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Sights that enthral and appall. When
Foster wrote his Passage to India in the 1920s he
reached the stunning conclusion that there are "a
hundred Indias". There are. And if you go out to
discover each of these you can count on spending at
least a year in this stupendous country with its
phenomenal repertoire of surprises and delights. Blessed
with probably the widest array of topographical and
cultural diversity that was ever packed into one time
zone, there’s an India for everyone.
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India’s
jungles, rivers and streams are simply bursting
with wildlife; much of it
protected in her 80 National Parks and 441
Sanctuaries. Popular ones are Corbett, Rajaji and
Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh), Kanha, Pench (Madhya
Pradesh) and Sasan Gir (Gujarat). |
| Sariska
and Ranthambor (Rajasthan), Kaziranga, Manas
(Assam), Mudumalai, Bandipore and Wyanad (Nilgiri
Biosphere Reserve-Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala)
are the other well known game sanctuaries.
Keoladeo Ghana, Bharatpur (Rajasthan) is a famous
bird sanctuary. Find yourself as you lose the
cares of life in the city. |
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temple trail in India just
trails on and on and on.... winding past the
monuments of man’s love for the divine. The
gilded gurudwara in Amritsar, ancient
weather-beaten cathedrals in Goa, ‘dargahs’
(mausoleums) of Muslim saints and grand temples
to the innumerable Hindu deities; these houses
of worship are as precious as works of art. |
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| Catch
the trail as it runs through Ajmer, Delhi,
Fatehpur Sikri, Varanasi, Madurai, Sarnath, Gaya,
Orchha, Tanjore, Trichy, Tirupati, Mathura,
Ayodhya, Jammu, Badrinath, Haridwara and
Rishikesh. The legacy of spiritual
succour lives on in the land of exotica. In Pune,
Pondicherry, Puttaparthy and Dharamsala, Osho,
Auroville, the Sai Baba and Buddhist monks
explore a new life, of what is and what could
be. |
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Explore
the same along turquoise blue and breezy
beaches along the coast. Windswept or
sunny, India’s beaches are peculiarly Indian.
Crowded and cheery, sometimes dirty, always
delightful, you’ll find them in Kerala’s
Kovalam, in the Andamans and Lakshadweep, in Goa,
quiet Gokarna, and ‘templescaped’ Puri,
Kanyakumari and Mahabalipuram. |
Ruins
of forts, palaces, picturesque ‘havelis’
(large private houses) and mausoleums pepper the
landscape. In and around Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan,
all over the country actually, historical sites
intrigue the history enthusiast. |
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Important
sites are Hampi, Khajuraho, Mandu, Aurangabad, Bikaner,
Goa, Gwalior, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur,
Mahabalipuram, Tanjore and Mysore.
Museums, business centres, nightlife, large markets,
embassies and consulates mark space in the bigger cities
of India. Bustling with activity, bristling with high
voltage energy, busy-busy-busy,
New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Pune
and Hyderabad make up India’s urban landscape.
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The
world’s highest mountains
form a tall 2500 km long wall along India’s
northeast frontier and are prime climbing
territory for the outdoor types. The mountainous
regions of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Leh are
high altitude trekking options. |
The
"blue mountains" of the Nilgiri Hills in the
Deccan, and the lower reaches of the Himalayas in
Garhwal, Kumaon and around Darjeeling are simpler and
ideal for a leisurely hike.
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stark white mountains framed against sheer clear
blue to forested hills that enclose rushing
streams, there is endless variety for the hiker.
In the hills, in tiny towns with winding ‘mall
roads’ survive the British legacy of
"hill stations". These cool getaways
from the simmering plains continue to entertain
weekend tourists in the summers. Shimla, Manali,
Kasauli and Mussoorie in the north, Shillong,
Darjeeling and Kalimpong in the east, Ooty and
Munnar in the south are the most popular. |
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So
much to do, so much to see.....so little time! That
holds completely true for the Indian experience. Don’t
push yourself to do it all because that’s well nigh
impossible but choose well and plan little, open your
mind and be gathered up by the experience that the world
calls "India".
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