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My favourite hotels in India, part one

Mariellen — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:21:04 +0000

Rooftop swing chair, Inn Seventh Heaven, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India

My favourite hotels in India

These are my top 5 hotels in India. I have stayed in all of them, and no considerations of sponsorship, price or relationship has influenced my decisions to recommend them. I look for places that combine personality, charm, comfort and integrity. Rooms must be clean, staff must be friendly and the hotels have to offer a little something special — such as extreme helpfulness or impeccable service — to make it on the list. Part two, favourite hotels 6-10, coming soon.

1. The Windamere Hotel, Darjeeling

The Windamere Hotel site. It’s probably the most expensive hotel on the list, and I stayed there as a guest of IndiaTourism, which might cause you to doubt my credibility for recommending it — but I genuinely LOVE this hotel. It’s number one for a reason: it’s my favourite hotel in the world. No, it is not the newest or the sleekest, but the Windamere is a very special place. It’s a near-perfect combination of stunning location, English-cottage-inspired coziness and impeccable service. Originally a home for bachelor tea planters out from England to make their fortune in India in the 19th century, it was turned into a hotel after World War II.

The Windamere Hotel, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India

The title of a book about the Windamere sums it up: Bliss in a swirling haze. The Raj-era hotel’s various buildings wind around the top of Darjeeling’s central peak, Observatory Hill. On clear days, hotel guests are afforded panoramic views of the ramshackle city below, the verdant, rolling tea gardens in the middle distance and the far-off, white-peaked Himalayan mountain range. But on many days, the hotel is socked-in by mist and haze, giving it a romantic, other-world ambiance. There is nothing to do but sink into over-stuffed chintz-covered sofas and take tea in one of the drawing rooms, in front of the fire, or on one of the well-placed terraces. White-gloved waiters to serve four–course meals at three set times per day in the dining room; and friendly, professional staff serve the Windamere’s own blend of Darjeeling tea in the drawing room at four in the afternoon; light coal fires in the heritage rooms at dusk; place hot water bottles in the beds during dinner; and return carefully folded laundry in silk embroidered cases.

Here’s my article, Darjeeling: Steeped in stories, with more pictures of the hotel.

2. Hotel Ganges View, Varanasi

Hotel Ganges View, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Hotel Ganges View site. The prices have sky-rocketed and it’s almost impossible to book — it’s always full — but the Hotel Ganges View is a very special place. For one thing, the location is ideal. The hotel is in Assi Ghat, which is the very first (or last) of the many ghats that line the river for a full six kilometres. It is at the edge of the action, close enough to get to, but far enough away from the crowds, the aarti, the cremation ghats and the central bazaar to be relatively peaceful. Varanasi is an intense place, so being able to find some breathing room is essential. The hotel itself is in what appears to be a former mansion. All the guests eat together in the beautifully appointed living / dining room, and the owner — who I never met — is very culturally minded: he often holds music sessions in the hotel. Upstairs, there are a series of terraces with stunning views along the scythe of the ghats and the sunset across the river. I would not want to stay anywhere else in Varanasi, and I was willing to splurge when I was there in 2009 and go well over my budget for my room. I wrote about my room at the Hotel Ganges View on my old blog at Travelblog.org.

3. Casa Cottage, Bangalore

Casa Cottage, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Casa Cottage site. Jai’adore this cozy cottage in Bangalore! I stayed there as a guest of Benjamine and Bhushan when I was researching my cover story on Bangalore for Discover India magazine (there’s a PDF of this article on my About Mariellen page). This hotel is not on the list because of my complimentary stay: Bangalore is another one of those crazy-busy Indian cities, but then you get into a back lane in an old residential neighbourhood, and behind the gates of Casa Cottage, and aaahhhhh, peace! About 10 or 12 lovely rooms in a charming heritage house sit behind a front lawn and casual open-air cafe. It is honestly like staying with friends. In fact, Benjamine has a way of making friends with just about everyone. She is a very warm, helpful and hard-working woman, originally from France. I wrote about Casa Cottage in my blog A garden oasis in hectic Bangalore.

