Travel: Experience India in luxury

There are many ways of being in India. At Agra Fort, an American girl with henna tattoos and flowing scarves was bargaining with the toilet attendant. 100 Rupees? She was outraged: yes, 1p for a pee. Like millions of travellers and readers of books such as Eat Pray Love before her, she had obviously gone to find herself. While there are no guarantees that you'll like the self you find, I defy anyone not to be absolutely enthralled by India.

What is it that attracts so many backpackers and seekers of all sorts to this vast country? An obvious answer is price – 1p bathroom breaks notwithstanding, €100 could see you through a month, if you chose to be careful rather than comfortable. But what if you feel a little too old for that? What if you’d love to experience the epic culture shock of India, revel in the colours, sounds and smells of the world’s largest democracy, but prefer the idea of five-star luxury punctuated by well-looked-after forays into the teeming streets and bazaars to get to grips with a bit of Indian grit?

Can you still get the full impact of India from an air conditioned coach, staying in gorgeous hotels, with concierge and guides on hand to cater to your every whim?

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My recent trip took in Old and New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, the National Park at Ranthambore, and Mumbai. We discovered both luxury and grit, extraordinary contrasts, delicious curries, memorable dawns and sunsets, and the sense that despite all the astonishing experiences, we were only just scratching the surface of this, at times, unbelievable country.

“There are 330 million manifestations of Hinduism,” says our guide, Rajeev. “That’s 330 million ways of thinking towards the divine.” Rajeev is obviously hugely proud of his country, and at pains to try to explain what makes the whole thing, with its population of 1.22 billion, hold together. “Organised chaos,” he says, as we weave our way through six lanes of traffic on a highway designed for four.

A coach trip like this is anything but boring, as outside, scene after scene looks like a set up for an incredible photoshoot. A woman in a gorgeously coloured sari stands in a vast dusty field against the setting sun. Another sits side-saddle on the pillion of a scooter, her silks like flags in the wind. We follow a tuk tuk stacked high with creates of live chickens, and see a man in white robes and a red turban, fourth up on a motorbike with a pig sitting on the handlebars.

Cricket games appear on every patch of flat ground. There are barber shops, tin huts on stilts at the roadside – Indian men do seem to have brilliant hair. Cows meander the roads, grazing placidly on the central reservation of the motorway. Sacred to Hindus, they’ve learned to rely on traffic swerving to avoid them and, we’re told, enjoy the busier roads as exhaust fumes keep the flies at bay.

Our Insight Luxury Gold Itinerary has raised expectations by its very name, but it does live up. There are personalised cakes to greet us in our first hotel, the Hyatt Regency Delhi, and a barbecue of delicately spiced meats by the swimming pool as darkness falls in the hot Indian night.

Usually a fiercely independent traveller, I find it’s nice to be taken care of. After the quietness of Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India (it can hold 24,000 people), we find cycle rickshaws waiting to plunge us headlong through the narrow alleyways of Old Delhi. Spiderwebs of cabling festoon the route, and we’re treated to glimpses of shops – no more than gaps in the walls – selling hair cuts, spices, grains, guava, religious trinkets, radios …

Afterwards, we return to New Delhi, its vast civic buildings designed by Edwin Lutyens, who was also responsible for the Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge in Dublin; and then on to Gandhi Smriti, the house where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. Stone footsteps trace the route of his last walk, and despite the presence both of other visitors and a tribe of cheeky monkeys, it’s a moving experience.

The words that keep coming to mind are “extraordinary” and “contrast”, to the extent that I start to realise I need new words to describe the effect of India. It’s such a complex place: extremes of poverty and wealth, an intense press of people then open spaces where peace wraps itself around you, dirt and rubbish then the cool marble halls of the royal palaces, and the ultimate – the Taj Mahal.

Seeing the Taj Mahal is a bit like seeing the Mona Lisa, you’ve seen its image so frequently that it’s hard to register that this is the real thing. There are queues to have your photograph taken on “that” bench where Princess Diana sat, and more to enter the mausoleum itself. It is a wonder, but maybe it’s because of the familiarity, that I’m more taken aback by the Royal Pavilions of Agra Fort, where courtyard leads into courtyard, and views are framed by stonework so delicate it looks like lace.

