Saturday 15 February

Delhi

Our last full day in Delhi – I’m feeling much better this morning, although Matthew is still coughing quite a bit and looking a bit drawn. We stocked up on cold and flu medication first thing and then strolled over to Lodhi Garden – it’s only a few hundred metres from our hotel and just beyond Kahn Market, so a shame to not see it. Lodhi Gardens contains fifteenth century tombs and remains of other structures that combine Hindu and Islamic architectural styles in a parkland setting. 

We both needed a trim and my beard was getting quite shaggy and grey … so we stopped off at a barber’s – was funny being sat next to each other. My barber asked if I would like a face massage, too – being British, of course I said no … but being Indian, he did it anyway!

Then we took the metro to see the Red Fort (Lal Qila) a Mughal fort constructed from 1639 – it was plundered in 1739 and then most of the marble structures were demolished by the British after the 1857 Indian rebellion. The Lahore gate of the fort was where the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, raised the flag of India on 15 August 1947 – India’s Independence Day. This ceremony that’s repeated every year by the prime minister on that day. 

Matthew was due back at the tailor’s for his jacket fitting.

I didn’t need to at the tailor for that, so I decided to stay on the metro to Kalkaji Madir to have a look at the Bahá’í Lotus House of Worship – a very notable. modern design built in 1986 that won lots of architectural awards. The Bahá’í faith is open to everyone, teaches unity of all people  and is based on the idea that all faith is a different interpretation of one god. The Lotus Temple is 72 metres / 240 ft wide and just over 34 metres / 115 ft high and is made of 27 free-standing marble-clad “petals” arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, with nine doors opening onto a central hall that has a capacity of 2,500 people. The whole thing is reminiscent of the Sydney opera house with its white curving roof. I was glad that I was able to see it – and it was possible to go inside, too. 

I went back to the hotel and Matthew said Vaishakh had called to see how we were on our last day – what a sweetheart. 

We had a free evening meal with our Ambassador hotel booking and we considered taking advantage of that … but it was our last night in Delhi and Delhi has lots of vegan restaurants and cafes, so we didn’t want to miss out on that – so we headed to a nice/looking one called Greenr in Greater Kailash – full of young people and lovely food! 

Then back to hotel – that’s it – our trip to India is almost ended. We’re up at 07.00 (01.30 uk time) to head to the airport for our 10:50 flight home tomorrow morning (Sunday). The flight lasts 10 hours, but because of the time change we should be back in Bristol early Sunday evening.

Friday 14 February

Delhi

My cold is hanging around and very annoying, so I’m still not feeling well. The coughing has subsided somewhat, thankfully. When I woke, Matthew gave me a hand-drawn Valentine’s Day card – he’s been carrying it with him since we left home. What a sweetheart. 

Breakfast at the Ambassador ‘Yellow Brick Road’ restaurant is a little disappointing compared to some of the other hotels we’ve stayed at – but they had muesli and fruit. Coffee was good. They had lots of red balloons up for Valentine’s Day.

Matthew booked us to visit the gardens of the Rashtrapati Bhavan (president’s residence, formerly the viceroy’s house) which was designed by Edward Lutyens. The Rashtrapati Bhavan has 355 rooms and was largely completed by 1931. Getting in turned into a bit of a saga – we were misdirected three times and then had to get a tuk tuk to the rear entrance for the right way in.

The gardens were beautiful and there were lots of school children visiting – they made for a really nice atmosphere, but meant that it was very crowded.

Afterwards we took another tuk tuk to India Gate – a massive war memorial to the over 74,000 soldiers of the Indian army who died between 1914 and 1921 fighting with the British. Also designed by Lutyens, the foundation stone of what was then called the All India War Memorial, was laid on 10 February 1921 (Lutyens designed the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, too). 

Nearby there’s a statue of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose in a tall columned cupola – the cupola was was originally built in 1936 and a statue of British king George V was installed.

The statue was vandalised in 1943 by Indian independence activists then removed in 1968 (to Coronation Park in Delhi where apparently loads of British Raj-era statues have been taken) leaving the cupola empty for many years.

There were continued debates about what the do about the empty space – a statue of Ghandi was suggested, but the current Indian prime minister installed the statue of Subhas Chandra Bose,  in 2022 – a somewhat controversial decision since although he fought for independence he collaborated with Nazis and fascist Japan in the 1940s.

We wandered along the Kartavya Path past enormous canals and fountains towards the new very heavily fortified new India parliament building, opened in 2023.

We past the massive blocks still under construction of three ‘common central secretariat’ buildings where all ministerial departments will be housed and took a metro train to Rajiv Chowk to have lunch in Third Wave, Connaught Circle – a really nice trendy place with some nice vegan options – especially the lovely bananas and chocolate loaf – yum!

I needed a rest after that – so back to our hotel and another trip to Khan Market for light dinner at Bloom Cafe. We found a nice grocery store at Khan Market – with vegan chocolate and biscuits … then an iced cream store with vegan sorbet (dark chocolate for Matthew , blueberry for me) – all a nice Valentine’s Day treat!

As anticipated, the cold that struck Michael before we got to Shimla has caught me. It hit me the night before we left Shimla and I spent the last afternoon there snuggled up in bed with a burning fever. Thankfully that passed by the time we reached Delhi, but I’ve had the sniffles and cough to contend with. I think the worst of that was yesterday as I don’t feel too bad now. I think it’s hit Michael worse than me (things do tend to hit harder when one is older!).

One of the things I said I would do when I came to India, was to have something tailored for myself. I know it’s not the cheapest holiday souvenir, but bespoke tailoring here is a lot cheaper than in the UK. I did my research before we arrived and handily there is a tailor in Khan Market, just a short walk from where we’re staying. I had made an appointment for 7pm yesterday, so that’s where we headed after we’d settled into the hotel.

When I say a short walk, it’s literally turn right out of our hotel, walk five minutes and you reach Khan Market. It’s a very strange mix of Knightsbridge/Notting Hill with a few cheap ‘tat’ shops and some small grocery stores. It’s the kind of place you could spend 100,000 rupees on a sari and also pick up some onions. There are a few familiar brands in the mix including a Body Shop, Pret A Manger and a Starbucks. The tailors I’d found is called Grover’s.

I’d been thinking about what I’d like to have made as we have travelled around India. I pondered a shirt, but as I’ve already purchased some of those this trip I thought maybe something a bit more structured. I settled on a blazer, a linen one in green. The staff were very attentive and showed me a few different green linens – but I knew straight away which one I liked. The man serving said the colour I’d chosen was very on trend at the moment. I replied, that’s me – on trend!

My measurements were taken and a little sketch was drawn up for the tailor to follow. It’ll be single breasted with a slim fit. I had to choose the lining fabric too, I chose a dark purple. They will make up the jacket ready for a final fit tomorrow night (Saturday), then it will be finished and delivered to my hotel late on Saturday. Just like that a bespoke tailored linen blazer in three days! It’s a good job I saved all that air in my bag!

Today is Valentine’s Day. Cupid must have sent my card to Bristol (something to look forward to), but I did get a bar of vegan chocolate later in the day. When I was planning our trip I was hoping to visit Amrit Udyan the garden of the Indian President. It’s only open a few weeks of the year – usually around this time – but the tickets didn’t become available for us to book until we got to India. I was pleased to book tickets for 10am today – plus they were free!

Reaching the garden turned into a bit of a saga. Google maps said it would take 35 minutes via the metro and a short walk. What Google maps hadn’t accounted for was the strict security surrounding the parliamentary complex. There were roads we couldn’t go along without a pass so were sent round another way. Just as we thought we were getting close the police block said we couldn’t get through and said we had to go all the way back round we’d come and further. Defeated (and now running late for our 10am slot) we grabbed a tuk tuk who dropped us right by the entrance – gate 35.

Getting through the security was also a faff. First they said Mike couldn’t take his ruck sack in so he had to go back to the cloak room. They said my small man bag was allowed so I went through the x Ray machine, metal detectors and frisking, only to get to the second security check to be told my bag had to go into the cloak room too, grr. This was starting to wind me up. Then we realised that we were not the only ones visiting the garden today. There were thousands – yes thousands of Indian school children all being marched in rows. I didn’t expect we’d have the garden to ourselves but this swarm of school children being frogmarched in a continuous line wasn’t really how I’d imagined us visiting the garden. 

we both wandered the ‘one-way’ route around the garden (if you don’t count the 10,000 school children who found us quite a curiosity). 

If you blocked out the snaking line of children, the garden was quite pleasant. The key feature was the hard landscaping of pools, canals and lotus flower fountains (that were working!). The sunken beds were similar to the other gardens we’d visited. An odd throwback to English gardens from the middle of the last century. Block planting of violas, pansies, sweet Williams, lillies, roses and tulips. The tulip were just at their prime and stood out. Planted in such order I suspect a ruler had been used to space the bulbs out.

From the so-called Mughal garden, we went along through the rose garden (more block planting of single rose varieties), until the route culminated in the sunken garden or butterfly garden. This was a masterpiece of block planting, and although not to my taste, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the blaze of colour. In the centre was a large pool and fountain topped it off.

We exited the garden and agreed that the walk to the India Gate would be too far, so decided to get a tuk tuk. The driver wanted 300 rupees but Mike masterfully bartered him down to 200 – which was handy as that was the lowest denomination note we had!

Thursday 13 February

Shimla – Delhi

We’re both still feeling a bit rough with our coughs and colds, but we needed to be up early, packed and eaten breakfast in time for our driver to take us to Chandargar at 8:30 from where we took a fast train to New Delhi. 

The drive down to Chandigarh was even more spectacular than the train ride up to Shimla – fantastic views of mountains, hills, valleys and passing through small towns and villages.

We arrived in Chandigarh with plenty of time to board the train. We’d been slightly worried that the driver’s fee plus tolls and taxes might use up all our rupees cash reserves, but he charged less than we expected: ₹5500 – so we were fine. 

Delhi has an estimated population of over 28 million – that’s mind-boggling- almost half the entire UK population in one place! The main New Delhi railway station seemed like most of the population in the city were there!

We found our way to the metro and bought a three ticket to allow us to explore the city. The metro is really good and we were at our hotel, the Ambassador, near Khan Square by late afternoon.

The Ambassador hotel was apparently where military officers lodged during British rule; it’s a lovely art deco building with curved balconies, white walls and big windows.

Beside the hotel there’s a lovely garden centre – the first we’ve been able to see in India. Matthew thought that it was a bit old fashioned, but I thought that it was charming.

Matthew had made an appointment with a tailor in Khan Market called Grover’s, with a view to having a jacket and/or a shirt made. He was starting to worry that it might cost a lot, but I thought it’s bound to be less than in the UK and how often do we have anything made to measure? (Never, ever obviously!). 

So Matthew was measured for a linen blazer – was fun choosing fabric and lining … he made up his mind quite quickly, it would have taken me ages. 

There was a plantbased restaurant in the market too – Green Mantis – another win! 

We were pretty tired – I think we’re both a bit run down – we were tucked up in bed by 9.

We have arrived in Delhi, India’s capital city, and despite our fears about the pollution, so far it feels better than some of the other cities we have visited – at least we can’t taste the pollution in our mouths as we could in Jaipur!

We arrived at New Delhi station at 3.30pm, bang on time. It’s a large station, so it was a bit of a walk along an elevated walkway to the metro station. Delhi has an extensive metro system so we have purchased three day travel cards for about £5 each. I didn’t really fancy walking lots when I read about the poor air quality here. The metro will get us to most places we want to be very efficiently.

It was just a short 20 minute ride with one change from yellow to violet line before we arrived at our hotel. Handily the metro stop is just around the corner from the hotel. The Ambassador is a historic 1930s white painted building with lovely curved balconies on the front. It’s arranged in a triangular shape with a domed central dining. Initially they gave us room 403, but this was on the outside facing the road and Mike was not happy with all the traffic and tooting noise, so they agreed to move us across the corridor to room 404, which faces inwards and is much quieter.

They have refurbished the hotel in a sensitive way so it’s modern and comfortable but has retained a 1930s character. The furniture in our room is beautiful wood with a deco 30s sunbeam design in marquetry. The design is repeated on the headboard. The bathroom is equally luxuriously decorated with white marble and an oval bathtub.

In front of the hotel is a large square lawn – it’s named the ‘Lutyens Lawn’ after the British Architect who designed New Delhi. The whole place feels a bit like a set for a Poirot murder mystery – hopefully there will be no mysterious affairs at the Ambassador!

Well this is nearly it for our train travels across India. We’ve caught our final Indian Railways train from Chandīgarh to New Delhi – a short trip of just under three and a half hours. Our car driver collected us from the hotel in Shimla this morning and dropped us off at Chandigarh railway station. The train departed at 12.05, but we were there by 11.30 so plenty of time to find our platform.

Like many of the stations we have been through on this trip, Chandigah is being rebuilt. It looks like they have nearly completed the large new terminal building, but the construction of new over foot bridge is continuing. The lack of health and safety is pretty remarkable. The passengers wandering along the platforms alongside half constructed columns with steel supports sticking out – without any barriers between them. As for the construction workers, although most are wearing hard hats, they are also mostly wearing flip flops! I think my health and safety colleagues would have a funny turn at the sight.

As it’s only a short journey we’re in a seated air conditioned first class carriage. It’s comfortable, but not like one of the brand new carriages we travelled in from Udaipur to Jaipur on. Shortly after leaving Chandigarh the train staff started serving lunch – a spicy tomato soup to start, followed by a vegetable curry with dhal and chapatti. There was also ice cream on offer as a desert, but sadly not vegan ice cream so we declined that.

When we were doing the tour of the secretariat  building in Chandigah a few days ago I was chatting to a young Portuguese women about the Indian trains. She had tried to book the trains herself before they arrived in India – it’s not possible to just turn up and buy a ticket here. We compared notes on trying to use the (very frustrating) Indian Railways booking system. She had been unable to set up an account as it kept asking for her mobile number so it could send her a unique code – but it wouldn’t work with her European number. I felt proud that I’d managed to navigate the system and successfully set up an account (I think I used an email to get the code). What’s more I managed to book 12 train tickets for us, including five overnight trains, and remarkably they have all worked. A few of them ran a bit late, but we got to all of the destinations on our schedule on the right date.

I’m glad I booked us first class travel – although it’s not like first class travel in the UK. What we are generally paying more for is to have our own space, which on a 12 or 15 hour train ride, is very welcome. Apart from the first overnight train where we shared our cabin with a mother and daughter who disembarked somewhere at 2am in the morning, we have had our own two-berth cabins. It’s been funny when we’ve turned up at posh hotels to be asked ‘where have you flown from?’. I think they’ve been surprised we took the train as I think most of the growing middle class travellers in India would consider the trains a bit rough. They’re not entirely wrong, there have certainly been some train toilets I never want to see again, but all in all the trains have served their purpose and got us across this vast and extraordinary country on time and for a reasonable price.

Wednesday 12 February

Shimla

A quiet, restful day in Shimla. A few days ago I had an irritating cough that has now become a proper cold and I fear that I’ve passed it on to Matthew, who I’m pretty sure had a slight fever. Ugh!

We had a nice breakfast in the hotel and chatted with the Australian couple who were beside us in the train yesterday.

We wondered about taking a walk to Chadwick Falls – about 5km / 3 miles away, but reception staff advised against that as there’s very little water falling at this time and year. 

Instead of Chadwick Falls we went for a stroll into town. Shimla has many buildings in the Victorian gothic, Scottish baronial and Edwardian ‘Jacobethan’ or ‘Tudorbethan’ style … some have new bright red or green metal roofs. The buildings are stacked against the steep hillside.

Some of the signage on the shops is from the 1950s … or even earlier. The main street in Shimla, The Mall is traffic-free – so it’s a nice place to people watch and enjoy the sunshine. Just above the Mall is a plateaux called the Ridge – a high point in Shimla with with wonderful views in all directions. 

Lots of British built buildings in Shimla have been repurposed – the viceregal lodge (Rashtrapato Niwas – or presidential residence) was built in 1888. The Simla conference of 1945 to finalise the plan for Indian self-governance took place here. The decision to carve out Pakistan and East Pakistan from India was also taken here in 1947. The building now belongs to the Ministry of Education.

Near our hotel ‘The Retreat’ is the official summer residence of the president of India. 

The Ridge had a statue of Ghandi ‘the father of the nation’ and a plaque explaining that in Gandhi visited Shimla several times between 1921 and 1946 and that in 1931, Mahatma Gandhi addressed a huge rally on the Ridge. Christ church is also on the ridge – a very recognisable Anglican church with a square tower – although it’s painted yellow and gold.

It was amusing to notice so many locals wrapped up warm in puffa jackets and woolly hats – whereas we found it comfortably warm!

We headed back to our hotel for the afternoon – we’ve a lovely balcony view and it was good to recharge a bit before we make our way to Delhi tomorrow.

The Cecil Oberoi is reputed to be the finest hotel in Shimla – I haven’t tried any of the others, so I can neither confirm nor deny if this is true. However, I can confirm that it is a very odd place indeed. 

The original part of the hotel was built in the late nineteenth century, it consists of a huge atrium, which was originally open to the sky, but now has a glass roof. Around the atrium are galleries, where the original bedrooms are situated. At the bottom of the atrium is a huge lounge with a bar at one end and lots of traditional sofas, chairs and coffee tables. A grand piano sits in the middle and in the evening the resident pianist tinkles away playing tunes from the 1920s and 30s. 

The atrium reminds me of one of those that might be in one of those huge ocean cruise liners. All the fittings are in mahogany wood and gold, giving it a touch of the ship Titanic or perhaps the Queen Mary. It could also be compared to the Marie Celeste as I don’t think I’ve seen more than a handful of people in it at anyone time! To be fair, this is probably because it’s not peak season for Shimla and it’s still quite chilly, I’m sure it’s fuller when the weather warms up.

The Oberoi hotel underwent a large renovation and extension at the end of the twentieth century, a whole new wing was added, which includes the dinning room, pool, spa, gym, activity centre, billiard room and library and a block of new rooms (that includes ours). Given the hotel is on top of a steep hill, the additional block is quite strange to navigate. From the entrance lobby to get to our room we descend a grand staircase, then take a lift up two floors. To go the pool we go down the lift two floors then down another grand staircase, to the spa and gym, keep going down two more flights. It’s all decked out in wooden columns, panelling and gold, with potted ferns and potted aspidistras. Navigating the extension feels like entering the Crystal Maze ‘Edwardian Zone’.

From the entrance lobby, the restaurant is found at the bottom of the grand staircase. Before entering the restaurant there’s another ‘country house style lounge’ with tables set up to play chess and a real fire – one of the staff was attempting (unsuccessfully) to light the fire last night, holding newspaper over the opening to get it to start – but it wouldn’t. It is cold out, but it’s not that cold in the hotel, so it must have just been for effect.

The dining room is where we find most of the guests – almost entirely old, retired, white Brits. Watching people over breakfast this morning was hilarious. I suspect most of them have come here to find a little bit of England, and to be fair, it does look the part. But clearly the food and service are not like they have a home. I heard one couple trying to order a cup of tea – they just wanted tea, not to be offered a choice of Darjeeling, English Breakfast, Earl Grey or Ceylon.  They want PG tips – and for heaven sake, not warm milk!

When offered the breakfast menu the older couple on the table opposite us almost turned pale when they saw the Indian breakfast specialities. I was quite enjoying my potato doughnut with a chilli dhal and coconut chutney, but I half expected them to speak the line from the film Shirley Valentine and ask if they could just do them ‘egg and chips’.

We have most certainly landed in the ‘colonial club winter retreat’. Thankfully we’re only here for one night before we head to Delhi for a final few days. I’m quite looking forward to being back in a big cosmopolitan city, but Mike isn’t looking forward to the pollution. Delhi is infamous for the smog. Unfortunately he has picked up a nasty cold, and I think I might be getting it next, so the thought of breathing more muck when the cold makes it difficult to breath isn’t something to look forward to. 

There’s a small pharmacy next to the hotel, so I’ve purchased some cold and flu medication – well I hope that’s what it is, are as unlike a UK chemist where all the drugs are boxed and branded, here the pharmacist just puts some silver packaged pills in a paper bag – we could be taking anything! If the pills don’t work, we could check into the ‘hospital and sanatorium’ which is next to the chemist, but as it’s run by the Seventh Day Adventists, I think I’ll pass and take my chances with the random pills.

The train climb to Shimla yesterday was epic. It felt like the climb would never end and the way the track would twist back on itself to wind along the mountainside seemed equally mad. Shimla is 2277 meters above sea level and the air is cleaner here than anywhere else we’ve been in India.

The view from our hotel bedroom looks out across the valley to more distant mountains. We’re so far north now that we’re not so far from the Indian borders with Pakistan and Nepal. On the map Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China aren’t that far away either. The temperature is a fresh 5°, and we might hit a high of 13 today, quite a contrast and certainly preparing us for our return to the UK – I might even dig my gloves out.

When we checked-in last night I was tempted to open the bedroom French doors onto our balcony to enjoy the view. However the hotel porter advised us to be wary of the monkeys. Sure enough, moments later a monkey climbed onto our balcony and started to tap on the window wanting to be let in! I think I’ll admire the view from inside. 

Tuesday 11 February

Chandigarh – Shimla

Breakfast in the Hyatt Centric in Chandigarh is lovely – and they definitely, and by a long way, have the best coffee we’ve drunk so far in India!

Our taxi to the station in Chandigarh arrived at 0930 to take us to get our train to Kalka where we changed to the narrow-gauge Kalka – Shimla train. 

The Kalka – Shimla railway opened in 1903 and the route goes up into the Himalayan foothills with many twists and turns for 100km / 60 miles. There are 103 tunnels and 864 bridges. The track climb from 656 meters / 2,152 ft to a peak elevation of 2,076 meters / 6,811 ft at Shimla.

Shimla is the state capital and the largest city of the state of Himachal Pradesh – it’s also the furthest north in India that we’ll get. In 1864, Shimla was made the British summer capital in India because of its cool temperatures in the high forested hills. After independence, Shimla became the state capital of East Punjab. During the British Raj Shimla was famous for summer parties, balls and sports. There are still lots of recognisably British buildings in the city.

The ride on the train was brilliant – beautiful views; but something that makes me very sad about India was also really evident today – there’s rubbish strewn everywhere and here we were in a beautiful precious landscape and everywhere we looked there were discarded cartons, cans, plastic bags, foil trays … it’s horrendous. Most of the cities we’ve been to have been the same (with a couple of good exceptions). People were chucking stuff out of the train windows and it’s maddening. 

There were a couple from near Perth, Australia behind us and Matthew overhead that they were staying in the same hotel as us. When we arrived in Shimla the Australian couple took a cab to the hotel, we walked and arrived before them – we all laughed about that.

The Oberoi is quite high end – a beautiful hotel in an old building.

we didn’t check-in at reception as would normally be expected, instead we were offered drinks and escorted to our room (actually three rooms – bed-sitting room, bathroom and walk-in wardrobe). Our bags were carried in and after a short questionnaire on an iPad we were handed the keycards. While this was going on, a monkey climbed down onto our balcony and stared through the window!

I’ve been feeling a bit unwell for a few days, with a developing cough (that at first I put down to pollution) and now o think that I have a cold. I needed to rest while Matthew went swimming and had dinner on his own.

Hopefully I’ll be much better tomorrow.

Our holiday in India is rapidly coming to an end – there are just five days before we fly back to the UK and return to normal life. We’ve been looking back at all the places we’ve visited and it’s remarkable just how far we have travelled in this vast country from east to west, south to north. Before we head back to Delhi, we’ve a bit further north to go towards the Himalayas.

We’ve taken the Himalayan Queen ‘toy train’ from Kalka to get to Shimla. It’s a narrow gauge railway that climbs, and climbs, and climbs some more. The railway is a remarkable feat of engineering as it winds its way higher and higher – clinging to the edge of the mountain. The views are incredible down valleys and gorges. Almost as remarkable as the railway is the way towns and villages cling to the mountainside, its looks implausible that they don’t just slide down.

Our carriage is full of a mixture of tourists, some Indian and others from around the world. I think there are a couple of other Brits and an older couple behind us sound like they are from Australia or New Zealand. I overheard them say that they are staying at the same hotel we are at, so I’ll try and ‘do an Aunty Janet’ and find out about their life story. There is a large annoying man sitting across the aisle from me. Not only does he keep scrolling through social media on his phone with the volume turned right up, after he’d eaten his lunch I saw him scrunch up the packaging and throw it out the carriage window – disgusting.

When we reach Shimla we’ll be staying at the poshest hotel of this trip. It’s called the Oberoi Cecil. It was a tip off from one of my work colleagues. It’s the (even) more expensive brand of the Trident hotel chain we stayed at in Mumbai. It’ll be two days of rest and relaxation in the Himalayan foothills (pretty big foothills!) before we make our final journey back to Delhi where we’ll spend three nights before we fly home.

I didn’t feel like a run this morning, but I was wide awake by about 6.30am so I thought I would take another walk in the rose garden. It was just light and a bit nippy (about 10 degrees), fortunately the coats we’d left in our hotel in Bengaluru arrived at our hotel in Chandigarh yesterday, so I wrapped up well and headed out.

To reach the rose garden it’s a short walk from our hotel via a broad underpass. The underpass here is not like most UK underpass (i.e. dark, dingy, covered in graffiti and usually smelling of wee). This one is wide, the entrance is via a large stepped and sloping approach with a modern sculpture. All along the underpass artworks are hung as though it were an exhibition in a gallery. There were at least two small groups doing their early morning yoga. On the park side of the underpass I went up a ramp that is aligned with topiary animals.

As already mentioned, the rose garden is huge. There were already lots of people doing their early morning walk. It reminded me of UK friends Helen and Celia who usually meet up to go for a morning walk. The sun was up and although not warm it felt like an early cool summer morning to me, but amusingly all the Indian walkers were wrapped up in woolly hats and puffer jackets, I guess this is pretty cold to them.

The paths through the rose garden go round in interlocking curves so I wandered aimlessly admiring the blooms. In the centre is an oval pool with an enormous fountain. Chandigah has definitely won on the fountain front – they’ve all been working for a start. The jet on this one is huge, and we can see it from our hotel room shooting high above the tree canopy.

The park was set out as part of the original city plan and it is dotted with benches and also has unusual egg-shaped litter bins that swivel on a central axis for the refuse people to empty them. The swivel also makes it easy for others to access the content. The others in this case being two street dogs who were also up early scavenging for their breakfast. If I’d had any food with me I’d have put it down for them but alas I had nothing, so I left them to fend for themselves and headed back to the hotel for our final breakfast in Chandīgarh.

Three weeks in India and as a comparatively well off white European man I am still am not comfortable with being addressed as Sir (or Sir Mr Matthew) or waited on hand, foot and finger. In all the hotels we’ve stayed in there have been staff everywhere. It makes it very hard to do anything yourself. If I go to open a door, someone does it for me. Go to pick up my bag, someone’s got it for me. It all got a bit silly yesterday when I went to make some toast at breakfast.

