Willem, Joy, Hans and Ellen, with Avtar – December / January 2008

We’ve enjoyed ourselves tremendously in Rajasthan. The hired driver and car worked out well, only my girlfriend who sat in the backseat did not have that much space next to all the luggage.

The driver Avtar was very friendly and arranged our train ticket to Goa, as well as the plane ticket back to Delhi, for a reasonable price. So we took the train from Agra to Goa on the 27 th of December, to celebrate New Year’s Eve with our friends over there.

The train ride was a fun experience, but we were glad to arrive in Goa after two nights. The trip in the North was rather tiring for the ladies, and they were longing for sun, sea, beach, and a beer (just like myself, actually).

The golden temple in Amritsar was definitely worth visiting. We found the local ambience to be very relaxing, maybe because this place isn’t visited that much by tourists.

Jaissalmer in the desert was also very beautiful. The route over the mountains at Ranakpur was a blast as well. We stayed in a great hotel. We paid 2500 Indian rupees, and really got our money’s worth. The bubble bath at night was pretty relaxing.

Our impression of India was that it is a beautiful country. However, it’s a pity that a lot of places almost resemble a garbage dump, and that the hygiene often isn’t all that great. It seems to me that the government really should look for solutions to these problems.

We all obtained the “Delhi Belly”, except for my Taiwanese girlfriend. We all catched a cold as well, and I obtained food poisoning on the last day in Goa. The Indian food was a disappointment sometimes, because of all the vegetarian restaurants and the chicken menu’s that get dull when you eat it so much. We did eat delicious meals frequently as well, though.

All in all, we’ve had a good time in India. Everything was taken care of properly, so I will definitely recommend you with friends and acquaintances who might plan on travelling to India.