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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). |
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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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The
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.
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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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From 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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