celeste60

I greatly appreciate it. I will be in Delhi for one day in Feb and definately plan to visit the stores. Last year when I was in delhi, I found some very beautiful cushion covers at a store in the santushi complex.

daisya2

Loved your trip report! My husband and I are going to India in Feb and are currently planning to visit Delhi and Udaipur in 8 days...Mainly because the Imperial and Udaivilas seemed like the nicest hotels in India.

Our perfect trip usually involves shopping and dining.

Should we just stick to Delhi? and skip Udaipur at this point?

Maybe try Agra or Jaipur, instead? for one night, or two?

Also...two questions...what is the new melatonin drug, and what type of computer cord do we need to take to get online successfully?

BostonHarbor

Hello daisya2,

The prescription melatonin drug is trade named “Rozerem” (ramelteon). I did not have jet lag either way--unlike my China trip where my jet lag was horrible for 10 days post my return. It is a very new medication, so your physician may not know about it yet. It is non addictive and it certainly worked for me.

If dining and shopping are what you enjoy, I would probably skip Udaipur. The Udaivilas is great if you just want to lounge in a lovely hotel, but Udaipur is just a pretty lake town. We really couldn't find any good restaurants. They were marginal at best. The shopping is even less.

Delhi has great shopping and terrific restaurants. I would have liked to try a few more of the restaurants. The Imperial hotel in Delhi is wonderful and the "Spice Route" restaurant off the lobby is fabulous. The restaurant "Olive" is also excellent. There are good restaurants and good shopping everywhere. Please note, you may not like Delhi when you first arrive. I hated it. I needs to grow on you and you need to have a really good guide.

You could really do Agra as a day trip. There is really nothing there other than the Taj and you can take a train in the morning and back in the evening. It is a very ugly, noisy, city. The Amarvilas is really nice if you want to stay, but it might be easier to leave your stuff at the Imperial and do a day trip. If you want to drive it is a four hour trip with a nice, clean place to stop midway to get out and use the restroom. The train is two hours each way. Leaves at 6AM, returns early evening. We wish we would have done a day trip rather than staying in Agra, but that is our opinion. Others enjoy staying to see the Taj at both sunrise and sunset. There was too much fog, so we couldn't see it in the morning anyway.

I would choose Jaipur and the Raj Vilas far over the Udaivilas. Jaipur is far more interesting than Udaipur and has some really nice restaurants and great shopping, especially jewelry. Drop by "Tholias" Jewelers (next to the Gem Palace)Great stuff.

I'll have a list of all my favorite shops shortly once I get the list together. You can get regular pashmina shawls, mirror bags etc almost anywhere, but you need to be careful about the quality of the "pashmina" However, there are great high end places to find fabulous stuff that are expensive for India but a steal for westerners. I paid over $200 for a stunning pashmina embroidered shawl that I had sent to my home with some other purchases. After I had sent it, I kept wondering if I had been "taken" and overpaid. However, when I received it, I couldn't believe the quality of the fabric and the perfect embroidery. It is simply gorgeous and worth every penny that I paid for it. I also spent less than $15 for other "pashminas" The quality is all over the map. You just need to be aware that they also sell synthetic junk as pashmina. Ask them to light a match and burn a bit of the fringe. Pashima will not burn.

waynehazle

I love the expereince below. It is sooo India.

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I happened to ask the guide about life preservers. She pointed to the tires on the side of the boat (that are nailed to the side of the boat as bumpers). Oh well....too late.
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partypoet

My husband and I just returned last Saturday from a 30 day trip to India and Bhutan. Your witty post was a wonderful way to help us visualize and relive so many of our experiences! From your comments about Air India to the pens (which we didn't bring), everything was so relevant. What a delightful trip. We, too, were not enamored of Delhi at the onset but quickly fell under the magical spell of this fascinating country.

lordofthejungle

Thanks for sharing this lovely report. Being Indian (settled in UK) I love reading what non- Indians think of India and it a pleasure to read everyone's experience. Living in India one never is aware of the differences that outsiders see. For eg. my parents live in Mumbai, in one of those 1million dollar flats mentioned, its not tiny, but for that money here in my town in UK I would get a massive house....but in the same compound (i.e in which the building is) live two families in temp housing who serve as the cleaner and liftman for the building. I grew up playing cricket with kids in the building forecourt and it never occured to any of us that how different my life to my friends life was, until I came to UK and saw India from the outside.

raptor

Its very interesting to see the experiences of folks visiting india. I am from Bangalore in the South currently living in the US. I wish more people would visit south india. Lots of culture and heritage. Anyways that was my two cents

BostonHarbor

Hi raptor and lordofthejungle,

We met great people in India and are looking forward to our next trip. The next trip will be very different from our totally (required)touristy first trip. One of my good friends is a professor at Harvard and is from Chennai. She describes the north and south of India as almost different countries. And, south Indian food is the best!

In hindsight on this trip I would have skipped Udaipur and Arangubad and would have preferred to visit Kerala and Goa instead. However, that itinerary could have been pushing it, and it probably makes more sense just to focus on the south next time.

Now we need your trip reports on how you view your visits to the US ;-)

vb307

Thanks for a great trip report, and for sharing your pictures. They are really beautiful. What kind of camera did you use? We are going to India in 2 weeks, and would like to get a new digital camera with a decent zoom.

lordofthejungle

I have never been to the USA, but would love to visit. My sister is settled in Maryland so am sure it will be sooner rather than later. Trip report of my experience in UK, now thats a good idea. It will be quiet long as I am now a British Citizen and in UK for more than ten years.