I did at least manage to cut two slices of bread without anyone wrestling the knife and cutting board from my hands, but that’s where my involvement ended. As I approached the toaster and tried to insert the bread, a man appears and takes over. On insetting the bread he decides that the toaster isn’t adequate, so removes the toaster from the table and disappears with it. Another person appears almost instantly with another toaster. Man number one inserts the bread. After a short while a third man appears and decides the second toaster is still not up to the job. He removes my bread and goes off behind the counter to toast it on a grill. I stand there for about ten minutes until man number three returns with my toasted bread. I thank him and return to my table.

I sit down and look for a mini pot of jam on my table – but Michael has eaten the jam. All I am left with is mini jars of ketchup (yuk!) and honey (no thanks). I glance over to the other table to see if there is jam there. Almost instantly a woman appears, asks if I need anything. I say I’m looking for jam. she picks up the jar of jam from the next table, but rather than hand it to me she insists on opening it. She is quite slight and but stands next to me wrestling with the lid on the mini jam jar, which she can’t undo. I say ‘they’re quite stiff – shall I try’ but no, she will not be deterred. Breathless, and a bit red, she finally undoes the jam jar lid and passes it to me. I hold onto my knife with a firm grip determined to spread the jam on the toast myself!

Monday 10 February

Chandigarh

We arrived early this morning in Chandigarh. It’s beautiful – a lovely city … green, clean, peaceful, with lots of open space, even cycle lanes! Demographically, Chandigarh feels different too – there seem to be more Sikhs here than other places that we’ve visited (although they make up only about 12% of the population).

We’d booked into our hotel last night, so that we could use our room as soon as we arrived this morning. We cleaned up and had breakfast then went off to explore the Rock Garden and some parks and the rose garden. We were intending to visit the Le Corbusier’s state parliament building, courthouse and ‘open hand’ monument, but that was only possible on a guided tour-fortunately, there was a guided tour available at 3 o’clock this afternoon that we could book onto.

Chandigarh has a really interesting history – the state capital of Punjab was historically Lahore, but following the partition of India in 1947 the western, mostly Muslim, part of Punjab was became part of Pakistan while they mostly seek and Hindu east remained in India. Lahore was in the west and so the India Punjab had no state capital. Another city could have been made into the state capital, but the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted a new modernist planned city to be built. 

Last year we went to see an exhibition at the V&A called ’Tropical Modernism’, it was fascinating and explored the work of the British modernist architects who found it difficult to gain commissions in the more architecturally conservative UK during the 1930s, 40s and 50s, but who were able to adapt European modernist architecture to suit tropical climates, particularly in India and many colonial African countries – big overhangs and deep window recesses to provide shade and lots of ventilation for cooling. The master plan for Chandigarh and some of the important buildings in the city was developed by the Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, but the British architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew were involved too.

The Rock Garden, is one of the most famous sites in India. The garden was started by the clearly rather eccentric Nek Chand Saini. Visiting it was one of the main reasons that Matthew wanted to come here. Nek Chand was a city engineer who collected materials from demolition sites around the city that he could recycle into a huge enchanted garden in a designated wooded valley that was a conservation zone close to the city centre. The garden is made up of interlocking courtyards and passages richly decorated with stones, concrete designs and stones. The garden was built covertly, unknown to the authorities and completely illegal. When the rich garden was discovered the some in the city wanted to demolish it, but after it became evident that there was huge public support Nek was employed by the city to further develop the garden with 50 staff! Nek Chand Saini died in 2015, but the garden continues to develop and is hugely pop. Matthew will no doubt want to write far more knowledgeably about the garden than I can.

When we’d done and found that we couldn’t just go to the Le Corbusier state buildings we walked back to our hotel through a series of beautiful interlocking parks  – beginning with the Chandigarh War Memorial – shocking and tragic how many have died since independence.

Then through Bougainvillier Park (we saw some women rehearse a dance – looked like lots of fun); Leisure Valley ( with a curious miniature leaning Eiffel Tower and some improvised cricket games); then the rose garden (the biggest in Asia). 

W didn’t have much time back at the hotel before we had to set off for the tour if the state buildings. That was brilliant – a really good guide and we were joined by a group of architecture students. 

We didn’t expect to see inside the state parliament – but in we went (no photography allowed there, unfortunately).

We rested up then went to see some performing fountains around the corner that played from 18:30. 

Dinner at AJA Chandigarh,

Then back to bed to ready ourselves for the Himalaya Queen (train) to Shimla tomorrow.

I often used to visit Milton Keynes (MK) the new town in Buckinghamshire where my work head office was located until a few years ago. MK is quite unlike any other UK city as it’s laid out on a grid road system – in fact it’s famous for its roundabouts which are located at almost every junction. It’s also famous for being very green, as most of the sections within the grid are hidden from the road network by lots of trees and planting. It also has a famous sculpture of concrete cows.

Indian cities have lots of cows just casually wandering the streets. Chandīgarh is not like other Indian cities at all. There are no cows (not even concrete ones) but there are lots of roundabouts – just like MK, it’s built on a grid system with numbered sections In between. It’s also beautifully green with trees lining all the streets. And a series of big green parks called the lungs of the city, running right through the middle.  

After visiting the Rock Garden, we walked through the sections of the central gardens from the war memorial to the rose garden. It’s such a lovely central axis to the city and was being enjoyed by all sorts of people, walking or sitting on the many benches. Under the trees were a group of young women’s practicing a dance routing they were great.

The rose garden itself is enormous, apparently it’s the largest rose garden in Asia. It’s planted with hundreds of different varieties, each in a separate bed. It’s like how rose gardens in the UK were planted in the 1950s. Each bed had a plaque giving the name of the rose. It said in the guide that February is the best time to see the roses, before it gets too hot, so good timing on our part. From the rose garden itself was just a short walk under a large, well lit underpass with Indian music playing, to our hotel on the road opposite the rose garden. It might be the perfect spot for an early morning run – if I can get up early enough.

Most people come to Chandigah to see the modernist architecture. It was India’s first new city post independence and some of the main buildings were designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. We did the architecture tour too, but before that we went to see the main reason I came to Chandīgarh – a pile of rubbish!

When Chandīgarh was being developed in the 1950s a local traffic officer called Nek Chand started to secretly transform a wooded area that he knew there was no plans to develop as it had been designated as a nature area. He collected discarded waste material from around the city and from a small shed he’d constructed in the forest, began to build a remarkable ‘garden’. He carried on creating it for nearly 20 years before it was discovered. To their credit, the local government recognised it as an amazing creation. Rather than bulldoze it, they actually started to pay him to continue his creation. The garden was eventually opened to the public so everyone can now enjoy its secrets.

It’s certainly not like any other garden in India, or elsewhere in the world that I’ve visited for that matter. We enter through a small low arch in a wall made of piled stones and concrete. Having to stoop down to enter adds to the sense of entering a secret world. The path takes us along narrow high stone gullies bringing us out into small openings with eclectic sculptures created entirely from waste. There are pots piled on top of each other to create  screens and fences of old fluorescent light tubes. Walls are covered in mosaic made from things like broken plates, cups, bowls and even bathroom suites. 

We were drawn along by the sound of water and we’d turn a corner to find a pool with a fountain or a small cascade tumbling down the steep stone sides. Atop the walls are small pavilions or houses – as though the garden were inhabited by an invisible – or very shy miniature population. Further along the paths we were confronted by huge walls of water tumbling down from great heights. The size and scale of the rock garden, created largely by one man at the start is quite remarkable. Although this isn’t a garden in the traditional sense with plants, the greenery is provided by the forest that envelops the rock garden – and which for so many years helped keep its secrets.

Towards the end we came to a third section of the garden that was built after the local government gave its support. It is larger with wider paths that lead to a big wide open space with a ‘fun mirror’ arcade and large arches with swings hanging from them – a real pleasure garden. There’s a stage and amphitheatre for performances and a ‘rag doll cave’ a sort of modern day grotto.

The final part of the garden is a whacky arrangements of sculptures of people and animals all made of concrete and mosaic of broken waste ceramics. There are hundreds of them. Row after row of little men, women, deer, cats, dogs and numerous other real and fantasy creatures. We absolutely loved this garden – it’s almost worth the trip to India alone. I’d highly recommend it (even without a concrete cows). 

Sunday 09 February

Varanasi 

Our train from Agra to Varanasi Junction arrived two hours late at 0800 this morning, so we had less time in Varanasi than we planned. Our overnight train to Chandigarh is leaving at 14:47, so we only had a few hours. The station at Varanasi was really crowded – even though we thought that lots of the people on our train had got off a couple of stops earlier at Prayagraj – where the Kumbh Mela Hindu pilgrimage is taking place.

We left our bags at the cloakroom, admired the lovely station facade and headed into the city.

Varanasi (known as the‘city of light’ is situated on the West Bank of the sacred river Ganges, it’s one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. I was hoping to see the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and then to see the river. We asked a tuk tuk driver to take is to the temple but he explained that an area in the centre of the city was a pedestrian only and he could only get us about 1km from the temple. That seemed ok.

We were dropped off and walked through barriers towards the temple and the river – there were thousands of people doing the same, many dressed in orange or red – really looking happy and cheerful. The closer were to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple  the denser the crowds became until we were on the middle of a total scrum with police blowing whistles and trying to direct the crowd. The queues to go to the temple were enormous – so we abandoned that and made our way to the river. Even that was a challenge – we were jammed up so tight with others that it felt dangerous … a fall would have been fatal. We held on to each other tightly.

We came to the river at Prayag Ghat (steps leading down the steep river bank to the water—where pilgrims perform rituals). The scene was extraordinary – hundreds of boats, thousands of people, some bathing in the water, beautiful flowers and flames floating on the river. We walked along the river for a while, and there was a lovely atmosphere. 

We walked past some Hindu holy men and tried to take everything in.

According to Hindu belief, dying in Varanasi is auspicious and grants instant salvation and thousands are cremated on the banks of the river. I didn’t want to go to the cremation ghats – it felt prurient and disrespectful, so we turned back inland down some lovely narrow lanes filled with little stores selling garlands, flowers, beads, bangles and shawls.

We needed to get some supplies for the train so went in search of a supermarket then took another Tuk Tuk back to the railway station for our next train to Chandigarh.

The last time I went on any sort of religious pilgrimage (unless you count Eurovision) was in May 1982. Pope John Paul II was at the height of his popularity and on his ‘rock star’ tour of the UK. He held a huge outdoor mass at Bagington Airfield on the edge of Coventry, where I was born and raised. The pope’s mass was a big event in Coventry – particularly for our street where just about everyone bar our house were Irish Roman Catholics (because we lived near a Catholic school). On the day of the mass we joined with everyone else to walk the five miles to Bagington. There were thousands and thousands of people descending on the site – but even that had nothing on Varanasi!

Just as Tundra Junction had been, Varanasi station was rammed. There were crowds everywhere with people arriving and departing having been on, or heading to, pilgrimage. We took a tuk tuk as far as we could, but most of the roads close to the river had been closed to vehicles – although there were still motorbikes and pedal rickshaws ploughing through the packed streets.

If I’m honest, the whole experience for me was quite unpleasant. It was a human scrum and although there were police on junctions blowing their whistle and waving their arms around, I don’t think they were making any difference. I was sandwiched close to Mike and was holding his back pack very tight as I thought if I lose him we’ll never find each other again.

As several roads converged, it went from being very crowded to a crush. It was scary. We could see how a stampede could easily happen and there’d be no way of stopping it. If anyone had fallen over they’d have been trampled underfoot. Somehow we managed to get to one side and took refuge inside an open fronted perfume shop. At one point the shop seemed to be filling up. I did slightly panic that we might get crushed to death inside this store – but then I thought, at least I’ll smell nice when they find my body!

We eventually followed another woman out of the shop and into the scrum shuffling our way forward until the crowd eased a little and then we were on the ghats (steps) on the banks of the river Ganges. The river was almost as crowded as the streets had been. There were boats full of pilgrims everywhere and on the edge of the water pilgrims were bathing themselves head to toe in the sacred waters of the Ganges. It looked pretty brown water to me, there was no way I was going near it let alone in it.

The whole sight was quite extraordinary, I can’t say I liked it though and I wasn’t overcome with any sense of spiritual awakening either. However, it was certainly working its magic on the thousands and thousands of pilgrims who’d traveled from across India to be here – and as they say ‘whatever floats your boat’.

We watched a while and took some photos before we started the return scrum back. It wasn’t quite so bad going the other way. We thought we’d better hunt some food for our long overnight train journey (the last sleeper train on our trip). We asked a tuk tuk driver to take us to where there were a few ‘malls’ (a general term for shopping areas, not the kind of Mall we have in the UK). The driver said it would be 500 rupees which we knew was an inflated price so we said no and walked instead. 

It wasn’t a long walk, but it was really horrible as the pollution and noise of beeping horns was vile. We could taste the fumes in our mouths and it made us cough, Mike is still coughing several hours later it’s that bad. We eventually found a small grocery store and then a curious supermarket called Spencer’s – think Farm Foods meets Primark with a bit of B&M thrown in for good measure! We got enough snacks to sustain us through the night and then took a tuk tuk back to the station. Our elderly driver was the slowest tuk tuk ride we’ve ever had, I said to Mike this is like ‘driving Miss Daisy’ as we sedately progressed through the crazy traffic.

Back at the station we paid 20 rupees to sit in the air conditioned waiting room with power. It was just over an hour until our final overnight train. Not wanting to be late I made sure we were on the platform well before the departure time. I’d only just worked out that the railway train tracker website also tells us the order of the carriage numbers so using this I estimated where our carriage would arrive on the platform. There are meant to be helpful little screens announcing the arrival point on the platform for each carriage but annoyingly these weren’t working.

The train was running late, but when it finally arrived it threw me as the name on the side of the carriages didn’t match the name of the train on my reservation. Also I was looking for a blue carriage as I thought that’s what A1 carriages usually would be. I thought our carriage had passed us and that we must be at the other end of the platform. I charged off Mike trying to keep up behind. I got to near the end of the train but no A1. There was a guard, so I asked him, he confirmed it was the right train but A1 was at the other end (where we’d come from) – Arghhh!

Knowing there were minutes before departure I charged down the platform pushing people out of the way, glancing back to see if Mike was keeping up (barely). I got to A1 with moments to spare bundled my bags on and looked back willing Mike to catch up. He made it just – phew! We collapsed into our two berth cabin, relieved not to have missed our train. I was dripping with sweat, I took off a few layers and lay down on my bunk to decompress.

The overnight train was one of the noisiest we’d been on (passengers not the engine!), and staff kept disturbing us to clean the cabin, try to sell us snacks, ask for dinner choice, bring dinner, clear dinner! It all added up to a not very tranquil night’s sleep. I think I grabbed a couple of blocks of 2-3 hours. We had to be awake at 5am to change trains at Ambala Cant junction for the final short stretch to Chandīgarh. I’m writing this on the connecting train. I will be very pleased to get to Chandīgarh (est arrival time 7.30am) and check into our hotel. I need a shower and my clothes are so grubby after the last few days of dirt and dust in Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi so some laundry needs washing too. We should arrive in time to freshen up and have breakfast before a day of sightseeing in India’s modernist city designed by (among others) the famous  Swiss-French modernist architect Le Coubusier. 

Saturday 08 February

Agra

This morning was a big highlight – we were up at 0500 and out of our hotel by 0530 to walk to the Taj Mahal. The morning was dark still – the road to the east gate entrance of the Taj Mahal is wide and slopes gently down with perforated light columns every few metres. There were cows and dogs  wandering around (monkeys weren’t awake yet) and there were even some early morning runners. On one side of the road was the Taj protected forest by the river Yamuna and the stroll was a lovely, peaceful start to the day.

There was a small queue forming already to get in to the Taj Mahal  – so we were glad that we’d made the effort to arrive before the crowds. The number of people really swelled quickly. The security was super-serious, scanners (us and bags) and body searches and bag searches – all a bit chaotic, but we were in by 0700, just before sunrise. 

I don’t think I could ever do justice to the feeling of being in the Taj Mahal. It’s one of the seven wonders of the modern world (along with Colosseum in Rome, Petra in Jordan, Chichén Itzá in Mexico, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Machu Picchu in Peru and The Great Wall of China). It’s breathtaking and being there felt very special and emotional. The changing light as the sun rose really changed how Taj Mahal looked and the atmosphere.

Commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal who died aged 38 while giving birth to their fourteenth child. Construction in phases took 22 years. 

Inside (no photographs allowed) are the likenesses of the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan with the actual burials in the basement.

The gardens are divided into four quadrants that were further subdivided into four and originally filled with flowers and fruit trees, in Muslim belief, heavenly paradise is a garden, but by the time that the British Raj began in 1858 the gardens had become overgrown and the were remodelled in the style of a 19th century London park, which is how they still appear today.

After our visit we walked quietly back to our hotel for breakfast and arranged a late checkout. I’d thought that we might go to the Agra (Red) Fort this afternoon (completed in 1573 and the main residence of the Mughal rulers until 1638, when they moved to Delhi. It’s vast – really a walled city). But after the Taj Mahal, I didn’t really want to see any more  sights – and I knew that the Agra Fort would be incredible. I just didn’t think I could – and wasn’t sure that I wanted – to take anything more in. Furthermore, we’d gone past the fort last night on our way to and from  Chand Baori and the Taj Mahal viewpoint and also we were going to be taking a train from Agra Fort station at 18:20, so I had seen the outside already and I imagined that there’d be some time to look at the outside of the Agra Fort later.

We rested up and headed out for some late lunch at the vegan restaurant that we visited last night. We used the very new and clean and largely empty Agra Metro – that was good fun.

We went back to our hotel to collect our bags and then back to the metro that would take us to Agra Fort station (and our last glimpse of the Taj Mahal) for our night train.

We didn’t really see much more of the Agra Fort, which was a shame – but sometimes something has to give and I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to see more.

At Agra station a couple of young men from the Netherlands asked us about the trains – lots of good chat followed about the vagaries of the trains and the website dnd the platform signs and the carriage signs and the platform alterations. While we taking we watched a monkey on the platform run up behind a man carrying a bag of biscuits and snatch it out of his hand then run away. The man was too sensible to give chase and the cheeky (or just very hungry) monkey sat on the ground, opened the bag and ate the lot!

The young men were interesting and interested – they were in India for two weeks and were also hoping to get to Mexico, New York and Quebec. One wanted to study medicine, the other was less certain – but perhaps criminology! I think that the young people we’ve met who are travelling around without much by way of money, in what to them must be very strange and difficult to navigate countries are an inspiration  – I rather wish that I’d had their wherewithal when I was their age.

We were all going to be boarding the same train  – they were going to Vatanesi, too – but we were changing to our sleeper train after two stops at Tundla Junction. We got off on a station that was absolutely heaving. I’d no idea how we’d all fit on our train – which was an hour late. Matthew was anxious that we might not be able to get on – the platform signs weren’t showing where each carriage would stop and if we were in the wrong place on the platform, what with the length of the train and the huge crowds, we’d be unlikely to get from one end of the train to the other before it left if the need arose. To add to the chaos there was a last-minute change of platform!

Thankfully a porter came to our rescue and led us to where our carriage was likely to be. Once the train arrived, Matthew made a dash for our allocated carriage door and boarded the train – I was stuck behind a barrow piled high with luggage and surrounded by dozens of people who were also trying to get on. A couple of train attendants were simultaneously pushing people away from the door to prevent them getting into a carriage and grabbed me and pulled me on! This was extraordinary – there’s no way I’d have made it on to the train otherwise. It doesn’t bear thinking about – Matthew on his way to Varanasi and me 600km / 400 miles away in Tundla Junction!

I’ve been planning this trip over the past year, but despite my meticulous research and a detailed spreadsheet that includes the itinerary of where and when we’ll be visiting, there have been some remarkable coincidences that I hadn’t planned for. There was flower shows in Chennai and Bengaluru, then there was the pride parade and the India vs England Cricket match in Mumbai. However, by far the biggest event that our trip coincides with (which I had no idea about when planning it) is the Kumbh Mela religious event.

Kumbh Mela is one of the largest Hindu religious events on earth. it’s an especially sacred and religious Hindu festival, celebrated in India. it’s the revered Hindu festival that dignifies the Hindu faith, jam-packed with cultural and ancient values. Truthfully, it says that Kumbh Mela is an example of unity among diversity. The Kumbh Mela rotates between four pilgrimage places on four sacred rivers, at Prayagraj (Allahabad) at the confluence point (Triveni Sangam) of the Ganges, the Jamuna, and the mythical Sarasvati, at Haridwar on the bank of Ganges River, at Ujjain on the Shipra, at Nashik on the Godavari river. 

When deciding where we’d visit, I didn’t initially plan for us to visit Varanasi. I was aware that this city on the banks of the Ganges is a very holy place and it’s where many people are cremated due to its holy significance. I was also aware that the Ganges is very polluted (maybe related to the burning of over 40,000 bodies by it each year). The water is considered so toxic that they can’t even use it to irrigate crops. Spiritual it may be, but it also sounds pretty grim to me, so not high on my wish list of places to visit. It was only because Michael thought we should visit that it was squeezed onto the schedule – and I mean squeezed in. We arrive early on an overnight train from Agra and we depart on another overnight train to Chandigarh. We have a day in Varanasi.

When we realised that our day trip to Varanasi just happens to coincide with one of the largest religious festivals and pilgrimages, it has made us a little anxious. Not just us, our Indian friends Vaishakh, Bharath, Shubhi and their friend Amruta all queried whether it was a good idea to visit right now as it will be very busy in Varanasi. I did look at whether we might be able to change our plans and take a train directly from Agra to Chandigarh, but there was no availability so we decided we’d stick to plan A.

We didn’t really get a sense of how busy the Kumbh Mela is going to be until we arrived at Tundra Junction station from Agra to change onto our overnight train to Varanasi. The station was very crowded and there seemed to be lots of chaos whenever a train arrived that was headed in the direction of Varanasi. We had booked berths in a first class sleeper car, and I could see on the Indian Railways website that our train was running late. 

We weren’t sure what platform or where on the platform (the trains are unbelievably long) our carriage would be. I asked a porter, although he spoke very little English he looked at our ticket and took us to a waiting room and through a few words of broken English and hand signals, he managed to tell us our train was 30 minutes late and to wait there until 9pm before going to the platform. We obeyed, I went and found some salted crisps and bottled water – a delux vegan train tea for us, and returned to wait with Michael.

Anxious British travellers that we are, we got to 8.45pm and decided we should head to platform 5 where our train was due to depart. We got as far as the ‘over foot bridge’ as they’re quaintly called here and stopped to see what information about our train would appear on the electronic display. As we peered down onto the platform we were aghast at what we could see. There was already another train on the platform and a human scrum was taking place at every door as people pushed and shoved to try and get onto the carriages. We stood looking down as two train came and went and the same performance  repeated itself.

The platform was rammed, there were groups of women wearing beautiful saris sat on the floor all up the platform. Our train had still not arrived and given the pandemonium we’d seen we thought we’d better at least try and position ourselves on the platform close to where our carriage would arrive. We pitched on the forward end of the platform as that’s where most of the first class carriages we’ve caught have departed from. It was very crowded and I said to Mike ‘do you think they might storm first class?’ – I sounded like a character from an EM Forster novel!

It was at this point our porter friend reappeared and barking a few words neither of understood, he beckoned us to follow him. He clearly knew our late (and getting later) train was going to switch across to adjacent platforms from 5 to 6 (not over the bridge fortunately – that would have caused a stampede!). He also knew we needed to be at the opposite end of the platform to where we’d been standing. Another train pulled in – he indicated this wasn’t our train, so we stood back and watched another round of human train scrum carnage unfold.

Shortly after our train started to pull into platform 6. The porter urgently beckoned to follow him as he started to run alongside the train by the door to H1 – our carriage. I kept up but was worried Michael, with his bad foot, was lagging behind. Fortunately the train soon came to a halt. The crowd swelled, I was right by the door and the porter pushed me from the platform as a first class train porter pulled me from the carriage end. I looked back and Michael was four of five people behind the crowd. I shouted to him to push and hollered to the porters ‘get him, get him’. The porters literally dragged Mike through the crowd as they beat off the others trying to board the carriage without a ticket. We were aboard, but I think we were both in a state of shock.

I’d had a call from brother Philip earlier today to tell me the sad news that my uncle Pete (my dad’s brother) had died yesterday. He was in his 70s and wasn’t the healthiest of men, but he wasn’t at death’s door either, so it was a bit of a shock. A bit of me is thinking that Pete is looking down chuckling at tonight’s train saga and maybe sent a guardian porter to help us. We are now safely ensconced in our (locked) first class cabin. There are four porters and a train guard in this carriage so I think we’ll be safe tonight – but goodness knows what Varanasi will be like!

We went to bed early(ish) last night as we knew we’d be up at 5am for our sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal. It wasn’t so easy to get to sleep though as there were fireworks going off and lots of music and noise combing from somewhere outside. On our way back to the hotel last night we’d bumped into a loud mini-parade of something with lights, music and men on horses. It was like the Bridgewater carnival had come to Agra. We asked at reception if it was a particular festival. It’s just wedding season was the reply.

The alarm went off at five and I dragged myself out of bed, showered and dressed. Mike followed shortly behind. We were out of the hotel by 5.30 to walk to the East Gate of the Taj. As we’ve mentioned previously, the pavements here are shocking, add in no street lights and they are a virtual death trap. We carefully made our way along the side street our hotel is on until we reached the main road which was lit. The main road down to the Taj East Gate is probably one of the best paved streets we’ve encountered, but even then I managed to trip up twice (fortunately maintaining my upright position on both occasions). It really looked as though this street had been ‘done up’ for when India hosted the G20 summit of world leaders in 2023. As well as pavements it had very fancy street lights and trees planted all along.

When we reached the east gate the queues were already building. There are separate  queues for Indian and foreign visitors (or high value ticket holders as they called us). We joined and had to wait until 6.30am before they started to open the doors (30 minutes before sunrise). When they finally opened we then had to slowly shuffle through the most bizarre and chaotic security checks. Women and men had to go into separate queues. They had just four metal detectors (of which only two were working) and everyone was frisked after passing through the detector. Bags had to be put through the x-ray scanner, but there was only one. A security guard was literally pilling bags on top of each other and shoving them into the machine. One x-ray machine seemed totally inadequate for India’s top tourist attraction (visited by more than 3 million each year). I think that we’ve seen more x-ray machines at most of the Indian metro stations we’ve visited. 

After the bags came out, they were piled onto a table where security staff would randomly pick them off the pile and open every part, empty the content and check them. What was bizarre was that there was one side for women’s bags and the other side for men’s bag, but of course there was no way of knowing which bags belonged to who as they’d all been shoved through the same x-ray machine. My bag got pulled out by a guard checking the women’s bag. It had got tangled up with a women’s handbag so as he pulled that one out, mine went with it. I rushed around to the ‘women’s side of the table’ as she was reclaiming her bag (with mine still attached!). What was even more bizarre was that although they’d emptied her bags contents and checked it, they didn’t touch mine! We untangled the straps of the bags and commented on how chaotic the process was. Mike retrieved his bag from the men’s side (after it had been emptied and checked), then we were free to go through into the site. Mike wondered if USA presidents had to go through this, I suspect not.