4. Jas Vilas, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Jas Vilas hotel, Jaipur, India

Jas Vilas site. Jas Vilas is an oasis in Jaipur. A wide expanse of lawn out front, and rooms ranged around a cool blue swimming pool, give the Jas Vilas a feeling of luxury and spaciousness. It manages to find the sweet spot between elegance and comfort, something not easy to do. (It’s the way I try to dress, actually, so I know how hard it is …) Plus, it is owned and operated by a charming couple who know everyone, and everything about Jaipur. It is another one of my splurge places as their prices have gone way up, too. But you could spend an entire day there, and even though it’s a small place, you would not feel the need to leave. I wrote about Jas Vilas, and my first trip to Jaipur, on my old blog on Travel.blog.org

Inn Seventh Heaven courtyard, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India

5. Inn Seventh Heaven, Pushkar, Rajasthan

Inn Seventh Heaven site. Whenever I think of Inn Seventh Heaven, I think of relaxing on the rooftop restaurant, swinging on one of the Rajasthani-style chair swings, staring out at the view of the hills surrounding the small town of Pushkar and enjoying the friendly hospitality and tasty food. I stayed on that rooftop for about 10 days in March 2009, when I was recovering from heart ache, and I grew very attached to the place, and the staff. I am also very fond of the owner Anoop, and his family. It’s another one of those places that passes the I-could-stay-here-all-day-and-not-feel-the-need-to-go-anywhere test. These are my favourite kinds of places: Small and intimate, but interesting and diverse enough to hold your attention. The Inn was a grand haveli in a Pushkar back street until Anoop took it over and made it what it is today. The rooms are in the traditional Rajashtani style, on about four floors, all facing an inner courtyard. On the ground floor is a small boutique, an internet cafe and a lovely fountain that attracts small song birds. On the roof is the Sixth Sense restaurant — the best place to eat and chill out in Pushkar. Service is slow, but who cares? I wrote about Pushkar and Inn Seventh Heaven on my old travel blog at Travelblog.org.

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Darjeeling: Steeped in stories

Mariellen — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:48:34 +0000

Kanchendzonga, sunrise, March 8 2010

Stop two on my IndiaTourism-sponsored road trip was three nights in Darjeeling, known as the “queen of the hill stations,” and home of the “toy train” and of course the “champagne of tea.”

I have long wanted to visit Darjeeling and when I was researching and planning my trip, I set my heart on staying at the Windamere Hotel. I had also set my heart on getting up at 4 am to drive from Darjeeling to Tiger Hill to watch the sun rise light up the great Himalayan range on my 50th birthday. Luckily for me, both IndiaTourism and nature cooperated.

I got to stay at the Windamere Hotel and the morning I went up to Tiger Hill, March 8, the weather was clear. After waiting in the cold half-light for 30 or 60 minutes, the sun suddenly burst into view in the east, everyone clapped and shouted and the white Himalayan mountains in the west — especially the massive five-peaked Kanchendzonga — started turning various glorious shades of gold and rose as the sun cleared the horizon and climbed into the sky. It is indeed one of nature’s greatest shows on earth and I felt a good way to mark a milestone birthday. I felt truly elated watching this spectacle, it was a dream come true.

sunrise from Tiger Hill, March 8 2010

Seeing this sun rise from Tiger Hill was on my must-do list; and so was seeing Mount Everest. I accomplished both on my birthday, as Everest is one of the peaks you can see from Tiger Hill (though it is much further away than Kanchendzonga and therefore much smaller). Kanchendzonga is the third highest mountain on earth, and it is so wide that it dominates the skyline in this part of India — that is, when it is visible. I saw it the morning of my birthday, and was lucky enough to see how it dominates Darjeeling’s horizon, but then it disappeared into swirls of mist and cloud for the next six days that I was in Darjeeling and Sikkim. I never saw it again. Apparently, the mountain people say that the mountain chooses who it reveals itself to, so I feel blessed to have seen it at all.

From there, my amazing guide Paras suggested we wait until the crowds leave and walk part way down Tiger Hill, which is located within the boundaries of a nature reserve. (Paras works for Help Tourism: I am going to write more about this wonderful company, which is a pioneer in eco and community tourism in India’s north-east). He was always making fantastic suggestions such as this, and I loved the walk down almost as much as the sunrise. We got to see the mystical mountain (Kanchendzonga) from various lovely spots and visited a very old and sacred hillside temple dedicated to the goddess Durga.

Luckily for us, we arrived just as the morning puja was taking place. There were only three other worshippers there, all women — which was fitting as it was International Women’s Day. I felt very moved as the women and the Pandit welcomed us whole-heartedly into the ceremony, and I could feel the sacred spiritual energy of this small, venerable temple that clings to the mountainside facing Kanchendzonga. When the Pandit placed a tikka mark on my forehead and wrapped a red and gold cloth around my neck, I felt deeply blessed. My birthday celebrations were complete. I thought to myself that this simple temple, set in a natural environment and deeply imbued with sacred energy, suits me so much more than the big, bustling and famous temples. I didn’t go to Kalighat in Kolkata, and then was treated to this amazing puja on my birthday. “Ram never makes a mistake,” so the saying goes.

