Planning a trip to India feels like a daunting experience till you talk to Susan. From the beginning she understood what we wanted and set it up with careful detail. Traveling during our 12 day trip was incredibly easy. Our trip was structured in minute detail and to be honest we had no need to think too much about, except, enjoy every minute of our experience.
We stayed at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur which was quite an introduction to India. We have to say that all the hotels we stayed at were spectacular. Service varied from city to city but was always impecable. One of the most memorable part of our trip was waking up to the sounds of birds with and our room facing the rise of the sun in Jaipur.
As an architect I felt cheated in my architectural history classes. India is full of incredible historic buildings and amazing architectural details. Fatepur Sikri, a city only lived by Akbar, a Moghul Emperor for 14 years was a fabuous stop on our way to Agra. Of course the Taj Mahal is never better than when seen in person and waking up with the distant view of it was another highlight. Must be said that Agra is much more than the Taj Mahal and you become more appreciative of its magnificence once you have visited all of the other Moghul Architecture sites.
Delhi which we visited next is a bustling city full of the intermix of Hindu, Muslim, Mogul and British architecture. It is hard to explain the feelings that one experiences in between such vast history, culture, opulence, religion and poverty. India was a spiritual journey of self discovery on what really matters.
Exploring Old Delhi with it´s multiple markets,contrasts, electric cables, cows, rickshaws, tuck tucks, and people redifines your sense of space, environment and even purpose. Humayan´s Tomb stands in Delhi in sharp contrast to the Taj Mahal and helped us understand the development of Moghul architecture.
Varanasi was our next stop and we were sad to leave Omvir our driver, as we were flying out. He had treated us with such gentle caring. We flew into a chaotic and spiritual city at the basin of the Ganges. It was a hard stop. It was bustling with tons of people as we walked around the Old part to reach the riverbed were Hindu cremation is constantly happening. This was a close encounter with mortality and disturbing in a way. Looking back I don´t think we would have understood India without going to Varanasi, but while there, the feelings were quite disturbing.
We ended our journey in Mumbai and to our surprise it is a clean and incredibly interesting city. Our tour guides for the 3 days in Mubai were the best we had. Our city tour guide´s knowledge of Hindu spirituality and structure really helped us understand all we had learned about during the first part of our trip. We then took a 5:00 am Market tour of Mumbai and had no idea the treat we would be in for. This was a total highlight and we would recommend it to anyone. Our guide was smart, knowledgeable and funny and made the tour even more enjoyable.
Our last day we had booked an architecture tour of the city and were surprised to be matched with a restoration architect who works in the city. Her devotion and love for her work and her city was just the end to a wonderful trip.
Our last 2 days were less packed which was good as we were able to enjoy shopping around and the hotel pool and amazing restaurants.
Before our trip Susan had given us a restaurant guide and made some restaurant reservations and all were spot on. We had incredible food all around and still talk of the aubergines in yellow sauce we ate at our hotel in Varanasi.
We would recommend Geringer Global Travel to anyone planning a trip to India and are sure to use her again if we were to visit any other location she manages.
We stayed in incredible hotels, discovered, ate, learned and enjoyed every single moment of our short 13 days. Thank you for making our trip a lifetime experience.