It was nearly seven (sunrise), there had been a moment when i thought we’d be watching the sunrise over the metal detectors of the Taj Mahal, but fortunately we just made it to the main event. Despite there being hundreds of other tourists there, it was still magical (a definite pinch myself moment) watching the morning light on the Taj Mahal and seeing the sun slowly illuminate the beautiful white marble of the mausoleum. It went for a pale blue in the morning mist, to a warm white as the sun’s beams slowly fell across it. It was definitely worth the early rise.

We proceeded to don our shoe covers to climb the vast marble platform on which the mausoleum sits, and entered the Taj. No photos are allowed inside, and we shuffled around in a one way system. We’d seen beautiful images and drawings of the tomb in the Great Mughals exhibition in London last year, and here we were looking at the real thing – truly beautiful. I managed to miss the ‘no-photos’ sign and took a couple of photos of the sun falling through the lattice work into the mausoleum. after we’d exited and taken a few more photos as we traced our way back through the garden and bumped into Tom and Lilly near to the famous bench where Princess Diana had been photographed. Their friend took a nice photo of us to add to our blog before we bid our farewells and headed back to our hotel for breakfast.

As predicted the driver from Jaipur to Agra pretty much wiped us out of cash. We thought we had enough to see us through the day as long as the restaurant we planned to go to took cards. We took a tuk tuk from the view point to the restaurant and were pleased to see ‘vegan friendly’ proudly emblazoned on the sign. We went in and took a seat. The menu was good and they recommended some good dishes. It was then we asked if they took cards – no cash only. 

Ah. We only had around 700 rupees (not enough for our dinner). It was ok we thought as there were cash points nearby. Mike set off in search of the nearest machine – that’s where it all started to go wrong. As soon as he’d left I thought, bad idea. I should have gone. I had this sinking feeling in my stomach that told me Mike was going to have a repeat of yesterday’s stressful incident. I was right.

He was gone a very long time, the food came, he didn’t. Even the lovely restaurant guys were worried about him and offered to go and collect him in the back of their motorbike. Even if the ‘find my friend’ feature had been working accurately (it wasn’t the spot showing where Mike was kept jumping around), I thought Mike would never get on the back of a motorbike at home let alone here!

While I waited I was joined at our table by Tom and Lilly two young Brits who were travelling around India. It turned out they’d not set out together, but had met on way and were now a group along with another young women (she wasn’t feeling well so was back at their hostel). It was great talking to them and comparing notes on our travels – Tom had also been to Chennai and we agreed ‘what a dump’. On her return to the UK Lilly was planning to convert a van and go travelling with a friend in Europe, i was so impressed and a bit jealous, I’d not been brave enough to do anything like that when I was her age. Chatting to them helped ease my anxieties about Mike being ‘lost in Agra’. I was telling them about him and where he’d gone, and how I knew he’d be in a terrible state when he (hopefully) returned.

I finally managed to WhatsApp message him, then call him. It had (as if feared) been a ‘wild goose chase’ trying to find a cashpoint that worked, and he’d been unsuccessful and was now lost in Agra’s narrow back streets. Thank goodness he managed to find his way back to a main road on his own. I had passed my phone to the restaurant guys who spoke excellent English to try and help him find his was, but even they conceded he was lost! 

When he finally arrived at the restaurant he was not a happy bunny, and still had no cash. I asked the restaurant guys how much our meal was (more than we had), I thought we’d be doing the washing up. Thanks to the kindness of Tom we didn’t need to. He gave us 500 rupees, and wouldn’t let me transfer some money to him. He just said to ‘pay it forward’ – what a sweetheart. They finished their meal and set off before Mike realised what he’d done. I said we might see them in the morning at the Taj as that’s where they planned to be to see the sunrise. Sure enough they were and I was able to repay Tom his 500 rupees – but I’ll definitely be taking a cue from Tom and will ‘pay it forward’ to someone else in need.

Friday 07 February

Agra

Today is Peter Major’s birthday – happy birthday Pete! Pete is looking after our dogs while we’re here – thanks Pete – we know they’re in good hands! And a big lick from Zoly as thanks, plus her bum in your face while you’re in bed from Jojo as thanks, too!

Our driver collected us at 0900 this morning in Jaipur to drive to Agra. There are trains between Jaipur and Agra, but Matthew really wanted to see the amazing 8th-9th century Chand Baori stepwell in the village of Abhaneri – it’s 30m /100ft deep with 13 stories and 3500 steps – it’s one of the largest stepwells in India. 

We didn’t stay long at Chand Baori because we didn’t want to be too late arriving in Agra – when we were in Mumbai Amruta recommended we visit the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daula, a Mughal mausoleum built in 1622, which is sometimes called the “Baby Taj”, as it is regarded as a precursor of the Taj Mahal. As soon as we checked in to our hotel at 1500 we booked a taxi to take us to the mausoleum. 

We drove through Agra past the fort and could just glimpse the top of the Taj Mahal dome – exciting. Our taxi driver was singing along to Indian songs on the radio – it was sweet. The white marble mausoleum is set in beautiful gardens on the left bank of the River Yamuna; it was truly lovely – it was the first Mughal building to be finished in white marble (hence its influence on the Taj Mahal) – a real tranquil haven from the noisy streets outside. Once again, it was a shame that the fountains and rills were empty.

I realised that we were on the opposite side of the river to the Taj Mahal and the viewing area from the opposite bank wasn’t far  away – so we decided to go there. What a sight … it hardly seemed real, a pinch ourselves moment to see the Taj Mahal – it’s so iconic and something I never imagined I’d see for myself until a year ago.

After sundown we wandered back to the main road to get a tuk tuk to a vegan restaurant that Matthew had found. We passed Agra fort again and the city looked lovely lit up.

At the restaurant Matthew asked if they accepted cards – they didn’t and because our driver today didn’t accept bank transfers or card payments we were virtually out of rupees. I asked if there was an ATM nearby … there were, but neither worked with my card. There was a Bank of India ATM showing as 9 minutes walk away, so I figured that’d probably work. It wasn’t where Google maps said it was – so I ended up walking further then when I found it, it was out of cash. Infuriating!

There were some other ATMs nearby, but they wouldn’t work either. Getting back to the restaurant was challenging – I was in narrow backstreets that didn’t appear on my map. Eventually I got back to the restaurant – Matthew had been given ₹500 by a young British couple so he could pay our bill. Hopefully we’ll see them tomorrow to pay them back.

After dinner we went to another ATM that worked – so all’s well. 

Taj Mahal at dawn tomorrow morning – so early night tonight.

We could have caught a train from Jaipur to Agra but I decided we should get a driver so that we could visit this extraordinary stepwell. I’d seen pictures of it and realised it was on route to Agra. It was (another) long and crazy drive – during which my eyes mostly remained firmly closed. It was worth it for the detour though. The Chand Baori step-well was beautiful and an impressive piece of engineering. The bright sunshine really highlighted the geometric patterns of the carved steps. This was one place I’d really wanted to visit on this trip and it didn’t disappoint.

We finally made it to Agra after a further 3 hour drive. Once checked in we arranged an Uber to take us to the Itmad ud Daula also known as the baby Taj Mahal. It was suggested to us by Amruta who had guided us around Mumbai, and what a tip. It was a stunning building set in a lovely garden by the bank of the river, a bit further along from the Taj Mahal. Alas the fountains and rills were empty of water here too. I’m wondering if there is a water shortage as the river was also very low – so much so that there were dogs wading through the low water level.

It was nearing sunset so we decided we Should take another tuk tuk to the view point across the river from the Taj Mahal. We booked one on Uber and were soon whisked off in an electric tuk tuk. It was a good call as the sunset was lovely and the Taj Mahal looked magical in the fading light. We’ve got 6am tickets to see the Taj at dawn so we’ll be able to say we saw the sun set and rise on the Taj Mahal, definitely another ‘pinch me’ moment. 

Last night in Jaipur we went on a frustrating hunt for a cash point. There was an ATM just a few shops down from where we were staying, but it wouldn’t give us cash. We soon realised that we needed to find an ATM with the visa/Mastercard symbol on it to be able to get cash out on our credit card. Most places we’ve been able to pay on our card, but our driver to Agra today needed cash and as our reserves of notes were low – we had to get some more money!

We set off for a Bank of India ATM that Google maps told us was just 15 minutes walk away. That isn’t far to walk – unless you’re in India, where walking anywhere is like doing all four zones of the Crystal Maze with a Tough-Mudder obstacle course thrown in for good measure. The alleged Bank of India ATM turned out not to be where Google maps told us it was. I examined the street view image and established it was in another building further down the road. We continued on – but it was still nowhere to be seen. In further examination of the map/street view image I realised the bank ATM was at the rear of the building. Round the corner we went. Success! We found it and withdrew the cash – although the whole experience had been quite stressful.

Cash in hand we decided to get a tuk tuk to the only vegan restaurant in Jaipur – it was about 15 minutes away. The driver of the first tuk tuk to stop had no idea where it was and he spoke no English, plus he had no headlights or rear lights on his tuk tuk. It was a big no-no from Mike “I’m not getting in that!”. Although the driver was hard to shake off, we firmly declined. We found another tuk tuk parked a little further up the street. The driver was sat in the back chatting to his girlfriend on his phone (who happened to be in London and turns out had visited Bristol 4 times). He wasn’t able to drive us but he rushed into his store and came out with his brother who duly agreed to take us.

He was a nice young guy who insisted we ‘pay him what we felt’ as ‘it was only money’. He was very chatty and intrigued why we were going so far for a restaurant. We explained we were vegan and that’s why. He was interested in what we did and didn’t eat. The journey was all going fine until we came up to a large island intersection and he stalled the tuk tuk! We were stuck in the middle of about six lanes of crazy traffic as he tried to restart it. I think he’d flooded the engine (he kept saying it was over full). He uttered something about him going to kill his brother (who’s tuk tuk it was). We were both hoping that he didn’t kill us first. Both Mike and I had visions of something ramming into the back of this stalled tuk tuk. We had everything crossed, willing the engine to restart. Fortunately he managed to get it going again and we crawled off – somewhat limping along until we got to the restaurant.

The meal was nice and the two guys who ran the restaurant were friendly, if a little surprised to see two white European guys turn up – or maybe anyone turn up as we were the only two people inside. After we’d eaten and paid we set back on the hunt of another tuk tuk back (we were shaken but not stirred by our latest near death experience). As we were further out of the city there were fewer tuk tuks around and we stood by the side of the road for a while waiting. Suddenly one pulled up. It was a six seater – two up front and four facing each other at the back. It already had three guys in it, but as we’d not had any other luck and the said they’d take us for R200 (about £2) we agreed and got in.

It was only once we’d set off that I realised just how dilapidated this tuk tuk was. The seats were stuck together with tape and as I glanced up, instead of seeing a roof there was part of a rusting sheet of metal flapping above my head. I crossed everything and carefully tracked the route home on Google maps on my phone to make sure we were not being kidnapped. They dropped us one station sooner than we had asked for and then tried to charge us R50 more than the agreed price (they didn’t get it), but I was just relieved to get out alive! I can see the appeal of an Uber over this!

We’ve spent our day in Jaipur sightseeing, first a short walk from our apartment to the Jantar Mantar – an extraordinary astronomical observation site. It was created at the behest of Maharaja Raja Jai Singh II in the 18th century. A man of science and astronomy enthusiast, Jai Singh II had five observatories built in different cities of India (that of Jaipur is the largest and best preserved of the five), in order to be able to precisely determine the position of the celestial bodies, which in practice it differed from that calculated theoretically.

The site is remarkably preserved and still works. It is amazing to think that so long ago with just the stars and planets to guide them they could calculate with such precision. The different instruments in the observatory are not only practical, but also quite beautiful. Their forms could almost be abstract sculptures.

Outside the Jantar Mantar, despite our protests, we once again found ourselves ‘kidnapped’ by a tuk tuk driver who wouldn’t take no for an answer. We said we only wanted to go to the Vidyadhar Garden, but as soon as he realised that we also wanted to visit the Amber Palace, that was it – he insisted on staying with us all day, and taking us on a few detours as well. 

The Vidyadhar Garden was in a striking setting, just outside Jaipur city in the valley of a rocky ravine. The garden is split into two parts, a smaller upper garden which at its head has a large ornate pavilion (housing a posh restraint). In front of this a pool with fountains (which sadly was empty and not running) would have led via a rill down the centre of the garden, around another open sided pavilion and into a lower pool (that did have water in it).

The second part of the garden was on the other side of a small car park. It was a similar arrangement following a central axis from one fountain pool via a rill to a lower fountain pool. The plants were sparse with just nearly clipped hedges, a few trees and grass lawns which they must water a lot to keep them green. It was a shame the fountains weren’t running as I’m sure that’s what brings the garden to life.

From Vidyadhar Garden, our hostage keeper – I mean tuk tuk driver, took us to the Amber Fort. It’s an enormous place, even though they only let tourists around part of it. The bit I really wanted to see was the ‘saffron garden’, that occupies its own island beneath the fort. It was a shame visitors weren’t allowed into the garden, but we had great views looking down on it from the fort – and they even had the fountains on! There was also a nice Islamic carpet garden inside the fort (sadly without its fountain working).

From the Amber Fort we really just wanted to go back to our apartment, but our driver had other plans. He insisted on taking us to a fabric block printing workshop just a little off the route home. We were shown round by the owner and saw fabric block printing in progress. Of course next we were ushered into the shop next where they tried to sell us block printed quilt covers, cushion covers, scarfs and shawls. I was very nearly taken by a made to measure shirt (for £20!) that they says they could make up in two hours and deliver to our hotel that evening. If it wasn’t for Mike not being ‘bothered’ by my choice of fabric I might have gone for it. Instead I resisted and instead purchased a souvenir scarf for someone. 

As we left the showroom we went to put on our shoes (it is customary to remove shoes when entering a building in India). I put my sandals on and the I heard Mike say ‘where’s my shoes’. While we had been perusing the wares, it appeared someone had taken a fancy to Mike’s shoes. A flurry of activity pursued as the owner rushed off to see if someone had inadvertently taken Mike’s shoes by mistake. I looked down at the remaining shoes and said ‘aren’t those trainers yours?’. He was adamant they were not. I looked at the trainers and thought, that’s odd, that’s how I tie my trainers. Yes, after claiming his shoes had been stolen, it was in fact Mike who was the shoe thief. After examining some of the photos taken throughout the day, Mike had been wearing my shoes all day and he hadn’t even noticed – even though they are a size bigger than his. Someone needs to go to spec-savers!

I can’t say it was the most relaxing night’s sleep, the bed was comfy enough but I woke up early worrying about breakfast. The thought of Mike without his morning coffee was not something I wanted to contemplate. Thankfully I had a ‘save the day’ thought. I remembered the app I’d used in Bengaluru to order the vegan cake and I thought, I wonder if that would work here.

Being ‘old’ and someone who tries to live a ‘principled’ life, I’m not one who uses the likes of Amazon or ‘uber eats’ or other similar fast food delivery apps back at home. I’m always concerned that the reason they are so cheap and so fast is that someone somewhere in the chain is being horribly exploited. That’s my main reason for avoiding them – but this situation was an emergency!

I logged into ‘Swiggy’ and searched groceries. I managed to add soya milk, jam, bread, cornflakes and Special K to my basket. I ordered two cereals as at 6.30am I was laying there trying to decide how many grams were in a regular cereal box. I had visions of one fun sized box of cornflakes between two hungry vegans. I thought better to be safe than sorry. I checked out only to be told the transaction had failed. 

I soon realised this was because the shop where the items would come from wasn’t open yet. I waited a while until it was, it worked! I watched the delivery time tick down 20 min, 15, 10, 8 etc. when it got to 4 I wandered out onto the street to wait. Sure enough a moped turned up with my bag of vegan goodies. I return to Mike who was still in bed to show him my swag – he was impressed (I’m sure this is one of the reasons he married me!). Boosted by my success in securing vegan breakfast (and my abandoning of all my usual principles) I moved onto a hunt for coffee. Twenty minutes later we’re supping on two Starbucks’ Americano coffees with warm soya milk! 

Please be assured my moral principles will return when I get back to the UK, it’ll be back to the local Co-op for last minute food emergencies then!

Wednesday 05 February

Jaipur

Today is my sister’s birthday – happy birthday Lisa! 

We were up early and packed as we’re going to Jaipur today. It’s another longish train journey (six hours). There weren’t any tuk tuks outside the hotel, so we had a nice short walk through the quiet old town until we found one. Some of the shops were just opening and some people were sweeping the street in front of their shop. Lots of dogs were wandering about, probably enjoying this part of the day with no traffic on the streets.

At Uidapur station we couldn’t find our carriage and walked the length of the giant platform before someone told us that our train to Jaipur was on a different platform! Once on board our train was lovely – modern and comfortable with at table service in first class!

We arrived in Jaipur at 1400 – rather fatigued and as seems to be the norm we (mostly Matthew, it has to be said) were accosted by tuk tuk and taxi drivers. There’s a metro in Jaipur – there’s a stop by the railway station and our hotel is very near a metro station, too – so Matthew tried to make it clear that we didn’t need a tuk tuk. One particular driver wasn’t having it and promised to match the metro fare (very unlikely) and wouldn’t leave Matthew alone. Matthew was getting exasperated and used his assertive, firm-but-fair voice – but that made things worse … he was accused of not being polite and was lectured on the importance of civility in India. The only way we could escape was to retreat back into the station. Poor Matthew  – he’s the kindest, sweetest man – is never rude, so for him to be told that was horrible.

We found another route to the metro station by walking down the (very long) platform and made our way to our hotel – not really a hotel as such, a small palatial house – a bit like an Airbnb (without the breakfast!). It’s extraordinary – right by the (absolutely enormous) bazaar and very extravagantly decorated.

On one we’d settled in we went to explore around – our guidebook has a suggested walk around Jaipur, we are staying on the route so we thought we should do it. The guidebook shows the the lovely pink buildings that Jaipur is famed for and wide streets. The guidebook doesn’t show the crazy traffic or give any sense of incessant deafening noise of vehicle horns. It’s quite overwhelming – add in the hundreds of little shops spilling out into the street, thousands of people, almost every other shopkeeper inviting us to look at their wares, stray dogs and street monkey – it was all becoming too much. 

We really needed some peace and quiet. We were by the Hawa Mahal palace and decided to go in. The palace – built in 1799 on the orders of Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh- is famous for the five-floor (it’s very high!) rear elevation has 953 small windows and latticework openings (called Jharokhas) there to enable the women to look out without being seen and to keep the space cool.

It was lovely inside – much, much quieter than the street, with a big fountain in a square and lots of places to sit and relax – just what we needed. A couple of people asked us to be on their photographs! There was an arts festival taking place with musicians and puppeteers giving performances. All lovely.

From the top we could see the Amber Fort and the Jantar Mantar observatory – one of the oldest astronomical observatories built in 1734, it includes the world’s largest stone sundial – accurate to within 2 seconds – that’s absolutely incredible! I’m hoping to visit the observatory tomorrow.

We stayed in the Hawa Mahal palace to watch the sunset over the city and then headed back into the crazy streets outside.

A man in the street admired Matthew’s moustache (he gets this a lot!); he was an artist and with his younger friend were visiting temples to make copies of the wall art there – that they then sold. They accompanied us to a small Hindu temple on Gangori Bazaar Road, near the Choti Chaupar metro station – I can’t find its name on the map – it had two beautiful carved elephants up some steps at the entrance. We had a look around and they showed us some of their work – it was beautiful, but we weren’t in the market for religious paintings at that (or indeed any) moment. I’ve been quite disturbed by the contrast between the apparent spiritualism, and righteousness and animal-friendly tenets of Hindu faiths and the viciousness of Hindu nationalist politics in India.

So back to our own ‘palace’ and on our way we were accosted by a man who’d given us directions earlier – he has a jewellery workshop and store that he wanted us to see – we accompanied him, admired the fine  workmanship, but gently insisted that we didn’t want to buy anything ‘for our wives’!

After the calm and tranquility of Udaipur, then the very civilized train journey, the noise and chaos of Jaipur has hit us like a punch on the nose. No sooner had we stepped off the train then the tuk tuk drivers latched onto us touting for business. I knew the metro would take us from the station virtually to the door of our accommodation so I declined politely. They persisted, I declined again but this time more firmly. They tried Michael next, he also declined – but in a more chatty way, which resulted in them saying he was polite and I was rude. What a cheek!

Once we’d dodged the tuk tuk drivers and the building work (it seems every station in India is being rebuilt at the moment), we got to the metro and in just three stops reached Chotti Chaupar station, just down the road from our accommodation. It’s right in the middle of Tripolia Bazar – and what a bazaar! All along the street are small stalls selling everything from fabric to sweets, coffee and tea, clocks, metal boxes and all sorts of building materials. Back home in Bristol our local high street has an amazing ‘little Aladdin’s cave’ of a hardware shop called Lion Stores. It reminded me of there – but on steroids!

I’d booked another Haveli, but thought it was a small hotel – but it turns out we have the whole place. A big apartment with 24-hour staff just for us! There is a hallway, dining room, sitting area, kitchen and an enormous bathroom with two double beds and an en-suite bathroom. It’s decorated like a maharaja’s palace (I think they got the same person who does taxi cab roofs to do the ceiling here). Michael said looking at it was giving him a headache. I suggested he could sleep with an eye mask on.

The apartment is very clean and spacious, but it’s a little awkward having a manservant who jumps to his feet every-time we walk into the room. He also calls us Sir. I’ve tried asking him to say Matthew but to no avail. The location is certainly what you could call in the heart of things. I think we had an idea that Jaipur would be a bit more like a historic city such as Bath – but more pink! In reality it a throbbing, busy place, the traffic is intense and it is pretty grimy – if it were a Farrow and Ball paint colour you’d call it ‘smoked pink’ or perhaps Intense Salmon!

After we checked in and did a few laps around our bedroom, we decided to follow a walk suggested in our guide book that starts virtually outside our door. It took us through back streets of the bazaar, past exquisite (if slightly down at heel pink buildings). Past scores of extraordinary fabric shops (I resisted the temptation to buy), stores selling everything you could possibly want (with the exception of vegan food). We ended up at the Hawa Mahal.

The Hawa Mahal is known as the “palace of winds“. Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh built it palace in 1799. Hawa Mahal is considered to be unique as it has many small windows and balconies that seem like a honeycomb.

We joined the throngs taking pictures outside and then contemplated whether to pay the £2.20 entrance fee to go inside. Mike’s head was throbbing from the noise of Jaipur so we decided that at least going in would get us away from the street. We made the right call as, although it was busy, it was much calmer than the street. 

The palace is made up of many interlocking courtyards. The main one had a fountain at the centre, and it’s the first one we’ve seen working so far. It was attracting lots of attention from children delighted by its enormous spout of water that reached the height of the building before retreating into the pool. There were also couples and families posing for photos in front of it. 

We wandered around and climbed up to the front where we could get right behind the intricate honeycomb facade, peeping out onto the noisy street. We worked our way back down to the courtyard, realising that it would soon be sunset, and the best place to see that would be from the top. We raced back to the top just in time before the burning red sun disappeared below the mountains that surround Jaipur.

After we left Hawa Mahal we contemplated food. Thankfully we’d eaten well on the train, so weren’t very hungry, but as we are in a self-serve apartment, we needed something for breakfast. We contemplated getting a cab to a mall where there was a supermarket to stock up – but these were at least 20-25 minutes away. Instead we wandered around the bazaar seeking a store that might sell some cereal or soya milk. No joy. If we’d wanted metal pipes, locks, pots and pans, clocks, tea, nuts, ginger, chillies, detergent, cooking oil in huge tins, bangles, jewellery or fabric we’d have been fine – but no vegan food.

We were then accosted by two men who having complimented me on my ‘very fine moustache’ were very keen to tell us about the delights of Jaipur (I’m not entirely convinced). They told us there was an Elephant Temple just along the road and escorted us there. They were both art students and were very keen to show us their etchings (obviously in the hope we might buy some). We made nice comments about their art but politely declined to purchase (Mike needs to hold onto the air in his suitcase). 

We wandered back to our apartment, unsuccessful in our efforts to find food. We were both a bit jaded (Mike especially who hates the noise and hooting of Indian streets). Accepting defeat we made ourselves a cup of green tea and took to one of our two massive beds. Maybe we’ll try the other bed tonight too!

Our first train journey on the overnight train from Bengaluru to Hospete Junction was like taking a trip back in time. That train had clearly been around for a while. It was a pretty basic affair, perfectly adequate (although perhaps not the loo!) with folding bunks, air conditioning and power points, but it had a feel of the 1970s about it.

Catching today’s 07.50 ‘Vande Bharat Express’ from Udaipur to Jaipur we’ve fast forwarded through at least 50 train years. This is very much the Indian Railways ‘state of the art’ train. The doors are automatic with glass sliding doors between carriages. The seats have masses of leg room – like business class on an aeroplane (our friend Dave Hobson would be ok), and if you want, the chairs do a clever little trick. At the push of a foot pedal they can be turned from the ‘airline style’ forward-facing pair of seats into a four set (two facing each other) – yes, they can be spun round to face the other way!

The carriage has electronic display screens announcing the next station and other useful info in different languages (including English). There are recorded announcements telling us everything we need to know. There’s one announcement saying that when the train enters a ‘neutral section’ the power to the chargers may be temporarily interrupted. I was slightly worried this was something to do with Indian Pakistan relationships, but fortunately not. I guess it means the train is a hybrid, and that some parts of the route are not electrified. It goes on to advise that if you have an Apple device chargers you will need to up plug and reconnect to the power. 

There’s even an onboard ‘captive WiFi’ entertainment system – although captive seems to mean no-WiFi. There’s a choice of Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and English TV shows and music. There’s even some movies, however the English selection is somewhat limited, and I’m intrigued to find out who selected them. You’ve a choice of ‘The Child Bride’ (1938), ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ (1954), or ‘Attack from Space’ (1964)! While the train might have entered the twenty first century, the movie offerings haven’t!

I’ve already mentioned in our blog that Indian trains are wide (five chairs in a row not four like in the UK) – but it’s very noticeable on this new train. The carriage feels very airy with the neutral colour palette and LED lighting. There’s large glass shelf luggage racks overhead and each seat has an individual spotlight. The seat tables that are usually on the back of the chair are like airline style on this one and fold out from a little compartment between the chairs.

The best bit is the lavatory. After some pretty grim train loos, these are exemplary. There are both ‘Indian settle’ (thank you, but no) and ‘western style’ conveniences. They are clean, and – as announced on the electronic replays – have ‘bio-flush mechanisms’, so please don’t put anything you shouldn’t down them. They even have hand dryers (the first train we’ve been on to have them), so no need to wipe wet hands on our trousers.

