On our trip to Southeast
Asia in 1999-2000, we met several fellow travellers who
told us that if we had enjoyed the temples and ruins of
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, we should visit
India. We were told it would be ‘hard travelling’, so we
decided we had better make this trip sooner rather than
later. We had a great time and we didn’t find the
travelling hard at all, outside of the occasional small
glitches. If you ever contemplate touring India, go for
it. There is something for everyone. You can travel very
inexpensively, as we did, or you can choose a more
luxurious mode of travel by travelling first class,
hiring a car and driver and staying in more upscale
hotels.
We travelled relatively lightly, with
backpacks from Mountain Equipment Co-op that have a zip
off day pack, open up with zippers for easy access and
convert to suitcases for airplane travel. We had a good
map of India and using the advice of friends, a Fodor’s
India guidebook with a star system for main attractions
and the Lonely Planet guidebook, we marked up places of
interest with sticky paper dots. These dots got
rearranged as our trip progressed. Some were eliminated
and others were added as we read more in our guide books
and listened to other travellers. For the most part we
travelled by local bus or in second class coach in the
train. Many times we were the only non-Indian travellers
on the bus or train car. We stayed in small budget hotels
and ate in roadside restaurants. We drank only bottled
water and ate a mostly vegetarian diet, usually freshly
prepared for us. Yes, we did suffer from ‘Delhi Belly’ a
few times, but we recovered quickly after a day of rest.
We found the Indian people friendly and helpful and quite
conversant in English, which was a big help. All in all a
great trip. We hope some day to return and visit some of
the places we missed this time and to spend more time in
some of our favourite spots.
After trekking in Nepal, Ray and Jeanne
flew to Varanasi, India on November 6, 2000 to begin
three months of backpacking throughout the country. We
travelled west from Varanasi to Agra (of Taj Mahal fame),
skipping Delhi due to the reported hassles, and toured
throughout Rajasthan, including a three day camel safari.
From Rajasthan, we travelled all over Gujarat and
consider ourselves lucky to have seen so much of this
state just one month prior to the horrific earthquake. We
assume much of what we saw and admired is lost forever
under piles of rubble. From Gujarat, we travelled to the
Ajanta and Ellora caves, visited Mumbai (Bombay), spent
more than a week in Goa, and explored the ruins of Hampi.
We continued south to Mysore and the hill station towns
of Madikeri and Uthagamandalam (Ooty) to do some hiking.
After visiting the city of Madurai, we returned to the
west coast to explore Cochin and the canals of Kerala.
The finale before flying home from Trivandrum on February
11, 2001 was a week on the beach at Varkala.
link to our Camel Safari operator in
Bikaner, Rajastan:
www.vinodesertsafari.com
Jeanne sent emails home from the various
Internet cafes describing their trip. There are eight Episodes
for the trip and a selection of photos for each.
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