India in the Monsoon, November 2018 A trip round South India at the wrong time of year A terrible mistake with the climate meant that we walked right into the start of the monsoon. South India has a monsoon at a completely different time to the rest of the country and this trip was accidentally timed to coincide perfectly with it – will she ever let me forget it? We considered giving up and flying to Goa but decided to press on, which turned out very well. The first fortnight – Tamil Nadu Chennai Mon 29th Oct. After a good flight we arrived in Chennai about 6am and for £7 got a taxi through the traffic chaos to Besant Nagar, a district in the suburbs, and after a few mis-directions found the very nice apartment we had booked through Airbnb, with the lovely Sheryl who made us feel at home and her daughter who is a whiz on technology. We settled in and while Sheila had a nap (afternoon nap? Lie-in? Body clock, what body clock?) I walked down to the main road where I had an initial panic when none of the ATMs would work with a variety of misleading messages – the lesson is not to use them on Monday mornings before the maintenance/top-up men have been to replenish or fix them after the weekend. I walked down to the sea where fishing boats and nets were spread along Elliot’s Beach and ladies were selling baskets of fish and crabs. After going to a nearby Airtel shop to buy an Indian SIM card we got a tuk-tuk (three-wheel auto-rickshaw) into the town centre to have a leisurely lunch at the Café at Amethyst in White’s Road, a blissful haven of peace in a shady tropical garden that kept the hubbub of the city at bay, although it also had a trendy shop where Sheila managed to begin her shopping spree with an expensive pashmina. In the evening we set off in a taxi but didn’t get far before the driver discovered he couldn’t get reverse gear and we had to push him backwards out of a driveway he tried to turn round in. After a couple of stops while his mechanic tried to talk him through fixing the problem we finally arrived at the highly recommended Bella Ciao Italian restaurant (it should be Ciao Bella, surely, but that’s what they called it). We had a nice meal but were saddened to learn that this was their last night, as after 16 years their landlords were throwing them out of the property and they had to leave. We returned to our apartment and collapsed to sleep off some jet lag. Tues 30th. After a leisurely start and another trip to Airtel to get the SIM card activated we set off in a taxi to see the Kapalishvara Temple in Mylapur which had been recommended as the best one in Chennai. However, halfway there the taxi driver informed us that the temple closed at midday (it was ten past) so we diverted to Express Avenue, a shopping mall, where Sheila went shopping while I had a coffee. On the way back we stopped at a bottle shop to try to buy some wine but it was just a hole in the wall with men clamouring to get to the front and only sold spirits so we came away empty-handed (but later Sheryl very kindly bought some for us, to take to Mamallapuram). Later we went to a computer repair shop to see if they could fix a broken Sony tablet and smartphone, with a short delay on the way as the tuk-tuk driver mended a puncture. They mended the phone for £48 but declared the tablet dead. In the evening we went to the Jamming Bistro just up the road from the apartment, with a very varied menu, and had an eclectic mixture of (Indian) pakodas, (Chinese) Hakka noodles and (international) sizzling steak, which were all delicious. The entrance to the restaurant had become a temporary film studio as the crew endlessly filmed takes of some people entering the restaurant – we gathered it wasn’t a big-budget film although there must have been 20 film crew crammed into that part of the restaurant. Luckily the Bistro was close to our apartment because a series of extremely heavy downpours swept through and we were able to jog swiftly home in one of the gaps. Mamallapuram / Mahabalipuram Weds 31st. We drove through torrential rain to Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) and went to the Sea Breeze hotel where we stayed last year. We had a nice room if a bit dated, however the clincher was it had a bath… with constant hot water and a plug! We borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and trudged through the puddles to a little supermarket where we bought two full-length plastic pacamacs to provide some protection from the rain. We went to the Santana restaurant but the big prawns were rather old and smelly so we had two delicious curries instead and, because they don’t serve wine, they let us drink the bottle we’d brought from Chennai. Thurs 1st Nov. Although the shops and cafés are open, there’s an ‘out of season seaside town’ feel to Mamallapuram and we seem to be the only visitors. We went to La Pizza de Mamma, one of the many empty first-floor restaurants on the main street and had a tasty lunch of masala popadoms and Gorgonzola, tomato and onion toasted sandwiches (weird but very tasty), accompanied by quite a bit of our stash of small bottles of wine courtesy of BA from the flight over and also one bottle purchased in Chennai. In the evening we wanted to try somewhere new so we headed to the Seashore restaurant right opposite the Santana, but from there we saw the Seashore Garden restaurant, under the same management, which was a thatched hut right on the beach which was lovely and had featured in one of Rick Stein’s cooking programmes. We had big, fresh tiger prawns with real chips and a fish steak curry, cut from a huge tuna fish they displayed to us on a big silver platter. All delicious. Fri 2nd. Against expectations the sun shone brightly all morning and into the afternoon and we made the most of it. We walked down to Anjuna’s Penance, the elaborate rock carving in a hill behind the bus station, then had a look round the nearby interesting Talasayana Perumal temple. We got a tuk-tuk for the ridiculously short ride to the Radisson hotel on the edge of town and walked through their extensive, pretty gardens to the beach, then along the beach with Sheila paddling in the sea ... ... back to the Seashore Garden restaurant where we selected fresh prawns for tonight. Back in the main street we chose Moonrocks restaurant, ‘a unit of Moonraker restaurant’ (Moonraker is the original travellers’ café here from the 1980s) and had a nice lunch of pakodas and french onion soup, with excellent wincingly strong lime sodas, but unfortunately Sheila’s order of mashed potatoes with cheese and onion never arrived (it’s one of her ‘comfort foods’ – the other is rice pudding with sultanas). After a quiet afternoon we went back to the Seashore