As we’re travelling ‘aunty style’ (first class), on this train we’re waited on by a team of young stewards wearing near navy and pale blue outfits with a natty orange trim. We’ve already been served breakfast and although it’s only 11.30, they’ve started dishing up lunch already. It’s a two course affair, starting with a tomato chatpata soup (tomato soup with a spicy after bite). 

This was followed by a vegetable curry, rice, dhal and chapatti. I’m not sure we’ll need any dinner after all this food! In fact by the time we get into Jaipur (one more stop), we’ll probably need an afternoon snooze to let lunch settle!   

Tuesday 04 February

Uidapur

We’re staying in a Heritage Hotel in Uidapur – it’s the Amet Haveli, stunning rooms with views over glorious Lake Pichola (although we had a cheaper one with an internal courtyard view).

Our hotel in Uidapur is beautiful – a converted palace by the lake. The doors are a quite small with a lovely decorative door arch – poor Matthew cut his head on our first morning – there was blood everywhere!

At breakfast there was no dairy-free milk, but they asked us to wait for 10 minutes while they sent someone to fetch some. That’s my kind of place!

After breakfast we explored around the hotel and then walked through the old city to the Uidapur City Palace. Begun in 1559 and built over the next 400 years, the City Palace is enormous – and half of it is closed to visitors! Many parts of India were princely states in the British empire – but after independence in 1947 they merged with the newly independent state. 

From the City Palace we took  boat trip to Jagmandir Island Palace. Being in the boat was sublime – cool by the water and quiet. The gardens were lovely, although it was a shame that the fountains weren’t running.

After we led the City Palace we were heading to lunch at a place on Matthew’s spreadsheet – but we’d not walked very far when we saw a sign for a restaurant that offered vegan options! We thought we should give it a try and we weren’t disappointed: it was called Millets – thalli for Mike and lemon millet for Matthew. 

We walked back to our hotel for a snooze then went up to the roof for a nice view of the sunset over Pichola Lake.

In the evening we wandered around the old town – winding streets full of brightly lit shops, cafes, restaurants, temples stray dogs, cows and people. There was a cafe listed in Happy Cow (our vegan app) that we wanted to try. After a little bit of doubling back on ourselves, we eventually found it in the roof of an apartment building. It was lovely – with fantastic views. 

Uidapur was worth the long journey to get here.

As British, when first experiencing Indian traffic, it’s a shock to the system. We have been on edge almost all the time, anticipating an imminent crash to happen in front of our eyes. We’re wondering ‘don’t they have any rules of the road?’ and ‘what are there road casualty figures like?’ (best not to check). Strangely after a few weeks, we have become more acclimatised to it – I mean it’s still terrifying, but it’s just a kind of the new normal! 

When we first attempted to cross the road in India, we stood at the edge of the road for ages waiting (sometimes for a long time) until what we considered a big enough gap in the traffic to appear, safe enough for us to cross. Now, two weeks in, I find myself stepping out into moving traffic, either confident or just plan crazy in the belief that nothing will hit me, even though it looks like they will. Fingers crossed, so far, I’m still alive!

In addition to taking a few death defying tuk tuk rides, we have also been in a few cabs. They are also rather scary as the drivers weave across lanes of moving traffic, undertake, drive in the wrong side of the road and hoot their horns as if it were going out of fashion. If watching the traffic chaos is too much, we can a) close our eyes or b) look up. I would recommend option b as there’s often a treat in store.

There seams to be a thing in Indian taxis that the ceilings of the cabs are covered in decorative patterns – such attention to detail on a surface that most people will never look at. Just think, out there somewhere there’s a textile designer whose job it is to prettify the ceilings of Indian cabs – what a job!

It’s been a brief but lovely visit to Udaipur, it was definitely worth the long train ride (and a bit of a detour) to get here. India is full of so many contrasts. We go from days that are intense, busy, full of noise and activity, to more peaceful, calm, and restful – Uidapur has largely been like that. Being beside the lake has been lovely – it’s true what they say, ‘life is better by water’.

After a day of sightseeing we had a little rest before we went up to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant terrace to watch the sun set over Lake Pichola – it was beautiful.

Later we went for an evening stroll to a little lakeside park surrounding a small temple just next to the hotel to watch the lights of the palaces reflected in the lake. It was a very pretty sight. Just as we got back to our hotel someone put a fireworks display on just for us! We literally stepped outside our hotel room to watch it. After a good nights sleep, we are ready for our next (not such a long) train journey to Jaipur – the pink city. 

Our boat trip from the City Palace to Jagmadir Island Palace took us right past our hotel. This is where we were eating our breakfast this morning!

Monday 03 February

Mumbai – Jaipur

Today was the day of almost continuous long train journeys – I reckon that we travelled around 1,000 miles in 26 hours, so not a lot else to report.

We left Mumbai at 23:10 on the overnight sleeper to Jaipur. Our first journey was around 1200km / 750 miles. Taking 18 hours. We had a double cabin and were served breakfast, a mid morning snack and lunch on the train. All welcome (we’d brought supplies, too, so we weren’t going to be hungry!). 

At Jaipur we had about half an hour to change for the 14:10 Uidapur train – a further 400 km / 250 miles. Taking 8 hours. No cabin this time – just comfortable reclining seats. Lots of food sellers walking briskly through the train – selling coffee, chai, ice cream, chocolate and sandwiches. 

The trains were comfortable and we caught up with the Archers, listened to some music and podcasts, read, I watched some Severance while Matthew watched a documentary about Dolly Parton (!). We both watched a drama based on life of Hattie Jacques – a British comedian in the 1960s and 1970s. 

We passed through beautiful landscapes and saw our first camels out of the window.

We have most certainly arrived in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel territory. The Amet Haveli Herritage Hotel is an extraordinary beautiful rambling old palace. The place is dotted with small courtyard gardens, inviting stairways, rooftop terrace, and exquisite colonnaded verandas. It’s also pretty well appointed with older British tourists (we should fit right in!). From my bedroom window seat overlooking the courtyard I’ve already spotted a few women in the style of the characters played by Maggie Smiths (god rest her soul), Judi Dench and Celia Imrie.

Our breakfast was on a charming garden terrace under the shade of a large tree with a vista over lake Pichola. I think we’re definitely paying for the view and the setting as the breakfast was so so. They didn’t have soya milk, but to their credit a boy was dispatched and about 20 minutes later he returned with soya milk that he’d purchased from a nearby store. The coffee was yuk – instant – but I think I can forgive them as the magic of the buildings and surroundings here certainly seeps into you.

After breakfast we wandered around a bit, exploring the terraces and stairways, snapping pictures of the lovely views that they framed. We’re off to explore the City Palace (which we can see across the water from our hotel) and then take a boat trip on the lake. Today will be a lovely relaxing antidote to the mega train journey of yesterday.

It was dark when we arrived in Udaipur so we couldn’t make much out from our speeding tuk tuk, but we as we drew up outside the hotel, even in the dark we could tell it was a bit special. As we walked through the gate of this old palace we entered a courtyard. The main building rose up on one side, a white facade with beautifully decorative windows and balconies. Around the courtyard were some lower buildings and a decorative colonnade that opened into a garden. In the centre of the courtyard a fountain was running and lights lit up the space, it was magical.

After we’d checked in the porters carried our bags (we’re still not really used to this) across the courtyard and up some steps guarded by two carved elephants to a decorative wooden door – this was our room. A large white cube space with high ceilings and stone cauble holding up a roof beam. Through a decorative arch we enter the bathroom. Around the room there are carved recesses in the wall and at the centre sits a large bed with a carved wooden frame. A lovely window seat in a window juts out into the courtyard. When we woke this morning the sun was shining through the stained glass of this window. We’re only here for two nights but we shall sleep like princes while we are.

Arriving at Udaipur, it was clear that we’d travelled a lot further north. It’s not cold, but it’s certainly cooler than it has been – and we even felt a drop of rain as we stepped off the train. It’s about 18 degrees now (at 23:00) but is forecast to be 27 tomorrow, so when I say cooler it’s all relative to the 30+ degrees we’ve had in Mumbai.

The train station was about 7km from our hotel, which is in an old palace on the shore of lake Pichola. As our hotel is in the old town, the roads are too narrow for taxis, so there was only one thing for it – a tuk tuk. There were plenty to choose from at the station so we were soon loaded up and on our way for another death defying journeys.

We’ve had a few tuk tuk rides in India now – in Mysuru and Mumbai, and quite frankly they are mad. It’s like riding in an open sided Robin Reliant three wheeler with no seat belts and most of the drivers behaving as though they have an urgent death wish! Fortunately we navigated the narrow streets of the old town and got to our hotel safely, I recorded part of our journey for posterity.

The trains we’ve travelled on in India have been enormous, especially when we are used to only around eight carriages on average in the UK. Here there must be 20+ carriages with all different classes. It does make knowing where to board a bit of a challenge. On most stations they have these very handy electronic screens which say what the train number is, and then which carriage will be stopping at that point on the (very long) platform.

Today we had to change trains and only had a half hour turnaround which made me a bit anxious in case the train ran late. The overnight train from Mumbai arrived bang on time in Jaipur. As soon as we stepped off I was being hassled by men wanting to offer me tuk tuks. I explained I was catching another train, then they wanted to help me with my bags. I had to say no thank you very firmly before they left us alone.

We worked out what platform we needed to be on and arrived there just in time for our next train to pull in early. Unfortunately the screens telling us which carriage would stop where weren’t working. I parked Mike with the bags and walked all the way to one end of the platform to find our carriage, only to realise ours was at the other end. Thankfully because it was early there was plenty of time.

The last part of today’s very long train journey is in a seated carriage. Indian trains are wider than UK ones so the seats are arranged in 2 on one side of the aisle and 3 on the other. We found our reserved seats and settled down. After having separate cabins for our other journeys, it felt very lovely being in a cabin with lots of other passengers. 

They don’t have a buffet car on the trains, but instead you have food and drinks sales people passing along the carriage carrying  baskets of food – crisps and snacks, chocolate, Indian food, pizza and drinks – tea, coffee, chai, fruit juices. We predicted the vegan offering would be poor so stocked up our supplies before boarding. We’re due in at Udaipur at 21.50, then have to get a taxi or tuk tuk to our hotel. It will be nice to get off the train, we’re both a bit jaded and look forward to reaching our lakeside hotel.

We’d been warned to expect to be hassled when we came to India. As two white European men we stand out a bit. If I’m honest, I’ve not found the beggars to be any worse here than in the UK. Not that seeing anyone beg is pleasant, but the part that is really hard is when it’s painfully thin small children begging. It’s gut wrenching.

Aside from from begging, there is often general hassle at railway stations. At most of the stations we’ve arrived at we have been immediately approached by people offering their tuk tuk, taxi, hotel or a tour guide services. Unusually, it seems to be me they are drawn to. I thought that with Michael being blond, he’d be the one who’d get the attention – but it appears I have a feature that draws people to me. 

My moustache has been much commented on. I’ve lost count of the times that, after they have finished badgering me, they sign off with ‘very fine moustache Sir’ or ‘Sir, I very much like your moustache’.  It’s very nice to receive such compliments, not least because there are no shortage of fine moustaches here in India.

I’ve read that for generations of Indian men, a moustache has been a must. Throughout history, it was thought that the more fabulous your facial hair was, the more masculine you were (that’s me, I’m so butch!). Before the eighteenth century only high caste men were allowed to keep moustaches. So, moustaches were seen as a symbol of power. 

Back home my brothers make sarcastic comments about my moustache – well listen up brothers, here, my facial hair makes me ‘cool’ and ‘powerful’, so take some advice from me – go with the mo bro.

Sunday 02 February

Mumbai

Our second day in Mumbai – and the city has really delivered! We both went out running at 07:30 – after 2.5 miles, Matthew headed back into the hotel, I wanted to push up my miles from my last run if I could, so I aimed for 8 miles … and pleased that I managed 9, although my foot was really sore towards the end. While I was running I noticed a man with Quayside written on his shirt – I caught him up and asked him which quayside his shirt referred to – he said “There is only one!” Ha, ha – he was from Newcastle – my home town! He lives in Gosforth, went to Leeds University, his son lives in Tynemouth. Small world. I asked him what he was doing running about in Mumbai … he was with the English cricket squad – for the fifth and final Twenty20 international match England v India this evening. Also, the whole squad is staying in the same hotel as we are! Extraordinary!

When I got back to hotel I joined Matthew for breakfast and told him about my meeting. A few minutes later he said “There are tickets available. Shall we go?” Of course!! (Apologies, Vaishakh – not a test match, but that wasn’t available today!).

At 12:00 we met with Amrutha at Mumbai railway station. Amrutha is a friend of Bharath and Shubhi and is a museologist and academic curator particularly interested in documents. She also loves cats.

Amrutha has a deep knowledge and wonderful way of explaining the development and architecture in Mumbai. We walked around the old fort area and drank a lot of juice to keep cool! We spent quite a while in a lovely bookshop, too and the David Sassoon library.

We have some very long train journeys ahead, so we went to a little supermarket (part of Tesco!) and a whole food store for provisions.

When we arrived back in the hotel, we were a little surprised to see a cordon running from the entrance to the lifts – lots of people waiting with their phone cameras primed and security staff keeping everyone back. The England cricket team were about to walk out to the bus that was waiting outside to take them to tonight’s game. That was fun – a really nice atmosphere and a fairly pessimistic view among the assembled crowd of England’s prospects this evening.

Our match tickets had been couriered to the hotel – Matthew was sent backwards and forwards between different places to get them and rather typically they turned out to have been at the first place he’d gone to all along!

We walked to the Wankhede Stadium – the crowds were getting bigger and bigger and excitement was building. We could see the enormous floodlights lighting up the sky. We had some trouble getting in – some of the people in the hotel lobby who were going to the game told us that we wouldn’t be allowed in with any bags. So I left my bag at the hotel, taking only my wallet, small binoculars, my phone and the powerbank charger. I hadn’t spotted that Matthew had a small bag with him with his wallet, our passports, a small tube of sunscreen and a packet of wet-wipes (he rarely goes anywhere without them!). At the gates there were security searchers and I wasn’t allowed my binoculars or phone charger. The sunscreen and Matthew’s bag were also forbidden. Sigh. Arguing that I’d had my binoculars in UK cricket matches wasn’t impressing anyone. My ankle was pretty sore by now after a long day on my feet, so Matthew decided to run back and leave the banned items at our hotel then come back while I went in. Our hotel wasn’t too far, so he was back before the start of play.

The atmosphere in the stadium was brilliant – exciting. India have already won the five match series 3-1 … it would be nice if England could avoid a 4-1 defeat. There was some amazing cricket on display … unfortunately not much of that from the England side! England won the toss and chose to bowl first, India’s young batting superstar Abhishek Sharma played brilliantly, scoring 135 off 54 balls that included 13 sixes – the most by an India batter in T20s (no one else came anywhere close to Sharma’s score). It was both beautiful and painful to watch as an Englishman – and there was some fun, friendly banter from the Indian supporters around us as we celebrated the Indian fall of wickets then watched ours fall so quickly in dismay!

The scorecard is here and the match report is here (if you can bear it!).

The final indignity was our taxi to the Mumbai Central station. We came out of the stadium and started walking hurriedly back to our hotel to collect our bags – we were conscious that we we didn’t have a lot of time to get our 11:10 evening departures so we hailed a taxi. We said that we wanted to go to our hotel – it was about 1km to the hotel and then 6.5 km to the station – about 4½ miles altogether. The taxi driver said that it would cost ₹2,000 – that’s £20! I baulked and said “Whaaat? You’re joking right?” I said that we shouldn’t go – we could keep walking to the hotel (it wasn’t far, we could see it) and pick up a taxi to the station from there. Matthew was already putting our bags in the back of the taxi and the road was crowded with people coming out of the stadium – I think Matthew was worried that we might not get another taxi and that missing the train would be disastrous. I got in, but I was fuming. The taxi driver drove like a maniac through the heavy traffic, too, which didn’t help. When we arrived at Mumbai central Matthew dived out of the taxi leaving me to pay – the driver then even asked for another ₹500! I said absolutely not and climbed out!

We walked into the station both a little stressed and tense. I said I wish you’d listened to me back then. ‘Let’s not have a row about it’ was the reply. 

Mumbai Central was lovely – airy with big departure boards. On the train, there were people in our cabin who insisted that they were in the right room – we went to find inspector who looked up our reservation and told us we were in a different cabin to the one printed on our ticket – go figure! The train is newer and really nice. We also get breakfast and lunch tomorrow!

As soon as we stepped onto our overnight train to Jaipur (where we’ll change for (Udaipur), we could tell the carriage was a bit more modern than the previous ones we’ve travelled on. Gone was the heavily patterned decor, replaced with a muted pale blue palette. After a small confusion with cabins (they’d changed our numbers since I looked last night) we were pleased to find we were once again in a two-person couchette, so no sharing.

We were both tired after cramming so much into our two days in Mumbai so we pretty much crashed out and slept through until about 7am. When we boarded last night we were surprised to receive a knock on the door from a young boy (he’s a man, but looks like a boy!) in railway uniform enquiring as to whether we wanted veg or non veg breakfast and dinner. We hadn’t had any meals on our previous overnight trips, in fact we’d stocked up on snacks to keep us going on our long train journeys today (14.5 hours then 7.5hours).

Shortly after we’d woken, the knock on the door came and the steward asked if we’d like tea, we asked if he had black coffee – and it was duly delivered. This was followed by the breakfast tray – fruit, juice, bread, jam, dhal and a sort of vegetable porridge. We will wait and see what comes with lunch, but this train journey is turning out to be by far our most civilised one so far with our own little steward delivering cabin service. 

We realised yesterday that there was an India vs England Twenty20 match happening in Mumbai that evening. There were lots of noticeable England fans staying in our hotel (the Barmy Army as they are known back home). At breakfast I had even overheard one of them say something that implied the England team were staying in our hotel.

I’m perfectly happy to admit that I’m not a sports fan. I don’t follow any teams or participate, but Michael is very keen on cricket. Being a supportive husband, I have escorted him to a few test matches before (where I was laughed at by him for reading a garden magazine rather than watch the match with more interest). I thought that seeing a cricket match in India was something he’d really enjoy, so we decided we’d try and buy some tickets. It didn’t start until 7pm so we would have time to watch it before we caught a taxi to catch our 11.10pm overnight train.

As with everything else in India, you had to buy the tickets online. I got the site up and showed Mike the plan of the stadium with the available tickets as I wouldn’t know where the best seats to watch the game would be. He indicated which block he preferred, then I looked at the tickets. That’ll be £400 each!!! Yes £ not Rupees! I suggested a cheaper alternative, which we agreed on. Tickets were purchased and they were to be couriered to the hotel later that day. Strange that having been forced to buy them online, they weren’t sent as e-tickets, but there you go.

When we returned to the hotel later that day it was clear something (or someone) was a foot. They had cordoned off part of the lobby and crowds were gathered behind the tape, phones clutched in hands ready to catch a photo. Sure enough, the rumour turned out to be true. The England cricket team were in our hotel. It was a bit of a wait but eventually they emerged from the lift to board their coach to the ground (which was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel). I took some picture but I really have no idea who any of them are. There were an American couple stood next to me and there conversation could have summed up me. One said ‘well I guess they must be famous’ and the other replied ‘yep, and they do look quite sporty’.

Tracking down our ticket delivery turned into a faff. Reception said they weren’t there, they sent me to the business centre on the 34th floor. The business centre didn’t have them, eventually they were tracked down to the bell desk in the lobby. Tickets in hand we set off to walk to the stadium. Getting in also turned into a faff – I’m sure Michael will write more on that, so I’ll just say I had to return to the hotel to deposit our ‘contraband’ items. I then had to return to the stadium – I was certainly getting my steps in.

Finally inside the stadium I got to experience the atmosphere of an Indian cricket match. Back in the UK my experience of cricket has generally been test matches – a much more sedate business; players in whites, polite crowds, all very English. Not here, it was raucous. The crowds were loud and euphoric. It felt like a party atmosphere – particularly for the Indians after they’d thrashed England. I messaged my brother back in the UK to see if he was watching the match on tv as he likes cricket, too – he was. He messaged back to say he’d seen us flash up on the screen! I have yet to see photographic proof of this yet – but if it’s true, how cool is that! I don’t think I’ll become a regular, but I’m glad we got to experience it – and Michael was a very happy boy (in spite of the result).

For the past few years I have set myself the challenge of running every day in January – it’s called RED January. It started as a campaign to raise awareness of mental health. January in the UK is notoriously dark, cold and miserable – all things that have a negative impact on a lot of people’s mental health. Doing physical activity is a good way to tackle this and improve mental health.

I knew participating in RED this year was going to be a challenge, with half of it taking place in the UK and the other half while we travelled around India. With a combination of treadmills in hotel gyms, some very short runs and some with stunning backdrops I almost managed to run every day. It was the final day that thwarted me. I knew it would be a difficult as we’d be on a 15+ hour train journey on 31 January. So there was no run that day – but I did do a long walk around the world heritage site at Hampi – which sort of counts. 

To make RED more accessible it’s been expanded to include doing any physical activity in January, so it could be a walk, swim, cycle ride, yoga etc. it’s a great challenge and the real challenge comes next, which it to try and keep up the physical activity in February – but maybe not every day!

Saturday 01 February

Mumbai

Our train from Hosapete arrived in Mumbai later than expected, Matthew had booked last night in the Trident hotel, Mumbai even though we were going to be on the train so that we could check in as soon as we arrived. 

We had a quick look around the station – CSMT (Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal), formerly Victoria – completed in 1887.

We headed to our hotel to freshen up, sort out laundry for hotel to wash and then go down for breakfast.

After breakfast we wandered along Marine Drive then headed to the museum. We passed through Oval park – where lots of people were playing cricket … I was settling in to watch (I love cricket),  but Matthew was becoming impatient. 

We passed a big art festival near the university and learned that today was Mumbai Pride! And the annual march was this afternoon at 3! We decided that we had to go to that!

The museum was lovely and we particularly liked the textile gallery where we were able to do a little bit of fabric printing.

We took a cab to near the start of the pride march and started looking for it – luckily we found it quite quickly – small but rather wonderful. Matthew wrote a separate blog about that. 

While we were planning our trip, Matthew said that he wanted to see if we could make a reservation at Mumbai’s poshest 5-star luxury hotel – the Taj Mahal Palace, which is beside the Gateway of India. The ‘Taj’ opened in 1903. The hotel was commissioned by  the industrialist Jamshedji Tata – who founded the Tata company. It is said that he decided to build a luxury hotel in Bombay after he was refused entry to Watson’s Hotel in the grounds of his ethnicity. The Taj Mahal was also one of a number of hotels attacked in November 2008 by a terrorist group – 167 people were killed, 31 at the Taj. There was significant damage to the hotel too – the roof was destroyed by fire. The Taj has been restored and is now a desirable destination. 

Matthew emailed the hotel a few months ago to ask if vegan afternoon tea was available. Slightly to our surprise we had an immediate response – less surprising was the answer … they were passing our question on to the chef! I thought bloody hell – if you’re a chef, then you say of course I can prepare a vegan afternoon tea. Anyway, we didn’t get a further response until just before we left – an email with a vegan afternoon tea menu attached. Excellent, we could book that.

Well, the best laid plans often go awry… when we arrived at the Trident Hotel this morning we needed to send some of our clothes to be laundered. I chatted with Matthew about including my trousers, which needed washing and wearing my shorts today, which were clean. He thought that would be ok and so I wore my shorts. After the pride march we hailed a cab to take us to Taj Mahal. We had a look at India Gate and then went in to the hotel.

A sign outside the dining room door said ‘formal attire only’ and Matthew asked a waiter if I could go in wearing shorts. I could not! So that was that.

All was not lost, however, Matthew is his father’s son and is often very well organised and has backup plans for these sorts of eventualities (just like his dad used to do with a notepad). There exists an epic spreadsheet with several tabs – rows are days on our trip and columns include things like where we’re staying, if it’s booked, how booked, booking reference number, if it’s paid or to pay, hotel website, sites to visit in that place, any potential gardens or horticultural highlights nearby and additional optional things to do in that place. If we’re travelling, which train, is it booked, is it paid for, which carriage, which seat … you get the idea ! He’s been poring over this spreadsheet most evenings for weeks.

One of the columns in Matthew’s contains the fruits of his searches for vegan food providers in every place – so in Mumbai the closest one to where we were at the Taj was called Earth Cafe – we headed there and they had a lovely menu … I could hardly believe that it was all vegan – and I kept asking the staff to reassure me. For some reason, Matthew has been wanting pizza for the last few days – so pizza it was. Yum! 

We walked back to the hotel for tea and biscuits. Yum yum!

When we were staying in Marari Beach in Kerela (at the ‘Colonial Club’ as Mike called it) one of the families he chatted to were ending their holiday in Marari after having started in the north (we’re doing the reverse). They warned us to be wary of the loos as we ventured north, they told us they were better in the south. 

Our overnight train journeys started our preparations – and induced a serious case of leg crossing in me because I was reluctant to use the squat-style hole in the floor toilet. However, arriving at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai, we have been treated to one of the poshest bathrooms I think I’ve ever used. I’m familiar with the notion of an open plan kitchen – but our room has a sort of open plan bathroom. Just a huge wall of glass divides the bed from the shower – so someone could sit on the bed and watch someone else in the shower – and worse, beyond to the lavatory! But fear not, if privacy is required, then at the touch of a switch a blind sandwiched inside the glass wall descends. 

Then there is more to the loo than meets the eye. I don’t often use a loo where there are instructions on the inside of the loo seat. After doing the necessaries there’s a little silver handle at the back of the seat that can be used – but it’s important to have read the instructions first, because if you haven’t, you might be somewhat taken aback when the built-in water feature sends a gentle jet of liquid up your backside! We’ve come from a one hole loo to a hole in one in less than 24 hours!

When I was planning this trip, Mumbai really wasn’t high on my list of places to visit. I’d seen a couple of episodes of the TV series ‘City of Dreams’, which is about Mumbai, and it looked a bit busy, noisy and brash. The reason it ended up on our itinerary was because it was a logical stopping-off point on our way from south to north. Also, the train connections were good – so I pencilled in a one night stop-over.

Mumbai has turned out to be a real delight. First there was the unexpected gay pride march, then, this afternoon we found our jaws dropping as we wandered around the neighbourhood close to our hotel. We walked past block after block of amazing art-deco buildings. I had absolutely no idea that Mumbai is the Indian equivalent of Miami Beach, Florida.

The area is called Churchgate and clearly it was the des-res neighbourhood in the 1930s. Some of the buildings were looking a little  tired by now, but in a way the neglect may well have saved them from being altered too much. We could have been walking around the set of a Poirot episode! I don’t know what the locals thought of two British guys gawping at their apartments, but they were truly splendid – and we loved it. Our walk was concluded with dinner at the fabulous vegan Earth Cafe – the food there was delicious.

