel, but India proved to be more of a challenge to plan than any of the other places we’ve visited around the world. Normally our preferred mode of travel is slow travel, getting to know a smaller area very well by settling into an apartment or house in an area for five to seven days before moving on to a different area. I soon came to realize that this style of travel wouldn’t work out for India, and we would have to plan a trip where we would live out of our suitcases, continually moving on to see something new at the next place. However, I still tried to plan what I thought would be relatively relaxing and non-aggressive trip with most stays of at least 2 nights in a place. As it ended up though, despite thinking I wasn’t overly stretching us, it still seemed like we were on the go doing things nearly all of the time with very little just sitting around time. We’d loaded a ton of books to read on our e-readers, had taken our travel Scrabble game and had even put some videos on our netbook because we thought we’d have a lot of down time. Not so until about the last week or so of our trip, and I didn’t even finish one book. So, a word to the wise is to underplan rather than to overplan as far as an itinerary and what you think you’ll be able to do.

The very best piece of advice I had about planning a trip to India I found from a travel agent who is a frequent poster over on TripAdvisor. Her advice, which is really true, is to think about the types of experiences you want to have on your trip to India rather than the places you want to go. This couldn’t be more true and was immensely helpful to me in thinking about how to organize our trip. Another very helpful piece of advice that I found (and took) was in an article in a London newspaper that suggested first-time visitors to Rajasthan focus on the more rural areas rather than the cities that so many people plan around. Good advice! I also got a ton of help from people on this forum, so I hope to pay it back by putting together a report that will help other people (both first time travelers to India and others who have some experience there). Finally, thanks to all of you who helped me out so much, answering my countless questions (and I know there were a lot). So, here goes with a loooooong report……..

IS SIX WEEKS TOO LONG?
We have never taken a trip of this length before and were wondering if (a) we’d be ready to go home by the end of week two or three, (b) if we’d be ready to kill each other after spending all of this non-stop time together, and (c) if we’d be able to put up with India for six weeks. I am happy to report that we were just fine with a trip of this length and found that even with six weeks we were still able to see only a small portion of the country and the places we wanted to visit. Going through the process of getting visas was such a hassle that we applied for the ten year visa and definitely plan to make return trips to see other parts of the country.

When we were in India there was never a point where we asked ourselves why we’d planned such a long trip or even thought about the idea of trying to change our plane tickets for an earlier return. But, we purposely planned a trip with a variety of types of experiences so we wouldn’t be forted out or big citied out or palaced out. We intermingled these types of experiences, and I am sure that is why we weren’t so overwhelmed and exhausted that we’d want to go home to escape. On the other hand, I am absolutely certain that if all we had done was to run around from one major tourist site to another and visited only the noisy, dirty cities, we would have been fed up and ready to come home after about two weeks. We really found the most enjoyable things in India to be visiting more minor sites, observing and participating in everyday life, doing some lowkey things, and interacting with native Indians (and not a bunch of fellow tourists) rather than the biggies that everyone talks about all of the time and the places that all tour groups go to visit.

CULTURE SHOCK
We’d been warned by posters here that India is just so completely different from other places in the world and heard so much about culture shock for the first-time Indian visitor. We’d been told how India overwhelms the first time visitor with its assault on all of one’s senses. Well, this never happened for us, and our first few days we kept questioning each other as to when this was going to happen. It never did, other than perhaps the first time we went to a train station at night and saw all of the people sleeping around it outside. But, we’ve visited developing countries before, and we never travel on tours or in 5 star luxury style that insulates us from a country. So, I can understand how if people have only traveled in the US or in Western Europe India might come as more of a shock to them. And, many times during our trip we would comment that we would never recommend India to certain friends of ours because they would be so turned off by all of it—the craziness, the chaos, the noise, the dirt, the poop, the minor and sometimes major frustrations.

I almost had more reverse culture shock on returning home. After all of the animal poop everywhere in India, it seemed strange to be so concerned about making sure I picked up the one little turd my dog deposited during our walk today. And, it was almost unbelievable to actually have cars—ones that weren’t honking--stop for me because pedestrians have right of way here.

TRIP COSTS--LODGING, FOOD AND DRINK
India certainly isn’t the really cheap country to travel in that some people expect it to be. But, it is definitely cheaper than having a comparable trip to Western Europe or the US. After our six-week visit, we decided that the rule of thumb for India is that you never get more than you pay for (in other words, don’t expect to find that hidden gem at a lower than to-be-expected price) and be certain that you are actually getting what you think you are paying for.

I used to categorize us as budget to mid-range travelers, but now I have realized that we are definitely more in the mid-range category. And, frankly, I could never be a budget traveler in India because I do have some standards for lodging that could never be met by dirt cheap lodging. For lodging we had a really wide range of prices with the low end at $28 per night (we had a couple one night stays in this range) to two super splurge (for us) nights in a suite at a deluxe heritage hotel for $170 a night (wasn't worth it to us and wouldn't do it again). Most nights though, on average I’d estimate that we paid around $60 for a room, and we stayed some very nice places. As a general rule of thumb though, for people who want a certain standard of comfort and cleanliness, I guess I’d say that for the most part I wouldn’t recommend staying in places that are less than around 2000 ($40) rupees per night.

Food is tough to categorize as far as costs because so many of the places we stayed were in smaller locales without restaurants and thus included meals in their pricing. We never did get brave enough to try any street food because we were trying to be cautious and stay healthy. Eating out in India is very reasonable; it is the alcohol that costs you if you want it. We are not huge drinkers but do enjoy a glass of wine or beer, and you pay dearly in India for alcohol (if you can even get it). (I know this probably sounds silly, but after hearing how bad and how expensive Indian wine is, we actually packed one of those 3 or 4 bottle equivalent boxes of wine from home, and it lasted nearly our entire trip for an occasional before dinner drink.) After a couple of nights when we discovered that the cost of two beers (they are big beers though) was more than the cost of our dinners, we decided we could live without that dinner beer. And, many of the places we were didn’t even offer alcohol at all, and often you have to ask since beer frequently isn’t even listed on a menu. (When we were in Varanasi at a rooftop restaurant one evening the waiter quickly came and took an unopened bottle of beer off of our table saying something like he’d be bringing us a better and colder bottle soon. When it never came, we asked when we’d get the new bottle. They finally admitted to us that their sources told them the police were coming to make sure there was no alcohol being sold, and when this happens they take away all evidence of beer for at least 45 minutes.)

Guesstimating, I’d say we spent around $80 to $90 per day for room and board for the two of us. This figure also factors in three nights where we didn’t pay for a room because we were on an overnight train.

WHERE TO GO AND FOR HOW LONG?
We knew right off the bat that we didn’t necessarily feel constrained to visit all of the usual places the standard tours visit (no, we never did make it to the Taj Mahal), and we also knew that we wanted to limit the places we visited so we didn’t constantly feel like we were chickens running around with our heads cut off. We planned our trip based on a combination of factors--primarily overall ambience of the location, interesting activities available and weather considerations. Thus, we started our trip in Rajasthan and then moved on to Orchha, Khajuraho and Varanasi before heading up into Uttarkarhand and the foothills of the Himalayas to escape from the ever-building heat.

