Category: 2022 – Golden Triangle & Ganges Voyager II, 5 – 19 Dec

A better night’s sleep for me last night, I was awake early but this morning I was able to drift back off again. 😴 Breakfast at 7:00 again this morning, and cases outside the room for 8:00. It was then all aboard the coach at 8:45 for our journey to Agra. It just over 4 hours with a 25 minute comfort break just over half way. Upon arrival at our second hotel (Oberoi Amarvilas) we took a quick lunch, got the keys to our room so we drop bags etc off before hastily making our way to the lobby to meet our fellow travelers for the tour at 3:00.

We then made our by golf buggy to the eastern entrance to the Taj Mahal. Our guide Yogi, obviously well and truly drilled with getting in and moving us around did a fantastic job.

Even to the extent of building up the anticipation as we passed through the entry and watched the panorama unfolding in front of us, knowing when and where to take the best photos while all the time explaining details about the site and it’s history. The Taj Mahal certainly lived up to and surpassed everything I had imagined it to be. Rather than waffle on about it, I will just post pictures instead, it’s much easier!!

Our ticket also included entry to the mausoleum but as no photography is allowed I have no photos of it.

We arrived back at the hotel at 5:30 and went straight to the room for a shower and a rest. We have another stunning room and from our window you can just see the top of the dome from the Taj Mahal.

We have an early start tomorrow so we can see the Taj Mahal at sunrise so it won’t be a late night. 😁

I slept for a good 6 hours but was awake at 4:00 and just could not drift off again. It’s going to take a couple of days to adjust so I will just have to put up with it for now. Breakfast was open from 7:00 and because of the fairly tight schedule this morning, we went as soon as we were able because of our welcome meeting was at 8:00. The first big surprise is there are only 18 of us on this trip. Despite being sold out, there are quite a few that haven’t made it for what ever reason. We are going to have plenty of space when we get to the boat.  At 9:00 we set off on our first tour which for the most part was drive around but we did stop at the memorial area was also called Raj Ghat which is a memorial that  marks the spot of Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation.

After another quick drive after which we went for a rickshaw ride around Old Delhi which was great fun. Smells, sounds and sights a plenty, with people, rickshaws and tuk-tuks coming at you from all angles, how they never crash or make contact is beyond me. I have lots of blurred photos but also some reasonable ones which are posted below. 

Our next stop just before the lunch break was Humayun’s tomb which is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun. It was commissioned by Humayun’s first wife, the Empress Bega Begum in 1558. Our guide explained its history after which we were given some free time to explore the site. 

After lunch we opted along with everyone else to take the optional tour to Qutab Minar which is the highest masonry tower in India. The surrounding archaeological area contains funerary buildings, such as Alai-Darwaza Gate, (built in 1311), and two mosques, including the Quwwatu’l-Islam, built of materials reused from some 20 Brahman temples. There really are some curious shaped walls where this recycling has occurred. 

After arriving back at the hotel at 5:30 we headed to the room for a quick shower so that we could be out in time for the complimentary drinks that are served for Uniworld guests in the Residents Lounge between 6:30 & 8:30. Cut short tonight by the welcome dinner which started at 7:30. We had a fabulous evening on our table of 6 getting to know 4 of our travel companions while at the same time enjoying some tasty Indian food. Tomorrow we leave Delhi and head for Agra 

And so our adventure has begun, after two years of waiting we finally set off on our journey to India. Our 2½ hour drive to Heathrow Terminal 3 was uneventful if you don’t take into consideration the M4 was shut between junctions 8 & 6, this resulted in a detour via the M3 but we got there in the end and once in the terminal building we were swiftly through security and airside. Some areas were quite congested but it is great to see it nice and busy again and looking more like how it used to be. Our journey to Delhi took us via Dubai, both flights were on Emirates, the first leg on an A380-800 and the second on Boeing 777-300 with a 2 hours & 55 minute stopover. 

After boarding our first flight, we were able to watch some live TV and in particular coverage of England’s second half World Cup match with Senegal. I wasn’t expecting that! 😁

The 7 hour flight passed fairly quickly and before we knew it, we were in Dubai waiting for the next leg which would take us to New Delhi. This was a much shorter flight coupled but with another time change of 2½ hours left us feeling quite groggy.

We were off the plane by 2:30 but Indian immigration had different ideas about letting us move swiftly out of the airport, in fact, it took 2½ hours to get through that ordeal. Lots of people and not many people doing the processing. When we eventually got through and collected our luggage, we needed to change some currency which took another 15 minutes. One last thing before leaving the airport was to pick up a data SIM for my dongle from the Airtel kiosk which we did with the assistance of our Uniworld meet and greet representative. We were now feeling totally exhausted and failed to take in much of the 50-minute journey to the hotel. Upon arrival at our hotel, The Oberoi, New Delhi, we were greeted by a small reception crew who placed a Marigold flower garland around our necks before being shown straight to our room. Just before we headed up we were also introduced to the Uniworld tour manager and his assistant who gave us a brief rundown of what would be happening over the next two days. We are going to be hitting the ground running that’s for sure.