When we disembarked from our train this morning, we really had no idea that the day was going to turn out the way it has (and in a very nice way). After freshening up at the hotel and going to visit the nearby city museum, we found out by absolute chance that today was the end of Mumbai’s two week Gay Pride Festival and that it culminated today with a pride march. What are the chances of that? We’re only in Mumbai for two days, and one of them is the day of the pride march. It started at 3pm, so we just had time to jump in a cab and get near to the start point – arriving just in time to join the march. We spotted two women holding Great Britain heart placards – and we went to introduce ourselves. They’ve lived in Mumbai for two years now and they were the first women in Cambridge to officially register as co-parents of their child.

The pride march wasn’t huge – just a few thousand marchers, but the atmosphere was wonderful, diverse and inclusive. In a world where many dark things are happening to LGBTQ+ and other minority communities (right now in the USA of all places), it was wonderful to walk in solidarity with Mumbai’s Indian LGBTQ+ community. We met and talked to some wonderful people on the march, and at the end we even found the gay, feminist, animal loving vegans from the campaign group PETA – we certainly found our tribe in Mumbai!

Even though the train was over an hour late, we still arrived very early in Mumbai at around 6.30am. It meant that once we’d checked into our (very posh) hotel, and freshened up, we could go for breakfast. There was a vast selection of Indian and other world foods on offer. I’m not sure I would ever get used to the cooked Indian breakfast every day, so I was happy with cereals, breads and fruit.

Among the range of jams and honeys I spotted a much welcome friend – my mate Marmite! I haven’t missed much on the holiday (apart from the dogs) but I have craved for a bit of Marmite on toast. There was a selection of breads and a toaster, so the only thing missing was some dairy-free margarine. Given that the range of breakfast offerings was pretty good for vegans and included soya, oat and coconut milk, I thought they must have some margarine somewhere. I asked our lovely waitress, but she was a bit flummoxed as I tried to explain margarine or dairy free butter, she called a colleague. I went through the same explanation but he didn’t know what the strange and unusual food type I was asking for either. Off he went to consult the chef. A short while later a third waiter came to say they had soya, oat and coconut milk! Fast on his heals was waiter number three who apologised but said they did not have any dairy free spread – but asked if we were here tomorrow. I confirmed we would be, and he said they would do their best to see if they could get some for tomorrow. Dear readers – stay tuned to see if I have my Marmite on toast (with vegan spread) fix tomorrow!

Friday 31 January

Hampi

It’s curious looking back on today – our visit to Hampi almost didn’t happen. We weren’t initially planning to go to Hampi, but when I realised that our route from Bengaluru to Mumbai would take us fairly close, I pushed for Hampi’s inclusion. It required quite a bit of rejigging of Matthew’s planned schedule, but I’m very glad that we went – it’s an extraordinary, enormous set of ruins from a great  Hindu civilisation. 

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Extensive remains of a fortified city that was the grand capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336. The city was the world’s second largest after Beijing at the time and it had religious, royal and commercial areas. The Vijayanagara empire was defeated by a coalition of Muslim armies in 1565 after which Hampi was ruined and abandoned. 

Hampi is about 13 kilometres (8.1 miles) from Hosapete. The train arrived at 07:00 and our onward train to Mumbai was scheduled to leave Hosapete at 13:40 taking us overnight to arrive in Mumbai at 6am. I knew that just a morning in Hampi wouldn’t do it justice and I knew that we’d only get to see a fraction of the place, but that would be better than nothing.

Our overnight journey to Hosapete was tiring – it was our first sleeper train in India and we had a shared cabin with two others. Our travel companions were getting off in the middle of the night. Neither of us slept well, and we arrived in Hosapete feeling very tired. 

We didn’t want to be burdened with our bags on our visit to Hampi, so we had to search (quite hard) for the left luggage room that we knew from guidebook was at the station in Hosapete. Once found, inevitable forms and passports and payments needed to be made.

Outside Hosapete a tuktuk driver was keen to take us to Hampi and he also wanted to drive us around some of the major sites (which are spread over 16 square miles), but neither of us were really in the mood for tearing about in a tuktuk and trying to take too much in, so I asked him to just take us to the site and we’d make our own decisions about what to see.

We were dropped off by the Virupaksha Hindu temple, which predates the rest of the city includes a monastery and remained an active Hindu pilgrimage site after the city was destroyed and abandoned. It was beautiful and we could hear constant singing from the temple complex as we walked up an adjacent granite hill and explored the ruins.

It was still early and there was hardly anyone else around – just some young pilgrims, all dressed in deep red and a small group of French tourists. 

We found some benches at Sunset Pont at the top of hill and ate some breakfast – that was magical – we had wonderful views of surrounding mountains, the soft singing from the temple, the exciting chatter of the young pilgrims … and a troop of monkeys realised that we were eating and came to see what they could scavenge!

We made a plan to walk along the river Tungabhadra to the royal quarter  – I really wanted to see the unique chariot temple – carved in stone and made even more famous because it appears on the 50 rupees banknote.

On our way we say an interesting photographic exhibition – some prints from the mid 1850s when much of the site was overgrown compared with now.

We went to the Nandi – an enormous stone statue of the god in the form of a bull. We rested in the shade there and tried to take everything in. I feel some affection towards Nandi – ever since Vaishakh took us to the Bull temple in Bangaluru – Nandi always seems to me to be rather stately, patient and peaceful.

The walk along the river was lovely- with more and more extensive ruins and the Sri Yantrodharaka Hanuman temple – with beautiful carved elephants guarding the entrance. 

The Shri Achyutaraaya Swami temple with an enormous, but empty, theertham (tank near temple that is filled with holy water for priest to bathe in). 

Then on to see the thing I really came to see: the Shree Vijaya Vitthala temple and the surrounding structures. On our we met a young British man from Cambridge, called Tom. He was a sweet guy – on a three month sabbatical and travelling along – heading to Vietnam after India… what a great trip!

The Shree Vijaya Vitthala was more than I could hope for – it’s extraordinary that it was abandoned since so much remains. It was strange to think of this place – now so beautiful and quiet and think of how it might have been in its heyday crowded and full of noise and the colour. 

The tranquility was shattered by a couple of very loud Australian tourists – they had a guide and were asking him some really silly questions … it was obvious that they had no idea where they were or what they were seeing. I felt a little embarrassed to also be a White westerner near them. Time for us to move on. 

We had about an hour left and I talked to Matthew about what we could do next – we agreed that the Zanana enclosure – about 6km away with the Lotus Mahal, watch towers, guardhouse and elephant stables would be possible if we walked back to main road and tried to get a tuktuk. We found a driver who agreed to take us to the enclosure – wait for us and then drive us back to Hosapete railway station.

The Zanana enclosure was more extraordinary – I feel like I run out of superlatives when trying to describe Hampi. The photos don’t do it justice – the warm air, bright sunshine, cool breeze, sounds of the birds, sweet smells, friendly people … a place to spend time, but unfortunately we had to go.

Our tuktuk driver was crazy fast, weaving around cars, bikes, cattle-drawn carts and pedestrians- and often on the wrong side of the road – on our return journey. Matthew had to close his eyes. I hung on (no seatbelts!). The train was an hour late and there was a last minute change of platform that meant hundreds of people trudging over a bridge (no walking across the tracks here!). The train was enormous. Bars on the windows are to prevent monkeys climbing in by the way , nothing to do with crime … unless we count monkey business as a crime!

Our cabin to Mumbai was a two-berth. All felt very 1950s style, but perfectly comfortable. We’d brought plenty of supplies – so picnic dinner, watching some Monty Don garden tv on the iPad and then dig in for the rest of our 16 hours journey to Mumbai

Our return train from Hospete Junction was delayed, and to add to the fun they made a last minute platform change. We (and everyone else on the platform) had to haul our bags up and over the footbridge from platform one to platform two.

We found our carriage and cabin a bit easier this time – after last night’s confusion I now know what I’m looking for in terms of numbering. We were slightly relieved to see that we were in a couchette (a two person cabin), so no sharing tonight. Hopefully that will mean we’ll get some sleep before we arrive at 5am (assuming the train makes up time overnight) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) in Mumbai. It’s an extraordinary gothic building which I’ve seen on tv. I’m excited to get to see it in person.

This first-class carriage is slightly better appointed than the first one we travelled in. Having the cabin to ourselves means we can lock the door overnight (Michael seems concerned that we could be robbed in the night – talking with too many Daily Mail readers, obviously), also this carriage has a nice European-style sit-down loo (hallelujah), although I did nearly flood it when I pulled rather than pushed the flush! The handle came right off and a spout of water shot out of the wall. I stuck it back on quickly – I don’t think any permanent damage was done.

Our couchette has an interesting decor which immediately made me think of former British PM Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie (formerly a Symonds – fortunately no relation). They caused a storm when they decorated a room in their Downing Street flat with some very expensive (£800+ a roll) hand printed Indian-inspired wallpaper. The walls and table of our couchette are decorated in an equally flamboyant pattern. Maybe Boris and Carrie had a sideline doing interiors for Indian railways. It wouldn’t surprise me, he seemed to have plenty of other jobs other than running the country when he was an MP.

The overnight train journey to Hospete was smooth, but after sleeping in beds for all of our time in India so far, trying to sleep in a bunk bed rocking from the movement of the train wasn’t easy. We arrived in Hospete Junction a little blury eyed and sleepy. We navigated the cloak room so we could leave our bags at the station and not have to carry them round Hampi. 

As soon as we arrived at Hospete we were accosted by a very persistent tuktuk driver who wanted us to hire him to take us round the Hampi site. In our bleary eyed state we found ourselves in the tuktuk, not quite kidnapped but not really fully consenting tourists. The driver planned to take us all over the Hampi site (it’s a very large site), thankfully Mike mustered the authority to take control and instructed the driver to drop us off at the main entrance to the Hampi ruins and said that we preferred to manage our own time in Hampi.

It was the right decision, as after the long and sleepless journey, being able to wander freely among the extraordinary ruins on our own was just what we needed. It was still early, about 8.30am, and the morning light was beautiful. There were very few people around. We sat on the top of the hill and ate our picnic breakfast. The monkeys were scrambling over the rocks and scouting the bins for their own breakfast. Mike had a slightly mushy banana in his bag so he threw it onto the rocks and watched as one lucky monkey enjoyed tucking in.

Hampi is a stunning place – one that wasn’t originally on our itinerary, I’m so glad we were advised to visit.

We’ve taken our first overnight train from Bengaluru to Hospete (for Hampi) – our first full size train (not counting the narrow gauge blue railway we took to Ooty).

Back in the UK, I rarely travel first class – the cost is ridiculous, often two or three times a standard ticket price. Unless you’re a retired, single cat lady with money to spare (despite having lost your winter fuel payment due to the ‘nasty’ Rachel Reeves – not my words) – yes you know who I’m talking about Aunty!, it’s completely unaffordable. I think I once had a first class ticket when by some odd quirk the work travel booking system showed that a first class ticket on a late train home from London was cheaper than standard. There must have been a fault in the system. Usually I’m in cattle class, often without even a seat.

Here in India, the first class tickets are not an awful lot more than standard, and they are all very cheap compared to the UK. We have a 15 hour train ride overnight to Mumbai later today and for two of us in first class it’s about £40! However, it’s not first class as we’d know it. It’s pretty basic. There are bunks with sheets and a blanket, the lower ones are seats in the day. We have air conditioning, a plug and a light – that’s about your lot. And as for the loo – I’m keeping my legs crossed, it’s a one hole job! The train does the job though and hopefully will get us to our destinations on time.

In the UK it is generally thought rude to honk one’s car horn – it’s almost considered ‘road rage’. No such reservations here in India where honking is considered a normal part of driving. In fact it is actively encouraged. In the UK many lorries have stickers on the rear advising cyclists not to get caught in the drivers ‘blind spot’ or saying the vehicle is restricted to a certain speed. Here most lorries have a sticker saying ‘honk your horn’, not that anyone needs any encouragement!

It’s like an organised chaos with everyone driving in the most erratic way but somehow mostly managing to avoid hitting each other or anybody else. The honking is almost like a kind of automobile bird song, as if the vehicles were all talking to one another. It also has an almost contemporary symphonic rhythm to it – if Philip Glass or Steve Reich did honking, it might sound a bit like this. 

In the days before we had our fur babies (the dogs), we would regularly spend weekends up in London. A particular favourite location was Hoxton in the east end near the city. We would book the Hoxton Hotel (when it was cheap) and hang out in all the east London ‘hipster’ haunts. The area around Hoxton, Spitalfields and Old Street is known for hi-tech start-up firms that have clustered in the area. As a result the area around Old Street roundabout has been nicknamed ‘silicon roundabout’. Wherever you find a hi-tech start-up employee hipster-type, you’re sure to find great (organic) coffee shops and more vegan eateries than you could shake a tofu kebab at! Hence it was our kind of place.

Bengaluru is actually know as India’s Silicon Valley due to its high number of hi-tech businesses. We were staying close to an area called Trinity, and it certainly felt that there were a lot of young IT professionals there, and with them the trendy coffee shops (there was even a Starbucks) and eateries. In my research for this trip, I created a vegan eating page on our planning spreadsheet. Using the internet and the very useful ‘Happy Cow’ website, I found as many potential vegan cafes and restaurants that we could eat at in the different places we could stay at as possible.

In Bengaluru I found a vegan cafe called Copper + Spice, it was quite close to where we were staying (and where Mike had found a barber for a haircut and beard trim) so we thought we’d try it for lunch. It was situated on what largely felt like a quiet residential back street. In fact, when we reached it, it could easily be missed were it not for the sign as it was behind a white painted wall and what looked like a front garden.

Inside the wall was a modest two story house that had been converted into a cafe and small collective of other trendy little stores. The cafe was 100% vegan (result!) and so we took a seat in the front garden and drooled over the menu. We chose a few small plates to share, a smoked cauliflower, beetroot humus, pea humus, sour dough bread and a peanut Asian salad. I had a watermelon juice and Mike had bottled water. 

As we waited for the food, I admired the beautiful little garden – a great example of gardening in small spaces. We also watched amusingly at the guy on the table behind us. He was on his Apple MacBook, EarPods in, on a conference call – while in a vegan organic cafe, how hipster can you get?! The food arrived and was a blaze of colour. I can confirm that it tasted as good as it looked. We devoured it, and as a bonus, when Mike went to pay the bill, he found some vegan chocolate for sale – we had found a small piece of vegan paradise in a Bengaluru backstreet, who would have thought it?!

Thursday 30 January

Bengaluru

Our second day exploring Bengaluru . We had the suite on the seventh floor of the the Radisson – just like last time. It’s a lovely room – with a coffee machine and an amazing view (and remote control curtains!), so we had coffee and watched the sun come up. The gym is on the same floor as our room and Matthew went over there to do his RED run (we don’t know how he’ll get to run tomorrow as we’re going to be on trains heading north for a lot of the time with a break of a few hours in Hampi). 

The Radisson in Bengaluru is opposite Lake Ulsoor and I could see from our window that there was a path alongside the lake. I thought that running by the lake would be nice and tried to persuade Matthew to join me, but he wasn’t having it (he says that he doesn’t really like running with me – which is a bit sad). I’m still recovering from a sprained foot and it aches from time to time but last time I ran was on the beach in Kerala and I managed 3 miles on one day then 4 miles the next – in the heat and on the sand); it’s much cooler here in Bangaluru and it’d be flat, so I wanted to try for 10k/6 miles. Finding my way onto the path was tricky but once I was beside the water it was a wonderful run. Quite a few others were out running – and it’s always nice to wave, nod, smile, give a thumbs-up as we pass each other. There were also lots of speed walkers and people doing yoga. It was a shame that the path didn’t go all the way around the lake, though- I had to run back and forth around half of it a few times to get the miles in – 6.7 miles to be exact.

I could see our hotel room from across the lake.

After breakfast we lazed about a bit, read up on Hampi and decided what to do with our day in Bengaluru. Matthew wanted to try a vegan cafe that he’d found out about, I wanted to get a haircut and beard shave, and Matthew wanted to explore the city centre a bit.

I found a barber nearby and Matthew decided to have a trip too. It’s very nice feeling less like a shaggy old grey dog! Then we took the metro to Indiranagar from where it was a short walk to Copper + Cloves … a wonderful vegan cafe in a lovely old house with a pretty garden.

It was so nice to have a choice from an entirely vegan menu!

After lunch we headed to Cubbon/Sri Chamarajendra Park in the centre of the city – it’s huge! The park was originally laid out in 1870 and has been extended so that it now covers 1.2km ².

There are formal gardens, rocky outcrops, fountains, wooded areas, naturalistic planting, a bandstand, a fern house and shrines. The central library is in the park as is the archeological museum.

Nearby were the Courthouse and the magnificent legislative assembly of Karnatika building (known as the Vidhana Soudha) that was completed in 1956.

We’ve some long train journeys coming up, so we needed to get some food supplies in and collect our bags from the hotel. We took the metro to the train station, but got off a stop too early! Thankfully we had plenty of time and took the next Metro. My token wouldn’t let me out at the railway station because I’d not paid enough – it took a bit of explaining that Google had told us to go to the previous stop for the railway station.

While we sat on the platform at Bengaluru, I was wondering where my jacket was. I asked Matthew if he’d packed it in his bag. He realised that he’d hung his jacket and my jacket in the wardrobe in the Radisson and forgotten to take them out and pack them. Oh no! We’ve emailed the hotel to see if they can post them on for us. Fingers crossed!

As mentioned previously I’ve often thought that Michael is similar to my dad in many ways. However, I’m beginning to wonder if rather than having ‘married my father’ as the saying goes, I have in fact ‘married my aunty’.

Aunty Janet has an unbelievable knack of being anywhere, anytime, and still be able to make friends. On a train, a park bench, a supermarket – anywhere, Janet will make acquaintance with total strangers, and within minute, she’ll have extracted their whole life story.

It turns out that despite his protests of being a very ‘anti-social person’; on this holiday he’s channeling his inner aunt J. Whether it’s visiting ancient monuments, in a hotel restaurant or on public transport, Michael has been striking up a conversation with lots of complete strangers. If it turns out they have a dog, bingo! He can exchange dog stories with them for as long as they like.

It’s actually very nice to watch, and in a slightly odd reversal of personalities, it’s me who is quite reserved when we’re with new people. I’d rather hang back, listen, get the lay of them before I dive in. I’ll leave Michael to find out the back story, and if they sound nice, I’ll join in later. Go ‘aunty Michael’.

Wednesday 29 January

Mysuru – Bengaluru

A much quieter day today than yesterday. And our last scheduled day with Vaishakh. We decided to wear the new shirts that Vaishakh had given us yesterday – they’re lovely and cool.

Matthew did a short run … he’s almost at the end of RED January and he’s really stuck at it, even though finding suitable places to run here in India has been challenging. I’m very proud of him. 

We had breakfast with Stephen and met his lovely cat, Billet-Doux, who seems to be a little lost and confused about the absence of her housemate, Lucie.

Vaishakh had originally proposed that we leave at 05.00 – but his next passengers were delayed, so we didn’t need to leave until 08.00. The drive to Bengaluru was uneventful and we arrived at the Radisson at 11:30.

Sad to be saying farewell to Vaishakh, his advice and help was far above and beyond what we could have ever imagined. He went off to collect his laundry and see his mum before meeting his next passengers.

A couple of days ago Matthew was engrossed on his phone (as is often the case, I think). When I asked him what he was doing, he became quite cagey and told me to mind my own business! Turns out he’d found a vegan bakery in Bengaluru and they could deliver to our hotel. We’d not found any deserts other than fruit that were vegan so far in India, so he ordered a little raspberry and mango cake and it was waiting for us at the Radisson hotel. The cake was in a little cardboard box and as we were checking in one of the reception staff brought it over to us, saying “Here is your cake.” Obviously I had no idea what was going on and I imagined that maybe this something that they do here … bring people cake when they check in! So I told them no thank you! She looked a bit confused and Matthew had to insist that it was ok – and took the box from her. Up in our room (the exact same one we stayed in last time we were here!) he explained what he’d done. We had some tea and cake – very civilised!

We’re taking our first overnight train tomorrow and Matthew has signed up to a train food ordering app … but we’re not confident that there’ll be much available that we could eat – I think it depends on what’s close to the  intermediate stations. Vaishakh told us about the Fresh Pick store in the 1MG – Lido Mall, which is very near our hotel, that he thought would have vegan food, so we went to check that out. In the mall Matthew was a little distracted by the Gap store – he used to work for Gap in Bristol in his student days, but Gap pulled out of the UK several years ago – so it was a curious trip down memory lane for him. There was also an M&S in the mall, too – we had a look around there, too. It’s very good value here – but I’m trying to dissuade Matthew from buying stuff that we’ll have to carry for the rest of the holiday. We saw another likely vegan store opposite, Nature’s Basket Artisan Pantry  – they had loads of nice vegan stuff, too, and a nice restaurant on the top floor with plenty of vegan options – I went for more dosa, Matthew didn’t want dosa three days in a row, so he went for the pasta arrabbiata – not very Indian!

We have bid farewell to Vaishakh, which is sad. He has been absolutely amazing and taken us to places that we would never have visited had we been travelling alone. He dropped us off at our hotel in Bengaluru this morning before he headed off for another job. I suspect we may still be calling on him for advice during the rest of our trip! Poor man!!

We’re staying at the Radisson again, we were here just over a week ago. although we’re only sleeping one night, I also booked for last night as we were arriving early so it meant we could check in rest, shower etc rather than having to wait until 2pm. I only booked a standard room, but they must like us as they have bumped us up to the corner suite on the top floor again with panoramic views of the lake, and the circular bath (be warned, I might actually use it this time).

One thing we haven’t has so far this trip is cake, and we were starting to crave it (just a little bit). We’ve seen some lovely cakes but all had egg, butter, cream etc in then, so no good for the vegan traveller. However, fear not – I am pretty good at sniffing out vegan cake. During my research into vegan eateries, I found a place in Bengaluru called the Digital Chef. it’s a vegan pizza place and vegan patisserie. I know, and odd combination, but this is Indias Silicon Valley, so if your going to find and Indian hipster vegan, it’s likely to be here.

It’s based quite a way out from where we are staying, but fortunately they do deliveries. Unfortunately they are closed on Wednesdays (today). Fear not a hatched a cunning plan. Yesterday in Mysuru, while we were in the back of a tuk tuk, actually, I managed to place an order for a raspberry and mango cake to be delivered yesterday to our hotel. I had to do it via an app called Swiggy, it’s a sort of Indian Uber Eats. I never use any of those back in the UK, well I tell a lie, I did once to order three Pizzas for a Eurovision party. I didn’t get on with it, we ended up with 12 pizzas being delivered! 

Thankfully I had better luck this time, the order went through and I was able to track our cake being made, dispatched and delivered to the hotel. I had emailed the hotel to make them aware of the delivery yesterday and asked them to keep it for us until we arrived today. We’d just checked in when a member of the hotel staff came up with the cake in a box in a paper bag saying ‘some cake for you sir’. Mike was just about to say ‘no thank you, we’re vegan we can’t eat the cake’, when I took the back from her quickly and said thank you very much and headed for the lift. Mike looked slightly perplexed.

Up in our suite I revealed the surprise – a whole vegan cake all to ourselves. we popped the kettle on and sat down to enjoy our first cake in India with a nice cup of green tea. I feel very pleased that my cake plan has worked out, and even more amazing that a whole vegan cake delivered to our hotel cost the equivalent of just £7. I would probably get two slices of vegan cake for that price on my local high street. Thankfully for our waistlines, they only deliver in Bengaluru, so we shall enjoy it while it lasts (which won’t be long) before our cake famine resumes.

The trip around Mysuru Palace was extraordinary, such a lovely place with intricate patterns and decorations everywhere (oddly most made in Britain!). What made it even more special was that Vaishakh had used his contacts to get us a tour of some rooms that are not open to the general public.

One was the amazing armoury where the resident historian guided us through the beautiful, but often quite gruesome weapons. Then they took us into the next door trophy room – which we were far less keen on. It was filled from floor to ceiling with the King’s hunting trophies, all stuffed and staring at us from every angle. I couldn’t help think that of all the thousands of visitors in the palace that day, we were probably the two who would least like seeing that room. We both felt a bit sick and very sad to see all these beautiful creatures that had been killed and stuffed just for fun – truly horrible. 

Thankfully we didn’t have to stay long in that room, and we’re back in the armoury where the historian was very intrigued to be told by Vaishakh that we were both vegans (hence not very keen on the murdered animals next door). I think he thought we were some kind of religious sect, but Vaishakh did his best to explain that we just liked animals and didn’t want to see them exploited or treated cruelly by humans. No pictures of these two rooms as they don’t allow it, but here is the door – which was padlocked shut again when we passed it later on our way around the rest of the palace.

Tuesday 28 January

Mysuru

Today was a truly wonderful day – Vaishakh lives in Mysuru and is very rightly proud of his home city.  Vaishakh showed us many important sights in and around the city and we talked a lot about the city, his friends and our families. He’s a truly good man who works hard and is very kind. We were fortunate to meet him and it’s thanks to Bharath and Shubhi who we first met in Bristol last summer and who suggested that that Vaishakh could be our driver.

We began the day with breakfast at our homestay (Mysore Bed and Breakfast). There were 9 around the table: a British couple from Warsash, (near Southampton), a young French couple from Paris, a German and Indian couple with their small boy, Stephen the proprietor and Sowbaghaya who cooked breakfast. It was nice chatting about India and Indian trains. Most of the other guests were leaving on the Hampi Express later today.

Vaishakh arrived at 10 to collect us. We’d sent him home last night with a gift for his one-year old son, Dhairya. Dhairya had some stuffed animal toys and Sindhoo said that Dhairya was a bit obsessed with dogs – he referred to his stuffed animal toys as dogs, but we noticed that he didn’t have a dog – there was an elephant, a unicorn and a cat …so we had fun choosing a cute dog soft toy for him. Vaishakh said that Dhairya loved it and showed us a lovely picture of him with the dog – so cute! We drove into the city centre and parked near the Devaraja market, so we could explore the market itself and the centre on foot. The market is fantastic – really big and with stalls piled high with all manner of fruit and vegetables and spices and flowers – it was heaven. We saw some couples who were getting married and having parties of their wedding videos made there – it was nice to see them. We tried a lovely sweet fruit that’s in season – Vaishakh bought some for us to eat on our train journey to Hampi in a couple of days.

After visiting the market, we headed to Mysore Palace.

Vaishakh told us that his neighbour worked in the palace … we thought that this might give us privileged access … but unfortunately she wasn’t working today. Then he thought that he might know someone else who worked at the palace and went to see if he could find them. I had spotted a sign to the restroom, so I used the opportunity to go in search of the toilet … I followed the signs around the corner where the path forked, but there were no more signs that I could see – I walked in one direction past a green and a temple and was at a big gate with guards on it … I didn’t see and more restroom signs, so I went back to the other road that went in the other direction but I was walking further than seemed plausible and wondered if I’d walked past the toilet without noticing, so I turned around again and slowly retraced my steps. Still no restroom! Eventually I found them at the end of the second path and near the entrance – it would have been much quicker if I’d walked in the opposite direction to the signs. I’d just settled in when I heard Vaishakh calling my name – he realised that I was probably lost and had come to find me!

