What are some unknown or underrated travel destinations in India?

 

• Rani ki Vav or Ranki vav (lit. 'Queen’s stepwell') is a stepwell situated in the town of Patan in Gujarat state of India.

Engineering sketch plan of the step-well.

• It is located on the banks of Saraswati river. Silted over, it was rediscovered in 1940s and restored in 1980s by the Archaeological Survey of India.
• Rani-ki-Vav was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2014.

Its construction is attributed to Udayamati, daughter of Khengara of Saurashtra, queen of the 11th-century Solanki dynasty and spouse of Bhima I.

As the history goes, Patan where the stepwell is located was the capital of Gujarat when King Siddharja Jaysingh was in power. Then, it was known as Anhilpur Patan. The construction of Rani Ki Vav was commissioned in the Solanki or Chalukya regime. It is said that the stepwell was built as a tribute to Bhimdev the First whose father had founded the Solanki dynasty in 1050 AD. The construction was proposed by the queen Udayamati, wife of Bhimdev the first.

• The entrance is located in the east while the well is located at the westernmost end and consists of a shaft 10 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep. The stepwell is divided into seven levels of stairs which lead down to deep circular well.
• The finest and one of the largest examples of it's kind and designed as an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water, the stepwell is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels; more than 500 principal sculptures and over a thousand minor ones combine religious, mythological and secular imagery.
• The walls, pillars, columns, brackets and beams are ornamented with carvings and scroll work. The niches in the side walls are ornamented with beautiful and delicate figures and sculptures. There are 212 pillars in the stepwell.
• The structure was flooded by the Sabarmati River and remained silted till the late 1980s, when the ASI excavated it.
• The steps lead to the deepest bottom through several pillared pavilions. The lowermost step ends at a small gate which opens to a 30-km tunnel. It is supposed to have been used as an escape to the nearby town Sidhpur in times of invasion by enemies.

The World Heritage Site status has made Rani Ki Vav the queen of stepwells in India, for its sheer magnificence, intricate carvings, celestial sculptures, and water-preserving technology.Since July 2018, the new 100 rupee banknote features rani ki vav in its rear side.

The beauty of this step-well architecture is beyond the words.

Why do people love to travel to Thailand again and again?

 I have been to Thailand once (Phuket Only) for a week. The main reasons why i think people love to travel again and again are as follows:

Hospitality : Thailand screams hospitality, i wondered from day 1 as to how could folks be so friendly, kind and welcoming, Right from the airport to every nook and corner the vibe really doesn’t change. The locals take that extra effort to make people feel comfortable and happy at their place.

1. NightLife: The nightlife scene is a very energetic vibe, filled with best in class clubs on each street, lots of pubs, diners, burger joints, local food complexes, spa’s,etc. Patong Beach Road alone we had to spend 3 nights to explore the entire region. We had most fun during the nights compared to day. Super mix of ethnicities, trying to make friendships, building connections, partying with random strangers who are usually on the same page in terms with surroundings. Just Phuket has given us so much and we wonder what the other parts of Thailand can offer us at times.

2. Affordable Stay : The stays are super affordable especially for the kind of property and services provided ( I stayed in a 4BHK Villa with 6 friends, the property was luxurious and had a 18 meter private pool inside the property costed us $50 each per night) also maybe something like this in my country would cost double of what we pay here in Thailand.

1. 2. Places to Explore: Each part of Thailand is a different experience is what frequent travellers usually express. I stayed in Phuket for 7 days and still we had a lot of uncovered places, every place has its own unique story to tell. The no of pristine beaches and islands to hop ( the numbers are pretty solid)

1. Food: If you are a non vegetarian then the options are very vast. Every single dish is a flavour bomb. A lot of local dishes to try out in different regions, people usually tend to fall sick after eating at some places frequently but that can be maintained with the right choices of clean restaurants. Food is cheap for the quantity they provide in most places. 7 Eleven stores have hundreds of variety to try out in terms with food, drinks and snacks. We literally relied on 7eleven on several occasions due to the convenience and wide options to choose.

1. Shopping: Thailand = Shopping Spree, lots of local markets, Luxury Malls, stores to explore that offer mind boggling discounts and of course sell OG’s. Shopping is very fun and therapeutic for many due to the prices and options. Local markets are loaded with all the new arrivals (in case you are looking for a clone) anything you want and you would be able to find it easily.

Will interstellar travel ever be possible?

 Original Question (answered in 2026 C.E.): Will interstellar travel ever be possible?

The deck is stacked against us. It may one day become physically possible, but we would probably not have the political will to make it happen.