The itinerary we ended up with (price indicated is per night):
• Delhi-- Delhi B & B 1 night upon arrival in India $80
• Overnight train to Jaisalmer (I’d wondered whether to go to Jaisalmer because it would be too touristy. Turned out to be a favorite of ours on our trip.)
• Jaisalmer-- Hotel Victoria 3 nights $72 (breakfast & a thali dinner included)
• Train from Jaisalmer to Jodphur
• Jodphur—Juna Mahal 3 nights (didn’t arrive until nearly midnight) $45
• Fort Bhadrajun 1 night $51
• Fort Dhamli 2 nights $83 (all meals & a daily guided walk included)
• Kumbhalgar—Hotel Silent Valley $51
• Castle Bera 2 nights $160 (all meals & 2 safaris each day)
• Dungapur—Udai Bilas 2 nights $170 for a suite (a last minute change in plans pushed us into a suite rather than the $140 room we’d planned on)
• Fort Bassi 2 nights $64
• Udaipur--Jagat Niwas 1 night $80 for lake facing room with jhakaro
• Overnight train from Udaipur to Gwalior where a driver picked us up to take us to Orchha (maybe 4 hours drive)
• Orchha—Sheesh Mahal 1 night (really wanted 2 in Orchha but couldn’t make it work in our itinerary) $40
• Khajuraho—Hotel Surya 1 night $28
• Flight from Khajuraho to Varanasi
• Varanasi—Shiva Ganges View Guesthouse 3 nights $80
• long, 18 hour train trip from Varanasi to Haridwar (10:00 am to 4:30 am)
• Haridwar—Haveli Hari Ganga 2 nights $100 including breakfast & taxes
• Rikikesh—Hotel Amaris (bad place booked by bad agent) 1 night $70 including breakfast & taxes
• VanGhat—Riverine Woods 2 nights part of a mahseer fishing package for husband
• Ranikhet—West View Hotel 2 nights off season rate of $70 for AP
• Kausani—KMVN Guesthouse 1 night $30 including breakfast
• Binsar Sanctuary—Khali Estate Mountain Resort 2 nights $100 for AP
• Kaladhungi--Camp Corbett 2 nights $100 for AP
• Outskirts of Corbett Park—Pine Tree Resort (bad place booked by bad agent) 2 nights package
• Train from Ramnagar to Delhi for our flight home

More to come as I find the time...........

Thanks for posting a report! I appreciate the details, and especially the demonstration that you can sleep and eat comfortably on a moderate budget. You mention an agent for Rikikesh - did you mostly book through an agent, or on your own? And what resources did you find particularly useful for off the beaten track locales?

Glad to hear that you'll go back to India!

BTW, if you can be REALLY loose with your schedule you can get train tickets 48 hours ahead of departure on the tatkal quota. And I hear that if you're on the waiting list you have a good chance to get on. Never cut it that close myself, although I did use the tatkal quota on my last trip (see http://www.indiamike.com/india-artic...ays-waitlists/).

Nice start. I've been looking forward to your report.

The one or two nights per place would drive me crazy. My usual rule is no less than three nights in any one place. What do you think? WHould that kind of pace worked well for a trip like this?

looking forward to more too.

it seems to me that you rushed from one place to another... do you feel that you got to know anyplace??

i'm anxious to read what you actually did

Thank you julies for posting this trip summary. I have two friends planning a trip to India and your itinerary/schedule will interest them, I'm certain. You've experienced a great "taste" of India. For me, it's about what I can absorb from a place or experience, not how much time I spend there. How the place makes me feel and to understand something of the process of living life in each town/City, area I visit. Time spent in a place means little for me, if there's no engaging with local folks. I loved Orchha, Kausani and Ranikhet. I've recommended them to my friends as must-sees. Dalhousie is gorgeous too! I've spent a day in a town and felt I experienced and absorbed so much from simply talking with Indian travellers and locals, eating with them and laughing with them, catching buses with them and asking them about their lives. The trains are a great way of engaging with "ordinary" folk, try them if you can, next time! We all have our own idea of travel so it's wonderful that you discovered YOUR way to experience India! I'm a early riser (5 a.m.) and some of my best memories of India are walking the streets early and observing, engaging and attempting to understand how people exist in such a chaotic, amazingly diverse Country. Your trip sounded well planned even though you say it was organised at short notice. Thanks again julies.

I'll try to answer a few of your questions now though I hope to put some more thorough answers in the next part(s) of my report.

Trains and seats--We were waitlisted on our train trip from Delhi to Jaisalmer and did get on, but I'd booked both 3AC and 2AC (the one that was waitlisted) because we really wanted the cabin with only 4 people rather than the 3AC with 6 people. When we moved up off the waitlist, I cancelled the 3AC tickets. We didn't get tatkal tickets, but we did get foreign visitor quota tickets for the trip from Varanasi to Haridwar. Getting these was an Indian experience of its own. We went to the train station in Udaipur and got in the jam-packed line for any sort of special tickets or ticket changes. It is a crazy system in that you need to get to the window to explain your needs to the man at the counter, and he then sees if he can help you. Then, if he can, he gives you a piece of paper and the information on the train. You take that piece of paper away and come back to the window with it filled out and give him the cash for the tickets. It was like a rugby scrum at the window with everyone jamming in with their shoulders and waving their pieces of paper in the window. I figured, when in Rome.....So, I was right there wedging my shoulder in too. This foreigner quota deal worked for us and we were able to get tickets, but we'd given the guy 2 different days and 2 different possible destination cities that would work for us. Even with all of that flexibility, there was only one option he had available. We grabbed it.

Agents--We primarily did everything on our own, but I did use 2 different agents--a marvelous one in Rajasthan and one in Uttarkarhand who did some things ok but who also messed up some things and who we'd never, ever recommend to anyone. I'll fill you in on these when I get a chance.

Going around from place to place--Yes, we moved around a lot but most of the places were only a couple hours apart and we had a driver lots of the time, so it wasn't as though we were spending entire days moving on all of the time. The reality is that I don't know if any of the places we visited I'd have stayed at longer (other than Orchha, and we knew ahead of time that the 1 night we could stay there wouldn't be sufficient, but spending another day there meant a plane ticket that would be 4 times the price of the one the day before). I know many people say they could hunker down and spend many days in Udaipur, but, much as I looked forward to Udaipur, it just didn't do all that much for us. I think the reason so many people find Udaipur so appealing is because it is a little calmer than the other cities, it has some cafes that could be kind of construed as European, and it is a pretty easy place to be. We were in Udaipur only a day and a half, and I'd planned this on purpose after reading that many people who had done mainly rural as we had done didn't find the city as appealing as those who'd done the more typical tourist diet of all of the major tourist cities. The Kumaon area (in Uttarkarhand in the foothills of the Himalayas) is a place where one could stop and slow down and spend some more time. It had been our original intent to spend 4 nights at Khali Estate in Binsar because one can do half day walks to local villages there. So, we planned to spend 4 nights and do 3 or 4 different walks to different villages. But, after our first walk we discovered that "village" really means 2 or 3 farms located together and that these "villages" had populations from 8 to 80 people. We decided these wouldn't seem all that different to us, so we moved on. And, we talked to some women from Delhi who were staying at Khali Estate with us. They told us that the Kumaon area really is for people who want to escape from the city and do some relaxing or some trekking or some birdwatching. Different places there are basically just different variations on the same theme, so we decided we didn't need another couple days of the same thing just in a different location.

Sorry julies, I should have added "day" to my comment re train travel... "day trains are a great way of engaging"...overnight trains are not all that conducive to chatting!! Love the report so far...thanks!

I had some questions from some of you about what we actually did. Here is a start to answer that question:

Delhi—

Our first day in India we had until our 5:30 pm train departure from Delhi. Although our plan had been to just take it easy a bit, walk around the neighborhood some, and find a SIM card, we instead spend the day sightseeing. The owner of the B & B told us that there really isn't too much to see and do on foot in the neighborhood; he suggested that we hire a driver for the day to take us around to some of the major sites and then deliver us to the train station. Since all of this was only going to cost us about $10 more than it would have just for the train station delivery, we took him up on it. Actually, from what we had time to see, Delhi is more interesting that we thought it would be, and it is less intense than we'd expected. In fact, the typical chaotic India that we'd been expecting to encounter didn't occur at all until we went through Old Delhi on our way to the train station.

