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India: Travel & Tourism
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India’s first cross-country luxury train the Maharaja Express will make its maiden journey from Mumbai to Delhi on March 6, 2010, stringing together subcontinental highlights from the iconic Taj Mahal to remote habitats of tigers. #wildlife #indianrailways
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The golden gate in Leh marks the starting point of the highway that connects to Manali in the Kullu Valley.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The Indian Army routinely checks IDs on the Leh-Manali Highway. The military built it in the 1980s as a supply route to forces defending borders near Pakistan and China.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Twisting some 295 miles through Himalayan peaks, the Leh-Manali Highway in northern India is one of the world's highest and most remote highways. The highway can take up to two days to complete by motorcycle or car, and during the winter it closes because of heavy snowfall.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Twisting some 295 miles through Himalayan peaks, the Leh-Manali Highway in northern India is one of the world's highest and most remote highways. This stretch of spectacularly scenic but rough road passes by lost-in-time villages, narrow mountain passages and ancient Buddhist monasteries.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The government has decided to issue visas on arrival to citizens from five countries at Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata airports
starting Friday. Those holding passports of Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Luxembourg and Finland would be eligible to fly in without a visa. The scheme is being introduced as a pilot project for a year.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Addressing a press conference on the eve of New Year Day, here, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, said visa rules have been relaxed for tourists who use India as a base to go to neighbouring countries. “They can avail of three entries within 60 days, if there is sufficient information on the itinerary”.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Travisa Outsourcing on its website declares, "(it) handles all the India visa requests from inside the United States as a private contractor to the Indian Embassy and Consulates," adding, "Our online application form ensures a streamlined experience with fewer mistakes. In addition, real time passport tracking provides confidence that your passport is handled safely and efficiently.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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According to the guidelines for an Indian visa, both at the sites of the Consulate General in Chicago and the Embassy in Washington, D.C., since 2007, "only one agency namely M/s TRAVISA OUTSOURCING," has been authorized "to collect and deliver visa applications."
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India: Travel & Tourism
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At nearly 4,000 feet, Mount Abu is the only "hill station" in Rajasthan and the site of an extraordinary collection of Jain temples at Delwara, a few miles from the town.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Jaipur - Around the corner from the City Palace is the Hawa Mahal, called the Palace of the Winds because of the sharp breeze that flows through the stairs of this five-story relic. It’s lined with 953 screened windows so that the women of the royal court could watch processions without being seen by commoners.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The City Palace (Pink City, Jaipur; 91-141-260-8055) is Jaipur’s main attraction, a complex still guarded by turban-wearing watchers. The hall of Diwan-i-Khas houses two urns that the Guinness Records book calls the largest silver objects ever created. Made for the Maharajah Sawai Madho Singh II to fill with holy water from the Ganges when he traveled to London for King Edward VII’s coronation.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The hillside resort of Ranakpur is one of the most spectacular temples of the Jain faith. Built in 1439 around measurements based on the number 72, the age at which the founder of Jainism achieved enlightenment, the structure is a maze of hand-carved marble pillars and small shrines.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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For sheer extravagance and luxury, few places in Rajasthan compare with the Umaid Bhawan Palace (Palace Road, Jodhpur; 91-291-251-0101; a golden sandstone complex finished in 1943 on 26 acres of lush gardens. The Art Deco-style masterpiece is now a 347-room hotel, with rates of as much as 500,000 rupees, or $10,740 at 47.5 rupees to the dollar, for a night in the Maharani Suite.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Jodhpur, Rajasthan - Chokelao Bagh, a fragrant garden with exotic flora including sweet white kamini and chandni flowers, exactly as it would have been in the 18th century.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Life in the dusty city of Jodhpur revolves around Mehrangarh Fort (The Fort, Jodhpur; 91-291-254-8790; www.maharajajodhpur.com). It offers an excellent audio guide in English explaining the cannonball scars from battles with other Rajput kingdoms and the hidden balconies in the Pearl Palace, which Raja Sur Singh’s wives once used to peek at the outside world.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Chail, Himachal Pradesh is a beautiful hill station. Although Chail boasts a five star hotel, visitors should be nature enthusiasts as there is little to do for those with "big city" expectations. Also remember to watch out for the monkeys which I supose is true all over India. Chail boasts the highest cricket ground in the world, BTW.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Large bookstores in most cities in South India stock several excellent books on Indian wildlife. Two such useful guides are ''Collins Handguide to the Birds of the Indian Sub-continent,'' by Martin W. Woodcock (William Collins Sons, 1980), and ''Indian Wildlife,'' edited by Samuel Israel and Toby Sinclair (APA Productions, 1987).
