Voyages Jules Verne organised the trip and they call it 'Royal Rajasthan'. Clive persuaded me to go – having avoided India to date – and it was quite an experience. 

We flew into a cold and foggy Delhi and then after a couple of days there, took an ‘Express’ train to Agra (which ran late) where we visited the Taj Mahal and Red Fort. It was too crowded to have a Diana moment, as it was a public holiday, but amazing to see it.  I was expecting to be disappointed, but I wasn’t. We did stay in some modern hotels but many of the overnight stays were in former palaces or royal hunting lodges.  I had been prepared for a culture shock by people who had described Kolkata (Calcutta) to me, but when I got there it was not as I was expecting – yes there were pockets of refuse and grubbiness – but overall the colour and vibrancy of the place won over the messiness.  Indeed, when we got to Mumbai it seemed comparatively dull as it was well ordered and less colourful than many places we had experienced. Other cities were undergoing a ‘clean and green’ initiative to attract visitors. An early morning balloon ride over the countryside north of Jaipur was awesome as we drifted over farms and villages. We landed just as kids were going to school, so we got a welcome from a crowd of enthusiastic youths.  The electrical installations in some places were ‘interesting’ and we had a mountain railway ride in a local, narrow-gauge train which I loved. The tour was, at times, a blur of palaces and forts, temples and mosques, but a lasting memory is of the love,ly people and in particular visiting a Sikh temple where they had a massive volunteer kitchen and fed hundreds as part of their charitable work. It made our Meals on Wheels and Old Peoples’ Clubs seem amateur.  Whilst most of the trip was by coach, we hopped from Udaipur to Mumbai by air before the long-haul home.  My big souvenir was a handmade rug 6’ x 9’ that I bought in Jaipur that now is a wall hanging in my dining room and improves the acoustics in that room.