Our first stop was the large and beautiful Bahai temple where visitors from all faiths are invited to come in for silent prayer and observation of the building. Then, it was off to Huanaman's Tomb which is actually a series of interrelated buildings on a large site. India Gate, which we next visited, we discovered to be an inscribed memorial monument to the dead from India's armies and had soldiers guarding the eternal flame. Our last sightseeing stop was the large and spread out Lodi Gardens which were originally the site of an estate and still contain several architecturally impressive edifices. We wanted to eat a big and late lunch before setting off on the train to Jaisalmer, so the driver suggested Hot Chimney; it was a good suggestion and the very reasonably priced Indian food was great.

We'd been waiting to see the chaotic India we'd heard so much about, and finally as we drove through Old Delhi to the Old Delhi train station, we started to see this and the differences between the relatively calm and leafy newer Delhi and the crammed streets of Old Delhi.

Jaisalmer—

I planned 3 nights here just to rest and recuperate from our journey (and my husband was also recovering from an emergency hospitalization right before we left). That is pretty much what we did other than walking around, observing, and visiting the usual tourist spots. We decided we didn’t need to do a camel ride or go out to the desert.

Jodphur—

We visited the fort and wandered around (and got lost) in the maze that is the back streets in the old town. Our hotel was in the old town, so we spent quite a bit of time wandering around. Our second day here I’d planned to go out and do one of those visits to the Bishnoi areas, but then the agent who’d arranged our driver for us told me that this could easily be done on our way to our next stop—Fort Bhadrajan, so we spent another day just wandering around and observing daily life. Then, on the way out of Jodphur we stopped at all of the usual tourist Bishnoi spots—the potter’s, the rug workshop, and for the opium ceremony. In retrospect they were all too touristy for us and a waste of time because we got to see the real deal at some of our other stops.

Now, a few excerpts from the journal I tried to keep........

One night at Fort Bhadrajan—

Fort Bhadrajun is set in an intriguing location in the middle of a U shaped valley, obviously strategically located to stop invaders. The thakur (feudal lord) who owns it has opened it up to tourists to help support the expenses of running the place, and they must be extensive since there are numerous people (all men) who wait on guests hand and foot. As is traditional practice, we were greeted with a drum beat to announce our arrival. Then, garlands (fake) and a tikkal spot was placed on our foreheads. This whole set up seemed a tad artificial and fakey to us what with the announcement of our arrival. We were given a room upgrade to a fantastic room with hand-painted decorations, stained glass and all surfaces decorated. Today the palace/fort/castle is basically set aside as two parts. Guests stay in the area or wing that formerly was the men's area, and the thakkur and his family live in the former women's quarters. Overall, I'd classify the place as shabbily genteel and can understand why it must cost a small fortune to maintain, especially with all of the retainers around. We were a tad uncomfortable with the constant hovering and attention. As the only guests (something that turned out to be a constant theme in the trip) there were at times five or six people watching us as we ate and wondering whether we needed anything else.

Our time there was totally orchestrated with constant activities. We signed on for the late afternoon and evening adventure. We piled in a jeep and first set out to a small Bishnoi-type village to a household that has fifteen children. Then we visited the local Jain temple and learned that the Jains are typically quite wealthy because they are businessmen and can afford to build new, large beautiful temples like this. It was getting on towards sunset, so we set off further into the countryside where we climbed a sand dune and had tea while we watched the sunset over the hills. After the sun had set we drove to a Hindu temple set up in the hills. There we observed the evening aarti ceremony. Both the driver and the guide were devout Hindus and fully participated in the ceremony. It was definitely fascinating, but we wished the guides had taken the time to brief us on what this was all about because we did not understand anything about what was going on. In their rush to take us to all of the places, they neglected to do any explanations.

When we returned to the hotel, the thakkur joined us for drinks before dinner, and he told us how his family had been awarded the local villages and land nearly three centuries ago after helping the local maharajah to win a battle.

After breakfast the next morning we opted to take another tour of the local village and to see the district hospital which is located in this village. They were quite proud to show off their hospital and new ambulance; there are two doctors, three nurses and several midwives on staff. Let's just say that we should all be more grateful for the medical facilities we so take for granted. Our next stop was the local private high school which serves both day students and is also a boarding school. Classrooms were packed with students, and there were none of the extra classroom accoutrements so common in US schools. Yet, they proudly showed off their physics and chemistry labs which looked as though they did the job well, and students were self-disciplined enough that they were faithfully studying their notes for upcoming physics exams. And, they have three or four older computers in a lab so students can all learn computer skills.

2 days at Fort Dhamli--

After the completely full-service, rather formal and carefully orchestrated production that went on at Fort Bhadrajun, the reception at Fort Dhamli couldn't have been more different or more lowkey. Fort Dhamli is a one story house entered around a courtyard, and its guest rooms seem to have been more recently remodeled. The thakkur himself came out to greet us wearing a polo shirt, old cords and a beat up leather hat. He is the feudal lord of 12 different villages that were ceded to his family about three hundred years ago. Here we got fresh flower garlands and our wrists were tied with a special bracelet for good fortune. After lunch we kind of looked at each other and wondered what in the world we were going to do there for two nights since the place was so low key, but we soon became very busy.

In late afternoon we were taken for a walk around the local village and shown into various homes where the people seemed quite open and glad to have us visit because Inder, the owner, is quite obviously highly respected in the village. Even within a small village like this—about 2000 inhabitants—there were stark differences in the lives and opportunities the residents have. The very poor area of the village where the untouchables live together was bare bones, stark poverty whereas there were several very fancy new house in town that have been built by the Jains. Once again we heard the same common theme that the Jains are the wealthy business people (originally from the merchant caste, the third from the top) and are able to afford some of these more elaborate houses. When walking around we also learned that 90% of the people who live in rural India do not have any toilets in their homes. The government is trying to remedy this situation by giving people the equivalent of $100 to install a toilet, but the problem is that the cheapest toilet is around $400. While strolling through the town on our own the next day we came upon a dead end street that was so full of piles of excrement that it obviously was the toilet for local residents.

We were told that although there is always something interesting going on in the village, we'd picked a fortuitous time to visit since there would be two different celebrations during our stay. The first celebration was for the birth of a baby boy. He was turning one year old, and this was the occasion for a major celebration with a large number of guests—about 250--coming to join in the festivities; we too were welcomed as honored guests. But, since this is a society with the traditional separation of the sexes, our roles were different. I was sent off to join the women and introduced to Inder's 24 year-old daughter who is to be married in June in an arranged marriage because she told me her family does not believe in love marriages. She has met the groom for half an hour and seems very satisfied with her family's choice of a groom for her because he s a good catch—a doctor in Mumbai. So, I hung out with the women for a while chatting and admiring the baby.

The musicians appeared and first came to the women's quarters; some men, including my husband and Inder, joined the women to hear the musicians and to see the women dance. It is like a dollar dance in that the woman gives 10 rupees to the musicians, first waving the bills over their heads for good fortune and to show respect. When the musicians had played for the women, they moved on over into the men's tent area; I went back to our room at this point. My husband meanwhile had been invited to the men's area where he was offered some Indian booze which apparently was flowing quite freely. When we went to bed, we shut our room up and turned on the AC to drown out the noise from the party which went on into the early hours.

