Sep 4, 2019
Very large cinema - Travel means experiencing, feeling, moving, picking up what is happening along the way. Surya, our driver and guide was perfect at making our individual wishes possible, caring for all matters. It is the big and the small encounters, the people and the corresponding situations that leave a deep impression and remain in the memory. Because there is always something to be surprised about, we are surprised, disappointed and the rules of the game are never open on the road. Actually, this was like big cinema.. Surya Dutt crawled with us in small side streets, helped discover experiences big and small, showed us the cottages, workshops or pottery of the common people and equally the great world heritage sites. We have seen a lot of the world before, but rarely have we experienced such private yet professional care. Surya has an extraordinary knowledge of culture, politics and Indian society. The conversations with him were mind-expanding. Rarely does a guide give you such wide-ranging information. A particularly nice anecdote was the incident with the chocolate bars: we bought 4 Snickers of 10 rupees each. When Surya found out, he ran back to the dealer and demanded the overpaid amount back because the guy had sold us the bars too much. The brain is a plastic, flexible organ, it changes according to its stress. Under the constant fire of impulses, »experience paths« made their way through the brain, which are always preserved for us. This man was as perfect as pure nature.
Surya became not only our trusted driver, but also a guide, teacher, ticket buyer, watcher and taster. No other human being has ever given us such a comprehensive knowledge of Indian culture, politics, road traffic or the complex structure of the caste system, subcastes and their specificities. We drove through Uttar Pradesh to the “pink city” of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Surya showed us the Taj Mahal, temples and world heritage sites, the ochre palace walls of Amber Fort, the three hundred year old observatory and much more. Driving through the country was an adventurous journey in itself.
Road traffic formed a simultaneously godless and unnatural
Travel means experiencing, feeling, moving, picking up what is happening along the way. Surya, our driver and guide was perfect at making our individual wishes possible, caring for all matters. It is the big and the small encounters, the people and the corresponding situations that leave a deep impression and remain in the memory. Because there is always something to be surprised about, we are surprised, disappointed and the rules of the game are never open on the road. Actually, it was like a big movie. Surya Dutt crawled with us in small side streets, helped discover experiences big and small, showed us the cottages, workshops or pottery of the common people and equally the great world heritage sites. We have seen a lot of the world before, but rarely have we experienced such private yet professional care. Surya has an extraordinary knowledge of culture, politics and Indian society. The conversations with him were mind-expanding. Rarely does a guide give you such wide-ranging information. A particularly nice anecdote was the incident with the chocolate bars: we bought 4 Snickers of 10 rupees each. When Surya found out, he ran back to the dealer and demanded the overpaid amount back because the guy had sold us the bars too much. The brain is a plastic, flexible organ, it changes according to its stress. Under the constant fire of impulses, »experience paths« made their way through the brain, which are always preserved for us. This man was as perfect as pure nature.
Surya became not only our trusted driver, but also a guide, teacher, ticket buyer, watcher and taster. No other human being has ever given us such a comprehensive knowledge of Indian culture, politics, road traffic or the complex structure of the caste system, subcastes and their specificities. We drove through Uttar Pradesh to the “pink city” of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Surya showed us the Taj Mahal, temples and world heritage sites, the ochre palace walls of Amber Fort, the three hundred year old observatory and much more. Driving through the country was an adventurous journey in itself.
Road traffic formed a simultaneously godless as well as unnatural barrier not foreseen or incorporated by any evolution. Impressive were old rickety Indians crossing the road. They strode snugly, stretching their arm out with their open hands toward the anarchic pile of tin, as if they could use it to stop avalanches, in a stoic grandeur that some locate with Jedi knights. In the middle of the road, engines were removed from trucks, while oily mechanics under the mountains tried to improvise something from muddy black metal parts of the car. Men, women and children were pressed into tuktuks, huddled together, sat on top of each other or hung on the outside of the pipes, loaded with shopping bags, opposite the gutter an old woman collecting garbage in an iron cart. Many men, on the other hand, seemed to be in relaxation mode, lying around like shot cattle on textile bales, just somewhere on the floor, leaning against walls, lounging on plastic chairs, stretched over their motorcycles, crouching on carts casually, loosely, almost gobbly, palavering with a set of teeth that still contained two or three teeth, as crooked and yellow as if they were from the Phoenicians' time.
