India - Experience
Diverse India is a continent of its own. With more than a billion people speaking hundreds of languages and praying to thousands of gods, the land ranges from tribal greenery to desert plains and snowy Himalayas. Spiritual, exhausting and utterly charming, India seems to get a hold on visitors and always comes up with the unexpected.
Once you've seen Delhi's Moghul Red Fort and minarets of the huge Jama Masjid, head past Jaipur's pink city and down to commercial Mumbai with its colonial splendour and iconic Gateway of India. Further south by train, coastal Chennai is famed for its English cathedrals and Fort St George, while progressive Bangalore boasts Dravidian temples and an IT boom. East lies crowded Kolkata's faded splendour and the famous National Museum.
Monastery hop in green Sikkim and drink tea in hill-station Darjeeling. Pack your snowboard for Manali's mountains or take to Rajasthan's deserts on a camel trek. Majestic tigers can be spotted prowling the leafy Corbett National Park and dolphins playing in the Arabian Sea of Goa. A boat trip down Kerala's tranquil backwaters is always dreamy.
Delicate Moghul miniatures and glass bangles can be sourced in Jaipur, and hand-woven silks in Varanasi. Slip into a pair of buffalo-hide leather sandals in Pune and choose top Indian designer clothes from Mumbai's swanky boutiques. Inlaid white marble is found in Agra and fragrant hand-carved sandalwood in Mysore. In Kashmir, hand-knotted silk carpets and pashmina shawls are the specialty, with chunky Tibetan jewellery in Delhi's markets.
Tuck into a quick dhosa (savoury pancake) for breakfast in Chennai. The best biryani is in Hyderabad and rich murgh makhani (butter chicken) in Punjab. Dine like royalty on the huge Wazwan Muslim banquet from Kashmir. Mumbai street-food specialty bhel poori (crunchy puffed wheat, onion and spices) is good for snacking and a fiery fish curry from Goa entirely more substantial. Accompany all with salty lassi (yoghurt drink) then cleanse the palate with paan (betel leaf).
Swan around Mumbai's latest designer boutiques in Colaba or its cocktail bars on Juhu beach. Be healed with Ayurvedic treatment at Kerala's newest spas or learn more about the world's biggest democracy at the recently opened, high-tech Parliament Museum in Delhi.
