Our mad dash around India is winding up as we arrive at our (kind of) India base for rest, recuperation and paperwork. Nice to catch up with old friends and soak up the sun, natural beauty and Goan hospitality. Last week I was telling you that poor old Toni was taken to a new culture shock location every day and why they drink English Wine in India. If you missed it you can catch up here.

Just when he thought he had seen everything, Chatterjee took us to a place off the culture clash scale.. more info is below.

Har Ki Pauri Ghat - Feet of Lord Vishnu

Last week I was writing this just as we arrived in the wooden craft city of Saharanpur. I came here eight years ago and thought I'd landed in Afghanistan. Mud streets, burka-clad ladies, camel carts, army presence with machine guns and broken basic infrastructure.  

We have an old supplier here, a very nice family but old school crafts and we feel that they have reached capacity with us because it takes six months plus to produce our orders and that means we are out of stock of many items for long periods of time. So after careful research, we made a short list of other factories to visit and were surprised to find a pretty high standard of workplace and modern processes. One place we visited very close to the old town was in a big compound with several large buildings, each building devoted to a different process, with artisans employed in properly paid jobs working in teams. We were impressed.

They said they had the capacity to produce container load quantities within weeks.

But our old friend and supplier, we will of course still support especially since Rashid's family are so kind and his wife makes the best biryani in India. We went to visit and Rashid had prepared a room full of AW-style samples just for us which I have to say was impressive and clearly, they had put a lot of thought and time into producing... After doing business Rashid's wife appeared with food. And very tasty it was too.

In that town, we had trouble finding a decent hotel, almost every hotel had bad reviews. Take my advice when travelling in India - never stay at a hotel with "Royal" in the name. We stayed at the Hotel Royal Classic. 

Never again. Pokey rooms no windows, dubious sheets and lumpy hard beds.. we escaped and cancelled our second night preferring to get out of town. Our supplier told us there was no good standard hotel in town the nearest good hotels were in Dehradun where the airport was - 2 hours away. 

Dehradun was a complete chalk and cheese to Saharanpur, a long drive uphill into the foothills of the Himalayas it's a resort town and has developed into a beautiful thriving clean organised town. Smart high-rise hotels a plenty, bars and restaurants, I could hardly believe this was India. There we stayed for only a little more money in an old colonial home (the Mango Tree Courtyard) restored to boutique hotel standard. Big spacious rooms, luxury beds, friendly staff and home-cooked food. India is like that - a land of extremes, as I have said many times: Rich and poor, good and bad, awful and beautiful. Side by side.

Then onwards to Jaipur by Indigo Airways via unbelievably efficient airports.. where we spent four nights many adventures (maybe tell you more next week).. then to GOX Goa's brand new airport, again so organised and trouble-free. Amazingly again the luggage is on the belt by the time we get there. 

So now our last few days in India, before heading to Nepal, where Coco will join us after her Chinese New Year festivities. I think Toni has been truly touched by India, seeing things and meeting people your average holiday tour wouldn't accommodate...  

In the place where the Holy Ganges spills forth from the mountains onto to the Indian plains pure, cold and rushing, at the feet of Lord Vishnu. There is certainly something magical about the water there, and the people who come there are erm.. well the more eccentric type of Indians. Toni met some.

Meanwhile...

Back in the EU.. lots of new products arriving.

Tomas has been working hard, revamping the website and trying to make it more intuitive. Your feedback has been amazing, thank you so much. I believe sometimes really good products almost get lost. Rashid asked me about his star sign incense holders, his American customers' bestselling line - I checked our sales and realised we are not communicating this. See below they are a perfect star sign birthday gift and can be teamed with incense to boost your sales. So Rodrigo and the team improved the pictures now I think you can see the potential.

Also launching soon in the same theme a new product from the AW- Aromatics team.. a lot of work has gone into this... Zodiac Fragrance Oils. A beautiful job guys - well done! The fragrance has bio-glitter to give a star-like feel to the fragrance, and the packaging is awesome. Carefully selected and developed fragrances, I also checked these fragrances personally (with my nose) at the development stage... I know they are good.

I'm also excited to see our new Seven Chakra Cedarwood Bangles have arrived. This is a Coco production item.. well my basic idea (he says modestly haha), packaging design by Bondhan our designer in Bali and Coco's jewellery design and making it happen, we used high-quality gemstone beads fatter than usual with the natural aromatic cedarwood beads. Stack them mixed in a big basket for €6 - €8 retail I think they will fly out...

Take care and have a lovely week.

Namaste from India.

David