India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (39 page)

Day 9: Shahpura

Drive to the expansive wooded estate of family-run
Shahpura Bagh,
where you’ve got quaint, off-the-beaten-track Shahpura—one of the more unspoiled villages in Rajasthan—right on your doorstep. When you’re not relaxing by the pool, explore Shahpura’s narrow streets, with photo opportunities everywhere: old men beating copper pots into perfect shape; tailors working with beautiful fabrics on ancient Singers and ironing with coal-heated irons; huge mounds of orange, red, and yellow spices offset by fresh, colorful local vegetables; rickshaws carting women adorned in color-saturated saris; ancient step wells and temples blaring live music.

Days 10 & 11: Udaipur

Visit Udaipur’s lovely bazaars and towering
City Palace and Museum.
Take a boat ride on Lake Pichola and overnight at either
Lake Palace
or one of the other accommodations with a lake view. Or spend the night at elegant
Devi Garh
just 26km (16 miles) from Udaipur. If the lake is dry, tarry no longer than a day, moving on the next day to one of the excursions outside Udaipur. Begin with the temples at
Nathdwara, Nagda,
and
Eklingji;
then move on to the awesome Jain temples at
Ranakpur,
Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary,
and magnificent
Kumbhalgarh Fort.
Alternatively, consider another long, full-day trip to
Chittaurgarh,
site of the most legendary Mewar battles. Overnight on Day 11 at
Rawla Narlai
or
Deogarh Mahal,
from where you can head northwest for Jodhpur.

Day 12: Jodhpur & Delhi

Make an early start to drive to “the Blue City” of Jodhpur and explore fabulous
Mehrangarh Fort and Museum.
For many, this looming, 15th-century edifice to Rajput valor is still Rajasthan’s most impressive fort, with walls that soar like sheer cliffs 122m (400 ft.) high—literally dwarfing the city at its base—and a proud history of never having fallen to its many invaders. Don’t miss
Umaid Bhawan Palace,
once the largest private residence in the world—a vivid reminder of the decadence the Rajput rulers enjoyed during the British Raj (if you have an extra day, consider staying at the Palace, now a superb luxury hotel). Catch a flight to Delhi, where you can relax after a long day.

Days 13 & 14: Agra

From Delhi, drive to Agra to visit the jewel of India, the
Taj Mahal,
stopping en route at
Fatehpur Sikri.
Visit
Itmad-ud-Daulah’s tomb
and
Agra Fort.
If you have the time, see beautiful
Jama Masjid,
built in 1648 by Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan’s favorite daughter. Overnight at the Oberoi’s
Amarvilās,
a worthwhile splurge for your last night in India. Ideally, you can visit the
Taj
at dawn on Day 14 and spend as much time as you like there before you head back to Delhi for your flight out. If you get into Delhi before nightfall, you’ll still have time to do last-minute shopping, as most shops are open till at least 7pm.

3 South India: Temples & Tea, Beaches & Backwaters

South India: Temples & Tea, Beaches & Backwaters

South India is where the great Dravidian kingdoms were established, and anyone interested in ancient history and grand temples must visit Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. Here we’ve included only a few temples, but if you crave more, you’ll find an exhaustive variety of exquisitely carved temples to explore. For natural beauty and rejuvenation, there are few places in India like Kerala, India’s most verdant state, where we recommend you end your trip. This itinerary also takes you through its tea estates, backwaters, wildlife parks, and rainforests.

Days 1 & 2: Bengaluru or Mumbai

Fly straight into Bengaluru or Mumbai. You’ll probably arrive in the middle of the night, so spend the day relaxing or wandering through Karnataka’s capital city. If you’re in Bengaluru, at some point take in
Bull Temple
on Bugle Hill. Built by the city’s original architect, Kempe Gowda, this 16th-century black-granite statue of Nandi (Shiva’s sacred bull “vehicle”) literally dwarfs its “master,” and is kept glistening by regular applications of coconut oil. Stay at either the ultramodern
Park.hotel
or the
Taj West End
for old-world charm. If you’re on a budget, book a room at lovely
Villa Pottipati.
If you arrive in Mumbai instead, you can spend the day relaxing at one of the city’s numerous luxury hotels (preferably in a heritage suite at the
Taj Mahal Palace
or on the top floor of the
Four Seasons
) or at a good-value option like
Ascot.
Set aside a few hours to wander around and acclimate yourself to India’s most bustling megalopolis.

Day 3: Chennai & Mamallapuram

From Bengaluru (or Mumbai), fly to Chennai (or take the train). You can either head straight down the coast to
Fisherman’s Cove
resort (1 hr.) or take a detour to
Kanchipuram
80km (50 miles) southwest of Chennai to visit the temples there before heading to Fisherman’s Cove. If you prefer to be closer to Mamallapuram, book a room at
Temple Bay
resort instead. En route, stop along the scenic East Coast Highway at the cultural centers of
Cholamandalam
and
Dakshina Chitra
for local arts and crafts.
Dakshina Chitra
is a heritage center showcasing different living styles from India’s four southern states: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh.

