Stego's FAQ on India travel (Itineraries and places to see 1/3)
Subject: Places to see.
Date: 10 Jul 95
From: robertf@mcs.com (Robert Ferguson)
... ...
I think the north has the more spectacular sights such as the Taj and Varanasi, but there is definitely more pressure to buy things. In the south, vendors are less frequent and less persistent.
I would put the daytime temps in the mid-upper 20's. I wore shorts during the day, light cotton pants at night.
My favorite places in the north were the various sights and small towns in Gujurat state, Varanasi and Khujaro. In the south I enjoyed Hampi, the towns around Madurai, and Mysore.
Subject: Places to see.
Date: 10 Jul 95
From: Peter Swain <p.swain@ic.ac.uk>
Hi, I travelled to India in the summer of 1992. I liked the extreme north - the Himalayas and Himachl Pradesh. Manali, Dharmasala are all beautiful and don't come with too much hassle. It's beautiful for trekking and they are very few Westerners hiking (I saw 2 other groups in 8 days). However, the rains hit around the end of July and travelling by bus can take a long time. Varanasi and Agra are a must - very Indian and atmospheric. Both are touristy but it's easy to avoid foreigners if you wish. I didn't like Rajasthan - very touristy, loads of hassle and lots of exploitation, particularly of desert tribes. The forts are beautiful - I prefered Jodhpur but must like Jaiselmer. I did Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaiselmer, Udaipur and Pushkar in a week which for me was long enough.
The south is much more relaxed and actually cheaper. The weather will probably be better during late summer too. Visit the Nilgri (probably spelt wrong) mountains in Tamil Nadu. Real jungle book country - our bus was stopped by wild elephants (Kootagiri is supposed to be great to stay at). The temples are impressive Madurai, Kunbukonam but I prefered the mountains and of course Kovalum. Paradise.
There are more of the famous sites of India in the north and most people do some serious travelling there and then head down south to relax. It takes 2 days by train from Varanasi to Madras so it could eat up alot of your holiday.
Peter Swain.
Subject: Places to see.
From: krishnan@gradient.cis.upenn.edu (Krishnan Venkiteswaran)
Date: 22 May 95
There are many places to see in India. The Indian Tourism Development Corp. (ITDC) could guide you with the many places and could also arrange for your stay.
Starting from the North, one can look around New Delhi which is the Nation's capital. You can (and must) visit the Taj Mahal in Agra which is near Delhi. You can take the Taj Express from Delhi for the same. Then you can visit some historical fortresses built by the Mughals near Agra. There are some nice places in Rajasthan like Jaipur, Udaipur (the floating Lake Palace), etc. There is the train namely "Palace on Wheels" which goes all over Rajasthan and the whole trip is covered in a week. I am not sure of the price of the tickets.
Then you could visit quite a few places in the South. Starting off with Madras you could go Mahabalipuram where you can enjoy the sea along with some architectural monuments and also see the sculptors at work. Then you can go to places like Tanjore, Madurai, etc and see the architectural splendours of the temples there.
If you are beach fad, you must visit Thekkadi and Goa. There are very many wild-life Safaris in various parts of India like the Mudumalai, etc (other names do not come to my mind). For the artistic-minded, one can go visit the Shanti Niketan in West Bengal.
There are very many hill resorts such as Simla, Kulu Manali, etc in the North; Darjeeling in the East of India; Ootacamund (Ooty) and Kodaikanal in the South. You must visit Mysore and Bangalore in Karnatak and drink in the beauty of the Brindavan Gradens and also the varied historyy of the places. Bangalore is also coming to be known as India's Silicon Valley with all major companies like Texas Instruments, Motorola, IBM, etc setting their shops there.
... ...
Krishnan
Subject: Places to see.
