Agra/Mysore. If I had it to do over I would stay in Agra/Mysore and do the reverse. Ooty is nothing special except for the train ride up/down the mountain which I would like to go on again (but I'm biased as I like trains). However the countryside around Ooty is pretty. If you are in
*********
There is another hill-station called Kodaikkanal in Tamilnadu state 120 km southwest of Tiruchirappalli city (which is in the center of TN state). It is smaller than Ooty but is supposed to be more beautiful. Ooty is fully congested by tourists in summer. The lake becomes kinda dirty. Kodaikkanal has less tourists. I liked Kodaikkanal a lot (probably because that was the first hill-station that I visited).
For touristless hill-stations, stop at 'Coonoor', 'Kothagiri' or 'Lovedale'. These places are near Ooty and don't have much for tourist attraction, and so there are not much tourists. You can do some good hiking in these places without disturbances.
Subject: Gujarat, India: favorite tourist destinations
From: AMIT SHAH <amitshah@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 95
My personal favourite place to visit in Gujrat is the "Akshardham" temple complex in Gandhinagar. It is run by the "Bochanwasi Akshar Purushottam Trust" ( more commonly known as the branch of the Swaminarayan religion headed by HDH PramukhSwami).
The temple is VERY beautiful, and the exhibitions that surround the temple are very spiritually enlightening. The complex is devoted to trying to help people improve themselves with special emphasis on Indian culture. Even if you are not the spiritual type, the temple is so beautiful and the atmosphere so peaceful that its worth a isit just for that. No tour of Gujrat is complete without visiting the "Akshardham" temple complex.
"Akshardham" is located in sector 20, J road in Gandhinagar. Gandhinagar is about 30 miles from Ahmedabad, and is easily accessible by taxi from Ahmedabad.
Subject: Gujarat, India: favorite tourist destinations
From: desai@elen.utah.edu (Maulik Desai)
Date: 27 Oct 95
In article <46p43g$oeq@agate.berkeley.edu> AMIT SHAH <amitshah@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu> writes:
>My personal favourite place to visit in Gujrat is the "Akshardham" temple
>complex in Gandhinagar. It is run by the "Bochanwasi Akshar Purushottam Trust"
Is it only me or anyone else has noticed that only places mentioned in this thread are temples? I mean, I don't have anything personally against gaining "punya" along with "pravas" but there is more to Gujarat tourism than Palitana & Akshardham..
So let me expand the theme further and list "non-pilgrimmage" type of tourist attractions in Gujarat:
* Sasan-Gir * Saputara and Aahva
* Pirotan (Puritan) Islands
* Lothal
* The Sun-temple near Mehsana
* Chorvad
* Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary (a good place for camping, hiking and nature watch)
* Dilwara temples and Mt. Abu (Yes, I know that they're in Rajasthan; they're mentioned here because almost all of the visitors are from Gujarat.
Maybe some more knowledgable person can give more details about these spots..
Maulik
Subject: Re: Gujarat, India: favorite tourist destinations
From: desai@elen.utah.edu (Maulik Desai)
Date: 30 Oct 95
In article <46vrlk$d32@news4.digex.net> Harvey/Rochelle Follender <follend@cpcug.org> writes:
>Josh, > >What are the "step wells of Ahmedabad"?
> The "step well" or "vav" is basically a well. It is architecturally quite magnificient. Its been years since I last visited the "vav" at Adalaj, but I'll give a brief and rough description. A big mouth (rectangular) leads to steps on all sides, which gradually go down to the well. Around the walls, there are extensive carvings and "jharukha"s or little windows (the whole structure is made of stone).
I don't know the peroid in which these were built (there are numerous in Gujarat) but I believe its about 300-400 years ago (its a wild estimate!) They're quite beautiful (esp. the one at Adalaj). Someone here was inquiring about interesting places around A'bad, well, this is definitely a must-see.
>What do you find interesting about Daman and Diu?
I haven't seen Diu, though I've heard its v. beautiful. I think it was a Portugese territory until the '50s (??) and is known for a fort.
Daman has a nice sea-shore closeby- its notorious for smuggling activities (electronic goods, gold from the Gulf countries). Not much to "see" as far as I know, except the dam on river Daman-ganga.
