We have been back for a week and we still can't get India out of our eyes, with its landscapes of flat deserts and mountain forests, with its cities, sometimes boundless metropolises, at other times little more than villages, but all with monuments, some famous, some unexpected, yet always capable of creating breathtaking sights. Temples and palaces, sandstone like lace and marble like a jewel, and gardens growing green among the sands. And lakes and mausoleums. And then the people! People swarming around you, myriads of children and women draped in their saris in every shade of red, almost like flowers floating on the current. And then the people you come into contact with: vendors to play the bargaining game with, temple worshippers who smile at you when you offer a flower to their deity to apologise for having invaded the most sacred enclosures of their souls, or the guides whom you can ask, and always get, to show you something more, and above all the driver, our Prahalad, a gentleman of few words and absolute helpfulness. And yet words are not enough to bring back the images and evoke the emotions. You have to go to India. Go to India and above all go there with Karni!
Itinerary:
Arrival – 02 July 2011 [Saturday] at 03:10 on TK 716 Departure – 16 July 2011 [Saturday] at 04:45 on TK 717
02 July [Saturday] – Arrival and night in Delhi – Hotel The Park
03 July [Sunday] – Mandawa – Hotel Castle Mandawa 04 July [Monday] – Fatehpur / Deshnoke / Bikaner – Hotel Laxmi Niwas Palace
05 July [Tuesday] – Ramdeora / Jaisalmer – Hotel Fort Rajwada 06 July [Wednesday] – Khuri / Jaisalmer – Hotel Fort Rajwada
07 July [Thursday] – Osian / Jodhpur – Hotel Ajit Bhawan 08 July [Friday] – Jodhpur – Hotel Ajit Bhawan
09 July [Saturday] – Ranakpur / Kumbhalgarh / Udaipur – Hotel Shiv Niwas Palace 10 July [Sunday] – Udaipur – Hotel Shiv Niwas Palace
11 July [Monday] – Chittaurgarh / Pushkar – Hotel Jagat Palace
12 July [Tuesday] – Jaipur – Hotel Shahpura House 13 July [Wednesday] – Amber / Jaipur – Hotel Shahpura House
14 July [Thursday] – Fatehpur Sikri / Agra (Taj Mahal visit) – Hotel Clarks Shiraz
15 July [Friday] – Delhi – Hotel The Park 16 July [Saturday] – Early morning departure
Written by the traveller and first published in Italian on our former Italian website. Translated from Italian.