Results tagged “India” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Namaste, city-lovers! Arun Bhat writes to us from Bangalore, India, and tells us why his city is the best.

Want to see your city on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're still waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're going to keep posting as long as we keep getting them (please include photos and links!).

Bangalore is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is for a walk through Cubbon Park. It is a quiet place in the center of the city and it's surrounded by beautiful buildings that are more than one hundred years old. Pink and yellow Tabebuia trees loaded with flowers add colour to the park in winter.

When I crave ice cream, I always go to Corner House.

To escape the city, I head to Nandi Hills.

If I want to watch a play I go to Rangashankara. They have plays running six days a week.

For complete quiet, I can hide away Lalbagh. The park is big enough to provide solitude for everyone.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken at Vidhana Soudha (left). It is the most well-known landmark in the city.

Landmark Book Store is my one-stop shop for great collection of books, music, and videos.

When I'm feeling cash-strapped I go and eat in a Darshini, the quick-eat places you can see everywhere in the city.

For a huge splurge I go to Mynt restaurant in Hotel Taj West End and take a garden side table. Not to miss are the excellent Tortellini and Chocolate pudding.

Photo ops in my city include the Cubbon Park area and the Gandhi Bazaar (below). The best vantage point is Ebony Restaurant.


The most random thing about my city is the rain. Unlike the rest of India where it rains just three months, rain in Bangalore is completely unpredictable and arrives at any time of the year.

Friend of IT Melanie Mize Renzulli tells us about the "little engine that could" in Mumbai.

Officials from UNESCO were recently in Matheran, a hill station outside of Mumbai, to consider one of India's latest nominees to the World Heritage list. Operating for over a century, save for yearly pauses during monsoon season, the Matheran Light Railway (MLR) runs only a short distance--approximately 12 miles--but has the kind of history and character to qualify for the UNESCO list.

Known to locals as the "toy train," the MLR seems to be conjured from a child's imagination. The train chugs along on a tiny track only two-feet-wide at speeds between five and 10 miles per hour. On its twice-daily journey up and down the mountain between Neral and Matheran Stations, the train passes by 121 bridges, a tunnel, and 221 curves. One of the curves features signage that says "Ah, what a sharp curve!" the type of blithe statement you could imagine a citizen of the British Raj voicing as he took the train for the first time in 1907.

Matheran sits at the top of a misty, tree-lined mountain in the Western Ghats and provides a cool retreat for visitors wishing to escape the heat and hurry of Mumbai. The resort doesn't have much in the way of activities - save for trekking, horseback riding, and monkey watching - but it does have a few hotels for travelers wanting more than a day trip. The best time to visit Matheran is in the months after monsoon season has ended (October to December) in order to enjoy the lush greenery of the forests and mossy hillsides. The monkeys are a little more relaxed then, too!

The Mountain Railways of India, a group consisting of the rail lines of Darjeeling, Nilgiri, and Kalka Shimla, gained World Heritage Site status in 1999. The MLR, as well as the Kangra Valley Railway (in Himachal Pradesh), is seeking singular status apart from the Railways of India. The World Heritage Committee will make its decision about Matheran's toy train at its 34th session in June/July 2010.

Photo: Himanshu Sarpotdar via Flickr

Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. You can read her previous posts here and here.

I have always loved to read, and I love a bargain. In India, the way to find out what titles are hot is through street vendors who sell their wares along the Delhi roads. When you stop at a traffic light, they come up to your car to sell books and magazines. They only carry books that are on the bestseller list. Almost all the vendors I spoke with were illiterate, yet they could tell me a bit about each book they carried. Mostly the description was "Oh, Madam, very good, very good book. You like. Nice. Nice." Everything from Dan Brown to Paulo Coelho was "nice, nice."

In addition to books, these vendors sell many other different products like windshield wipers, cleaning cloths, and children's toys. Bargaining is a must. I bought Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger for Rs.100 (a bit over $2), bargained down from Rs. 250 (about $5).  Bestsellers at a price I love--what is not to like? Of course, you have to be fast and learn to bargain in under three minutes, which is the time cars usually stop at long traffic lights.