Vaishakh did know someone who was working and they did arrange for us to visit some closed off rooms. She was lovely – was an accountant (I think) and said that her brother studied in Leeds! She arranged for us to have our own guide, who was really knowledgeable and explained what we were looking at. First of all we went into an army room and then a room full of stuffed animal hunting trophies (this second room was quite an unwelcome place for me to be!). Our guide even pointed out where the bullets had gone into the tigers, which was really quite upsetting. Matthew did point out that there wasn’t much we could do about that now! Vaishakh was super sensitive and realised that we didn’t want to be there, he explained to the guide that we were vegans – it sounded like it took quite a lot of explaining! We were allowed to take photos in these rooms that were not normally available to visit. We then toured the rest of the palace – it’s magnificent.

There are seven palaces in Mysuru – (the city is often called the ‘City of the Palaces’), this was the main palace as it was the official residence of the Wadiyars until Indian independence. The first palace inside the Old Fort was built in the 14th century. The previous palace burned down during the wedding of Jayalakshammani, the eldest daughter of Chamaraja Wodeyar in 1896. The new palace was designed by Henry Irwin, a British architect and built quickly between 1897 and 1912. Mysore Palace has over three million visitors every year and is the second most visited tourist attraction in India – only the Taj Mahal has more.

After the palace we went to the bus station for the 201 to Chamundi Hill. While waiting for the bus, one of Bharath’s and Vaishakh’s friends, Suprith, arrived – just to say hello (and to have a picture taken with us for Barath I suspect!).

We’ll see Suprith later – he used to work for an NGO with Vaishakh and Bharath. Suprith is an amazing guy … and a man after my own heart, he’s walked over three thousand miles along a river and is planning to walk from the west coast to the east coast of India; that sounds fantastic!

Chamundi Hill is a sacred place – we alighted from the bus by a big statue of Mahishasura – who was killed by the goddess Durga and Mahishasura is the origin of the city’s name – Mysuru.

Alongside the Mahishasura statue is the beautiful high Chamundeshwari Temple – named after the goddess Chamundi.

There were wonderful panoramic views of the city and the temple can be seen from many parts of the city. We descended from the top of the hill using the Chamundi Hill steps – constructed in 1659 with 1,000 steps. Halfway down we passed a huge and beautiful granite carved Nandi (god in form of a bull) – carved from a single piece of granite. Vaishakh had ordered a tuktuk to take us back to his car in the city.

Vaishakh drove us across to the area where our friend Bharath grew up – we also saw Vaishakh’s old house, then Bharath’s father’s old shop. We stopped at Grape Juice Corner – the chilled red grape juice, was sweet and delicious.

We changed some more sterling to rupees – the exchange rate seems to be pretty good for us at the moment then went to the Mahesh Prasad Hotel for bonda soup, and dosas (two kinds – rava onion dosa made with semolina, which made it very crisp and crunchy, and also Masala dosa with a potato and onion filling). All delicious. Our dosas have usually been served with small pots of daal and coconut chutney … sometimes with additional chutney that are usually too spicy hot for my tastes. Matthew has a go with them though!

After dinner we headed over to Kukkarahalli Lake near the university to watch the sunset. The park was lovely and the lake has a path all around it – we’ve not seen so many runners in India . The sunset was beautiful.

Then back to Mysore Palace for the evening light show. Pret extraordinary!

Vaishakh bought us gifts – handmade cotton shirts – what an unexpected and lovely surprise! Thank you.

Back at our homestay we chatted with Stephen before bed – nice to learn more about India and his situation. After his wife died, he lost the right to live in India indefinitely – which seems horribly cruel. He’s exploring ways of staying on in the house that he and his wife made into the business that it is is today.

Our day exploring Mysuru ended with a return trip to the palace. Chatting to the English couple at breakfast they told us that the thousands of individual bulbs that decorate the facade of the palace are only turned on at weekends now (a cost saving measure from the state government). 

As it was Wednesday we thought we would miss this spectacle, but when we visited the palace earlier, Vaishakh’s friend who worked there told us that the evening light show at the palace (7-8pm each night) concludes with all the lights being turned on for just ten minutes. The light show itself was narrated telling the story Mysuru (sadly not in English so we weren’t really able to understand), the lights were turned on and off to relate to the narrative. Even not being able to understand the story, they were pretty to watch. 

Vaishakh knew when to tell us to get our cameras ready for the finale when all the lights came on. It was beautiful and worth the wait. Some of the bulbs had blown so it reminded us of when the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol used to be lit with individual bulbs like this – when some of them blew, the illuminated bridge looked like a smile with an occasional missing tooth. Watching the lights on the palace was a perfect end to a perfect day.

It is day 29 of RED (run every day) January, just three more runs to do to complete the challenge. It’s been a RED of two halves – running in the cold, wet and dark in the UK, then the opposite, warm, sunny and humid weather in India. The latter has been quite tough, firstly finding places to run, then coping with the heat. It’s meant I’ve only managed very short runs here – just enough to keep up with the challenge. 

Our bed and breakfast in Mysore was in a lovely residential area. The street had three small parks running along it, bisected by residential streets. It was lovely and quiet and all the trees in the park made it nice and cool. It was the perfect place to do an early morning run around the three parks.

I was awake yesterday around 6am so had donned my running gear and was out the house by 6.30am. I wasn’t the first up, there were several locals doing their morning walk around the park. At the end of one park was an outdoor gym and a few people were doing their exercise routines. To go between the parks I had to dip out onto the road. It’s a very quiet street so hardly any traffic, but what is still a surprise is that there are cows wandering around freely.

In India, cows are considered sacred and are a symbol of wealth, strength, and abundance. They are revered as givers of life and so are let out to roam freely in the streets during the day. They’re treated with respect so are perfectly safe from the crazy traffic, and for festivals they are decorated with flowers, ribbons and colourful turmeric powder that turns them yellow. Several of the cows we’ve seen have still been adorned from the recent festivals. 

Yesterday I ran with just my watch so wasn’t able to photograph any of the cows. Today I took my phone with me, but typical, there were no cows in sight. They were either having a lay-in or knew I was coming and were feeling camera shy. Fortunately, I took a photo of one yesterday on our walk around Mysuru – and just as we were driving off one appeared so I caught a shot through the car window. I’ll need to keep my eyes out for more cows on the next stage of our journey so I can make a moo-vie next time (sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

The first stop on our tour of Mysuru with Vaishakh was to the market – and what a market. It was a vast sprawling network of lanes and stalls. To keep them cool from the sun, different coloured tarpaulin were strung over the alleyways. The light that passed through the tarpaulin created a wonderful mix of colours that added to the amazing atmosphere.

My mum loved a marker, the mixture of fresh produce and the ability to barter over the process. She was a bit cheeky like that my mum, I think I’ve got that from her – the ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ attitude. Michael would run a mile from having to barter – he’d rather hand them his wallet and say ‘take it’ than have to haggle over a price!

The smell in the market was just as amazing as the look of all the produce. Fruit and vegetables piled high in baskets and on mats. Some familiar ones but also more exotic varieties too. Things that are not so common in the UK are heaped in vast piles here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many coconuts all piled up in one place before.

Part of the market is where you can buy the flowers for the garlands that are used in religious festivals and rituals. They don’t come in bunches like in the UK but rather in great big piles or baskets of flower heads. They are sold by weight and then are threaded onto strings to make the garlands. I watched one boy as he neatly threaded the flowers onto the string. The finished effect was just beautiful.

I was getting lots of tradespeople offering me their wares – but I resisted in the knowledge that I had to keep the air in my luggage until nearer the end of our trip so not to be carrying so much. I kept thinking, aunty Janet wouldn’t be so restrained! I did let two stall holders apply some scented oils to my arms – sandalwood on one and lotus flower on the other. Leaving the market with no produce but in a cloud of sweet scent.

After we were unsuccessful in our first attempt to buy tickets for the blue toy train from Ooty to Mettupalayam , our early start yesterday meant that we got to Coonoor by just gone 11, plenty of time to catch the 12.35 shorter train ride to Ooty.  This time I’d booked our tickets online, so as not to miss out. 

I’m quite a dab hand on using the very frustrating Indian railway booking system now. We were chatting to an English couple at breakfast in our B&B this morning, they were impressed I had booked all of the trains myself, they’d used a company to do it for them. I said let’s see if they all work first! Apparently one of the trains they had booked had been running two hours early – departed two hours early! That was a useful heads up, I shall check the online live train times now to make sure nothing departs without us!

We had a little wait at Coonoor station, but it was a pretty place with a small station garden at one end of the platform. I admired the plants while Michael went off to explore the station and the goods yard. I then sat people watching and spotting the other English tourists – mostly one women dutifully following around after a train buff husband, looked familiar. My own train buff husband soon returned from his exploring, just in time to watch our train be reversed onto the platform.

We found our seats in the first carriage easily,  although there was a moment when another couple tried to occupy our seats. Fortunately they were in the wrong carriage. Phew, I panicked for a moment that I’d messed up the train booking.

The train ride itself was quite short just over an hour to Ooty, but it’s a lovely ride. The climb is steep and windy and the views are amazing. The best bit was our fellow passengers in the carriage. There were an Indian couple with their grown up daughter and a retired English couple from Milton Keynes. We chatted and shared stories and jokes the whole journey, it was great. 

When we arrived at Ooty it was a bit chaotic as we all tried to get off and lots of people waiting on the platform were trying to get on at the same time. Vaishakh was waiting for us on the platform and took this great video if our train arriving. Back in the car we set off on the last part of drive to Mysore, Michael very content that he’d got his train fix – the first of many he’ll get over the next few weeks.

Monday 27 January

Marari Beach – Mysuru

We packed our bags after dinner last night and went to bed early ready for our early start today. Matthew decided to get up and go running on the beach at 2:30! Crazy – he’s taking his run every day (RED) January very seriously – he said that there were some people still on the beach, a couple who’d made a fire and some people fishing … they would have been quite bemused to see a White European running about on the shore. 

The reception staff came to collect our bags in a little electric buggy at 3:30am I had some coffee in our room and Vaishakh was waiting for us at 3:45.

While Matthew was settling the (quite sizeable) bill, I chatted with a couple of British women who were sat outside surrounded with their luggage and waiting for a taxi to take them to the airport in Kochi. They said that they were getting a flight to Muscat … I thought Wow! And I asked them if they were on a round the world trip … turns out that they weren’t, they were catching a flight from Muscat back to Heathrow! They were from Lancaster and I told them that we’d been there to cycle coast-to-coast from Morecambe to Bridlington (in the years before dogs!).

We set off in the dark and as expected, the roads were very quiet. As the sun rose on our right it illuminated the beautiful Western Ghat mountain range between Kochi and Madukkari on our left.

The vegan breakfast boxes from Marari Beach were beyond underwhelming – two apples, a small banana and a small carton of mango juice.

We were making good progress and stopped for breakfast at Sri Annapoorna (Veg) at Odandurai, Nagapattinam – yum! potatoes and onion dosa, an onion pancake, a savoury donut (Vaishakh will know what these were really called, so I may be able to update this later).

A short time later while we were stopped at a toll point there a tap on the front passenger side window of Vaishakh’s car – it was a traffic policeman. Uh oh. Vaishakh lowered the window and he asked if we were going to Ooty – we are. He wanted a lift there! Phew! Vaishakh seemed uncertain and asked us what we thought I was all for it, I used to hitch-hike a lot in my late teens and early twenties. Hardly anyone hitch-hikes these days but it’s always nice to be able to help someone who has to get somewhere. Plus, there had to be some advantage to having a traffic policeman in the vehicle – you never know! He was 59, smart in his uniform with two stars and some bars on his epaulettes. In India people normally retire at 60 and he was planning to farm some land when he retired.

As the road climbs up to Coonoor there are dozens of hairpin bends and some wonderful views.

Vaishakh dropped us off at Coonoor railway station and offered to wait with us until the train arrived – that would have meant that the traffic policeman would have needed to find another lift. We had booked tickets, so we were confident that we would be able to get to Ooty, so we suggested that Vaishakh carry on and meet us in Ooty.

There was over an hour to wait for the train … that gave us plenty of time to explore the station – and the adjacent marshalling yard. Just like in Ooty, the station was being renovated. There were some chalk decorations on the floor left from Republic Day.

The marshalling yard was brilliant – lots of trains, including steam trains being cleaned and serviced.

There was a neat little railway police office at the end of our platform that had a lovely small garden and a big green wall just outside the station.

Our train arrived and station staff opened every door before we could get on. Each set of seats facing each other have their own door and there was no corridor inside the carriage – this maximises seating space. We met a couple of Brits from Milton Keynes and a lovely Indian couple with their daughter. We all chatted a lot throughout our journey about work and travel and marriage and India.

Vaishakh was waiting for us on the platform in Ooty – he filmed the train coming in. 

The last part of our loooong journey today to Mysuru went back through the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. We saw more elephants, some of them in captivity – chained and working, which I found upsetting. They’re magnificent, sensitive and sociable creatures that should never be in captivity, treated cruelly or taken away from their own. 

We also saw some baboons and some giant Indian squirrels for the first time; more monkeys, peacocks and deer. 

We’re in a homestay in Mysuru – like a bed a breakfast. Stephen is the owner and he’s a lovely, sociable person – originally from Sheffield, but here in India for 15 years now. Our friends Ann and Dave in Bristol recommended that we stay here. Stephen likes to cycle, which is a plus. I was looking forward to meeting Lucie, Stephen’s dog. When we arrived, Stephen told us that Lucie had died yesterday. That was dreadful news – I don’t know how he was holding things together – I guess he was working and trying to get on. Lucie was old and had been struggling a bit recently, so her death wasn’t unexpected. 

We went out for something to eat – our first auto rickshaw ride! And then back to bed and a good nights sleep.

Our stay at Malari Beach came to an end today as we bid farewell to cottage 32. It was a very early start as we had to be ready to hit the road at 4am. You know how it is the night before you have to be up early and you just keep waking up thinking you’ll miss the alarm. That exactly what was happening to me last night. I gave up in the end and got up at 2.30am and decided to do my run every day session out and back along the beach. 

It’s slightly weird running on sand in the middle of the night, in the dark with the waves crashing on the beach. What’s even weirder is that I wasn’t the only one on the beach at that hour. First there was a fisherman preparing his boat, his figure emerging out of the dark. Then there were a couple of people sat around a camp fire – they looked like they’d been there all night. As I ran past, they were a bit startled and shone their torches at me. Finally, I came across a group of street dogs on the beach. They were also a bit surprised to see me and one of them woofed at me. I took that as a sign to turn around and head back. It was only a short one mile run, but the main point was I did it and kept up my 27 day streak of running every day.

I got back to the cottage, showered, made Mike a coffee and then put the bags out ready for them to be collect. Bang on cue at 3.45 a porter driving the electric tuk tuk turned up and loaded them onto the back to take them to reception. Vaishakh was waiting for us as we arrived. I paid the last of our bill and checked out. Slightly sad that another chapter of our adventure was closing, but excited about what’s still to come. 

I did something yesterday (not sure what) that has made my lower back a bit stiff. Not ideal when tomorrow we’re heading off on a very long car journey. Fortunately it was early yoga again this morning and that always helps stretch me out. Michael joined me this morning (somewhat reluctantly). He does enjoy yoga when he does it, but it just reminds him how knackered and inflexible he feels when he can’t stretch and flex like others can. I think the yoga class leader could see that my back was stiff as he did lots of moves that were good for loosening the lower back.

Yoga was followed by breakfast and then at 11am I’d booked us both a massage in the on-site Ayurveda centre. I thought this would also be good for my back and a nice treat on our last day here. As we wandered over to get our massage I was a little anxious about the possibility of being massaged by women. Don’t get me wrong, I do like women, but it’s been a very long time since the female hand has been laid on my body – and that was not a good experience. Several years ago, one of our ex-neighbours, a slightly nuts Swedish women by the name of Anna invited us to a fancy dress party. I went as someone from the band Dexys Midnight Runners. Later in the evening, after she had dunk far too much alcohol, Anna quite unexpectedly slipped her hand inside the back of my dungarees and started to fondle my bottom, which was most unwelcome. The memory of this encounter has left me with mild post traumatic stress (PTSD) and the thought of a female masseur was slightly triggering.

Thankfully my fears were not realised, as after a quick questionnaire with a doctor to check my blood pressure, cholesterol, toilet movements etc were all ok, I was introduced to a young boy (he was probably a young man, but he looked like a young boy to me!) who showed me into the massage room. There was massage table, a side table with oils and towels, a separate bathroom and a rope strung across the room from one side to another. I wondered what an earth the rope was for, fortunately I didn’t get to find out.

When I’d booked the massage I asked what I should wear. I was told to just wear normal clothes and that a loin cloth would be provided for me to wear during the massage. I had visions of a nice cotton cloth similar to the sort worn by Ghandi, I was miss-sold! The boy instructed me to undress completely and then pulled out what could only be described as an oversized disposable face mask. He proceeded to wrap the string around my waist tieing it behind, the fabric part dangling in front. Then reaching between my legs he pulled the fabric up and tucked it into the string around my waist. Think cheap sumo wrestler outfit. As a slightly oversized teenager, some of the kids at school used to call me Sumo (a distortion of Symo, while also playing on my chubbiness). If only they could see me now – looking like a poor man’s sumo wrestler!

The boy invited me to sit on a stool where he began with the head massage. Oil was applied and his fingers started to whiz around my scalp, my neck and my ears – it reminded me of when I go to the hairdressers. I love having my hair done, it sort of sends me into a relaxed trance. After about ten minutes that part was done. Next he put a metal bowl on the floor by my feel and one by one lifted them into the bowl. He poured water over them from a metal jug, then with what at first I thought was a stone – turned out to be a slice of lime (yes my eyes really are that bad!), he rubbed one foot at a time with the lime then rinsed with the water before patting them dry with a towel.

Next it was time to lay on the massage table, first face down. For this part we were joined by a second male masseur with a bright smile and gapped teeth. A very sensible safeguarding precaution I thought. The string holding the ‘loin cloth’ was untied and the fabric part rested on the table. Then warm oil was poured from a small metal watering can all over my body. The two masseurs then started to work the oil into my body. Blimey, they were speedy and very coordinated. I thought, if this was a Charleston on Strictly they’d get 10, 10, 10, 10. It also vaguely reminded me of taking a car through a car-wash, the brushes whizzing and whacking each side. Not that they were very harsh, in fact it was a lovely relaxing sensation. After a good workout on the back half, the loin cloth was retired and I was asked to turn over onto my back.

A similar process of applying the oil was carried out followed by two pairs of hands basting me up like a good roast potatoe (non-vegans can imagine your own alternative). All was well until one of them started on my tits. It felt like he was a contestant on bake off rolling two dough buns into shape. The spirit of Frankie Howard washed over me as I could feel laughter buildings – titter ye not! For those not of a certain age, Frankie Howard was British comedian during the 1950s-1980s – he famously made lots of risqué double entendres in his stories then would feinen shocked innocence when the audience laughed at them – he was hilarious. Anyway, I bit hard on my lip to suppress a laugh, which was quite a struggle, I though ‘think if something serious’. My brother Andrew’s red face came into my head – No! That was worse, quickly before I spurted out a guffaw I thought of the dogs. Phew, the laugh was suppressed and the tits were left to rise! At the end of the front massage there was a gentle slapping of the body from head to toe – also quite similar to knocking the air out of dough.

The final stage was the head massage. The boy applied small drops of cold oil onto my face. They smelt slightly scented, like Body Shop Mornigea body wash. He proceeded to gently massage all my face, around the eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin, the full works. Then that was it, I was done. I did wonder for a moment how I was going to get from the massage bench to the bathroom without looking like some B-list celebrity on dancing on ice. Thankfully they’d thought of that. Before I stood up the boy wiped down my feet removing the excess oil, then advised me to tread gently to the bathroom where I could wash the oil off.

Fully dressed and very relaxed I was escorted back to the reception area where I was reunited with Michael who’d been sent off to a separate room for his massage. The young boy applied a bindi to each of our foreheads and we were invited to sit and drink some sweet herbal tea before departing (too sweet for Michael, he’s sweet enough!). 

Looking out the window I asked about the potted labelled plants and whether they had herbal significance. I was informed that yes, they each performed a different function and that there were 100 potted plants around the Ayurveda centre that formed a herbal garden, which was used regularly in the different treatments. Tea consumed, I signed the bill and we left feeling very relaxed.

Today (26 January) is Republic Day in India. The staff in the restaurant were wearing badges of the Indian flag to mark the occasion. It’s interesting to read how the Indian flag contains a lot of symbolism and its use is quite controlled.

Wikipedia informs me that before the amendment of the ‘flag code’ in 2021, the flag was by law only to be made of khadi; a special type of hand-spun cloth or silk, made popular by Mahatma Gandhi. As of 2023, there are 4 places in India that are licensed to manufacture the flag. Usage of the flag is governed by the Flag Code of India and other laws relating to the national emblems. The original code prohibited use of the flag by private citizens except on national days, such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day. In 2002, the Supreme Court of India directed the Government of India to amend the code to allow flag usage by private citizens. Subsequently, the Union Cabinet of India amended the code to allow limited usage. The code was amended once more in 2005 to allow some additional use including adaptations on certain forms of clothing. The flag code also governs the protocol of flying the flag and its use in conjunction with other national and non-national flags.

The current Indian flag with the central Ashok Chakra was designed by Badruddin Tyabji in 1947. Gandhi first proposed a flag to the Indian National Congress in 1921. The precursor to the current flag, the swaraj flag was designed by Pingali Venkayya. In the centre was a traditional spinning wheel, symbolising Gandhi’s goal of making Indians self-reliant by fabricating their own clothing, between a red stripe for Hindus and a green stripe for Muslims. The design was then modified to replace red with saffron and to include a white stripe in the centre for other religious communities (as well to symbolise peace between the communities) and provide a background for the spinning wheel. However, to avoid sectarian associations with the colour scheme, the three bands were later reassigned new meanings: courage and sacrifice, peace and truth, and faith and chivalry respectively.

As someone who trained in textile design hearing about the type of cloth prescribed for the flag and the symbolism of the spinning wheel at its centre is facinating. Here at Marari Beach there is a spinning wheel used in the creation of a different kind of yarn. In the Coir Hut it’s possible to see how the coconut fibres are spun into yarn and then turned into coir rope, mats etc. Coir is a very tough and hard wearing fibre – we have had coir carpet in our hall in the past. For the women spinning it, it will certainly toughen up their hands! 

Saturday 25 January

Marari Beach

It’s our second full day at the Colonial Club Marari Beach Resort. Matthew was up an out early as usual – an early run and then yoga followed by  breakfast then a trip to the Butterfly Garden – a really lovely area on the edge of the compound where plants are grown to specifically attract butterflies and insects. 

We had a nice, well-informed guide who explained the development of the garden and how they work to maximise different local species of butterfly. There were many butterflies and our guide advised us to return later in the day to see even more.

There’s a family from the USA on site – parents and four kids. They were at the Butterfly Garden too. The woman and the kids are quite chatty – they’re from Utah, just moved to Kochi for two years for dad’s work in computing. He seems to be rather studiously not speaking to us … I can’t imagine why!

Then some more time in and by the pool. And then at 1800 time for the ‘Farm Kitchen’ experience – the main reason why Matthew wanted to come here – a guided tour of their large vegetable gardens, selection of vegetables with the chef and then they’re cooked and served up for us.

It was wonderful – Ajo was our chef, he was sweet and I interesting – said that there are 60 chefs on site! He thought he’d be an engineer, but his brother is and advised him against it. Ajo came into being a chef through a hotel management course. He made us some wonderful food – Matthew has already written about that. It was really nice to sit down together and eat, talk and be quiet. A lovely evening.

Finally, after dinner a wander back to our cottage for a drink. A lovely day.

Around a year ago I was at home perusing the home and garden section of the Guardian newspaper. There was an article by Allan Jenkins about an organic vegetable garden in Kerala. Slightly oddly, it didn’t say in the article precisely where it was. I did my own internet research to find that there was somewhere called Marari Beach Resort with a five acre organic vegetable garden, where it’s possible to tour the garden, pick vegetables and the chef would then cook a meal with the produce. So when I was planning our trip an opportunity to visit a vegetable farm and taste the produce was high on my wish list.

It was another one of those ‘pinch yourself’ moments – we actually did it. At 6pm last night we met Ajo, the chef in the farm kitchen garden and he took us on a tour to learn about and select the produce that he then turned into our dinner in a beautiful outdoor farm kitchen, What a delicious dinner it was too! I’m not generally one for posting pictures of my meals, but on this occasion I’ll make an exception.

The first course was a simple soup made from some onion, garlic, curry leaves picked from the garden and blended with coconut milk. They were simmered gently for about 30 minutes. Instead of using a pan lid, a banana leave had the duel effect of keeping a lid on the pan and also telling when it was cooked as the leaf changed as it cooked – ingenious!

Next it was a banana cooked in a sauce of onions, spices and coconut milk. This was served wrapped in a banana leaf. It was delicious and had a beautiful almost nutty flavour.

Next was a refreshing salad made using three types of spinach leaves. The dressing was made from passion fruit juice – it was so sweet. Pomegranate seeds were sprinkled over the salad with some small batons of what I think were a yam.

The main course consisted of two curries; a wet pumpkin curry with coconut cream, and a dry aubergine curry with chopped fresh coconut. It was interesting that Ajo prepared the aubergine by chopping it into very small pieces and cooking it directly, this is very different to how we generally cook aubergine at home (sliced, salted and baked to extract liquid before they are grilled or roasted). I’m certainly going to try his method. The curry was accompanied by a hot pickle and chapati.

Desert was a creamy coconut pudding infused with hibiscus flower and mixed with chopped cashew and dried fruit. It was the perfect end to a delicious meal – and our first desert in India (if you exclude fruit!).

It was a fantastic experience and meal. We wrote a great review for Ajo, we’d definitely recommend this experience.

Ajo our very talented chef

We’ve been staying at Marari Beach for two nights and we have two more to go before we hit the road again with Vaishakh. It is a beautiful place, but quite detached from the real India. The place sells itself as an eco-resort. All the rooms are little individual thatched cottages set amongst beautiful lush green grounds.

The gardens here are more like a botanical garden as we’d know it, rather than the actual botanical gardens that we’ve visited so far in India. The trees and shrubs each have little green plates telling the English and local names.

There are near green lawns (well they look like lawns but it’s actually a close growing ground cover). The only reason they are green is because the sprinklers come on in the early morning and late evening each day.

There’s a big beautiful saltwater swimming pool that is not cold, but cooler than it is outside – so it’s very refreshing to swim.

Around the complex is an earth hut with lots of info about the wildlife around the site and where daily talks/tours start from.

The restaurant is housed in a large open sided thatched building, but there are fine wires running down the sides to stop birds flying in. The high exposed roof have low overhang eaves to keep it cool.

