Rest of India
Amritsar
01/03/2013 12:21
The Sikhs’ holy city of AMRITSAR is the largest city in Punjab with the fabled Golden Temple, whose domes soar above the teeming streets. Amritsar is also an important staging-post for those crossing the Indo–Pakistan frontier at Wagha, 29km west.
The Golden Temple stands in the heart of the old...
Chennai
27/02/2013 15:51
In the northeastern corner of Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal, CHENNAI (still commonly referred to by its former British name, Madras) is India’s fourth largest city, with a population nudging seven and a half million. Hot, congested and noisy, it’s the major transportation hub of the south and...
Darjeeling
01/03/2013 13:16
Part Victorian holiday resort, part major tea-growing centre, DARJEELING (from Dorje Ling, “the place of the thunderbolt”) straddles a ridge 2200m up in the Himalayas and almost 600km north of Kolkata. Over fifty years since the British departed, the town remains as popular as ever with...
Gulmarg - Snow Skiing
01/03/2013 13:41
Some 56km west of Srinagar and at an elevation of around 2700m, is GULMARG, whose name means “flower meadow”. The surrounding pine slopes can be ascended for a distant view of 8126m Nanga Parbat to the north, in Pakistan-controlled Baltistan. The more sedentary can ascend one of these slopes on a...
Jammu & Kashmir
27/02/2013 15:47
India’s northernmost and sixth-largest state, JAMMU AND KASHMIR (usually shortened to J&K), is one of its most mountainous and staggeringly beautiful. It also encapsulates the cultural and religious diversity of the Subcontinent by falling into three distinct regions. The southwestern end of...
Kolkata & West Bengal
27/02/2013 15:48
Unique among Indian states in stretching all the way from the Himalayas to the sea, WEST BENGAL is nonetheless explored in depth by few travellers. That may have something to do with the exaggerated reputation of its capital, KOLKATA (CALCUTTA), a sophisticated and friendly city that belies its...
Mumbai (Bombay)
27/02/2013 15:48
Ever since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the principal gateway to the Indian Subcontinent has been MUMBAI (Bombay), the city Aldous Huxley famously described as “the most appalling…of either hemisphere”. Travellers tend to regard time spent here as a rite of passage to be survived rather...
Pondicherry
27/02/2013 15:50
First impressions of PUDUCHERRY (Pondicherry, also often referred to simply as Pondy), the former capital of French India, can be unpromising. Instead of the leafy boulevards and pétanque pitches you might expect, its messy outer suburbs and bus stand are as cluttered and chaotic as any typical...
Sikkim
01/03/2013 13:17
The tiny and beautiful state of SIKKIM lies to the south of Tibet, sandwiched between Nepal to the west and Bhutan to the east. Measuring just 65km by 115km, its landscape ranges from sweltering deep valleys just 300m above sea level to lofty snow peaks such as Kanchenjunga (Kanchendzonga to the...
Varanasi
27/02/2013 15:49
The great Hindu city of VARANASI, also known as Banaras or Benares, stretches along the River Ganges, its waterfront dominated by long flights of stone ghats where thousands of pilgrims and residents come for their daily ritual ablutions. Known to the devout as Kashi, the Luminous – the City of...