Places to see!
The city of Ayutthaya was the second capital of Siam (the former name for Thailand) after Sukhothai. It was lucky enough to have an ideal location close to China, India and the Malay Archipelago. Ayutthaya became the trading capital of Asia and the largest city in the world. From 1351 to 1767, the Ayutthaya Kingdom was thriving. International traders visited...
I will always remember the first time I set foot in Bangkok. It was fifteen years ago and it was my first time in Thailand; in fact, it was also my first time in Asia. At the time I wasn’t well travelled and I was so looking forward to visiting a new country with a culture different from my own. But I can’t say it was love at first sight when we arrived in Bangkok...
On our way to our hotel from the Mumbai airport, our driver pointed out a huge skyscraper to our left. This is the home of India’s richest person, he said. It’s 27 storeys high, it has three helipads, swimming pools, underground parking for 160 cars and hundreds of staff members work in the building. All that for a family of five, he added. This building stood high...
It was a beautiful warm night as we walked back to our hotel along the banks of the Ganges river. We’d just seen the Ganga Aarti ceremony which is performed in Varanasi every night, on the foreshore at Dasashwamedh Ghat. To reach our hotel we had to pass the Harishchandra cremation ghat. Compared to Manikarnika Ghat (Varanasi’s main cremation ghat that can burn...
Agra is a very popular destination for tourists visiting India. Although the city itself is not particularly notable, it does have one key landmark that people flock to see – the Taj Mahal. Looking out from our hotel room in the afternoon, it seemed as if the Taj Mahal, that we had just visited that morning had suddenly disappeared. That’s because, like many...
We sat in our jeep in total silence, parked high up on a dry, grassy hilltop in Ranthambore National Park. Below us lay the wide expanse of sector six, one of the park’s ten designated safari zones. This was the best spot to listen for the tell-tale warning cries that might lead us towards our prize, the magnificent Bengal tiger. When we’d booked our trip months...
Pushkar is a small town in Rajasthan, about two and a half hours from Jaipur. It’s built around a holy lake called Lake Pushkar. The story behind this lake is that it appeared when Brahma dropped a lotus flower, which is why it’s called Pushkar. Pushkar means “holy flower” in Hindi. Pushkar is a very popular pilgrimage destination for Hindus and Sikhs who love...
Udaipur, Rajasthan’s city of lakes (also known as the Venice of the East), was a real surprise for us. We weren’t expecting to find something just quite so beautiful after a seven-hour drive through a desert-like landscape. Not many places in India are easy to love at first sight but Udaipur will blow you away instantly. This small city is home to ornate palaces and...
Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan is a popular stop on any tour around Rajasthan. It was our second stop after Delhi and it took us just over four hours drive to get there. With just over three million inhabitants, Jaipur is nowhere near as large as Delhi, but the traffic in town seemed just as loud and chaotic. Constant honking aside, Jaipur is a beautiful city. It’s...
India is a country that I’ve been longing to visit for many years. Seeing the Taj Mahal and taking a safari in search of Bengal tigers were the two top items on the Indian bucket list. So we knew we had to go there someday. But after hearing so many different opinions about India, I almost felt scared to go there. India is one of those countries that people either...