Consider the following points:

• Because we will never achieve anywhere near light-speed in terms of travel, humanity would have to be willing to do a 100,000 year-long space mission for most worthwhile interstellar human travel to work, but so far, humanity has only had nothing greater than about a 50-year-long space mission (the Voyager mission)
• The target interstellar system should be a yellow-white dwarf star (like our Sun) or an orange dwarf star that isn’t known for too many harsh flares, because almost nothing else will work well with us in context of our normal green photosynthesis environment and radiation tolerance; and this limits the total star systems anywhere realistically close to us that are attractive
• The political will to continue sending resources out into space to help the interstellar space-station must remain high enough for about 100,000 years despite the fact that countries never last anywhere close to that long in years of time and despite the fact that politicians won’t get a lot to point to as successes to their constituents except for the space program as a jobs program for people on Earth
• Radiation shielding for the space station must be adequate for interstellar space as well as for dealing with the radiation profile of the target star that the space station is supposed to orbit around
• The people and robots in the space-station must be able to repair the space-station
• The design of the space-station would be ring-shaped with spokes (like a bicycle wheel) or micro-planet-shaped in order to overcome the micro-gravity problem of weightlessness in space, and these are both expensive designs to construct in outer-space itself
• Humanity presumably has to figure out how to keep the space-station heated on the inside for tens of thousands of years while the space-station is too far away from stars to get a reliable amount of heat energy from them; presumably, lots of nuclear power plant electricity would be the solution
• Duplication of essential functions (from water filtration to heating to oxygen management systems) will be preferred in order to ensure the mission’s success

Interstellar space travel is a money-pit, and people will clamor for millennia about how much money civilization is burning away to keep alive a hope of traveling to a distant star.

So, what are the prospective star system candidates that we might want to try to reach? Well, remember that they would likely be solar systems with stable yellow-white stars and orange dwarf stars within a realistic range of travel (even in this astronomical marathon of travel scenario). We have less than 15 candidates, with some being iffy.

Prospective stable orange dwarf and yellow-white star candidates (with distance away from the Sun in parentheses at the end):

• Toliman (i.e., Alpha Centauri B): borderline okay orange dwarf star with an occasional flare and elevated X-ray production (4 light years away)
• Rigil Kentaurus (i.e., Alpha Centauri A): yellow-white star in a binary star system with Toliman (4 light years away)
• Epsilon Eridani (i.e., Ran): orange dwarf star that might have strong stellar winds (10.5 light years away)
• Procyon A (i.e., Alpha Canis Minoris): technically a white F5 star but probably close enough to also work, though it is part of a binary star system (11.5 light years away)
• Epsilon Indi: orange dwarf star with a binary system of brown dwarf stars orbiting it at a far-out distance (11.9 light years away)
• Tau Ceti: yellow-white star with a dust or debris field but no other orbiting star (11.9 light years away, about the 20th nearest known star system to the Sun)
• 40 Eridani: triple star system with an orange dwarf star (16.3 light years away)
• 70 Ophiuchi A: an orange dwarf star in a binary orange dwarf star system (16.7 light years away)
• Sigma Draconis: orange dwarf star (18.8 light years away)
• Eta Cassiopeiae A: yellow-white star in a binary star system with a weak orange dwarf star with an orbit at a substantial distance away of 35 to 105 astronomical units (19.4 light years away)
• 36 Ophiuchi C: orange dwarf star in a triple star system (19.5 light years away)
• HR 7703 A (i.e., Gliese 783): orange dwarf star in a binary star system that is somewhat approaching the Sun (19.6 light years away but eventually expected to get to 7 light years away)
• 82 G. Eridani: yellow-white star similar to our Sun but apparently with large planets orbiting close to the star (19.7 light years away)
• Delta Pavonis: yellow-white star that is traveling towards the Sun and is at risk of turning into a red giant star but is otherwise one of the closest stars to the Sun in attributes (20 light years away)

Does anyone seriously think we are going to even try to do anything over 20 light years away? The more time it takes to reach the destination, the more money it’s going to cost to keep the mission going, and that is all going to be in a parabolic fashion with financial costs the further distance that the space-station has to go.

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Gliese 570 is also an orange dwarf star within 20 light years of the Sun but has at least one red dwarf star in its local star system.

Addendum:

Someone named Daniel responded to my above post, saying:

To say that we can never achieve anything close to light speed is fallacious. We have the technology now. But we do not have the funding or global resources.

Speeds close to light speed could be achieved with a high powered laser and a solar sail. Warping spacetime is known to be a viable theory consistent with general relativity and no scientific finds have contradicted it yet.

Neither radiation protection or artificial gravity are as big a challenge as you make them out to be.

We don’t have any technology to warp spacetime in any special way like the science fiction concept of a warp drive, and I suspect that that is not possible. We can use planets, moons, our Sun, and maybe a small blackhole (if we find one in a good location) to help slingshot a spaceship along, but again, we’re not going to get close to light-speed.

Solar sails are an interesting concept. Maybe we could cut down the years some through that method, but we won’t be getting close to light-speed with them in any spacecraft large enough to send people or the ingredients for a new ecosystem for humans in them. The inverse square law would also apply in terms of how much thrust the spacecraft would get for acceleration away from our star. That will limit the total speed of the spacecraft.

