India Travel

Arrival and information of Mount Abu in Rajasthan

Related Properties from Gurgaon

Arrival and information in Gujarat

Arriving in Junagadh by bus or train, you're within easy walking distance of nearly all the hotels. From the long distance bus stand, turn right, then left at the main road and straight on across the railway tracks into the town centre; from the railway station, take a right down Station Road and a left at the end, by the petrol station. Local transport is provided by auto-rickshaws, though bicycles are great for getting around; with a bit of leg-work you can even cycle to the foot of Mount Girnar. Run-of-the-mill bikes can be had from 3 shop just west

Arrival and information of Jaipur in Rajasthan

Jaipur's Sanganer airport, 15km south of the centre, is served by domestic Indian Airlines and Jet Airways flights from Delhi and Mumbai. An airport bus into town costs Rs30; taxis charge more like Rs250. The railway station is lkm west of the Pink City, very close to the main concentration of hotels, while state buses from all over Rajasthan and further afield pull in at the more central Inter-state Bus Terminal on Station Road. Arriving from Delhi, you skirt the south side of the city, stopping briefly at an intersection called Narayan Circle, where rickshaw-wallahs frequently board the bus saying it's

Moving on from Mount Abu in Rajasthan

Buses leave Mount Abu for Abu Road every hour until 9pm; Jeeps leave when full (from opposite the bus stand), and taxis are available on request (from the junction at the southeastern corner of the polo ground; Rs200 for a full car). For train travellers, there's an information and booking office, or "Out Agency" (Mon-Sat 9am-1pm S 2-4pm) directly opposite the police station, next to the bus stand. It has quotas for services to Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, but not Jodhpur, so if you're heading northeast towards Jaisalmer, you'll have to head back down to Abu Road railway station

Arrival, city transport and information to Ujjain in Western Madhy Pradesh

Trains arriving in Ujjain on both broad-gauge branches of the Western Railway pull-in at the station in the centre of town; Ujjain is on a link line between Indore and Bhopal, with regular intercity trains shunting between the three. Two minutes' walk northeast of the station is the Dewas Gate bus stand, where buses for Gwalior, Agra, Rajasthan and Bhopal depart. The inconvenient P.D.V. Bus Stand, next to the MPTDC Yatri Niwas, serves Indore, Bhopal and Mandu. The city is fairly spread out, so you'll need to get around by auto-rickshaw or by renting a bicycle from the shop opposite

Keoladeo National Park Practicalities East of Jaipur in Rajasthan

Cycle rickshaws are the main form of transport within the city, but fares for he long haul in and out of town soon mount up, and it makes sense to rent a bicycle, either from your hotel (around Rs35/day) or the shop on NH-11 outside the Spoonbill Restaurant. If you need to change money, head for the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur. Binarayan Gate (Mon-Fn 10am-2pm, Sat 10am—noon). Bharatpur's bus stand is in the west of town near Anah Gate, just off NH-11. If you're arriving from Fatehpur Sikri, get off well before, when the bus stops at the crossroads

Arrival and information in Himachal Pradesh

State-ran buses from Manali, Mandi, Pathankot, Kangra and Delhi pull into the bus stand in the very south of the lower town, though some continue after a short stop all the way up to McLeod Ganj - the usual arrival point for private and deluxe buses from Delhi and Manali. The nearest point of arrival for trains from Delhi, Punjab and Jammu Tawi is Pathankot - the narrow-gauge train linking Pathankot to Jogindernagar also stops at Kangra and at Nagrota. Dharamsala's airport, 11km to the south at Gaggal, has three Indian Airlines' flights a week to Delhi. The tourist office (Mon-Sat

The Town of Mount Abu in Rajasthan

Mount Abu has a significant number of religious sites but all are some way out of town. Nearer the centre, Nakki Lake is where everyone converges in the late afternoon for pony and pedalo rides, and to dress up in fake peasant clothes to have their photos taken. Of several panoramic viewpoints on the fringes of town above the plains, Sunset Point is the favourite - with its hordes of holiday-makers, peanut sellers, camel drivers, cart pushers and horse owners, it has to be the noisiest and least romantic place imagmable to watch the sun sink over the horizon. Honeymoon

Arrival and information of the Agra in the Uttar Pradesh

Agra has no less than six railway stations. The busiest is Agra Cantonment (Cantt), in the southwest, which serves Delhi, Gwalior. Jhansi and points south, has a tourist information counter, and is near most hotels. Trains from Rajasthan pull in close to the Jami Masjid at Agra Fort Station, further from the main hub of hotels. Don't be persuaded to get off at Agra City Station, an expensive rickshaw ride away from town. To get to a hotel, use the prepaid auto-rickshaw/taxi booth at Agra Cantonment Station (Rs40/90) or flag down one of the cycle rickshaws (Rs25) that wait in the

Arrival and information in Delhi

Delhi is India's main point of arrival for overseas visitors, and has two airports, one domestic and one international. State buses from all over the country pull into the Inter-state Bus Terminal in Old Delhi, while private buses stop in the more central location close to New Delhi railway station. Trains arrive at the railheads in Old or New Delhi, both well connected to Connaught Place, the commercial centre of the city, by rickshaw and taxi. For a summary of the kinds of accommodation available in different areas of the city, which may well determine where you head first, see p.