Durga temple, Tiger Hill

So that was how my first morning in Darjeeling started. My nights were spent at the Windamere Hotel. This is what the Windamere Hotel is like.

When I was a young girl, I went through a phase where I was entranced by Victorian England. One of my favourite movie was The Little Princess with Shirley Temple as the daughter of a wealthy British officer who is sent to the front during the Boer War. She lives in luxury at a private girl’s school in London until he goes missing and all his money is lost. Abruptly she is relegated to living in the attic with another urchin and working as a maid to pay off her school fees. The crusty old gentlemen in the house next door takes a liking to her, and in the middle of the night sends his Indian manservant – who dresses in formal Indian wear, including a turban, and sports a parrot on his arm – to outfit her room with a thick comforter, a luxurious bathrobe, a roaring fire and a table full of good things to eat. She wakes up to this wonderous miracle, and accepts it all with unquestioning enthusiasm. I have always loved this scene, and being at the Windamere Hotel made me feel like a princess.

one of the Windamere's gracious terraces

I will write an entire blog about the Windamere Hotel because it has joined the ranks of very special places I have discovered in India, along with Casa Piccola in Bangalore, Bhakti Kutir in Goa and Inn Seventh Heaven in Pushkar, among others.

Established in the 19th century as a boarding house for bachelor English and Scottish tea planters, the Windamere was converted into a hotel just before the outbreak of the Second World War. The hotel works very hard to retain the old-fashioned charm and attentive service it has always been famous for. Like Darjeeling itself, it is steeped in stories. One of my favourites is that the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim met his young, beautiful American wife (Hope Cooke) in the hotel drawing room in 1958.

my charming bedroom at the Windamere (named Chogyal of Sikkim)

The entire hotel is reminiscent of an English country house, heavy with wood work and light with chintz. The attention to detail and homey touches are astonishing: a hot water bottle in your bed each evening, a gong that announces breakfast, lunch, tea service and dinner, laundry delivered in a quilted cloth folder, white-gloved waiters, a coal fire in your room each evening.

The Windamere also has the most favoured location in town, almost at the top of Observatory Hill, Darjeeling’s highest point. The only thing higher is the Mahakula Temple. The sound of the temple bells and the temple’s peaceful vibes only add to the Windamere’s already considerable charms. I would say that of all the hotels in town, the Windamere must have the most spacious grounds and best views. Though there are at least two other upscale hotels in town, none offer the wide-open vistas you can find at the Windamere.

This hotel conjured my past in so many ways. In some ways, it reminded me of my family cottage growing up, and in some ways of the England I imagined when I as a child. So many stars seemed to align for me here. The first night I arrived I looked out my window at a single bright star in the mauve dusk (must have been Venus) and I felt “I have been here before.” I don’t know whether it was in reality, in a past life or in my imagination.

And it’s not just the hotel of course, it’s Darjeeleing itself. From the time I was about three years old, my grandmother, Nana, and I used to have tea parties. She bought me a plastic tea set when I was about three; and a china set when I was about seven or eight. I loved having tea with my elegant and kindly grandmother, who was a very good story teller along with being a very stylish woman (she wore simple Wallis Simpson-style A-line dresses in shades of taupe adorned with large but tasteful costume necklaces, rings and bracelets and had long tapered nails). Stories and tea went together, and they have both become important to me. I grew up to become a writer and a tea drinker (a tea lover!). So going to Darjeeling was a kind of pilgrimage for me in several ways.

When I first arrived in Darjeeling, I kept saying to my guide, Paras, “I can’t believe I am finally here!” My time there was magical partially because of Darjeeling itself, partially because of Paras, and partially because I was staying at the Windamere Inn.

the temple at the top of Observatory Hill -- which is both Buddhist and Hindu

Darjeeling is a special place because of a serendipitous meeting of location and history. Situated way up in the Himalayan foothills, it is presided over by the mighty massif Kanchendzonga. The British discovered that the elevation and conditions were precisely suited to the cultivation of tea, so they began importing tea plants from China and slowly but surely established a thriving tea industry. The town of Darjeeling was home base to the British tea planters and eventually became the summer residence of the British Raj, whose capital in India was steamy Calcutta until 1911. When the summer heat grew intense, the British Raj in Calcutta made the arduous journey into the hills to find relief in Darjeeling’s temperate climate.

