Viajes India
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Hi Shweta,
We have just arrived home after the most fantastic holiday we h
ave had (and we have had a few). From the moment we first contacted you to boarding the plane for the return flight from Delhi, you and your colleagues have made this a most memorable experience.
The arrangements made us feel very special at all times, this is due to the individual attention we received throughout the holiday for example being met and escorted at the Airport, at check-in / check-out at each hotel all done for us, the guides to show and explain the places we visited and above all our driver RAMESH who we became very attached to, an excellent driver and accommodated our requests without question.
This was our first visit to “Incredible India”, but it certainly will not be the last and I have no hesitation in recommending Compass India to anyone considering a holiday there.
Vicki Taylor
Dear Anupama,
Well we are back in the UK after our Indian holiday which i must say was organised with such presision by yourselves, many thanks for such a well organised trip with excellent guides, compass representatives and our fantastic & quite brilliant driver Bhupinda, he was so cool and amazing around all the frantic traffic in the cities. Our only dissappointment was not seeing any tigers at Ranthanbhore but then we really didn't expect to. The Estate Hotel in Delhi was great a quiet oasis away from the hussle & bustle of Delhi city, on the whole the hotels we great, the Howard Hotel Plaza in Agra needs a refurbishment, i'ts a little tired and the reseraunt could have been cleaner but apart from that everything was fine, we would not hesitate to recommend your company to our friends should they wish to visit India. The most wonderful thing was of course the Taj Mahal which we saw at sunrise, photoes can never do it justice, i have wanted to see it since i was a little girl but i was completely blown away with it;s beauty, any way many thanks for our wonderful trip and the gifts you gave us as we were leaving,
Best wishes to you and all your staff, please tell Bhupinda how much we enjoyed his driving & company
Susan & David Goodwin
To: Varsha
Subject: Thanks
Hi Varsha
We have reached England safely after a delay of 4 hours due to a security alert!
We would all like to thank yourself and Ujjwal for your lovely hospitality and gifts on Wednesday. They were a terrific surprise and the restaurant was fab.
We hope we can return the compliment when you are here. Look forward to meeting up with you in November.
We can't stress how much we enjoyed the holiday and all the arrangements you made for us. The trip was made special because of all the care and attention to detail that you had put in which left us with nothing to worry about.
Also Suresh said you would not accept payment for the use of the mobile phone, which was so useful to us. Thanks for that too - much appreciated.
You know that we will - and already have - mentioned you to all our friends and associates and I'm confident that a couple of them will be in touch soon. Meanwhile if I hear of any other marketing opportunities, I will let you know.
Thanks Again
Warm regards
Dyalesh, Aneeta, Nikhil and Meera
Dear Shweta,
We are now back from Mumbai, and Stuart and I wanted to thank you for organizing what was a really enjoyable holiday. We thoroughly enjoyed the Rajasthani elements of our trip, and have some wonderful memories of Agra.
We would also like to commend our driver, Dharampad Singh, for his excellent service during our trip.
He was always courteous and friendly, and nothing was ever too much trouble. The car was clean and comfortable throughout our trip, and he went out of his way to make sure that we were safe at all times on the road, especially given the less cautious driving of other vehicles.
He also pointed out relevant places of interest and landmarks along the way, to add further colour to the holiday.
We would definitely hope to travel with him again, and would strongly recommend him to all of your guests in the future. Please pass on our thanks to him again.
However, there are a couple of elements that did not meet with our satisfaction, and we would like you to address these for future visitors.
We had checked the website for all the hotels you proposed, and were happy to go with the 3 star options on this basis. The hotels in Delhi and Agra did look more functional than holiday oriented, but well equipped and spacious.
That said, the rest of the trip was wonderful. Our guides in Jaipur, Agra and Jodhpur were excellent and extremely informative, and we saw a lot of fascinating sights and craftsmanship at the various emporia (though the ratio of shops to sights in Jaipur was perhaps a little too high).
We would be happy to discuss any of these comments further, should you require. Thanks again for your help.
Best wishes
Anupa & Stuart GrantDear Varsha
I have been extremely busy ever since I came back from our holiday in India. I just wanted to thank you for organising our tour. Please do not feel that we were put off by the various difficulties we encountered during our travels. This is all part and parcel of travelling.
