India Travel Deals: Raj Revisited
India is a continent of living colours, painted with a myriad of different landscapes. There is a variety of Indian peoples, and a history resplendently embroidered with graphic characters, such as Buddha, Barber the Mogul, Akbar the Great and Ghandi. India is so diverse that it is only possible to get a true picture by travelling overland.
Adventure World offer a range of overland India travel deals for the most discerning traveller.
I undertook a ten-week journey around India with an overland travel operator, in a vehicle that was especially designed for travel in the Sub-continent. It was more than just a journey of miles, it was a journey of experience, religions, beautiful tropical beaches and ancient wonders.
The vehicle, a Mercedes truck converted into an expedition vehicle, made this journey possible. Its hard-sided bus body protected us from the searing heat of Rajasthan and the sometimes unwelcome interest of the ever present vast crowds that gathered whenever we arrived at any settlement. Our valuables were protected in the sanctuary of the bus body and the vehicle’s layout gave us a relatively comfortable journey over some of the world’s worst roads.
First-Hand India Travel Experience
The beauty of this kind of travel is that unlike tourists who see only the great sights and the inside of 5 star hotels, we experienced Indian life first hand. We brushed shoulders with the peasants of rural India in whose fields we frequently camped for the night. We haggled daily with colourful food sellers in the markets where we bought our daily provisions and often we would travel alongside Indian travellers on the trains and local ferries.
The actual route we took was ideal for an overview of India, as it encompassed most of the Sub-continent. It was divided into three 23 day sections, so that other travellers who had less time could join at either
Kathmandu, Bombay or Madras and travel on one or two of the sections. On the first section through Nepal, Northern India, and Rajasthan we travelled from Kathmandu to Bombay.
Here we were joined by others and journeyed on the second section, south into the central highlands, down to the beaches of the Deep South and rounding the Cape back up to Madras. This was the starting point of the third section, journeying north back to Kathmandu via the unspoilt mountain lands of the Eastern Ghats, through Bengal and up to the beautiful mountain retreat of Darjeeling.
India travel Deals: North India Overland
The first section of the trip through Northern India and Nepal is the part of India that tourists usually see. The great sites come one after another, each one more impressive than the last, never failing to impress.
The city of Varanasi is the holiest of all holy sites in India. Through it runs “Mother Ganga”, the River Ganges. Rivers in India are more than just bodies of water, they are religious bodies of life. To the Hindus the ultimate river is the Ganges and the faithful come from all corners of the Earth to bathe in its holy depths.
Watching the thousands of pilgrims meandering down the ghats into the mudded mire, washing away their sins with the sewage strewn water, one’s ears filled with the sweet voices of the young girls selling garlands of flowers, India comes alive.
The Taj by moonlight is magnificent – a ghostly silver image of its daylight splendour. At night, its true beauty is revealed through the silence. The city sounds fade into a wall of external lights surrounding dark enclosure, whose centre is the lunar illuminated marbled walls of the world’s most perfect building.
Outside this silent ring is the bustling city of Agra but inside is the perfect splendour and solemnity of a building, whose history and story are as romantic as its marble emblazoned walls.
On our arrival in Jaipur, as in the other major centres that we visited, a local Indian guide showed us the great sites, explained their history, and gave us explanations of the local life.
For the next two days we were on our own, to do what we wanted, and we all hired the services of rickshaw drivers, who stayed with us wherever we went, helping us, amusing us and getting their fair share of any action. Anything we bought, from a “Campa Cola” to an exquisite Kashmir Carpet, they got a percentage; so what, they deserved it. It is a tough life in modern urban India, and the weak fall by the wayside.
These rickshaw drivers need to make as much as they can as quickly as they can; they cannot pull tourists around for ever and if their nest is not feathered before their limbs stiffen up, they could end up beside the beggars in the gutters, while others, younger and fitter, cycle by.
Rajasthan is one of the most colourful areas of India. Its great history of the Rajputs and Maharajas, the famous Hindu warriors is amply portrayed in the multitude of palaces that litter this desert state.
Jaipur, Udaipur, Jhodphur, Jaisalmer and others are homes of these great palaces. Proud Rajasthanis astride even prouder camels, slip slowly past on the road into this desert. Women carrying jars of water trail home from the wells to the mud brick houses of their dusty villages.
India Travel Deals: Bomba to Madras
The second section of this trip, from Bombay to Madras took on a much more relaxed pace. There were still plenty of religious and historic monuments to visit, but now we were heading for the beautiful palm fringed beaches of the Indian Ocean.
Goa has been discovered by tourists but the beaches at Kovalem are, in fact, much more beautiful. The breakers crash relentlessly up the sandy beach towards the thatched beach bars which specialise in “Kingfisher” beer and lobster. This was the perfect place to relax after the rigours of the road.
India Travel Deals: Madras toKathmandu
The last section of this journey, from Madras to Kathmandu, took us through regions where few Westerners now venture. The Eastern Ghats, forested mountains populated by primitive tribal people, is the most un-Indian area of the Sub-continent. Often naked, the aboriginal tribal people are not used to
Western visitors and our visits to their villages were reminiscent of travelling through tribal Africa.
Our journey was drawing to a close as we headed back into the foothills of the Himalayas to the hidden valleys of Darjeeling. Although India has changed dramatically over the last forty years, arriving in Darjeeling, it is as if time has stood still. The tea plantations are still full of singing women harvesting the tea that the British Raj depended on to maintain “civilisation and tiffin”.
With villages clinging to the mountainside and white peaks standing like giant sentries defending the purity of the valley, Darjeeling remains one of the most isolated jewels in the crown of India.
India is so diverse and so large that you need time to explore its different facets. I was lucky, in 10 weeks I was able to experience the many faces of India and build up a true picture of this colourful land. Above all, India is a land of contradictions; the great wealth of its history and monuments negate the poverty of much of the population; the vivid colours of the people of Rajasthan conflict with the harshness of the surrounding desert; the repression of the caste system contradicts the largest democracy on Earth.
As a parting thought on India I recorded in my diary a few words from one of Britain’s past Prime Ministers, Harold Macmillan. “Of every nine people in the world who are enjoying the privilege and freedom of conditions that you or I would describe as democratic, four are Indians.”
For all its faults and all its wonders, India still remains the largest democracy in the World!!
