relinquish the causes of misery     although there is nothing            to relinquish; 

be earnest in cessation                   although there is nothing           to cease; 

practice the means of cessation     though there is nothing              to practice. 
 

I am waiting for your input so please send price and contact info and commentary on your favorite hotels, trains, planes, taxis drivers, travel agents, restaurants, beaches, mountains, fax-email services, etc to prashanti at igc.org

Low Season:    April 30 - September 30
High Season:   September 30 - April 30
Peak Season:  December-January

City by City notes on places to stay, eat and visit

Some tips for travel to India from Saini ji
1.Indian airlines now offers unlimited travel within India for 15 days for $500 and for 21 days you can buy for us$750
2. A Few good hotels in Karol Bagh area now offers very attractive price, for instance for a double bed room they charge around $25 including breakfast, and all taxes. All these rooms are air conditioned with attach Bathroom, colour television.
3. Now as you know for hotels low season is starting from 30 April to 30 September. So you can get a really good price in all the major five star hotel in Delhi, for instance,  $70 - $125 including breakfast.

A few notes from prashanti

And a whole book of tips from Jerry Jones and Anne Cushman: 

From Here to Nirvana:  Yoga Journal's Guide to Spiritual India    by Jerry Jones and Anne Cushman If your dreams of traveling to India include some sort of spiritual exploration, here's an essential guide that will help ease your planning and your mind. Coauthor Anne Cushman is senior editor at Yoga Journal magazine, and along with Jerry Jones has researched hundreds of yogis, gurus, ashrams, and temples to make this "the first comprehensive book on the art of pilgrimage in the subcontinent."

Guidebooks to India
* Lonely Planet India (7th Ed) -- Bryn Thomas, et al; Paperback 
* Lonely Planet South India (1st Ed) -- Christine Niven; Paperback 
* Lonely Planet India and Bangladesh (Lonely Planet Travel Atlas) -- Hugh Finlay
* From Here to Nirvana by Jerry Jones
* India: The Rough Guide by Dave Abram

Travelogue in India
* Travels in Sacred India by Roger Housden
* Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton 
* The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Govinda

Doctors-Dentists
Dentist Dr. Siddhartha Mehta, 41 Khan Market, Tel. 4615914, 4629955 
Dentist G. Thakkral, Oral Health Resort, Kulri Mussoorie, 013563.2546, 2340 
Dentist K.L. Gandhi 6444918, 6442398 
Dentist M.L. Soni, 6838742, 6844474 
Dr Ashok Bhatiani, 2516850 

Travel Agents
Nobel Travels  Prit Saini  9/13, Old Rajender Nagar, New Delhi-110060  India 
Phone :91.11.574.9844, 584.1086, 584.1567, 573.8790  fax:91.11.573.8790 
Saini ji  saini2@hotmail.com
Tans Travels And Tours: 72 Janpath Nd, 110001 3321490, 3712722, 3350985, Fax, 011.3714323 
Tripsout 72 Janpath, Tel. 3320452, 2654, 1863 

Miscellaneous
American Embassy 600651, 6889017 Fax 687.2028 
Tibetan Jewelry:  G. A. Makroo, Shanti Niwas, Janpath, Tel.372.3363 
Tibetan Medical Center, 13 Jaipur Estate, Nizamuddin East, Tel. 4698503 (Closed Tuesday) 

Lower-middle end
By the way, it should cost Rs250 from the airport to these places.  Rs300 is the absolute max. 

Bentley's hotel, 022-284-1474, fax 287-1846, there are some large rooms, you really have to request one of the large rooms with a balcony, because the small rooms are not so nice. its at 17 Oliver Road, Colaba. nicer rooms are around Rs900.

YWCA; 022-202-5053, fax 202-0445, 18 Madame Cama Rd, Colaba, doubles for 
around Rs1000.....need to pay Rs50 (I think) for membership and a deposit is required...If you'll be there a few days, with a budget in mind, perhaps the YWCA is the best best; singles with a bath are around Rs600; something like that...the rooms are clean and they are nice people.... 

Most of the satsang people who are staying a while are in Hotel Girgaum, in the back streets of Girgaum, near where Ranjit Maharaj stays. Its very funky, best rooms are Rs350 but most are Rs150 or so. Its a little complicated, as its down back alleys. 

Middle range

We often stay at the Chateau Windsor hotel, ph 022-204-3376, fax 202-6459.  Veer Narima Rd, right next to the Ambassador hotel (i think its on the 5th floor), Churchgate. spotlessly clean (lots of moth balls) the rooms really  vary; if you can get a triple room, its around Rs1900 (bath and AC) but  its nice and spacious. Whether you get a double or a triple, make sure its conditional on getting an outward facing room with a balcony, or donât stay  there; the inside ones are cramped and claustrophobic. Across the road is the best pizzeria in town. its a cleaner and less touristy area than Colaba. 