In front of the pavilion where the Mughal kings held audiences, there is a small tomb, belonging to John Russell Colvin, a governor of British India, who died of cholera during the mutiny of 1857. The placement seems to illustrate quite brilliantly the impact of colonialism, and how one occupying power could be so insensitive to the greatness they came to try to overlay. “If it hadn’t been the British, it would have been someone else,” says Rajeev, with what I’m coming to understand as a characteristic Indian philosophy of temperate acceptance of what can’t be changed.

We take the train to Ranthambore, sharing a carriage with students from Rajasthan School No 4. Jasmeet and her classmates have won five trophies at a music competition in Narora, and as if choreographed into a Bollywood moment, the aisle erupts with singing and dancing. When a shyly smiling 13-year-old asks you to dance, you can’t refuse. Jasmeet says her dream is to visit Europe, and we chat about where she might go. “See,” she turns to her sceptical friend, “foreigners are lovely after all.”

A jeep safari through the Ranthambore National Park produces a tiger more quickly than anticipated, with the result that we spend the afternoon relaxing with local beers by one of the swimming pools at the lavish Nahargarh Hotel. After all the movement, the endless fresh impressions, the noise and colour, it’s a blissful moment.

In Jaipur, we visit the Amber Fort and the City Palace, complete with sneak visit to the otherwise private Royal Apartments, where the family snaps on display in silver frames include Oprah, Bill Clinton and most of the British royal family.

The delicious thali lunch at 1135AD restaurant on top of the Amber Fort is almost overshadowed by the brilliance of the private dining room, where every surface has been covered in silver gilt, mirrors or velvet. In the balance of luxury versus grit, I’m starting to warm to luxury, until we head down to the bazaar to bargain for silks, silver and other trinkets and baubles, and I realise that I really love a bit of both.

We finish up in Mumbai, where the heat and spice smells at the Crawford Market are intense, but there’s something about the vastness, the layers of history and lives, the complex network of people making a living in the world’s second most expensive city, that makes me want to return to spend more time getting to grips with it.

There are many ways of discovering India, and many ways of being when you are there. You’ll find yourself lost for words amid the abundance of colour, noise, quiet and contrasts. But will you find yourself? It depends what you’re looking for.

HOW TO: INDIA

GO:

Gemma Tipton travelled with Insight Vacations on a preview of the Essence of India with Ranthambhore itinerary plus Fascinating Mumbai extension. For 10 nights, it costs from €3,350 per person sharing. Included are luxury five-star accommodation, meals, internal flights, transport, experiences and excursions. See

[ insightvacations.com ]

, tel: 1800 98 98 98. Flights to India via Dubai were with Emirates,

[ emirates.com/ie. ]

STAY

: Gemma stayed at the Hyatt Regency, Delhi,

[ delhi.regency.hyatt.com ]

; ITC Mughal, Agra,

[ itchotels.in ]

; Nahargarh, Ranthambore,

[ nahargarh.com ]

; Fairmont, Jaipur

[ fairmont.com/jaipur; ]

and Oberoi,

Mumbai,

[ oberoihotels.com ]

TRAVEL TIPS:

The extension of the  e-Tourist Visa scheme to include Ireland last year simplifies the process. Apply online a minimum of four days in advance. Cost is $60.

[ indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html ]

India is such a huge country that vaccination and malaria advice changes depending on itinerary. Check with your doctor or the Tropical Medical Bureau,

[ tmb.ie ]

Dress tactfully and modestly. Some religious shrines and sites provide cover-alls, but you’ll fit in better in loose clothes with long sleeves and long trousers – they also help keep mosquitoes at bay.

EATING AND DRINKING

: Delhi Belly applies all over India, but it’s also avoidable

Do:

use only bottled water, even for teeth brushing; eat cooked food and fruit that has been peeled. Street food is fine - so long as it has been freshly cooked.

Don’t:

eat salads or unpeeled fruit; take ice in your drink ever – even in the fanciest hotel; open your mouth in the shower; swim in untreated pools