Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh is mostly forest, and the part worth travelling for is Bastar in the south. This is tribal India at its least diluted: weekly haat markets where whole villages come to trade and argue, dhokra bell-metal casting around Kondagaon, and Chitrakote, a horseshoe on the Indravati that spreads to nearly three hundred metres when the river is up. A realistic trip is Raipur to Jagdalpur, four or five nights based there, and out the same way. Jagdalpur puts Chitrakote, the Tirathgarh falls and the Kanger Valley caves within a morning's drive. People who bolt on the northern hills around Mainpat spend two days in a car crossing the state for it. Sirpur, east of Raipur, is the other worthwhile stop: a seventh-century brick temple and an excavated town almost nobody visits. Build your days around the haat calendar rather than the sights. Each village market runs on its own day of the week, and missing them is the difference between seeing Bastar and seeing some waterfalls. The awkward part is that the falls are fullest in the monsoon, which is exactly when Kanger Valley National Park and the Kotumsar cave are shut. November to February settles it in favour of the caves.