The next day was also special because the welcome party for the baby continued on again in the morning with another feast and the opium ceremony. In certain parts of India opium is traditionally used at special life events and ceremonies. The celebration of the birth of a boy is one of these special events, and there were probably about 100 men gathered sitting on the floor in the men's tented off area. Traditionally opium was also used prior to battle because it made men strong and courageous and also stopped blood from flowing as freely and even caused constipation (apparently a good thing if you are going to be in battle). All of these are characteristics that were needed by the warrior. The opium ceremony is conducted by several holy men and elders from the area; all men partake in the ceremony as a part of the pledge to each other and the community. Even though I felt very awkward as the only woman in the area, I too was briefly invited in to observe and partake in the ceremony. The opium is highly diluted with water and the put into a special container. The holy man pours a bit into his hands and then the honoree has it poured in to his hands and drinks the opium water. I stayed briefly before escaping back to the women's area. But, I can now say I've used a controlled substance. And, yes, opium is technically illegal in India too, but it is allowed for special religious or tribal type ceremonial use like this is. The festivities ended with the band leading the guests in a procession through town, dropping various people off at their homes.

An hour or so later, we heard music, and it was the band of male dancers who were coming with their special costumes with bells attached to their legs and holding sequined umbrellas to do the special dances to herald the coming of Holi, the spring harvest festival. These dancers also performed for the women first before moving on to the men’s area. The middle of the day was free for us to do our own thing, but in late afternoon we drove out to Inder's farm where he had cows, Marwat horses, goats, sheep and also raised crops. Two families work his land for him on a share crop basis. He gets 75% of the profits because it is his land and machinery, and they get the other 25% of the profit.

Thanks for pausing to answer my questions, you gave me exactly the kind of information I needed.

I'm enjoying this report of a different kind of trip to India. We did an unusual first trip to India in 2010, and got 10 year visas in anticipation of returning. We are still researching where in India might be next for us.

Great start to your report. Fascinating to read your take on the rural parts of the country. They are much calmer and less crowded, and so nicer to deal with. The problem i have, and most travellers have, is dealing with lower level of hotel facilities, toilet facilities, and restaurants etc. But you seemed to handle it all in stride.

Good observation noticing differences between Old Delhi & New Delhi. While all of India is congested...too many people...old parts of a city are much more faded, dirty, and congested.

We enjoyed Jaiselmer too. Small town with forts and temples and we found a great restaurant too. We drove (car and driver) from Jaiselmer to Jodhpur, and saw how they are converting the desert into farmland...irrigation from tube wells using solar power to run the water pumps which bring the water up from underground.

I am enjoying your report....yes, you are not doing the usual 4 or 5 star hotel trip or the typical backpacker trip (which is not done on this forum).

Is that so, magical? I thought this forum was for ALL travellers...LOL!!!! And what is a "typical backpacker trip?" I've travelled with some who could buy and sell most folks and the common thread I hear is "why would I stay somewhere where people like me stay?"...such an interesting question, don't you think? Hilarious comment!!!

Yes, do tell, magical. All my trips over the past ten years, except the last, I've carried a backpack. Are you now telling me I shouldn't have posted here and no Fodorites should have read my TRs?

Surely you recognize the distinction between a descriptive statement and a directive. Not many travelers on Fodor's describe staying in hostels in India. Magical isn't turning backpackers away, they just don't come here. That's our loss.

Admit it, thursday. You're no longer a backpacker, you're a flashpacker.

My, oh my....are we getting too sensitive!!

I know some backpackers who are doctors, and I have met some wealthy backpackers during my travel. I am just referring to the common perception that backpackers are minimalists, which some would say is a good thing. They stay , mostly, in hostels etc which is not the kind of reviews we see on this forum. That's all.

Thank you, Marija, for getting it right. No, I am not turning any backpackers away from this forum. In fact, their opinions elicit a good variety of recommendations for hotels and restaurants that we would not get otherwise. And who wants to eat at 5 star restaurants all the time.

But, let's face it, the backpackers on this forum, are not the typical backpacker that we think of....usually, students on no budget, sharing hostel space or hitching a ride between towns (even in India), and free to switch plans as they go. We met a few like that on our recent trip to India. Personally, I do miss the ability to travel carefree, with the freedom to change and switch plans as we went along. Sorry thursdaysd, but you would not classify yourself as a basic backpacker anymore.

Now, back to the report from julies. Sorry. didn't mean to hijack your TR.

What an interesting TR. You seem to have suceeded in seeing some of the less travelled parts of India and I'm enjoying going along for the ride. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

I'm loving this report. We too kept waiting for the culture shock, but didn't find the smells and sites to be as offensive as many purport. (not to say that we didn't find India to be as fascinating as we had hoped). Our traveling style is much like yours and I enjoyed reading your comments that you realize that you consider yourselves midrange, rather than budget travelers. We felt the same way - budget hotels in India are not the way to go, but the midrange accommodations were all fine and usually quite nice.

I am hoping you had time to explore Gwalior. It is a place rarely mentioned, but it was one of our highlights.

Waiting for more.

I am following along - we'd like to spend more time in rural India after 2 short visits there and this will be a helpful guide. Thanks so much for posting with so much detail.

Before I go into any more of my report, I want to clarify a couple things. When I said that the women from Delhi told us that a lot of that Kuamon area is basically the same for people who want rest and relaxation, I should have said that this refers only to those more isolated, out-of-the-way resorts or retreats. Those are basically a variation on the same theme. The towns are all different, with some being, IMO, much more interesting and worthwhile than others.

Secondly, quality of lodging in rural areas. The heritage places in Rajasthan are the homes of those with "royal" backgrounds. Obviously, some of these people now have more money than others, but if travelers can't find this level of lodging acceptable, I have no idea what their standards are or what they are looking for in lodging. OTOH, if you are someone who needs/wants modern, cookie-cutter, business hotel 4* or 5* establishments, they are few and far between in the rural areas of India. We also found some very nice resort- type places in the foothills that I think would be acceptable to most people.

As far as all of the places we stayed, IMO, most people (those who are looking for clean, comfortable, good location and some ambience) would be fine in any of the places that we paid $60 or more for. I'll admit that I can only remember 1 or 2 places that had hair dryers, and some of them had some kind of quirky plumbing due to the vintage of the lodging, but this is what makes place memorable to us rather than same old, same old of a standard hotel. If we wanted to, we could easily choose to pay more for lodging and get standard, generic, business class lodging, but this has absolutely no appeal to us. I guess it all depends on what you consider necessity. IMO, people who want to travel and experience all that different countries have to offer should be willing to loosen up a bit and try something a little bit out of their comfort zone. One of the places we stayed, and which was really nice for a totally out in the boonies retreat, had bucket showers. This was actually kind of fun and certainly wasn't they type of roughing it some of you seem so hesistant to try. They brought a huge plastic bucket of steaming water to my bathroom, and then I diluted it with the colder water from the shower taps. You sit on a little plastic stool in the shower area, and there is a scooping pitcher to use to scoop out the hot water from the larger bucket. Pour pitchers of the water on yourself, soap up or shampoo up, continue pouring water over yourself. Finish up by dumping all of the rst of the water in the larger bucket over yourself. It really was nice.

Now, back to the report:

Ramnagar and Khumbalgar

I'd read about the temples at Ramnagar and huge fort at Khumbalgar, and I'd also read that the fort is surrounded by a nature reserve that offers the chance to do some hiking. So, I thought a one night stay here would be ideal so we could visit both places and have time to do some walking. Turns out that the nature reserve was basically a totally dried out semi-forested area which didn't particularly seem appealing for hiking. And, the fort itself—while definitely large—wasn't exactly what we had thought it would be either because it was quite set up for the standard tourist groups with chained fencing, dried out lawns, food stands etc. It was appealing for about two hours but not what we'd anticipated.

We began the day by visiting the temple complex at Ramnagar which was very well-touristed with many people arriving at noon just as we did. The main temple was large and lovely with smaller enclosed shrines set around a main area with the largest shrine. The carving was gorgeous and the temple itself was a nice place to visit for about an hour. After this we headed off in the direction of the fort, stopping for a snack along the way so that we'd not be at the fort in the peak of the middle of the day heat.

