Tadiandamol is the highest peak in Coorg, rising to 1,748 metres above the coffee and spice estates of the Western Ghats. The summit trail passes through shola forests draped in mist, across open grasslands with sweeping valley views, and into a stillness rarely found in South India. In December the skies are crisp and clear, the air cool and sharp, and the red coffee cherries on the estates below are at peak harvest. It is one of the most beautiful high-altitude landscapes in Karnataka.

Mandalpatti is a high open plateau in the Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, reached by jeep safari along a steep rocky forest track that is half the adventure. The plateau itself is extraordinary, a vast open grassland at 1,500 metres with uninterrupted 360 degree views of the Western Ghats, the Kaveri valley and the coffee estate hills of Coorg. On clear December mornings the valley below fills with mist and the plateau rises above it into sharp blue sky. Unlike Tadiandamol, no trekking is required, making it accessible to everyone in the group regardless of fitness. The two can be run simultaneously on the same morning from the same base near Kakkabe.

Belur and Halebidu are the twin masterpieces of the Hoysala Empire, built in the 12th century from soft soapstone that allowed sculptors to carve with extraordinary intricacy. The Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu has a continuous frieze running 163 metres around its base, elephants, lions, horses, scrolling vines, scenes from the epics and over a thousand individual figures, no two alike. Belur's Chennakeshava Temple took 103 years to build. These are not ruins, they are intact, living temples of breathtaking craftsmanship that rival Angkor Wat in ambition and detail.

Mysore is the former royal capital of the Wodeyar kings, who ruled for over five centuries and built a city of exceptional refinement and grandeur. The Mysore Palace is one of the largest royal buildings in India, a magnificent Indo-Saracenic structure of domes, turrets, arches and painted halls that took fifteen years to build. Every Sunday evening it is illuminated by 97,000 bulbs, transforming it into one of the most spectacular sights in South India. The city carries this royal character in its wide boulevards, silk weaving tradition, sandalwood industry and the flower-filled Devaraja Market.

Nagarhole National Park and its Kabini reservoir form one of the finest wildlife landscapes in Asia. The park is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected forest area in South India, and shelters the highest density of tigers and leopards on the Indian subcontinent. The Kabini backwater is where the reservoir meets ancient dry deciduous forest at the edge of Nagarhole National Park. At dusk, some of the largest wild elephant herds in Asia wade into the golden water to drink and bathe, sometimes fifty or more animals at once, moving between the forest and the river as they have for thousands of years. This is wild, free elephants in their own landscape, entirely on their own terms. No captivity, no commands, no contact. Just one of the most extraordinary wildlife spectacles on earth, watched from a quiet boat on the water. Kabini is also one of the very few places in the world where the rare black panther has been repeatedly photographed and filmed.

Wayanad is a forested hill district in northern Kerala, sitting at around 900 metres and draped in coffee, tea, pepper and cardamom estates. It is one of the most beautiful places in Kerala that most visitors skip entirely. The drive through Wayanad from Karnataka is stunning, winding through dense teak and bamboo forests where wild elephant herds cross the road with regularity. The Edakkal Caves near Ambalavayal contain prehistoric rock engravings over 6,000 years old, some of the oldest in India. Neolithic figures and symbols carved into a natural rock cleft, with light falling through from above. Chembra Peak offers one of the finest treks in Kerala, a half-day walk through grassland and shola forest to a summit with a heart-shaped lake near the top. The Muthanga and Tholpetty wildlife ranges are excellent for jeep safaris with near-guaranteed elephant sightings. Thirunelli Temple, an ancient open-air shrine built without mortar deep in the forest with a mountain stream running through its courtyard, is one of the most atmospheric places in Kerala. The town of Kalpetta has good coffee shops and local markets worth an evening wander.

Meesapulimala is Kerala's second highest peak at 2,640 metres, rising above the tea estates of Munnar into a world of ancient shola forest and high-altitude grassland found nowhere else on earth. The name translates to "moustache of the tiger mountain" in Tamil. On clear December mornings the summit stands above the cloud line, below you a white sea of mist fills the valleys, above you nothing but blue sky and the Western Ghats rolling away to the horizon. It is one of the most beautiful and genuinely remote landscapes in South India.

Munnar is a landscape of extraordinary beauty, sitting at 1,600 metres in the Western Ghats where three mountain rivers meet. Every hillside is covered in the vivid green geometry of tea estates, interrupted by stands of ancient shola forest and silver waterfalls. The air smells of eucalyptus and cardamom. At dawn, before the mist lifts, the valleys fill with clouds and the upper ridges float above them like islands. Kolukkumalai, the world's highest tea plantation at 2,100m, has been producing exceptional tea in a 1930s wooden factory, unchanged for nearly a century, since the British first planted these hills.

Thekkady is the gateway to the Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of India's most important wildlife sanctuaries, and sits in the heart of Kerala's spice-growing country. The town of Kumily is surrounded by working cardamom, pepper, vanilla and cinnamon estates where the spices that drove the ancient spice trade still grow in abundance. The Periyar lake, created by a colonial era dam inside the forest, gives the reserve an extraordinary character. A still expanse of blue water surrounded by dense tiger country where wild elephants, gaur, sambar deer and rare birds appear at the banks. Elephant sightings on the Periyar boat safari are common in December when the dry season draws herds to the water.

Alleppey is the heart of the Kerala backwaters, a vast ancient network of lakes, canals, rivers and lagoons that runs parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. Villages, temples, churches and rice fields line the water's edge, and the only way to see them properly is from the water. The traditional kettuvallam, a converted rice barge with a woven bamboo and palm hull, teak deck and open-sided living rooms, drifts silently through this landscape at the pace of the current. At sunset, the light on the water is extraordinary and the silence is complete.

Bangalore is one of Asia's most dynamic cities. Ancient tanks and garden boulevards sit alongside the 18th century summer palace of Tipu Sultan and the gleaming towers of a global technology industry. The old city around the KR Market and the Pete area preserves the character of the Wodeyar-era trading city, while Lalbagh Botanical Garden, laid out in 1760 with over 1,800 species of plants, offers unexpected tranquility at the heart of a city of twelve million people. This is also Neethy's home. The trip ends not with a guidebook but with personal knowledge, childhood restaurants and streets that hold thirty years of memory.

Hampi is one of the most extraordinary places in Asia, the ruins of Vijayanagara, once the wealthiest and second largest city on earth, spread across fifteen square kilometres of an alien boulder landscape on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. In the 14th to 16th centuries this was a city of 500,000 people, greater than London and Paris combined at the time. It was destroyed in a single catastrophic battle in 1565 and never rebuilt. What remains, the stone chariot, the elephant stables, the Vittala Temple with its musical granite pillars, the queen's bath, the lotus mahal, lies scattered among house-sized boulders in a landscape of haunting, otherworldly beauty.