I can say for the whole group that we appreciated the opportunity to meet you and Sanjay in Delhi. We enjoyed the meal and made all the more enjoyable with your pleasant company. I have written to thank Sanjay for his assistance during our tour and his company at the meal. I must say that Sanjay certainly made an impact whenever he got involved during the tour. Do let us know if you and your husband are ever in London as we would certainly like to meet you again. I have mentioned it to Sanjay that perhaps we could be invited on the occasion of his wedding, when it happens. Having met him, I am certain that whomever he decides to settle down with, will consider herself very fortunate.
I have been mentioning your organisation to people at work and one couple have asked to be given your details, when they decide to travel to India. I will keep you aware of this when it happens.
Thank you again for all your help and assistance.
I would like to wish you a happy new year.
Do keep in touch when you can get away from your work. It is easiest to contact me at work (see below) – after all, I seem to spend all my time here!
Best wishes
Arun Mistry
Director of Finance – Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
University College London
Hi Varsha,
I am writing to thank you and your colleagues for the service provided for our 3 American clients on their recent trip.
Pete met up with them in Delhi this Friday and they all gave positive feedback and were happy with the city tours and guides provided, including Pushkar once the initial problems were sorted out.
Thank you again and we hope to do further business with you in the future.
Kind regards
Lynn & Pete Cooper
Dear Varsha,
I wish to take this opportunity to thank you and all concerned for the wonderful tour that we have experienced.
In particular I would ask you to convey our sincerest best wishes to your representative Dileep in Agra who we found to be courteous ,obliging and attentive at all times, Our truly wonderful,carefull and pleasant driver Grish and our guide Sanhir in Agra whose knowledge and enthusiasm of his subject was outstanding ,he was also a caring and compassionate man..
In all an experience we will treasure all our lives.
Wishing you and all your staff a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year
Ps. I would like to apologise for any misspelling of Names.
Kindest regards
Edward and Beverley Davingoff.
Hello Varsha.
Thought I'd drop you a quick email to say we had a great time in India, with most things working according to plan and good recovery when they didn't. So thank you very much for your patience with us and flexibility in putting together the trip.
Best regardsDale
Dear Shweta,
Well, how can we ever thank you for all you did to make our holiday
to India so very special and unique?? Our holiday was fantastic.
Our hotels and travels were so smooth. We had nothing to worry about.
And this was all because of you. Thank you.. You did a brilliant
job in planning our holiday.. Each area we visited was so special and unique. Each Compass India representative met us upon our arrival at each destination. It was comforting to know someone was looking out for us. The Compass India representative in Ranthambhore was by far the best representative we met. He took great care in organizing our game drives into Ranthambhore. He also arranged for us to do a bit of shopping while in Ranthambhore. He came to Sher Bagh several times to met with us and to insure everything was fine.
Each tour guide we had was very informative. And each tour guide worked with us to decide what was best to do at what time given the hot temperatures. We were able to see almost everything we had listed on our itinerary. However, because of time constraints, we had to eliminate a few items. Of course we were saddened by this. We gained so much knowledge from our tour guides. Again, there was one outstanding tour guide, Sham in Jaipur. He was very professional and very knowledgeable. He also went above and beyond during our time in Jaipur. He walked us around the market area for us to see how life truly is in for Indians. We had such a fabulous time in Jaipur not only because it is a fabulous city but because Sham was fabulous.
Lastly, Mr. Ajay Yadav, our tour driver, was absolutely wonderful! He is very professional and is a great ambassador for Compass India. Not only is he an exceptional driver, he is an exceptional person; he was always very pleasant and happy. His heart seemed to be so pure and kind.
During the long days of driving, Ajay would just smile and talk a bit with us. We don’t know how he could drive so long under such conditions and continue to be so pleasant.. There were times when we had to close our eyes because of the other drivers and the chaos on the road. Ajay would just smile and laugh with us after we made it through the chaos. He was such a pleasure to be with.
Ajay was also very accommodating to us. He would stop the vehicle so we could take pictures when we wanted to take pictures. He was certainly available to our every need. He drove the vehicle so gingerly when there were bumps on the road to insure we had the most pleasant ride possible.
Also, Ajay kept the vehicle clean and took great pride in this. It seemed every time we left the vehicle, when we returned, the vehicle was cleaner then what it was before and it smelled very nice. How spoiled we were.. Ajay also took great care in his appearance also. His dress was so sharp. Everyday, his shirts were crisply ironed. Sometimes we felt underdressed for how well his appearance looked..
