Incredible Real India Tours

My wife, Gina, and I took Holland America’s 114-day world cruise aboard the Amsterdam, Jan. 4-April 24, 2008, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While we booked many shore excursions with the ship, we felt their overland excursions were overpriced.

In India, we arranged to take the 4-day “Golden Triangle” tour of Incredible Real India Tours & Travels (C-162, Bharat Marg, Hanuman Nagar, Vaishali, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 302021, India; phone 0091-93511-54969 or 0091 141 2245655, www.incrediblerealindia.com or www.rajuindia.com) for about half the price of what was about the same tour from Holland America.

Leaving the ship at Chennai on March 12, 2008, we flew to Delhi (internal flights were included in the tour price) and were driven to Agra, for the Taj Mahal, then went to Jaipur for two days and finally flew to Mumbai and rejoined the ship. The total cost for both of us was $3,500.

From the outset of our e-mail contact with Rajendra Singh Palawat, aka “Raju India” (e-mail rajupalawat@hotmail.com), we were impressed with his immediate responses but nevertheless concerned about everything going along as promised. In all of our travels, we have never experienced such excellent personal attention.

We were met at Delhi airport by the company's transportation manager, Chattar Singh, a lifelong friend of Raju India. He was our driver for the entire trip.

We can’t say enough good things about Chattar — a true gentleman and, most importantly, a wonderful, cautious driver, which is VERY important in India.

The tour price did not include meals and also was without guides at historic locations, but Chattar arranged for expert, quite inexpensive on-site guides for us.

He, of course, gave us a great understanding of the culture of India as we drove. Having taken so many ship-organized excursions, which meant 40-passenger buses, it was wonderful to have a private car and driver at such savings.

The hotels (we chose medium-grade) were outstanding, including Le Meridien (Delhi), Amar Vilas (Agra) and Taj Jai Mahal Palace (Jaipur).

Adding to the price of the “Golden Triangle” tour published on the website, we added a day with hotel and private car in Mumbai.

Before leaving on the cruise, we wire-transferred a deposit of $900 to Raju’s U.S. bank. We agreed to pay the balance of $2,600 by credit card (plus a 3% bank transfer charge) in Jaipur in person; we would visit him at his home.

While on the voyage, our MasterCard was fraudulently used and then canceled to protect us from future charges. The new card, of course, was now in our mailbox at home and unavailable to us.

When we asked Raju if we could use our American Express card (we found that many merchants would not accept the card), he said, “Just wait until you get home to pay me.” That was a month and a half later!

I have seldom had that kind of experience in my travels.

Raju India is a wonderful, caring man and someone who I highly recommend.

ROBERT V. CARLSON

Port Ludlow, WA