India

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in India, independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

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Spectacular Mysore Dasara Festival

Even on normal days the palaces and colourful markets of Mysore, in southern India, tend to make a big impression on visiting travellers. During the ten-day Mysore Dasara festival caparisoned elephants, tribal dancers and traditional musicians are just a handful of the photogenic sights that make the city

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Kambala Buffalo Racing in South India

In India’s palm-rich south, where Karnataka and Kerala meet, kambala rather than cricket, is the most popular sport.Two pairs of buffaloes are raced head-to-head along specially prepared twin tracks in kambala, the sport of the people in the rural districts around Mangalore. Crowds of up to 20,000 people gather on race days. People cheer while men sprint with their buffaloes along the jodukere kambalas, deliberately waterlogged, 450 feet (137 metres) long tracks prepared in river beds or the sodden mud of paddy fields. This is Kambala Buffalo Racing in South India.

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Shimla vista

Shimla Indian Summers revisited

The next stage of our trip took us up to Shimla close to the foothills of the Himalayas a dramatically different environment to the plains of the Golden Triangle and the crowds of those great cities

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India golden triangle

India Golden Triangle

This is the first of a two-part story about Anthony’s first visit to India starting with a seven day coach tour in India’s Golden Triangle followed by four days in Shimla. India’s Golden Triangle refers to the three cities in the Northern third of India which have some of the most iconic sites and locations in the world including, of course, the Taj Mahal in Agra and others in New Delhi and Jaipur.

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Low H4EJ0 27652519 005 The Palace Courtyard Chandani Chowk

The Rambagh Palace, Jaipur

Walk into Jaipur’s Rambagh Palace and you immediately feel like an extra in a costume drama about the last days of the Raj. Turbanned bearers are everywhere, sentries on horseback stand to attention for a maharajah long departed and posh people take tea on the lawn, blissfully removed from the bustle of the Pink City […]

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