How long a trip are you planning? I would suggest that you select one of the four cities of Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and Calcutta to plan a tour of that region (north, west, south and east respectively). From Delhi, for example, you can follow the 'tourist' route of Delhi-Raja- stan-Agra or you may want to do some trekking/hiking in the Himalayas from either the Kulu/Manali route or the Gangothri-Kedarnath-Badrinath route. Or you can plan a trip to some of the wild-life sanctuaries. Each of these trips can best be done in a week. Likewise, you can plan trips from other 'nodes' too, based on your interests and inclinations. India is too big a country to be seen in some depth over a week - you may have already known this.
Subject: Itinerary considerations.
Date: 23 May 95
From: vishrut@rygel.anorad.com
Traveling to India in October is very nice. The weather is perfect.
As you are planning to goto Goa you should also goto Bombay. Since you have 2-3 weeks i suggest that you visit Banglore, Kodiakenal, Uti, Ahmedabad Udipur Jaipur and Agra.
Anothe option is to travel in the train that jsut started for tourists. 2nd option is to purchase a plane ticket for local traveling. You can pick-up a ticket which will allow you to fly in India for 3 weeks. Also contact Indian embassy. Hope this is helpful to you.
vishrut (U.S.A) p.s. if you like to see lion safari then visit Gir. If you have time than also visit Diu and Daman another portugese territory.
Subject: Places to see.
From: arvind@eng.adaptec.com
Date: 18 May 95
... ...
Bombay is a very interesting city but also very crowded. While in Bombay visit the Elephanta caves. It is a short boat ride in the sea from the gateway of India in Nariman point, Bombay.
India is a very large country with so much to do. You cant possibly cover all in two weeks. From Goa, you can head either north to Delhi and Agra (where the Taj mahal is) or head further south to the southern parts of India. I grew up in the state of Kerala in a city close to Kovalam beach (the Goa in the south). Kerala is more relaxed with palm trees and inland lagoons. You can also visit Madras (one of India's largest cities) and visit Mahabalipura, (30 miles away ; famous for rock carved temples) or visit Pondicherry (a former french colony) again by the bay of bengal.
I could go on, but let me know if you want any info or have questions. Remember, May and june is the monsoon season along the western part of India (that includes bombay, goa and kerala state). It does'nt rain all the time, but when it does, it rains really hard.
Cheers !!
- Arvind
Subject: Places to see.
From: hvos@nipg.tno.nl (Henk Vos)
Date: 25 May 95
... ...
go to Ladakh instead..its like Tibet, and..no monsoon!
Travel from Manali in Himachal Pradesh, 2 day bus ride to Leh..
Great for trekking and superb scenery Bharatpur is open for sure, the only thin is: the birds are missing, as they come in winter time :-)
No buses to Jaipur as far as I know, you'll have to take a taxi (Rs 180) to NewDelhi, you can buy a ticket to Jaipur at ND railway station
Subject: Places to see.
From: luttrell@netcom.com (Jordan D. Luttrell)
Date: 12 Jul 95
We traveled only in the south, but we did travel in January (probably close enough to December to compare). The weather was bearable, even pleasant outside the mid-afternoons. We wore conventional American clothes, wash and wear trousers and shirts.
We traveled out of Madras as far as Cochin thru Maduarai, then back via Bangalore, in about 17 days. If you look at a map, this doesn't look like much, but we were *hustling* to do even this, and that includes air from Cochin to Bangalore and then from Bangalore back to Madras. The bottom line is that travel really does take time, whether by bus or train. Given the road traffic, I would say renting a car is out of the question. But ground travel is a lot more real than air travel. So you face a difficulty with three weeks.
We also found there were *lots* of Indians traveling during the Christmas season; it is a high travel season, and rates go up. More importantly, without hotel and train reservations you will wheel-spin trying to get from A to B, and then finding a place in B.
If you like beaches, we had a very good time in Mamallapuram, near Madras. The Tamil Nadu Beach Resort is a very good value, right on the beach, at around $30/night.
