Dear Charlie,
Lex and I got home to a wet and miserable Johannesburg on Monday (28th) night, and I just have to send you this to say a very grateful thank you for helping us with this adventure and hopefully to give you some useful info.
As you know our first stop was Delhi where we met up with our tour group and our wonderful guide Vansh Singh. We had a great mix of people from SA, Australia and the UK and we all got along very well.
The Almondz Hotel in Delhi became our “home base” and we got to go around quite a lot, even on our own by tuktuks and the very efficient metro. The Indian people are very friendly and even though the traffic is chaotic, it works somehow, and no one ever gets upset!! Walking around is also quite safe, and there is always someone willing to help you out.
For the Golden Triangle, we were in very capable hands of Vansh Singh and his specialist team of guides. Their passion and pride of their countries history is always evident and they were always willing and very able to answer any of our questions. The highlights for this part of our trip was the fun rickshaw ride through the narrow alleys of Delhi, being awestruck at the majestic Taj Mahal ( being able to walk in and around it after seeing pictures for so long), the absolutely stunning havellis that we stayed in ( beautiful oasis’ in the middle of chaos), the beautiful architecture of the old forts and palaces and especially our early morning balloon ride over Jaipur.
We then left our group and went on alone to Kashmir and to the houseboats in Srinagar in the foothills of the Himalayas; what wonderful and accommodating people, and especially Nizar the owner of The Martins HB. Nothing was ever a problem – even hunting for a bottle of whisky in a majority Muslim state, with Nizar on our first night. We felt like bootleggers but it was great fun!
The boats were a totally different experience to the Golden Triangle – absolutely quiet at night broken only by the melodic calling to prayer from the local mosques and the calls of the wonderful birdlife. The boat was a bit basic and sometimes eccentric but comfortable, and fantastic to sit and watch the sun go down in the evenings. We again had a wonderful guide in Nizaar and our driver Masoor who both gave us fantastic personal service. The walk through the Mogul gardens and around the old city with Nizaar was amazing, visiting a merchants home to see the weaving of pashminas, and especially watching the manual silver plating of all the goodies for sale. It’s amazing what beautiful items are made by such skilled people, but with such basic methods and tools.
We also went on a day trip into the nearby mountains and went up by cable car. We saw the first snows in the Himalayas. It wasn’t too cold but I had forgotten how cold snow is, when Lex wanted me to hold some for a photo!
We spent 4 nights in Srinagar and then flew back to Delhi for 1 night. We spent the afternoon/evening zig zagging across Delhi in tuk tuks and the metro. We went to a shopping Centre call Select City which had every posh shop/brand name you could think of…and very, very expensive! Quite a contracts to most of Delhi. We also went to the New Delhi Hard Rock Café – another of Lex’s bucket list things to do. I have never seen such large burgers…and very tasty. I hope they didn’t mince up any of the local cows for them as they would have used a whole cow for one burger!!
We then went onto Rishikesh close to the Nepal border. The drive for this trip is on very bad roads and I would suggest that only a 4x4 should be used for this trip.
Rishikesh is a very spiritual place with Hindu temples right on the banks of the Ganges river. This was also another for the bucket list as Lex bathed in the river as per Hindu rites, collected water for religious ceremonies and then went on an 18 km white water rafting trip on the river with our driver Brij Lal! I happily did not do this….it’s not for middle age ladies with very little physical fitness (yes…me!!)
Here we didn’t have a guide and just roamed around by ourselves which was a great experience. The Hotel Great Ganga is very good and the Neer Spar is fantastic and very reasonable. The only issue here was the driveway up to the Reception. It think it would be a nightmare for anyone who may have any trouble walking – it is very steep and quite a long way – does wonders for the calf muscles!!.
We also went to the restaurant where the Beatles used to hang out when they were in their ”Guru” period - its high up above the river and very spectacular. We also went to a couple of very moving sun down Hindu Artie evening prayer ceremonies. There was every type of person you could think of there – it’s so peaceful, and the singing by very young Hindu devotees is absolutely unbelievable.
We left Rishikesh on Sunday morning, drove through to Delhi airport and ended up eventually in SA last night about 5pm. There was a 10 hour wait over in Abu Dhabi, so we booked into the hotel in the departures area and had a relaxing night and woke refreshed for our flight to Johannesburg.
What an absolutely wonderful experience; we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and well worth every single penny spent. It was made even better by meeting and spending time with the people we met during our adventure, both our fellow travelers, all our guides and drivers and especially the local Indian people. A truly Incredible Indian experience!!
Thank you both very much for making this dream come true, and especially to all the On the Go staff in India especially Vansh, Nazir, Nizaar, Masoor, Brij Lal and Massood from OTG India office, who kept in touch all the time with us. Please pass on our heartfelt thanks to them all.
We will definitely be in touch for our next adventure!
”