Photo: Monica Bhide

National Geographic Magazine's International Photo Contest has just ended, and there are some great submissions, like this one taken in India's Ganges River.

Says photographer Jenay Martin, "The Ganges is the holiest river in India. Every morning and every evening Hindus bathe in the holy river. However, it is very polluted, and in this very location there is no living oxygen and is pure sewage. Even in the filth of Varanasi, life goes on. People still bathe, and animals still manage to find things to eat. This goat is eating a holy garland that was offered to the river during a funeral procession."

For more images, visit the weekly galleries on National Geographic Magazine's site and vote for your favorite images. Viewer's Choice winners will be announced in early December. Check out the gallery of last year's Viewer's Choice favorites. Voting closes November 8.

Only a few weeks remain in National Geographic Magazine's International Photo Contest. Here's a standout from this week's batch of entries, taken by Cesare Naldi.

Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction. The relationship between the mahout and his elephant usually lasts for their entire lives, creating an extremely strong tie between the animal and the human being.

For more images, visit the weekly galleries on National Geographic Magazine's site. The International Photo Contest ends October 31st, so submit your favorite images in the People, Places, and Nature categories now.

The Indian Festival of Lights, or Diwali, is tomorrow, and to celebrate, we got some cooking tips from expert Ramin Ganeshram, the author of Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago (Hippocrene Books, 2006; 2nd edition Spring 2010). After the jump, she shares her recipe for aloo talkari, a potato curry, and a popular flavor of the annual Diwali celebrations. Click below for the complete recipe, and learn more about Ramin by visiting her website.

Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. You can read her previous posts here and here.

One of my favorite things to do in India is to visit temples, but as I set out to visit several in New Delhi during my recent trip, I noticed that one major thing had changed. At the entrance of all the temples were metal detectors and police personnel checking each person entering and leaving.

Yes, it is a sign of the times, and not a happy one. After the events of November 2008, when a group of terrorists held the city of Mumbai under siege, security has become a prime concern for all places frequented by locals and tourists alike. There are metal detectors at hotels and malls, monuments and museums. On this particular visit, I went to the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple (pictured, above), one of the most beautiful temples in New Delhi. (It has a loyal following, and the restaurant attached to the temple offers vegetarian food, with some rather contemporary choices on the menu: baked beans, walnut pies and pizza!) While we waited patiently for the security check, what broke my heart was a young man standing in line with his mother behind me. His words to her: "If God needs all this to protect him, how on Earth will he protect me?"

Photos: Monica Bhide

Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. You can read her first post here.

For centuries India, particularly North India, has been a country of tea drinkers, while steaming cups of coffee were loved by the folks in South India. And then something happened. Since 2000, coffeehouses like Barista and Café Coffee Day have begun to spring up in major cities by the hundreds. They offer different types of coffees, smoothies, and snacks very much like Starbucks does. The initial reaction was interesting to watch. "The affluent young Indians will love it," the media claimed, as they noted all the youngsters gathering at the coffeehouses. There was an outcry from lovers of Indian culture and tea--it was blasphemous for them to even think that coffee culture could be percolating here in India, sacrilegious that a tea-drinking nation could love drinking coffee. Culture watchers were quick to point out that people drinking in these fancy coffeehouses weren't any better than the ones who drank tea off the street stalls.  

My view is a bit different.

Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from a visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. Today she notes how a traditional festival in New Delhi has changed since her childhood visits.

Raksha Bandhan--the Bond of Protection--is a festival that has been celebrated in India for years. It's a recognition of the bond between brother and sister, in which the sister ties a special thread around her brother's wrist to show her love and affection. In turn, the brother gifts her a bit of cash and promises to "protect" and take care of her.

