This week's dream: a luxury train ride through India

There can be few more glamorous ways of travelling across India than on the Maharajas' Express, says Sandra Boler in The Independent. When it was launched earlier this year, the train was billed as "the mos luxurious, most expensive and biggest" the country had ever known - and it lives up to the hype. A collaboration between Indian Railways and a British tour operator, Cox & Kings, it plies the two routes connecting the capital, Delhi, with th nation's largest cities, Mumbai and Kolkata. The journeys can be made ii either direction and each takes about a week, including several sightseeing stops at key sites along the way.

The cabins are "amazing", with queen-sized beds, large televisions and "almost absurdly luxurious" bathrooms, boasting marble baths, spacious showers and piles of fluffy white towels. There arc two "spectacular" dining carriages for morning and evening meals; lunch is served at luxury hotels along the way. The


journey between Delhi and Mumbai takes in the deserts, forts and palaces of Rajasthan, while highlights on the Delhi-Kolkata route include Agra and the Taj Mahal; the temples of Khajuraho, with their "sensual and explicit erotic carvings"; the national park Bandhavgarh, home to several do/en Bengal tigers; and the sacred city of Varanasi.
Spread out along the west bank of the Ganges, Varanasi is the oldest city in India. According to Hindu scripture, it is sacred to the god Shiva, who burst into the sky here in a pillar of light. Crowds of pilgrims pass daily through its streets towards


the water to worship, bathe and scatter the ashes of the dead. As the sun sets, you can watch them from a boat on the river, illuminated by thousands of tiny oil lamps, singing as bodies are carried gently down to their funeral pyres. Greaves Travel (020- 7487 9111; www.greavesindia.com) offers an eight-night trip from £S,47Spp, incl. flights, transfers and six nights on the train.