Touring Rajasthan

[HW Chris]

Submitted by an Holiday Watchdog user.

Board Basis: Bed & Breakfast

Date of Holiday: Jan 2004

Tour Operator: Voyages Jules Verne (Kuoni)

Submitted By: Ms D Finlayson

Overall Rating: 8/10

Comments: We jetted off to Delhi for our �Rajasthan Rail Adventure� and it did what it said on the tin! We considered ourselves fairly experienced in 3rd world travel, but India really is one step beyond. The beggars & hustlers were expected but the mountains of rubbish and the Indian males' habit of treating everywhere as a toilet took a bit of getting used to.

Delhi was surprisingly cold and foggy & probably contributed to the flu & bronchitis I developed 3 days into the holiday & persisted for a month. It's an interesting city in that it's far more segmented than, say, Cairo where old & new arc jumbled together. New Delhi is all wide roads, nice houses, diplomatic section etc while Old Delhi. is a packed mishmash of shops, mosques, stalls, monkeys and PEOPLE. The outskirts are actually very interesting with the ruins of 5 old cities appearing here & there but we didn''''t get to see a lot of them.

As it was a "rail adventure", it's worth mentioning the Indian trains. The Shatabdi Express Chair A/C is the "luxury" train where you get a recliner seat & 3 course meal (curry pastie, curry soup, curry) and has Western loos as well as Indian ones (hole in floor, with the tracks flashing past). The night on the Sleeper was certainly an experience! Bunks banked 3 high, no curtains etc so we were the subject of much interest from the soldiers in the rest of the carriage. As I had bronchitis & couldn''''t lie down and my husband at 6 foot 2, was too tall for the bunks, we sat propped up all night! Only Indian loos on this train��.nice.

We had a few moments of worry in Agra. Like Delhi, Agra was cold & foggy when we arrived. The usual viewpoint from Agra fort showed only grey murky clouds, no beautiful mausoleum! Fortunately we spent quite a long tine in the fort so by the time we walked through the huge red gate, the sun was coming out & the Taj Mahal was revealed, floating on a little mist above the pools. Probably the most beautiful manmade structure I've ever seen! Really stunning - like a white lace building � even better than the pictures!

Having spent that night in a rather damp, converted old palace, we reluctantly got up early to go to a bird Bharatpur Birds Sanctuary. Not exactly the sort of thing we're keen on, birds (roast chicken is OK) and being told we had to get into a little rickshaw for an old boy to pedal us through the forest got us a bit stressed (on his behalf). But no, when we arrived, we were able to hire some little boats and be poled round the lakes. Early morning sunlight, silence apart from the birds � spoonbills, herons, all sorts of Indian birds, beautiful tranquil scenery � and we even saw a jackal coming down to drink! Turned into a real highlight � if you ever go to India, make sure you visit!

We visited some of the Great Cities of Rajasthan � Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer, right out on the Pakistan Border. My husband bravely rode an elephant up to the fort at Jaipur and said it was a fabulous experience � but I was feeling ill & stayed in the coach! We caused a lot of interest amongst the Indians, particularly as we went further from Delhi � we couldn't deicide what fascinated people the most � my red hair & purple toenails or his flash Nikon!

We saw loads of palaces, temples, statues, markets � all pretty mind-boggling but another highlight had to be our stay at the Deorgarh Mahal. This is an old palace on a hilltop, that's been renovated by the Maharajah and Maharani into a hotel. Because the streets are very narrow & winding, the little coach could not get there, so the Maharani sent transport � an old WW2 troop carrier! We had to climb a ladder to get in, there we traveled in splendour through the tiny streets, through cheering crowds � I felt like the Queen Mother! As we arrived at the palace, huge gongs were sounded and rose petals showered down from the rooftops! Our room was amazing � it was the shrine room, complete with priest (who tried to avoid popping in when you were there) and a great domed ceiling, like standing inside an onion! The terrace let out on to the roof, with fabulous views all around. Never to be forgotten! My only problem was that there, like many of the places we stayed, the food served was all local, which is fine if you like really hot curries�.so I lost loads of weight!

Pushkar is a place that deserves a mention � for the wrong reasons! This is a �holy� city, set by a sacred lake and should have been lovely � the whole place is vegetarian and teetotal and meant to be where pilgrims come to pray BUT is full of aggressive, pushy young men, trying to intimidate you into giving them money to �pray for your ancestors�. A few of our party were so stressed out, they only went out of the hotel once and we had a splendid shouting match in the middle of the street with a particularly aggressive chap! Not recommended at all � though the lake is lovely � strictly, you're not allowed to photograph it but you can take sneaky pictures from the hotel!

On a far more positive note, a small subset of the original group had booked 4 days in Shimla, a hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas. A 5 hour train journey on a �normal� train was followed by 5 hours on the �Toy Train�, an old wooden-carriaged job from the days of the Raj (if you've seen Michael Palin's �Himalayas� series recently, he went on it, too!). Shimla. Stunning views as we trundled gently upwards, until we could see the snows on the tops! We stayed at the very grand Cecil Oberoi, and the views from the room were amazing. It was like going back in time 70 years. Shimla is a place where lots of Indian people go on holiday, so it was quite busy � but not many Europeans. One day we walked up to see the Viceregals' Lodge, where the Government would rule �the Empire� for most of the year. I remembered my husband''''s Mum, who was born in Shimla at the time of the Raj, telling us about dancing there when she was young. Quite an emotional moment for us, going there.

The trip back down was pretty exciting too � first a 4WD from the hotel, down the steepest part, then a clapped-out minibus hurtling down the mountainside at breakneck speed � unfortunately, we had read in the paper that morning about such a bus going off the road 2 days before and no survivors � gulp! We did survive, to get on the train at Chandigargh � only to be told we had tickets for the next day�.ah. No guide with us, so we clubbed together to buy extra tickets and one of the party bravely got off at the first stop, sprinted to the back of the ticket-office, dragging the ticket-collector with him, in what became known as the �Amballah Sprint�. With seconds to spare, they got the tickets and dived back on board. A pretty exciting end to an exciting, if sometimes trying trip! If you don't mind being made to feel like you have �Meal Ticket� stamped on your head, have a strong stomach and LOADS of patience, do go to India � once you talk to people, they are interested in you and very charming. The palaces and monuments are fabulous and the whole feel of the country is so very different.