Maulik
Subject: Re: Travelling through India: Any advise? Itinerary?
From: muzzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Sanjoy Majumder)
Date: 14 Oct 95
>Dear Sanjoy (and others), > >Some 'clip-artist' somehow managed to attach my name to the Calcutta >statement, which I didn't make.
> >It *was* an unfortunate statement, and it's too bad it was made. I have
>never been in Calcutta, and hope to repair that omission. Where would you
>suggest starting?
Hi Jordon, I am sorry for railing out against you. I didn't mean to be obnoxious.
Anyway, Calcutta *is* a fascinating city and I guess it all depends on what interests you. Here are some of the things I would do:
- Walk around College street and check out the pavement bookstores. There are also a couple of small independent publishing houses which produces excellent material on theater, music, politics, painting etc. Seagull publishers is one of them. Also check out Middleton Books on Middleton Row (just of ANZ Grindlay's Bank on Chowringhee).
- Go to a play (of course you need to speak Bengali for this) at Kala Mandir or Nazrul Manch.
- Go to a concert of "alternative" music by Bengali teen idols Sumon Chatterjee and Nachiketa. (You will see ads all over. Otherwise go to Symphony music store next to Metro cinema on Chowringhee and they will tell you when the next one is).
- Visit the Indian museum and also the exhibit on the history of Calcutta in Victorial memorial.
- Go to Jorasanko to visit Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home. While there go to the Marble palace and take a look at the art exhibit.
- Take in the atmosphere in the "Coffee House" at Calcutta University as people passionately debate politics, the revolution, fashion, etc over chai and samosas.
- Take a ferry ride on the Hooghly and go to Dakhineshwar temple and Belur Math. Some people also like to stop at the Botanical gardens upstream.
- Watch a game of cricket at Eden Gardens or a game of soccer in Calcutta's sports crazy Maidan.
- Have a cup of tea in the portico of Fairlawn hotel on Sudder St, originally a Dutch hospital for prisoners-of-war and subsequently taken over by 2 Scottish ladies.
- Watch a movie at Nandan, the film complex, which has a museum dedicated to Satyajit Ray in it.
- Take an overnight motor launch trip to the mangrove swamps of the Sunderbans. You may even spot a cousin of the Royal Bengal tiger here! It costs Rs 300 (US$10).
- Eat authentic Bengali food at Suruchi, a restaurant run by the West Bengal Women's cooperative.
- Visit the synagogue at Ezra st and follow it up visiting the Jewish bakery Nahoum in New Market (set up in the early part of this century). There is also a tiny Armenian community in Calcutta.
- Take a ride in a variety of mass transit options: the rickshaw, a city bus, a tramcar and India's first underground metro system. At any rate, visit the metro station at Rabindra Sadan to see graffitti art dedicated to Tagore.
There is of course a lot more to do. The Lonely Planets guide has an extensive section on Calcutta and Insight Guides has a whole book on Calcutta. There are a number of books you can read as well. You might want to start with a piece of fiction, a novel by Amitav Ghosh called The Shadowlines. It should be available at a major bookstore.
Sanjoy
Subject: Re: REQ: Any info on Kerala, India
From: luttrell@netcom.com (Jordan D. Luttrell)
Date: 29 Oct 95
Hi, Ken, probably the best starting points are the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, both of which have extensive sections on Kerala.
There have also been some very good recent threads on this group on South India, including Kerala, if you can go back and retrieve them.
You might also wish to get out of the library quite a wonderful travel book entitled "On a Shoestring to Coorg" much of which takes place in Kerala. There is also a documentary on the now almost extinct Jewish community in Kerala that is well worth the viewing; maybe someone in this group will know its title. If not, you might contact the director of the Judith L. Magnes Museum in Berekely who will know it and maybe they even have it to rent or buy.
My last bit of advice would be to join your parents!
Joe Luttrell
Subject: Re: Boat Riding in Bangladesh on the Jamuna River; Kerala backwaters.
From: denysm@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Denys Meakin)
Date: 26 Oct 95
>Denys,
> >Thanks for your response. You make it sound interesting. It sound like
>the most interesting thing would be for me to go to Dhaka and ride boats
>up and down the rivers until I get tired. Is the boat from Dhaka to
>Khulna called the "Rocket"--a paddle wheeler?