That day my husband had come down with chills and a fever and so by the time when we arrived at our hotel it was fine that all we needed was a light supper and a place to sleep. By later on the next day he'd recovered, but I had come down with a bad case of diarrhea—so bad I eventually started on a course of the zithromax the travel clinic had given us. Our conclusion about our illnesses: My husband got the chills and fever from his opium water, and I got the diarrhea from my taste of it.

We hadn't been all that thrilled with the food we'd had at this pretty basic hotel the night before for dinner, so we decided to skip breakfast there the next morning and instead stopped after we'd been on the road for a while. We had a nice breakfast at Maharani Bagh (close to the temple complex) which seemed to have lovely grounds in a beautiful setting; we'd definitely stay there if in the area again.

Castle Bera

When we'd been planning our trip we'd thought about visiting this area which is well-known for its possibilities for leopard sightings. There are two brothers from the same feudal family that has controlled this area for centuries, and we researched and debated which place to stay at. We definitely made the right choice for those people who want to be involved in a wildlife activity that involves a property owner who chooses to study animals and their habits and to learn more about the area's wildlife.

We went on four different safaris—two night for leopard spotting and two morning to see local birdlife and other large animals—crocodiles and a jackal. The thakkur--owner of the castle/large house--told us he shot his first leopard before he was even teen-aged but decided forty years ago that it is pointless to shoot these creatures. Instead, he decided to learn to observe their daily habits and to track their activities. He knows their dens, routines, which ones are paired, which ones have cubs etc. so he can nearly guarantees sightings to his guests. We were not disappointed, and both nights we went on safari did see leopards during our jeep rides. He was disconcerted when we did not have a similar sighting when we went out during the day with some of his men for a dawn safari. Normally we are not huge fans of extremely arid areas such as this is, but the jeep rides took us into some extremely gorgeous and varied countryside with small lakes for numerous bird sightings and some viewing of some very large crocodiles.

Castle Bera is a true nature lover's destination. This contrasts with the operation run by his brother at Leopard's Lair. Our second night, when we were out on safari, we saw how that operation relies on baiting to guarantee that guests will have a leopard sighting. On our way back to the “castle” we came across a group of stopped jeeps waiting around a spotlit area. His brother purchases a young goat (cost about $30) and hobbles it tightly so it can't move and then ties it out in an area known to be frequented by a couple of the local leopards. We stopped with the rest of the jeeps for a few minutes to observe what we considered to be an atrocity. Sure enough, the leopard came up and started stalking the helpless young goat. Then, it made its attack jumping on the goat's jugular area and severing its head which it walked off with. But, apparently this is only the beginning of the evening's show for Leopard's Lair's guests because the leopard keeps coming back to finish off its “kill” so guests are guaranteed numerous sightings of the same animal. Our group left in disgust at people who are involved in this type of scenario.

In addition to having extremely interesting and worthwhile safaris, Castle Bera also is a great place to stay. We were given a huge, huge suite with dressing room and sitting area. Plus, outside there are numerous places to sit around. The owner likes to sit around and drink with his guests and my husband thinks part of the reason he does the guest thing to have a constant supply of people to party with. His is the most extensive and varied private bar I have ever seen. And, unlike every other place we'd been, alcoholic drinks are included because the owner doesn't want to hassle keeping track of the drink orders to charge guests for them. All in all, this was one of our favorite places on our trip. And, the contrast to this is especially what made our next stop such a nightmare. To be continued.........

We loved the heritage properties we stayed in on our trip to Sikkim. Castle Bera sounds great... Leopard's Lair not so.

Julies,
I've been eagerly awaiting your trip report! What a pleasure to read it - I, too, enjoy finding a balance of sites and more intimate experiences the best way to really connect with a place. I love how you've balanced your itinerary with urban/rural and diverse cultural settings.

I've been quietly lurking on this board for a while now, following your planning posts on this and other travel boards, wondering how it will fall together.

I'm planning a trip to Rajasthan/Varanasi for next winter. We'll have a much shorter trip (2+ to 3 wks), probably to the usual suspects, but I hope to incorporate some less well-known destinations as well.

Would you mind sharing the name of the travel agent/agency who you worked with in Rajasthan? I'm now starting to put feelers out; I'm curious, how did you work with them? What services did they provide? What did they do that you didn't/couldn't do on your own? And, did they make suggestions that you wouldn't have thought of without their help?

Looking forward to the rest of your trip!

Paule

HI Julie! Thank you for taking all the time required to post this fantastic report. I wondered how you and hubby were getting on! Glad to hear he recovered ok from the pre-trip scare, and you were able to enjoy yourselves.

Kumaon is on my "future trip to India list now! And a friend's son may be getting married in Jhansi (near Orchha and Gwalior) so your info will help both specifically and in general for your fellow Fodies.

Thank again, and welcome home! Did you think twice about drinking water from the tap, once back in the USA!! (-:

for udaipur, what does "with jhakaro" mean? is it a type of room?

More please julies...
Welcome to any "Backpacker", "Flashpacker", "Adventure Traveller". This forum needs you!!

A jharokha is a baclony. Not sure if this is just an alternate spelling.

Clothes and shoes and toiletries

I decided to post this section now since I just ordered two more of these blouses so I’d have some for future trips. I took one of these to India, and it was the absolutely perfect thing for there because it is lightweight, dried quickly, is modest and is very comfortable to wear in the warmer weather. http://www.sierratradingpost.com/roy...women~p~3268y/

India is pretty casual, and only once did I regret that I didn’t have anything at all nicer than a couple of silk scarves to dress things up a bit. I found that some of my normal travel clothing was great, and some (a tank top and a couple short sleeved tops) I typically use for warmer climates I didn’t really use at all. I had two pairs of pants that convert from regular length to capris, and I wore these a lot along with my indispensible macabi skirt. http://www.macabiskirt.com/ I never did wear the one pair of shorts I took along.

We used our fleeces a lot in the early part of our Rajasthan trip (actually the first few days in Jaisalmer we wore these under our jackets), up in the foothills and when we went on early morning safaris. I’d forgotten to pack a lightweight cardigan that I intended to bring and often wished I’d had it. Even though people always say that you can buy anything in India, I never was able to find one, and I looked even in the larger cities we were in. It is better to bring tan or khaki pants than black or navy because our darker pants were always showing the dust marks. At the last minute before we left I threw in a lightweight, long sleeved, v-necked tee shirt, and I was surprised at how often this was just the right thing for what I wanted. We took silk long johns and tops and wore them to bed in a couple of the places up in the Kuamon region.

We always did our own laundry in our room, and India is absolutely perfect for this because there is always a big bucket in the shower—works great for doing laundry. Although I know I could have had it done at any of the places we stayed, I chose to just launder our clothes myself because I saw how laundry is done in India—the primary methods I observed were the beating method and the scrubbing on a rock method. Neither one called to me. I got an absolutely great tip for doing laundry from someone here at Fodor’s, and I tried it for this trip. Buy Purell laundry sheets, and use them for doing your hand laundry when traveling. We cut each sheet in quarters, and they were the perfect amount of detergent for a sink full of hand laundry, and you don't need to worry about a liquid soap that will leak.

Unless your hair is very short, bring barrettes or clips to pin it up and away from your face and off your neck because you will find it often blowing around when you are in jeeps, most taxis, and in rickshaws.

I'll try to answer other questions if I get a chance tomorrow.

Whatever the spelling is, the jharokhra also indicates the cantilevered bos window seat-type extension we had in our room that is lined with pillows and cushions and is for lounging.

Where are the temples of Ramnagar? We stopped at Maharani Bagh after visiting the incredible Jain temple in Ranakpur.

Marija--

We've been back for 4 days now, and the day after we returned, my husband commented to me that I shouldn't do anything that required any brain power or any decision-making because lack of sleep and jet lag were getting the best of me. Apparently I still haven't recovered and got my "r"s confused. Ramnagar was the train station we left from on our way to Delhi and back home, so that is probably why it was on my brain. You are correct that the temples were at Ranakpur.