Even to date, Darjeeling retains the flavour of the colonial past and gives the town a historically rich texture. The “toy train,” which runs on the world’s smallest gauge — it’s ancient steam engines pull two tiny blue bogeys — still runs between Darjeeling and Siliguri. Several times a day you can hear it’s comforting whistle as the train pulls either into or out of the station. Train enthusiasts come from all over the world, but perhaps especially from Britain, to experience this train, which has been in operation since the mid 1800s. It is the same train which carried the British Raj.

Mine is not the only camera sticking out the window

I took a joy trip on this train, riding for about an hour from Darjeeling down to Ghum. To be honest, though it was very slow and I was occasionally sprinkled with soot from the charcoal-powered steam engine, I much preferred it to the bumpy road. If and when I go back to Darjeeeling, I’m taking the little train! In most places, the train runs alongside the road and in front of houses and stores. Often, the buildings are only an arm’s length away. I felt like I could have reached out and grabbed a bag of chips from one of the little stalls along the way (except I wasn’t hungry).

For me, going to Darjeeling really was all about the tea, so I was thrilled to visit my first tea garden. Paras and our driver Ashok made our way through the narrow, crowded winding streets of Darjeeling to the outskirts of town. Darjeeling has become a sprawling city that seems to cling precariously to the side of a mountain. You are always traveling either up or down, and there’s a world of difference between being in the crowded market areas and the many tea gardens that stretch out in every direction covering many hillsides for miles and miles.

tea as far as the eye can see

In a very short time we reached Happy Valley tea estate, one of the oldest and highest-elevation tea garden in Darjeeling. First I toured the factory, which is basically a functional museum. All the equipment is vintage and seems to be in perfect working order as tea is processed here during the season (which hadn’t started yet — I was about a week or two too soon for the “first flush” picking.) Then we went around back and walked out into the tea garden, which was one of the absolute highlights of my stay in Darjeeling.

We walked for about half an hour or more, past the collection of small houses where the tea workers live and out into the tea gardens. At that elevation we could see for miles, and we were completely surrounded by carefully trimmed tea bushes growing in a luxuriant pattern. From a distance, a tea garden looks like a thick deep green carpet. The air was fresh and clean and the atmosphere calm, sunny and very happy indeed.

Happy Valley tea garden is a happy place

I have always loved tea — like many people, I find it very refreshing — and was not at all surprised to be among tea gardens and feel that the “spirit” of the tea plant is very positive, soothing and uplifting. I’m so glad I was able to travel to Darjeeling and discover this for myself.

While in Darjeeling I was very privileged to meet and interview a number of remarkable people. The first was the Mother Superior of Loreto Convent School. Darjeeling is famous for its many outstanding schools, but I was keen to visit Loreto because of its long history in India, Irish connection and because it was Mother Teresa’s order before she left to start Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. In fact, Mother Teresa was on the train between Calcutta and Darjeeling when she was hit with the epiphany that completely changed her left: she realized that she wanted devote her life to the poor of Calcutta.

Mother Superior of Loreto

Mother Superior showed me around the school and we had a good chat about spirituality. She is of Irish origin, energetic and charming, and can count an open mind and the Irish “gift of the gab” among her best traits. I liked her immensely. Though Loreto was originally founded by an English woman — named Mary Ward (!) — and started in India by a group of Irish nuns, she is the only “foreigner” at Loreto now. All the other teachers and students are from India or Nepal.

I went from Loreto to the Missionaries of Charity house and orphanage and spoke to two beautiful nuns who told me they take care of about 45 adult women who have nowhere else to go. Walking through the compound, I noticed that many of them seemed to be mentally disabled, though very friendly and warm. The children in the orphanage had all been moved down to a lower and warmer elevation for the winter and weren’t back yet, so I didn’t get to visit the orphanage, and also I didn’t take any pictures.