Big fans hang from the ceiling and because it’s quite dark, there are small wall lights around the edge. The restaurant is where we go for an extensive buffet breakfast and dinner (dinner can be buffet or a la carte) the staff wear blue in the morning and white in the evening.

There is also a choice of the poolside snack bar, the beach bar with pizzas and other drinks and snacks, or the the fisherman’s grill.

Across the site there’s also a yoga hut, games room, therapy spa, club house (with a tv if you’re desperate – there are deliberately no tvs in the cottages).

There are lots of natural activities including the Owl Parliament walk (which we did on our first morning and it was absolutely fab), a butterfly tour in the butterfly garden (second morning ) archery (gave that a miss), afternoon tea served on the lawn (Matthew did, Mike didn’t), and an organic vegetable farm (more about that later). Then of course there is the palm fringed beach just a short stroll from the cottages.

All this luxury does of course come at a price – but this is the ‘special treat’ for our trip. We certainly have never stayed anywhere quite as luxurious as this before (and are unlikely to again unless I win another cash prize competition!). The luxury is wonderful, but also quite an awkward contrast to the real India we’ve seen elsewhere. I said to Mike the other night when we were having dinner that the whole place has the air of a colonial club house in the mid 1950s. The look of the clientele certain fit that (including us). The guests are mostly white European, mostly older couples (the resort could pass as a retirement community with a small number of younger visitors!). Many of the guests have big boobs and big bellies (and that’s just the men – to be fair, the women tend to a bit more stylish). All the staff (who are without exception lovely) are of course Indian, which just adds to the feel of colonial British rule clinging on here. 

It’s been both odd and nice to experience this slightly surreal piece of gated paradise (I didn’t mention the security guides at every entrance did I?) But I think four nights (three days is enough). We’ll be glad to be travelling again with Vaishakh and seeing a more authentic side of India from tomorrow.

Friday 24 January

Marari Beach

A quiet day at Marari Beach for us today with no travelling. Beginning with Matthew heading off to the yoga centre for an hour – we’ve both done yoga in the past and enjoyed it (sort of) and definitely felt that it did us good, but I’m nervous about damaging my already painful foot that I sprained about 6 weeks ago. I might risk it tomorrow. 

We also sent off some of our first week’s clothes to be laundered. After breakfast we went for a tour of the ‘compound’ that showed us some of the wildlife. The event was called ‘Owl Parliament’ (there are many species of owl on site), but we looked at butterflies and turtles, too. There were about 10 others in the Earth Lab building where the tour started.

Our guide was fantastic – I’ve no idea how he did it, but he could see all sorts of birds in the trees …. And even when he painstakingly described exactly where to look and what to look for I usually couldn’t see what he was pointing out. Fortunately, he had a super-powerful monocular on a tripod, which he’d set up and train on a particular bird and we could all take turns to look.

What we saw was truly astonishing and his next phenomenal skill was that he could focus our phone through the monocular and adjust light levels to produce some fantastic photographs … we are not responsible for these at all – but this is some what we looked at.

We chatted to some of the others – some from Manchester, some Yorkshire and also Plymouth. We all talked about missing our dogs! Some people are flying home tomorrow and there’s a storm hitting the UK – Storm Éowyn – thousands of flights have been cancelled … mostly in Northern Ireland and Scotland as far as we can tell – but it could move south I suppose and they might be delayed.

After the ‘Owl Parliament’ we went to reception to book some activities over the coming days. We wanted to spend some time on a houseboat – but there was no availability between now and when we leave (I’m starting to sense a theme emerging now). Instead we’re going a shorter boat tour, which is available the day after tomorrow. Also, Matthew wanted to tour the organic garden here and then the chef will cook us dinner using the produce that we harvest – so that’s booked for tomorrow, evening.

We spent a couple of hours in/by the pool and then went for a 5k run along the beach. Matthew has set himself a challenge to run every day (RED) in January  – he’s mostly done that in hotel gyms, or in their grounds while we’ve been in India. Today was my first run in India and it was lovely to run together – and by the Arabian Sea! There were a few stray dogs on the beach and I was a bit nervous that we might alarm them and be chased -,there were no major dog-incidents, although one did woof at Matthew. I wanted keep as far away as possible and ended up too close to the sea – a wave went over both of our  feet and we had to squelch along for 4.5k! Next time we’ll go barefoot.

Last night’s dinner was ordered from the a la carte menu … it was enormous and I could only eat about a quarter of it … a terrible waste of food and I felt guilty about it. So tonight we used the buffet so we could have smaller portions. They have a drummer and string player entertaining us with traditional Indian music while we dine – which is lovely. We were almost finished dinner when all the waiting staff paraded in with a cake and were clapping – the young couple at the next but one table were on their honeymoon – sweet – they seemed a little embarrassed.

After dinner we walked down to the beach bar for another drink (tonic for Matthew and a Mocktail for Mike). It was lovely sitting in the warm, the sound of the waves and pretty lights all around the bar. A nice end to another lovely day.

When water closets (wc or toilets) were introduced into UK homes in the late nineteenth century, it was not considered hygienic to have them inside the house, but rather to have them in an outside space accessed by leaving the house, usually into a back yard. These outside loos can still be found in some very old houses, but are now considered very primitive. Most people prefer the luxury of a fully heated inside lavatory nowadays. So it’s quite funny here at Marari Beach to find that the bathrooms are located outside – considered decadent and luxurious here in contrast to the outside loos of old back home.

Enclosed by a white wall, with a thatched palm roof, the shower, sink and toilet are covered, but there is an open section in the corner where rain (if there is any) can drain onto a pebbled area with a banana palm planted in it. The temperature here is very warm, so there is no danger of being cold in the outdoor bathroom, but there is one predator to be wary of. In the evenings the mosquitos are particularly hungry – and no one wants a bite on the bum when they’re on the throne! To deal with this danger, guests are advised to place a citronella joss stick in the pebbles beside the loo and let the incense burn to deter the mosquitoes. The incense burns through the night, so for the older gentlemen among us (that’s both of us, I know) we can pay our nighttime visits safe in the knowledge that the mosquitoes are (mostly) being kept at bay.

A reminder of how much precious water we waste

Our garden cottage is very comfortable, especially the bed so we both slept well. I woke up early (as is my normal) so I was able to head to the yoga hut for 7am yoga (Micheal stayed in bed snoozing). I do occasional yoga at home using Apple Fitness, but to be honest, I’ve not done it for a while (life is too busy). I had thought I might do it every day in India, but our busy schedule means today is the first opportunity I’ve had.

I arrived at the yoga hut almost bang on 7am. It was already almost full – I counted that there were 16 of us in total. Everyone else was already sat on their mats waiting, the yoga teacher hadn’t arrived yet. I was looking around to see where the mats were, but I couldn’t see for looking. One women realised what I was looking for and indicated with her head to the hooks just under the eaves of the straw roof where the rolled up mats were stored. I took one and set it out in one of the few spaces left.

The yoga teacher arrived shortly after. He must have been about the same age as me, but boy, was he flexible! If only I were half as flexible as him! He clearly knew his audience though, as he didn’t really do anything too taxing until the final few moves. There was a lot of stretching, just what i needed after yesterday’s long drive. One of the moves was focussed on stretching our hamstrings and involved six people at a time spaced around a chest of drawers he’d pulled into the centre of the room. One leg at a time we had to stand sideways onto the drawers and lift our leg onto the draws, foot facing up, then stretch our hands up and lean over towards the foot on the draws, repeating several times while taking a deep inhail of breath and then slowly breathing out. We then repeated with the other leg.

The final move was the hardest. Sitting on the mat sideways with our front leg folded up with our foot tucked into our crotch. The back leg slightly bent and our front hand slightly forward but in line with our back leg. We then had to hold our front leg toe with our back hand, and in a sort of sideways ‘plane style’ take off, elevated off the floor with our front hand and back foot still on the floor. If holding that wasn’t hard enough, we then had to extend the leg while our other hand was still holding the toe. My legs are very long so there was no way I was going to extend it fully, but I did my best, while still balancing on my hand and foot. When the yoga teacher demonstrated it, everyone laughed in a ‘you really expect me to do that?’ expression. It was me and the only other guy in the session who actually managed to do it first and we had had a ‘good, well done’ from the teacher!

The whole session lasted an hour and ended with the usual relaxation and Savasana chant. It was another ‘pinch myself’ moment to think I was doing yoga in India, in a straw thatched hut, with open sides (apart from mesh to keep the mosquito at bay). All we could hear was the wildlife and the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach in the background. The white birds just pottering around outside – magical. I just need to persuade Mike to get up and have a go tomorrow.  

Thursday 23 January

Wellington – Marari Beach

We were at Ooty station to buy our toy train tickets at 07:30 – the station building is lovely – but covered in scaffolding as it’s being restored.

The ticket office opened at 0800 … already there was a long queue of people waiting.

I feared that we might not get a ticket. So while Mathew and Vaishakh queued, I explored the station – they have an old Swiss Railways steam locomotive on display – and it’s possible to walk across the railway lines to get close to it.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway was opened in 1908  – it took almost 60 years to complete. It’s 46km in length and since we’re so high up, it includes some of the steepest track in Asia – a maximum gradient of 8.33%. The railway is narrow gauge, with a rack and pinion system on the steepest sections between Mettupalayam and Coonoor; it still uses steam locomotives. In its early days, the railway used locomotives built by the Avonside Engine Company that’s based in St Philip’s in our home city of Bristol! In 1994 the railway was given UNESCO world heritage status. The scenic mountain views from the train are spectacular – and there’s a possibility of seeing lots of wildlife, including elephants, monkeys, bisons and leopards. 

When I returned to the ticket hall, the queue wasn’t much shorter – it can takes ages to buy a railway ticket! Not long after, and as I’d feared, it was announced that the train was sold out. Vaishakh said that the maximum number of tickets that anyone could buy was four and that lots of people were buying four tickets. It was also obvious that coach loads of tourists were arriving having bought packages that included transport, accommodation and a ride on the toy train. No wonder it sold out!

I had considered telling Vaishakh that he could just leave us at the railway station and head off to meet us at the other end in Mettupalayam – he wouldn’t have agreed to that, I know, and thankfully I hadn’t suggested it – or we’d have had to ask him to come back to Ooty to collect us! Without the train, we were all going by car to Marari Beach – near Kochi, on the west coast in Kerala. A journey of nine hours! Vaishakh seems to take these sorts of drives in his stride – but it horrifies me!

All is not lost on the Toy Train front – we may be able to reserve seats in the opposite direction – from Mettupalayam to Ooty when we return to Mysuru in four days time.

The drive brought us down from the mountains – lots of tight hairpin bends, dense mist, monkeys and waterfalls. In fact, lots of what we would have seen if we’d been on the train! As usual Vaishakh drove with enormous skill.

We passed through the Coimbatore – a huge textile centre, known as the ‘Manchester of South India’! Palakkad, which has an enormous 18th century fort. Thrissur, which has a very large number of temples and other religious buildings – it’s thought that Christianity, Islam and Judaism came into India through Thrissur. The Catholic basilica in Thrissur is an enormous bright white edifice and it’s the largest Christian church in India.

We stopped for breakfast in a busy ‘family restaurant’ – really nice and being with Vaishakh meant that we didn’t need to struggle to order vegan food – It’ll be a nightmare when we part company with him next week! 

On to Kochi, which is the most populated area in Kerala – a beautiful city bordering the coast and an ancient and historically an important centre of spice trading with the Romans, Persians, Arabs, and Chinese. From the early 1500s Kochi was colonised by the Portuguese who built a fort here. Dutch colonists took over (!) in the 1660s and the British arrived after the French revolutionary wars/British victory over Napoleon that enabled Britain to return land that the French had taken from the Dutch to the Netherlands in return for Dutch handing over land that the British wanted – including South Africa and here in Kerala.

Vaishakh told us that Kochi is the only city in India to have a water metro – electric boats connecting Kochi’s 10 islands with the metro system – it looks great!

Also, Cochin International Airport is the first in the world to operate entirely on solar power. We also saw the Chinese fishing nets along the waterfront that are a symbol of the city.

I noticed on our journey that there seemed to be far fewer stray dogs in the road – when I commented on this, Vaishakh said that the local authorities rescued them and had shelters/re-homed them. I hope that’s the case – I was reading about some animal welfare charities in India … one boasted about how many stray dogs they had sterilised (a good thing to do) but then said that they returned them back to the streets (not a good thing to do!). I sense that there is a very troubling indifference among many people here to animal and human suffering – it’s unexpected and bothers me … but I don’t live here and I’m very aware that what tourists glimpse from their air conditioned cars and hotels does’t really give us the ability to come to meaningful conclusions.

We arrived in Marari Beach around 5:30 (having left Ooty at about 8:30. Our ‘hotel’ is really a gated resort – we have a little bungalow to ourselves with an adjoining bathroom open to the sky. It’s lovely and warm here in the south. It’s also very White here in Marari Beach Resort, which we didn’t expect. It’s luxurious, artificial and there’s some discomfort about feeling the echoes of the colonial past.

We walked through the ‘compound’ in the dusk – a beautiful sky and nice to see the stars – then on to the beach. The beach was almost deserted and there was the Arabian Sea – it was breathtaking … in less than a week we’ve travelled from the Bay of Bengal to Arabian Sea  – that’s 700km/450 miles.

We paused for a drink at the outdoor bar (pineapple juice for Mike, tonic water for Matthew) before heading to the restaurant for dinner

I know that it has been said before, but it should said again, my husband has many similar characteristics to my father – or as us sometimes remarked, I married my father! Not least is his pleasure in seeing a steam train (utterly baffling to me). He was in for a treat today as we made a last minute plan to catch the miniature ‘blue toy train’ from Ooty to Mettupalayam where we’d be picked up for our onward journey to Kerala by Vaishakh. Sadly, it was not to be.

When I was planning our holiday I didn’t think we’d have time to travel on the miniature blue train while we were here so I’d not booked ahead (all our other train journeys have been booked months in advance). Unlike the UK where you can just turn up and get on a train (even if it means standing as it often does), here reservations are necessary if you want to guarantee a ticket, especially on the miniature train where capacity is limited.

Vaishakh picked us up early from our hotel, just after 7 to get us to the station to join the queue for limited on the day tickets that went on sale at 8am. He was slightly delayed as he came across someone in the road who’d been his by a bison! He drove them to a nearby hospital to be checked before picking us up. Bison attacks are not something we have to worry about in the UK thankfully. They are big strong beasts so you wouldn’t want to get into a fight with one. There are lots of signs warning drivers to go slow to be aware of wildlife crossing, but if you’re on foot (as this guy was) and an angry bison crosses your path, you’re in trouble. Thankfully Vaishakh thinks he’ll be ok, and will only have bruises – but safer to be checked out.

When we got to the station at Ooty there was already quite a queue but Vaishakh was hopeful we’d get two of the 50 or so tickets available. Unfortunate we were unlucky. People could buy up to four tickets and by the time we got near the front all the tickets for the 9.15 train had been sold. Ah well, at least Mike got to clamber over the tracks to see the train on display at the station (clambering over tracks is not permitted in the UK). We still have plenty of train trips to come including the Himalayan Queen that will take us up to Shimla – so Mike’s train fix will be satisfied!

After a very, very, very long drive – all credit to Vaishakh – we have safely arrived at our beach hotel resort. This will be our home for the next 3 days (4 nights), so now it’s time to relax and recharge. We arrived around 5.30 and after a slight panic that I’d lost our passports (I hadn’t) we were welcomed with a pale mark on the forehead and some delicious cold blue tea. It tasted slightly of blueberries, but they told us it’s brewed from these blue flowers growing around the gardens here.

We’re staying in a garden cottage with a thatched straw roof. Air conditioned inside, thankfully, as it is 27 degrees (at 8pm!). The bathroom is outside in a small garden enclosure. They advise lighting citron incense sticks at night in the bathroom to ward off mosquitos (no one wants a bite in the bum when they pay a late night visit).

Although it was dark, we wandered down to the beach to see if we might be able run on the sand tomorrow. It feels firm enough by the shore, so that’s something for tomorrow’s RED January. Dinner in the restaurant isn’t served until 7.30pm and we were a little early so we wandered over to the beach bar. There was a guitarist singing as we had a drink (Mike a mocktail, me a tonic water) and perused the range of free activities we can enjoy while we’re here. I think it’s going to be a lovely few days here.

Wednesday 22 January

Wellington/Ooty

A much shorter day today with much less driving. 

Breakfast at the Sleeping Beauty by Nature Hotel was a little underwhelming – no non-dairy milk available … and when I asked if it would be possible to have some for tomorrow morning, they said no! So dry toast and jam and some fruit it had to be! It’s occurred to me that it’s actually been more challenging than I expected to be vegan – in this part of India at least (and Kerala where we are heading to is likely to be even worse – they eat a lot of dead fish there). Here at Sleeping Beauty, after we told them we were vegan and explained what that meant, they asked us if we would like an omelette for breakfast! Matthew had been wondering whether we should stay here for an additional night – it is a stunning location in the hills and among the tea plantations, I’ll admit – but on the strength of the breakfasts, I said no thanks!

The plan for today was to visit a tea factory and the botanical gardens in Ooty. Vaishakh collected us at 8:30 and we drove through Ooty and up to the Benchmark tea factory (they also made chocolate there). The drive on the road up the hill was amazing – terraces of tea bushes – with lots of different shades of green looked wonderful.

At the tea factory a young man explained to us how white tea and green tea and black tea all come from the same bush – the white tea comes from the bottom of the leaf which is handpicked. Green tea comes from newest, tender leaves that are steamed before processing. Black tea comes from the darker/older leaves that are dried and ground. It was interesting and we could see the machinery operating through windows, but we were out fairly quickly.

We were given some tea to drink and had opportunities to buy tea and chocolate! Matthew was considering buying some chocolate, but we were not allowed to taste any of it, which I thought was a little odd-and I was reluctant to buy something that I wasn’t sure whether I’d like it or not (I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth). Vaishakh wanted to buy some chocolate for his wife – he bought some for us too, which was very kind of him! It tasted good too!! Thanks Vaishakh!

The drive back to Ooty to the botanical gardens was nice and we discussed how tea might be made in smaller, more traditional business businesses. Vaishakh asked us if we would be interested in visiting a more traditional tea making business, and after the rather commercial and noisy tea factory we thought that would be a really good idea. He said he would try to arrange something while we were in the botanical gardens.

The botanical gardens were more like a Victorian British park – lawns, glasshouse, formal bedding, cascades and tree-lined paths. Not unpleasant, but it didn’t feel particularly Indian. We had to pay to get in and while Matthew was doing that, I looked ruefully at all the signs and notices at the entrance – there are a lot of signs telling people how to behave and what to do everywhere we’ve been – and they’re often ignored by the people that they’re directed at and I wonder if everyone else, like me, just finds them really oppressive?

Matthew will write separately about the Botanical Gardens – he knew all the plant names and can describe it better than I can. 

Before leaving Ooty we went to the railway station – I’m very excited about tomorrow because we’re taking the Ooty Toy Train (or Nilgiri Mountain Railway to give it it’s proper name) we’ll be on a three hour ride to Mettupalayam. We went to the railway station in Ooty to book our tickets.

I was disappointed to find that all the bookable availability was sold out! However, we can buy walk-on tickets in the morning, so we’ll be back at Ooty station at eight tomorrow morning!

We walked back to the car and Vaishakh had found a small tea plantation and factory that we could visit – the Glendale estate. We drove there past the huge Wellington Cordite factory, it looked pretty forbidding – surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Someone who working our hotel told us that they make munitions for the Indian military at the site here.

The Glendale tea plantation was beautiful – an 85 year old factory and surrounding fields of tea buses being worked (mostly by women workers). The factory was closed for a holiday, but we were allowed to look around – the machines looked very dangerous with unguarded mechanisms. It was fascinating to get so close to the process and the people working there – the previous factory was interesting but more commercial.

After the second tea factory of the day, we headed back to our hotel. One of the staff offered to walk us further up the hill to see the sunset – he was a sweet local man … he asked us about our relationship and while I was contemplating whether or not to tell him that we’re married, he said “You’re soulmates.” I happily agreed with that.

It was becoming more misty in the valley and so there wouldn’t be a good sunset to see. We could see lots of sold plots on the hillside – with tea bushes still growing on them. It’s likely that these plots will be built on and it was really sad to think that this beautiful natural landscape and space for wild buffalo and leopards will disappear forever.

This trip has a lot of gardens on the itinerary, but I also wanted to visit a tea plantation. Today that wish came true and it was spectacular. We visited a tea factory this morning and that was interesting enough, but it was very commercial. Vaishakh suggested that he could take us to an authentic tea estate further outside Ooty where there would be no tourists. Boy did he deliver.

The estate he took us too was called Glendale (or so the hotel porter said when we showed him our pictures), the oldest in the area, established over 80 years ago. The factory wasn’t working today as it was a holiday, but they were happy for us to look around. It was like a time capsule with much of the machinery looking like it was also 80 years old. Certainly made way before the sort of health and safely rules we have in the UK, barely a safety guard in sight. My boss would have a fit!

The factory was really interesting, but it was the tea plantation that stole the show. Although it was a holiday for the factory workers, the workers picking (almost all women) were still working as they were paid depending how much they picked. As one said to Vaishakh, no work today, no food tomorrow. It struck home how hard they work for very little, and how privileged we are.

The tree bushes grow for between 40-50 years. It’s just the fresh leaves and tips that the pickers want, and they repeat the picking of every bush every 15 days to keep them in shape. All the tea picking is done by hand using a sort of pair of garden shears with a dust pan attached. As the shears chops, the tips collect in the pan. When that’s full they go into the sack. It was mesmerising to watch. I had to pinch myself to prove I was really standing in an Indian tea plantation. The tea bushes went on for as far as the eye could see, it was stunning.

As we were leaving we passed an amazing red bush. I had to look twice to realise that it was actually a huge Poinsettia. Here it was happy as Larry growing on the edge of the tea plantation, extraordinary!

I’m sure some of you are thinking of me as ‘Queen of the Hills’, that perhaps I’ve acquired some sari fabric and have hi-jacked a bus so that I can sit on the roof, with a long length of fabric flowing behind me as we drive through tea plantations much like Pricilla Queen of the Desert. Sadly, nothing quite so glamorous or camp. Queen of the Hills refers to Ooty, allegedly referring to it as the finest of the British ‘hill stations’. Sadly the days of Ooty as a rather stately and dignified place have passed. If Ooty is a Queen today, it’s more of a tired drag queen, with perhaps a bit too much makeup on. The mass commercialisation of the centre of Ooty means that it’s actually pretty tawdry. 

Thankfully – after a tip off from Bharath and Shubhi we avoided booking accommodation in Ooty and instead opted for a small hotel perched high up just outside Wellington. It is a spectacular location – the views are stunning and the air is clear. It’s only a short drive (around 30 minutes) into Ooty so we were able to visit the Botanical Gardens there today.

In the UK,and many other countries, a botanical garden is a place where plants are preserved (often from extinction in the wild) and horticultural research is carried out. Here they seem to be more like public parks and very English ones at that. You could have picked up Ooty Botanical Garden and dropped it down in an English seaside resort like Eastbourne or Bournemouth and nobody would bat an eyelid.

The botanical gardens in Ooty were full of lots of features you might find in British parks. A glasshouse – here filled with lots of common garden flowers you’d see in the UK, Busy Lizzie, Pelargoniums, Impatience and Salvias. There was lots of clipped hedging (mostly Lelandi) and neat flower beds. A conservatory for succulents (currently closed for refurbished), a fern house (also closed), ponds, an Italianate terrace (again think seaside bedding) and a bandstand. There was also a lot of green lawn of course. The whole garden must take an enormous amount of watering to keep it looking so green. Also lots of labour – but that’s very cheap here.

The plants around the garden were very familiar, in fact I have many in my own garden. There were hydrangeas, ferns, Arum Lilly (Zantedeschia), fuchsias, and lots and lots of bedding. You got a real sense that when the garden was created in the 1840s they were creating a little bit of England in India to remind them of home. They certainly achieved that.

We’re staying at the small but lovely Sleeping Beauty hotel near Ooty, it lives up to its name. We slept well after a long days travel. We woke to the most amazing view from our balcony. The hotel is so-named after the Sleeping Beauty mountain – although we’re not sure which mountain it is (there are quite a few around).

The restaurant is in a separate block to where our room is so it’s just a few steps to breakfast. The room is cantilevered off the hill so it feels like we’re floating. A wall of floor-to ceiling glass adds to this feeling and provides a spectacular panorama of the valley and mountains. The glass wall makes it hard to distinguish where the room stops and the view begins. It’s definitely a room with a view, but could equally be described as a view for a room.

Tuesday 21 January

Bengaluru – Wellington

Today we continue our journey from the east coast to the south west, from Bengaluru through Mysuru, to stay for two nights in a nature reserve (hopefully to see monkeys, elephants and even leopards and tigers!) in Wellington, (between Ooty and Coonoor). It’s about 180 miles and that’s 6 hours driving here!  But first, Matthew wanted to see the garden festival in Bengaluru.

Breakfast at the Raddisson Blue was served from 0730 and we were up, packed and ready to eat so we could get away early. Our room was lovely and included a pod coffee machine – we had some soya milk in little pots, so we could have coffee as soon as we were awake.

After breakfast Vaishakh was waiting for us and we drove to Lalbagh Botanical Garden, on the way we passed the extraordinary local legislative assembly building.

The flower show in the botanical gardens was in a glasshouse (which really reminded me of a miniature Covent Garden market building). The park itself is lovely – very obviously designed by the British colonialists with fountains, big lake, statues and formal flower beds with winding paths.

The garden show was nice – not too busy and as well as the formal displays there were stalls selling food, gardening paraphernalia and food. 

Vaishakh had been on his phone quite a bit and he said that he had a surprise for us – I thought that he might set up a video call with  our friends Bharath and Shubhi back in the UK. Anyway, while I was preoccupied reading about some of the mythical stories that inspired the flower display, Vaishakh tapped me on the shoulder and said “I want you to meet someone.” I turned around and there was Shubhi! I was amazed!! I knew that Shubhi’s family lived in Bengaluru and I knew that she was coming to to India, but we were talking a few weeks ago she’d said she was returning to the UK from India on 15 January, so we thought that we’d miss each other. Last night when we were driving to the market and Bugle Rock Park, Vaishakh had said that we were in the area that it was where Shubhi lived – I asked him if he’d seen her when she was here in India a few weeks ago. He said “No, I didn’t know that she was here.” I was a little mystified by this, but didn’t pursue it. I just told him that she had been here, but that I thought that she’d gone back to the UK last week. Now we know that this was all a big fib and that Shubhi had decided to stay on in India and they’d been plotting for this moment all along – the pair of scamps!

