Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Dogster's List of Secret Treasures

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Dogster's List of Secret Treasures

Well, it's not exactly MINE. It's ours. But it needs to grow. I KNOW you've all got your own list. If I can share my treasures, so can you.

But they have to be REAL treasures, not just the ones you buy with $$$ at the Oriental or the Pen. [Which are fine by me - but not the exercise]

I've left out the obvious: the Oberois and Taj's, I've left out the range of hotels between Pigsty, Groovy Backpacker Hostel, Surfer Hang Out and Hippy Hovel. You can list those if you like. I've left out the truly TOO expensive, outrageous 'only people with too much money go there' hotels

These are places I have stayed, or am planning to stay at on the next trip. These are either Doggy places par excellence or with enormous potential.

If you want me to explain why they're on the list, just yell. There are Dog rules behind all these selections. One day I'll articulate them.

Over to you while I regroup and plan Dogster's tips on travel, drivers, guides and how to train them.

Have fun exploring. Over to you.

While I'm in the mood. More stuff I'm playing with:

Vicarious Living #1:

DOGSTER'S SLO-O-O-OW RURAL MADHYA PRADESH & SOUTH-EASTERN RAJASTHAN TRIP

No driving place to place more than 2 hours, max.

INDORE: Rashid Kothi, Indore - see www.ahilyafort.com
MAHESHWAR: www.ahilyafort.com
DHAR/MANDU: http://www.heritagehotelsofindia.com...lace-dhar.html
AMLA: www.fortamla.com
UJJAIN: www.indiaprofile.com/hotels-india/hotels-ujjain/

UJJAIN to JHALAWAR – 4-6 hours driving.

JHALAWAR: www.kokoindia.com/main/maharaja.htm
KOTA: www.indianheritagehotels.com/property.asp?id=142
BAINSROGARH: www.bhainsrorgarh.com
BUNDI: hotelbundihaveli.com/
BASSI: www.bassifortpalace.com/
KHEMPUR: www.ravlakhempur.com
BHINDUR: http://www.heritagehotelsofindia.com...r-udaipur.html
KARNI: www.karnihotels.com/kf_about.htm
UDAIPUR: still deciding.

Most of these places are worth three days. Assuming you want to go there in the first place. lol.

You'll have to Google up a map to follow it. Imagine a clock. Indore is in the middle. Maheshwar is 6 o'clock, Dhar is 8, Amla is 10, Ujjain is 12. Then head directly up - you'll find Jhalawar.

Then after Bundi you're just heading West and down a bit then up a bit to Udaipur.

Itchy paws Dogster? I smell a new adventure in the making.

This is inter-active entertainment, I realise, if you just click on each link and dream.

It's a new internet art form.

Yup, Femi: crazy, crazy, have to go-o-o-o-o. But not quite yet. But I dream of India. She has me in her grip. Gotta go back. Now... how to do that Doggy-style.

That was an unfortunate analogy, I realise. lol. You get the point.

Cool posting. Thanks Dogster.

I know what you mean! ;)

Wonderful oh supreme dog. This will keep us occupied for days - the planning is almost as good as the doing. Sometimes even better when you know you can't really go or afford some places at least you can look and drool. So much for getting any work done - I'll delegate to the wounded one to start with.

Drooling here too. I really need to win the lottery or something so I can visit many of these places. Maybe I can ditch my sweet but poor husband and find a rich man! ;)

<i>(Thank goodness sweet but poor husband does not follow Fodors...)</i>

Thanks for the list, Dogster!

What a wonderful list! I'm still browsing the websites - it looks like I could spend a month just on the websites, the actual trip would need to be much longer.

Maybe this was past your time, Dogster but I was thinking of these lyrics from the moderately successful Australian rock group, The Little River Band, when I read your post today:

"Hey everybody yeah, don't you feel that there's something?
Feel it, feel it?
Hey everybody yeah, don't you feel that there's something?