We enjoyed Madurai a lot; kind of a country town growing up, but still "real", with one of the most representative temples. We stayed at the Sree Devi, which was serviceable enough, at about $20/night; its roof looks out right on the temple, though they were putting in a penthouse that might scotch the view (except for those staying in the penthouse). The $20 was for the airconditioned room, which made a *big* difference.
For me, the high point was Halebid and Belur, which you can reach from either Mysore or Bangalore; the medieval ruins were worth every moment spent, and the guides are archaeologically trained and superbly knowledgable, humblingly so.
Some time spent with either the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet will give you lots of ideas.
... ...
Joe Luttrell
Subject: Ex-portuguese territories.
Date: 24 May 95
From: Markku Verkkoniemi <Markku.Verkkoniemi@stat.fi>
in rec.travel.asia you were asking about suggestions. For you being Portuguese I would recommend to go to other Indian Portuguese places like Daman and Diu. The latter is actually quite a pleasant place to visit, but don't stay at the beach, there's only one hotel: having a room there is OK, but the food is terrible. In these old Portuguese colonies it's still nice to exchange a few words in Portuguese with the older people. They speak it fluently, as you might know.
Subject: Itinerary.
From: Aneel Jaeel <ajaeel@gwsgi.engr.sgi.com>
Date: 18 May 95
You are right, you would have to get into either Bombay or then New Delhi. If the duration of your trip is (say) 20 days, then here is my reccommendation for an itenary.
I had made this itenary for a friend of mine from the US.
He came back saying that it worked very well for him.
If you need more info e-mail me and I could send you a list of decent/good but not overpriced hotels in India.
ITENARY
--------
Day 1
-----
Arrive in Bombay. Spend the day relaxing, some site seeing in Bombay. In Bombay, there isn't much to see, but you could spend a full day.
Day 2
-----
Leave on an early morning flight to Goa. There are about 4-5 airlines that have daily scheduled flights to Goa from Bombay.
Day 3, 4, 5
-----------
Spend these days in Goa, on the beach, site seeing, see the old Portughese churches, buildings, fisherman's village, wonderful white sand beaches etc. Lots and lots of lovely sea food. Excellent goan cusine (a unique blend of Indian recipies influenced by the portughese cusine).
Day 6
-----
Fly from Goa to Aurangabad. Aurangabad is an ancient city, located in the state of Maharashtra. This is about 1 - 1.5 hrs flying time from Bombay. To go from Goa, you would probably make a connection from Bombay.
Aurangabad is famous for the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. These caves depict the ancient Indian Civilization (carvings, idols, art -- extremely famous and very unique) more that 2000 years old.
Spend the remaining of day 6 site seeing.
Day 7
-----
Spend the day in Aurangabad.
Day 8
-----
Leave Aurangabad and arrive in the city of Udaipur. Udaipur is located in the state of Rajasthan which was the home of the Rajputs ( the most famous warrior clan of India).
Spend the remaining of Day 7 seeing Udaipur.
Udaipur has famous fort palaces. An important point here is that, when in Udaipur, you MUST MUST stay at the TAJ Lake Palace Hotel. This is a Island palace located in the middle of a large lake. This was the Palace of the Maharaja (King) of Udiapur. The Taj group of hotels has now converted this into a 5 Start deluxe hotel. It would tend to be a little expensive, but it is worth every dollar.
Day 9
-----
Spend the day seeing Udaipur.
Day 10
------
Fly to Jaipur (Capital of Rajasthan). Another Ancient city full of palaces, forts and of immence historical importance. Spend the remaining of Day 10 seeing Jaipur.
Day 11
------
Spend the day in Jaipur.
Day 12
-----
Fly/Take a train from Jaipur to Agra. Agra is the city that has the world famous Tajmahal.
Besides the Taj Mahal, Agra has a fort of Agra and Fathepur SHikhri - This is now a ruin of the once capital city of Emperor Akbar (About 45 mts drive from Agra)
Day 13
------
Spend the day in Agra.
