It is in the early hours of a December morning that we reach the mystical temple town of Orchha, the ‘hidden’ jewel of Madhya Pradesh. Sandwiched between the dhak forests and the Betwa river, and ringed by rising hills, Orchha, it was once the capital of a princely state, founded in 1531.

We are in Bishnupur in Bankura district, West Bengal, 200 km from Kolkata, weaving our way through a maze of rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts and downbeat cars. The town appears frozen in time: a few net cafes and mobile service outlets point to the world of today.

It is early January and the air is redolent with the smell of rain. Half-a-dozen of us bundle into our car and head towards Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary to witness the annual congregation of winged visitors from foreign shores.

A huge white Buddha in meditative posture, seated on an open lotus, beckons us several kilometres before we actually come upon the hillock on which he is sculpted. We are about 270km from Bengaluru, at the nondescript Belum village in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, to visit the sub-continent’s second largest natural caverns.

Our car is duly geared for a weeklong sojourn as we travel to one of the most scenic routes in Chhattisgarh — from Korba to Jagdalpur, the headquarters of the Bastar district which is home to the world’s longest and unique Dussehra celebrations, and Chitrakote Waterfalls — India’s own Niagara.

Our flight arrives just as the day is breaking and the city is shaking off the languor of sleep. As we thread our way to our hotel in Istanbul, it is evident, that Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman structures jostle for space with the modern skyscrapers that are redefining the city’s skyline.

I guess few places kindle that profound soul-searching desire in you, create an intense hunger to introspect and take a peek into the deep recesses of your core being and make you almost one with the Divine, even if only for a short or temporary period.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan’s second largest city, nicknamed Blue City and Sun City, stands majestically on the foothills of a sandstone hillock and is a veritable oasis in the virgin sands of the Thar.

The 65 km drive from Sunset Beach Resort where we are vacationing is scenic.

Bizarre, awe-inspiring, spectacular — we fall short of adjectives to describe these “grotesque” pinnacles in a myriad shapes shooting heavenwards from terra firma. We stand spellbound in the midst of nature’s handiwork in Shilin China’s Stone Forest, 80 km from Kunming.