Eating and drinking of Mount Abu in Rajasthan

Mount Abu's predominantly middle-class Indian visitors arc typically hard to please when it comes to food, so standards are exceptionally high and prices low in the numerous restaurants dotted along Nakki Road. Competition is stiffest between the squeaky-clean pure-veg Gujarati thali joints, most of which have indoor seating, but you can eat top-notch south Indian snacks and spicy rice-plate meals al fresco at the terrace cafes between the bazaar and the lake, and there are plenty of busy ice-cream stalls towards the waterfront. The classier hotels serve alcohol, also available at the wine and beer shops opposite the Veena at

Bikaner Arrival and information in Rajasthan

Rickshaws ply the route between the bus stand, opposite Lalgarh Palace a few kilometres north of the centre, and the south of town, where you'll find the railway station and most hotels. The very helpful tourist office (daily 10am-5pm) is in the RTDC Dhohmaru Hotel at Pooran Singh Circle. For trips around town, use any of the cycle or auto-rickshaws, or rent a bike; you'll find two cycle rental shops outside the post office on Station Road. Travellers' cheques can be changed at the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (Mon-Fri 10am-2.30pm) opposite the entrance to the fort. Booths have

Mount Harriet and Madhuban in The Andaman Islands

The richly forested slopes of Mount Harriet make for decent exercise and can easily be done as a day-trip from Port Blair. You can take one of the hourly passenger ferries from Chatham to Bamboo Flats or, if you want to have your own transport on the other side, there are five daily vehicle ferries from Phoenix Bay. From Bamboo Flats it's a pleasant seven-kilometre stroll east along the coast and north up a path through trees hung with thick vines and creepers to the 365-metre summit, which affords fine views back across the bay. An intermittent bus service runs

Information of the Agra in the Uttar Pradesh

Agra has two tourist offices, one run by the Government of India, at 191 The Mall (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm, Sat 9am-1pm), and one run by UF Tourism, close to the darks Shimz, at 64 Taj Rd (same hours); there is also an information booth at Cantonment station. The Government of India office is better organized and provides information about other destinations, though both supply information on hotels and local sights, and details of tours that start and end at Agra Cantonment railway station.

Mount Abu in Rajasthan

Rajasthan's ruling caste, the "twice-born" Rajputs, trace their mythological origins back to a powerful fire ceremony, or yagna agnikund, conducted by the sage Vashisra after the fall of the Gupta empire in the eighth century AD. The ritual is believed to have taken place at the top of a huge rocky massif in the southwest corner of the state, near the present-day border with Gujarat. More than a thousand years later, the British, attracted by the same outcrop's cool air and clear light, founded a sanitarium on the high plateau at its centre. Thereafter, MOUNT ABU became a permanent hot-season

Arrival, information and city transport to Amritsar in Haryana and Punjab

Amritsar's airport, serving Indian Airlines flights from Delhi and Chandigarh, lies 12km northwest of the city. Taxis (around Rs200) and auto-rickshaws (RslOO) run to the town centre, while buses pull into the huge, frenetic bus stand off GT Road on the eastern edge of the city centre. The railway station lies on the northern edge of the centre, 2km west of the interstate bus stand. PTDC's tourist office, Youth Hostel, Mall Mandi. GT Road (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm: ©0183/231452) is friendly, helpful and has useful information on bus and other travel connections. Amritsar is too large and labyrinthine to negotiate on foot. If

Arrival and information of Mumbai

Unless you arrive in Mumbai by train at Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus), be prepared for a long slog into the centre. The international and domestic airports are north of the city, way off the map, and ninety minutes or more by road from the main hotel areas, while from Mumbai Central train or bus station, you face a laborious trip across town. Finding a place to stay can be even more of a hassle; phone around before you set off into the traffic.

Arrival and information for Calcutta

Calcutta's airport, 20km north of the city centre, is served by international flights - although only a small proportion of visitors actually enter India here - as well as services from throughout the country. Officially "Netaji Subhash Bose International Airport", it is still universally known by its old name of Dum Dum - a name that became infamous during the Boer War, when the notorious (and now banned) exploding bullet was manufactured in a nearby factory. The dreary international terminal has money changing facilities, a prepaid taxi booth and a Government of India tourist information counter but little else. In

Arrival and information about Calcutta

Calcutta's airport, 20km north of the city centre, is served by international flights - although only a small proportion of visitors actually enter India here - as well as services from throughout the country. Officially "Netaji Subhash Bose International Airport", it is still universally known by its old name of Dum Dum - a name that: became infamous during the Boer War, when the notorious (and now banned) exploding bullet was manufactured in a nearby factory. The dreary international terminal has money changing facilities, a prepaid taxi booth and a Government of India tourist information counter but little else. In

St Thomas Mount in Tamil Nadu

According to legend, St Thomas was speared to death (or struck by a hunter's stray arrow) while praying before a stone cross on St Thomas Mount, 1 lkm south of the city centre, close to the airport (take a suburban train to Guindy railway station, and walk from there). Our Lady of Expectation Church (1523) is reached by 134 granite steps marked at intervals with the fourteen Stations of the Cross. At the top of the steps, a huge old banyan tree provides shade for devotees who come to fast, pray and sing. Inside the church, St Thomas' cross is

Little Mount Caves in Tamil Nadu

St Thomas is said to have sought refuge from persecution in the Little Mount Caves, 8km south of the city centre (bus #18A, #18B, or #52C from Anna Salai), now 200m off the road between the Maraimalai Adigal Bridge and the residence of the governor of Tamil Nadu. Entrance to the caves is beside steps leading to a statue of Our Lady of Good Health. Inside, next to a small natural window in the rock, are impressions of what are believed to be St Thomas' handprints, created when he made his escape through this tiny opening. Behind the new circular church