The ‘Land of Dawn-lit Mountains’ grips northern Assam in an embrace of densely forested ridges. These rise to some fabulous snow-capped peaks along the Chinese border. In Arunachal’s deep-cut foothill valleys live at least 65 different tribal groups (101 by some counts) with bucolic cultures and photogenic bamboo-house settlements. High in the beautiful Tawang Valley are several splendid Tibetan-Buddhist monastery villages. China has never formally recognised Indian sovereignty here and it took their surprise invasion of 1962 before Delhi really started funding significant infrastructure. The Chinese voluntarily withdrew. Now border passes are heavily guarded by the Indian military, but the overall atmosphere is extremely calm. Sadly permits remain annoying and expensive enough to deter most potential foreign visitors.
Author: WorldTravelDB.com
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Arambol Harmal Goa India Travel
Shoved aside by the consumer age, the hippy ’60s needed somewhere to hide; San Francisco wouldn’t do, Carnaby Street couldn’t cope and the Marrakesh Express was suddenly cancelled in a cost-saving exercise. Eventually reaching Arambol’s sickle of sand and rash of beautiful, rocky bays the ’60s knew it had finally found its never-never land. Ever since then travellers, attracted by the hippy atmosphere, have been drifting up to this blissed-out corner of Goa, setting up camp and, in some cases, never leaving again. In turn, a mushrooming (probably magic) industry of low-key accommodation and facilities has sprung up to cater to these visitors, and in the high season the beach and the road leading down to it gets pretty crowded. For the moment the flower-power guys and girls hold the upper hand, but with all the beaches to the south full up, Arambol is starting to turn developers’ hands sweaty with excitement and it can’t be long until the sweet ’60s are forced off in search of the next Kathmandu.
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Anjuna Goa India Travel
Famous throughout Goa for its Wednesday flea market, Anjuna’s name still pulls in backpackers, European ravers, long-term hippies and, increasingly, midrange tourists taking advantage of comfy new hotels. Of all the more developed beaches in Goa Anjuna’s is the best.
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Andhra Pradesh India Travel
Aside from tens of millions of pilgrims, not many people make the trip to Andhra Pradesh. But Andhra’s a place with subtle charms, quiet traditions and a long history of spiritual scholarship and religious harmony. The state is 95% Hindu, but you wouldn’t know it in the capital’s Old City, where Islamic monuments and the call of the muezzin are more ubiquitous than the garlanded, twinkling tableaux of Ganesh. The city’s rich Islamic history announces itself in Hyderabad’s huge, lavish mosques, its opulent palaces and the stately Qutb Shahi tombs – but also, more softly, in a tiny spiral staircase in the Charminar and in the sounds of Urdu floating through the air.
Once known as Kalapani – Black Waters – for their role as a feared penal settlement, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are now a relaxed tropical island outpost that belongs to India but is geographically closer to Southeast Asia. Superb, near-deserted beaches, incredible corals and marine life, an intriguing colonial past and the remnants of a Stone Age culture lure travellers to these mysterious islands, 1000km off the east coast of India in the Bay of Bengal.
Founded in 1577 by the fourth guru Ram Das, Amritsar is home to Sikhism’s holiest shrine the Golden Temple. The gold-plated gurdwara glitters in the middle of its holy pool like a huge bullion bar, a sight that some visitors rate alongside the Taj Mahal – particularly after experiencing the surrounding old city’s frenetic lanes. In contrast to the old city, the internet cafés, hotels and eateries in Amritsar’s modern areas are as slick as the state capital.
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Alwar Rajasthan India Travel
Dusty Alwar has a fine palace and some colourful bazaars. It was once an important Rajput state, emerging in the 18th century under Pratap Singh, who pushed back the rulers of Jaipur to the south and the Jats of Bharatpur to the east, and who successfully resisted the Marathas. It was one of the first Rajput states to ally itself with the fledgling British empire, although British interference in Alwar’s internal affairs meant that this partnership was not always amicable.
Clinging to a steep-sided valley, Almora is the sprawling regional capital of Kumaon, first established as a summer capital by the Chand Rajas of Kumaon in 1560. A cool climate and mountain views are attractions but don’t be put off by the ugly, shambolic main street when you’re first deposited at the bus stand – head one block south to the pedestrian-only cobbled Lalal Bazaar, lined with intricately carved and painted traditional wooden shop façades. It’s a fascinating place to stroll, people-watch and shop. While otherwise not bursting with interest, Almora has some colonial-era buildings, reliable trekking outfits and a couple of community-based weaving enterprises. You’ll often see Westerners floating around thanks to a hippy subculture of travellers living up around Kasar Devi temple.
Allahabad, 135km west of Varanasi, holds an important place in the Hindu religion. It’s here that two of India’s most significant and holy rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, meet. The mythical subterranean Saraswati River (River of Enlightenment) is also believed to join them here. On the banks of this confluence the biggest gathering of humanity in the world, the Kumbh Mela, takes place every 12 years, but every year there is a smaller religious fair, the Magh Mela. Of more immediate interest to travellers, though, are Allahabad’s grand Raj-era buildings, Mughal fort and tombs and the historic legacy of the Nehru family.
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Alappuzha Alleppey Kerala India Travel
A slice of Venice in the heart of Kerala, Alleppey is a mix of shady streets set around a grid of canals spilling into the vast watery highways of the region. The most popular place to organise a foray into the backwaters, this is the base for most of the houseboat-action in Kerala (and even more houseboat agents), and home to the famous Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race. It’s worth stopping in Alleppey to soak in some tropical village life before making a beeline for the backwaters.