Another India newbie about to take the plunge

anarkali

Hello!

I have been looking around for a couple of weeks and can't believe how much useful information this board provides. Awesome service to the India traveller, thanks Mike & team!

Am about to hit the road with my relatively new husband on our first trip to India. We leave Australia on February 5.

I have been a bit of an Indian culture nut for a couple of years now since I read a few pivotal books and got interested in many aspects of the culture (I have even been learning Hindi for the past 2 years!). Many bollywood movies later, this is my first trip. As you can imagine I'm very keen to get going!

The itinerary is for 28 nights:
We fly into Delhi and out of Mumbai. Our only constraint is that we must get to Mumbai in time to fly out.

4 nights (arrive in the evening, so 3 days really) in Delhi
2 nights in Agra,
1-2 nights in Jaipur,
2 nights in Pushkar, (chill out time, dance lessons)
3 nights in Jaisalmer (may include an overnight trip to next destination),
2 nights in Udaipur
1 night in Ahmedabad
1 night in Junagadh
3 nights in Diu (chill out time, eat ice cream)
1 night in Palitana
2 nights Aurangabad/Ajanta/Ellora
4 nights in Mumbai (chillout time, nice hotel, maybe work as a bollywood extra for a day)

I imagine a few of the "nights" in various places will be overnight journeys to the next place. As first timers, do you think this kind of itinerary will do our heads in? Or is it doable?

Am a bit confused about the Jaipur/Jaisalmer/Udaipur sector, have swapped and changed the order a lot, but are the distances very great? Is it advisable that we break the Jaisalmer/Udaipur trip in Jodhpur (as I believe the fort is not to be missed)? Haven't made provision for Jodhpur in the itinerary so far. Is this something I'm likely to regret?

Am quite prepared to drop Aurangabad / Ajanta/Ellora this time (and leave it for next time) and redistribute those 2 days to a deserving destination...any thoughts?

Thank you for any thoughts!

Cheers Kellie

SANJAY_DEL

See this thread on Train Information:

Train information

The only line out of Jaisalmer goes via Jodhpur.
Jodhpur - Udaipur, no trains, consider Ranakpur (see Falna details)

See this thread on travel to Udaipur from Jodhpur:
http://www.indiamike.com/india/showt...rts#post132315

Since Jodhpur is located between Jaisalmer and Udaipur, and you need to travel through the city, and the Fort itself is worth a visit, you can add it to you plans.

cyberhippie

Don't drop Aurangabad whatever you do!! Great city, gentle people and plenty to see and do apart from the caves!!
Bibi-Ka-Maqbara

Daulatabad Fort

To name just a couple, a very worthwhile destination IMHO

Just a thought but why not drop Udaipur, after seeing Jaipur, and Jaiselemer it's a similar theme. You could instead see Mt Abu or Ranakpur/Kumbhalgarh bith places offer something a little different. The Carved stone of the jain Temples At Ranakpur and Mt Abu have to bee seen to be believed and the trmendous lonely fort at Kumbhalgarh is a sight you won't forget easily!!

All on the way to Ahmedabad by the way, so you could use the train to see them whilst heading south!

ranjan154

Dont drop this, you can drop some fort for this.. this is absolute beauty to watch.

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steven_ber

What a great idea, I completely agree.

Others may think "how can you miss Udaipur?", but as much as I liked the place, I thought it was overrated and touristy, especially compared with Jodhpur, which I thought was underrated and relaxing.

Looking at some of Cyberhippie's suggestions.......the following train could be a good option.

Train 9264 departs Abu Road (Mt Abu)(Mondays and Thursdays only) at 22:10 and gets to Rajkot at 08:20. (2A, SL.)

Rajkot is 100kms from Junagadh.

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Train information.

machadinha

Hear, hear... I was of the same opinion on Udaipur. Throwing in Jodhpur if you can would be nice yes, don't immediately see how to however. I guess you can miss it to get the more even balance that you'd already planned, or if you throw in one of Cyber's forts. The fort is really something though and it's just a nice town for a day or two.

Another thought that I don't immediately see how to solve: I think Junagadh will take 1.5 days at the very least to both climb the mountain and see the sights in town. I hear many folks do either it or Palitana, although the two combined won't go amiss I'm sure (haven't visited the latter). I guess you could arrive, see the town sights, climb the mountain next morning, then leave later that evening (you won't be back down before somewhere later afternoon'ish). This might entail spending the night at what's-its-name the bridgehead town for Diu before actually making it there, unless you want to pay through the nose for a nightly rickshaw if they're going at all, I had a similar ride I think.

In general, bus travel can be very practical in this entire region to cover certain distances, the trains sometimes follow a roundabout route. btw As far as I can see you can certainly train from Jodhpur to Udaipur of course, it just requires a layover and isn't very practical for this same reason. Jaisalmer-Udaipur by train looks to be very long this way, I'd bus stretches like these.

Looks like a well-thought out itinerary to me otherwise. Hope we're not confusing you now

btw Ahmedabad: I just never liked it there. I hear it has its merits (Steven seems to have liked it) but I think they might take more than one night to discover. Since it's a stopover-point to many, you might just press straight on there with a connecting ride instead of staying for the night unless you have to. Would save another bit of time.

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jyotirmoy

I am thrilled that you have set aside 3 days in Delhi the city og Dijns. Spend just a full day in Agra that's enough & the same about Jaipur. From Udaipur visit Ranakpur & Kumbhalgarh. And yes don't miss Ajanta & Ellora

noflylist

See Mt. Abu, bit out of foreign tourist trail but worthwhile visit and great chill out lace, very little hassle from touts.

Be careful in Delhi, I hate travelling via Delhi everytime

anarkali

What a great response. No, I'm not confused at all. Ed and I think we'll skip Udaipur (we were only really going for the lake palace and for a bit of chill out time...but we've worked in three lots of chillout time elsewhere), add Jodhpur, keep Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora caves and add Mt Abu, Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur (when I figure out which order would be the best). May also skip Girnar Hill (& perhaps Junagadh too) because Ed and I are fit for walking reasonable distances, but less so uphill, and much less so walking up 7000 big steep steps. We might make Palitana our temple-on-the-hill experience.

We'll have a think about it all and let you know what we decide...

By the way, Jyotirmoy, I'm reading William Dalrymple's book the City of Djinns at the moment and am absolutely loving it. Having read this book has really made Delhi's history and monuments come alive for me.

Thanks again for your great advice, everyone. I hope I can be of as much help to others as you have been for me!

Cheers
Kellie

machadinha

Good choices. I think Palitana is preferred by many as less taxing than Girnar Hill yes, again, haven't visited it so can't comment. Girnar Hill is certainly worth it but it's quite a climb up (not to mention down!) Remember now being overtaken by this brisk elderly lady, who of course we met again going down before we even made it up.

Seeing Junagadh for its fort and magnificent baoris might be worth it, but with your tight schedule it may be a reason to miss it, the mountain really is the highlight.

I mentioned pushing straight on past Ahmedabad, might turn into a long ride though, in which case staying there overnight might be a good break indeed. I did Jaisalmer-Barmer-A'bad-Mumbai once in one go, something like 1-1.5 days; and Udaipur-A'bad-Bhuj in one go, not sure how long this was, involved arriving in the early morning in any case, quite a ride I'm sure. It's doable, depends on your stamina.

Going to Diu I'd try to time it so that you arrive in the daytime and can move straight on to there, like I said being stuck in Una for the night, which I believe is the town I mentioned above, is nothing to rave about.

anarkali

Thanks again everyone for your help planning my itinerary.

Here is how we envisaged the trip - and what we actually did in bold type.

4 nights in Delhi - we stayed 6 nights
2 nights in Agra, - we stayed 0 nights, took a day trip only!
1-2 nights in Jaipur, - we stayed 2 nights
2 nights in Pushkar, (chill out time, dance lessons) - we stayed 5 nights!
3 nights in Jaisalmer (may include an overnight trip to next destination), - we skipped!
Overnight private sleeper bus to Udaipur.
2 nights in Udaipur - we stayed 2 nights. Day trip to Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur, looping west and south to Mt Abu.
Added: 2 nights in Mt Abu
1 night in Ahmedabad - we skipped!
1 night in Junagadh - we skipped!
3 nights in Diu (chill out time, eat ice cream) - we stayed 3 nights
Day state bus to Bhavnagar, 5 hour wait in Bhavnagar, then overnight train to Mumbai.
1 night in Palitana - we skipped!
2 nights Aurangabad/Ajanta/Ellora we skipped!
4 nights in Mumbai (chillout time, nice hotel, maybe work as a bollywood extra for a day) - we stayed 5 nights.

We stayed longer in Delhi to take in the Hidden Delhi tour (offered by Master Paying Guest House) which only happens Wednesday and Saturday. We were pretty keen to see it, and the Wednesday one was already full. Well worth waiting! In making this decision we changed our Agra 2 day trip to a day trip only. With the experience of that day trip, we think now that a day trip to Agra is about right. We missed Fatehpur Sikri this way though, and will think about adding it to our next trip itinerary, whenever that is!

