Population: 864, 302, 688 (1991 Census)

Area: 1,262,811 square miles

Language: Hindi and English

Time: New Delhi is +10 hours from New York

Electricity: 220 volts AC / 50 Hz

Geography: India is bordered in the north by Nepal, China (Tibet) and Bhutan, in the east Bangladesh and Burma (Myanmar), In the south by the bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Close to its southern tip is Sri Lanka.

Tipping: Tipping should not be overdone. If the service charge is included in the bill, leave some small change. If it has not been included leave no more than 10%.

Shopping: Stores in the major cities open at 9 in the morning and close at 6-7 pm. Best things to buy are ceramics, woodcarvings, terra-cotta, brassworks and pottery.

Food and Drink: Sometimes it seems that is country has a single menu with varying levels of curry strength. Not so. India has a varied diet that is quite diverse. Bombay has a specialty called "Belpui" which is made of potatoes, onions (imbued with chutney) rice and flour. Or try the tandoori which has chicken which is slowly cooked in special earthenware. Indian food is not what the outsider thinks that it is, so every effort should be made discover real Indian food. International restaurants are fairly good in the larger cities and include a good representation of the world. Chinese restaurants are most common. Soft drinks are quite available. Indian tea is very good. Alcohol availability may vary by state and may in some cases not be available at all. Some states which may be wet may also have "dry" days.

Social: Handshaking here is the primary greeting. It is not usual for men to touch women. Remember that in those circumstances when eating with ones hands is necessary, only eat with your right hand. When visiting religious sites make sure that your dress is modest and be prepared to remove your shoes. Leather goods are not allowed in temples and photography is also not allowed.

Business: All business people in India speak English. Business attire should be of material which will handle the heat well. Business cards are always exchanged. Allow plenty time as business meeting tend to last longer than expected.

Money and Banks

Banking: Banks are open from 10am to 2pm Weekdays and 10am to noon on Saturdays.

Currency: The Rupee

Money Exchange: Changing money at other than a government sanctioned exchange is illegal. If you do you may at best find yourself shortchanged or far worse find yourself carrying and passing counterfeit currency. Best to change money at banks and hotels.

Credit cards: Master Card, Visa, American Express and Diners Club

Climate

The winters are from November to March and tend to be dry with lots of sun. The extreme north is bitterly cold in the mountains but very pleasant in the south. Until June the weather remains pleasant but increasingly hot. During this time the country goes through a number of changes with some areas suffering from dust storms from the dryness. Finally, the monsoon rains come in July and last until October. This is when India gets 86% of its rainfall. The southeast area of India receives most of its rainfall from October to December.

A trip to India redefines how you look at the most ordinary things -- like a street corner. Elephants, trained bears, cobras, and dancing monkeys pass you on the sidewalk. Bicycle rickshaws and taxis drag race past a snake charmer sharing a stand with a guy selling Men in Black bootleg tapes. Everywhere you look, you see the flash of raw silk, of silver, of gold, of a man throwing a handkerchief onto the pavement as he shouts, "Bangles! Sweets! Duracell batteries!"

Though Westerners have been visiting its Moorish palaces and silk bazaars for hundreds of years, India can still frustrate even experienced travelers. Life runs on a different timetable. You don't just buy that tiger's-eye pendant; you sit down, eat some samosas, meet the jeweler's daughter, have another glass of steaming chai, and only then put your rupees on the table.

Cultural issues also come into play. You're visiting a country where women wear head scarves and saris in public, and where female travelers may be touched or followed if they don't dress modestly. Even more emotionally draining can be the poverty -- for instance, having a young girl thrust her baby sister into your car window in hopes of a few coins.

Perhaps the best way to deal with these difficulties is to identify -- before you go -- the ones that may be too much to cope with on your own. Since English is widely spoken, many Americans do travel by themselves, but without insider know-how, you can spend days struggling with logistics. And there are certain things tour operators are adept at providing. They get you on and off planes, trains, or cars; they choose the hotels and some meals -- though Indian restaurants are inexpensive, so skipping a meal you've already paid for in favor of one you want isn't a wild extravagance. They also arrange for guides (each city has its own fleet of them, which by law you must use).