Words can not express our feelings for Ajay. It was a pleasure to be greeted by him every morning. And it was sad to say good-bye to him. As we returned from our holiday, we realized that we miss Ajay. Please give our best to him. (And also to his new born son!) Ajay is a valuable asset to Compass India.
With all our planning, working and traveling, we are saddened our holiday to India is over. We have many fond memories of India and of the persons we met while traveling in India. Without Compass India our memories would not be as enjoyable. Thank you for all your help for planning this wonderful holiday. Also, please pass our thanks to all of Compass India for providing us with an exceptional holiday to an exceptional country. We give all the best to you Shweta and also to Ajay.
If you could please send us the e-mail address of your management, we would like to write him a letter indicating what a great service Ajay and you did for us. We feel we must share what a great experience we had because of Compass India. We did forget to give our feedback form to the Compass India Delhi representative. Sorry about that. We hope this e-mail will compensate for our forgetfulness.
Thank you for everything you have did for us – we truly had an absolutely wonderful holiday to India. Again, THANK YOU.
Mark, Connie and Tyler Poppenwimer
Dear Varsha,
We got back from India Sunday Feb 18th. We had a wonderful time in Kerala, thank you very much for arranging our tour. We had an excellent, very knowledgeable driver and we felt very comfortable with him. The only issue we had was when we got to Lake Palace they told us that we didn't have reservations. They happened to have two rooms available so we got them based on the fact that if they didn't get the payment from you, we would cover the charges and we had agreed to do that. It all got sorted out later and everything worked out fine. Lake Palace was an excellent choice, we loved it.
The second comment I have is about Taj Malabar in Cochin, this was a hotel we had picked based on what we had seen on the internet. It is an excellent hotel, with very good front desk service but I felt that their restaurants were not very accommodating. It is a hotel where most of the Europeans stay and I got the feeling the restaurants mostly catered to them. They had a barbeque outside for dinner and we were told it was full and we didn't have reservations, there was plenty of room but no effort was made to add more seating. We tried another restaurant in the hotel and were told the same thing so we had to go to our third and last choice. Here we were told that we could get food from outside but would have to sit inside to eat it. It looked like the barbeque outside was mainly for the Europeans. I just want to give you my feedback in case it would be of help.
Other than this, all the hotels and the house boat were very good and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour. Again, thank you very much for arranging it for us.
Warm Regards,
Charanjeet Rai
Dear Varsha
Thank you so much for all your efforts to make our family holiday such a huge success. The whole family thoroughly enjoyed our visit to India and our only disappointment was not seeing any tigers at Ranthambore but at least we have an excuse to return!
The hotels and tours all worked out very well indeed....We particularly enjoyed our stay at the Meridien in Jaipur with its Gala Dinner for New Year's Eve, and enjoyed the peace and quiet and beautiful setting of Dev Villas, and good home cooking. The Nikko in Delhi was fine, but the Trident Hilton in Agra was a bit disappointing - it was a nice hotel but the food and the service there was not very good. Our driver and his companion was superb and our guides were very good. We will not hesitate to recommend Compass Tours to our friends who wish to visit India.
Many thanks again for your efforts on our behalf.
Best regards
Graham and Debi Evans
Hi Durjay,
My girlfriend and I just wanted to send you an email to thank you for organising the best holiday that we have ever had! We loved India and were fascinated by it's sights, sounds and history. I cannot fault the service we received from Compass, we were met at every stage and were very well looked after. I would particularly like to thank Sanjay, he was always polite and extremely helpful. Would you be able to tell me the name of our driver, he was superb! His driving was excellent and we looked forward to our journeys with him. The guides were also excellent and very informative, particularly the guide we had at Agra. The hotels were amazing and surpassed even our expectations.
It really was the holiday of a lifetime and we are planning to return in the next couple of years.
Again thank you to you and all your staff!
