And suddenly, here I am going to TN; July Itinerary for TN, Varanasi, Delhi, Leh

missalg

I received a lot of help on my original itinerary thread, but this is so different now that I think I should start a new one? (I did look up the rules, but this wasn't actually covered so much.)

Anyway: what it looks like right now, is:

Leave 03 July straight flight from EWR to Delhi, with a local flight (on 05 Saturday, I assume) to Trivandrum; I'll be staying at Hotel Canaan in Nagercoil. Questions for this part: would it be better to try to fly into Chennai or Mumbai and out of Delhi at the end, or is it about six-to-one, half a dozen to the other? (I've been checking out ixigo.com and it seems that TRV requires a bit of doing.) If I do fly right into Delhi (which is cheapest right now) what's a good spot to stay to get right back to the airport Sat AM after a late Fri arrival?

I'd be in Tamil Nadu until 10 July (Thursday) and flying back to Delhi; this part of the trip would be visiting and would be planned for me. In Delhi, I'm going to try for MP Guesthouse or Delhi B&B, with a tour included (is one better than another for this?) of the city highlights. I'd be there two nights and fly to Varanasi, staying there for three nights at GangesView or similar at the ghats. Then I'd like to take the overnight train to Agra, arriving on Wednesday 16th July. The full moon tour is still available two days ahead (and after)? I realize, hey, it's monsoon season, there may not be a moon to be seen, but at least I'll try. I'm going to try for Hotel Sheela unless strongly discouraged from it as Amarvilas is not in budget at the moment. I'd be staying one night in Agra, going to Fatepuhr Sikri and then train back to Delhi on Thursday 17th July.

One more night in Delhi and then flying on to Leh,Ladakh staying...well, I'm not sure. I know I'll need recovery time, and I want to try to connect with Thinlas C. for the village-to-village walk for a few days. The Indus River journey sounds good, too. Any info on this bit to flesh this out would be really appreciated. I'd need to leave Delhi on 24th or 25th July.

My local contacts in TN have offered to get my internal air and train tickets; I'm assuming this might be better than trying to get an airpass from here? (Provided one would work for this route.)

(Pardon me for writing a novel here; I'm working it out in my mind and it's looking a bit much, actually, for the time I've got and the weather. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions...?) Many thanks.