When I was a child growing up elsewhere and visiting India over many summers, this holiday would always make me sad since I had no brothers. But it always fascinated me. The custom, however, has grown to include women tying rakhis, or the special threads, on men not related to them. This gesture gives the men the status of brothers. The rakhis themselves used to be simple golden threads, decorated perhaps with a golden flower made of lace, some beads, pearls, or a customary rudraksha bead (a brown seed with religious significance) in the center.

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote for their favorites. Each week, we're putting a new batch of images up on our website. Here's today's pic:

This photo, "The Dancer of Light," was taken by Stephanie Jantzen, in Maharashtra, India.

Think your own photo brings the world into focus? Submit your entries now for a chance to win a trip to Tanzania, camera gear, and other prizes. But hurry! The extended deadline is September 8.

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. We just put a new batch of images up on our website, and here's one of our favorite picks:

This picture was taken by Anthon Jackson at the Holi Festival (India's Festival of Colors).

Think your photos stand out? Enter now to win prizes, trips, and other gear, and check out our weekly galleries to see more outstanding images. 

Much to the consternation of tiger enthusiasts, reverence for these once-mythical beasts seems to be at an all-time low. The BBC reports that one of India's fabled tiger parks, Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh, has admitted that its Royal Bengal tiger population is now believed to be zero. The main culprit, according to an investigative probe? Poaching.

This saddens me, particularly, as barely three years ago I came within several feet of one of these most majestic of Panna's endagered residents (image, above). Though it was a short encounter (we, the tourists atop elephants in the bush, were limited to a few minutes of viewing and photographing, so as not to upset the shy animal), it remains my favorite recollection from India. Going on tiger safaris is certainly iconic and popular, but there is a specific disclaimer given to most tours: Tiger sightings are increasingly rare and are by no means guaranteed. With the knowledge that finding one of Panna's then-healthy population of 24 tigers in the park's 210-square-mile area was a textbook needle-in-haystack situation, I accepted this experience as one to hold in awe. And I was lucky to be able to do so. It now grieves me to think that experiences such as mine are on the extinction path.

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. Each week, we'll feature ten entries on the Traveler website. Here's one of of the featured shots from this week:

This shot is of three boys joyfully playing among the sand dunes near Kuri, western India, and was taken by Marco Brazzola. For more on traveling to India, check out our Trip Planner, and get inspired with our Ultimate Travel Library picks for the country. Think you have a shot that's a winner? Enter now for your chance to win trips, gear, and other great prizes.

Former National Geographic intern Tala Katner is exploring the world. Today she tells us of her travels through Rajasthan, India's largest state.

Rajasthan is a place that seems suspended in time, dotted with old forts and palaces and where monkeys and camels still dominate the streets. It fascinates the senses: the colorful saris, the twangy sounds of the sitar, the exotic scents of foreign spices. For an intimate look at the state, avoid the tour buses and hire a driver. I picked a two-week itinerary with a driver from Invicta Tour N Travel that would bring us through much of Rajasthan. Many tour companies along Main Bazaar in Delhi offer this service but prices vary tremendously so shop around and put on your bargaining hats.

We decided on the counter-clockwise route through Rajasthan, leaving from Delhi and heading for the small town of Mandawa. Situated along the ancient Silk Road trade route, Mandawa was once a bustling trade center. The remnants of this prosperous time are reflected in intricately painted frescoes on havelis (traditional-style residences) throughout the town.

In our new column, CJ Fahey of Nat Geo Music introduces new sounds from around the globe. We asked him to introduce himself and explain what Nat Geo Music is all about.

Many people are surprised to find out that National Geographic has gotten into the music business - only we're not focusing on traditional music, ambient recordings of nature, or animal sounds. A little over a year ago we started a music television channel in Europe and Latin America, we have a music website, and a brand new record label.  Our mission is to discover and share contemporary music from all over the world. We think music is the perfect fit for National Geographic because we've always been about understanding and celebrating diversity. What better way to do that than through the most popular and soulful expression of culture: music?

