A Different India Part II

India resists neat summaries, which is precisely why one issue was never going to be enough. This second journey moves towards three very different edges of the country: the Himalayan foothills of Rishikesh, the distant Andaman Islands, and a quieter stretch of the Arabian Sea. Not the India of marble domes, maharaja suites and peacock-filled courtyards.

At Taj Rishikesh, the Ganges is still young, pale and fast-moving, with the mountains closing in and a faintly spiritual hush that no amount of wellness programming can manufacture. The hotel is Taj, but not in the usual Taj mould: less grand, less ceremonial, more elemental, almost Zen in its restraint, the river and the mountains foremost.

Taj Exotica in the Andamans offers another India altogether, tropical, remote and cinematic, with one of the most extraordinary beaches in the country and a setting that feels closer to Southeast Asia than to the subcontinent.