So,
started pretty nicely, we have arrived at WAW (EPWA) well in advance, that our flight (WAW-VIE) is 30mins delayed. No issue as long as you don't have ... 50mins connection time. After few beers in the lounge we have been kindly asked to proceed to OS (Austrian) desk just to learn that we're flying TK (Turkish). No issue, TK's fleet is pretty modern, flight-time together is little shorter than OS, however we arrived at DEL(hi) 4 hours later than planned. Yes, our driver loved that idea. Managed to call him from WAW - thank god.
Highlight: we got an op-up IST-DEL. Lie-flat beds in C are just stunning - have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqTcL1A3fNM. Lamb was also perfect - "meeeeeeeee!".
We drove from Delhi directly to Agra, planned less than 24hs there (including back-to-life activities after using all goodness of TK's C class). Despite no-sleep experience, that 4 hours drive was a kind of a culture shock for me/us. It is a 1st time in India, I was prepared for some emerging-market sights, but you just need to be prepared for more. Driving is a "must see" experience.
Day 2 & 3 - Agra and surroundings
Agra Fort (view from that one):
Taj Mahal:
Just stunning, let along that love-story, but the whole complex is amazing.
Fatehpur Sikri:
Amazing how you can build a HUGE city in the middle of nowhere and abandon it after 10 years. Reasons unknown (scarcity of water blamed by the guide) but it's just a gigantic area.
Day 4 - Jaipur
Another 4 hours of driving, starting to understand Indian code-of-driving. Pretty wild one. Even for somebody from Poland
. The most surprising thing is a lack of rear-mirrors among motorbikes/scooters. That's an utter suicide in Europe. Here it's not a problem at all.
Amber Fort (read: Ameer Fort) - packed with tourists
Distant View of Jaigarh Fort - That's a stunning beast!
City Palace - Nothing REALLY interesting after seeing #1/#2,
Astronomical Observatory was an interesting one (don't mention Copernicus)
Day 5 & 6 - Udaipur
Another 6 hours of driving through wild-east national highway! Udaipur welcomed us with a much better air and less traffic, although old-city (tourist spots) are pretty much separated from the new town. Initial plan was to see just few regular places but given our young legs we just wanted much more. City Palace is the first place you'll be directed (pretty nice one), also the Pichola Lake ride is a must. We extended it with:
Kami Mata (great view of the city)
and Monsoon Palace (mountain view)
Udaipurians are very proud to be a part of Bond 007 series - half of "Octopussy" (#13) was filmed here. After 7PM JB's theme is easily audible in the city center - be prepared for an old good cold-war action when eating your naan and sipping your lassi/kingfisher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTaQxZDXDw
Day 7 & 8 - (South) Mumbai
Completely different India, less noise, much more green, less pollution, no more agressive sellers. We spent a weekend there, so also much less traffic than usual. When I think about it - the best place to start when traveling in India. Will skip describing all the places we've been to - you can easily walk around and just enjoy it by yourself. Try to sneak into local (=no Westerners at the tables) dining places and try Cheese Dosa for breakfast or Gujarati Thali for dinner.
But here comes
the second big learning of this trip: make sure you have all emergency phone numbers handy and your agency/guide is prepared to handle that. We had a health-related problem (nothing long lasting though) and both our agency and guide were able to get us to the best hospital in town and rearrange (slightly) rest of the trip. All happened on early Sunday morning. We cancelled Day #2 in Mumbai and flew directly to Goa. It was a hard-core experience but with a very positive result.