As friends will know, we love India and travel independently in the North and South revisiting some of our favourite places and exploring towns and villages we've not been to before.
We usually visit early in the year between January and March but this year we're breaking with tradition and travelling late Autumn/Winter specifically to visit the Pushkar Camel Fair which takes place each November at the time of the 'Kartik Purnima' full moon. Its part Camel & Horse Fair where thousands of traders descend on the holy Town bringing their animals to buy/sell them, and part religious ceremony with around 400,000 visitors over the two week period. Its the animals I particularly want to see as the camels are shaved and 'blinged up' with jewellery - I'm hoping for good photos of the event.
We found an amazing bargain on the British Airways website. Seemingly there was an error in their pricing as for one day only the First Class fare was £7,000 cheaper than all other dates. We booked it quickly and a couple of days later the fare was increased in line with the others but our tickets are being honoured so we're looking forward to travelling in luxury to and from India.
Our Itinerary is:
London to Delhi then an internal flight to Amritsar the capital of Punjab state and center of the Sikh religion. Among other things we plan to see the closing of the Pakistan/India Border (the Wagah Ceremony) and visit the Golden Temple which is the most important pilgrimage site of Sikhism.
From Amritsar we travel to Jaipur to revisit the 'Pink City' that we first experienced in 2014 on a group tour as David's introduction to India. It was a whirlwind tour and we want to spend more time exploring the city on foot. The most memorable event in the 2014 trip was not being allowed to dismount from the elephant which took us up the hill to the Amber Fort. David had miscalculated the currency and didn't give the 'driver' a big enough tip so he wouldn't park our elephant close enough to the dismounting place. It was a worrying 5 minutes!
Jaipur to New Delhi - again, we visited the city in 2014 as part of a group but many roads were closed off as we arrived the day before Republic Day and lots of important people were due to visit. Better luck this time around!
New Delhi to Varanasi We have put off visiting Varanasi before but feel now its really something we have to experience. Its one of the holiest places in Hinduism and pilgrims flock to the sacred Ganges to wash away sins, to cremate their loved ones, or simply to die.
Our visit coincides with the festival of Dev Deepawali where devotees bathe in the Ganges on the day of Kartik Purnima (full moon) and light clay lamps (or Diyas) in the evening. I think it will be a spectacular thing to witness but we're hoping not to see any corpses floating in the River.
From there we fly to Kolkata (Calcutta) another place we haven't visited before - we'll have a couple of days to explore before flying to Mumbai (Bombay) which is a place we love to visit. There is so much to see/do in the city and afternoon tea at the Raj Palace hotel overlooking the Gateway to India is something not be missed.
When you look at a map it appears that our route is slightly illogical as we do a little triangular journey starting and finishing in New Delhi, then on to our last 3 destinations, but we have to be in these places on specific days/dates to witness some events so this is how it panned out.
We usually visit early in the year between January and March but this year we're breaking with tradition and travelling late Autumn/Winter specifically to visit the Pushkar Camel Fair which takes place each November at the time of the 'Kartik Purnima' full moon. Its part Camel & Horse Fair where thousands of traders descend on the holy Town bringing their animals to buy/sell them, and part religious ceremony with around 400,000 visitors over the two week period. Its the animals I particularly want to see as the camels are shaved and 'blinged up' with jewellery - I'm hoping for good photos of the event.
We found an amazing bargain on the British Airways website. Seemingly there was an error in their pricing as for one day only the First Class fare was £7,000 cheaper than all other dates. We booked it quickly and a couple of days later the fare was increased in line with the others but our tickets are being honoured so we're looking forward to travelling in luxury to and from India.
Our Itinerary is:
London to Delhi then an internal flight to Amritsar the capital of Punjab state and center of the Sikh religion. Among other things we plan to see the closing of the Pakistan/India Border (the Wagah Ceremony) and visit the Golden Temple which is the most important pilgrimage site of Sikhism.
From Amritsar we travel to Jaipur to revisit the 'Pink City' that we first experienced in 2014 on a group tour as David's introduction to India. It was a whirlwind tour and we want to spend more time exploring the city on foot. The most memorable event in the 2014 trip was not being allowed to dismount from the elephant which took us up the hill to the Amber Fort. David had miscalculated the currency and didn't give the 'driver' a big enough tip so he wouldn't park our elephant close enough to the dismounting place. It was a worrying 5 minutes!
Jaipur to New Delhi - again, we visited the city in 2014 as part of a group but many roads were closed off as we arrived the day before Republic Day and lots of important people were due to visit. Better luck this time around!
New Delhi to Varanasi We have put off visiting Varanasi before but feel now its really something we have to experience. Its one of the holiest places in Hinduism and pilgrims flock to the sacred Ganges to wash away sins, to cremate their loved ones, or simply to die.
Our visit coincides with the festival of Dev Deepawali where devotees bathe in the Ganges on the day of Kartik Purnima (full moon) and light clay lamps (or Diyas) in the evening. I think it will be a spectacular thing to witness but we're hoping not to see any corpses floating in the River.
From there we fly to Kolkata (Calcutta) another place we haven't visited before - we'll have a couple of days to explore before flying to Mumbai (Bombay) which is a place we love to visit. There is so much to see/do in the city and afternoon tea at the Raj Palace hotel overlooking the Gateway to India is something not be missed.
When you look at a map it appears that our route is slightly illogical as we do a little triangular journey starting and finishing in New Delhi, then on to our last 3 destinations, but we have to be in these places on specific days/dates to witness some events so this is how it panned out.