Life along the route showed its most colorful colors as we passed dozens of pilgrims. Bright saris, bright yellow, scarlet, peach orange and all the salient neon tones you could think of. Singing believers danced and colourfully decorated tractors with wooden trailers accentuated the illustrious company, while many chimneys passed by the roadside in the millet fields. Here, bricks were manufactured by hand in small factories and fired in the hundred furnaces. This was again an example of incredibly low wages that keep Indian society going and were characteristic of the rural population. Late in the evening, on the way to Jaipur, a locust storm had broken loose with the suddenness of a man who appears eerily sober during the evening and shortly thereafter begins to riot eerily drunk. Millions of locusts measuring about 4 cm ballooned through the air and slammed into the body of the car. Surya said we should keep the side windows closed, because there was no way we could get this innumerable cicadas out of the inside of the car.
Occasionally a ghost driver came to meet us on the highway, which was normal and quite Indian here. Every society, every country obviously has its own normality. Surya stopped at some sort of highway service station. We drank a lassi and bought the children of Snicker. When Surya learned that we had paid 100 rupees for a bar, he stormed to the merchant, made him a snail and brought us back the overpaid money and apologized for his brash compatriot. In general, these rest houses were a special experience. We had an extraordinary lunch in a dining room lined in traditional colours and patterns, which Surya had ordered for us and ignited a firework of taste on the tongue buds. Three women baked roti bread in clay pots over the open fire, and in the kitchen hand-driven copper pots of all sizes and shapes stood on shelves and shelves, and guests sat at painted wooden tables. The ingredients for the meals grew behind the house, in the garden or in the fields. everything was freshly prepared.
Later, at a crossroads, I had not put on a belt for a few minutes. A traffic cop saw this and stopped our car. Clouds in the shape of mittens passed quickly and our faces gleamed with sweat as a loud discussion between Surya and the officer about the need for a seat belt began. In the end, a few bills changed hands, which moved into an officer's shirt pocket.
Jaipur was a poetry of the apocalypse. Strange and repulsive, but fascinating and captivating at the same time. Actually, you could say it was a sympathetic lunatic asylum that was constantly caught up in everyday madness. We called a taxi to be driven to the center. The driver asked where, on which we tapped blindly with our finger on a spot on the map. The taxi driver mentioned his price and we plunged into new, exciting and unimagined covers, as if we had been the first to notice that the world was round. Young people touched the elderly by the legs or feet to greet them, which was a form of homage. People were constantly being approached because someone had any offers to advertise. The streets were downright breeding grounds of offers. Every merchant tried to outdo his neighbor.
These days in India, together with Surya, were as miraculous as they were stimulating, stirring and relaxing, a existence between predatory and hammock. Neither courage nor madness was required here. Here was no bridge to jump from, just the roundabout, which you had to reach alive to the other side. A fantastic experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dec 31, 2018
Exceptional Tour! - We are doing this tour of the 3 main cities of India and are sincerely delighted with Pioneer Holidays. Everything is working great and the organization is exceptional!
We have a private driver who accompanies us throughout the trip who is called Riyaz Khan, q is an excellent driver. He cares about us, about us being safe and calm. He drives very cautiously, is punctual and friendly and totally trustworthy. A 5-star driver!!! Always with a smile and at our disposal! Very effective and efficient!
Pioneer Holidays has also provided us with guides who speak Spanish, and are authentic professionals!
Our Guide in Delhi has been very friendly, nice, has handled the times very well to see everything important.
Himanshu, our guide in Agra, has been very close and caring and a great professional. Always with a smile, telling us stories about the history of monuments, with a funny point. Exceptional.
Rakesh Roy in Jaipur is also wonderful, attentive, fun and polite. It has made us a great immersion in Indian culture, tradition and customs. Very competent and a charming person.
We thank Pioneer Holidays for choosing guides who will speak Spanish and were such great professionals. The treatment has been exceptional. They have taken a lot of pictures with patience and affection. And very knowledgeable and informative.
Without a doubt, I recommend hiring Pioneer Holidays.
It has been a success to travel comfortably and safely,visit all the monuments and make the most of the time. We are very happy and satisfied!!!! A lovely trip!
Review provided by Tripadvisor