Lyndie--I so agree with you that more diversity in type of traveler who posts here (at Fodor's in general, not just the Asia board) is so, so needed. There seems to be way too much skewing toward the high end, 5* trip, and not all of us are that type of traveler.

Cali--We went through Jhansi, and I seem to recall a fort or palace or some such that our driver pointed out to us near there in Datia; I made a mental note becasue I thought it looked interesting.

And, finally for Paule, some comments on travel agents.

Normally agents are not my thing, and I do all of our trip planning on my own. In all of our travels the only time we have ever used an agent was when we visited Vietnam, and I wanted to book a very specialized tour of remote places that there was no way of doing on our own without an agent. But, the more I started looking into India, the more I finally realized that there would be a couple things a good agent could do that I wouldn’t be able to do on my own. First of all, I knew I would need to use some sort of agency to book a car and driver for Rajasthan, and, because we wanted to visit some very different types of places from the standard itineraries, I would need an agent who really knew his (I say he because it is predominantly men who work in the public in India) stuff. I needed someone who would be familiar with all of the properties I’d researched and come up with as possibilities and who would also know the best way to create a good route to include these places.

After sending out feelers to about a half dozen agencies, I quickly decided upon TGS which is headquartered in Jaipur but has branches all through Rajasthan. Nikhil there was absolutely, 100% what I was looking for and he demonstrated it from our first contact. He gave me good advice on the different heritage places I was considering and arranged for our car and driver. Some of the places we visited we reached by train, and he told me when it was more economical and practical to use the train than to use a driver. Even though I chose all of our lodging, he did call and make all of the reservations for us, telling me that we’d be paying the same as if we’d booked ourselves. This was pretty accurate, but one place—Castle Bera—the owner did charge us less than quoted after telling us that agents usually take a cut and since we didn’t have a voucher from an agent (with extra fees padded in) he would charge us less. We had a great driver too after I specifically requested one with good rather than just marginal English skills. Nikhil was extremely responsive, and he would call our driver every morning; the driver would then hand me the phone so I could check in with Nikhil who wanted to make sure everything was going as expected. And, when we did have our one lodging fiasco (in a place I’d chosen with reassurances from Nikhil that it would be fine), he was extremely responsive and quickly made some phone calls and helped to rearrange a few things. His rates were very reasonable too; I’d highly recommend him to people going to Rajasthan. TGS Jaipur [email protected]

Then, unfortunately, we had another not-so-good experience with an agent in Haridwar, Uttarkhand, whom I could not recommend to anyone as far as for making arrangements for anything but the most simple day trips. We had a couple red flags on this guy that we should have listened to, but he was recommended by both Lonely Planet and Footprint India, and he was a specialist in more adventure-oriented tours which is what we wanted, so we booked with him. Logically and rationally we violated some rules of common sense by booking with him, but we felt we could trust him and he is involved in some projects in India that we feel to be commendable so we ignored our qualms. He did some of the simple things fine—arranging a rafting trip for us in Rikikesh and taking us on a safari into Rajaji National Park but messed up some others that required more oversight and more detailed planning. He was difficult to reach to communicate with, but the main reason we were so unhappy (and angry) with him is because once he had our money and we had a complaint, he completely ignored us and wouldn’t take our calls or would lie and tell us he’d get back to us and then never did.

Here is how we screwed up: First of all, we had difficulty communicating with him in the first place, and we should have just given up on him at that point. We tried reaching him about 3 or 4 days prior to when we would arrive in Haridwar where we wanted some services to begin; after a couple tries we finally got a hold of him by phone. He told us to send him an e-mail outlining what we were looking for, and he’d get back to us with a proposal. He never did. So, when we still hadn’t heard from him, and had by this time arrived in Haridwar where his office is, we walked down to his office to talk with him. When we met with him, he seemed to know exactly what we were looking for and gave us an on-the-spot quote for organizing/booking several thing for (an afternoon of rafting in Rikikesh, a guided half day safari into Rajaji park, a mahseer fishing trip, and a several-day package visiting Corbett park) and for arranging a car and driver for us for Uttarkhand.

Our greatest concern and hesitation came when we discovered he did not take credit cards (this is not unusual in India) and he told us, since we would not be returning to Haridwar, we would need to give him all of the money upfront because we wouldn’t be in a position to come into his office at the end of our trip to make a final cash payment. We were paying this guy a big chunk of money, and operating this way meant we were using several different cards in several different ATMs for a couple days in order to be able to come up with the amount of cash we needed. I know, I know, I know. Big red flags, but we did it anyway because he had put together what we wanted and we thought we could trust him. We did get pretty much everything we’d paid for so I can’t say he was a scammer, but there were several screw-ups on his part and we had no recourse whatsoever because we’d already paid him in full. In particular, our Corbett trip was poorly planned, and he put us in absolutely awful lodging and wouldn’t move us to what we thought we’d paid for and agreed upon as far as level of lodging. And, finally, after we complained to him about the lodging and arrangements in Corbett, he just ignored us and wouldn’t even take our calls and messages.

So, there is our experience with agents—both good and bad. I have realized that I am quite picky and anal about where we stay (even though we certainly aren’t looking for 4* or 5* luxury) because I know lodging can really affect the overall experiences one has on a trip. If you are like me, I’d suggest doing the research and booking your own lodging or directing the agent to book the lodging you have chosen rather than relying on the agent to choose places for you. One out of the eighteen lodgings I chose on our trip was a fiasco (not too bad a percentage), but 2 out of 3 of the places chosen and booked by the Haridwar agent were bad and not at all the types of places we’d ever chose to stay. We’ve learned our lesson for the future.

The old "pay up front in cash" trick! Done it too...won't EVER do it again....there is just no need. julies, you tailored your trip to your unique requirements, which must be truly satisfying rather than relying on another to understand and implement your plans. I find in India, the cultural differences are usually so great that few understand what I hope to experience. They seem to think we all want the same itinerary. Mahendra Singh at www.jasvillas.com is one guy I trust implicitly for car/driver and great accommodation and input.

Another tip about clothing is to take very little from home and buy your clothing in India. If you are a standard size up to say US10-12 you will find cheap disposable salwars and baggy pants that will last for a few weeks then you can toss them out and go home with bags full of gifts instead of your clothes. I'm an Amazon size 16 AUS (Anokhi has that size)and I also had stuff "whipped up" in a day, for less than $10 for two pieces. Outfits that helped me fit in with locals in small villages. Kinda like Jack Reacher does in a Lee Child novel.

Julie,
Thank you so much for the detailed description of your experiences with the agents. I,too, am typically a do it yourself planner, but sfter poring over the many posts and travel boards, I see that traveling in India is of a different order, and one pretty much needs some form of agency in the country. I did note TGS in my reading, and it's one of the agencies that interested me, so I appreciate reading your comments.
Of course, I won't be going till the end of the year, but at least I can have fun planning! As I'll be there at a very busy time, it won't hurt to start now. And I do so love the planning!

Looking forward to reading the next installments,
Paule

We did not use an agent, but rather booked all our accommodations on line with only one small hitch along the way - we were not satisfied with our hotel in Orchha and left one night early. While many people use agents to book their rooms, we found it quite easy. For any planning a trip, note that the taj group often offers a third free night stay with two paid nites.

Also - we did stop in Datia and also sonigiri (sp?) neither of which we found remarkable, but worth a short stop along the way.

Enjoying your report and looking forward to more.

The train from Delhi to Jaisamler ... is it a direct train or does the train makes stop at places like Jaipur and Jodhpur, etc., before ending at Jaisamler?

Is it possible/ better to book all train travel in advance? arrive? Should one also try to book all hotels in advance also? Thanks.

