Johan, Marijke en Indra in India
During the Easter holidays (14 days in April 2009), we traveled about 2300 km across Rajasthan with Rattan. We more or less followed the traditional route. We will not be writing an extensive travel journal, since these can be found all over the Internet.
The journey itself is not tiring. During the warmest period of the day, you travel in a comfortable car. On the road, you will never be bored. There are regular stops to get something to drink, to get a bite to eat or to visit something or another.
Rattan is a careful driving, which is an uncommon quality of Indian drivers. (Defying traffic is one of the major attractions during your holiday).
You always arrive at your next destination in the afternoon. The warmest period of the day will be over at that time. You can freshen up and make the planned visits. Again, Rattan will be there to drive you from and to your hotel. He will help with finding a good hotel and always gets you a fair price. Do not try to bargain yourself, because you will fail.
Respect your driver and he will respect your back ten times over. (A good statement was "chapatti you don't make with one hand")
Finally, I have a small anecdote I would like to share. During the camels ride in Khuri, where we spend the night in the dunes, Rattan traveled 4 km through the desert to warn us for a small sand storm that was coming our way. He also said we should not worry too much about it, seeing the storm would only last for about 10 minutes. Should we nevertheless worry about it, Rattan would get a Jeep to get us back.
Needless to say, the storm was already raging when Rattan arrived in our camp and we crawled under a blanket together to protect us from the sand. This goes to show that Rattan does far more than just drive you to your destination.
He also feels some responsibility for the other "drivers", since he is always talking to his fellow drivers and asking if the guests are happy. Like Rattan says: "I feel responsible, because Rattan is NUMBER ONE you know". If you have any doubts about traveling to India, do not hesitate to contact me.
Rob, thank you for sharing your friendship with Rattan with us.
Johan, Marijke en Indra. johanfransens@skynet.be