It was such a wonderful surprise to see Shubhi – she looked so beautiful in her blue Sari and we talked about Bengaluru and the flower show and what she’d been doing in India. We had some delicious street food: fresh mango with salt and a little curry powder, some popped rice with onion and tomatoes; we also tried gooseberry tea (yuk). We talked about Barath and his work. We visited some of the stalls. We saw some more monkeys in the park and we watched some of the park rangers capturing a big snake that was in the grass and putting it in a white bag. Shubhi assured me that the rangers would take the snake to the woods, away from people and release it  – not kill it. This was such a wonderful, lovely surprise – I didn’t want this part of the day to end. However, we had a long drive ahead – so we said our goodbyes and set off to Mysuru.

Vaishakh lives in Mysuru with his wife Sindoo and one-year old son. We’d been very kindly invited to his house for lunch and we were also going to leave the fabric that Matthew bought for Janet’s kurti with Vaishakh’s cousin who’s a tailor and will sew it for us.

Shortly after leaving Bengaluru we were on much quieter roads and surrounded by palm trees, forests and fields full of sugar cane. We passed lots of trucks piled high with sugar cane and we stopped to buy coconut from a stall.  

Lunch in Vaishakh’s house was delicious – lovely crisp rice flour pancakes, coconut chutney and salad. I picked up a child’s book to help teach them English words – I thought that it was extraordinary that it was published in India yet all the photos of people showed White people – but as I looked through there were some even more alarming things:

We met Vaishakh’s cousin and Matthew gave her Janet’s measurements along with a photo of Janet to work from … should be ready for collection at the end of the week.

The final leg of today’s journey was breathtaking, bringing us on a very quiet road through the Niligri Biosphere – a UNESCO environment programme. Mudumalai National Park and Tiger Reserve was the first wildlife sanctuary in India. We passed through a Eucalyptus tree forest and travelled high up to the Nilgiris mountains through the hill station of Ooty to Wellington. The views were spectacular and the setting sun and we had fantastic views of the misty mountains and the river valley as the road twisted and turned uphill. Vaishakh’s driving was superb – some very tight bends and steep turns to negotiate! 

At the start of our drive through the wildlife sanctuary we saw a mother elephants with her calf. Amazing – I’ve never seen an elephant in the wild before. There were more elephants as we drove … and monkeys and deer, wild boars, peacocks and a buffalo. It was utterly amazing. 

Vaishakh was relieved that we had seen some elephants – he didn’t want Bharath ribbing him for not being able to show us one!

We’re here in Wellington for two or three days (we’ve not decided yet) and we’ll be exploring around. We know that the views from our hotel will be spectacular … it’s dark at the moment, so we’ll post pictures of the views tomorrow.

It’s been another long drive today, about 300km, from Bangaluru to Mysore then onto Wellington near Ooty where we’re staying tonight. I’ll be honest, I snoozed for most of the first half (which is no bad thing given the kamakazi drivers!). I’m glad I wasn’t asleep for the second half. 

After we’d left Mysore the landscape was full of palm trees – as far as the eye could see, then plantain trees. We began to climb into the Nilgiri Hills – and climb we did! I’m glad Vaishakh was driving as the road was narrow and so many sharp turns. I saw a sign that said 6 out of 39 hairpin bends! The view of the mountain range was spectacular.

About half way up our climb we entered the Bandipur Tiger Reserve and then the Mudumali Tiger Reserve. No tigers for us today – we wouldn’t expect to see them so close to the road. We were still treated to a wonderful range of wildlife. There were deer – lots of them, monkeys – lots of those too, wild peacocks strutting their stuff, wild boar, a bison  and most wonderful of all several elephants including the most beautiful baby elephant. All viewed from the car window! This was certainly a drive to remember.

The Lalbagh flower show is the reason I made a last minute change to our itinerary so we could visit Bengaluru sooner than originally planned. It’s held to coincide with India’s Rebublic Day holiday (26 January). It was worth the change of schedule.

It’s held in Lalbagh Botanical Garden that was originally conceived in the eighteenth century under the reign of one of the rulers of the kingdom of Mysore – Hyder Ali. Lalbagh was inspired by the Mughal style and was designed to resemble the paradisiacal gardens mentioned in the Quran. These elegant ideas were transformed into reality using carefully crafted landscapes that included flowing waters and a variety of rare plants imported from Delhi, Multan, and Lahore. 

The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed the occupation of the area by the British. During this transition, the garden developed into a significant arboretum under British governance in 1799. Horticulturists from Britain were amazed at the gardening opportunities offered in Lalbagh, and they started bringing in plants from the far corners of the world. It was an era of trading plants when seeds and trees were brought to grow in the garden from around the world.

During the nineteenth century the glass house was constructed in the centre of the park, said to be inspired by London’s Crystal Palace. The Glasshouse, built in 1889 is made of iron and glass. The metal pillars supporting the Glasshouse have the manufacturer’s mark of Glasgow, and the glass came from Belgian. It provided a refuge to shelter delicate plants from the local weather elements that changed frequently. Now it plays host to the Lalbagh Flower Show.

The flower show is said to have been inspired by the Royal Horticultural Societies great spring show – now known as the Chelsea Flower Show. It’s a little bit like the Chelsea Flower Show from the 1950s or 60s. Whereas Chelsea has evolved into far more naturalistic planning – Lalbagh is most definitely a riot of colours, with flowers arranged like Victorian park carpet bedding displays. This year’s theme pays tribute to the legendary Indian poet Valmiki, with different floral arrangements honouring his work.

It was lovely seeing people taking selfies in front of the flower displays – just like I do at Chelsea. We were also in for a surprise. Vaishakh had been behaving a little odd as we’d entered the park and implied we might be in for a surprise. We were about three quarters around the glass house when we turned around and behind us was Shubhi! We thought she’d already flown back to London so we’re very surprised and delighted to see her. It turned out she’d extended her stay in Bengaluru by a couple of weeks. We wandered through the park together chatting and eating mango with chilli before we said our farewells and set off on our next stage of this mammoth road trip.

We drank our first fresh coconuts when we were visiting the Five Rathas at Mahabalipuram, it was very refreshing in the heat. Today on our drive from Mysuru to Wellington, Vaishakh pulled over at a coconut stall by the side of the road to try another one. He assured us they would taste different here, he was right. They were sweeter and there seemed to me much more coconut water than the first one we’d drunk. It’s strange seeing the coconuts here as they are large and round, shaped and looking more like a melon. They’re not at all like the dry hairy brown ones we used to see at fair ground shys. Of course that is just a dried version of the same fruit, missing the fleshy outer layer. The way that the coconut stall man cuts the coconut is an art (and slightly terrifying – I did count to check he still had all his fingers and thumbs!). After you’ve drunk the coconut water, you hand it back to him, he cracks it in two with a huge knife, then shapes a spoon from one half and scrapes out the flesh into the coconut half for you to eat. The flesh is very wet, chewy and mild – not the strong coconut flavour you get from dried coconut. It’s refreshing but perhaps an acquired taste, the texture isn’t really to my liking – but the coconut water is delicious.

Don’t try this at home!

Monday 20 January

Chennai – Bengaluru

Today we continue our journey from the east coast to the south west, from Bengaluru through Mysuru to stay for two nights in a nature reserve (hopefully to see monkeys, elephants and even tigers!) in Wellington, between Ooty and Coonoor. About 180 miles/4 hours driving. But first, Matthew wanted to see the garden festival in Bengaluru.

After breakfast Vaishakh was waiting for us and we drove to Lalbagh Botanical Garden to look at the flower show in the glasshouse (which really reminded me of a miniature Covent Garden market building). The park was lovely – very obviously designed by the British colonialists. The garden show was nice – not too busy and as well as the formal displays there were stall selling food, gardening paraphernalia and food.

Breakfast at the Raddisson Blue was served from 0730 and we were up, packed and ready to eat so we could get away early. Our room was lovely and included a pod coffee machine – we had some soya milk in little pots, so we could have coffee as soon as we were awake.

Vaishakh had been on his phone quite a bit and he said that he had a surprise for us – I thought that he’d set up a video call with Bharath and Shubhi back in the UK. Anyway, while I was preoccupied reading about some of the mythical stories that inspired the flower display, Vaishakh tapped me on the shoulder and said “I want you to meet someone.” I turned around and there was Shubhi! I was amazed!! I knew that Shubhi’s family lived in Bengaluru and I knew that she was coming to to India, but we were talking she’d said she was returning to the UK on 15 January, so we thought that we’d miss each other. Last night when we were driving to the market and Bugle Rock Park, Vaishakh had said that we were in the area that it was where Shubhi lived – I asked him if he’d seen her when she was here in India a few weeks ago. He said “No, I didn’t know that she was here.“ I was a little mystified by this, but didn’t pursue it. I just him that she had been here, but that I thought that she’d gone back to the UK last week. Now we know that this was all a big fib and that Shubhi had decided to stay on in India and they’d been plotting for this moment all along – the pair of scamps!

It was such a wonderful surprise to see Shubhi – she looked so beautiful in her blue Sari and we talked about Bengaluru and the flower show and what she’d been doing in India. We had some delicious street food: fresh mango with salt and a little curry powder, some popped rice with onion and tomatoes; we also tried gooseberry tea (yuk). We talked about Barath and his work. We visited some of the stalls. We saw some more monkeys in the park and we watched some of the park rangers capturing a big snake that was in the grass and putting it in a white bag. Shubhi assured me that the rangers would take the snake to the woods, away from people and release it – not kill it. This was such a wonderful, lovely surprise – I didn’t want this part of the day to end. However, we had a long drive ahead – so we said our goodbyes and set off to Mysuru.

Vaishakh lives in Mysuru with his wife Sindoo and one-year old son. We’d been very kindly invited to his house for lunch and we were also going to leave the fabric that Matthew bought for Janet’s kurti with Vaishakh’s cousin who’s a tailor and will sew it for us.

Shortly after leaving Bengaluru we were on much quieter roads and surrounded by palm trees, forests and fields full of sugar cane. We passed lots of trucks piled high with sugar cane and we stopped to buy coconut from a stall.

Summary day 03
Monday 20 January

We left Chennai today and headed west to Bengaluru – about 200 mile drive. Vaishakh’s mother lives in Bengaluru. One of our friends, Shubhi, who has helped us enormously with the plan for this trip is also from Bengaluru (but she’s back in the UK now).

We set off at 07:00 after a poor night’s sleep – we’ve not yet adjusted to the time change/jet lag I think. First stop Kanchipuram – the town is one of the most visited inland tourist destinations in southern India – famed for its ‘thousand’- very numerous at least, ancient Hindu temples – some with spectacularly high towers. Vaishakh took us on a tour of a Hindu temple – our first ever – the Sri Kanchi Kamakshi Amman temple – enormous and beautiful. We had to leave our shoes outside walk through a trough of flowing water to cleanse our feet and then could see the vast step well and walk around the stone columned halls. I wasn’t comfortable taking pictures around the devotees. The place was crowded with worshipers and garlanded monuments – a wonderful sight. As we left some women asked us for help – Vaishakh said they were transvestites … I thought about how incredibly tough their lives are all over the world – it’s absolutely awful how harmless differences are magnified and problematised by so many people.

Kanchipuram is a traditional centre of silk and handloom weaving and so we went to an enormous and famous fabric store called Prakash. Prakash is arranged over 4 massive floors with walls lined with thousands of bolts of fabric, saris, shirts and scarfs. The lights are bright – and there’s hundreds of them, and there are huge mirrors everywhere. The store employs over 800 people and shoppers come from miles around to choose the finest cloths and outfits. Matthew’s aunt Janet would like an Indian long tunic, it’s called a kurta, I think, so Matthew bought some fabric and we’ll look for a tailor to make it up into a kurta. Again it was shoes off time and we were escorted upstairs to sit on chairs in front of an army of sales assistants (who sat cross-legged on the floor or stood to one side) and who brought more and more packets of beautiful scarfs and fabrics for us to look at. It took a long time to choose – there was so much beauty there. Elsewhere in the store, it was very busy as wedding season ramps up and there were women with family and friends choosing incredibly beautiful saris.

Then we visited another temple – Ekambareswarar Temple – dedicated to the god Shiva. Ekambareswarar Temple is the largest temple in the city with three enormous towers – or gopurams – stepped, tall, pyramid towers with statues on a series of levels. The tallest tower has 11 stories and is almost 60m high. The towers are among the tallest temple towers in India and are currently being renovated. Building the temple began in the ninth century. We were able to walk around and talk to Vaishakh about the various gods on display and religious practices. We were privileged to get very close to the Sacred Mango Tree in the centre of the temple complex (it’s said to be the oldest mango tree in India). We saw part of a wedding ceremony and we took a moment to congratulated the groom and the bride – inevitably, we were dragged into some of their wedding photos! Outside some young men also wanted to be photographed with us for some reason!

As we left Kanchipuram we saw a group of men outside a house beating large drums – the drumming was loud and Vaishakh said that it was someone’s funeral. As we drove past I could see a body wrapped in a white shroud in a glass case on a stand in front of the house. It was somewhat strange – a wedding and a funeral in the space of a few minutes.

Then on to Bengaluru for dinner with Vaishakh’s Amma. She made a fantastic spread for us, rice with tamarind and spices, chutney, freshly prepared vegetables, preserved lemon, and a French bean curry followed by jageree – with a mix of puffed rice, mango pieces and split peas – lovely.

We’d wondered about taking a gift and I regretted not bringing anything She very kindly gave us a present of a stainless steel cup.

After dinner we detoured to the lively street market in Bengaluru and on to Bugle Rock Park where Matthew and Vaishakh discussed the trees.

We saw some big bats (big like the size of a cat!) hanging upside down from the trees – some were waking up and preening themselves and some were even flying about … it was beginning of dusk, so I wonder if they were waking up.

In the south west corner of the park on a hill was Bull Temple, our third Hindu temple of the day, and in many respects the best – it was so quiet and peaceful and we were able to get up close to the shrine – a huge black granite bull. It’s wonderful how many gods take animal form and that therefore there is a respect and value for many animals.

On our way back to the car, we passed a lovely old music shop full of stringed instruments – I think called a veena – and neat little house, one of the few original houses left in Bengaluru.

We went to wrong Raddisson Blue – there are two in Bengaluru. Our room on the seventh floor has amazing views over lake Ulsoor and the Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha – the largest Sikh shrine in Bengaluru all lit up.

Next morning we could see the lake as well as the Gurudwara from out hotel room.

We saw this sign in the mall supermarket yesterday. Clearly the last sentence is obscured, so we need your help to finish this line – ‘You take care of your toilet, we’ll take care …??? There will be a small holiday souvenir prize (don’t get too excited) for our favourite suggestion.

We decided (well I did) that it would be best to gently ease ourself into India by spending our first few nights in a posher hotel than we’d usually stay in at home. The Hyatt Regency Channai is a haven from the moment you step off the traffic clogged  Anna Salai main Road, the calm washes over you. The driveway is planted with tropical palms and other exotics. 

At the entrance you’re greeted by security checks, all bags go through x-Ray machines and visitors go through metal detectors. We asked Vaishakh why the security was so tight and he said all big hotels introduced it following the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008. It had echos of the Northern Ireland troubles when the security guard at the gate used a mirror device on rollers to check under Vaishakh’s car when he dropped us off yesterday to make sure there were no bombs underneath!

As soon as you are through security there are staff everywhere. There’s the main door greeter, then the lift greeter in the lower lobby, and the main lobby greeter. This is all before you get to reception. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to someone carrying my bags and opening every door, but the cool air conditioning is a welcome relief from the Chennai heat.

The reception lobby is vast with rooms arranged over 9 floors in a triangle with a huge atrium in the middle. The lobby lounge has a beautiful water feature – a canal that aligns with the outdoor pool and is flanked by an avenue of fig trees. There are five restaurants, an Italian, a cafe/bistro, a noodle one, a world fusion one and a cocktail bar/diner. Then there is the lobby lounge itself where you can have tea and light snacks.

The gym on the first floor is very well equipped. I’ve used it a few times to do my RED (run every day) January challenge. Although treadmills are a bit boring, they are preferable to running in the heat and polluted streets of Chennai (I’m hoping the air will be clearer when we get away from the big cities). 

Our taste of the high life comes to an end today as we check out and hit the road for our first big drive to Bangalore. Farewell Hyatt Regency, it’s been fun – but it’s a good job I don’t get accustomed to it as when the holiday is over it’ll be back to the charity world budgets of Travelodge!

I’ve already mentioned that I’m glad it’s not me who is driving in India. The roads are crazy, noisy (honking one’s horn seems mandatory) and dirty (you can taste the pollution on the busy roads). Not only are there cars, vans, tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws), bikes and people everywhere in the streets – but there are also animals. Street dogs are very common, they wander around almost oblivious to the chaos on the streets (clearly they are more used to it than me!). We’ve seen a few goats – not tethered, just ambling along, having a munch on whatever they can find. The thing that really grabs your attention is when the cows just wander across the traffic clogged dual carriageway! You’d think that it would be carnage with people running into cows. Fortunately the cows are very safe as they are considered to be a manifestation of the Mother Goddess Gau Mata. Hindus believe the cow to be a sacred animal, providing life-sustaining milk. As a vegan I like the idea that the cow is held in such high esteem, I’d just prefer it if they had ‘cow lanes’ or even better, get rid of the traffic and have cow priority streets!

Sunday 19 January

Chennai – Mahabaliipuram

We met out driver today! He’s called Vaishakh and he lives in Mysore. Vaishakh is married and has a young son. He’ll be our driver for the next 10 days. 

This morning after breakfast Vaishakh drove us to to the UNESCO world heritage site at Mahabalipuram – the remains of an unfinished group of royal Hindu monuments and temple complex. The buildings were carved out of granite  – some in situ – in the seventh and eighth century!

The ancient name of the place is Thirukadalmallai. The drive south took us about 2 hours. The carving on the stones were extraordinary – many depicting scenes from the the Mahabharata. We began at the Shore Temple, by the sea on the Bay of Bengal, a beautiful tall temple with some charming stone lions keeping guard.

Then we walked along the beach for a while – amazing to be near the sea again and lots of people enjoying being by the sea too.

We drove to the  Five Chariots – each one carved from a single piece of stone.

There was a glorious life-size elephant carved out of a single piece of stone.

Time for a snack then / we had a coconut each from a stall. Then on to the lighthouse (along with a modern British built lighthouse constructed in 1904) with India’s oldest lighthouse close by that was built around 640 by the Pallava king Mahendravarman. Here we met our first monkeys!

We left Vaishakh with the car and wandered through the ancient site – stone baths cut out of the rock, temples, and the largest open-air carved stone relief in the world – called Descent of the Ganges, depicting the giving of the sacred river – when it rains water flows down a channel in the rock face The relief has life-size figures of an elephant family, monkeys, a deer, lions, rams, snakes, the god Shiva, Vishnu in a temple the sun and moon – it’s vast, around 15 by 30 metres (49 ft × 98 ft).

Next we saw Krishna’s Butter Ball, a giant rock balanced precariously on a stone incline. 

It was quite a bit of walking and clambering over stone steps – wonderful to see, though. We headed back to the car and drove back to our hotel in Chennai. 

After a snooze (Mike) and swim in the hotel pool (Matthew) we headed out for dinner and to pick up some supplies from a store in a mall up the road.

We came to the Express Avenue shopping centre – it has an H&M,  ASICS, Adidas and Pima stores, a Bodyshop and even an M&S! We were truly home from home! There was also a giant food court – we managed to establish that the dosas had ghee in them, so they were off – we ended up with some plain noodles with veggies, which was quite tasty.

Matthew couldn’t help himself and had already gone wild in the aisles – he went in to a Simon Carter store, bought a shirt, the sales assistant said he could have a second shirt for free … so he chose another shirt; then the sales assistant said that he could have a third shirt at half price… which of course he did. I told him that they’d seen him coming! I caught the sun today and hadn’t packed a hat (I needed the air in my bag), so I went to H&M to buy a cap … I’m at the checkout and Matthew sidles up with a jacket “Can you just add that?” He asked. Sigh. I did point out that his bag as full – apparently he knows that he hasn’t used all his luggage allowance!

Refreshed from my swim (and a little snooze for Mike), we pondered what to do for dinner. It’s not impossible to be vegan in India, but it isn’t quite as well understood here as we’d hoped so it does take a bit of planning and usually a conversation to check that whatever it is that sounds like it might be vegan hasn’t been cooked using ghee (a clarified butter). We ate in the hotel restaurant last night and the chef prepared us a lovely selection of vegan dishes: a dhal, alloo (potato) curry), a vegetable curry and some flat breads. We could have eaten in again, but we thought we ought to try somewhere different. Plus Mike wanted to find a supermarket where we could get some supplies for our long road trip tomorrow. 

I did a bit of research online and found that the Express Avenue shopping mall was just one stop away from our hotel in the metro. It said there were grocery stores and restaurants, so we headed off. Upon arrival, the first store we came to was a small food shop that seemed to specialise in organic and international foods. Although it wasn’t vegan we found some familiar vegan treats. Lotus caramel and Oreo (yes ‘accidentally vegan’) biscuits, both went in the basket along with some vegan chocolate, peanuts, salted crisps and a big bag of fried salted broad beans. This should keep us going on our long road trip to Bengalore tomorrow.

Further into the mall there were lots of familiar brands Sephora (the beauty shop), Body Shop, Benetton, and H&M – which was handy. You know how the song goes ‘mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun’, well guess who did that? A certain somebody packed a bit too much ‘air’ and despite coming to India for four weeks, didn’t pack a hat. As a result he’s a little blushed today after our visit to the beach (he didn’t even put any sun cream on). A trip to H&M sorted him out with a nice cap, and a couple of long sleeve t-shirts to protect his fair skin.

While Mike popped into H&M I nipped into a Simon Carter shirt shop. I do like his shirts but back in the UK they retail for about £175 and I can never quite bring myself to spend that on a shirt. I wondered how much they were here, plus there was a sale on! For the whole of 2024 I didn’t buy any new clothes – it was a new year resolution to be a bit more eco-friendly, but as it’s 2025 I think that I can now buy new clothes again, but I’m trying not to buy to many (this was about to go out the [shop] window).

My eye was instantly drawn to a colourful woven shirt and I thought this would be very appropriate purchase for this location. These colourful checked cotton shirts are traditionally known as Madras shirts, and the original name for Chennai was Madras (until it changed in 1996). I thought this would be a perfect souvenir from Chennai. I tried it on to make sure it fitted (it did, like a glove), then went to the cash desk to pay. That’s where it started to go wrong! The boy behind the desk said ‘choose another’, I replied I was fine with this one, he said ‘it’s two for the price of one’. It was already reduced to 2999 rupees (about £29.50 – a LOT cheaper than the UK). I returned to the shelf and tried to pick out a second shirt. It was hard – there were too many lovely ones to choose from. I shortlisted two – a white one with a delicate green and blue dotted geometric pattern and a modern floral one that reminded me of the Swedish prints of Marremeko. I tried them both on and was struggling to choose when he started to barter (as they do in India). ‘Second one half price, best and final offer Sir’. How could I refuse! So I walked out with three shirts for a total cost of around £40! I went to Michael in H&M, looking a bit sheepish I explained my ‘too good to refuse’ dilemma. He looked at me and said ‘you should have packed more air’, that was me told! 

We wandered up to the food court where we found a noodle place that did a nice vegetable noodle stir fry, washed down with some refreshing peach tea. We were both craving something sweet but all the desert places were only offering milk based creations (we’ve not seen any sorbet yet). There was a juice bar though, so we went to check out the menu. Mike wanted some sweet mango juice, but no can do. It’s not the season for fresh mangos apparently, so they’re only available between March and May. He settled for pineapple instead. I was drawn to a section of the menus that proclaimed juice concoctions that offer a wide range of health benefits. Ladies if you want to be ‘well women’ then it’s pineapple, passion fruit, beetroot and carrot juice for you. If you want ‘beauty slimmer’ then may I suggest ‘melon, apple, kiwi and orange’. For me and my dodgy sight it had to be ‘eye power juice’ using carrot, orange, passion fruit and mango (not fresh obviously!). I expect to wake up tomorrow with my eyes returned to their former glory!

It was getting close to ten when the mall shut (it felt most strange shopping late in a Sunday – not something we can do at home). We wandered to towards the end of the mall and lo and behold – there she blew! That little outpost of blighty – good old M&S. No food hall, sadly, but it did have men’s, women’s, kids and beauty. A little bit of home right here. I had read there were 101 M&S stores across India so I had expected we’d bump into one sooner or later – just not this soon. We’ve got about 29 days to go on this holiday so only 100 M&S stores to go!

When we visited the Shore Temple at  Mahabalipuram, Vaishakh our driver came inside with us and was telling us a bit about the history. That didn’t last long. Apparently the guides are very protective of their trade so if you’re not an official guide they get very upset. They told him that they would report him to the police if he didn’t leave, so he left us on our own to wander around and met us outside once we’d finished. After the temple it was a short drive to the Five Rathaus, an amazing collection of temples and sculptures carved straight out of the rocks. 

It wasn’t quite as busy as the shore temple and beach had been so it felt more relaxed wandering around. Also wandering around the site were a group of four young British lads. Mike offered to take a photo of them in front of one of the sculptures. They were very happy to offer him their phones and cameras for him to snap away. Little did they know that with this, they had opened a Pandora’s box! 

Always keen to educate the young, Mike asked them if they knew about the site – apparently they did not. That confession was their instant mistake, without a moments hesitation Mike, guide book in hand, proceeded to inform them about the world heritage site they were viewing. I’m sure that they were appreciative of his cultural knowledge. I’m just glad he wasn’t arrested for impersonating an official tour guide.

Bharath and Shubhi our friends in the UK (who’ve helped us so much planning our trip) had warned us (apologised in fact) before we came to India about the litter here. This kind of prepared us in advance to see litter in the streets, but even we have been a bit taken aback by just how prolific litter is. Litter bins seem to be few and far between, but even if they were more common, it doesn’t look as though many people would use them. People just seem to discard their rubbish anywhere that they like. 

As we walked around the world heritage sites at Mahabalipuram today, the stone temples and sculptures were amazing, but people just discard their rubbish amongst them. After visiting the shore temple we walked down to the beach, passing lots of stalls selling all kinds of tourist tat (Aunty Janet would love these stalls!). All along the sandy walkway down to the beach was discarded food packets and rubbish. Even on the beach the litter  was prolific. You kind of get used to it after a while and although it’s all around, you sort of don’t notice it as much. There’s always so much to distract you with amazing sights and sounds all around. 

This was certainly the case at the beach where the shoreline was thronged with pilgrims who were visiting en-mass. The beach was a riot of colour with women bedecked in amazing saris and men in colourful outfits. Vaishakh our driver explained to us why so many were wearing wonderful red and gold outfits. Apparently red is the favourite colour of the goddess they were paying their respects too. The water was quite choppy with waves crashing onto the sand, but all along the edge of the water the pilgrims were enjoying the waves washing onto over them. many of the men were stripped down to their shorts and waist high in the waves. Even if I’d had my trunks I don’t think I’d have been tempted into the water – but I am going to take a dip in the pool at the hotel. We’ve had rain showers today but the temperatures are still in the high 20s, so a dip to cool off is just what is needed.