Incredible Indian Tours

08/07/2021

Who else is feeling holgry a lot lately?

15/04/2021

We're dreaming of being back on the road.
Where are you dreaming of being?

06/04/2021

23/01/2021

Best Bernie meme yet

15/01/2021

One word - WOW!

12/01/2021

Wondering what it's like travelling by train in India at the moment?

Domestic tourism has well and truly started again and when I flew from Rajasthan to Kerala in mid December the flights were pretty much full, middle seats included.

The Christmas and New Year holiday period was quite busy in Cochin although it was much much quieter than it would normally be at this time of year.

I'm now on my way to Goa and decided to take a train for an 11 hour daylight journey. I'm travelling in a non-ac sleeper carriage which normally seats/sleeps 8 in each compartment, however they are only allowing 2 people to have a berth in each compartment.

Loving it! 🙏😁🇮🇳

10/12/2020

Udaipur Old City current situation 10th December 2020 - update from my previouys video in October.

17/10/2020

Udaipur is undergoing a massive infrastructure overhaul as part of the Indian Governments Smart City Initiative.
While very few tourists are in Udaipur they're taking the opportunity to dig up the streets in the old city around Lal Ghat and Gangaur Ghat to lay underground pipes, wiring etc.
Here's a little look at what the old city currently looks like.

21/09/2020

My dear friend from Orchha, Vandana.
You're such an inspiration ###

27/08/2020

For the lucky souls who visited Gujarat with me last November we had a brief visit to the Sun Temple in Modhera.
How amazing does this look in the rain!

11/07/2020

Did you catch our latest webinar on South India?
If you missed it - check it out here.

This is the third of our Virtual webinar tours. In this video we travel South India, following the route of our South Indian Odyssey 24 day tour. Visit our S...

11/07/2020

Oh to be in Nepal at this time to see these amazing mountain views from the Kathmandu valley!

With the clean air, we could and no pollution many mountains were seen from Kathmandu Valley. Usually many mountains are seen from Kathmandu Valley.

07/07/2020

Continuing our virtual tour webinar series...
South Indian Odyssey will be premiering on Youtube tomorrow July 8th at these times:
830pm IST (Indian standard time).
1am (Thursday 9th July) Australian (EST)
11am North American (EDT)
3pm UK (BST)

The video will remain on Youtube, so if these times don't work for you, watch it whenever you like after the premier time and date.

https://youtu.be/mak_ZQzYYpQ

This is the third of our Virtual webinar tours. In this video we travel South India, following the route of our South Indian Odyssey 24 day tour. Visit our S...

17/06/2020

17/06/2020

If you missed our most recent webinar, you can catch the video on our YouTube channel. Incredible Nepal
https://youtu.be/N8HfYrwqU8c

Coming soon... South Indian Odyssey

12/06/2020

Incredible Indian Tours is bringing you a series of webinars - virtual tours - so you can find out a little more about some of the amazing places on the subcontinent we travel to.

Join me as I take you on a journey through the amazing country of Nepal.

Our Incredible Nepal webinar will be online on YouTube this Saturday (tomorrow 12th June) at 12 midday (IST) (430pm AEST/2am EDT/730am BST).

Here is the link to the Youtube channel (NOTE: you won't be able to view the video until the above times).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8HfYrwqU8c

Don't worry if you can't make it at this time - the video will remain on our Youtube channel online for you to watch when you have a chance.

Continuing our series of Virtual webinar tours. In this video we visit Nepal - one of my favourite countries in the world. Famous for being the home of Mount...

27/05/2020

If you missed our first webinar a few days ago - here's the link to the video on Youtube.
All about Incredible Gujarat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1xchGV-PpA
Coming soon...Incredible Nepal

Please enjoy our first in a new series of videos - virtual webinar tours. In this video we visit Gujarat - one of India's best kept secrets. A state with a w...

03/04/2020

Isolation stories - Vandna

Around 20 years ago, when I escorted my first group to Orchha, a small town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, I met Vandana.

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/isolation-stories-vandana/

Vandana was a newly married young woman living with her husband Raju in a single room fronting the main street leading into town. Her ‘home’ was enroute from our hotel to the main town square and was nothing more than a ‘garage’ with a roll up corrugated iron door. I actually first met Vandana at a local kindergarten where she was teaching. Although untrained, she had a teaching job which paid her a very meagre salary, it was hardly enough for her and Raju to survive on. Next time I walked by her front door, Vandana was sitting outside and recognizing me, beckoned me to come and have chai.

We formed a friendship from that day. Despite her simple home, the single room inside being discreetly curtained from the outside when the roller door was up, Vandana generously invited me in and would cook wonderful dishes which she shared with me. Such simple yet delicious home cooking I’d never before tasted.

As Vandana’s home was in such a prominent position, witness to tourists and travelers walking by daily to and from the couple of hotels situated further down that road leading from town, I suggested that her and Raju begin to sell basic supplies that tourists might like such as bottled water, soft drinks and snacks. And so began Vandana’s connection with tourists.

Eventually, Vandana and Raju were able to move into a larger 2-room home and Raju took a stall in the market selling trinkets to tourists. I suggested Vandana start cooking classes in her home and before long, they were a family of three with the arrival of their daughter Gouri.

Several years later, Vandana and Raju had been able to save enough money to purchase a block of land and build their own home. Vandana continued to give cooking lessons, Raju eventually gave up his market stall and their wonderful 3 bedroom ‘mansion’ became the home of Vandana’s home-stay and of course the location of Vandanas cooking classes. A room out front was filled with all manner of things the average tourist might wish to buy - spices, spice boxes, jewellery and more.

Branching out, Vandana decided to become a tour guide and is now a qualified local guide for her beautiful home town of Orchha, which remains off the major tourist routes, but does get its fair share of small groups and lots of independent travelers.

In addition to cooking classes and having a small on-site shop, tour guiding has given Vandana and her family (now 5 with two daughters and one young son) a little extra income to continue to prosper and improve their home and lives.

Cut to March 2020. India is in lockdown, the tourists have all gone and with no income for a family who rely entirely on tourists to make a living, Vandana wondered how on earth her family would survive. Having toyed with the idea of starting a Youtube channel for cooking videos for some time, Vandana decided this was the perfect time to launch it.

Over the past couple of weeks, Vandana (with the assistance of her oldest daughter Gouri) has made a number of cooking videos and they are making and adding more daily.

Although at this point, Vandana is yet to make any form of income from her videos, I am working with her to figure out how to best monetise the cooking classes and to make the most of her fantastic chef-ing skills. Any suggestions you might have to help out Vandana turn this venture into a money-making one would be greatly appreciated.

In the meantime, please visit Vandana’s YouTube channel and do try out her recipes. I can personally vouch for how wonderful, easy and successful they are as I’ve tested a few of them already.

YouTube channel link: https://bit.ly/2V2e5iU

31/03/2020

Since 2002 I have practiced yoga (albeit not always very regularly). I have spent weeks at the various Sivananda ashrams in India, but haven't had a chance to get to one over the past 5 years.
One of my intentions during our lockdown was to seriously get back into doing daily yoga practice, but I have to admit it wasn't really going too well. I'd done a couple of sessions over the course of a week.
I was therefore very happy when a few days ago Sivananda India announced they were starting live online asana classes each morning on their page.
I wanted to send the link to everyone I know and say - Hey, if you want to do some yoga, then follow the Sivananda's page and follow their daily live class (or at a time that suits if you're not in the same time-zone).
Then I realised that these classes are really only for those who've done Sivananda classes before. If you're a yoga beginner, or haven't ever done the Sivananda style Hatha Yoga routine, you might find it a little challenging or at least confusing.
Now, they've just announced that they will be starting a video series on an introduction to Sivananda Yoga as well as a short 'Introductory Yoga' online course.

If you've ever wanted to start or return to a regular yoga practice, then I highly recommend checking this out.

30/03/2020

Isolation stories - Nirav

Life in India has changed drastically over the past week. The entire country is in lockdown (as is much of the world) and in India alone, hundreds of millions of people grapple with the reality of no income for the foreseeable future.

I’ve been in contact with some of our local guides who have now found themselves without work indefinitely and with the prospect of having to find some other way of getting income in the coming weeks and months.

One of our local guides - the very wonderful Nirav who is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat - sent me a message about what’s he’s up to.

"My all tours have been cancelled. I am at home. Good thing is I am getting more time for my design work. I will make new design of bags for your next year tours."

In addition to being an amazing tour guide, Nirav is a tailor and designer.

When he was young, his father became too ill to work. Nirav went to work as a porter in a clothing factory in Ahmedabad to earn money to support his family. Over the years, he gradually picked up tailoring and designing skills and became a very skilled clothing designer.

