What travellers said afterwards.

We had done Kerala once on a package and barely spoke to anyone. This time we ate lunch in a house in Kumarakom and left the next morning with a recipe. Completely different trip.

Our Leh flight was cancelled and the road was shut. Debasish had us rerouted and in a guest house in Manali before we had finished worrying. That is what you are paying for.

I asked for somewhere quiet for our anniversary with no itinerary at all. They sent us to a valley in Bhutan I had never heard of and got it exactly right.

I am from Cuttack and thought I knew Odisha. They took us to three temples I had never heard of and a weaver in Nuapatna who spent an afternoon showing my daughter the loom.

Nobody else we spoke to would even quote for the Northeast. Vraiment had walked the root bridge trail themselves and told us honestly how hard the climb back up would be.

Three generations, ages nine to seventy-nine, and nobody was bored or exhausted. The pacing was the thing they got right, and it is the hardest part.

They talked us out of the island we had picked and into a quieter one. Annoying at the time, completely right in hindsight.

The Taj at sunrise with almost nobody there. I did not think that was still possible.

A difficult, overwhelming place handled with real care. Our guide grew up on the ghats and it showed in every conversation.