How a tour is born!

A villager in Muzaffarpur in the doorway of her beautifully painted house.

It has been interesting working with Isha Sharma of Aahilya Holidays. My first trip with her company was to Uzbekistan in March. It had long been a dream of mine to travel there. And because the original 2 week trip sold out so fast, we added another. So I was in Uzbekistan for a month, just amazing. Everything was so well organised, nothing was left to chance. I was very impressed.

Traveling with Isha made me realise just how much goes into planning a tour, how long it takes. And just how complicated it can be working with tour companies in other countries and trying to get replies in good time. So a tour can take anything up to 2 years years to plan. Isha is nothing if not thorough, and does her own reconnaissance rather than just relying on a local guides point of view. Knowing your customer is important and Isha likes to make sure she does the very best she can to make her tour guests comfortable.

Layers of different styles of decoration - Mudejar Architecture Rajnagar Palace

On the other hand, an idea can be sparked by a few images, and BOOM a complete tour is created within 7 days. Because I am so interested in Islamic architecture and design, this has guided me to choose certain countries to travel to. Uzbekistan, Morocco and Turkey. And also, surprisingly (to me) - India. There is remarkable Islamic style architecture across Central Asia. Islamic craftsmen captured in the wars and put to work by Christians have left remarkable layers of designs in so many palaces. As were the Christian artisans who were captured by Muslims in war. These wonderful layers of decoration are referred to as Mudejar architecture and decoration.

My tour to Bihar in North East India January 2026 was created in a matter of days. Isha was on a reconnaissance trip earlier in the year for one of my 14 day tours in 2027. The images she was sending to me were just so exciting I quickly realised this small area of Bihar would make a beautiful, shorter and slightly slower paced tour. Something quite specialised. The ancient buildings and their layers of decoration are quite inspirational. I am longing to take sections of the historic work and use the design in new textile work. And the Sujini embroidered stories created by local villages are quite lovely. Simply stitched stories of local village life. Picking mangoes, life on the road, fishing in the local river, milking the cows. Nothing fussy and clever, just natural story telling.

Sijini embroidery depicting the villagers fishing in the local river

So . . Isha and I talked on the phone with growing excitement while she was still in Bihar. Isha could also see the benefit of a shorter more specialsed tour of this fascinating area of India, and immediately set her team back home in Delhi on the case to start booking hotels, restaurants, busses, flights etc. It would be a tight turn around time wise to get the tour booked as many of Aahilya guests book at least a year ahead, and we had 6 months. But bookings have started, Phew!!

Whilst it is good to plan well ahead, sometimes you just have to go with your instincts and trust all will be well. Because of Isha’s experience in the travel business and her knowledge of what her guests are interested in, it is possible to create something rather wonderful when like minds get together.

Of course, this is just the beginning. Because many of Aahilya Holiday’s guests are artists and photographers, who knows what amazing works they will create from looking at the inspirational buildings, textiles and crafts they will see. So often what you see on a wonderful holiday can be the catalyst you need for a new body of work.

I have written a blog post with a bit more information on the tour if you are interested - here is the link.

To see the full itinerary of this tour - click here