So, I had a busy two-and-half days in Darjeeling, but still had lots of time to relax in my fireplace heated room and on the breathtaking terraces of Windamere, to shop for tea, to walk the mall and to drink tea, of course. From Windamere I went to Sikkim … but that’s another entry for another day … and then came back to the Darjeeling area (to Kurseong) for my last day in the north-east. In Kurseong, I met the “king” of Darjeeling tea, and drank tea with him while sitting in his drawing room in the shadow of an enormous stuffed Bengal Tiger his grandfather had bagged. But that’s another story!

famous tea store on the mall in Darjeeling

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My India list

Mariellen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:44:43 +0000

My India list: top places, events and festivals I want to see

I believe in magic. How else can you explain that the more I travel in India, the longer the list of places I want to go gets?! I was inspired to write this list by Mighty Girl’s Mighty Life List, so here goes. Here’s my list at the time of this writing (and I am sure I am missing several things …):

Top 10

see sunrise over the Himalayas from Tiger Hill, near Darjeeling
watch the start of the monsoon in Trivandrum
attend the Pushkar Camel Festival
climb Mount Arunachala
see a tiger! — perhaps in Kanha National Park, the place that inspired Kipling to write Jungle Book
watch Indian classical dance at sunset in front of the temples during the Khajuraho Dance Festival
stay in tea gardens in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiri Hills
have tea at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai
stay at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata and watch the Kali Puja
go on Char Dham pilgrimage to source of the Ganga (Ganges River)

And the list continues …

be in Jaisalmer for the Desert Festival
visit Gandh’s ashrams: Sabarmati and Sevagram
take part in Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai
see the Brahmaputra River in Assam
visit the Ellora and Ajanta Caves
hike in Ladakh
be in Mathura for Janmashtami
take a boat cruise through the Sunderbans
join the Chariot Festival in Puri
hike in Sikkim
stay at Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur
see the Republic Day Parade in Delhi
~~spend some time writing in Bundi, where Kipling wrote~~
undertake 10-day Vipassana retreat near Jaipur
brief stop in the world’s wettest place, Cherapungi
see Dal Lake, Srinagar
stay at a spice garden in Kerala
visit the spice market in Old Delhi
finally go to Akshardham in Delhi
see the sun set and the moon rise at Kanyakumari (happens only two days per year)
attend Jaipur Literature Festival

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Indian summer: 11 reasons to visit India in the summer

Mariellen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:45:54 +0000

Published on The Matador Network, August 2009.

Photo courtesy of Jehangir Pocha

Indian summer

While the majority of foreign tourists travel to India in the winter, there are some who like it hot! India is a popular summer destination for European vacationers, monsoon lovers and travelers who like to swim against the stream. There are lots of good reasons for visiting India in the summer, including the profusion of summer festivals, breathtaking summer-only destinations in the Himalayas, un-crowded tourist attractions, cheaper airfares and slashed rates at many hotels and resorts.

Here are 11 things you can only do in the summer in India:

1. Eat mangoes. Early summer, before the monsoon arrives, is the hottest time of year in India. The only relief comes in the form of a sweet and succulent fruit, welcomed and revered from one end of the country to the other. In India, the mango is the “king of fruit.” Mangoes begin to trickle into markets and restaurants in April and by June the streets are full of people savouring their “utterly overpowering lusciousness,” as one mango lover said. While there are many varieties, the Alphonso is hailed as the “king of kings,” and its seasonal appearance makes the news.

2. Hike in Ladakh. In winter, the Ladakh region of India’s remote northern state is a cold, lonely and forbidding mountain kingdom. But come summer, flowers bloom and the tourists return to admire the barren, lunar-like landscapes and traditional Indian, Tibetan and Central Asian cultures. Hikers flock to Leh, the region’s capital, for some of the best treks in India. Even those with less physically ambitious goals will enjoy hiking up to the palace and royal monastery, Namgyal Tsemo Gompa, in the centre of Leh, to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. The season’s short, though, and by mid-September it’s all over for another year.

3. Chill at a hill station. During the reign of the British Raj, the colonial rulers retreated to hill stations to escape the incendiary heat of the plains. Shimla, in the modern state of Himachal Pradesh, was the “Queen of Hill Stations.” It was from this small mountain-top town that the British ruled fully one-fifth of humanity. Today, visitors to Shimla enjoy the laid-back holiday vibe, Raj-era buildings – including the baronial Viceregal Lodge – and spectacular views of the Himalayas from the The Mall, a ridge-top pedestrian-only thoroughfare that was once off-limits to Indians. Don’t miss high tea at the elegant, century-old Oberoi Cecil Hotel. Shimla is a taste of “ye olde England” in the Himalayas.

