Leap: Itinerary for My First Trip India

In less than a month, I’ll be taking flight to finally visit Incredible India, a destination that has been at the top of my dream travel list for many years. While there I will be completely immersed in the culture, sights, scents, and sounds around me. I imagine that there will be little time for internet access while I’m on the trip so in an uncharacteristic move my social media channels will take a well-needed rest during that time. I’m hoping that here and there I may be able to hop online in the business center of the hotels to at least give a snippet of an update but it will be vastly reduced from my usual chatting.

Below is a glimpse of my itinerary for the adventure ahead courtesy of the amazing tour concierge at Sunshine Travel and what I’ll be riffing on once I return to the States:

India – A living Heritage

“For the avid traveler, India provides an authentic adventure – stimulating, absorbing, daunting, sometimes moving and shocking. Here is one of the world’s great dramas; an ancient, vast, and crowded land committed to the most formidably challenging exercise in mass democracy. It is a spectacle in which hope, pride, paradox and uncertainty mingle and struggle. It is conducted on the whole, and to India’s credit in the open. The lasting memories of the land are hospitality, kindness, good humor and generosity. Here is a society of over a 1000 million people, growing by a million a month, divided and united by language, caste, religion and regional loyalties. It has often been described as a functioning anarchy; and it is in many ways an amiable one, of marvelous fluidity and tolerance. Indeed, the true Indian motif is not the Taj Mahal, the elephant or the patient peasant behind the ox drawn plough. It is the crowd, the ocean of faces in the land of multitudes, endlessly stirring, pushing and moving. It is in this human circulation that one sees India’s color, variety, busyness, and senses also its power, vitality and grandeur. Bon voyage! ~ Sunshine Tours”

May 10th – 11th
In-flight via Dubai (which will be spectacular in and of itself!)

May 12th
Arrive Cochin. Traditional garlanding welcome upon arrival.

Breakfast at hotel. Morning free to get over jetlag. At approx.1330 hrs, guide & driver will meet you at hotel and depart for sightseeing tour of Cochin city. Evening witness Kathkali Dance Performance show at theater.

Cochin, originally built by the Portuguese, has a natural harbour with lagoons and canals and fishing hamlets.  One of the three biggest ports on the West Coast, it is also an industrially developed area.  The coir industry is of special importance.  An excursion by boat through the backwaters is enchanting.

Cochin sightseeing include visit Jew Town, Chinese Fishing nets, St.Francis Church (Closed on Sundays-0830-1330 hrs), Fort Kochi, The Dutch cemetery, Santa Cruz Basilica,  Matanchery Palace (The Dutch Palace) etc.

Kathakali dance performance show. Stories from epics are presented in this dance-drama. It is a male bastion with female characters also being performed by men. Costumes are colorful and regal with faces painted like masks using natural colors and make-up. A predominant feature of this dance is the intricate facial mime work and eye movements.

May 13th
Breakfast at hotel. Morning visit Jewish Synagogue (closed on Fridays & Saturdays). After the visit, drive to Munnar and upon arrival, check in at hotel.

Munnar, Known as Kashmir of South India, Munnar is situated in Kerala. Snuggled in the lap of such an alluring terrain, Munnar is one of the most beautiful hill stations in Kerala. Munnar – an idyllic destination is located at an altitude of 6000 feet above sea level. Munnar derives its name from the Tamil word ‘munnu’ meaning “three” and ‘aar’ means “River”- spelled as Munnar on combining. After check in, depart for sightseeing of city. The town by itself has little other than the tea plantations and a colonial era CSI Christ Church, built in 1910 AD with some fine stained glass windows. Munnar is the final adventure travel destination. You can trek up the hills and mountain ranges nearby; also visit Tata Tea Museu, Anamudi: highest peak of South India is close to Munnar.

May 14th
After breakfast depart to Alleppey and board Backwater Houseboat. Lunch on board. Cruise through Vembanad Lake enroute visit Church, Temple, paddy fields, narrow lanes etc.