Oh the reason I came here was to give a sad news. People eager to visit M1 and M2 in Delhi pls dont be heart broken: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4670254.stm

susanlk

we are planning a spur-of-the-moment trip to India and I found your wonderful report. It really helped give us a flavor of the country. We'll be taking the same Continental flight as you, so are not dreading the trip quite as much, even tho' we have to start the journey in Seattle.

Thanks so much

We have traveled a lot, but have no experience with India. in our late 50's - just so you know we are not teenagers with backpacks!!

We arrive in Delhi March 8 and leave March 27 (late pm) back to Paris. Are there places to avoid because of the heat? We would appreciate all and any suggestions of where is a must and where we can avoid. Like you, we get "templed" out after a while, but I doubt I could get my husband to spend as much time shopping as you did!!

BostonHarbor

VB307,

regarding my camera, it is a Canon Powershot S70 which is a 7 megapixel camera with a combined camera and digital zoom. They now have an S80 with 8 megapixels. I have owned two powershots and love them for how small they are and how many features they have. They also take wonderful movies with sound (large screen)

lordofthejungle-I cannot believe they tore down those spectacular shops at MG1 and MG2. The buildings were gorgeous and the shops incredible. I know they were tearing down "illegal" buildings all over Delhi when I was there, but I thought they would all be horribly decrepit buildings, not modern gorgeous ones. Wow.

BostonGal

BostonHarbor, what a great report! I enjoyed every bit of it and you have only added to my desire to go to India.

In fact, I must copy and paste this to save for when I plan. I'd love to hit all the areas you did before heading off to Mysore.

Thanks for all the details and wit, I am now off to check out your pictures.

ekscrunchy

I've just spent the most enjoyable hour reading your terrific report. It is amazing how many of your feelings I shared when I traveled in India many years ago. Your report has gotten me thinking about going back. Can you let us know how you came to the decision to use Yatrick? Any idea at all of the cost, just the total paid to the agency? thanks so much! Oh, that shopping...even better than I remembered...!

Gpanda

BH-fantastic report. Exactly the right amount of detail. It was evocative without becoming tedious. It definitely moved India up on our list. The stickers and pens were a great idea. What inspired you? Unfortunately, the deliquency penalty does not apply because you started less than a week from your return. However, if you follow any of Bob's Thailand advice, you will wish you had paid the penalty. My wife and I are going to supervise a portion of his next trip to Bkk to minimize his effect on diplomacy.

BostonHarbor

Gpanda, good to hear from you. We sat next to each other at the Boston GTG if you remember--I was charmed ;-).

BostonGal, ekscruchy and GPanda, I'm so pleased you enjoyed the report. India is an incredible place. I loved it. AsI have described it in another thread on the Asia forum, traveling in India is "the trip that keeps on giving". You really can't get India out of your pores. It stays with you and you can't stop thinking about it when you return.

Oh, yes....A great tip for photo nuts!!(as you may tell by my photos I am a charter member of this club . I found a service called My Publisher www.mypublisher.com I organized my India pictures using the free software they provide--easy as can be. I then sent the completed photo file to them, and four days later recieved the most spectacular coffee table book of my photos you have ever seen. You simply cannot belive the quality of this product. It is stunning--like something you would by at Rizzoli. (note: I have nothing at all to do with this company, I am just astounded by the quality of the product and I am tough)

For those of you planning a trip to India, I'd be happy to give you any additional tips. I used a company called Yatrik.com They are based in Delhi and were great. Our driver Kewel was fabulous!!

Gpanda

Of course I remember. I think we discussed Sarah MacDonald's book "Holy Cow". It just appears that I'm not paying attention. We're probably going to schedule another GTG in September or October. This is in addition to Bob and I scheduling our fall trips so that we're both in BKK 11/29-12/2.

ekscrunchy

Boston, again, thanks so much for that wonderful report. It got me really up for a return visit to India. If you get a chance, please let us know what was the deciding factor in your choice of Yatrick. They certainly have an interesting web site! Did you have a recommendation from someone who had used them? Based on your experience, they certainly seem like the company to consider when planning.

BostonHarbor

Hi ekscruchy,

I found Yatrik.com via an American company (absolute asia) who uses them to do most of their high end tours. The president of Yatrik.com is Ajay Sharma is terrific and even spent our last day with us personally taking us shopping to all the "in" places of the Delhi chic crowd.

In each town we had the best guides and were able to make changes on-the-fly by calling Ajay on a pre-paid phone he provides each client upon arrival. For instance, we decided to not go to a particular site outside Udaipur as we were tired and didn't want a five hour round trip. We had lunch included at that site, but figure that was simply our loss. Our local guide called Ajay in Delhi and he called the Devi Garh hotel (that we wanted to see) and arranged the lunch there instead. Again, when we wanted to stay an additional day in Bombay and one less night in Arangubad, Ajay (on a sunday) arranged the change in both airplanes and hotel without an additional charge. I couldn't recommend them more highly. The made traveling in a tough country a piece of cake.

waynehazle

I just heard about some explosions in Varanasi, one at a Hindu temple.

It saddened me, but it also made me want to come back to this report and reread it again in all its wonderful glory. There is nothing like India