Although Nirav is now in high demand as a tour guide in Gujarat, he still spends his free time at home designing and making clothes for his wife and daughter. It appears that his daughter obviously takes after him!

After Nirav was in contact with me, his story was picked up by the local BBC correspondent in Gujarat.
https://www.bbc.com/gujarati/india-51972201?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR2q3Gg52xCqUcO-asOR1jQNioSWBbAWC_Lf_osZsL1JESsJX72GIiqoouc

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/isolation-stories/

29/03/2020

Ingrained in Sikhs consciousness and a core tenet of their faith is the concept of serving food to people in need
It's therefore of no surprise to me to see this wonderful show of humanity.
Many of you who've been on a trip with us to Delhi have visited or at least passed by the Gurudwara on Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi. These orderly scenes show that the spirit of service and the sharing of what you have with others is alive and well amongst the Sikh's of Delhi.

27/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is our Incredible Burma tour

Mandalay was immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in his poem - The road to Mandalay.

Once the capital, and seat of the Burmese royal family, Mandalay was where the British overthrew the last king in 1885 and sent him into exile in India. Today, you can visit the remains of the royal palace as well as a number of fascinating pagodas in and around the city.

Nearby in Amarapura, south of Mandalay is the picturesquely located U Bien Bridge - at 1200m, it is the longest and also the oldest teakwood bridge in the world. People throng here at sunrise and sunset for dreamy scenes of the bridge reflected in the lake that it spans.

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-incredible-burma-tour-3/

25/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is our Incredible Burma tour

Off the main tourist trail in Burma is the old colonial city of Mawlamyine, known as Moulmein in the time of the British. The fourth largest city in Burma, it is south of Yangon and sits at the mount of the Thanlwin River. It was and is an important seaport in Burma.

Mawlamyine is a fascinating place to visit, not only for the temples and pagodas in town, and the old colonial streets, but also for nearby places of interest including the strangely named Ogre Island, famous for home industries such as rubber bands and blackboards and Mudon with it's enormous reclining Buddha.

Come and explore Mawlamyine with us on our Incredible Burma tour.

The next departure of this trip is 1st March 2021.
For more details or to contact us visit the webpage...https://incredibleindiatours.com/incredible-burma-tour.html

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-incredible-burma-tour-2/

23/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is our Incredible Burma tour.

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-incredible-burma-tour/

More commonly known these days as Myanmar, Burma is a fascinating and somewhat misunderstood nation nestled between India, China and Thailand.
The most famous tourist sight in Burma would have to be Bagan. With it's thousands of pagodas, their spires rising up from the plains nestled along the banks of the Irrawaddy River, there is not a more evocative sight, particularly at sunrise when a parade of hot air balloons take off to greet the rising sun.

Join our Incredible Burma tour and witness this remarkable sight for yourself.
The next departure of this trip is 1st March 2021.
For more details or to contact us visit the webpage...https://incredibleindiatours.com/incredible-burma-tour.html

23/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is our Incredible Burma tour

More commonly known these days as Myanmar, Burma is a fascinating and somewhat misunderstood nation nestled between India, China and Thailand.
The most famous tourist sight in Burma would have to be Bagan. With it's thousands of pagodas, their spires rising up from the plains nestled along the banks of the Irrawaddy River, there is not a more evocative sight, particularly at sunrise when a parade of hot air balloons take off to greet the rising sun.

Join our Incredible Burma tour and witness this remarkable sight for yourself.

The next departure of this trip is 1st March 2021.
For more details or to contact us visit the webpage...https://incredibleindiatours.com/incredible-burma-tour.html

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-incredible-burma-tour/

20/03/2020

Some of you may be aware that for the past 5 years, Mike & I have made Udaipur in Rajasthan our home. It's a small city, just half a million people and a lot more 'liveable' than other places in India - for me anyway.
For anyone who's been to Udaipur with us - this might all look pretty familiar.
I LOVE this video. This guy (who incidentally stayed at a good friend's guest house - Akshay's Little Garden Guest House, Udaipur ) has captured Udaipur perfectly.

Enjoy a little taste of our life and our adopted home!
https://youtu.be/5TuHkH-DxxI

Udaipur is the perfect combination of street life, cool locals, architecture, and nature. Something that rarely comes together in one place like it does here...

20/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is South Indian Odyssey

Our second-last stop of the tour is in a town called Pondicherry where we spend two nights.

