Most natives of India don't get the time or have the money to see their own country. I have been lucky enough to have both, so I have traveled to a number of places in India. I could write about my travels in the tourist category or in religious category. Or I could just write the way I had gone and take it chronologically. But what is most important is what I saw and how much I enjoyed each of the place.

My most memorable trips have been during the summers of years 2002 and 2005.

In 2002 I went to India with my brother and father for a one month serious touring trip and one month of relaxing trip. We started in Mumbai and booked tickets to go to Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu). We bought the one month IndRail pass for NRI travelers, so we could make reservations at short notice. We bought the 2nd class AC train tickets, which are very comfortable train cars. Since it was summer time, we did not want to be bothered by hot nights on the train and AC also ensures safety. We love staying at the railway guest houses. It provides for easy access to the trains, many eating places near the train station and of course transportation - which is the most important thing for any tourist.

Those were the basics. It took us one month of planning to decide on the trip itinerary as below. We wanted to hit all the main temples and tourist places (although in hindsight we missed some nice places because we were sort of in a hurry).

The trip was:
Coimbatore --> Ooty --> Cochin --> Trivanthapuram --> Meenakshi Temple --> Kanyakumari --> Tanjore --> Rameshwaram --> Chennai --> Kanchipuram --> Tirupati --> Bangalore --> Hampi --> Bangalore --> Hyderabad --> Bhubeneshwar --> Puri --> Varanasi --> Dehra Dun.

Read about the trip on my blog. (Read bottom up!)