DAY 2
Visit Matunga; Depart Mumbai for Bangalore

DAY 3
Banagalore

DAY 4
Bangalore

DAY 5
Depart Bangalore for Cochin

DAY 6
Visit Guruvayur; Depart Cochin for Chennai

DAY 7
Chennai

DAY 8
Depart Chennai for Delhi

DAY 9
Delhi

DAY 10
Depart Delhi for Udaipir

DAY 11
Udaipur

DAY 12
Depart Udaipur for Jaipur

DAY 13
Jaipur tour

DAY 14
Jaipur

DAY 15
Depart Jaipur for Delhi

DAY 16
Depart Delhi for New York via Amsterdam

Day 1 began with our trip from New York's Kennedy Airport to Mumbai, India via Amsterdam.  The flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai was over three hours late.  The Amsterdam Airport had enough to entertain us for 3 hours, but as a result of the delay, we arrived in India well after 2am in the morning.  By the time we checked into the hotel, it was 4am.

As a result, Day 2 started with about 3 hours of sleep at the Orchid Hotel.  At 7:30am, we were in a car on our way to Matunga for breakfast with Asha's grandmother.  The day was spent re-visiting childhood memories - the Jain temple in the corner, the comic book store at King Circle, the Asthika Samaj temple, Anju Mansion, etc.

In the afternoon, we hopped on the first of several Jet Airways flights.  Jet Airways was surprisingly efficient and served delicious hot meals on board even when the flight is less than 30mins long!  They put all the US airlines to shame! We arrived at Asha's parent's flat in Bangalore in the early evening.   Jet lag and lack of sleep from the previous night made us fall asleep by 6-7pm. 

The same jet lag woke us up at 4am and allowed us to go for a walk before the hot July sun came up.  Day 4 was spent shopping on Mahatma Gandhi Road (fondly know as MG Rd).  We wandered through the book stores (looking for Amar Chitra Kathas), the Bata shoe shop as well as the government-run handicraft shops.  The next day was spent much in the same way -- this time exploring Commercial St. near Ulsoor Lake.  We wandered a little too much into Commercial St. in search of coconuts because we walked to the slaughterhouse area!

Day 5 brought with it an early morning flight to Cochin, Kerala.  The Cochin airport, although simple-looking was sparkling clean.  This cleanliness prevailed everywhere in Kerala.  We got to the rented car (with driver) and started our trip to Guruvayur.  Rugmini Regency Hotel, like the airport, was simple but clean.  It was a good time to visit because there were no lines in at Guruvayur that afternoon or the next day.  We also were able to make some side trips to an elephant sanctuary (Punnathur Kotta) that afternoon and Mummiyur Temple.  The elephants are used during the festivals at Guruvayur.  We had a delicious all-you-can-eat meal served  on banana leaves at the Ramakrishna Lunch House for about 20 Rupees each. 

The next morning, after worshipping at Guruvayur, we drove back to Cochin. We reached Chennai in the evening and headed to Srini's grandmother's house.  The next day (Day 7) was spent visiting family and shopping for Indian snacks to bring back with us.

Days 8 and 9 were spent in Delhi.  Srini had a talk scheduled at IBM Research.  IBM had made reservations in the "IBM Guesthouse" which turned out to be a run-down little place that had nothing to do with IBM.  Here, no one spoke English and we survived on Asha's Hindi. Within 5 minutes, we decided to leave and selected the Park Royale Hotel.

The next day, it was time to visit Udaipur.  We were greatly looking forward to this since we had reservations at the famous Lake Palace Hotel.  Udaipur's Airport is tiny and the airport to the city is about 20kms.  As the taxi drove up up to the pier, the site of the hotel was spectacular.  The marble palace seemed to be floating on Lake Pichola.  There is only one way to access this palace -- by boat from the City Palace which overlooks it.  The other claim to fame is that Lake Palace was featured in the James Bond movie Octopussy.  As it turns out, most of the memorable scenes were shot at Jag Mandir which is also on the same lake.

July is off-season for travel in India and, as a result, we had the run of the entire hotel.  Although we did not have a suite room (which is highly recommended), we still enjoyed ourselves.  We asked the front desk if we could see one of the suites with colored glass windows, 10 varieties of shampoo, etc.  Our reaction: next time, we'll book a suite.  There are two restaurants at the hotel - one where only hotel guests can eat and one that tourists can visit.  The open-access one was more crowded but served a delicious breakfast.  We ate dinner at the hotel guests-only restaurant where five people served us our meal since there was no one else to serve.  Royal treatment indeed. 

We checked in and then took a boat ride back to the city to take a tour of the City Palace.  This palace was spectacular -- especially the glass and mirror work in the various rooms.  It also had a nice view of the Lake Palace.

On Day 11, we thought we would go for a boat ride as well as make use of our free 1/2 day city tour included in our room.  Lunch was at the Shiv Nivas palace (an extravagant meal of 600 Rupees).  We couldn't help but notice that the restaurant food in India is so much better than in the US.  There were dishes we had never heard of.

The next day, it was time to go to the Pink City (Jaipur).  In retrospect, we should have spent a few extra days in Udaipur itself.  Our stay in Jaipur seemed to go wrong from the start.  We had reservations at the Raj Mahal Palace hotel.  Although it sounds nice, it turned out to be a colonial style building that was not luxurious.  Plus, we seemed to be the only guests in the entire place.  We decided to go to the lobby and ask if we could change hotels to Rambagh Palace (also Taj Group).  The Manager was kind enough to allow this.  Rambagh Palace was much nicer than Raj Mahal and well worth the extra price.

That evening, we decided to go visit Chowki Dhani (a re-creation of a Rajastani Village).  Entrance included dinner and entertainment (camel rides, dancing, magic show, etc).  Again, we probably should not have gone there since as we were eating dinner (served on the floor, on banana leaves), a rat scurried past!  Alas, it was too late since we had already eaten!

The next day, we hired a car for the entire day to visit Hawa Mahal, Amber Fort, City Palace and the Observatory.  It was a hot, humid day which made it unpleasant.  But the worst of it was our elephant ride experience at Amber Fort.  You had to pre-pay for your elephant ride (which we did).  Once you get on top of the elephant, the driver started requesting more money in broken English.  Our driver started racing to the top past the other elephants.  Half way up, he slowed down and asked for more money.  We were upset by this but gave him 50 Rupees for fear that he wouldn't take us to the top.  He then asked for more and reluctantly took us to the top.  It turned out later that elephant driver is supposed to bring us down too and give us his number.  We took a different elephant driver down and this man too tried to get more money from us.  We complained to the local police there.  It was *very* clear that the foreign tourists there had thoroughly spoilt the locals as they were giving money left and right!

Srini got violently ill that night and the next day was spent waiting for the hotel doctor.  Food poisoning (from Chowki Dhani) is our guess!  The hotel staff were very kind and went out of their way to bring fruits and simple meals for us to eat.

On Day 15, we took a flight back to Delhi and rested in our friend's house until our midnight flight back to New York.

Guruvayur

Guruvayur

Lake Palace, Udaipur

City Palace, Udaipur

Jag Mandir, Udaipur

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

City Palace, Jaipur

Amber Fort, Jaipur

Amber Fort, Jaipur

Qutab Minar, Delhi