> >Am I correct that you have been around the Kerela and Bangladesh
>backwaters and found Kerela to be much more interesting?
> > Harvey
Harvey:
The "Rocket" boats are not paddlewheelers.
I have spent time (2 days) on the Kerala backwaters, and I took a trip from Khulna into the Sundarbans. That was actually a 5 day package tour, the one and only time in my (fairly long) life that I have ever done such a thing.
As I mentioned previously, we really did prefer the Kerala backwaters for the greater "contact" with the land, since you usually have banks close on both sides of you. India, in general, we found to be more interesting than Bangladesh, which is a relatively new society, with little interesting architecture; in Raj days, it was very much of a backwater.
If you haven't been to Bangladesh before, don't take too lightly my comment that the infrastructure for travellers is much less developed than in India.
I have taken the liberty of enclosing a copy of an article I wrote for a Dhaka newspaper about our trip to the Sundarbans. Bear in mind that this was a sanitised account of the trip for Bangladeshi readers. It doesn't mention the "black hole" that was the 4 ft square, lightless room that was the toilet/washing facility for the entire boatload, etc.
We leave on Monday for 4 months in India, hopefully with part of the time in Sri Lanka, but with the events of the last two weeks, we aren't sure.
Regards
Denys
(From Financial Express, 5 August 1994)
WATCHING THE EAGLES CIRCLING OVERHEAD
by Denys Meakin
We had never taken a package tour before!
Although we have travelled extensively in many parts of the world, we have always travelled independently using public transportation. However, everyone warned us about the difficulties of travelling in Bangladesh at Eid, and this looked like the only time we would have available during our six month contract to see a part of Bangladesh away from Dhaka. So with some trepidation, we signed up for an organized tour to the Sundarbans - the world's largest mangrove forest. Would the arrangements be worth the not inconsiderable cost? Would our companions be compatible?
We met the rest of the party and the tour company owner at Dhaka airport on the Thursday afternoon before Eid. We were a little taken aback at the number of people - 18, including four children and the owner and his wife. Our visions of peaceful bird watching and quiet nature walks began to evaporate.
The arrangements made by the company worked extremely well. We flew to Jessore where the company bus was waiting to drive us to Khulna where we spent the night. Early next morning we continued in the bus to Mongla port, arriving in time to have breakfast on the boat. Although the boat had seen better days, there were comfortable canvas chairs on the roof, with an awning to protect us from the sun.
After a quick stop at the Forest Station to collect our permits, we started our nine hour journey through a maze of winding river channels to the Bay of Bengal. Initially there was plenty of riverside habitation, and hundreds of fishermen fishing for shrimp eggs to be sold to shrimp farmers. We also had a demonstration of fishing with otters, using three otters to herd fish into the nets. As we left the main river and started down the narrower side channels, houses and fishermen both disappeared, and we were left with the natural mangrove forest, only occasionally spoiled by tree cutting operations. We were surprised to find that the forest was quite different from American mangrove forests, with many more tree species, and none of the mangrove tree commonly seen there. We were able to spot plenty of wild life from the boat - a glimpse of Gangetic dolphins as they briefly arched above the surface, the snout of an estuarine crocodile, troupes of rhesus macaque monkeys disappearing into the forest at the noise of the boat. But the biggest show was provided by the birds. Stately large white egrets and adjutant storks waded in the shallows, while iridescent kingfishers dived almost faster than the eye could see. The boat was constantly trailed by up to thirty Brahminy kites, wheeling and diving in the wake of the boat to catch fish in their claws; it is a rare treat to be able to observe large birds of prey so closely for such an extended period of time. As we neared the ocean, sea eagles were circling high overhead.
By the time we arrived at our destination, Katka, it was starting to get dark, but we took the opportunity to inspect the watch tower across the river from the forest rest house. This was in a beautiful area overlooking a wide expanse of grasslands with herds of graceful spotted deer. Unbelievably, there were fresh tiger spoor right by where the boat pulled in. Some of the more sceptical members of the party suggested that this was "organised" as part of the package, perhaps with a paw print on the end of a long bamboo pole! In order to accommodate the eighteen people, we had to split into three groups for the night - some up the watch tower, some in the rest house, and some on the boat. In fact, for most of our activities, we were split into groups, and this helped alleviate our concerns about the large group spoiling our peace and quiet.
Next morning, the group who had slept up the watch tower reported hearing the roar of a tiger twice, but had seen nothing. Around the rest house, we saw more spotted deer and a wild boar.
Apparently the deer were much more timid than usual since the Forestry Department had recently captured a number of them to use as the foundation of a new herd near Mymensingh. After breakfast, we split into groups again to explore the area - our group set off for a long walk through the meadows and forest, and finally along a beautiful deserted beach. The beach would not have been so deserted a short time earlier - there were the unsightly remains of a large camp of fishermen who are allowed to fish there each winter. At lunch time, the boat appeared to pick us up and serve lunch, before taking us to a recently formed island for swimming. Jokes were made about Nepal claiming sovereignty over the island, since much of the silt forming it is washed down the rivers from Nepal!
That night it was our turn (five of us) to stay on the watch tower. After the boat had dropped us off before sunset, the young English couple with us decided to go for a short walk back to the dock. Not long after, they came rushing back with terrified expressions on their faces. When they said they had seen a tiger, we had no trouble believing them - they could hardly get the words out! At that point, we became very alert, and knew exactly which direction to watch. After only a few minutes, we saw not one, but three tigers emerge from the bushes, cross the path, and disappear into the bushes on the other side.
They stopped to have a look in our direction, and the biggest flicked its tail in the air as if to say "You don't bother us!" Since tigers are usually solitary animals, we presumed that the trio was a mother with two almost fully grown cubs. Needless to say, "bathroom" visits before settling down for the night were accomplished very quickly! Since this was the night before the new Eid moon was spotted, we had no moonlight whatever - but a spectacular view of the stars as we lay on the top platform of the tower. We were even able to watch a satellite as it tracked across the sky.
The next morning, we heard that a forestry official had seen a tiger early in the morning, not far from the rest house, but no one else in our group was lucky enough to see one.
The last full day at Katka we spent taking short walks and bird watching. One walk took us through the tidal mangrove forest - inches deep squelchy mud with spiky aerial roots sticking up every few inches. We were so busy watching where we put our feet that we hardly saw anything. During the day though, we did identify quite a lot of birds, some of which were new to us.
Among them were the gold-fronted chloropsis, pond heron, spotted dove, curlew, red-wattled lapwing, pond heron, green sandpiper, chestnut-headed bee-eater and the white collared kingfisher.
The next morning was Eid-ul-Fitri. We were served a special breakfast after which the boat crew went off for their end-of - Ramzan prayer service. It was a treat to see them in their best clothes after their usual boatman's garb. After prayers, we set off for the long and uneventful journey back to Mongla. It must be said that most people were not scanning the river banks as alertly as on the way down - once you have been into the forest, watching from the remoteness of a boat on the river is not quite as attractive. As we approached Mongla, the river was alive with small boats loaded with people dressed in their holiday finery visiting friends and relatives in the villages across the river.
Our bus was waiting for us at Mongla. We created quite a stir of interest as we tied the "country" boat on the roof of the bus - since this was the last trip of the season, it wouldn't be needed again until next winter. The baggage was then loaded into the boat. We had barely gone a mile from the dock at Mongla when one of the tires burst with a loud bang - not surprising with the load the bus was carrying. Some of us just set off and walked along the road while the wheel was changed - we needed the exercise, and the late afternoon was pleasantly cool. The rest of our trip back to Dhaka was uneventful.
Everyone on the trip enjoyed it. The tour company could make some improvements, particularly in the amenities on the boat (a place to wash would have been really appreciated). But what everyone went for was the natural scenery and wildlife of the Sundarbans, and that we really found. Those of us who saw tigers felt very privileged, but everyone saw lots of birds and animals.
Please Bangladesh, keep your Sundarbans treasure in a natural state. Keep strict control of the poachers, the woodcutters, the grasscutters and the fishermen. Yes, even the tourists too.
Every bit of human activity there places extra strain on the ecology. Don't let it be said that yours was the generation that destroyed the last habitat of the Royal Bengal tiger.
--
Denys Meakin Bowen Island, British Columbia
denysm@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca Canada
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