Itinerary

Dave and I didn’t have much of a plan. When we’d spoken on the phone, we’d decided that the best way to enjoy India was to avoid the cities. We thought we’d spend a good part of the trip hiking, either near Simla or Manali, to escape the summer heat and another part of the trip doing yoga in Rishikesh or close by. But, when I got to India and started reading the Lonely Planet and enjoying the sights, it was actually the cities that drew me in. And so… we saw 13 cities in 13 days. Here’s how it went:

June 17 - arrival in Delhi
June 18 - day in Delhi acclimatizing and arranging the next days’ travels
June 19 - Agra
June 20 - Amritsar and Attari
June 21 - travel day to Mcleodganj via Patankot and Dharamsala
June 22-24 - Mcleodganj with brief visit in Baghsu
June 25 - travel day to Chandigarh via Dharamsala and Anandapur Sahib
June 26 - morning in Chandigarh and travel day to Dehra Dun
June 27 - trip to Mussourie and travel to Rishikesh via Haridwar
June 28-29 - Rishikesh
June 30 - travel to Delhi via Haridwar followed by return flight to Hong Kong

Lots of cities, right? But if you take a look at the map of India, the area we covered is very small relative to the whole country. We thought we could get from place to place fairly quickly. But, because of certain factors like mountains, the use of local transportation and train delays, these seemingly short distances took a long time to cover. And so, often much of our day was spent in transit. Usually I find the transportation the worst part of the trip - I want to snap my fingers and magically arrive at my destination, but on this trip, the train and bus rides allowed me to see the landscape and people in their everyday activities without feeling intrusive. And in between the travel, we were able to see just enough of the cities we visited without feeling as though we were leaving too early. But while I loved our whirlwind tour, next time I’ll probably opt to stay in one place so I can learn more about local culture.

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