Keith Cockett
We have now got back home and before work takes all my attention back again I would like, also in the name of my partner Francis, to thank you and your team for one of the most fascinating and wonderful trips that we have done so far. India, or at least the north of it as we have seen it, is a wonderful country and discovering it has been for us in turn wonderful, upsetting, touching, overwhelming... It has definitely been an intense and stretching experience with good learning for us... You and your team have contributed to this experience. The programme was excellent: it has enabled us to learn about the past of India as well as to get to know the India of today with its culture and its people at the same time. The pace of the programme also worked very well for us. The guides that you have selected have all been nice and very professional people. We have particularly appreciated Aman in Varanasi (a passionate and kind person keen to convey so much about his country, a real wealth of knowledge with excellent pedagogical skills), Raghu (?) in Jodpur (a real fine man, very knowledgeable and handling his guests very well), Man Singh in Jaipur (very efficient, straightforward, always finding a good balance between the level of details to communicate and the number of things to show) and Netin in Delhi (very knowledgeable, personable and full of humour) . Francis has also appreciated Satender (?) in Bikaner who did the tour in very good French! Most hotels that your team has selected for us have been excellent. Udaivillas was a real dream! Deogarh was a pleasure, as was Devi Garh (a fantastic hotel). Mandawa Castle was maybe less convincing (not as well taken care of as the Laxmi Niwas Palace in Bikaner fo example). The only real shadow though was the Rajwada Hotel in Jaisalmer, which we thought was very poor, a real shock after the wonderful Umaid Palace in Jodpur. I gave some verbal feedback about the hotel to Wickram and also completed a feedback form for the hotel. They wanted us to sign the voucher at our arrival so I could not write any feedback on it. We were grateful that your team accepted to give us a suite in the hotel (after I contacted them to inform about the situation), which made things a bit better... Still we were relieved when we left the place... A less serious flaw was the selection of the last hotel (The Grand) in Delhi, which compared with the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi, was disappointing in terms of location (so close to the airport) as well as in terms of atmosphere... While I understand the logic of putting us in a hotel close to the airport on the last day, we would have much more preferred to finish our trip on a nicer note, in a place like the Taj Mahal for example. We would not have minded to get up a bit earlier for the airport.... I would like to thank very much your agents in the different places. We have very much appreciated Piyush's help in Varanasi when I got concerned about several mosquito bites that I got on one day: he has been highly responsive, caring and professional. Also Raj Singh in Udaipur was very responsive and efficient when he organised for some clothes that I forgot in Deogarh to be delivered in Udaipur: thank you! Thank you also to John in Agra and to Ajay in Jodpur for taking the time to come to the hotel and welcome us: a kind gesture. Obviously thank you also to Wickram for his friendly and professional services. Last but not least I wanted to thank the drivers: Ram in Varanasi was a very good and pleasant driver who showed us very interesting aspects of the Indian day-to-day life on the second day: we have appreciated this a lot. In particular we would also like to thank Narendra, our "long distance" driver. He has been an excellent driver. He was discrete while at the same time very attentive to our needs. A very kind man who has been a very good company for us! In terms of the trip as a whole, as mentioned before, we are very satisfied with all destinations that you put on the programme although, in retrospect, we think that we could have skipped Jaisalmer, not only because of the hotel but also because we found the place too full of tourists, with no particular soul in spite of being the oldest fort in the world... but of course we can only say this in retrospect and we fully understand why you put it on the programme.
I hope that you will find this feedback helpful. We are offering it as a sign of gratitude and respect for your very good work. We will keep excellent memories of our trip. We will certainly recommend you to our friends and families and, should we consider to visit India again in the future, we will come back to Compass Tours. It was also nice to meet you personally and to see the offices and the people behind the email address that I had contacted.... We wish you and your team all the very best for the future.
With kind regards
Ghislaine & Francis
Durjay
Larry and I very much appreciate your offer to repay us the amount we spent on Mr. Rajinder. It means a lot to us that you are willing to reimburse us this amount, but we are very satisfied with the prompt manner in which you responded to our concerns and followed up with Mr. Rajinder. That's what we were hoping for in bringing this matter to your attention. While we appreciate your offer to compensate us, we would like to graciously decline the offer as we consider the matter resolved. Rest assured, that we had a wonderful trip and we will definitely travel with Compass should we visit India again. We have also highly recommended Compass to friends and family who have asked us about our trip.
Thank you for your graciousness.
Hi Varsha
I am sorry it has taken me so long to send this email but I did want to write and thank you and compass tours for arranging our holiday in India. We had a wonderful time, with many photos and memories to bring back with us. A special thank you to our driver, Ragu on the long drives.