Day 4: Mamallapuram

Set out early and take in Mamallapuram’s monolithic shrines and rock-cut cave temples, which lie scattered over a landscape heaped with boulders and rocky hillocks. Among these, the excellent
Shore Temple,
built to Lord Shiva, and the
Five Rathas,
a cluster of temples named for the five Pandava brothers of
Mahabharata
fame, are definitely worth seeking out. The celebrated
Arjuna’s Penance
is the largest relief-carving on earth. When you’ve finished your tour, you can enjoy a great seafood meal at one of the numerous beach shacks or restaurants before continuing down the coast to the French colonial town of Puducherry (aka Pondicherry). Overnight at nearby 
Dune Eco-Village,
or in Pondi at
Miason Perumal
or
Hotel de l’Orient.

Days 5 & 6: Puducherry (Pondicherry) & Trichy/Thanjavur

Besides hanging out in your antiques-filled colonial hotel or sauntering around the oceanfront
French Quarter,
you can visit
Auroville,
an interesting experiment in alternative living, also optimistically known as the City of Dawn (if you plan ahead you can enter the sci-fi Matrimandir, well worth the extra effort it takes to book); or you can join New Age travelers and earnest pilgrims and visit the atmospheric ashram of
Sri Aurobindo.
While wandering the Quarter, you may want to take a look at the
Sacred Heart of Jesus (Eglise de Sacre Coeur de Jésus),
an 18th-century neo-Gothic Catholic church on South Boulevard; and at the
Church of Immaculate Conception
on Mission Street. At twilight, stroll to
Goubert Salai
(Beach Rd.), where you’ll see the colonial
Hôtel de Ville
(now the Municipal Offices building) and
a statue of Gandhi standing at the pier. On Day 6, drive southwest, to Trichy, to see the sacred temple town of
Srirangam,
then overnight at
Ideal River Resort
near Thanjavur.

Day 7 & 8: Thanjavur & Chettinad Region & Madurai

After viewing the
Brihadeshvara Temple
in Thanjavur at dawn, head into the rural delights of the
Chettiar district,
where you can admire the peeling facades of mansions that line the dusty streets of
Kanadukathan,
just outside Karaikkudi, before retiring to your very own mansion, the gorgeous
Visalam.
From the Chettinad area, Madurai is a 2-hour drive southwest; once there, choose between the gracious 
Taj Gateway Pasumalai Madurai
or the chic new boutique hotel,
Heritance Madurai.

Day 9: Madurai

Early in the morning, visit
Shri Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar Temple,
one of South India’s biggest, busiest pilgrimage sites. Garish stucco gods, demons, beasts, and heroes smother the various towers in a writhing, fascinating mass of symbolism, vividly painted a riot of bright colors. Near the inner gate, a temple elephant, daubed with eye shadow and blusher, earns her keep by accepting a few rupees in exchange for a blessing—bestowed with a light tap of her dexterous trunk. From here you can wander at will, finding your way at some stage to the
Thousand Pillar Museum,
housed
in the impressive 16th-century Hall of a Thousand Pillars. This hall has 985 elegantly sculpted columns, including a set of “musical pillars” that produce the seven Carnatic musical notes when tapped. All around the complex of shrines and effigies, various
pujas
(prayers) and rituals are conducted. Once you’re done exploring the site and have spent an hour or so wandering the lanes adjacent to the temple, either retire to your hotel and return to witness the evening ceremony, or push on and drive to Munnar, sometimes referred to as Kerala’s Scottish highlands. Overnight at
Windermere Estate
or one of the planter’s bungalows at
Tea Sanctuary.

Day 10: Munnar

Munnar is a collection of vast green tea estates first established by a Scotsman in the late–19th century. Besides enjoying the rolling mists and endless greenery, you can arrange a
tea factory visit
and a stopover at the
Tea Museum.
To get up close to some of the world’s last Nilgiri tahr (a variety of mountain goat or ibex), visit nearby
Eravikulam National Park.
Existing only in the mountain grasslands of the Western
ghats
at altitudes above 2,000m (6,560 ft.), the tahr is as endangered as the tiger.

Day 11: Periyar

Drive to
Periyar Tiger Reserve,
originally the hunting grounds of the Maharajah of Travancore. The park covers 777 sq. km (303 sq. miles) and is divided into core, buffer, and tourist zones. Although this is a tiger reserve, tiger sightings are rare, particularly in the tourist zone, but the reserve is also home to the elephant, sloth bear, sambar, Indian bison or gaur, wild dog, leopard, spotted deer, Malabar flying squirrel, barking deer, and Nilgiri tahr, as well as some 260 species of birds. More than 2,000 species of flowering plants grow here, including at least 150 different kinds of orchids. Organize a
private boat launch
ride from where you can view animals coming to drink at the water’s edge. You can also take one of the 3-hour
daily walks,
which give you the opportunity to admire the area’s stunning flora. To ensure you have a close-up encounter with an elephant, go on a 30-minute
elephant ride
in the park. Overnight at
Shalimar Spice Garden
or
Spice Village.