Touring India - Some Guidelines

You wish to travel in India as a tourist? See Taj Mahal , medieval palaces of Maharajas and magnificent temples of 9th century. Here are friendly suggestions and practical tips to make your tour pleasant and fruitful.

Climatic conditions

India is partly subtropical and partly tropical. Therefore avoid traveling in hot summer in any part of the country.It can get very hot,especially near the desert areas of Rajasthan and Delhi, the capital. This means that you do not travel in the months of April,May and June. The tourist season, for the most part , ends in March.

India has many kinds of tourist attractions to offer: historical and magnificent places like Taj Mahal, Delhi of Mughal period, Jaipur and other palaces in Rajasthan. It offers wild life sanctuaries--Ranthambore, Kasiranga park with single horned rhinos, Bharatpur with cheetah, lions and ,of course, ubiquitous elephants every where. It has several bird sanctuaries , also estuaries where migratory birds from Central Asia and Russia travel down south. These seasons are mostly winter months in India or the monsoon period.

Monsoons in India--You must have heard a lot about heavy lashing rains in this period,roughly between August and November. Hurricane and tornadoes lash the east coast during monsoon seasons,particularly in the month of November. We had a terrible Tsunami a few years ago, due to some upheavel of waves near Indonesia sea. Watch out and in general avoid the month of November to traveling in the south. [During this season, many local flights may be delayed or canceled.]

The pleasant beaches of west coast are major tourist attractions. A major beach town is Goa, about 200 km near Mumbai. It has several beautiful cathedrals and basilicas of 17th to 19th century, when Portugal ruled this part as a trading colony.The quaint villages of that period are interesting to saunter along. You get excellent fish food there and local beer called "feni".

There are several hill resorts with the touch of British days in India with beautiful lakes,parks and meadows and golf links. Mussorrie, Simla, Darjeeling and Kashmir in the North and Ooty in the South are places to stay for a few days or a month.

If you are interested in religion , histroy and archaeology, there are temple towns with hundreds of temples and bathing ghats. Benaras or its new official name "Varanasi" may be familiar to you. It is on the banks of the great river Ganga and is a must in tourist agenda for religious and yoga groups. You can also visit places of Buddhist interests, like Gaya near Varanasi. Remember Gauthama Buddha ,the founder of Buddhist religion, was born as a prince of a small kingdom in India near Nepal. You may also be interested in the sculptures of temples, including the erotic sculptures in temples of Khajuraho in Central India and Konark near Bhubaneshwar, along the east coast and rock-cut scuptures and caves near Chennai.

India has been one of the well springs of high philosophy. You may like to learn yoga and philosophy or vedanta from local institutes or ashrams or retreat centres. There are many yoga centers places to visit and stay for a week or longer. While they are scattered all over the country, try visiting two towns: Pune near Mumbai and Puducherry near Chennai. Pune has several ashrams, including the one run by Osho or Rajnessh followers and Iyengar Yoga center. Puducherry has the famous ashram of Sri Aurobindo. Near Pducherry , you can visit the ashram of Bhagavan Ramana Maahrshi in Thiruvannamalai, a distance of about 60 miles from Puducherry.

Modes of travel
You may be landing in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatha [Calcutta], Chennai ,Bangalore , Hyderabad , Kochi or other major international airports. From there you may take tourist taxis or local trains for log distances. We have fast trains with air-conditioned coaches available to any part of the country.

There are feeder services for local flights.Check for these in these major airports. Some of the flights are not frequent --may be only one or two flights a day; so you may like to take the road with taxi cabs or buses.

You can also charter air-conditioned buses or coaches as a group.

It is best to contact reputed private operators or government owned tourist corporations for these services. This would avoid cheating or embarrassment and also ensure safe journey around. Do not accept private individual taxi/cab drivers. Your hotel concierge or reception desk would help you in selecting a taxi or bus/coach service.

Hotels
There are international chain of hotels like Hiltons and Marriotts in major cities. The Taj group of hotels are well furnished, with excellent cuisine and are three to five star category.There are budget hotels in every town, but the amenities are less. While posh hotels have swimming pools ,they are rarely used due to cultural inhibitions except a few beach side ones.
The hotel tariffs may range from $100 to $500 per day for starred hotels. Budget hotels are very inexpensive with as low as $10 to $50 per day in small towns. In temple towns and ashrams, you can rent apartments for $100 per month.

Health and travel tips

You must carry sufficient amounts of bottled water. This avoids taking contaminated water or soft drinks that may affect your health. A healthy alternative is to take tender coconuts available ,always fresh of course, in many places. A third alternative is to take fresh fruits, washed well, which are juicy,such as water melons and grapes. This will give good nourishment and avoid any damage due to intense heat and hot sun.

Wherever you stay, look for mosquitoes. Avoid them with some repellent ointments available or fume generators. Use mosquito nets on your bed. This is important when you travel in tropical, monsoon places like Kerala, west coast towns and Mumbai . A strong umbrella is also a must.

Always carry a medicine pouch with essential medicines. While most drugs and medicines are available in medical shops, you may have difficulty in getting the equivalent dosage and in the same trade name for many medicines. Always check the ingredients listed on the carton or strips.

Wear light clothes and sandals in the tropical region while you may require heavy woolens in the north between September and December.