Thank you again Louise Wade
Hi Varsha
It was a pleasure to meet you and i need to apologies for not writing to you sooner...I have had more visitors from USA and Canada. My sister surprised us all and came over to see my dad as he left for India last Thursday. I have given him your contact deatils as he may visit Delhi area....but i will let you know in due course. Anyways we had an excellant trip with you and wish to thak you and your staff for a very memorable and enjoyable, stressless trip. It was my daughter’s first visit and already she wishes to return to India....soon. We are now booked to goto Canada in summer to attend my niece's WEDDING in August. She got engaged whilst we were in GOA and surprised us ALL. So our next trip is already in planned. Overall we had and excellant trip...... I will now just say that whilst everything was great ... it might help you for future travellers... Our driver was excellent and your services were great (meet and greet), Your reps were great (including guides in Agra/Jaipur). I will mention that the Hotel in Delhi we felt was a little run down...and not upto scratch- need of renovation etc. Jaypee was excellant, Clarks was good as well. Your rep (guide in Delhi was not like the other...) In CONFIDENCE i state that he tried to pass us as locals at 2 visits and we were stopped.... I than gave him a STRONG TELLING OFFand told him that i was NOT a local, our dressing was not local and we stood out becuase of our differences (no disrespect) and that i had paid all my fees/entrances and did not want to be embarrased and asked unnecsaary hassle! I think he tried to save you some monies....by purchasing LOCAL tickets instead of foreign visitor rates.He succeeded at ONE location where we passed as locals! but i ensured that he did pay the correct elsewhere. Also whilst his English was reasonable pronunciations were on times difficult to understand...but never mind. I feel its only fair to let you know as overall we were very pleased with YOU and your company and i will 110% recommend you to my friends and family who are planning to come there soon... Please keep my address. When you are in UK we would love to see you and hope that you can visit us in Leicester. Incidentally we are TWINNED to RAJKOT so we are well know.. Me, my wife Panna and daughter Nikita wish to again thank you for your 'gifts', your services and send you our love and best wishes for 2006.
Hitesh
Hello Varsha,
A very happy New Year to you and your Team at Compass India Inc. We 've just returned to New Zealand on 2nd January 2005, spent the New year over the Mumbai Airport and watched the fireworks from the Plane. On behalf of my Family members we express our sincere thanks to you and your team for making our tour a pleasurable and memorable experience.
Comments:
1. The Bus you provided and the Driver and his companion were extremely pleasant, curtiouse and honest. They looked after us very well. I recommend them highly.
2. Tour Guide -Ravi was extremely familiar with the New Delhi Knowledge and helped us every where possible in his novel way to keep the entry fee low. Please pass our thanks and Regards to him.
3. Tour Guide - for Agra and Jaipur (..... and Mansingh) were also good, however they were little faster than we could keepup with. 4. Your agent in Jaipur got us on board the Jaipur express on time and farewell us.(very curtiouse fellow).
5. Jaipur express to Mumbai was good choice as we arrived in Mumbai on time.
6. We were disappointed with the "Chokhi dhani" services(no fault of yours as we had ask you to make reservation).
7.Howard Plaza in Agra was the best of all hotels.
8. We felt the Comfort Inn in New Delhi was little out of the City centre particularly for evening shopping.
We then departed for Goa on same evening for 3nights and 4days. All in all the whole Journey lived up to our expectation and went like clock-work.We were impressed with the attitude and the manner in which were treated all the way. I haven't had a chance to fully check our Visa Statement but I think they have drawn more funds than the amount shown on your Invoice. When I get the final Account. I will send you the email with details. You will probably need to check at your end. Your Invoice Ref: COM/142/2005-06,3rd. December 2005. Once again many thanks for organising this tour. Finaly it was a pleasurable experience meeting with you and your team. If you ever decide to come to N.Z. please give me a call,I am sure we will be able to assist.
Regards,
Mahendra Dahya
Dear Varsha
Hope you had a happy Diwali. It was a shame we missed you when we came into the office because we would have liked to say a big THANK YOU for all your help and for organising such a wonderful tour for us.
The service was excellent and we will certainly recommend your company to any friends planning to visit India. We would particularly like to praise the services of our main driver and his helper, known to us as Captain and Surinder. Their competent, safe driving gave us confidence and a comfortable journey always. The Tempo Traveller was a great success and ensured the children coped with the long journeys very well as there was room to more about and be comfortable. We really enjoyed our last minute visit to Agra over Diwali – the Taj Mahal is truly majestic.
We were very happy with most of the hotels. The only exception was the Quality Inn HimDev which was noticeably below the standard of the other hotels and was disappointing.
