India Beat Travel Blog
Kumbh Mela 2010
India Beat travelled along with 70 million other pilgrims to Haridwar to witness the Kumbh Mela which roughly translates as the Great Fair. Hindus from across the subcontinent gather once every 12 years on the banks of the river Ganges to perform absolutions and wash away the sins of a life time. Sadhus (Hindu holymen) gather in huge camps around the holy town of Haridwar led by their talismanic naga babas, the famous naked priests who forsake all possesions to follow the teachings of the Vedas. The sheer scale of the event is spectacular with literally millions of people everyday bathing on the ghats that lead from this temple rich town down to the Ganges. To learn more about the Kumbh Mela click here or contact India Beat to visit the fair which goes on until April.
Ananda in the Himalayas
Yoga at Ananda Spa in the Himalayas
The Ananda Spa near Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas is India Beat’s favorite spa for so many reasons. India Beat spent 4 nights at the Ananda last week and tried out the wonderful treatments, attended yoga, meditation and vedanta classes, to fully experience India’s rich holistic heritage. We loved the incredible views, fantastic service and delicious food. The Ananda is healthy living at it’s most enjoyable. To book a trip to Ananda including a spa package contact India Beat.
India Beat is recommended by Love Jaipur Travel Guide
Love Jaipur
Next week the Love Jaipur Travel Guide will be launched at the Jaipur Literary Festival. We managed to get hold of a pre launch copy at AKFD one of our favorite shops in Jaipur. Written by Fiona Caulfield, Love Jaipur is the 4th book in the acclaimed series and recommends India Beat’s “fresh itineraries and innovative travel recommendations.” Read more below:
India Beat
Bertie and Victoria Dyer run a boutique travel company specialising in India. This dynamic young British couple fell in love with India and their ongoing passion for the country is evidenced in fresh itineraries and innovative travel recommendations. Jaipur became home for them five years ago and they know that city and it’s residents well. I get the feeling that absolutely anything is possible when working with this energetic duo. The business and their reputation grow steadily and in 2008 and 2009 they were awarded the Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialist Award.
Victoria takes India Beat clients on customised shopping tours in the city, ranging from the bustling street bazaars to elite jewellers and designers. She makes navigating Jaipur’s somewhat overwhelming labyrinth of shopping options look effortless and takes clients to shop for priceless jewels or for tea towels with equal enthusiasm! Victoria will create and lead tailored shopping adventures for visitors at a cost of $150 per half day. Reserve ahead as advanced planning is required for focused shoppers!
To buy your copy go to lovetravelguides.com
India Beat Trekking in the Himalayas
Everyone thought we were mad going trekking in the Himalayas for Christmas but fortunately you don’t have to camp out anymore. Village treks are the new buzz words in Himalayan adventure, the idea is to bring extra income to the most remote villages by staying in village houses rather than drafty tents. In the Binsar National Park, famous for it’s abundant birdlife, 5 houses in the villages across the valley have been built using traditional techniques. Each is run by a village committee who take care of the guests, providing them with creature comforts in this wild and stunningly beautiful landscape. Our guide Raju walked with us for 3 days explaining the local village culture and pointing out the Himalayan birdlife. Along the way we met families who explained that this project has literally saved their village. Before the project all the young people were migrating to the cities, now however there is sustainable employment and the villages are managing to maintain the family bonds that are so important to remote communities. India Beat organise walking holidays from 3 days to 10 days in the Himalayas, contact the India Beat office for itineraries and costs.
The Right Way to Give
Klara Glowczewska, Editor in Chief of Condé Nast Traveler, and her family traveled with India Beat to Rajasthan last summer. In this months edition of the magazine she writes about the tragic contrasts of India and what you can do to help.
