I have slept for 4 hours only for each of the last three nights. Been up half the night researching for my India trip. It's very exciting... i've learnt more about my country in the last year than in my entire lifetime!
Last year I hadn't done any real preparation for my travels.. I went blindly into most situations, leaving the actual coordination of my trip in the hands of a capable travel agent. but alhumdulillah everything went well. This time I'm designing my own trip, and i'm amazed at how much work it is taking. But it's all shaping up quite nicely... I have drilled down literally to the level where I know where I know what I'll be doing on a certain day at a certain time; where I'll be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner while leaving room for spontaneity. This trip will be as much about the regional cuisines of India as it will be about the historical and architectural legacies and natural beauty. Cities like Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Hyderabad hold a special interest for me because of the fusion of cultures in both, the architecture and the cuisine.
This year is also better because I had a network of people I'd met during my travels last year. I called them all up, and almost everyone contributed in one way or the other. One fella helped me get reservations at a resort at a nice discount; another person told me where the best eateries are in Lucknow; a third guided me on shopping districts in Delhi, and so on. Half of my contacts are goray from Europe and Australia who have been visiting India since 1970s and are in love with the country. I'm ashamed to say that they know my country and love it better than I do. Some have married Indians and have settled down in the most surprising places - not big cities as you might imagine but small quaint towns like Jaisalmer and Hrishikesh. I'm still not sure what it is that calls out to them to leave the worlds they know and settle down in India... but I think I understand as I myself have migrated from familiar grounds into the unfamiliar. Travel and interaction is important for this very reason, you build bonds with people on a purely human level, bonds that transcend barriers like language, race, colour and religion. It's an incredibly uplifting feeling.
As far as budget.. my domestic flights will cost me around 400 USD for 9 flights. Not bad, I am getting good deals. www.yatra.com is a great site to view domestic indian flights. I am sharing this info in case anyone wants to make a journey to india in the near future. Unfortunately they do not currently accept international credit cards, so you have to have a travel agent in India deal with you in cash. For car transportation between cities and long road trips, another USD 400. Accomodations are my biggest expense at USD 1800. But of course I'm staying at 5 star places everywhere due to internet broadband requirements of my job... if you stay at 3.5-4 star places, you'll find them perfectly comfortable and clean and they will cost around 40 less. On an average, good 4 star hotels cost 85-130 USD per night, 5 star cost 250-450 per nite. Yep, India is crazy expensive these days. For food, I like eating ethnic food, so I will be eating where the locals eat: so it shouldn't cost more than 200 USD over 2 weeks. That doesn't leave me with much money for shopping... but then I don't intend on buying much this year. I will be getting two things from Lucknow though: chikan embroidered kurtis, 1 chikan saree, and 1 authentic lakhnawi gharara. i'm really looking forward to this trip!
I will put in the effort to maintain a journal with pics and videos regularly... as long as i get enough comments to ensure a healthy readership.
OK I'm losing my mind. There are soooo many amazing places, I am finding it really hard to finalize my itinerary. i have always wanted to visit coorg, heard it's beautiful and there are lots of trekking opportunities.. other than that coorg (aka kodava) piques my interest for anthropological reasons. i wanted to know somet abt the ppl of this region, renowned for beauty and courage, they are different from native south indians, their clothing, language, culture etc was somehow distinct and yet how did they come to be found so deep in the south? i found the answer today - it's the Greek Connection
The Greek Connection
Kodavas are believed to be the descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great who invaded India in 327 B.C. The soldiers, married into the local population and migrated along the coast. Having maintained a separate identity, this warrior like clan is fiercely independent and were never conquered by either Tipu Sultan or the British. To this day all Kodavas retain the privilege of carrying firearms without a licence.
the world is such an interesting place! i have heard that there is a similar tribe of ppl in northern pakistan - the Kalash. I wonder what the similarities are between the Kalash and the Kodava tribes. There's also a Tibetan settlement in Coorg with gorgeous Golden Buddhas. Damn. Wish i could get hired by National Geographic or somet and go finding out the answers to these questions...