Day 14
------
Take a train (Shatabdhi Express) from Agra to New Delhi. Arrive at night in New Delhi.
Day 15, 16, 17
--------------
Spend the days in New Delhi site seeing, shopping etc.
Day 18
------
Fly from New Delhi to Bombay. Spend the rest of the day in Bombay site
seeing.
Day 19
-----
Reserve for shopping.
Day 20
------
Leave for Europe.
Regards,
--Aneel
Subject: Remote Sikkim keen for tourists.
From: pavitra@wave.maths.monash.edu.au (S Pavithran)
Date: 21 Mar 95
... ...
Xinhua News Agency.
HEADLINE: Remote Sikkim keen for tourists
BYLINE: ALEX HAMILTON, GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE
BODY:
SIKKIM
Sikkim, part of India only since 1975 and the smallest state after Goa, last year had 12,000 tourists (against Goa's 1,000,000). Now, like everybody else, it wants more.
You enter Sikkim across the bridge at Rangpo, which straddles the Teesta River. Sikkim is a restricted area on account of the perceived menace of China on the Tibetan border. But the controls here are laid back to the point of being horizontal. Your visa, which has been a diabolically bureaucratic problem to obtain, is examined here with the interest of a rare discovery.
As soon as I arrived, an election announced itself. It seemed to be the Indian ruling Congress party against the rest.
There were many parties, represented by symbols (not everyone can read), among them the Bow and Arrow, Fish and Watch, the Ladder, the Clock, the Bulb, the Hand, the Torch, Sickle and Wheatear, the Umbrella, the Elephant, and the Swastika (this interested me, particularly when it proved to be that of the fiercely independent Gurkhas, who are apparently tired of being praised for noble deeds, and want a share of more humdrum action).
All these for a population of 400,000 people, comprising a minority of indigenous Lepchas with Bhutias from Tibet and more than a third Nepali.
In the capital, Gangtok, Sikkimese friends said there was much tension, but I would not have known, and remember chiefly the goats eating the political posters off the walls.
Obviously it was very serious, with mule trains bringing down a handful of votes from a booth at 14,000 feet near Tibet. But here by the great river, which pours down from a lake at 17,000 feet, the electoral jeeps with their twirling variegated umbrellas, and kids recruited for the high pitch of their voices, seemed more like an excuse for a gig.
Indian writers deprecate the spoiling of Gangtok through rough commercial development.
The smartest elements are certainly the schoolgirls in pleated skirts, white shirts, pullovers, blazers and house ties, and white ribbons in their pigtails.
The business of clothing them looks highly competitive -- skirting and shirting" vies with "fooding and loodging." But "all uniforms for all schools cost the same," a shopman told me (500 rupees the set, blazer 300 extra), then added, "when new."
So the peaks of tourist interest are generally out of town, the chickens-in-the-dust, pumpkin-soup, thatched-cottage lifestyle of Mantam village resort or, most of all, the Buddhist culture of a Tibetan diaspora expressed in 60 or more monasteries, of both "red" and "yellow" sects.
The cynosure is Rumtek, founded in 1962, home of more than 300 red-robed lamas, seat of the 17th Karmapa, who happens just now to be a child born in eastern Tibet.
Four Rinpoches, or incarnate lamas, act as regents.
But there were a lot of soldiers about protecting the property from a pretender, actually the brother of the former Karmapa.
The Rinpoches will readily show you round -- this showpiece or an older bijou establishment such as Enchey -- let you sit in on the ceremonies, explain the prayers that may last for months, the teaching of lamasery to the children, the ways of printing on the prayer flags, that will be carried away on the winds, examine the Tibetan scrolls, photograph the sacred images and perhaps ask you for 10 rupees.
But if you wanted to take the plunge, explore the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, you had best take your shoes off and mill about among the icons and silver chortens and tankhas of the Institute of Tibetology, the largest collection (28,000) of manuscripts and scrolls in Asia, ranged on open shelves like loaves in yellow dusters, each with a label tongue proffered to the browsing scholar.