Obviously, companies vary greatly, so at the end of last year's prime traveling season (November to March, when it's dry and the temperature is in the 70s), I tried out three reputable ones: a guided trip, an independent car-and-driver package, and a luxury train journey. These range in price from $1,720 to $5,500 per person -- and figure on another $1,000 per person for round-trip airfare from New York or Los Angeles. (You can find two-week group trips for as little as $999 per person, including air, but this isn't a country where you want to take the low-cost route unless you're very adventurous.) Although each trip appeals to a different type of traveler, they all cover India's Golden Triangle: the British colonial city of Delhi, with its boulevards and gardens; Agra, home to the Taj Mahal; and Jaipur, the "Pink City," dominated by a cliffside palace.

Seeing the Golden Triangle usually takes only about six days, but -- after the 15-hour flight to India -- most Americans prefer to stay in the country for at least two weeks. So tour companies add lesser-known but often more interesting cities to the basic itinerary: Udaipur, called the Venice of India; Varanasi, the site of Buddha's enlightenment; or perhaps several of the desert fortress towns that once ruled Rajasthan. Where you go really depends on what trip you take -- examine your itinerary carefully. If you can't stand intense heat, you won't like those desert towns, no matter how much gold leaf their palaces have and despite the beauty of their 16th-century carvings.

ROYAL TREATMENT
At the gate of the Residency, a restored British fort in Lucknow, 320 miles from Delhi, the window clerk takes our money, fills out a form, and hands it to a desk clerk who does the same thing, then hands it to a more important clerk -- or so I assume from his beret and shiny buttons. "Everything in triplicate," says Raju, the leader for Cox & Kings' 11-day Splendors of the North trip, pointing out that Indians both love and hate their bureaucracy, a legacy of British rule. Raju's insights into his country proved that this company's 240 years of experience add up to more than a marketing statistic.

Starting in Delhi, moving north to Lucknow, Varanasi, and Agra, then down to Jaipur, this trip, the least expensive of the three, gives you one main advantage of group travel: a backup guide. The government-certified guides in each city often have poor English skills. (At first it seemed that Cox & Kings hadn't picked good guides, but the company apparently chooses from the same pool as ultra-luxury outfits like Abercrombie & Kent -- leading me to believe that a "good" guide really means "as good as we can find at the time.")

In any case, our group of 12 mostly European travelers had Raju -- a stout man with a handlebar mustache -- to fill in the gaps. Lucknow was a Raju project. Few companies include it on their itinerary, but Raju even hired bicycle rickshaws there for the group so everyone could see the inside of a working bazaar -- even those who'd been too timid to explore it on foot.

To get from monument to monument in the larger cities, we took a bus -- a distant cousin of an American motor coach, with air-conditioning. To get from city to city we took planes -- and once, a train -- about every two days. That gave us a day and a half in each place, usually more than enough time.

Hotels were not always top of the line, but they were all Indian instead of the Western chains some operators use. In small cities, we'd stay at the best place in town, which ranged from a marble-and-gilt tower to a not-yet-renovated '60-style hotel. But the hotels were clean and spacious, and had restaurants, which you need outside the big cities to ensure a reliable place to eat. In larger cities like Delhi, the hotels had excellent food and service but were often inconveniently located.

Breakfasts are included (there was a fantastic buffet in Delhi), and some lunches and dinners, but usually you make your own meal plans. Most people ate together in the hotel, in groups of three and four, which reflected the easygoing character of the trip -- everyone gave you the privacy you asked for but at the same time always left a seat open in case you wanted to sit down.

Contact: Cox & Kings,             800-999-1758      . Price: $1,955 per person, double occupancy. If you can, take the Udaipur extension ($730) and spend three nights in the Lake Palace -- in the middle of the city's man-made lake. In 1999 the itinerary will change to 16 days, and the higher price will include Udaipur and all meals.

