Smart Travel: Trip to India provides experience of a lifetime

We realized a long-time dream when we visited India in April.

We found this country to be exotic, beautiful and industrious. The Indian people are smiling, courteous, English-speaking and anxious to welcome Americans. The hotels we stayed in and visited were some of the most luxurious we have ever experienced.

It was hot! The lowest daily temperature during our 20-day visit was 93 degrees, but April is in the hot season. Our winter is the best time for travel there.

After a long flight to Delhi, we toured with a small group on a new itinerary organized by Cox & Kings, the premiere luxury tour company for India. Our trip took us to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Chennai (formerly Madras), Cochin, and Mumbai (formerly Bombay.)

The country is energetic, crowded and full of exotic sights and sounds. Streets are lined with small, open-fronted shops selling every conceivable commodity. We drove and walked through byways crowded with trucks, motorcycles, camel carts, and tuktuks, three-wheeled motorized taxis.

Everywhere were the Brahma cattle, the sacred cows of India, sometimes wearing garlands of flowers placed by the faithful. The colorful, flowing and very feminine saris of the women were a treat for the eyes.

Our visit took us to Siva temples with soaring carved and painted towers and we rode brightly decorated elephants to forts and palaces that amply demonstrated the builder's skills in early India and the fabulous style in which the maharajas and their families lived.

We dined at lavish hotel restaurants, local Indian restaurants, a country home, a working farm in the backwaters of Cochin, and the home of a member of the Indian Parliament.

And we luxuriated in hotels with sunken marble baths, crystal chandeliers, manicured gardens, and service that can't be matched in America. We made a pilgrimage to the Taj Mahal. Our hotel room terrace in Agra overlooked this breathtaking symmetrical poem to love. The architectural perfection of this, the seventh wonder of the world, and the skill of the builders will leave an impression in our mind's eye forever.

Although it is a long way from Springfield, India is truly the experience of a lifetime, an explosion of fascinating sights, sounds and culture, and an experience we can strongly recommend to travelers with dreams of exotic and far away places.

(Linda and Dr. Don Overend are principals in The Travel Group, a full-service travel agency formed by the merger of Ozark World Travel, Consulting Travel and Thomas Travel.)