In India last summer the contrast could not have been more shockingly stark. First, clawing at the window of our car, a teenage girl begging and brandishing a prop – a toddler whose face, neck and shoulder were one bloody sore. Then that night, a posh dinner at Jaipur’s Rambagh Palace hotel (music, marble, wafting rose petals). I’d been told repeatedly not to give money to the beggars in India, but this was too much. “They will not get to keep anything you give them,” our tour operator and Jaipur resident, Victoria Dyer (of India Beat), in the car with us admonished. “They will be forced to hand over the money to whoever runs them – parents, organized gangs.” The gangs – remember Slumdog Millionaire? – probably rub the wounds every night to make them worse, she explained. “Giving handouts,” she added, “only strenghens the system that keeps these kids on the streets.” But how can one not do something? “Donating to an established and well organized charity is the only way,” Victoria continued. She recommended Jaipur’s branch of SOS Children’s Village (an international nonprofit with operations all over the world), which looks after hundreds of abandoned street children, educating them and giving them a chance at a better life. Read more…
India Beat & Kerala on Parade
This article featuring Malabar House one of India Beat’s favorite hotels in Fort Cochin was published in the December 2009 issue of the British edition of Conde Nast Traveller.
Kerala on Parade
Historic Fort Cochin in South India is a charming town, never more so than at Christmas when the houses are strung with star – shaped lanterns, and life – sized Papa Noel figures filled with fireworks are set alight to mark the passing of the Old Year. Stay at The Malabar House, where seven Courtyard Wing rooms have just emerged from a revamp, with new colours, art, furniture and textures. This follows last year’s refurbishment of the hotel’s restaurant, Malabar Junction, and the addition of a wine – and – tapas bar, Divine; next year it’s the turn of the remaining 10 rooms. A five – room extension to sister property Trinity, the three – suite micro – hotel across the parade ground, is also imminent. The architect is Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai, who did the wonderful 360 Leti hotel in the Himalayas. The Malabar House (www.malabarhouse.com; doubles from Euro 173). Book through India Beat (www.indiabeat.co.uk)
Condé Nast Traveler: Editor’s Letter
October 2009 by Klara Glowczewska, Editor in Chief
Bewteen the Lines
The best travel moments happen when you’re busy making other plans
WE HAVE ADHERENTS OF TWO TRAVEL PHILOSOPHIES here in the editorial offices of CONDE NAST TRAVELER: on the one hand, the proponents of laissez-faire, what-will-be-will-be serendipity (”travel should be an adventure and a surprise!”), and on the other, the believers in the pre-planned and predictable (”if it’s Tuesday, this must be the Tomb of King Tut”).
While I can understand the appeal of both approaches, I was wary of leaving anything to happenstance in my 13-day summer trip through North India. The journey was too complicated, I thought-so much to see, so little time-to risk surprises. India Beat, on the magazine’s annual list of the world’s top travel specialists (August 2009), organized it all -sightseeing itineraries, hotels, guides, drivers, transfers, even downtime (”spend the afternoon by the pool”) – flawlessly, I might add. Did I get the trip I expected? Yes. But I also got a trip beyond anything I could have imagined.
Did I foresee that I might drink an opium brew, sitting on the floor of a village home in Rajasthan? No, but I did just that (not to have done so would have given offense). I fell madly in love with the Taj Mahal, which so far exceeded expectations that I went three times. I had been prepared for Hinduism’s holiest city, Varanasi, to be extreme – the Ganges, cremations, cows, crowds-but not for the old wooden boat I sat in as darkness fell; the giant water bugs skittering over my shoes; the monsoon downpour; the corpses laid out on the burning ghats, in plain view mere yards away, awaiting their turn in the fires that the rain did nothing to extinguish; the saffron robes of the pilgrims on the narrow streets awash in excrement (of cows, monkeys, and the gods only know what else); and, in the midst of it all-people joyfully swimming. It was filthy and fantastic and unforgettable: great beauty along-side the squalor, life and death entwined in a macabre yet natural embrace-as they always are, but it took that night on the Ganges for me to really feel it. I don’t recall seeing that revelation on the agenda. “Dinner at the Umaid Bhawan Palace hotel in Jodhpur,” informed the itinerary for another day. Well. What I got was an experience hallucinatory in its opulence: a white marble pavilion only for us, rose petals strewn about, fireworks with dessert-that’s right, fireworks. ” You can ride horses at Rohet Garh” (a hotel in the Rajasthani countryside), proposed Bertie Dyer of India Beat. It was not the tame little trot I’d envisioned. What I got was a nearly two-hours sunset canter and mostly gallop, just me and a guide, on strong Marwari horses over empty fields and lands at the edge of India’s great Thar Desert. (Madonna, I found out, had been there 18 months earlier, on a four-day ride with camping-and she knows her horses.) The ordinary wake-up call was – how shall I say it? – beautifully plumed: “The peacocks will wake you up, ma’am,” the Rohet Garh manager told me.