I've been working on the television channel and website from the beginning. My friends at the Intelligent Travel Blog asked me to share some music videos I've come across that might serve as another means to inspire people to pack their bags, head to the airport, and visit someplace new. Even if you're just interested in daydream traveling, let these videos be your soundtrack!

For videos with the spirit of travel, I don't think it gets any more obvious than this one (above) by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, the Academy Award-winning composer who took home awards for Best Song and Best Score for Slumdog Millionaire.

The video has the epic quality of a postcard come to life, which is understandable because the song is a remake of India's national song, not to be confused with the national anthem. (I guess it's similar to what America, The Beautiful is for us.) And yes, while some parts can be little much, you can't deny that the images are beautiful and the music entrancing.

Be sure to check out more videos at our music website: www.natgeomusic.net. I'll be back with more good stuff in the near future!

Friend of IT Tala Katner is traveling around Asia. After stops in the Himalayas and Kathmandu, she visited India's state of Rajasthan, and took a camel ride in the Thar Desert.

My number one recommendation after a tour of Rajasthan: spend one night under the stars in the desert dunes of western India. Less than an hour from the golden city of Jaisalmer, near the Pakistan border lays a little desert village called Khuri. Here, my Arabian Night fantasies came alive as a red-turbanned and blanket-clad camel driver took me to watch the sun set over the wind-rippled dunes from the back of the huge animal.
 
After watching the sunset, I took a two-hour camel ride back to the campfire and bungalow area. Rajasthani dances and live music with a traditional dinner provided entertainment for the night. Forced to join in with the women and dance, I was somewhat relieved when the performance was finished. Then as the sultry day turned into a bitter night we made our way to a secluded stretch of desert on camel-pulled carts to set up camp. The complete silence of the desert was interrupted only by the huffing of the camels.

Namaste, city-lovers! Today's city comes to us from the opposite side of the world in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. Anisha Sharma says that Lucknow--the "Paris of the East"--is her city. Read below to find out why!

Want to see your hometown on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're still waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're attempting to post them as fast as we can (include photos and links!).

Lucknow is My City

The first place I take an out-of-town visitor is Bhool Bhulaiya, built by Nawab Asif Ud Daulah to employ the people of Lucknow when a famine had struck. People preferred to work than qualify for royal charity.

When I crave a nature walk I always go to the National Botanical Research Institute, an 1857 memorial and garden.

To escape city traffic, I head to the Residency, a British stronghold from the 1857 war.

If I want to browse books I go to the East End Mall, and check out the Landmark Book Store.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with Birju Maharaj (if he is in town), the Kathak (classical dance) guru.

If you have to order one thing off the menu from Chaudhary Sweet House it has to be Chola-Bhatura.

Today, Indians will throw caution to the wind, as well as colored water and powder at one another during the Hindu celebration of Holi, the Festival of Color. Think of it as India's version of Mardi Gras, a day when social norms surrounding religion, sex, and caste are reversed for the sake of a good time.

In most places, the rambunctious, color-slinging Holi is a one-day affair, but the holiday usually begins the night before, or during the early morning hours, with the building of bonfires to honor the Hindu god Vishnu and the triumph of faith and good over evil.

Holi also is celebrated, in various forms, in Bangladesh, Guyana, Nepal, and other countries around the globe.

Photo: Amre Ghiba via Flickr

In the course of fact-checking Peggy Loftus's latest online special on poverty tours, we talked with Reality Tours and Travel co-founder Chris Way. His company runs tours through Mumbai's Dharavi, considered by some to be Asia's largest slum. Since the rebound of tourism in Mumbai after last November's attacks and the buzz around Slumdog Millionaire, he guesstimates business is up 25 percent.