As I type this, the Wikipedia article on solar sails suggests a much lower speed than light-speed for solar sails.

For Saturn, the minimum trip time is 3.3 years, with an arrival speed of nearly 19 km/s…

It has been proposed that an inflated sail, made of beryllium, that starts at 0.05 AU from the Sun would gain an initial acceleration of 36.4 m/s2, and reach a speed of 0.00264c (about 950 km/s) in less than a day. Such proximity to the Sun could prove to be impractical in the near term due to the structural degradation of beryllium at high temperatures, diffusion of hydrogen at high temperatures as well as an electrostatic gradient, generated by the ionization of beryllium from the solar wind, posing a burst risk.

Google Gemini AI says 950 km/s is about five times faster than what we have achieved in space probe travel (such as with the Parker Solar Probe), but is “approximately 0.317% of the speed of light.” So, multiply the light years of distance by 315 for the time it would take for a space probe-sized object. An Alpha Centauri journey then still takes over 1,260 years to complete on a one-way trip, and a journey to 82 G. Eridani would take 6,300 years; but if Wikipedia is right, even that fast of travel from solar sails might not be possible. I have my doubts.

Then there’s also the likelihood that Earth would still need to send the space-faring humans more resources over time as they try to make a home on a planet in the target stellar system. That adds to the total amount of years needed for the mission as a whole.

One of the main points in my answer is on financial cost. Adequate radiation protection and artificial gravity for an interstellar mission aren’t going to come cheap here, and some radiation shielding may also need repairs over time, which is part of the total price tag.

What are the top ten places you want to travel to and why?

 1 - IRELAND AND THE MOORS

Because I have a certain connection with this beautiful country. Something I don’t know why.

2 - AUSTRIA AND THE ALPS

This could have stemmed from my fascination with the place after I watched ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Heidi’ in my childhood.

3 - NORWAY AND THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

I don’t quite know how I would react if and when I see the Northern Lights for the first time. I might just break down into tears. To me, they are the most magnificent of nature’s many wonders.

4 - PARIS IN THE WINTER

Because this has always been the backdrop of every romantic dream I’ve ever had. Paris. Snow. Me. Him. Bliss. ^_^

5 - SWEDEN AND ITS UNICORN LANDSCAPE

Be it summer or winter, Sweden never fails to impress me with its sheer beauty.

6 - BATH AND ITS OLD WORLD CHARM

To me, this is one of England’s prettiest cities. I grew up reading a lot of British authors and this is the kind of mental image I had while reading those books. Quaint cottages with tiled roofs and chimneys and little gardens in the front.

7 - SWITZERLAND AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT

Do I even have to explain why this is on my list? OMG! This is paradise on earth!

8 - AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam to me has always been synonymous with romance. Every frame of the place looks postcard-worthy.

9 - TUSCANY AND ITS SUNSETS

*sigh* And all this despite the fact that I don’t drink. I could stare at those sunsets forever!

10 - SCOTLAND!

I guess I have a thing for places with meadows and little stone houses and lakes and sea and cliffs. 

What are some of the most interesting roads in the world to travel on?

 

• Valley of Fire Road, Nevada. (Beautiful red sandstones are abundant here, looking as if they’re on fire when under sunlight.

• Strada Statale 163, Amalfi Coast, Italy. (Strada Statale 163 is one of the most breathtaking roads in Europe.)

• Chapman’s Peak Drive, South Africa

• Rohtang Pass, India (It connects the Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh, India. A well-deserved road to travel on for everyone.)

• State Route 1, Big Sur, California

• NH 1D, Srinagar to Leh, India (Also known as Srinagar-Leh Highway)

• Scenic Highway 12, Utah, United States (At elevations ranging from 5,000 to over 9,000 feet above sea level, Scenic Highway 12 curves 124 miles throughout the rugged landscape of southwestern Utah.)

• North Yungas Road, Bolivia

• Atlantic Ocean Road (According to The Guardian, the Atlantic Ocean Road is by far the most beautiful road in the world)

• Oberalp Pass, Switzerland

• Overseas Highway, Florida, USA (spectacular Overseas Highway connecting Miami to Key West)

• Karakoram Highway (This highway connect Pakistan and China - with majestic snow-tipped mountains a common sight. very scenic one)

• Great Ocean Road, Australia

• Tianmen Mountain Road, China (It is 11 Km long and has 99 hairpin bends that reach the top and take visitors to the Tianmen cave.)

• Sani Pass, South Africa (A 4×4 vehicle is required to drive on Sani Pass, which features roads that feel like you’re riding on the side of a mountain.)

• Stelvio Pass, Italy

• Iroha-zaka, Japan (Connection between central Nikko and Oku-Nikko, Best road to get the views of Japan’s colorful landscapes.)