The Grand India Tour - 2019
Progress ...
PictureClick on image to visit gallery


THE PLAN is to fly to Delhi on Friday May 10th
and after a night there we will be heading north for Kalka then up to Shimla, the capital of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayan foothills. on the narrow gauge railway. After Shimla it will be back to Delhi and on to Agra before continuing south-west to Jaipur, Udaipur, then on to Mumbai.

We intend to travel by rail whenever possible supplemented by bus/car/taxi or auto rickshaw.

The objective is not only to spend some time together but also to photograph and video the people, places and colours and record the sounds. Although Stephen has travelled extensively in India before, this will be my first trip to the country.

Stephen returns to the UK on May 24th 2019 upon completion of 'Phase One'. All being well, my return will be on June 12th after visiting Goa, Hampi, Cochin, Madurai and Chennai ('Phase Two').

We will try and keep you posted on progress! Feel free to share this link for others to follow. If you wish to comment on any of the posts, please use the contact page.

Tony Withers, Margate, Kent, UK.

Updates:
4th Feb: Visas have been obtained and flights booked
11th Feb: all vaccinations done
12th Feb: रुपए आ गए
5th March: Decision taken to re-schedule
7th March: flights re-booked
1st May: 10 days left - all systems are go

17th May Friday: After 3 nights in Delhi we are certainly ready for the next leg, a 4 hour train journey south to Jaipur. Delhi has been chaotic and quite difficult to assimilate and we are hoping for a more organised city. Jaipur is known for its textiles and printing together with a lot of culture.

We have discovered UBER taxis which have been very useful; cheap, safe and quite efficient. We've never used them in the UK and although I have come across them in Manila I haven't actually used them. Now I know what I have been missing.
Our hotel in Jaipur has a pool! this will be the first time we can truly relax, hopefully, with a cold beer, something that has been almost impossible to obtain in Delhi. It is like the days of the prohibition!

19th Sunday. Many shops shut today surprisingly. We are sightseeing today and tomorrow here n Jaipur. Steve is feeling better after a bad tummy but I had a twinge and today had bad heat exhaustion after climbing up a load of stairs at the Amber Fort.  It has been about 36 degrees today and shade is scarce so we are chilling back at the hotel and will resume late afternoon before going out to dinner somewhere. We have another day tomorrow, Monday and on Tuesday pm will fly to Mumbai As we did not fancy a 21 hour train journey.

14th June. Despite the lack of updates due to technical difficulties, the tour is completed and we are both safely back in the UK. Now the long period of editing images and videos begins