India Holiday 2020
23rd January to 12th February 2020
India’s Golden Triangle, Tigers & Shimla plus Amritsar and Varanasi
Our trip to India was arranged by Great Rail Journeys, so all we had to do was, book, pay up, obtain the visa's and turn up at Heathrow!
This section of the website is about our trip to India. The views expressed in the text are our own. Any information we received from the tour operator, Great Rail Journeys, are shown in italics.
We hope you will enjoy looking at our India trip and may provide you with some thoughts of going there yourselves.
India as a place to visit was not originally on our bucket list. However thanks to TV programmes, such as Michael Portillos Railway journeys, Dads wartime reminiscing, having had a great visit to Sri Lanka, little India, and some limited historical knowledge on India, British influences, independence and partitioning we decided it would be a fascinating and exciting place to visit.
We weren’t wrong with that assumption! and we are very pleased to have gone, we have had a fabulous time and many, many new and interesting experiences, meeting lots of lovely people.
Thank you, for looking at the site. If you have enjoyed looking at the site, please let us know using the contact form and I will respond to you.....
Happy Adventures
Phil & Kath.
India part 1 - Shimla, Delhi, TajMahal & Katehpur Sikri
India part 2 - Tigers, Jaipur, Delhi, Amritsar,
Varanasi - the Ganges
India, our Holiday, the country ...our thoughts
We have had a fabulous time, what a country, magnificent sights, great people with such a different culture and way of living.....
India as a place to visit was not originally on our bucket list. However thanks to TV programmes, such as Michael Portillo’s Railway journeys, Phil’s Dads wartime reminiscing, having had a great visit to Sri Lanka, little India, and some limited historical knowledge on India, British influences, independence and partitioning we decided it would be a fascinating and exciting place to visit. We weren’t wrong with that assumption!
Places we visited - we saw some memorable sights and had fabulous experiences. The Toy Train, 5 hours on a wooden bench, with only small padding! What a trip, long, but memorable especially when you add into the equation the engineering brilliance of the Brits to build the train track.
Delhi was chaotic, but surprisingly kept moving most of the time. Life in the centre very tough and poverty obvious.
Highlights Taj Mahal, Golden Temple and Tigers.
The people in India were generally very friendly and helpful, although pushy and could not queue. In the villages and streets the number of people was incredible. We did not feel threatened or harassed. The noise of constant vehicle movements and beeping of horns was incessant. The people were generally quiet and watchful...
Clearly Westerners were seen as a way of making money, with the constant street traders pushing their gifts, the expectation of a tip for services undertaken and the begging from adults and children.
Their lives are so different from ours and it would be wrong to compare using our Western standards.
Smog was a problem in all the big cities, Delhi being the worst. The air quality was poor and you could feel this sometimes.
The hotels we stayed at were lovely...... with mainly polite and helpful staff..... and a few women with good jobs at some of them. When out and about in the towns/villages, it was all men looking after the shops, barrows, Street stalls, sitting around chatting and drinking tea. Women seemed to be kept at home. The few places we visited where the arts and crafts were demonstrated, it was all men...... the women do the same work - but at home! It was also noticeable that the men were talked to more than the ladies in our party...... in most places.
Indian cuisine was very much unknown to us and still is! We had buffets most evenings, so like many took a little from most pots, a combination of flavours that we are sure did not show the food off to it best. The overriding taste was that of spices, curry basically. The desserts were something special and a wide choice. It was a shame we were not given more guidance on the foods and what compliments what!
Although we were expecting the poverty we saw in some places... it was still a shock. And as for the amount of litter... mainly plastic .... just lying around the sides of the streets and railway lines..... it was really an eye opener. And there were people and animals just wandering around in amongst it all. Also, the animals were everywhere....Cows, goats, pigs, dogs, just wandering along the streets and the outside of the houses and shops.... being totally ignored. The poverty was quite obvious in lots of places.
The other thing that was really strange.... at all Security lines..... and we went through a lot - airports as well as a lot of the attractions- there were separate queues for men and women, and in the women’s queue you went into a curtained cubicle to be frisked/searched, and definitely done by other women. At the hotels, there was also security, bags through scanners, and through a security gate, but it was only the men who were frisked! Also, the security guards on the gates of all the hotels, checked in the boot of the coach/cars each time you went in. The hotels were definitely a tranquil oasis..... a complete contrast to what was going on outside the gates.... and in Delhi, when we did go out and have a little walk around, we were looked at a little strangely when we walked back in!
We thought there might be some resentment /ill feeling towards the British..... but we didn’t pick up on that at all. In fact there were some comments about how they wouldn’t have the train infrastructure, religious freedom and some other things if it wasn’t for the British.
Enough of our ramblings..... In conclusion - India, was a experience, fabulous sites, mega different cultures and way of life, heavily influenced by religious beliefs, so crowded with people and vehicles.....We are so glad we went, a fabulous experience to look back on, enjoy and...perhaps more than anywhere else reflect upon.
