RTW Trip ..India, China advice needed

allin-king

Okay, Me and My Girlfriend are looking at some useful pointers about India and China, trip is:

February 2010: Northern India, Delhi to be exact, we are only going to stay around Northern India and possibly Nepal. We're not into anything way out or extreme, problem is we have no idea of where to go after Delhi, obviously going to do Taj Mahal but we're stuck after that! We're thinking of spending 4 weeks max in India but as we've travelled before we won't be sticking rigidly to this.

From India we'll be flying to Hong Kong, I've been there and will probably just spend a day or too there but were to go from HK into China? Again we've agreed on Beijing, Shanghai (Great Wall etc) and Xi'an (Terracotta Soldiers) but need some further places of interest and tips etc. We have planned about 4 weeks fo China too.

From There we'll be heading down to Thailand, we've been there before so know what we're doing there, then heading to New Zealand around May / June for 3 weeks and my GF has been there and knows wha to do.

Lastly flying into Santiago, Chile and will probably head into Argentina and up to Bolivia, Peru and maybe fly out of Brazil after two months..wow longest post ever, sorry its very long winded but appreciate and suggestions! Thanks

dory

Hey. I'm in Delhi right now. I'd suggest doing the Taj as a day trip from here.
I'm not sure what you're into so hard to make suggestions.
I do know though that everyone who comes to visit me here goes to Rajasthan/JAipur to the desert and they love it, haven't been myself.
Varanasi is another great place I keep hearing about.
If you're coming in April - August you might want to avoid the heat and head for the hills.
Lots of places north of Delhi; McLeod Ganj, Manali, Srinagar etc. Everyone raves about them.
For first hand experience I can only tell you about the slums areas (I really should get out more). Also, if you can head to Darjeeling, again I have not been there but it's very close to a place I work in the North East and people love it.

Other things; take the train, although planes are very cheap here. Ehh....I can't think what else.

Also, for South America give Bolivia some good time it's amazing! Skip Argentina if funds are low (although it is great also).
And have fun!

breadmonkey

You can't really just treat Nepal as another "place in India" to visit because it would take a serious amount of time to get there overland. It is however, well worth going to visit in its own right and I would take it in a nanosecond ahead of northern India.

In northern/western India I went to:

Delhi
Agra
Srinagar
Jaipur
Pushkar
Jaisalmer
Udaiapur

Delhi is a kip, Agra is worse. As Dory says, do it as a day trip.

Srinagar was really, really cool but is actually an extremely dangerous place and there was a grenade attack on the bus station that we had been at two days before.

Jaipur is a bit rubbish imo.

Pushkar is nice and chilled and worth staying for a few days.

Jaisalmer was probably my favourite place in Rajasthan. We went on a two day camel safari which was a brilliant experience but I don't think I'd go for any longer. Camels are very uncomfortable to ride!

Udaipur is a cool place to visit. They're obsessed with James Bond there.

Enjoy!

killbillvol2

If you're going to be in China before May you should probably leave Shanghai out of your travel plans. They host Expo 2010 next year and the city is currently a building site. The computer generated models on the billboards look great but forget it for now.

As regards your itinerary, it doesn't make a lot of sense to go India-HK-Beijing-Thailand. Personally I'd do India-Thailand and take China next.

If you've been to HK before and are only spending a day or two why do it at all? Just head straight for Beijing and work your way south? There's a pretty well established backpacker route from Beijing if you're into that and 4 weeks would just about cover you.

Anyway, enjoy it.

Durga

You CANNOT miss Varanasi in India. It's a must. It will blow your mind. Check out www.indiamike.com It's the only show in town for India info.

Jimmy81

yangshou in china is well worth a few days. amazing scenery and lots to do. cycling, rock climbing, caving etc