Bridge the Travel Gap

I was looking through some diaries and found an old one from 1990 when I went to India. I spent six weeks in India with a lovely girl who took lots of photos and regretfully got very sick and had to be flown back to Australia for treatment. Alas we lost contact and I took no pictures as she had a brilliant camera. However, I did keep a detailed diary so I am going to attempt to retrace the route we took 24 years ago with my wife next year and even try to stay at some of the places I stayed last time if they still exist!

I arrived in May 1990 in Mumbai where we stayed at the Red Shields Salvation Army hostel. My abiding memory was having jelly and ice cream and not getting sick. I want to see how the city has changed and revisit some places such as the Gateway to India. Our next stop will be Ahmedabad as a jump off to Mt Abu where I want to go back and revisit the Dilwara Jain Temples. Then we will go to Udaipur where it took four and a half hours on a bus and to see if the Hotel Lalghat still exists and whether we can get a room overlooking the lake. Hoping also to have dinner at the lake palace in the middle of the lake, last time it cost 250 rupees for a slap up dinner. I expect prices may have gone up a bit.

Our next stop will be Jodhpur by overnight train and hopefully get the connecting train to Jasilmer. Last time it took in total 27 hours by train and I stayed at the Tourist Inn. Had a great time as we did a camel trek for several days. I liked Jasilmeer and the medieval feel it had and remember a dinner at a rooftop terrace watching an amazing lightning storm. From there it is back to Jodhpur and again another connecting train to the Pink City or Jaipur. Then on to Agra where this time I hope to avoid burning the soles of my feet on the marble floor. Finally we will end the trip in Delhi.

Not sure what to expect but I am sure there will be a few surprises and challenges on the journey.