Guided Golden Triangle Tour
Our nine day Titan Golden Triangle and Ranthambore tour gave us a brilliant brief insight into the colours, smells, noises, traffic, the people and life in the places in India we visited. The holiday began (and ended) well with the collection from your home to Heathrow for our night flight to Delhi. On arrival in Delhi we found we were a bigger group than we had thought the literature had suggested and maybe we should have had a tour guide as well as a tour manager. This perhaps meant we did not do all the itinerary suggested we would. We did four additional activities. A quick walk round a few streets in New Delhi - a trip on rickshaw round old Jaipur, an early morning visit to the Jaipur wholesale flower and veg market, and a working Hindu temple on a tut tut, and a Holi Festival célébration (all paid for locally) We were surprised to find we were expected to go straight to our tour of New Delhi - rather than going out in the afternoon. We were told this was because our hotel rooms were not ready and our hotel was the other side of Delhi. I was lucky enough to find this out before we got on the coach and was able to get some lighter clothes out of the case to change into! We were kept well hydrated - Small bottles of water were provided on the coach to each passenger - and bottles of safe to drink water was available in our rooms. We also got the opportunity when we were travelling to buy drinks at service station cafes. In terms of avoiding ‘deli belly’, we were given a packet each of wet wipes, but you do need to have your own tissues, sanitiser gel and wipes to cope with going to public toilets etc. All the meals except 6 lunches were provided in the hotels we stayed in. They were all largely buffet meals - so we were reliant on the hotels to make sure the food was freshly cooked and prepared and had not been out long. Unfortunately quite a few of the group did end up with ‘traveller’s tummy’. In keeping with providing a genuine taste of India, most food was spiced or Indian in nature (eg Indian yoghurt). There were luxurious aspects to all three hotels - the garden at the Leela Ambiance was wonderful - the Ranthambore Regency very colonially Indian - and in Jaipur - perhaps a modern elegance. Sadly, though it too had a nice (small) garden, our view out if the bedroom window was a building site. In terms of changing money into rupees - the tour manager found money changers for us. There were few insects … in the Ranthamborne Regency Hotel there was an anti mosquito plug in in each room. What we saw of Ranthambore Park did not feel like a jungle. Monkeys, peacocks and wild boar were seen as they were fed by a local inhabitant of the park every day - which we witnessed. Half of the Group saw a Tiger, half a leopard and a sloth bear. We were surprised that our second drive of the day was done in the heat of the afternoon and that the driver in the non tiger seeing car was doing the spotting, not the guide. I had wanted to do the « add on » yoga experience offered. Titan were unable to organise this - and neither was the Tour Manager able to. We were kept safe and informed - by AJ an English speaking Tour Manager - who talked to us via a battery operated ear piece when we were out - and using a microphone on the coach.