Delhii now, need new itinerary for the next three weeks

tommy123

Hello everyone, first time posting on indiamike. My friends and I (3 people total) started in Kolkatta a few days ago. Our plan was to go to Darjeeling area for about eight days and then move from Varanasi to Agra to Dehli then north. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

We were sold a ticket in Kolkatta to NJP and were told to take a share-jeep onward to Darjeeling. Looking back we should have read the newspaper before buying the ticket -- the strikes were already reported, but we went on with our journey regardless. We ended up in NJP with a mob blocking NJP town just outside the train station. After waiting many hours we finally found seats on a sleeper-class train to Patna. After that we were stuck in Patna for a couple days waiting for the next train to Varanasi. This is around the time that Patna was flooding.

Thats the background of what we've covered so far -- we'll be in Delhi tomorrow morning and now have three weeks to do what we like, but we have no plans. This is our first time in India but we have been in Asia for a few months. So any suggestions for itineraries?

We are limited to low budget, backpacker-class traveling, preferably by train. We've permitted ourselves the luxury of air-con sleeper trains and cannot afford flights (unless necessary).

We were thinking of going to Himachal Pradesh but we don't know if we can get bus tickets or hotel reservations, but we haven't ruled the area out yet. Another option was Haridwar to Rishikesh and on from there. We're giving Agra and the Agra area the last four or five days of our trip. Our main interests are yoga and photography.

We would prefer to find places that are more relaxing than not, possibly cooler than hot, and for the most part accessible by train. After three 12+ hour trains in four days we would prefer to avoid long, overnight trains for now.

I apologize if I haven't included any other necessary information. Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!

singsub

for yoga i think rishikesh is the best bet. himachal pradesh will give you lot of beautiful sights. but few places in himachal pradesh are acessible by train. bus is the usual way unless you ant to travel by hired car.

i suggest you go to haridwar by train, from there to rishikesh and then the hill station of moussouri, tho these places are in the province of uttaranchal not himachal.