People on their own are getting nowhere,
I am on the road to see,
If anything is anywhere and waiting, just for me.

Everynight I walk around the city.
Seems like I'll never know,
That feeling of being together when I go.

And it's a long way there, it's a long way to where I'm going,
And it's a long way there, it's a long way to where I'm going.

Hey everybody, don't you feel that there's something, but you know
in a moment it is gone.
I live for the day when I can hear people saying that they know and
they care for everyone
But I feel like I've been here for the whole of my life, never knowing
home.

It's a long way.
It's a long, long, long way there,
I'm gonna keep on tryin',
I'm gonna keep on tryin', yeah,
I'm gonna keep on tryin',
I'm gonna keep on tryin', ah!

Been away from home for such a long time,
And got to know this town,
But I don't seem to matter much to anyone, who's around
Is there anybody around?

Everynight I walk around the city,
Seems like I'll never know,
The feeling of being together when I go.

And it's a long way there, it's a long way to where I'm going,
And it's a long way there, it's a long way to where I'm going.

Everybody knows it’s a long way there,
Oh, everybody knows it’s a long way there.
Mmm, it’s a long way

Driving around’s kind of getting me down and I know, and I know
It’s a long long way there
It’s such a long long way, long way

Hey everybody yeah,
don't you feel that there's something?
Feel it, feel it?
Hey everybody yeah,
don't you feel that there's something?"

For some reason I've connected this song with you Dogster and your writings. I'm not completely sure why but it all seems to fit. In any case the tune is a classic frequently played on the "Deep Tracks" satellite radio station here in the USA.

As for your list, it will take a while to get through but you can be assured that I will look at all of them. Glad to see Tea Trails and The Kandy House on the list as well as the Oberoi's. I would add the Hotel de la Paix (boutique hotel in Siem Reap) to the list. As you say, there are a million more.

Ask, I think I'm finally getting the hang of your almost code-like writing style. You could probably write up some trip reports that would make the most worldly of us blush a bright red! :)

lol Jaya - AskO is the lewdest man in here. All those dots and dashes are code. Just substitute the rudest thing you can think of and all makes sense.

I think it's a 'man thing'. In my limited experience, woman as a breed, have never really understood this eternal flame that ebbs and flows thru some men's lives. Shameless, priapic, with only one tiny brain, attached to the end of their willy.

I, of course, remain as pure a puppy as I was born, have to consult well-thumbed novellas with many pictures and not a lot of text to understand those mysterious dots and dashes - but I have observed many men of my close acquaintance who spend - oh, about forty YEARS riding that lustful Dragon d'Amour through places best NOT recorded in the hallowed annals of Fodor's.

It's not AskO's fault. Nor was it mine. Some men are born to [hmmm - how can I end this sentence and NOT get a sweet reminder from Kathie the editor that profanity is not allowed... ] I'll try again - some men need to.. some men HAVE to..

AskO reads between Dogster's lines too. It's a secret code.

Craig: yup, I know that song well. It was part of my youth. I saw LRB sing it live once - just to me. It's appropriate. More appropriate, in those days - and probably now - was the Eagles song: 'Desperado...'

I can see that you intuit me well, Craig. There probably is a sense of the solitary about it all. But I've always been like that.

Let me add to the profundity of the Little River Band with a quote from T.S. Eliot:

'At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is...'

I hope that was just a slip of the keyboard, dogster, and you were referring to Katie the editor, rather than seeing me as an editor!

lol, yup Kathie, of course! Slip of the keyboard.

Apologies to all women with 'Kat..' in their name.

Dogster, speaking of the rudest things (or thoughts)...long back during your postings of Siem Reap, things were getting a little, well saucy sounding and every now and then you kept referring to "tuk tuks". Given the theme of what was going on and the fact that I did not know what a "tuk tuk" was, I closed my eyes and typed that question to you with NO idea what reply I would possibly get.

So funny to learn they were only the little scooters!