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October 16 – November 4
THE TOUR Delhi, the nation’s capital Days 1-4 We begin in Delhi with a short introductory drive around the central area before visiting Delhi’s Children’s Museum. Regardless of the title, it’s a wonderful précis of Indian life and a very good introduction to India. From here we visit the Buddhist colony alongside the Yamuna River; the people here are part of the Tibetan refugee exodus of the last 50 years that has found a new home in India. Their clothes market is one of the cheapest in Delhi. Driving back south we call to pay our respects at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial (his cremation site) and call into one of the three museums in Delhi dedicated to India’s Great Soul (Mahatma). The magnificent British Imperial buildings of New Delhi, another more modern planned capital, were completed in 1931. This centrepiece of power with the parliament and president’s palace only served the British for 16 years until Indian independence in 1947. Centrepiece is the wide boulevard of Rajpath than runs from the presidential place through the India Gate memorial and is flanked by administration buildings and palaces of former princes. In teeming Delhi this is one large open green space where Delhi families like to congregate in the evening. We also visit the Imperial Hotel, an art deco beauty, which is as much a museum and art gallery as a hotel. The lawns are just the place for late afternoon tea. In contrast the next day we travel back 400 years in 10 minutes by Delhi’s new underground Metro to wander around Shahjahanabad, or Old Delhi, an earlier planned capital of the 17th-century and built by Emperor Shah Jahan of Taj Mahal fame. We visit the two great monuments of Delhi, the Red Fort, the magnificent palace of the Mughal Emperors, and the nearby great mosque or Jama Masjid. Sprawling out from below the mosque are the narrow lanes and bazaars of the old city. Here in specialist sections you can buy wedding finery, real and paste jewellery, silver ingots, second hand car parts, fireworks, spices, stationery and anything else humankind might need. While in Delhi we hope to organise a cultural visit to witness the beauty and intracity of Indian dance, and to listen to the complex forms of Indian music. One event takes place every Thursday evening (day 3) at the shrine of a Muslim saint at Nizammuddin where players and singers assemble to perform Sufi devotional music. It’s stirring stuff. We also hope to catch a Bollywood movie. Haridwar, Uttaranchal Days 4-5 Rising early, we catch the morning express train to Haridwar with a brief call to Delhi’s dawn flower market on the way to the station. The market only exists for a couple of hours before the thousands of colourful blooms are sold or packed away for the next day. Haridwar is one of India’s most sacred places for Hindus who come here to worship their gods alongside the holy Ganges River. The river tumbles out of the Himalaya just north of here and it is especially auspicious to bathe here and wash away a lifetime of sin. Bathing is optional for us. The evening puja (service of worship) is a colourful event ending in a fire ceremony and the casting of little leaf boats with candles into the river. Our accommodation is alongside one of the town’s bazaars and overlooking the Ganges. Mussoorie, Uttaranchal Days 5-7 We drive up to this relic of the British Raj built on a ridge in the Himalayan foothills. It’s an old hill station where Indian nobility and the British came to live in summer when heat baked the cities and towns of the plains below. From here the southern views drop down a thousand metres over hillside terraces to the shimmering plains below while to the north stand the stupendously magnificent snow-capped Himalaya. Afternoon on day 7 we return downhill to Haridwar to catch an overnight train to Amritsar. We stay in a Maharajah’s Palace, and yes he still lives there. Amritsar, Punjab Days 8-9 Early morning and we arrive in Amritsar the Sikh’s holy city and home of the Golden Temple. From its white marble cloisters a causeway leads across a lake to a white temple with a roof cloaked in tonnes of gold. Before dusk we drive 40km to watch the crazy and surreal closing of the Indian-Pakistan border. In precision and mirrored movements crack squads from the Pakistan and Indian armies ceremoniously close the border gates and lower their respective flags. Our accommodation is at Mrs Bandhari’s guesthouse, a former colonial officer’s house in the green outer suburbs of Amritsar. Still owned by the original family it’s a relic of Indian life between the two world wars. There’s a swimming pool here. Another overnight train takes us to our next stop. Jaipur, Rajasthan Days 9-11 The Pink City; so called because most of the buildings were painted pink to celebrate a distant past British royal visit, and they’ve been kept the same ever since. We visit forts and palaces that have been home to a dynasty of maharajahs that built sumptuous palaces and a park of complex stone astronomical and astrological instruments. We see the huge silver vessels in which one maharajah took his own water on a visit to England, as he didn’t trust London water. There’s also an elephant ride up to the hilltop Amber Fort. Mandawa and Nawalgarh, Rajasthan Days 11-12 We drive into the semi-desert Shekawati region of Rajasthan. Mandawa and Nawalgarh are two sleepy towns also parading as open-air galleries. The houses, temples and other buildings are decorated with frescoes, inside and outside, telling stories of Indian mythology. Neemrana, Rajasthan Days 12-13 Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh Days 13-15 Next stop, on the way to Agra, is the ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri, built in the 16th century by the Emperor Akbar and abandoned after just a few years’ use. Apparently they ran out of water. Most of the architecture remains including some areas that we’ll visit that the tour guides never tell you about. Every country has an iconic building. For Paris it’s the Eiffel Tower but for India it’s the Taj Mahal – perhaps the most famous building in the world. This near-perfect piece of architecture was erected by Shah Jahan as a monument of love to his wife. He was usurped from the throne by his son who imprisoned him in the Red Fort where we’ll see the view of the Taj Mahal that he gazed on for the last 17 years of his life. Khajuraho After an overload of people, we move to somewhere quieter, Khajuraho, and contemplate the genius of a lost civilisation, which in just over a hundred years erected some of the most fabulously ornate temples in India. Although only comprising some five percent of the sculpture these temples are famous for their sensuous erotic carvings that made their Victorian re-discoverer blush in surprise and describe as “rather too warm”. We’re a bit more broadminded these days and we’ll be curiously intrigued rather than given to blushing. Bandhavgarh Days 17-18 Delhi An overnight train takes us back to Delhi and a couple more days exploring the capital. South Delhi is where we find a more ancient Delhi and in the Qutb Minar complex, a soaring victory tower over 70m high dating from the 12th century. Much older is an iron pillar that in all its thousand plus years has never rusted, and no-one knows why. The last day is over to you and we can direct you to the best shopping emporiums that sell quality craftwork from all around India. Our evening flight leaves Delhi.
A mix of good mid-range hotels, a maharajah’s palace, a fort, a castle and a jungle lodge. TransportWe have our own coach for road transport and all trains will be airconditioned. The advantage of an overnight train trip (bedding supplied) is that it allows us to travel long distances overnight. FoodFood does not have to be hot and spicy and Western-style cuisine is readily available. Costs: Ex Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane/Perth - TBA per person twin share. For further enquiries and expressions of interest email us |
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