4. Sing in the rain. Monsoon is a very special time of year in India. The summer rains bring welcome relief from the scorching heat of early summer and they are a symbol of fertility, vigour and joyful abandon. Bollywood movie watchers know that when rain showers soak the hero and heroine, it’s shorthand for the lovemaking they can’t show on screen. The southwest monsoon is expected to arrive in the southern state of Kerala each year on June 1, and it spends the next few months sweeping north across the subcontinent, lightening the hearts of farmers, children, lovers and just about everyone else. Tourists, too, enjoy the lush freshness, cooling downpours and relaxation-inducing vibes the monsoon brings.

5. Experience bliss. Summer monsoon season is the best time for Ayurvedic treatment in India. Ayurveda, which means “science of life,” is the ancient system of traditional Indian health care that seeks to restore health through the use of diet, herbs, lifestyle advice, cleansing techniques and, primarily, bliss-inducing oil massages. The languid dampness opens the pores and makes the body more receptive to the medicated oils. Kerala, in southern India, is a tropical paradise on the Arabian Sea, and the best place for Ayurvedic treatment in India. Ayurvedic resorts, from the rustic to the luxurious, line the shores between white sand beaches and palm tree forests and offer a relaxing vacation as well as authentic treatments.

6. Find the source of the Ganges. The Ganges River – known in India as Ganga Mata – is the lifeline of the country and its most sacred river. One-in-ten people on earth depend on its bounty for their livelihood. It cascades out of the high Himalayas in northern India, and finding its source – or sources – is a major pilgrimage activity every summer after the snows melt and the roads and villages become accessible (April to November). The pilgrimage is called Char Dham, which means four sacred places, and bus tours from Rishikesh in Uttaranchal state can take you to all four: Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.

7. Get soaked with Ganesh. One of the biggest festivals in Maharashtra state takes place at the end of summer. It’s called Ganesh Chaturthi, and while it’s celebrated throughout India, no one does it quite like Mumbai. For 10 days, Mumbaikers celebrate by holding cultural and social programs, eating sweets and worshipping the popular elephant-headed god. On the 11th day, his birthday, an enormous clay figure of Ganesh is paraded through the streets of Mumbai before being immersed in the Arabian Sea. The main parade, to Chowpatty Beach, is accompanied by thousands of celebrants dancing and singing in the streets. All are welcome to join the fun.

8. Sip tea in Darjeeling. A popular hill station perched high up in the Himalayas, on the northern edge of West Bengal, Darjeeling also gives its name to the world’s best tea. In the 19th century, Darjeeling was THE summer destination for the British in Calcutta (then the capital of colonial India). Though Darjeeling is lashed by the summer monsoon, it still offers an escape from the heat of lower-lying regions. Tourists enjoy the Victorian-era holiday atmosphere, spectacular views of some of the world’s highest mountains, tours to surrounding tea gardens and Tibetan culture. Take the poignantly slow Toy Train from Siliguri and you will find yourself in tune with Darjeeling’s timeless appeal.

9. Run with the chariots. The mid-summer Chariot Festival in Puri, Orissa, attracts millions of devotees and tourists each year, who take part in an enormous procession as three mammoth, dazzling wood chariots are pulled through the streets. It’s one of the biggest festivals in India – so big, it inspired a word that means “massive, inexorable force.” The word juggernaut was coined after 19th century British spectators saw people, mad with devotion, throw themselves under the giant wheels of the Lord Jagannath’s chariot. The splendour and grandeur of this spectacle is unforgettable.

10. Watch snake boats compete. The Onam Festival of late August celebrates the tropical southern state’s rich cultural heritage during a glorious time of year when everything seems fresh and radiant. During the 10-day festival, Kerala puts on a showy display of games and sports, traditional art forms, drama and classical music. There’s also shopping at the many festival bazaars that spring up and a Grand Feast. But the highlight is the Nehru Trophy Snake Boar Race, the biggest snake boat race in the world. This immensely popular festival, held to coincide with Kerala Tourist Week, attracts people from all over the globe.

Krishna

11. Celebrate Krishna’s birthday. Blue-skinned Krishna is one of Hinduism’s most important and beloved gods. He can be depicted as a cherubic baby, flute-playing lad, devoted lover – alongside his consort Radha – or as Arjun’s charioteer during the epic battle of the Mahabharata (the basis of the Hindu bible, the Bhagvad Gita). Inspiring fervent devotion among his followers, his mid-summer birthday (this year on August 14) is called Janmashtami. It is celebrated all across the country, but nowhere more so than in his birthplace, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The fun includes rituals, feasting, devotional singing, plays that depicts scenes from his action-packed life and human pyramids – formed to reach a high-hanging pot of butter, Krishna’s weakness.

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