Re agents:

Yes, all cash and all upfront is something we would never do again. Learned our lesson!

I too booked some of our hotels online by myself, and it worked okay. dgunbug says s/he did all of the hotel reservations that way, but I also notice mention of the Taj group of hotels. The more fancy and expensive hotels do have standardized online booking using credit cards that we are all familiar with. And, some of the government-run hotels also have the same. For example, Sheesh Mahal where we stayed in Orchha wouldn't do anything for us by phone and told us to go online to book. The problem with some of the smaller places (the places we tend to like to stay) can be that they don't take credit cards and want a bank transfer. This can be very, very pricey if you end up booking a lot if places ahead of time that require this. And, this is where an agency could help you with booking; the agency makes the deposit or payment, and you make one lump sum payment to the agency.

I did book some of our places online by myself. Using e-mail I booked the B & B we stayed at our 1st night upon arrival in Delhi; there we had to make a Paypal payment upfront. Then, I booked via e-mail the hotels we stayed at it Jaisalmer & Jodhpur (the next two destinations on our itinerary); these were both honor system and didn't require any downpayment. For all of these places I also arranged airport or train station pick-ups too. In the last half of our trip, where we were just planning a couple days out, I just phoned ahead to make reservations.

In Rajasthan I primarily needed an agent to help me with the routing and to make arrangements for a car and driver. If you intend to follow the usual, well-trod tourist path, you should be able to figure out routing yourself. If you intend to hire a car and driver you don't necessarily need an agent to book for you, but most agents have trusted drivers they use. Our driver in Rajasthan drives only for TGS customers. The driver in Uttarakhand is a free-lancer who will drive for anyone.

Trains:

If I get a chance I'll go more extensively into these later. It is imperative that trains be booked waaaaaaay ahead of time. In fact, getting a train often proved to be the major hassles of our trip. You can book these online by yourself as we did, but I my agent at TGS did tell me that often agents can help with changes to train tickets IF they are not e-tickets like you get by booking online yourself. I believe him becasue everyone related to the travel industry in India does seem to have all of these connections, so this could be a reason to use an agent to book your train tickets.

Finally, one more comment about trains in India. These are not the nice, new fancy trains all of us who have taken trains in Europe or the US think about. Indeed, we laughed and said to ourselves that these just might be some of the same trains we took in Europe 40 years ago, and after talking to a conductor on one of our trains, I think we may have been right. No train we took anywhere in India was at all anything we'd consider express, even when the train name indicated it was an express. The train from Delhi to Jaisalmer made tons of stops all through the night.

Julies - how true about trains. Getting tickets was a major pain and we solicited the help of our agency who provided our car service.

Re: <b>trains</b>: yes, they're very popular. Booking for most trains opens 90 days ahead. If you're taking a lot of trains buying an Indrail pass can make sense (if you're in the US you'll have to use the UK agent). It will come with all your reservations. However, I found cleartrip.com easy to use and booked almost all of the tickets for my last trip with them.

If you wind up booking IN India, you're better off using a travel agency (any agency, just walk into the nearest) rather than tackling the train station, unless it's a small, rural one, or unless it has an International Tourist Bureau (e.g. in Delhi). Note that the Bureau will come with an obligatory local telling you that it is closed and you need to use the agency across the street.

Re: <b>hotels</b>: I made all the reservations myself for my last trip. They included three small one person operations for which I had to wire funds, on up to to two Taj Gateway properties. I booked a couple of smaller chains - Ginger and Keys - and booked another couple of places through agoda.com. My previous trip, back in 2001, I "booked" most of my hotels by showing up, or calling ahead from the previous town, but there were few people traveling that year, plus I was mostly staying in cheap places - not hostels and with attached bath and AC, but very basic.

Hotel booking--

We too were traveling more in shoulder season, so we were probably lucky in that reservations weren't absolutely necessary. If, however, you are traveling in peak season and want prime places, it is probably a completely different story.

Before I get back to my narrative of what we actually did on our trip, here are a couple more background items I thought might be helpful to some people.

GUIDEBOOKS

As I said earlier, as soon as we started to think about this trip I went to my local library and checked out just about every book that has been published as a guidebook to India (our system is rated in the top 5 in the US). All the books have their pluses and minuses (some many more minuses than pluses), and after looking at them all ended up buying only two guidebooks in hard copy to take along. Footprint India, I feel, is the best and most comprehensive of all of the guidebooks published, and, to make it even better, the publisher uses very thin paper so the book does not weigh much and isn’t too bulky. So, we took that along in hard copy with the Lonely Planet Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra. Early on in the planning process, I also bought a copy of Alistair Sawday’s Special Places to Stay India, and this gave me lots of good ideas even though we only ended up staying at 3 or 4 of the properties listed.

We also had some guidebooks in e-reader format (this is the first time I have ever tried using my e-reader for travel guidebooks). I bought Rough Guide to India and loaded it on my e-reader so we’d have another resource without having to drag along another book. Then, after we’d finished the Rajasthan portion of our trip, we decided to buy Lonely Planet India for our Kindle Fire. In case anyone is interested, I much, much, much prefer having a real hard copy over having an electronic version. Of the two that we took in electronic version, the Rough was definitely easier to use than the Lonely Planet in e-reader format. When doing my research months before our trip, I had also checked a couple of photo-heavy, e-format India guidebooks out from my library. These proved to be absolutely worthless because all of the data needed to display photos kept locking up my color Nook.

COMMUNICATION

We took an unlocked phone with us and purchased a SIM card and minutes the first day we were in Delhi. Our B & B had arranged a taxi driver for us for the day, and we just asked the taxi driver to take us to a place where we could buy a SIM. We ended up with the Idea network, and other than 1 or 2 times when we were really, really out in the middle of nowhere, we had service. Having a phone was absolutely indispensible for us, and we couldn’t have managed without one because we used it to call ahead to make reservations, we used it to contact our drivers during the day, and we used it to call agents. If, as we did, you buy a SIM in Delhi make sure to emphasize that you will need the service for all of India, or you may have problems. We added minutes later on in the trip by stopping in small shops several different places, and the first question always had to do with where the SIM originated.

Getting phone service in India is a pain. You need passport photos, have to practically give them you life history, and it is time consuming. But, it is worth it to have the convenience of a phone; we used our a lot. We only made calls within India, but I think it was only something like .04 cents a minute for calls to the US.

We took our netbook with us, and Internet access at many times proved to be problematic, especially since we spent much of our trip in the rural areas. Many of the smaller, more remote lodgings had no access at all, and the one time we did try to use an Internet café in a smaller town, it turned out there was just one computer, and it was being used. So, we never did use an Internet café at any time in our trip. We only had a couple hotels where we could actually get a connection in our room, and many of the heritage hotels that did have Internet had really weak signals, so we would have to sit in the lobby to be able to connect. And, several places that said they had Internet had service that wasn’t working.

After realizing that we wanted/needed more readily available Internet access, we decided to buy a dongle so we could use that to connect to the Internet through our phone. The owner of the place we were staying out in the countryside made a couple phone calls for us and sent us off with our driver to the nearest town (about an hour away). We bought the dongle and used it throughout the rest of our trip to connect to the Internet through our phone, but we never were able to figure out how to find the right type of plan that would give us access as cheaply as we knew could be done. So, every time we connected, my husband kept insisting that we use it only briefly so we wouldn’t burn up all of our phone minutes. Plus, it was a hassle because we had to keep taking the SIM card out of our phone to put in the dongle and then vice versa. If we had it to do over again, we’d have purchased a second SIM card and would have had two completely different phone plans so one could be dedicated for use with the netbook. But, this would also have meant the hassle of a second set of photos and all of the paperwork needed to set up a phone account.

