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DOMINIC XAVIER
Footprints on India The country's cultural potpourri and a wealth of natural beauty make for an unforgettable experience. Hotels.com lists the international traveler's top 10 destinations WANDERLUST
Mumbai
The first thing I noticed
about Bombay, on that
first day, was the smell of
the different air. I could
smell it before I saw or
heard anything of India.
It smells of heartbreak,
and the struggle to live,
and of the crucial failures
and loves that produce
our courage. It smells of
ten thousand restaurants,
five thousand temples,
shrines, churches, and
mosques, and of a hundred bazaars devoted
exclusively to perfumes,
spices, incense, and
freshly cut flowers. When
I return to Bombay now,
it’s my first sense of the
city — that smell, above
all things — that welcomes me and tells me
I’ve come home.
— Writer Gregory David
Roberts (Shantaram)
Must see: The Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus
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Chennai
There is something uncommanly striking
and grand in this town, and its whole
appearance charms you from novelty, as well as beauty.
Many of the public buildings are very extensive and ele-
gant -- they are covered with a sort of shell-lime, which
takes a polish like marble, and produces a wonderful
effect. I could have fancied myself transported into Italy,
so magnificently are they decorated
Eliza Fay,
a traveler who documented her
journeys in letters (Original Letters from India)
Must see: Marina Beach
New Delhi All the different ages of man were represented in the people of (Delhi). Different millennia coexisted side by side. Mind set in different ages walked the same pavements, drank the same water, returned to the same dust... Must see: The Red Fort 1
— Writer William Dalrymple
(City of Djinns)