Along with its masks and ritual instruments, its rings, pots, relics, clocks and coins, under the jewelled gaze of the Boddhisatava of Wisdom, it is altogether a magnificent place.
For myself I was glad to be given a strip from a prayer flag, from which the wind had purged its cargo of wickedness.
It would do very well as a talisman for the journey back down to the burning plains.
Subject: Places to see.
From: krishnan@gradient.cis.upenn.edu (Krishnan Venkiteswaran)
Date: 22 May 95
... ...
There are many places to see in India. The Indian Tourism Development Corp.
(ITDC) could guide you with the many places and could also arrange for your stay.
Starting from the North, one can look around New Delhi which is the Nation's capital. You can (and must) visit the Taj Mahal in Agra which is near Delhi.
You can take the Taj Express from Delhi for the same. Then you can visit some historical fortresses built by the Mughals near Agra. There are some nice places in Rajasthan like Jaipur, Udaipur (the floating Lake Palace), etc. There is the train namely "Palace on Wheels" which goes all over Rajasthan and the whole trip is covered in a week. I am not sure of the price of the tickets.
Then you could visit quite a few places in the South. Starting off with Madras you could go Mahabalipuram where you can enjoy the sea along with some architectural monuments and also see the sculptors at work. Then you can go to places like Tanjore, Madurai, etc and see the architectural splendours of the temples there.
If you are beach fad, you must visit Thekkadi and Goa. There are very many wild-life Safaris in various parts of India like the Mudumalai, etc (other names do not come to my mind). For the artistic-minded, one can go visit the Shanti Niketan in West Bengal.
There are very many hill resorts such as Simla, Kulu Manali, etc in the North; Darjeeling in the East of India; Ootacamund (Ooty) and Kodaikanal in the South.
You must visit Mysore and Bangalore in Karnatak and drink in the beauty of the Brindavan Gradens and also the varied historyy of the places. Bangalore is also coming to be known as India's Silicon Valley with all major companies like Texas Instruments, Motorola, IBM, etc setting their shops there.
I hope it helps.........
Krishnan
Subject: Places to see.
From: tm@neosoft.com (Trade Mission)
Date: 12 Jul 95
Top priority should be Rajasthan, the most romantic and fascinating (in my opinion) part of India. Jaisalmer and Udaipur are beautiful, but the forts at Jodhpur and Jaisalmer are fantastic.
There's an out-of-the way fort at Kumbalghar, also, that you can visit to get away from the crowds. Very scenic situation.
Leigh Anderson
Subject: Best places to find handycraft.
From: Rochelle Follender <follend@cpcug.org>
Date: 29 Jul 95
Bhubaneswar has some thousand year old temples which are interesting.
More interesting is a visit to Puri, an Orissan town on the Bay of Bengal. It is the home of the Jagganath temple, and is a living pilgrimage town. You will see all sorts of devout and colorful tribal and country people who come to Puri to pay homage to three large wodden idols. Puri is rich in crafts. Many folk paintings of mythological figures on oil cloth, palm fronds, boxes, and masks, You can also find these crafts in the Orissa state handicrafts emporium near Connaught Circle in New Delhi.
The road from Bhubaneswar to Puri passes through a village called Pipli. That is the center of the applique crafts which are used on tents, umbrellas, and wall hangings.
Why are you going to Bhubaneswar? What will you do there?
Harvey Follender
Subject: Places to see (Puri, Konarak, Bhubaneswar).