I knew I rely heavily upon the Internet, and can’t conceive of how I used to plan trips in the days when there were just guidebooks, but since we were planning the second half of our trip more-or-less by winging it, I knew we needed to be able to have access pretty available. If you have everything booked ahead for your trip, your need for Internet access may not be as strong as ours was.

Oops. Because I asked this question here while researching our trip, there is one more thing I wanted to comment on before going back to my narrative.

WINGING IT VS. HAVING A SET ITINERARY

This was a question I had before I left because we like to have some flexibility in our schedule and didn’t want everything locked in. Our compromise was to have the first half of the trip (the Rajasthan portion) planned prior to departure. That meant we had our train reservations, our driver lined up, and our hotels booked. One of our questions was how hot it would get by mid-March, so we wanted to have the option of completely changing our plans if we decided we needed to escape the heat, and that is why we left the second half of our trip open.

Before leaving home, I had done a lot of the research for the second half of the trip so, I had a loose, tentative itinerary and some ideas about where we wanted to go, where we wanted to stay, and what we wanted to do. But, it was still more difficult (especially without good, constant, reliable internet access) and more time-consuming than I’d thought it would be to make arrangements on the fly. And, it truly was transportation realities/difficulties that dictated the itinerary for the second part of the trip. Our recommendation would be to have the major transportation (planes and trains) between different major locales all booked before starting the trip because this was the most difficult part of trying to set things up a week or two in advance. Then, leave your winging it to places within that general locale because you can easily get a driver (or bus if you are willing to go that way; we aren’t) to move within a general area.

Having done the winging it bit for the second half of our trip, I have mixed feelings about taking this tack in India unless you are someone with a backpacker’s time, flexibility and mentality. Yes, when we realized how hot it was going to be we were able to X out the tentative plan we had to stay at a lodge in Panna National Park for a few days. And, yes, we were able to get the lodging we wanted with no difficulty. But, we also ended up spending a lot of time just trying to get logistics and other things figured out. This was difficult for us even though we had some pretty set ideas and had done a lot of our research before we left home, so I can’t imagine how hard it would be for someone just doing it cold.

Thanks, Julies for your useful observations about logistics.

Kathie--

I took the time to make some detailed comments on logistics because these types of things impact all people no matter where they choose to go on their rip or how they choose to travel.

Now back to the narrative of our trip..........

Our lodging disaster that I chose (we had another one chosen by the bad agent we used in Haridwar) was Darbargahd Poshina just over the border from Rajasthan into Gujarat. I had had great hopes for the place because it is in the center of the tribal—adavasi—areas, and we were very interested into getting some insights into how those tribal people live. The promise had been for an exciting Holi celebration at Poshina itself and also jeep safaris to the surrounding villages. Upon our arrival it was obvious we weren't expected at all because we were shown into a dark reception room and then abandoned for about ten minutes. Finally, we were shown to a dark and musty room in what seemed like it might have formerly been the lower level stables (we’d just requested a standard room). And, it wasn’t as though this was the last room available because the place was jam-packed with other guests; the place seemed quite devoid of guests. After the welcome receptions we had been given at other places, this place was not at all friendly. Other than being asked if we wanted a cup of tea, we were left on our own with no one asking if we wanted lunch (we arrived in early afternoon and our arrangements were for a package complete with room and board) or telling us what the possibilities were for activities during our stay. The grounds didn’t seem all that enticing, and right outside of the estate’s gate was a small town jam-packed with people and food stalls.

After about a half an hour, during which time both of our guts told us that this was going to be disastrous (especially since we'd been told by our agency we couldn’t use the car the next day since it might be damaged by all of the paint thrown around for Holi), we'd had enough and decided to call our agent to tell him we wanted to leave. He did some phoning for us and told us that we could move up our arrival at our next location and get into Udai Bilas two nights early if we wanted, but we'd have to take a suite rather than the regular room we had reserved for two days later. The suite was certainly more than we'd planned to pay, but at that point we were ready to pay anything to escape and not have to be stuck in this place for two days. Perhaps we just had bad timing and bad communications with this place (but we did have several e-mails confirming our dates) and others would have a different experience at a different time. The owner, who dids seem friendly, did come out to very briefly greet us after our wait in the reception room. And, by the time we’d made the decision to leave and were actually on the way out of the door (and he had somehow been told or figured it out that we were unhappy), he did come out again and apologize for being busy when we first got there. But, that was our experience. I should have listened to Dogster who told me not to go here.

So, at 3:00 we set out for the three hour drive to Dungapur.

Dungapur Udai Bilas

Originally Udai Bilas was planned to be our splurge place because I'd been told by Nikhil (our agent at TGS) it was so beautiful we needed to stay there and experience the setting where a 15 gun maharajah (the higher ranking the maharajah the more salutes fired) lives in rather than just the homes of the more minor royalty where we’d been staying during the rest of our trip. Our suite turned out to be a not particularly large bedroom with a bathroom nearly as big as the room. What was great though was that we had a small balcony we could sit on overlooking the small lake the palace is set on, Meals (pricey and not worth the price in our opinion) were extra and were buffet style which is never our choice. Breakfast was large enough that we just ordered a veggie pakora snack in the late afternoon and had that rather than a real lunch.

Plus, since it was Holi we were virtually prisoners in the place. We were told several times by all of the staff that we should not leave the grounds for the entire day of Holi because for many people Holi is just a drunken bash. Apparently many of the men leave small towns like this and go off into the large cities to find employment. They return for a major celebration like Holi with a pocketful of cash and spend a lot of it on booze. (I’m guessing this would also have been the case it Poshina, so I suspect it might have been somewhat the same situation there.) There was supposed to be boating and birdwatching for activities at Udai Bilas; what this means is a man will row you around on the rather small lake with the town set at one end and the palace set on another part of the shore. Late in the afternoon on the day of Holi we were told we could go out in the boat if we wanted, but we turned the offer down because to us, coming from a state full of gorgeous lakes, this was not much bigger than a pond ringed with development in many parts of the shore. There were some guest cycles available, but we weren’t able to use them because of Holi. Perhaps in different circumstances we might have taken them out for 45 minutes or so.

Udai Bilas was also rather odd in that the manager seemed to be going around encouraging togetherness in the evening, or else he was trying to move liquor from the bar. The second night we were told cocktails would be in the garage, and this seemed rather strange to us since they'd been on the lakefront terrace the previous evening. But, then again, it was cooler and windier than the night before, so a half an hour or so after cocktail hour was supposed to start we set off looking for the garage. What a garage it was! The current maharajah is a classic car collector whose collection must include about thirty cars all of which are like new, sparkling clean and on display in this edifice that is hardly a garage but more like a huge family room with cars on display all along the walls. Not only is it decorated around a car theme, but the lounge seating area decorated with sofas and chairs upholstered in a car print is on a hydraulic lift so the entire lounge section, maybe 15 by 30 feet, can be elevated. The fortyish maharajah joined us for drinks for perhaps 20 minutes, showing off his toys. I know some of the guests were impressed by all of this, but I was disgusted by this obscene display of wealth in a country where so many people are so very poor. Apparently ostentatiousness is still a cardinal value for some people in the maharajah's social class. All I could think of was how the money spent on this hobby could have built houses with running water and toilets, fed hungry people, educated children and provided for many people's unmet basic needs.

All in all, this stay at Udai Bilas proved to us that we really do not care to stay in these types of properties where the major feature or attraction is a display of how India’s truly rich, historically noble families live. One such place was enough. Probably the highlight of the visit to Udai Bilas was when we were leaving and stopped on our way out to visit Juna Mahal, a decrepit former castle that this maharajah's family had built many centuries ago—maybe 13th or 14th century. It was both haunting and contained gorgeous wall paintings from centuries ago. Much more appealing to me than the conspicuous display of wealth at Udai Bilas.