Dude, if you’re in India, there is absolutely no way you’re going to miss out on going to the Taj. Hop an Air India flight on a Friday, head up to Delhi, take the 2 hr ride down to Agra and see it. It is that good.
(There may be an airport in Agra, I don’t know as I did the golden triangle over a 10 day period with a driver).
India is awesomesauce. I’ve been there 6 times and always enjoy the weekends visiting all the architecture. Being down in Kerala (haven’t been there myself), you’ll get to see the temples in all their glory - as the moguls invaded, they defaced all statues / artwork with anything living in them - but they only made it just a bit south of Bangalore so temples in the south are pristine. I actually am quite jealous that you’re going to Kerala.
But get up to Delhi - and ffs, skip the red fort in Delhi. I highly recommend Fatehpur Sikri Fort outside of Agra. It’s amazing.
Well, if you want to avoid the crowds at Agra, we really enjoyed Aurangabad. It’s not as far (though you’d probably want to fly anyway unless you want to spend days on a train.) There’s Ajanta, Ellora and even a mini-consolation Taj-alike. That’s just the route we took, no doubt India is covered sites of similar stature in every direction.
Hampi was nice too, but it’s probably a huge pain to get to.
So I leave tomorrow. After much discussion, my final travel itinerary is set. I arrive in Trivandrum Saturday, and will be there for three weeks. That Saturday I am going to be going with coworkers to Trivandrum zoo, and then Kovalem Beach. Sunday we’re going to the Neyyar Animal Sanctuary for the day. The next two weekends I’ll be heading to Ponmudi and Periyar. Mountains yo, I’m gonna be hiking them.
November4th I fly to Chennai for 5 weeks. When I get there I will visit the local sights, Mahalabapuram is 20 minutes from the office, and is on the list. One weekend I am meeting in New Delhi with others to see the Taj, as well as Fatehpur Sikri. @Tman the person who led the training, and is from Calcutta, agreed with your assesment FWIW.
Another I’ll hop a train to Bangalore, then Mysore, with another of the trainees (I’m the only one in my group going to Chennai). We may try and hit Ooty too. One weekend I’ll pop over to Pundecherry. Lots to see and do, and never enough time. Hell I’m contemplating flying to Calcutta to meet with the group going there and hitting up Sikkim. There seems to be a number of my other trainees wanting to do that one weekend, and that would be hard to pass on.
Have a great time. It’s a wonderful country & you’re going to get to see a decent size chunk of it. If you get a wild hair and some time, Goa is also a neat place as it was governed by Portugal until 1961 and there is some interesting things to see - mainly the way they razed hindu temples and literally built catholic churches on them.
They also have a lot of spice plantations and a beach.
Man, I’m jealous! I went to Pune, India for two weeks in January '16 and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I only had one weekend to travel and the other ten days were slam full with work. Pune is about an hour east of Mumbai. I managed to see Aga Khan Palace where Gandhi was imprisoned with his wife, a fort, a temple cut right out of the stone, climbed up to a temple overlooking Pune, and tablelands an hour or so south near Mahabaleshwar. I blogged about it at http://www.bigweathergames.com/?tag=india-trip-january-2016&order=asc if you are curious.
I so wish I had more time, I’d have loved to see the Taj or some wildlife (though I did see monkeys in the wild for the first time in my life), but I’m still grateful I got to go. It was either train the guy here in North Carolina or go there and I decided to take the opportunity. Would love to go back but the wife isn’t so interested so that’ll probably never happen. =/
I’m so thoroughly and insane jealous, Craig. I love India and wish I had the means and the guts to actually visit. It sounds like you’re getting to go to some great places and have built in lots of time to explore and really feel the country out. Eat a ton of food, take even more pictures, and enjoy the hell out of it!!
Thanks for that! Reading through them, and fun to see. You mentined Bahubaali, which I actually just watched on recommendation from some of my Indian coworkers. It is quite the thing.
Oddly enough about 10 of the 16 of my group are going to Pune, including two who are on their way there right now. So I might point them to a few of your favorites. Hell I might just link them your blog, if you don’t mind.
Sure, feel free to point them to the blog. What is your travel path like? Over I went Raleigh-London-Abu Dhabi (I regret not leaving the airport and spending a little time there)-Pune. Back I went Pune-Mumbai-London-Raleigh. Man, that was a looooong journey. Going back was further complicated by the blizzard in NYC (was originally supposed to fly through there) leading to overnights in both Mumbai and London.
Mine is a bit more direct. Advantage of having one of the main international hubs in the world a mere 20 miles away. So I’m flying Emirates from Chicago to Dubai to Trivandrum, then returning via Emirates from Chennai through Dubai into Chicago. All said and done less than 24 hours from wheels up to landing in India.
I was contemplating making a long layover in some middle city, stop and get out you see. But I was told that my company would likely decline any trip with a layover in a third country over about 7 hours, due to not wanting to deal with associates running afoul of locals in some country where they don’t have pull. Because if you are in India, they know who to talk to, and in the US you’re a local. They wouldn’t care in Dubai. My company badge would not impress ;)
That’s incredible, wish I had been able to save a leg like you are. And Emirates, they’re great I’ve heard. I flew Etihad for one leg and it was heads and shoulders above any other flight I’ve ever had. Both airlines are routinely in the top 5 world-wide.
Regarding the layover, yeah, I wasn’t really encouraged to take advantage of it in Abu Dhabi either for the same reason. I figure I’ve been to Egypt (honeymoon, 1994) so I’ve got at least a little checkmark for that area of the world.
Have fun, and be prepared to be scared to death when on the road. ;) I felt like I needed to close my eyes most of the time (someone else driving of course.) I thought China and Taiwan driving was crazy until I was in India!
Man I’m trying, but every time I try and upload pictures, it fails. I managed to sneak 3 or 4 onto Slack, but all the ones I’ve tried since, and it’s been about 20 attempts, has failed :-/