From: df6i@rs23.hrz.th-darmstadt.de (Jochen Bink)
Date: 1 Aug 95
Rochelle Follender <follend@cpcug.org> writes:
>More interesting is a visit to Puri, an Orissan town on the Bay of >Bengal. It is the home of the Jagganath temple, and is a living
The Jagannath Temple sucks. Non-Hindus are not allowed inside and the outside is barren except for the colourful masses of pilgrims. It's nice to see, but not worth staying in town for more than the day, as it's an expensive town (accomodation and food) compared to Konarak just an hour's bus ride (quite enjoyable) away, home to the _magnificent_ Surya temple. It's very peaceful, the further (from the temple) of the two hotels (Yaatri Nivas, I think) offers pleasantly nice doubles for 40 rupees apiece !!!!!!!! (Nov 94) and delicious dinners for 12! And they rent cycles so you can pedal out to the beach at 5 in the morning to watch the beautiful sunrise with fishing ships out on the horizon (great pictures!) Go see Puri, but stay in Konarak, that's what I recommend, contrary to the LP guide.
>Why are you going to Bhubaneswar? What will you do there?
For one, Bhub has an auditorium where you might be able to see a fascinating show of Odissi dance. We went, were told nothing was on, then the next day one of the staff recognized us at the temples and invited us to a performance by troupes from many Indian art schools in the evening, for free as it was a youth festival. It was a great experience.
The temples are very interesting to see _before_ Konarak, as the contrast in size is particulary striking then (originally the Surya temple was about three to four times larger than its predecessors in Bhub, until the main altar collapsed, but the ante-room is still larger than all of Bhub's temples).
Have fun, and take your time as everywhere in India!
Subject: Hill Stations in North India ?
From: g0a1363@tam2000.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal)
Date: 19 Mar 96
Dave Shipway wrote:
>I'm off to India for four weeks soon. As well as seeing Delhi/Rajasthan/Agra,
>we're also hoping to go to a hill station near the Himalayas. We're thinking
>of going to Nani Tal, as it's quite close to Delhi, and the Corbett National
>Park is also nearby. Has anyone any experiences of going to these two places,
>and/or recommendations for other places to go e.g. Shimla ?
If you have an extra week, you may want to go to Kausani (a full day's drive by bus) from Nainital. Very serene place and offers an excellent view of the Himalyan snow mountains (Nanda Devi, K2 etc.) at early hours. It's not very developed and conditions can be a bit primitive.
Subject: Advices on what to visit in May (Ranthambhor, Himachal Pradesh (Kulu, Manali, Shimla(, Nainital in UP. Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Rajasthan?) .
From: Sanjoy Majumder
Date: 2 Apr 96
jedwards@aracnet.com (Jeff Edwards) wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 13 Mar 96 16:06:35 PDT, rozen_ms@netvision.net.il wrote:
>
> >>
> >>Me and a friend are going to arrive in New-Delhi mid-may,
> >>and then we have two weeks to wait for a 3rd person.
> >>This will be our 1st time in India.
> >>Any suggestions what we could do IN or AROUND N.Delhi and
> >>be back in time? (we would hate to waste the end of the
> >>reasonable season...)
> >>
> >>Thanks,
> >>Danny.
>
> Two weeks is a fair amount od time. I would recommend going to one of the
> Tiger Parks. I went to RANTHAMBHOR NATIONAL PARK and got to see a tiger in
> the wild. The park also gave me a feel for what India was more like in
> its natural state. Anyway, a lot of folks visit India and don't go out of
> their way to see the wild tiger, but I thought it was one of the highlights of
> my four months there. Plan on spending a ci\ouple of days if you want to be
> dure to see one.
>...
Well May is not the best time of the year to be spending in Delhi and Ranthambore. It will be very hot (100+ degrees) and you are unlikely to spot too many tigers.
My suggestion is to go up to the mountains. Himachal Pradesh (Kulu, Manali, Shimla), Nainital in UP and if you feel like it, even a small trek in the Himalayas.
On the other hand you might just choose to brave the heat in which case you might want to make the detours to Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Rajasthan. But keep in mind that for most of the day you will have to stay indoors as it is too hot and even dangerous (from a health point of view) to stay outdoors in the sun. Cover your head always and keep rehydrating. Preferably wear lose clothes, non-synthetic (cotton).