We have also been staying at Shelly's sometimes, which is on the waterfront at Colaba, on the corner of Arthur Bunden Rd, down the end of the street from the Taj hotel. Its quaint and regal somehow, a little old and run down, but has a touch of the Raj and its nice to look over the ocean.  The rooms are generally more spacious than at the Chateau Windsor. Some rooms have dark carpet and black curtains and are really somber; the others are light and open and spacious.  Make sure you say you donât want the dark rooms!! Smaller doubles like room 28 etc are around Rs1450, slightly larger ones are Rs1600 and the ocean facing ones are Rs1900. I think they were planning to start renovations in April so make sure its not happening during the time you want to stay there. That corner can be a little seedy at night; its a Muslim corner but somehow the waterfront attracts strange folks after the sun goes down. 

If you stay there, there is a very nice pukka hindu veg restaurant right in the middle of this Muslim section. From the waterfront, walking up Arthur Bunden Rd, its the second street to the right, walk just a few hundred meters and its just next to the Jain photocopy center; its aircondtioned and really clean. Otherwise I hear the Kamat veg restaurant on the Colaba causeway is good. We almost always go to the Pizzeria near the Ambassador!! 

•  A Lungi and some Money 
•  Passport and a ticket 
•  An open mind with as little agenda as possible 

• Water is a main concern in India 
• While in South drink Pondicherry Water, buy it and drink it by the case. 
• I would bring a good water filter: Katadyn is what I use. 

• Sunglasses with chums (I can't believe I went years without Sunglasses)
• Good back pack (1400 cubic inches at most)  When I went to India for the first time not  knowing when I would return I had a single back pack that was 1200 cubic inches.  Travel light.
• Money/passport pouch for around your waist.
• Pack things in plastic ziplocks, get big ones for clothes, tiny ones for passport and money.
• Journal, might want to note what you learn, realize and see.  Might not.  Can get notebooks there.
• You can get razors, toothbrushes, soap there, always carry toilet paper
• Mysore Sandalwood soap is good, There is a sugarless Ayurveda toothpaste that is good called Vicco.

• Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, Ramanashramam, Lakshmana Swami , Skanda Ashram 
• Pondicherry (Stay at Park hotel on Ocean) 
• Auroville - Stay at guest house on Beach just east of Auroville, just north of Auroville beach 
• Chidambaram Temple.  Go at dawn and stay for pujas,etc. 
• Kovalam Beach in Kerala.  Eat delicious fruit and study Hatha Yoga. 
• Mysore.  Study Hatha Yoga, see the sites 
• MahaBalipuram.  Stone carving and temples 

• Varanasi - perhaps my favorit place on the planet.  Sit on Manikarnika from Midnight till dawn, wrapped in a shawl an quiet.  Stay at Ganga viw hotel in Assi Ghat.  Owner is Shashank, he knows me.  Take some Kirkadoms. 
• Haridwar -Where the ganga meets the plains of India 
• Lucknow - Friends still live there and of course there is Satsang Bhavan and the homes where the Master lived.
• Badrinath - in the mountains near Tibet.  The hotsprings there are considered to be God 
• Agra- See the Taj in the moonlight, sneak in at night and chant ãAllah Whoä 
• Chitrakut- The tiny village on the mandakini where Ram lived while in Exile. 

• Detachment-Vairagya
• Surya Namaskar- General loosening 
• Uddiyana Bandha (Stomach Whips) - This is the best anti-parasite.  Creates a fire in which no parasite will live and which will digest all your food and · 

• Lavender oil - cooling and cleansing. Put a few drops in a bucket when you take a bath.  Smear it on a burn, cut or infection to heal a wound and keep it pure. Essential oils in general are great anti-biotics and help the mind and body deal with travel and Life in India.
• Anti-Parasite- make a strong tincture of clove, goldenseal, wormwood, black cumin seed, turmeric. In India Kutaj is the main herb for parasites.
• CoQ10- for added energy 
• Green drink mix in a ziplock.  You tend not to get fresh greens so an occasional green drink is heavenly 

• Cities- too much pollution and dukha.  Mountains and rivers are heavenly 
• Fried food- spoil your digestion and clog your liver and tend to make you angry and upset 
• Sweets-spoil your liver and metabolism, throws of mineral balance and mood 
• Anti-diarrhea medication.  Your body gets diarrhea to get rid of stuff fast.  If you stop this process you keep the shit and get sicker later.  Best just to let the diarrhea go for a day and drink a lot.  After a day take Ayurvedic anti-diarrhea. 

•  Hugging in public is one of the biggest faux pas. 
•  Smoking in Ashrams is questionable.