“You might be interested in seeing some jewelry at the Gem Palace in Jaipur,” my itinerary proposed. Sure. Seeing some jewelry? I was given to wear-briefly, alas, but still-several multimillion-dollar diamond necklaces (Elizabeth Taylor would have gone nuts). Let me tell you, they do wonders for jeans and a T-shirt. Then there were the conversations. About arranged marriages, for instance. I am now definitely open to the pros of that. And those eunuchs (as in castrati)-so irritating, I was told, and the way they extract money from you….But that’s a whole other story. I’ve barely begun and I’m out of space, so I’ll continue online (cntraveler.com).
I discovered in India what I suspected all along: that the two approaches to travel – free-form and formatted – in reality have much in common. No amount of scripting can suppress the world’s surprises or keep its wonder and strangeness from seeping through, altering in unimaginable ways our best-laid plans. Okay, so I won’t drink opium tea to that, but a Kingfisher will do nicely.
Devi Garh 3 nights for 2 offer.
Devi Garh just outside Udaipur in Rajasthan is a spectacular palace hotel and is one of India Beat’s favorite places to stay. Until the 15th of October they are offering a special deal for India Beat clients: pay for 2 nights stay for 3. Devi Garh’s location just 40 minutes from Udaipur’s Lake Pichola is a perfect place to stay if you are looking to relax for a few days after your holiday around Rajasthan. We stayed there in April and had the most wonderful time walking in the countryside and taking full advantage of the gorgeous pool and spa. Our room at the top of the palace had a stunning marble 4 poster bed and unbelivable views over the lush green valley. We took a day trip to go shopping in Udaipur’s markets and had lunch at the City Palace overlooking the Lake Palace. On the way back to Devi Garh we stopped at the incredible temples at Eklingji for the evening service, an experience not to be missed. To book this deal as part of your holiday to India contact India Beat here.
Rambagh Palace wins Best Hotel Award
Conde Nast Traveller have awarded Rambagh Palace, one of India Beat’s favorite hotels, “Best Hotel in Asia” at the annual Readers Travel Awards. The former home of the Maharajas of Jaipur was converted in to a hotel in the 1950’s. Over the last few years the entire palace has been sumptuously renovated with a beautiful new tented spa and luxurious interiors for the bedrooms. The India Beat office is just around the corner so we love to drop in for Sunday lunch on the lawns or lychee margaritas at the Polo Bar. Contact India Beat to stay at Rambagh Palace during your holiday in Rajasthan.
Mosaics Guesthouse: New Hotel in Jaipur
Mosaics Guesthouse in Amber, just north of Jaipur is a great new place to stay. Perfect for anyone who wants to avoid the hustle and bustle of the pink city yet just a stones thow from the spectacular Amber Fort. Owner, Herve Vital, has built a traditional Rajasthani house with 4 guest rooms. Each one is decorated with wonderful mosaics of birds, butterflies, cows and Hindu gods. We went for dinner on the terrace to have a look at the place, the views up to the old fort and defensive walls of Amer are fantastic and the food was simply delicious. Herve’s mosaic studio is downstairs and the whole place has a charming welcoming atmosphere. To stay at Mosaics Guesthouse as part of your holiday to India contact India Beat.
