Wrap-up and Reflections

I have mixed feelings about this tour. On one hand I really enjoyed being back in India, especially Mumbai, but on the other side I was a little disappointed with the organisers of the tour, especially the owner, Mike. To the extent that I probably wouldn’t do another tour with him unless he changed the system and the way he conducts tours. 

For a start, he said that dinners were no longer included in the price of the tour. That’s ok I could live with that, however then he organised dinners every night, didn’t properly keep track of what people ate or drank and then charged everyone a “plucked sum” a week or so after we all got home. I never attended one dinner because I was always still full of the enormous late lunch we had, mainly because Mike couldn’t organise the meal at an appropriate time.  I didn’t have dinner nor did I drink any alcohol, but I certainly ended up with a sizable bill for “extras” after I arrived home from the tour. I don’t mind paying my way, but I don’t like paying for someone else’s drinking habit.  He should have said I’m not supplying dinner or drinks so here’s a couple of suggestions for a meal tonight, help yourself. 

He also very rarely stopped to show us anything of interest along the route. It was ‘get on the bike in the morning, ride as fast as we can to the destination, and get on the grog asap. I would stop to photograph something and be totally left behind; not even the sweep would stop to make sure I was going the right way. So, in the end I was quite reluctant to stop just in case I got lost. Mike’s wife Kela is 100 times more organised than he is and he’d do well to hand all the admin tasks over to her. 

If I did want to do another tour to India, I would probably go back as an independent rider, plan my own route, make my own accommodation arrangements and find my own eateries. Plenty of people do it quite successfully. It’s a modern and safe country and it would not be a problem cycling around independently. 

The Business Class flights to and from Mumbai were great and I would have no problem using Singapore Airlines to fly again. I’ve used them many times before and they never disappoint.