Thank you again for your help.
With our best wishes
Taylor Family
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Dear Shweta,
We have already said how much we enjoyed our trip, and this is our belated attempt at an overview of this super holiday in terms of organisation, people and places.
Arrival and Delhi (1) 24 April
Successfully and promptly met, firstly by Simrun and then by Shish Ram, both of whom provided a great smiling welcome. The change in hotel, which surprised us at first, turned out to be just fine. We were impressed by the concern and phone calls making sure we were content, and even more impressed by you and Saurabh taking the trouble to meet us at lunch time and talk us through the itinerary. Ravi enabled us to see a lot of Delhi in a single day, providing good information all the way round.
Departure and trip to Shimla 25 April
Early start and again, Simrun’s smiling face, helping to secure our luggage to leave at hotel and delivering us all the way to our seats on the train. Efficiently met at Chandigarh, and great drive to Shimla – we thought him a very safe driver. Excellent choice of lunch stop in Dharamapur and lots of information on the way about what we were passing through. Dropped off in car park and found our way to hotel where Ashok joined us – perhaps would have been useful if could have met us at the car. Ashok talked us through following day’s itinerary and suggested a reduced programme, taking out the longer drives away from the town. Ashok did not want to start guiding until 10.00 – we had suggested 09.00 so we agreed on 09.30 – 10.00!
We were initially disappointed by Clarkes hotel, as it was neither classic heritage nor Oberoi standard and not a very warm welcome. However, we cheered up immensely once we got to know the rest of the staff (particularly restaurant and Rishan Chandra), and had great food and great service. By the end of our stay, they were helping to teach us Hindi and writing Sanskrit for us!
Although I think you do not recommend a restaurant in Shimla, we had an excellent meal in the Asiana, on the Ridge with great views and a lot to watch in the square below us. (The provision of a map of Shimla would be really helpful as the one from the tourist office is really not very good!)
Shimla 26 April
Spent the day in Shimla, and did not include the zoo and cricket pitch, as Ashok did not think these were worth the drive. Instead we toured the town, and Ashok clearly wanted to include everything before leaving us at lunchtime, but we needed to stop and insisted on a break. He was the least willing of all our guides to spend a full day showing us things.
Shimla to Delhi 27 April
What a trip!!! Safely delivered to the train. We were in pretty basis accommodation, which did not matter because we had a great time with the other passengers (most Indian, two German) and the carriage was not full, allowing us to move from one side to the other, swapping seats with others, to enjoy the breathtaking views. Had the carriage been full, it would have been a squash. We saw, passing in the opposite direction, two superior levels of train accommodation – one even had big freestanding armchairs. We think the timing of our trip made using these trains impractical, but it would be worth exploring ways of doing this, even by changing the itinerary as the carriages looked so special.
However, the trip was amazing. Quoting directly from Sarah’s notes of the day “Wow! We didn’t stop craning our necks and taking photos. Ignored all Compass instructions to ‘not get along’ with passengers and stay locked to luggage. At each station Keith got out, and I did sometimes – bags left on seat……Unmissable trip – to go to Shimla and not do it would be to miss the best bit!” Perhaps this reflects the British/Western love of train journeys. Our small airline carry-on suitcase was too big to go on the luggage rack, and again it might be useful to suggest to your clients that they take soft bags?
Delhi 2 to Udaipur 28 April
Tiron (?), the driver, was brilliant! He knew exactly where to take us to buy guide books, charging unit and camera memory cards, and looked after us so well. Germans on the train had strongly recommended the Folk museum. Tiron seemed less impressed, and he was right!
En route to the airport, Simrun listened to Keith talking about the better class accommodation in the trains – he was so keen to understand and answer all our queries.
Delighted to be met by Compass rep and Shish Ram. Delivered to the Fateh Prakash and offered a choice of rooms. Another WOW! What a stunning hotel. We can understand why people would want to stay at the Lake Palace, but we are really glad we didn’t. For many people, the history, the atmosphere, the building, the staff, the views, everything about Fateh Prakash, would be preferable to the formulaic delivery of the Lake Palace. Another high spot of our holiday!
Udaipur 29 April
Surendra – almost our favourite. What a lovely gentleman! He seemed so delighted that we had so many questions to ask and so keen to learn about his country and his heritage. His English was excellent, as was his sense of humour. We would want all our friends to have him as their Udaipur guide. A wonderful day’s tour and Surendra gave us such an insight into Indian culture. At Keith’s request, Surendra managed to fit in an extra trip to see the Maharana’s classic cars. Again, nothing was too much trouble.