How did you create Reality Tours and Travel? How did you get it off the ground?
I got the idea from the favela tours in Rio. I found the concept fascinating with a lot of potential, as there was definitely a market for people wishing to see this side of the city. Having been in Mumbai previously in 2003 doing some volunteer teaching, I knew about the slums (although not Dharavi at that point) and so decided to return to India in late 2004 with this idea in mind. It quickly became apparent that Dharavi was this fascinating place, with so much industry/ energy/ sense of community that it would definitely appeal to tourists. Krishna, who I met in 2003 when he was waiting my table in Colaba, took a little bit of persuading that tourists would find this place interesting (!), but soon saw the potential and we then formed the company in September 2005. Reality Tours, after a few problems, started in January 2006.

What's the rationale behind your no-camera policy? Do some tour-goers bristle at this prohibition?
We started off asking customers to be considerate and respectful while taking photos. We got some criticism in the press for the tours being voyeuristic and having seen some of the photos in the press (of our customers taking photos), we re-considered this policy and felt that on this issue, they had a point. Also there were some comments from people who felt aggrieved that these "rich people were coming here, taking photos and then making lots of money." We do find that the tour runs a lot more smoothly with the no-camera policy; there is no time wasted as photos are taken and people aren't distracted wondering where is the best location to take a photo; the focus is on the tour and the information behind it. To be fair, most people are fine with this policy and understand it, although some people would like some places where photos could be taken.

To what do you account the growth in numbers of people interested in and taking your tours over the past two years?
First and foremost, the area is fascinating and more people have got to know about the tours that we run through word of mouth and publicity in the press and guidebooks. As a company, I think we provide a very good, professional tour at a very low price and people see that we use the money in a responsible way. Also, I think that this kind of tourism is becoming more popular; people are not just interested in the landmarks and sites of historic importance, but also in the day-to-day lives of people, particularly where this way of life is different to their own.

To many, it's no surprise that Hollywood-hit Slumdog Millionaire took home eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. But who knew it would boost tourism in and around Mumbai, a city whose tourism industry was hit hard after the 2008 terrorist attacks?

"There was a time when most travelers tried to avoid the dicey parts of town," says National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Margaret Loftus in our online special "Slum Tours: Real or Real Tacky?" "But an increasing number are now seeking them out on so-called reality tours. From Rio's favelas to Mumbai's Dharavi slum to Nairobi's Mukuru district, the trend is gaining steam as the latest frontier in travel."

According to the Economic Times, "Mumbai now tops the chart of global tourist destination followed by countries like Japan, made popular by the movie 'Memoirs of a Geisha', South America because of 'Motorcycle Diaries' based on Che Guevera's life, and New Zealand for the 'Lord of the Rings' which has 17 Oscars to its credit for the trilogy."

Arthur Hoffman, managing director of Expedia Asia-Pacific, told the Times "movies have a powerful ability to evoke a sense of the exotica about the locations in which they are filmed. They are widely acknowledged to inspire travel to those destinations. For travellers, the fascination of picturing scenes in the film and then comparing it to real life can lead to a strange sense of déjà vu, particularly for those who have seen the movie several times."  

Our colleagues at National Geographic magazine were on the ground in Mumbai -- Slumdog's setting -- documenting the construction of India's superhighway for their October '08 feature, "Fast Lane to the Future,"  with photographs by Ed Kashi.  Called the Golden Quadrilateral, this new highway is an enormous, ambitious infrastructure project connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkota and Bangalore, improving quality of life and bringing economic opportunities to much of India (although there are plenty of disadvantages as well). Check out their video after the jump.

National Geographic Films producer prepares to milk a dead rat.

When my friend, National Geographic Films producer Jeremy Zipple, told me he was going to northeastern India for work I was immediately jealous. When he told me it was to film a mysterious natural occurence that only happens every 48 years I was immediately intrigued. And when he told me it involved rats, hundreds of thousands of them in fact, I was immediately disgusted. But still kind of jealous and intrigued.

Jeremy and his production team traveled to the northeastern state of Mizoram, India to attempt to document the 48-year cycle of rat infestation that occurs whenever the species of bamboo called Melocanna baccifera flowers. When the flowers drop to the ground, the seeds provide a delicious feast for the rodent population. This feeding frenzy then turns into a mating frenzy, resulting in a surge in the rodent population. The rats eat the crops, and the people of Mizoram suffer from a plague-like decimation of their food supply that has been happening for centuries.