We kept Jaipur in the itinerary (on sufference, mind) and were glad to be there for the nice interactions we had with some locals, the excellent Indian Breakfast at Parantha Hut, and the amazing and beautiful Amber Fort. Otherwise, Jaipur seemed hassley and mosquito-ridden. Not a favourite.

Once we got out of the Golden Triangle things improved a lot. Pushkar was nicely chilled out just when we needed it. Ed had picked up a lurgy and I just needed a break.

We deliberated long and hard about the next step. We needed to decide whether to go to Jodhpur-Jaisalmer or down to Udaipur. No matter how we looked at it, there seemed to be a lot of hours required to go up to Jaisalmer and we decided after careful deliberation that it was really going to take far too long. So we went down to Udaipur.

Udaipur was fine. We enjoyed some nice food and rambles around the Lal Ghat, City Palace. Then we arranged for a car and driver to take us up to Kumbhalgarh, Ranakpur, then finish up at the end of the day at Mt Abu. The driving was long, and a bit hair-raising at times, but we got to Mt Abu in reasonable time.

Mt Abu was a lovely surprise. Really relaxed and laid back, and as noflylist mentioned, off the foreign tourist trail.

From Mt Abu we got an overnight bus to Ahmdavad, then managed to pick up an overnight bus ticket direct to Diu. This was great, as we thought we'd have to get a connecting service from Bhavnagar or something. So it was a (relatively) easy night's journey to Diu.

Liked Diu a lot. Ed's highlight was hiring a moped and making it quack like a duck while we rode around the island. Ram Vijay's ice cream lived up to its reputation!

Then took a state bus out to Bhavnagar. Hadn't done the state bus thing before and reactions of the locals were amusing. We were comprehensively stared at up and down by an elderly lady who obviously hadn't seen our like on the state bus to Bhavnagar before. We got chatting with her later, as much as was possible with her non-existent English, our non-existent Bengali and our mutual halting Hindi. Forget Gujarati! I say Bengali because she said she was from Bangladesh originally.

Bhavnagar was okay, though the touts and rickshaw walas were pretty aggressive and in your face. I came face to bowl with the worst toilet I have ever seen in my life - at the Bhavnagar Railway Station. I cut and run rather than face that one. We were only there for 5 hours before our sleeper class train to Mumbai showed up.

The train trip to Mumbai was long, but okay. No hassles with the sleeper. Shared the compartment with a nice elderly Jain couple and their daughter who had her little son with her. We all bonded over oral rehydration salts, we gave them some when we saw the baby was having nasty diarroea and vomiting.

In Mumbai, we just chilled out and walked around. We had sort of had enough of negotiating this and haggling that so we saw Elephanta Island, walked around Colaba a lot, walked over to Marine Drive and up to Chowpatty Beach. Couldn't decide between Pav Bhaji / Bhelpuri stalls so turned tail and fled for a taxi. Spent a bit of time shopping. Spotted Australia's most famous literary fugitive, Gregory David Roberts, holding court at Leopold's Bar, walked around Kala Ghoda and checked out the museums and galleries there, walked up to VT and beyond to Crawford Markets for a walk around. Went to the Taj for a drink (eek! possibly the most expensive drinks in our born lives!) and discovered Tullock Road for fantastic Muslim curries and kebabs.

Only really sad about missing Ajanta and Ellora caves this time, but we really didn't see giving up 3 days of fairly consistent planes trains automobile to do the round trip. So something for next trip! (Along with Jaisalmer & maybe Jodhpur)

Obviously there is heaps more to report but from the itinerary point of view, there's your debrief! I got some great tips from IMers so thanks for helping us have a great holiday!

seventies'hippy

It's always good to read some feedback, Looks like you had a great first trip, got the feel of the place & are already planning on filling the gaps next time ,,,,,,,,,,,

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capt_mahajan

anarkali, glad you enjoyed yourself. when is the next trip?!

bijapuri

what I REALLY liked about your trip is that you took your plans for what they were- an educated guess- and went along as was practical on any given day. If more people did that, more people would be happy travelers. Kudos for skipping ajanta/ellora. since you had a good time and didn't wear yourself out, I reckon you'll want to return some day, and since A&E has been around for centuries, it'll likely still be there

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noflylist

Glad you liked Mt. Abu, actually my son still talks about it to this day.

Can you mension more specifics, so I can savour it!!!

Anyway my trip is coming up in 5 days