The Indian Subcontinent, dominated by India, includes Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, is home to 25% of the world’s population.
At times an assault on the senses, South Asia may not be everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended) but is never dull. Home to many great civilizations, ancient cities and palaces, wildlife, hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.
Bangladesh is one of the world’s least visited countries, with history, landscapes, river trips and some incredibly friendly people. Pakistan needs a good PR campaign. The food’s great, the cities a riot of colour and noise. Serene and serendipitous, the tear-drop island of Sri Lanka has attractions in spades, too. And Bhutan offers a world like nowhere else, for a price.
BHUTAN: EXTRAORDINARY Himalayan mountain kingdom, the country famed for its Gross National Happiness Index, Bhutan is determined to do tourism its way.
PAKISTAN: Unbelievable hospitality. Some pretty good food. Colourful bazaars, cricket mad people. Majestic Mughal architecture and mosques. Exotic names like the Khyber Pass, Peshawar and Rawalpindi…..
BANGLADESH: “That’ll be a quick job,” I thought, opening my file for Bangladesh, hoping to get another country uploaded and away. How wrong I was. I had forgotten just how photogenic the countryside is, and how choatically captivating the cities are. On top of that, everyone wants their photo taken. Markets, schools, train ride, boats, everywhere.
SRI LANKA: THE TEAR-DROP shaped country, at the bottom of India, known once as Ceylon, but for much longer as “Serendip”, which gives us the word “serendipity”……
INDIA: Two of my five trips to India were brief, one-stop affairs. The others more substantial, in the south, the “chicken’s neck” north-east, and the north west. I have still hardly made a dent in the wondrous list of mind-blowing stuff to see, do, smell, watch, ride or eat.