Trip Plan - Part 1 - India & Nepal
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2008
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Trip End
Ongoing
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Dublin,
Ireland
Sunday, January 27, 2008
1st Country - India
We fly into Cochin in southern India on Wednesday 27th February 2008 where we will stay for roughly 6 days, taking backwater cruises, visiting Verkala, and relaxing/aclimatising after our flight. Temperature should be quite warm too, in the 30's anyway.
Cochin
Goa
After Cochin, we'll be taking a train north to Goa, there's a few towns here that we'd like to visit but we'll just see how it goes, if we like a particular place we'll stay longer. We plan to spend around a week in Goa. Goa is full of resorts, popular with Indians and foreign tourists alike, plenty of beaches and nightlife. From Goa, we'll be taking another train north to Mumbai. From the beaches of Goa it will be very different to arrive in a city of over 16 million people. We will only spend 3 or 4 days here, just enough time to visit the sites including the street markets in Colaba, Chowpatty Beach and the Gateway of India.
Mumbai
Udaipur
Back on the train again still going north, this time to Udaipur, knicknamed "the Venice of the East" where the main attraction will be the Lake Palace. The majority of the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed in Udaipur. We'll spend 2 or 3 days here before moving on to Jodhpur. In Jodhpur, known as "the Blue City" we'll be visiting the Meherangarh Fort, relaxing, and maybe shopping for Jodhpurs before we go on a desert safari for the next few days.
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
The desert safari, aboard camels, will start in the town of Jaisalmer on the Pakistani border in the Great Thar Desert. We'll also be visiting the Jaisalmer Fort while we're here. From Jaisalmer we'll be taking another train, eastwards to the city of Jaipur. Here, the main attraction is the Old Town, where all the buildings are painted pink and it will give us an opportunity to relax a bit after our camel safari.
Jaipur
From Jaipur, the plan is to go to Delhi, a city of over 12 million people where the main attractions will be the Red Fort,
Delhi
Jama Masjid (the largest mosque in India) and Qutb Minar (a tower built to celebrate the arrival of Islam in India). From Delhi, we'll take the train to the south-east to the city of Agra. Famous for the Taj Mahal, we'll also be visiting Agra Fort during our 3 day visit. From Agra, we'll be taking a long train ride to Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India.
Agra
Varanasi
Where the Hindus come to wash away their sins in the Ganges and the choice place for cremation for the Hindus. After a couple of days in Varanasi we'll be making our way to Gorakhpur where we'll cross the border into Nepal and end our 7 week stay in India. 2nd Country - Nepal
Our first stop in Nepal will be Kathmandu where we will hire a guide to take us around Nepal for 3 weeks or so. Our first 2 or 3 days we'll spend in Kathmandu seeing the sights at Bodnath Stupa, the Monkey Temple of Swayambhunath and exploring the Thamel District.
Kathmandu
Helambu
From Kathmandu we'll depart on a 5/6 day trek through the Himalayan region of Helambu. Then we'll take a couple of days to relax in the ancient town of Bhaktapur before we move on to the second biggest city in Nepal, Pokhara.
Bhaktapur
Pokhara
Pokhara is famed for its scenery, in particular Lake Pokhara, we'll be staying here for 2 nights before moving on to the small village of Bandipur where we'll be able to see the sunset behind Mount Everest while dining with locals on tradional Nepalese food. The next 2 days we'll spend rafting down the Seti River, through the Nepalese jungle, we'll be spending our nights camping on a riverside beach.
Bandipur
The river cruise will bring us to the Chitwan National Park. We'll be spending two days here amongst the Rhino, Deer, & Monkeys. On day 2 we'll be riding elephants on a jungle safari. After that it's back to Kathmandu where we'll spend another 3 or 4 days planning our trip to our next destination......
Seti River
Chitwan National Park
