Travel Advice Required.

Thanks for your advice, in hindsight we should not have booked our international flights into chennai, but at that time we were planning on touring the south. We have looked into changing the flight but unfortunately the costs would be astronomical! WE could however fly into chennai, and then get the next available domestic flight to delhi, however, would it really be worth it?

What airline ? Yes it is preferable to exit out of DEL than CCU.

While CCU may be a great place to be in its own right, it is rather odd to be for 3 days to a 1st time tourist, who is not researching architecture of British India's first capital, or exploring the controlled traffic chaos, or wants to ride the trams

I had the same problem and then I started using Ambien when on the trains. Still don't get as good a night of sleep as in a hotel, but an acceptable level which works for me. If I normally get eight solid hours, I can pretty much count on five on the train and sometimes that three hour shortage is worthwhile if I've saved a travel day. I took the Agra-Varanasi night train pre-Ambien and between the numerous stops and the kid playing video games in the berth across from mine, I hardly slept a wink, so I understand your concerns.

I can see you now, standing on Agra Cant station at 05:15 wondering why the AP express is over 2 hours late (it starts it's journey 23 hours earlier in Hyderabad).

Delays can be a problem on Indian Railways, but I've no idea how reliable the AP Express is (there is a website where you can keep an eye on it's reliability, let me know if you want the website name).

The following train would get you more time in bed, yet take no more time overall, and it would be a real great way of seeing and experiencing India.

Train 2308 departs Agra Fort daily at 06:55 and gets to Mughal Sarai (16kms from Varanasi, closer than the airport) at 16:50, 2-tier air con will cost Rs 940.

Overall, I'm really wondering if you should visit Varanasi and Kolkata, Chennai-Delhi-Haridwar/Rishikesh-Delhi (With Agra as a day trip from Delhi) is an option.

I will never say that Haridwar is like Varanasi, it isn't, but many would argue that it has most of the good/interesting things associated with Varanasi, yet is a much more relaxed place to be, and Rishikesh is just such a lovely place to stay (and very close to Haridwar), overall, Haridwar/Rishikesh would be more comfortable, as they'll be slightly cooler and will be much more relaxed, you'll also be able to head into the hills to cool off.

Ashton, you're a bit of a masochist booking NON ac train.. .but i admire the heck out of you for it. Ah, those Aussie men!!!! (-;
( I am a wimp with that kind of heat--which is going to make my June visit to Agra and Amritsar quite interesting!!)

vandy

Damn! Lost another one to those Aussies....oy! oy! oy!

Hi there. thanks for everyones advice.
We have booked all our travel arrangements now and its only 2.5 weeks until we embark on our trip of a life time.
Now is the question of how much we should expect to spend for the 11 days that we are over there for.

We have paid for all hotels. Paid for all domestic flights and trains. All we have to pay for is our 3 meals each per day (and a few beers), a few souveniers, taxi transport for short jounrneys each day, and entry into the taj mahal and a few other tourist attractions. I know its difficult to say exactly how much we would spend but i would be interested in a ball park figure.

We would like to eat in reasonable restrauants, not so much the street hawker stalls, but certainly not 5 star! What should we expect?



Thanks.

Rebecca, you are a bit of masochist, too, travelling to Agra and Amritsar in June. I did Agra one May in a non-AC taxi and almost passed out because of heat exhaustion - did not drink enough water.

Ashton: I have travelled Mumbai-Kanpur and Mumbai-Kharagpur in 2SL and it was very uncomfortable especially during the day when it was 43C in the shade If you like driving a convertible in 43C weather then 2SL would be good for you. Having said that I think travelling in 2SL in summer has to be done at least once to experience India

Certainly dont expect it to be comfortable by any means, but looking forward to experiencing that picture that always comes to my head when i think of india.. a dodgy train ride!

I will certainly be reporting back here how it goes, but at this stage i am looking forward to having a mixed trip, a bit of the roughing to hopefully capture a bit of the real india, and a bit of the luxury, or at least comfort!

I am more interested in seeing the untamed india rather than the tourist attractions.. I think we will also mix our days with people watching and trying to get a glimpse of india "off the beaten track" as well as seeing a few of the popular touristy places...

Appreciate your reply.