Udaipur to Jodphur via Ranakpur 30 April
Nice guide at Ranakpur temples, everything well organised. Hotel and Compass representative absolutely fine – location of hotel not particularly interesting, but very airy and lovely quality. Arrived too late for planned evening visit.
Jodphur 1 May
Met Raghu. By a small margin our best guide. Intelligent, fascinating, articulate and very open – made it easy for us to ask many questions. (Despite bad stomachs, he had so much of interest to tell us, that we almost forgot how we were feeling. But we didn’t do him justice!)
Trip to the Bishnoi villages was excellent – miles better than anticipated. Fascinating, informative, and very funny, especially thanks to Ragu, Shish Ram, the farmer, the potter and Keith. Shish and Ragu decided to use our vehicle not a jeep, because it was so hot – good decision. Wonderful market trip.
Jodphur to Jaipur 2 May
Met Compass rep who took us to an orphanage to deliver our pens, pencils etc. Very moving experience – we would like to help.
Shapura House Hotel fine – pleasant pool, very good terraced restaurant with orchestra, dancers and puppet show.
Jaipur 3 May
Guide Paric good, but not outstanding, like Raghu and Surendra. (By this time our expectations were very high!) He chose a very good lunch venue. Thank you for the dinner you organised. The music and dancing were good, but less fun than the terrace of Shapura House, perhaps because the restaurant was virtually empty.
Jaipur/Agra via Fatepur Sikri 4 May
Agra hotel great. We had decided to see the Taj that evening from the other side of the Yamuna. Shish had one opinion on how long it would take, Compass rep over-ruled him and shortened the time – as a result we were too late for the sunset. As usual, Shish was right! He is a wise man. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our first glimpse of the Taj and the Agra fort.
Taj and Delhi 5 May
Good timing for Taj visit, and our guide (Sunny?) knew just the right places to take photographs. Efficient guide who explained what we were seeing and got us to the right place at the right time. Simrun met us and, with Shish, helped us to shop for extra luggage for our shopping. from Rajasthan!
Delhi to Bandhavgarh 6 – 7 May
Good drive; driver spoke little English but was attentive and a very good driver. Lovely lodge and pool. Manager, Mr Manish, and staff delightful – chef wanted to ensure the food was to our taste and spoke very good English. Our safari guide, Syd, was initially unsuccessful in tracking the tiger, but tried really hard at the end of the tour, giving us the finest sighting that anyone could have of a lioness and three cubs. Again, he was informative both about the game and about Indian life, including inviting us to tea at his family home.
Bandhavgarh to Kanha 8 – 9 May
On arrival advised that we had been upgraded to the executive accommodation, largely due to the main area being absolutely full. Mr B (?) (friend of Mr Manish and sadly we have mislaid his name) subsequently said that we would prefer to be more quiet than in the busy main area, where there were many children. Accommodation excellent (an understatement) and catering/staff/lectures from the resident expert (Doctor? again our notes are lacking!) all very good. Much wild life and good tiger sighting.
Kanha to Delhi (4) 10 May
Simran, as ever, smiling and welcoming as we arrived late, and left early the next morning, tired but elated. The end of a most brilliant trip.
Our overwhelming memories are of the humour, wisdom, kindness and companionship of Shish Ram, who appeared every morning early, in his spotless, freshly laundered uniform. He clearly listens to the guides when they are in the vehicle with him, and has learnt so much, which he gladly shares with his clients when there is no guide. We could, and did, ask him anything. Even when it meant an even later night, before an early start, nothing was too much trouble. We can’t think of any which in which he could have been better.
Speaking of people who don’t seem to need any sleep, Simrun also did a great job, always friendly, always smiling, always helpful.
Of the collection of high quality tour guides, two are outstanding, Raghu and Surendra. Shish Ram and Simrun were outstanding.
We have already recommended Compass India to several of our friends, and will continue to do so, without reservation. If you have any potential clients who would like a reference for you, both of us would be happy to speak to them. Keith’s email address is as above, as is Sarah’s.
Shweta, if you have free time at a weekend and would like to visit Hampshire, we would be delighted to see you. We hope all is going well for you and the company.
Our very best wishes,
Keith and Sarah