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The well-prepared wildlife enthusiast should pack several containers of mosquito repellent, sunscreen, iodine tablets to purify the water, a small flashlight, binoculars, raingear, comfortable walking shoes, a hat and loose cotton clothing.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Periyar also supports a population of over 40 tigers, as well as approximately 15 leopards, numerous sloth bears and 50 packs of wild dogs. Several troops of monkey species reside in the park, too: bonnet macaque, the endangered lion-tailed macaque, the common langur and the Nilgiri langur, whose deeply booming voice echoes hauntingly across the misted lake at dawn and dusk.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The 300-square-mile Periyar Sanctuary in #Kerala is nestled in the high ranges of the Western Ghats. Nearly 200 land and water bird varieties flourish within the sanctuary, as do the ever-visible herds of #elephant, wild boar, chital and gaur. The park is also a haven for garden and monitor lizards, king cobra, python and the flying species of lizard, snake and frog. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Bird life in all three parks is abundant. There are more than 216 bird species in Mudumalai, and over a period of several hours I spotted a wealth of fowl, including hoopoes, magpie and Indian robins, sunbirds, brainfever birds, cuckoos; jungle, hill and brahminy mynahs; jungle bush-quail, gray partridge, coucals, white-backed vultures, peafowl and rufous-backed shrikes. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Equally common a sight, in the most deciduous forests of Mudumalai, are herds of chital, or spotted deer, gaur (largest of the wild bovids), wild boar and congregations of long-limbed, elegant langurs. These arboreal monkeys will scamper to a safe distance when disturbed, then archly turn their inquisitive black faces to scrutinize the intruder. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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All Mudumalai resorts are open year-round, though the best time for viewing game is during the summer months (March to June), when the tropical deciduous forests are leafless and when animals congregate around dwindling water holes. In all seasons, however, wild elephants exist in such plentitude in these sanctuaries that sightings are common. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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During my stay at Mudumalai I saw bison, spotted deer, antelopes, elephants, hyenas and jackals, to name just a few animals; at Periyar I saw large herds of elephants as well as other mammals and waterfowl; at Nagarahole I saw most of the animals I had seen at Mudumalai as well as a #tiger and a leopard. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The southern tip of the Indian subcontinent possesses an abundance of wildlife sanctuaries supporting some of the most colorful, exotic and awe-inspiring wildlife in the world. Three preserves in particular - Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu, Nagarahole in Karnataka and Periyar in Kerala.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Like other #temples in the region, Meenakshi Temple of Madurai is Dravidian in form, a tall, broad but slightly pyramiding tower with dark, dank interiors. The Dravidians, darker-skinned people driven south by invaders from the north, had no arch or dome to lighten their places of worship.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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A visit to the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai is an experience in the ritual of Hindu temple-going, with all its sidelights: the beggars, the merchants, the Brahmin holy men; the blur of colored sculpture that fills every inch of the soaring temple's sides; the intense faces of the devotees; the main-chance pitch of the priests who seem to run lucrative sidelines in enlightening foreigners. #temples
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India: Travel & Tourism
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South of Pondicherry, on the way to Cape Comorin, the southern tip of India, are two great cities of art and architecture, Thanjavur (known more familiarly as Tanjore) and Madurai.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Madras also has good bookshops, the best of them a tiny but overflowing treasure house called Giggles, off the lobby of the Connemara Hotel. For listings of cultural events, read the English-language Indian Express or The Hindu.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Foreigners make up a small fraction of the visitors to #Kerala. For example, 515,808 foreign tourists visited Kerala last year, compared with about 6.64 million domestic tourists. Yet, foreign visitors are growing fast, up 20 percent from the year before, according to Keralatourism.org, the official Web site of the Kerala Department of Tourism.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Bangaram Island Resort, 10.33261872.740591, Location Bangaram, Island City Lakshadweep, Phone0484/266-8221, WebSite - www.cghearth.com
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Being outdoors, in fact, is what Bangaram is all about. There are no cars, motorcycles, radios, television, air-conditioners or newspapers. The only sounds are the waves, the birds and the rustle of the breeze through palm fronds. An occasional thud denotes the fall of a coconut
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Bangaram, Lakswadeep - A vast, tropical blue sky, palms everywhere and the finest white sand bordering a turquoise sea help create a thoroughly relaxed mood. There was no noise, no pollution, no traffic, and when the plane flew off, the modern world went with it.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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It takes a bit of an effort just to get to Bangaram: the two weekly flights from Cochin, in the Indian state of Kerala, are made in a 40-seat propeller plane -- and, of course, you have to get to Cochin in the first place.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The Lakshadweep (pronounced lahk-SHAHD-weep) territory, which includes Lacadive, Minicoy and Amandivi Islands, may not be entered without a permit -- but a reservation at the Bangaram Resort insures one. Once there, the rules are strict: no littering, no harpoon fishing, no damaging the coral reef.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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ABOUT 200 miles off the southwestern coast of India, the Lakshadweep Islands are one of the last refuges from the annoyances of modernity. Remoteness has something to do with it, but so does the government's protective policy: this is one part of India where pollution is not allowed to intrude.
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Travel & Tourism
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60% of the total population of the wild tigers in the world resides in India. Amongst the best-known tiger reserves in India is the Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh. Tourists at Bandhavgarh can spot Royal Bengal Tigers, cheetals, leopard, gaur, sambhar, and other faunal species.
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Travel & Tourism
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India harbours eighty percent of the entire population of the one horned rhinoceros in the world. The Kaziranga Game Sanctuary is an ideal habitat for the rhino and a popular destination with the naturalists and environmentalists as well as the wildlife traveller.
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India: Miscellaneous
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Full name: Republic of India Population: 1.2 billion (UN, 2008) Capital: New Delhi Most-populated city: Mumbai (Bombay)
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