David Abram - India

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to India, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editors Choice categories of activies and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in India. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, hotels, activities from to culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in India are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of India. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors who use their on-the-ground experience to provide the very latest information; their local expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide to you the best places to stay and eat, so you can be confident that when we say a restaurant or hotel is special, we really mean it.

Like all Insight Guides , this e-book contains hundreds of beautiful photographs to inspire and inform your travel. We commission most of our own photography, and we strive to capture the essence of a destination using original images that you wont find anywhere else.

2013 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Introduction: The Allure of India

India is like nowhere else on earth thrilling, frustrating, inspiring and, most of all, incredibly diverse. With around 850 different languages in daily use, the sheer profusion of its peoples and landscapes is unparalleled.

Indias long history of accepting and absorbing newcomers, and of changing over time to express their ideas, is reflected in its open-minded and welcoming attitude, and fascinating range of cultures and beliefs. With landscapes that vary from the worlds highest mountain ranges to tropical beaches, India has an almost endless variety of peoples and places to explore; the sights and sounds of this enormous country have a spellbinding effect, and live long in the memory. Despite the advances brought by 21st-century globalisation, with rising prosperity, high-tech industries and burgeoning car ownership, India largely retains its mesmeric otherness, a kind of old-fashioned handmade, homespun quality that sets it apart from everywhere else.

Colourful fabric on display in Jaipur.

Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications

There is evidence, from the earliest times, of great movements of peoples across South Asia, sometimes replacing existing populations, sometimes integrating with them. They came from West and Central Asia in massive sweeps through the lofty passes in the northwest, bringing with them the rudiments of the Hindu faith, later to be developed on Indian soil into a subtle and highly complex religion. Other religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, have developed and been absorbed into Indias proverbial sponge. With these peoples and religions have come a variety of ethnicities, art, architecture, culture, philosophy, science and technology that have all influenced Indias intricate mosaic.

While it is Indias variety and complexity that make it so appealing, negotiating the turmoil can be a challenge. But if you are prepared to delve deeper than the first, chaotic impression, the rewards can be substantial. Be ready to take things as they come: for things that shouldnt work at all to work perfectly, and for the simplest things to go wrong. Everyones perception is different. The prominent, 20th-century British journalist James Cameron summed up its appeal when he wrote: I like the evening in India, the one magic moment when the sun balances on the rim of the world, and the hush descends, and 10,000 civil servants drift homeward on a river of bicycles, brooding on the Lord Krishna and the cost of living.

Indias Top 10 Attractions

Discover the very best that India has to offer, from the bright lights of Mumbai and colourful Rajasthani cities to ancient ruins and the cool heights of the Himalayas.

Top Attraction 1

Kerala . The intense greens of the Kerala backwaters, overhung by innumerable coconut palms, encapsulate tropical India like nowhere else. For more information, .

Top Attraction 2

Jaisalmer . The desert citadel of Jaisalmer, with its golden sandstone fort and wonderful havelis, is the oldest Rajput capital. It also has some beautiful and ornate Jain temples, and is the base for excursions into the Thar Desert. For more information, .

Robert Bremec/iStockphoto

Top Attraction 3

The Taj Mahal . It is Indias most recognisable sight. This truly stunning monument in white marble is seductive in its perfect proportions and fine details. For more information, .

Julian Love/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 4