Photographer: Susan I Cohen, from Lake Worth, Florida.

Getting the Shot: The photo was taken at the Pushkar Camel Fair in India in November 2007.

The Details: This is a once-a-year event when the tribesmen from all over come to buy, sell, and trade their camels, horses and other livestock. There are acres and acres of "life" happening all around you. We were walking to the arena to watch the beginning of the camel races when I spotted a group of women in their colorful saris and wraps sitting on the wall at the outskirts of the area. This was a "one shot" deal as we continued our walk and I love it.

We Love: The rainbow of colors contrasted against the stone wall. What do you think?

See all of our Global Eye photos, or add yours to the mix by joining our Flickr pool.

Earlier this month, we posted about the travels of contributing editor Carl Hoffman, who is currently working on a book, The Lunatic Express, and blogging about it as he goes. Hoffman was in Mumbai just ten days before yesterday's terrible terrorist attacks, and he sent us this dispatch after hearing the news:

My phone pinged about three am last night as news rolled in about the attacks in Mumbai. I'm safely ensconced behind the high walls of the British High Commission in New Delhi, 700 miles away, but it was shocking - one of the places hit was Leopold's, a venerable bar and restaurant in Colaba where only ten days ago I'd eaten lots of meals and whiled the nights away over cold Kingfisher beer.

Leopold's is a rarity in India, a relaxing bar and café where tourists and middle-class Indians mix; it's on a corner, with wide, open doorways. You can sit under the high ceilings and fans at 30 or so tables covered in plaid cloth and read the Times of India or watch the throngs walking by outside or strike up a conversation with someone. I shared a table one evening with the chief electrical engineer of the Mumbai commuter trains; one afternoon at lunch I talked to a Dutch filmmaker. It's been around for more than 100 years; it's the center of action in the sprawling Mumbai novel Shantaram. And I stayed at a small guesthouse two doors down.

Apparently grenades were lobbed inside. At ten or eleven o'clock Leopold's would have been full, every table taken, with music throbbing and a mix of Indians, West Africans and westerners dancing and drinking upstairs, sellers of bangles and leather sandals and tobacco on the sidewalk outside, the air warm and humid and smoky. Apparently 101 people have died so far, with more than 250 injured, though I haven't heard any casualty figures form Leopold's.

The New York Times website mentions the symbolism of the attack on the Taj Mahal hotel, writing that "It's the aorta through which anything glamorous, sentimental, confidential or profitable passes in Mumbai." But somehow the attack on Leopold's seems even more cynical, insidious. The Taj is a center of power and money; Leopold's just conviviality, curiosity and intercultural mingling on a much less elite scale, and that makes it even sadder and more shocking.

Photo: Amar Singh via About.com

India tourism officials have recently launched a new branch of tourism in hopes of drawing British visitors to their country. The Times reports that India wants to raise its number of British arrivals from some 800,000 to over one million visitors in the next two years, and in order to do so, they're luring Brits with their favorite brew: tea.

India is the largest producer of tea, contributing over 30% of the world's tea at more than 500 plantations around the country. Many plantations have developed accommodations--from simple cottages to five-star resorts--for guests. Nathmull's Tea in Darjeeling (one of the oldest companies in the region and producing, of course, Darjeeling tea) provides a number of suites for tea enthusiasts for as little as $200 (10,000 Rs) for two per night, including transportation from local airports, all meals, nature walks, tours of the plantation, and, naturally, all the tea you can drink.

Close by, the Glenburn Tea Estate provides similar all-inclusive accommodation for some $400 for two people per night. Those seeking a more intimate experience in India should check out Mahindra Homestays, which organizes trips to smaller B&B-type stays, including places in Kerala from about $75 per night.

Photo: Sadaloha via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool