Today, I left Delhi for my flight back to the UK and an overnight stay at Heathrow.
We were transferred from the hotel to the airport quite early today. When we arrived at the airport, we were dropped off outside, and that was the last we saw of our guides.
Leaving India behind.
Once inside Delhi airport, we all seemed to be directed to different check-in desks, even though most of us were all on the same plane back to Heathrow in England.
I checked in straight away and then had to walk the length of the extensive check-in area to get to the Disability help desk. I was then taken through security in a wheelchair and led through to departures. Once through the final security check, I sat at the gate with one of the ladies from my tour who had accompanied me through security and the airport. She kindly bought me a coffee and we sat until I was taken through to board the plane early.
The flight was a long one, but it was comfortable. I watched a couple of films and read my Kindle, but as usual, I could not get any sleep on the flight before it arrived in London.
India Holiday Summary.
I was glad that I did this incredible tour of India; it was very tiring, but very fulfilling. I saw some amazing places, met some wonderful people and had some fantastic experiences at places like the Taj Mahal, the Ganges River, the Attari–Wagah border and Ranthambore National Park.
Our tour guides were, on the whole, excellent; some were exceptional, some not quite as good. The hotels we stayed in were all fine, if not always the hotels I was led to believe I would be staying in when I first booked the tour by the JustYou sales rep in the UK. In general, the hotels looked great from the outside of the main entrance and inside, but the areas they were in all seemed to be very busy. I was kept awake in all of the hotels, bar the one at the Ranthambore National Park, by music, parties and fireworks until midnight, when the noise and fireworks would stop.
I can't remember a day that didn't start early on this trip. Some, for obvious reasons, like the day we went on a sunrise cruise along the Ganges, were very early. I managed the early mornings, probably because I have always been an early riser, but there were occasions when others didn't make the early calls as easily or skipped parts of the trip because they needed to rest.
The food, for me, was the only letdown on this trip. Apart from two restaurant visits, one of which gave me food poisoning and one of which served the best curry I have ever had, all our meals were buffet style. The buffets were not bad, but all served similar things. The curries were different, but the meat and fish ones were full of bones and very little real meat or fish. The fruit selections were good, and some of the desserts were okay. By about the third day, I wanted to have some plain food that wasn't flavoured with any curry flavouring. Whether it was that everything was curried or that my mouth had been coated so much by the previous meals' curry flavours that everything tasted of curry. I found myself eating less every day because of this.
Would I do this tour again? Probably not. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because there are many other places I want to see while I am still able to. I want to go to India again, but to different places I haven't yet seen. Would I recommend this tour to others? Straight away, with the advice to do it, knowing that it is tiring and there is a lot of travel involved. The memories I made on this trip to India will stay with me forever. The friends I made on my trip to India will be in my memories and thoughts for as long as I live.
To my travelling companions, I say Namaste. Namaste is a Sanskrit term that means "I bow to you" or "salutations to you." It is a customary Hindu greeting used to honour and show respect to others, often accompanied by a gesture called Anjali mudra, where the palms are pressed together at the heart. The term is composed of two parts: "namah," which translates to "praise" or "honour," and "te," meaning "to you". You all have my gratitude and respect for your company and help on this trip of a lifetime. If any of you want to keep in touch, please do. If you lost my contact details, you can email me using the contact section of my website. If you have any photos from our trip together that I could use, please send them to me with a description of what they are, and I will try to add them to my photo albums.