If my schedule works out I'm thinking abt staying here for a coupla days:
This is my tentative itinerary... if things work out as planned. Sounds mighty rushed I know, but it can't be helped as there are hardly any long weekends in December and I'm in the middle of a project so I have to work.. it's a miracle that the boss is even letting me go... anyways, I have almost finished arranging transportation, hotels, etc. This trip has its focus on the South, and i think it will be a fun time... i am not chasing the indian tiger or going on camel safaris... but I am going to be visiting Paradise on most weekends. Wait til u see the pics :-)
Sunday Dec 9 : Travel Mumbai - Delhi
Monday Dec 10 : Delhi
Tuesday Dec 11 : Delhi - Agra
Wednesday Dec 12: Agra - Hyderabad
Thursday Dec 13 : Hyderabad
Friday Dec 14 : Hyderabad - Bangalore
Saturday Dec 15 : Kabini Wildlife Safari
Sunday Dec 16 : Mysore
Monday Dec 17 : Mysore - Bangalore
Tuesday Dec 18: Bangalore - Chennai - Mamallapuram
Wednesday Dec 19: Mamallapuram
Thursday Dec 20: Pondicherry - Chennai - Bangalore
After watching a program on Discovery Channel of the Tigers of India, I'd planned on visiting the same park, Bandhavgarh National Park, and planned to stay at http://junglemantra.com/resort.htm
This morning, my friend Jay, a wildlife enthusiast, happened to show on MSN, and since he'd been to Bandhavgadh I asked his opinion abt my program. His feedback was that Bandhavgarh is crazy during tourist season and crowds mean less possibility of sighting tigers. Instead he recommended I head back to Ranthambhore which he found to be more disciplined. I had visited Ranthambhore last year but hadn't had much luck with tiger sighting. Hopefully this year will be better. Additionally this year, Jay has promised to arrange my trip, provide me with "intelligence" meaning good forest rangers and sightings in places where tourists aren't normally allowed to go. so i'm veryyyyy hopeful that I'll come back with tiger shots this time around.
Meanwhile, here are some superb pics taken by Jay, some of his shots have made it to covers of wildlife magazines too.. oh, and i'm posting an extract from his recent travels..
-- Excerpt --
I had spent two nights in the Gir National Park and had not even heard of a Lion sighting. The third was going to be a crucial day. Very rarely one goes out of Gir, without sighting a lion and I was not interested in being one of those special people. The day started with a lot of research and anticipation. I was surprised by the way my driver was leading this particular morning safari. He had done all the research the previous night and directly sped towards a part of the park we hadn’t visited before. It seemed like he had almost taken appointment from the Lions. We stopped at a place and there we were amidst roaring lions.
The sight was mesmerizing. An adult lion was resting below a bush and I started clicking his pictures. Within minutes 15 different gypsy’s attacked the place and tourists got down from all direction and approached the lion. The Lion got up and walked up a small hill and stared at the people. He was looking at me when I clicked his best picture. Suddenly we heard roars from the other direction and everyone ran back to their jeeps and gypsy’s. My driver thought there was another male coming towards this place. Immediately we got back to the jeep track and again the tourists attacked the spot. Within two minutes the roars started getting louder and I was speechless when I saw another 4-5 year old male who wore a radio collar rushing towards us. He walked as if he was going there to bash the other elderly male in the bush. I was sitting on the edge of the jeep when my driver started off in the reverse direction. I lost balance and had to step on the ground!
The guides and the others shouted at me and asked me to get back in to the jeep. The lion was hardly 10 feet away walking parallel to the jeep track. We rushed back to the place where the elderly male was hiding and when the young intruder approached, the elderly male ran in to bushes and got his sibling back to the spot. The proceedings were as good as a village gang war!
Seeing the elderly males together, the teenagers fled the scene. And later I learnt the radio collared male and the adult fought ferociously for a few minutes next to the tourists. In fact the guides and the guards had to beat the lions to separate them from fighting and killing each other. The reason being, there are 300 more lions left in the whole of Asia and every single one of them is priceless.
That evening another gang of 20 vehicles had mustered near a bush where there was a Lion hiding. I decided not to go close to the spot and instead waited for the tourists to go away. After 15 minutes I was the only guy left near the spot. One of the officers permitted me to get on foot and go close. He took me in another direction and I was in a state of shock to see a 4 year old male less than eight feet away. He looked tired and I guessed he was one of the 4 males I had seen in the morning. He almost behaved like a domestic cat when he saw me and didn’t care. He was so tired that he was dozing off.
but i did make some progress towards my vacation plans :D
as ya'll know i hate to stay at hotels, i find em very impersonal. a guppie i was chatting with last week was like, that's the whole point of the vacation, to get away from ppl..
yeah... from ppl u know, maybe. but for me, my vacations have always been not just abt places, but also abt ppl. the folks i meet add so much colour to my experience... and i love talking to the local ppl... i love trying to speak to them in their language, eating with them, listening to them talk and tell their stories... it's an integral part of my vacation experience.
so this time, i have two choices... one is a homestay at the place of an indian family in delhi : http://www.delhibedandbreakfast.com/ that will cost me arnd 100 bucks per day for room and meals.
and the other option i have is to rent a furnished apartment for a week. i get a cleaning maid and a cook in the deal, which is kewl coz then i can get the cook to show me some local specialty recipes, like in rajasthan last year. and i can also get a car and a driver. this will cost me arnd 50 bucks per day. i would have loved to stay at that homestay place, but i think it's wayyyyy overpriced, so i think i'm going for the second.
plans are still up in the air... i won't be able to fix things until mid november, methinks. but rite now i'm looking at a departure date of dec 15th.
