Offbeat journeys across India

Some of India's best days happen where nobody is selling anything. The Shekhawati towns of Nawalgarh, Mandawa and Fatehpur hold thousands of painted haveli walls, Marwari merchant frescoes of trains and gramophones, mostly unrestored and unguarded. Bundi keeps a fort the langurs have taken over, the Raniji ki Baori stepwell and the blue murals of the Chitrashala. Mandu in Madhya Pradesh spreads sultanate pavilions and baobab trees across a plateau that empties by four in the afternoon. Bastar in Chhattisgarh runs a Dussehra of seventy-five days built around a wooden chariot hauled by tribal communities, with Chitrakote falls a short drive away. Tripura's Unakoti carries enormous Shaiva faces cut into a jungle hillside at the end of a long flight of steps. In Arunachal, the Apatani villages around Ziro farm rice and fish in the same flooded field. Manipur's Loktak floats phumdis, circular mats of matted vegetation, and Keibul Lamjao is the only floating national park in the world, home to the sangai deer. Meghalaya's Mawlynnong sweeps its own lanes and walks out to living root bridges. Zanskar and Mechuka ask for effort and repay it. We use homestays, small vehicles and local guides, and we tell you honestly which nights will be basic.