Dinner & overnight on board.

May 15th
After breakfast on board, disembark at Alleppey. Meeting & transfer to Cochin Airport to board flight for Delhi. Meeting & assistance upon arrival and transfer to Hotel Royal Plaza. Rest of the day free for independent activities.

Delhi, the capital of India has a fascinating history and a stimulating present.  Delhi has been the seat of a power of a number of dynasties – the Rajputs, the Muslims invaders from the North, the Afghan dynasties followed by Tughlaqs, Sayyads, the Ladies and the Mughals, who continued the Imperial line, until British days.

The old city, built by Shah Jehan in the 17^th century, stands today as an epitome of the whole history of Indo-Islamic architecture.  New Delhi, designed and constructed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker is a mixture of east and west.  The public buildings in red sandstone are in the Mughal style.

New Delhi, has a circular Parliament House and an imposing Central Secretariat in two blocks, which stand at the approaches to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India.  Delhi is today the political, economic and cultural capital of the world’s largest democracy and has also become one of the greatest tourist centers of the world.

May 16th
Breakfast at hotel. Full day free for independent activities. Likely taking in the main sights of Delhi.

May 17th
Early morning at approx.0515 hrs, pick up from hotel and transfer to New Delhi Railway station to board train for Agra. (Breakfast is served in the train by railway authority as complimentary, however, you can also carry packed breakfast from hotel). Meeting & depart for sightseeing tour of Taj Mahal, Agra Fort. Afternoon excursion to Fatehpur Sikri. Evening return back to Agra Cantt Railway Station to board train for Delhi (Dinner is served in the train by railway authorities as complimentary).  Meeting & transfer to hotel.

Taj Mahal – the world’s greatest love tribute: the Taj Mahal built by Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal in 1565 on the bank of the Yamuna River. The exterior is decorated with arabesques and texts of the Koran inlaid with precious stones. The Tomb itself, while pure white marble, consists of an octagonal building with a terrace square, surmounted by a dome 26 meters high, Agra Fort Or Red Fort, the most beautiful 17th century Mughal architecture. In 1565, Akbar began to build the Red Fort with its high red sandstone walls: inside, south, is the Jahangiri Mahal or Palace of Jahangir, built by Akbar to the north, the Pearl Mosque, built by Shah Jahan. The “Khas Mahal” which forms three pavilions, one discovers a beautiful view of the Yamuna and the Taj Mahal

Fatehpur Sikri –  the ancient capital built by Mughal Emperor Akbar and whose palace is a fine example of Mughal architecture of the sixteenth century.

These magnificent red sandstone ruins of the middle of the plain are the remains of one of the capitals Akbar. He founded in 1569 by expressing his gratitude for the birth of his son, Selim. The building principal is the great mosque, probably the best in India. The Palace of Jodha Bai, the wife Akbar’s Rajput, includes a courtyard surrounded by a gallery surmounted by buildings and covered with a glazed blue roof. Akbar’s private apartments and exquisite palace Sultan Turkey found in another court, then the Panch Mahal, or palace has five floors, which includes room hearings. Visit the palace and called Bulund Darwaza the largest gateway in the world.

May 18th and May 19th
Breakfast at hotel. Full day free for independent activities. Again, likely taking in more of the main sights of Delhi.

May 20th
Returning home at an ungodly early hour that will get us back to the U.S. on the afternoon of the 20th, again via Dubai. These time differences are going to be a little rough, but worth it!

Somewhere in there, I’ll be visiting with friends who live in Delhi who have been the driving encouragement behind me finally taking the plunge and making plans to get to Incredible India. I’m hoping for a yoga class or too and some Ayurvedic treatments. Maybe an elephant ride thrown in for good measure, too!

Whatever India holds for me, I promise I’ll be sharing it all here upon my return. I’m also thinking about crafting a way to bundle up my experiences in a more cohesive way, complete with photos and perhaps some video, too. Maybe it’s time for a second e-book…