Lonely Planet India [Paperback]

Sarina Singh (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet India | Publication Date: August 2003

crammed with practical information on this huge, diverse & ever popular destination, including 221 maps! - accommodation options - palatial to ultra-cheap - 16 full-colour pages of highlights, plus themed itineraries and special sections on Indian cuisine, arts & crafts - guide to India's fabulous festivals - There are 330 million Hindu gods & goddesses. - India has the biggest film industry on the planet. - India is the only country in the world that is home to both lions and tigers.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

With one foot grounded in time-honored traditions and the other fervently striding into the entrepreneurial e-age, India embraces diversity as passionately as few other countries on earth could.

Boasting a population of one billion people - and growing - India is as vast as it is crowded and as sublime as it is squalid. The plains are as flat and featureless as the Himalaya are towering and spectacular, the religious texts as perplexing as their underlying message is simple, and the people as easygoing as they are tenacious.

Perhaps the one thing that encapsulates India is that it is a place to expect the unexpected. Indeed, that's what often makes travelling in the subcontinent so frustratingly draining, yet also so inimitably inspirational. Love it or hate it, India jostles your entire being and, while more than a few travelers are only too happy to get on their flight home, many will later find themselves hankering to get back.

India can be hard going for travelers and is guaranteed to challenge, inspire and confound all at once. The poverty is confronting, Indian bureaucracy would test the patience of a saint, bus journeys on pothole-riddled roads can zap your energy in a flash, and even the most experienced travelers find their tempers frayed at some point. Yet it's all part of what makes India the unique travel experience that it is.

India, it is often said, is not a country but a continent. From north to south and east to west, the people are diverse, the languages are varied, the customs are distinctive, the landscape is manifold.

In a nutshell, India's landmass roughly resembles an upside-down triangle with the top formed by the mighty Himalayan mountain chain. Here you will find the intriguing Tibetan-influenced region of Ladakh and the awesome mountainous areas of Himachal Pradesh, Garhwal and the Darjeeling and Sikkim regions. South of this is the flat Ganges plain, crossing east from the colorful and comparably affluent Punjab in the northwest, past the capital city Delhi and buzzing tourist attractions such as Agra (with the Taj Mahal), Khajuraho, Varanasi and the holy Ganges to the northern part of the Bay of Bengal, where you find frenetic Kolkata (Calcutta), which has long been acknowledged as India's cultural capital.

South of this northern plain the Deccan plateau rises. Here you will find cities that mirror the rise and fall of the Hindu and Muslim kingdoms, and the modern metropolis that their successors, the British, built at Mumbai (Bombay). India's story is one of many different kingdoms fiercely competing with each other, and this is clearly evident in places such as Bijapur, Mandu, Golconda and other central Indian centers. Finally, there is the steamy south, India's Dravidian heartland, which is just as extraordinarily diverse as North India in terms of its landscapes, people, arts, traditions and culture.

India's glorious diversity can make it a veritable quagmire when planning itineraries. If you want to see places of worship, there is an astonishing array of sacred sites, from immaculately kept Jain temples to weathered Buddhist stupas. If it's history you're after, it's around every corner; the countless monuments, battle-scarred forts, abandoned cities and ancient ruins all have their tales to tell. If you simply want to splash around, there are beaches to satiate the most avid sun worshipper, while lovers of the great outdoors will find no shortage of scenic walks.

On a personal level, India is going to be exactly what you make of it. This country is not a place you merely 'see'; it's an assault on all the senses, a journey that's impossible to define because it's so different for everyone. But there's one thing for sure - no matter where you go or what you do, it's a place you'll never forget.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1088 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 10th edition (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740594215
• ISBN-13: 978-1740594219
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,480,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good basic introduction to India, March 17, 2005

By 

"KB" Kamla Srinivasan (SF Bay Area and India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Paperback)

Having grown up in India I thought I could wing it when we went for an extended stay in India. We were going to be living in Bombay, now called Mumbai...a city that I had never lived in, but had visited briefly 15 years ago. But, once we landed in India and started exploring Bombay, we got suggestions and opinions from various people. Some of these suggestions were good, and some not so good. It was then that I decided to reach out and buy a copy of Lonely Planet India. (I believe India was the first country Lonely Planet people wrote about.)

I had previously used Lonely Guide editions to different countries, and found their guide books very useful. I thought their book on India might help me in discovering Bombay and other parts of India.

After having used the book for a while, I have mixed opinions about the book. I think the mixed opinion stems from two reasons: one India is too vast a country for one book to capture everything, and two having grown up in India my expectations maybe a little bit more demanding of the book.

The strength of the book is that it provides a good basic introduction to the country, and a broad overview of the history and culture along with a laundry lists of do and don'ts that are very useful things to remember. For instance, they do an excellent job of providing information on various modes of transportation and how to reach your destination.

With referfence to Bombay the book provides a good thumbnail sketch of the city and some good basic information on what to do, where to eat etc etc. However, the information provided on the city is confined mostly to the southern tip (referred to as "town" by the local denizens) of this vast sprawling city. They miss out on some interesting things about other parts of Bombay, and the new eating joints etc etc. What they have failed to capture is the changing and dynamic nature to Bombay.

I would recommend this book to those who are visiting India for the first time. If you need more information you might want to buy a couple of travel magazines that are available in news stands or pick up any one of those handy travel brochures. And if you have any friends who have travelled to India do ask them for suggestions.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best..., September 19, 2005

By 

Robert R. Lane (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Paperback)

I traveled through northern India relying solely on Lonely Planet's advise on hotels and places to see - it never let me down. It gave great advise that saved much time and expense regarding the unreliability of airlines running to and from Leh, in Kashmir. If you're going outside of a structured tour package, this book is a necessity - no other guide compares.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No one guide has it all...., September 20, 2003

By 

J. Marren "jtm497" (Glen Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet India (Paperback)

One should never rely on just one source for a major adventure, as any trip to India is, and this very complete guide is no exception. This guide has excellent information on the history, culture and people of India, and the color section on Sacred India is a nice touch. It has lots of very practical information on what to bring, what you can and can't photograph, what to read before you go, how to avoid "cultural misunderstandings." It's helpful for preparing people for the assault Westerners often experience--ask for directions and you have a friend/guide for life, often accompanied by a very aggressive demand for money. The health and safety information is also pretty good--except that they say that tap water in cities is OK to drink--ignore this advice! I find this guide limited in its retaurant and hotel selections, especially if you're not a low-budget or student traveller. Also, information changes constantly--internet cafes spring up and close overnight, new restaurants and hotels open up every day, and the political situation bears watching up until the day you leave. And of course no guide book has really good maps. But why limit yourself--the internet is chock full of information on this wonderful, confusing, fascinating country!