Pondicherry (these days officially called Puducherry - which is derived from the original name of the area Putucceri) was the chief French settlement in India, dating back to 1673. At various times, it was captured by the Dutch and British, but from the 1816 until 1954 Pondicherry was very much part of France.

Pondi (the locals pet name for the city) is known as the French Riviera of the East and still has a distinct European vibe in the French part of town - known as White Town. The city has a dual identity however with a canal separating the French quarter from the Tamil (local Indian) quarter to the west, further away from the beachside.

With a thriving art scene, and an entire community evolved around nearby Auroville (an experimental township founded by the Aurobindo Ashram back in the 60s) that as a byproduct of its existance produces an amazing array of handicrafts, clothing, jewelery and more there is so much to see and do in Pondicherry. And I haven't even mentioned the food scene!!!

Join us on our South Indian Odyssey and explore the charms of Pondicherry for yourself.
The next departure of this tour is 5th January 2021.For more details visit the webpage:
https://incredibleindiatours.com/south-indian-odyssey-tour.html

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-south-indian-odyssey-3/

18/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is South Indian Odyssey

Our South Indian Odyssey tour spends 3 nights in Fort Cochin - recently named the *NUMBER 1* Trending destination in the world by Tripadvisor.
I absolutely LOVE Fort Cochin, and so do our travellers.
Join us on our South Indian Odyssey tour and see for yourself why Fort Cochin is such a unique, eclectic and fascinating place.
The next departure of this tour is 5th January 2021.For more details visit the webpage:
https://incredibleindiatours.com/south-indian-odyssey-tour.html

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-south-indian-odyssey-2/

16/03/2020

Our featured tour of the week is South Indian Odyssey

When you think of Goa, you may think of beautiful palm fringed beaches, package tourists, hippies and rave parties.
You may also think Goa is 'just a beach'.
Goa is actually India's smallest state, with an area of just 3700sqkm and around 90km of beaches along India's western coast and it's far more than just cows on beaches, tourists and hippy markets.

With one of India's oldest histories of foreign influence, Goa was conquered by the Portuguese in 1510 and not handed back to India until 1961. That's over 460 years of European culture blended with Goan traditions. The effect on the architecture, food and culture has created a unique region and one of India's most interesting.

The capital of Goa is Panjim, a small city of around 250,000 situated on the Mandovi river. The old town, Asia's largest Latin Quarter - Fontainhas is a charming area of colourful Portuguese homes situated on narrow streets and lanes. There are galleries, cafes, restaurants and shops to explore along with heritage buildings and churches.

Our South Indian Odyssey tour starts in Panjim. While we don't include a beach visit in Goa, why not arrive a few days early to relax after your long flights on a peaceful secluded beach (we can recommend locations for you depending upon what kind of Goan beach experience you'd like). Then join us in Panjim for the first two nights of the trip and explore with us this quaint and charming throwback to the Latin Portuguese period of Goa.

Our next South Indian Odyssey tour commences on the 5th January 2021. All the details are on the tour webpage...

https://incredibleindiatours.com/south-indian-odyssey-tour.html

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/tour-of-the-week-south-indian-odyssey/

16/03/2020

This will be the only C-19 post from us to let you know that very fortunately we have no current clients or tours on the ground or any upcoming trips over the next few months. As a small tour operator, we are one of the lucky travel businesses at this time as our focus was already on tours commencing in October this year and onwards into 2021 and 2022. We will be here at the end of this…

In the meantime, we will be in self-isolation for the time being as I suggest everyone should be as much as possible. I for one plan to use this time to do lots of yoga and meditation, eat well, read lots of books and dream up new ideas for our tours in order to offer you all the best of the best when you travel with us.

Although we won’t be travelling for a while, the time will come when it’s time to pack your bags again and get on the road. Countless people and their families throughout the world rely on tourism income to survive. As soon as it’s safe and feasible to get back on the road let’s do it and get economies moving again!

In the meantime, we’ll continue to post some beautiful positive reminders of how amazing our Incredible world is. A great opportunity to bookmark and save these ideas and get some inspiration. We have several tours commencing in October – all with bookings, so get ready to be inspired and when the time is right, reserve your spot on one of these trips:

* Essence of India - Women-only tour: 15th October - 6th November
* Essence of India - Pushkar Camel Fair tour: 7th - 29th November
* The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tour: 6th - 16th December
* South Indian Odyssey tour: 5th - 28th January
* Incredible Gujarat tour: 29th January - 18th February

https://blog.incredibleindiatours.com/incredible-tours-march-2020-update/