Travelers’ Tales India

This popular book in the Travelers’ Tales Destination Series weaves a tapestry of sensory images, profound transformations, and compelling history about a land that has lured and puzzled travelers for centuries and continues to do so today. Now in a new edition, Travelers' Tales India includes 49 stories and dozens of sidebar anecdotes covering the sprawling canvas of the country, from the high Himalayas to the dense jungles teeming with wildlife, to the chaotic inner cities and deceptively slow-paced villages. Among the stories: Jan Haag participates in a traditional Indian wedding, noted chef Madhur Jaffrey feasts on food for body and soul, Jonah Blank encounters the caretakers of the dead on the Ganges, William Dalrymple penetrates the mysteries of the Sufi masters, and David Yeadon takes a bath with 15 million people.

India is among the most difficult—and most rewarding—of places to travel. Some have said India stands for "I’ll Never Do It Again." Many more are drawn back time after time because India is the best show on earth, the best bazaar of human experiences that can be visited in a lifetime. India dissolves ideas about what it means to be alive, and its people give new meaning to compassion, perseverance, ingenuity, and friendship. India—monsoon and marigold, dung and dust, colors and corpses, smoke and ash, snow and endless myth—is a cruel, unrelenting place of ineffable sweetness. Much like life itself. Journey to the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, the world’s biggest party, with David Yeadon and take "A Bath for Fifteen Million People"; greet the monsoon with Alexancer Frater where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet; track the endangered Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros through the jungles of Assam with Larry Habegger; encounter the anguish of the caste system with Steve Coll; discover the eternal power of the "monument of love," the Taj Mahal, with Jonah Blank; and much more.