A change of plan

After we'd waited in the office foyer for a couple of hours drinking more tea and chatting to other relieved westerners who had found their way here we wondered if we'd ever get our trip confirmation and the necessary vouchers. Things don't happen in a hurry here and whilst everyone working in the office seemed super busy, nothing ever seemed to get done (except for shouting at the cook to make us more tea).Eventually a guy we'd met in the morning wandered back in and while showing us his new shirts he asked which tour we were doing.We'd booked a Rajastan wildlife tour, which would include the main monuments with stays in National Parks to spot tigers and elephants in between.It was rather casually that Shaffi told us 'you know the National Parks are all closed for monsoon season?'.No - we didn't know that! And why exactly have we been able to book a trip if it's closed?So at 9pm we were ushered back into a cubicle to completely re-plan our tour that would be starting the next morning (only in India).

Shaffi, like many of the office staff, is from Kashmir in the north ofIndia so it's no surprise that our new itinerary would include a trip to you guessed it…Kashmir and the Himalayas.Despite our initial annoyance, the thought of some cool temperatures and mountain views after our day in Delhi sounded perfect so we put together a tour including a flight up there, 5 nights in a house boat by Lake … followed by train back down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and back to Delhi in time for our flight to Mumbai.Best of all they agreed to change it for no extra cost and we were pretty sure we were now on a more expensive tour.So we wouldn't be seeing the Rajastan monuments or wildlife but were quite content we'd see a different side of India and get away from humidity and rain.We retired back to the same hotel after enjoying tandoori chicken for dinner in the back of the tourist offices.Thinking 'we'll believe it when we see it' we arrived back at the office as instructed in the morning.Finally after being fed more eggs and tea we were finally given flight details and sent off with our driver from the day before back to the airport.No surprises that the roads were jammed along with Hindu pilgrims carrying large displays at the side so we got through security only 5 minutes before our lunch time flight departed.

Liz