Enjoy your trip and, in advance, welcome.
Sanjoy
Subject: India by bike (june/july), Ladakh adviced.
From: John Tetreault
Date: 15 Apr 96
Ladakh, although wonderful and uncrowded, is not plains India. I should think that part of the charm of biking in India would be to savor the cultures from village to village.
I suggest a bike trip this way. Avoid the major highways. Revert to walking near urban areas. Orissa state is beautiful, flat for the most part (try Koraput district for a cool plateau) and still relatively uncrowded. And by all means don't go in June or July. June would be insanely hot for biking and once the monsoon sets in in July you'll be biking through two feet of water.
Subject: Re: India Trip - Itinerary
From: jayarama@mekab.usc.edu (Prakash Jayaraman)
Date: 23 Apr 96
In article <830286891snz@lloyney.demon.co.uk> Nicholas Doylend writes:
then back to delhi followed by the usual touristy bit of Agra - Jaipur - then through Rajasthan and Gujarat to Bombay and finally down to Goa returning either to Delhi or Bombay to fly home.
*********
There are lots of tourist companies just outside the New Delhi railway junction and my suggestions is to NOT choose any of them.
To visit Taj Mahal, it is very convenient to go by the Taj Express (train). It leaves New Delhi early in the morning (6 am, I think) and reaches Agra in 2 hours. Taj Mahal is 15km away from Agra railway station (Raja Ki Mandi is the name of the station). I think the ticket inspector in the train will help you in getting into the tourist bus which will take you to Agra fort and then to the Taj.
(If you lose the Taj Express, you can go by Shatabdi (sp?) Express, the fastest train in India). You might want to buy miniatures of Taj Mahal (made of limestone or marble) at some places around the Taj. Some auto-rickshaw drivers will take you to some handicraft store (reasonably priced) if you return from the Taj to the railway station by auto-rickshaw. (I purchased a limestone miniature for US$6 last year. Marble miniatures cost US$50.)
One funny thing in India is that you have to pay some more if you want to take the camera inside a place. I don't know how much they charge at Agra fort and at Taj.
(Allot one full day for Taj.)
Jaisalmer and Udaipur are other places of interest in Rajasthan.
********
We've only got a month for all this, will it all be possible in that time?
*********
One month is a long time and you can definitely do some more, I guess. If you get more time, travel to South India and visit some great temples. (in Karnataka, there are places like 'Halabedu' 'Belur', 'Chamundi hills' etc. in Tamilnadu 'Mahabalipuram' 'Srirangam' 'Madurai' 'Kanchipuram' 'Chidambaram'). There are thousands of big temples.
I am not digressing into religious topics. I am just interested in the architectural stuff about these religious places. There are great churches in India with tall towers and I haven't seen even one better looking church in the US.
For travelling within New Delhi, choose bus or auto-rickshaw depending on what you like to do at that time. Auto-rickshaws are faster and cost at least 10 times the bus charge. But buses are always crowded. New Delhi zoo is pathetic. (For visiting a zoo, go to Mysore or Madras). (I always visit at least one zoo if I go to a different country.) Madras has a good aquarium near the Marina beach.
**********
We expect to travel the long distances by train and the shorter journies by bus. Does anyone know if the Konkan Railway is open for passanger trains between Bombay and Goa?
**********
When I travelled from Bombay to Goa, we had to change trains at a place beteen Bombay and Goa. After this change, the meter gauge train travels through scenic mountain ranges and the journey is well worth it. In Goa, Bogamalo beach is great. In Goa, just rent a 100cc motor bike and go anywhere you want. The rent is cheap.
*********
Even if you visit less number of places, have your own time at each place.
If you are interested in purchasing textiles (India is a great place for textiles), visit one of the hundreds of showrooms in any city bazaar.
Regards
Prakash
© J. Mário Pires, 96
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