Asia is dotted with castles and palaces of the kings of ancient times. The hottest travel locations of today, once bore testimony to wars and strife, hate and hunger. But they have survived through the ages, by the skills of their architects and the craft of their engineers.
From the Himeji castle in Japan to the elegant palace hotels of India, we will take you on a journey across Asia to help you on your travel across this beautiful continent. This blog has started as an endeavour to not only inform readers about the best ways and places to travel about in Asia, but also because of a personal affection for and interest in travel as well as the beautiful structures built during ancient times like castles, forts and palaces.
Hailing from India, I have travelled mostly in this giant subcontinent, but I have also visited the castles and palaces at a lot of other places around the world. The different cultures and tribes in Asia have lent a different design to the different castles and palaces in Asia. For a more comprehensive view of India, you can refer the travel guide to Asia.
The palaces in Japan are built of timber, keeping the cold and the earthquake in mind, those in India were built primarily to ward off attacks, whereas those in the Middle East concentrated on warding off the dust and the heat of the desert.
The largest palace in the world is also located in Asia. It is that of the Sultan of Brunei. The longest Fort in Asia is the KumbhalGarh fort in India, Rajasthan. In fact the province of Rajasthan had over a period of time seen so many rulers ruling its lands that it is one place in India which is considered to have more forts than men.
India also boasts of forts that were built by all the different colonial rulers. Since Vasco Da Gama discovered the Indian subcontinent, it has seen forts built by the Dutch, the Portuguese and finally the English.
This is the reason why I believe that a castle sight seeing trip to Asia must be commenced at in India. With the diversity and density of these historical buildings, spanning across its borders, India, undoubtedly provides a tourist the best sights all over the continent. Many of the palaces in Rajasthan, India are converted to palace – hotels and hence guests can find accomodation there. Some other palaces, like the Chowmohalla Palace in Hyderabad are converted to museums, housing the valuables of the kings of those days. Of all the states of India, Rajasthan has an abundance of forts and castles apart from the beautiful palaces, untouched and undamages by the ravages of time.