Our room is stunning, we were initially just too shell shocked to take in its splendor and size but after about an hour we were able to start to fully appreciate it.  We decided to stay put this evening and just unwind so we can be at full strength for tomorrow. I’ll just sign off with one or two photos that I did manage to take which don’t really do the room the justice it deserves.      

In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic took control of the world, I’m fairly certain you will agree that it was a pretty depressing time for everyone, our everyday life was turned completely on its head, with just about every country in the world implementing some sort of social distancing measures. International travel became a distant memory, trips planned were cancelled and like so many others, we just knuckled down and got on with our life as it had become. For a good seven months, I actually stopped looking at cruise itineraries because I couldn’t bear to think about actually going away somewhere nice with zero chance of it happening. But you can’t go on like that forever, with vaccines on the horizon and with our savings growing by the week, I eventually weakened and started to see what was available around the end of 2021. I began by looking at all the cruises which had previously caught my eye, a lot of which I had kept bookmarked on my browser, checking to see what prices were like or even if they were still happening, it was then that I spotted this one which was marked down by almost 25%. We had previously been made aware of it after watching the TV programme Cruising with Jane McDonald and it was something that we had always fancied but if I’m completely honest, probably a bit out of our budget. But with our savings amassing and the reduced price, it was like a red rag to a bull and within 48 hours it was booked.

We made our booking with RiverCruising.co.uk, a company that claims to be the UK’s top Uniworld agent. I was very happy with the reassurance and guarantees provided should this fall foul of the pandemic so, in the end, it was an easy enough decision.

Our itinerary consists of two overnight flights with 5 nights in hotels, 1 internal flight and 7 onboard Ganges Voyager II. The map below will give you some idea of what we will be doing.

To simplify the itinerary, here is our trip itemised in a day-by-day format.

Date	Location	Accommodation
Sunday, December 4, 2022	Depart UK	Overnight Flight
Monday, December 5, 2022	New Delhi, India	Hotel Stay, The Oberoi Delhi
Tuesday, December 6, 2022	New Delhi, India	Hotel Stay, The Oberoi Delhi
Wednesday, December 7, 2022	New Delhi to Agra, India	Hotel Stay, The Oberoi Amarvilas
Thursday, December 8, 2022	Agra to Jaipur, India	Hotel Stay, The Oberoi Rajvilas
Friday, December 9, 2022	Jaipur, India	Hotel Stay, The Oberoi Rajvilas
Saturday, December 10, 2022	Embark Ganges Voyager II, Cruising The Ganges	Ganges Voyager II
Sunday, December 11, 2022	Kalna, India	Ganges Voyager II
Monday, December 12, 2022	Matiari, India	Ganges Voyager II
Tuesday, December 13, 2022	Murshidabad, Baranagar, India	Ganges Voyager II
Wednesday, December 14, 2022	River Day Cruising The Ganges	Ganges Voyager II
Thursday, December 15, 2022	Mayapur, Chandannager,	Ganges Voyager II
Friday, December 16, 2022	Kolkata, India	Ganges Voyager II
Saturday, December 17, 2022	Disembark Ganges Voyager II, Kolkata, India	Overnight Flight
Sunday, December 18, 2022	Arrive back in the UK

We were able to select a cabin so picked a Colonial suite on the Upper Deck. As you will see from the illustration below we have selected 307 which is in a central location.

All of the above was written in 2021 prior to when we would originally have travelled but like many other post covid trips it fell foul to us not being able to enter India after a spat between governments. Fortunately, we were able to cancel and rebook for 2022 on the same dates and luckily just before the final payment was due.

The ongoing stand-off between governments continued into 2022 and while it meant the cheaper e-visa became available to the rest of the world, it still wasn’t an option for UK or Canadian nationals, so at the beginning of September, we decided to go down the full tourist visa route at a cost of £150 each. If you decided to apply yourself online, a face-to-face appointment was then required but if you wanted to avoid this, the other option was to use an agent which is what we did. It cost us an extra £95 each but if you offset this against having to take time off work and then visit one of the VFS centres for an appointment it was an absolute bargain. We used a company called Visa Genie, which vetted all the forms before submission to prevent the application from being rejected by a wrongly worded answer. Within 3 weeks, we both had our visas. It wasn’t the smoothest of applications but at least we have the required documents to enter India now. At the beginning of October, the Indian embassy announced it would now require all applicants to attend in person to apply for visas, including agencies so it looks like we timed it just right.

So, that’s the bare bones of where and what we will be doing and all that remains is for us to get there safe and sound, stay free of Covid and make the most of this long-awaited trip. 🤞🏼

We are now airside at Heathrow T3 and on our way.