This trip will be for those wishing to return to India to discover more.  It will be a small group, of just 8 people including myself, we will be travelling over night by train to Champa in Chhattisgarh, well off the beaten track where few westerns venture to explore the tussah silk production, quite literally from moth to cloth. Here we are hosted by Lalchand and his family, staying in a local hotel but eating and sharing time with this wonderful family with a deep historical connection to tussah silk.  Lalchand guides us around the area visiting weavers, spinners, and dyers... we will also get the chance to learn to spin silk cocoons using the traditional thigh method.   

 

We will travel on to Varanasi, the holiest of cities in India to experience the unforgettable magic of this truly amazing place, like no other on our planet... Walking up and down the ghats on the banks of the Ganges, experiencing the phenomenal world of Hinduism and the sacred burning ghats. Take a slow boat ride down to the Assi Ghats, and search the back streets for looms and hand weavers who still produce the most desired of all saris the silk brocaded Banaris Sari.... this is truly experiencing India.  

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We will venture onto Bodhgaya, home to the famous Bodhi tree, a descendent of the original Bodhi tree under which Prince Siddhartha Gautama sat 2600 years ago found enlightenment and became Buddha.  Many monasteries and temples built in their national style from China, Burma, Vietnam and Nepal to the quiet Japanese Indosan Nipponji Temple, the brightly coloured Thai Monastery with shimmering gold and manicured gardens and large prayer wheels sit next to the Tibetan Karma Temple…  Also a chance of seeing the Dalai Lama and Richard Geer, well they were both there during our visit this year!  

 

15 days.  

Dates TBC

Cost TBC

including direct international flight, internal flights, accomodation & transport. (no single room supplements - all rooms with attached bathroom).

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Please email me directly to know more

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