9 Days 8 Nights Cochin, Munnar, Thekkady and Houseboat Tour Package

My apologies for taking so long to comment on our tour. It's hard to believe that it has been more than five months since we left India. I think I told you about my bad fall in January and the need for surgery and recovery time. Then we had non-stop visitors for 9 weeks. The last one, our son, left 10 days ago. As soon as he left, my husband and I both came down with a very bad stomach flu. We are finally recovered from that. We very much enjoyed the tour you put together for us in India. The sights in Delhi were as I remembered them (impressive, of course). And some were new to me. All were new to my husband. The Tomb of Humayun was especially worthwhile and quite beautiful in the late light of day. I visited Taj Mahal in 1997 and was saddened to see the new security measures. I understand it, but it certainly detracted from my visit this second time. My husband said he was glad to have seen it, but he also was disappointed by the bone-crushing crowds. Fatehpur Sikri was another delightful surprise. So extensive and so nicely planned. The pools were exquisite. I think the highlight of our trip was the Ranthambore National Park. On our first game drive we had 30 excellent minutes of watching a tiger who seemed totally unperturbed by our presence. The next day, John was sick and had to go see a doctor, but I went on the third game drive and saw a leopard. Quite extraordinary. Our accommodation at the park was quite nice with a lovely green area, good dining and a fun little shop where I was able to get two items custom made in a very short period of time. I also bought some lovely fabrics there. Jaipur was full of surprises and a delightful mix of things to see and do. We quite enjoyed the City Palace and were enthralled with the astronomical observatory. Our last night at Indra Vilas in Alsisar was a special treat. What a beautiful room. Unfortunately, there was a very loud party of some kind going on right outside our room during the evening. The haveli we visited the next morning was exquisite. I hope more of these magnificent places will find a market for restoration. Mostly, the hotels on our itinerary were good . And your driver was so GOOD! We wanted to see him get much more of the financial benefits of our shopping stops. The guides in each city were all very good. India is a fascinating, colorful, culturally rich place to visit. I had to convince my husband,who had never been interested in visiting there, to add it to our trip last fall. He is very glad he did. Thank you for a very good tour and, most especially, for all your help and persistence in getting our rugs to us here in Mexico when there were problems with the shipments. They are a beautiful reminder of a special trip. Best regards, Andrea Funkhouser Mexico

Jan 17-18, Delhi ? Hotel TJS Grand The hotel was fine and the guide was very good (unfortunately we had not understood the tipping system by this time, so he missed out on a good tip that he should have had, our apologies ? at least we paid for his lunch) Jan 19, Mandawa ? Singhasan Haveli We really enjoyed the fact that the hotel was an old traditional building so we could get the atmosphere of old times in Mandawa. The guide was ok, but his English was not the best? Jan 20, Bikaner ? Harsar Haveli The fort was interesting and the guide was good. The hotel was very good, but we found the rest of the town very dusty and noisy. Glad we did not spend more time there. Jan 21, Jaisalmer ? Mud Mirror Guest House We loved Jaisalmer and it was fantastic to stay inside the fort and sit on a rooftop in the evening and look out over the fort/town. The mattresses were not very comfortable, but the staff were very friendly. The guide was excellent, very interesting and knowledgeable person!!! Jan 22, Sam ? Prince Desert Camp We had a great time here and the Prince Desert Camp was a great choice. It is located away from all the other camps so you really get a feeling that you are out there in the desert. The food was good, accommodation great and with camel ride and a nice sunset followed by entertainment, we loved it. Jan 23-24, Jodhpur ? Riddhi Siddhi Guest House The guest house was fine, but very quiet (we were the only guests) and a bit remote. We saw the fort and the memorial and the guide was fine. The highlight was definitely the trip to the Bishnoi Village and we are very happy that you changed the program around so we could spend more time on the village tour as we did not get back until later in the afternoon. The trip was very interesting and very personal! Jan 25, Ranakpur / Udaipur ? Jheel Guest House The Jain Temple in Ranakpur was very interesting and we used the audio guides to listen to the history of the temple. We also had a very nice lunch at the temple in the canteen. Udaipur was a great place and we loved the Jheel Guest house, fantastic location on the lake. The rooftop restaurant was great and the food there was fantastic! Very personal service from the chef! The guide was OK but not very engaging? but we enjoyed the boat ride very much. Jan 27-28, Jaipur ? Singhasan Haveli The staff at the hotel did not speak English and even though we had been promised (with the help of Ashok) to get breakfast in the morning before leaving on our sightseeing tour, this did not happen. We were not very happy as we had to walk far around the streets to try to get something to eat in the morning before the guide arrived. The guide did not even want to leave his motorbike outside the hotel and come in the car with us as he felt that his bike would not be safe if he left it there? the location was quite remote. We did get breakfast the second morning though ? a very nice one! We have a feeling that they normally do not provide breakfast for their guests but since we had it as part of the package, they arranged it the second morning. The guide was ok, but not so engaging either ? he seemed to want to spend more time with the other guides than with us. We were fascinated by Jantar Mantar ? the observatory! Jan 29-30, Sawai Madhopur ? Ankur Resort Very nice resort, 2 gypsy jeep safaris, but did not see any tigers. Still worth it!! We saw some sloth bears... Jan 31-Feb 1, Agra ? Sai Guest House Needless to say, Taj Mahal is amazing!!! The guide was good and we enjoyed our time there. The Sai Guest House was ok, but when we had to leave at 7:30 the second morning to catch the train to Jhansi, we could not get breakfast as they will not serve that before 8:00. When we were leaving, we actually had to walk, and carry our luggage, over staff that were sleeping on the floor of the small reception. If it was in the middle of the night, we could understand this, but not at 7:30 in the morning!!!! We had a nice breakfast with Ashok at the train station instead. Feb 2-3, Orchha, Khajuraho ? Hotel Siddharth We were sad to leave our friend Ashok behind in Agra!! Orchha was ok, but nothing compared to Khajuraho. This was actually a surprise, we had not expected a lot, but found Khajuraho to be quite amazing. The hotel was good and the town itself quite nice ? if you disregard the constant annoyance of the salesmen. The temples were beautiful and the guide was good. Feb 4-7, Varanasi ? Hotel Alka We did the day train to Varanasi and are quite happy as we would have found it difficult to sleep on the berths there. Varanasi is a very interesting place and we were lucky to have such a knowledgeable and interesting guide. The hotel was good and we loved the location by the river. General We quite enjoyed the experience in Ranakpur to be guided by the audio guides as we could take our own time to see everything, find out more if we wanted and skip what we didn't want to hear. Afterwards we said that it would have been nice to use the audio guides instead of real guides in some of the places that they were available. Having Ashok take us around and the audio guides would have been quite sufficient in many places, and easier to understand as many of the guides, even though they speak good English, have accents that are quite difficult to understand. Something that would have been good to know before going ? understanding the tipping system! You responded to our email regarding the tip to Ashok, thank you, this gave us an idea and in the end we think he was very happy with us, as we were with him. But his tip together with tips to guides, porters, restaurants, toilets etc. almost every day we, found made a bigger dent in the spending budget than we had expected and it would have been good to know more about this before leaving home. Again ? thank you for organising such a great trip for us, we had a fantastic time!

Thanks a million for all of you and our driver Ashok done for us. You are THE BEST and we will definitely recommend your company to ANYONE in my country who wish to travel to India. We enjoyed every moment with Ashok, he is the kindest man on this earth. I also sent him an email this morning we MISS India lots. Please let me know where on the internet/web I can give a review on your company for all over the world to read? Tons of regards to you & Ashok too. I hope one day we can return the favor.