Doreen and Peter, Taj Mahal Agra
TR AVELLER TALES BY PETER HARTNALL Returning customers Peter and Doreen travelled to Rajasthan in October/ November 2019, having first visited India in 1971, quite a few things have changed since then.
As the afternoon progressed, we gradually met others booked on the same tour as us. By the time of the evening meal, all of our group had arrived – 26 in total, including one other Kiwi from the South Island.
We travelled to Rajasthan in NW India with Wendy Wu Tours, a company with whom we have travelled with before and like.
"Everyone is very pleasant, and we get on well."
We flew with China Southern (a nice ‘full service’ airline) to Guangzhou then to Delhi. Our guide greeted us at the airport, and we were taken straight to our very nice hotel where we spent the afternoon relaxing after our long flight.
This is not the first time we have been to India, we visited in 1971 when we drove from Bombay through India en route to England (it took us three months, mainly sleeping in the back of our car). Since then we have taken a few day visits from cruise ships to Indian ports (and surrounding areas) and a few years ago we travelled with Wendy Wu Tours in southern India. So, what have been the similarities and differences we have observed as a result of these various visits to the subcontinent? •
The roads have improved, more are tar sealed and now there are fast multi laned highways
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Communication with family and friends was largely by mail using Poste Restante services
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Many more signs are now in English as well as Hindi, Gujarati etc.
WENDYWUTOURS.COM.AU
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Telephones were solely landlines and the service unreliable once out of main centres. Now almost every local seems to own a mobile phone
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There seems to be a substantial middle class who now own a motor car, so there are more cars and fewer bullock carts on the road
