India is an intense experience, an assault on all the senses - a place you'll never forget.

The Himalaya, the Moghul forts and the holy cities, houseboats in Kashmir or palace-hotels in Rajasthan: boating through the backwaters of Kerala or riding the steam train to Simla; even an audience with a guru - this book, recognised as the guide to India, will help you to experience all of these and more.

• Thousands of places to stay and eat - for all budgets
• Comprehensive travel details - including visas, transport & health
• Where to find What section finding the musts to see and do
• Detailed information on culture & history
• 193 detailed maps

Kashmir is India’s Switzerland, attracting local tourists seeking cool summer air, alpine scen-ery and Srinagar’s romantic houseboat accommodation. And then there’s the Himalayan land of Ladakh, where monasteries are set between canyons and peaks, while emerald-green villages nestle photogenically in highland deserts.

• visit Thiksey Gompa, one of Ladakh’s great monasteries, especially during a festival
• maps
• experience the stark magnificence of Ladakh with a hassle-free (and traffic-free) homestay trek in the Markha Valley
• transport
• enjoy an amusingly caricatured Raj-type experience relaxing on a deluxe Dal Lake houseboat in Srinagar
• restaurants & accommodation

This brand new field quide is the successor to the bestselling "Pocket guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent" by the same authors.
The plates, text and maps have been extensively revised and many images have been replaced. This comprehensive and definitive guide is the ideal companion for anyone birding in the region.

• Covers India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives
• 1375 species illustrated and discribed, including all residents, migrants and vagrants
• 226 colour plates depict every species and many distinct plumages and races
• Concise text and accurate distribution maps popposite plates for ease of reference

For centuries, the monastries of Ladakh have been sanctuaries of Buddhist learning as well as important reposotories of Buddhist art and artefacts, both imported and indigenously created.
Buddishm spread to Ladakh from Kasmir and Tibet more than a thousand years ago amd has continued to thrive uninterreupted there even after its disappearance from Kasmir and the more recent setbacks Buddishm has suffered in Tibet.
The existing monastries of Ladakh fortunaly continue to posses hundreds of Buddhist artefacts from Kasmir and Tibet. Moreover, three giant one thousand year old images of Avalokitesvara, Maitreya and Manjusri, which belong to the Gandharan art and architectural tradition of 9th to 11th centuries, continue to adorn the graet temples of Alchi