One Month - Rajasthan to Meghalaya + the north

Hello hello
I will be in India for the entire month of September. I am interested in culture and people more than I am in old forts. I am a photographer, if that matters. I am very interested in documenting the religious culture and customs of India, and the average life in less-touristy areas.

My rough plan thus far is:

Fly to Delhi - overnight train to Amritsar
2 days/1 night in Amritsar

overnight train from Amritsar to Jaipur
2 days/1 night in Jaipur

overnight train from Jaipur to Jodhpur
2 days/1 night in Jodhpur

overnight train from Jodhpur to Agra
2 days/1 night in Agra

overnight train from Agra to Varanasi
3 days/2 nights in Varanasi

overnight train from Varanasi to Gaya
2 days/1 night in Gaya

overnight train from Gaya to Kolkata
fly Kolkata to Shillong
bus/taxi from Shillong to Cherrapunjee
3 days/2 night in Cherrapunjee

At this rate I will have 10 more days to fill before my flight out of Delhi. My questions are:

1) Should I focus time in Sikkim after Cherrapunji OR should I add more time on the front end after Amritsar to experience Himachal Pradesh?

2)Of the locations already listed, where should I add more time to?

3)Of the locations already listed, which should be removed from the itinerary, if needed?

Thank you so much in advance for your advice
Nico

A non tourist trip from Jodhpur is this visit to the Thar desert organized by the Durag Niwas guesthouse.
We did this some years ago and found it an great experience. Here is a recent report from Dave W.

You seem to visiting only touristy places, I would recommend staying for a few days in villages in Uttarakhand or Himachal. I have been to both the states,a trip to thes would definitely enriching. Uttarakhand has beautiful villages(i've stayed in the ones near Binsar).
Jodhpur is definitely the least touristy of the lot,so keep more days for it. You could visit Osian.
And note that Agra,varanasi,jaipur are very touristy places.

Hi,
Yes very true I only have touristy places listed - I see those cities and jumping off points for adventures. Tell me, how do I go about staying in villages? Should I just wander away from the city? I've taken Jaipur off of my list, and I intend to only spend enough time in Agra to see the sun rise and fall on the Taj.

nicodebarmore

Your plan relies on getting trains without problems. Have you booked ahead for your trips yet? if not you may have to work around train availabilty.

Dave,
I haven't booked anything except my flights to and from Delhi. I am hoping that I would be able to book trains a day or two in advance to keep my schedule open and dynamic while I am there. Is this realistic? I am not picky on amenities. What is train availability like the day before the departure? What about flights within India? I'm considering a flight from Kolkata to Shillong. Thanks for any advice!

It is possible to get some trains at short notice but it is difficult to predict which ones. Assuming that you are a non-Indian passport holder you have a slight advantage in being able to use the Foreign Tourist Quota (FTQ) which holds back a few tickets on a few trains for tourists. But other people might buy these and they are only available in major centres so you still need some sort of plan. Once you have this and the tickets you need it is quite cheap to cancel a ticket if you manage to get a better one for your purposes.

There's some stuff about the basics here

http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...012-a-t165379/

necessary to book tickets in advance?