ONE MAN, ONE CAR, ONE DREAM
Abercrombie & Kent offers well-known group trips, but the company started off in 1962 doing independent trips, and there are many advantages to this kind of travel. A car, a driver, and an A&K representative (wearing a blue blazer in 100-degree heat) picked me up in Delhi. From then on, the driver took me to different towns; in each I was met by a local rep and shown the sights by a city guide. It was as if I were traveling by myself but on an itinerary organized by local experts. It's not clear whether A&K somehow selects better official guides or if the guides pay more attention with only one person, but my experiences with them on this tour were far more satisfying. Accommodations, too, were better -- mostly real palaces, such as Jaipur's Rambagh, a gargantuan stretch of white marble overlooking a lawn where peacocks strut -- and the hotels were all centrally located. Although you decide where to stay and what cities and sights to visit, sometimes letting A&K take care of all the planning works out for the best. The company booked me in a lesser-known hotel, the Neemrana Fort-Palace, that I'd initially crossed off my list. It turned out to be a restored 1464 fortress outside Jaipur; most of the guests were wealthy Indians on retreat from Delhi.

It's not round-the-clock hand-holding, though. After the A&K rep checked me into my hotel, and once the day's sightseeing was over, the only person I could ask for advice was my driver, who unfortunately spoke limited English. He did try very hard, taking me to one of the famous Indian movie theaters and helping me negotiate the system of single-sex lines.

But if something went wrong, I had to leave a message for the A&K rep and wait for a call back. Try that at 4 a.m. when you're learning what they mean by "Delhi belly." (Your concierge might be able to help -- it depends on your hotel's sophistication. In Delhi, a business city, you're in good hands, but in Jaipur, you're on your own.) But this kind of trip does get you away from a group and out among the people who make this country what it is -- the woman selling bags of saffron, the scribe-for-hire typing letters on the sidewalk, the little boy tagging after his baby billy goat.

Contact: Abercrombie & Kent,             800-323-7308      . Price: Ranges from $300 to $500 per day, depending on your choice of accommodations, method of travel, and routes. You can hire a 24-hour guide, though you pay for the guide's meals and lodging -- identical to yours -- as well as his services.

MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO JAIPUR
The state-operated Palace On Wheels follows a loop that snakes west from Delhi to Jaipur, winds through small Rajasthan fortress towns like Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, and hits Agra on the return. Considering India's abominable roads, this train is probably the easiest way to see those lesser-known towns filled with Mughal-style forts and palaces.

Don't be misled, though, by the brochures, which suggest you'll be reliving India's British era. The train's moldings were chipped, and the enormous billows of floral upholstery in the bar car were worn. But this is not the original maharajah's train; it's a reproduction, made of the same materials and in the same factory. My cabin (there are three or four in each of the 13 cars) was paneled in dark wood, with twin beds and all kinds of doodads no one would bother with today -- built-in shelves, a knob that delivers anything from sitar music to '80s pop. Private baths and air-conditioning are about all that differs from the original.

Your cabin boy plays a big role in the experience. Though it's hard for many Americans to get used to the idea, being a cabin boy is considered a good job. While there is some servant/employer stiffness, my cabin boys were always ready to act as interpreters of the culture. Still, they help you only on the train. The city guides were uninspired; some openly took cash bribes from shop owners to bring groups into their stores. And going so deep into Rajasthan made us more obvious outsiders, so we became marks for every peddler and panhandler in sight.

This is a shorter trip than the others, but each of the eight days is packed -- a typical one might include going to a tiger reserve in the morning, having a two-hour lunch on board, and visiting a fortress town where you learn about Moorish havelis (merchant homes) and paradise gardens. Then you have time to shop or nap, and at night it's on to the next stop. The pace was demanding, but most of the 60 passengers were up to it, many having come specifically to "see it all." Clearly, this is why meals are such a big deal -- you need your strength. Dinners begin with soup, then proceed in a flurry of 11 Indian and Continental dishes -- chicken tandoori, sole meuniere -- with waiters rushing around in white-gloved majesty. But along with Raj-style formality came slapdash service. (I don't know how many times I asked for rice and never got it.)

Still, by the end of the week I was enthralled. The best part? Having a base to come back to -- drinks with your fellow travelers, hot tea in the morning, and most of all, a place to leave your suitcase, by this time crammed with bits of silk, Jaipur moonstone necklaces, and carved Buddhas and Shivas.

Contact: Many U.S. companies can book the Palace On Wheels, including Sita World Travel,             800-421-5643      , and General Tours,             800-221-2216      . Price: Ranges from $215 to $370 per person, per night in low season for a triple, double, or single cabin, and $260 to $460 per night in high season.