Garden restaurant and listened to the surf crashing on the beach while we had delicious grilled tiger prawns and prawn curry, with a British Empire beer and the last of the red wine from Chennai. Such fun. Pondicherry Sat 3rd. We got a taxi to Pondicherry (2 hours) and arrived at Hotel de Pondicherry where we stayed last year, to find that it was half the size because there has been a land dispute and someone has taken over the other half, and Le Club restaurant was half as interesting because it had lost its alcohol license. The hotel seemed empty and we had no trouble staying in our favourite Rangapillai room again. We walked a little way down the street to a new French café restaurant called Les Saveurs where we had a nice pizza, coffee and glass of wine for lunch, followed by ice cream (salted caramel and white chocolate with chunks) from the shop on the promenade, which had half-melted by the time we got back to the hotel – next time we’ll walk faster. In the evening we had a walk round and went to the bar at the Promenade Hotel where they used to do two-for-one glasses of wine in happy ‘hour’ (11am to 7pm).We got there seconds before happy hour ended, but with a little pleasant persuasion they agreed to let us have it, although it has now become buy-two-get-one-free – slightly less happy but still not bad. Feeling happy after our wine we decided to give Madame Shanthé‘s restaurant, a long-established and apparently popular place, another try. We had a bad meal there ten years ago so we gave them a second chance and had a chicken dopiaza and chettinad veg curry but it was disappointing, hot but tasteless and the service was very slow. They won’t get a third chance. Sun 4th. We walked down Romain Rolland road to the Coromandel café and boutique shops. We didn’t eat there though but walked down the beach where Indian families were splashing about in the sea in the warm sunshine and went back to the Risqué Bar at the Promenade Hotel for more happy hour glasses of wine. In the evening we went from the hotel next door to Les Saveurs for delicious French-style meals of steak (Sheila) and chicken casserole (me) with wine of course. Mon 5th. The weather forecast says there’s a storm coming but we walked into town in the hot sunshine to the State Bank of India e-bank on Rue Sufferin, where large numbers of people including us were stocking up with cash for Divali tomorrow, when the banks will be closed. We walked past the park and the legislative assembly and the post office, enjoying the relative peace and tranquility of the ‘White Town’ (the French quarter) to the Manakkula Vinayagar temple where we were pleased to see that Lakshmi the elephant was back, blessing everyone who gave her a ten-rupee note (ten pence) with a bash on the head with her trunk. We wandered round inside the colourful, bustling temple and received garish red tilak-marks on our foreheads, until the temple closed about an hour after the advertised time of midday, and Lakshmi was led away for her lunch and afternoon nap. We walked along the promenade by the sea and somehow found ourselves back in the Promenade Hotel having happy-hour wines. We set out in the evening to sample somewhere new and had tasty chili cheese fries at the Spice Route gastro pub a couple of blocks away, then came back to Le Club restaurant at our hotel for tasty beef brochettes with peppers and onions. Tues 6th. We walked through White Town, quieter than usual because today is a public holiday for the festival, and went to the well-known Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a quiet, beautifully-kept place where people were meditating in the colourful gardens. On the way back we were blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant and looked round the temple again. We stopped for a nice lunch of pizza, beer and coffee at Les Saveurs, while a honey-seller tried to persuade us to come outside and sample his produce until we just couldn't ignore him any more. In the evening we followed our usual routine with happy hour at the Promenade, brochettes at Le Club and ice cream from the ice cream parlour. Madurai and Tirupparakundram temples Weds 7th. We had a very good five-hour drive to Madurai then a frustrating hour trying to find a hotel, as our driver kept going the opposite way to where we asked him to go. Eventually we stayed in the Simap Residency which was the closest hotel to the East Gate (foreigners’ entrance) of the huge Meenakshi temple. We had a ride round the outside of the temple in the little electric bus and a walk round the shops, and decided that the temple is spectacular but Madurai town is a bit of a dump with rubbish everywhere. We bought some crisps and had a picnic with them, some packets of cheese from the flight over and some cup-a-soups in our room for dinner. We waited until 7pm and walked back to the temple as a firework show erupted in the streets around us, probably a continuation of the Divali festival celebrations. We looked round inside the temple and found we still had an hour to wait for the ‘Bedtime of the Gods’ ceremony, the main event that we’d come to see. We sat and watched colourful people go to and fro, told countless friendly youngsters which country we were from, posed for ‘selfies’ and watched the fireworks continue outside the temple wall. At 9:15 bells rang, drumming and horn-playing began and a procession of robed priests carried Parvatti (one of the forms of goddess Minakshi) in a palanquin out of one of the shrines and proceeded round the temple, waving clouds of incense as they went. They stopped outside the entrance to Minakshi’s own shrine for a session of drumming, horn-playing and incense-waving before taking the palanquin into the (Hindus-only) shrine and putting her to bed. Thurs 8th. We set off from the hotel at 9:30am and drove a short way out of Madurai to Tirupparakundram, where the huge, sheer-sided rock towering over the village is believed to be one of the abodes of Shiva’s son Lord Murugan. A stairway of over 600 steps leads up the far side to the temple on the top and I got half-way before running out of puff but Sheila continued right to the top, fighting off monkeys with a big stick, and returned red-faced but triumphant. She had an enjoyable look round the messy, bustling temple on the village side (no photos allowed inside, and I couldn’t go in because I was wearing shorts) then we set off again. Tiruchendur shore temple We arrived in Tiruchendur about 3pm and after checking a few hotels we settled on the Bharath Residency, a short walk from the famous Subrahmanya shore temple. This one is on a different scale to the shore temple in Mamallapuram, it’s huge and getting in presents a problem – not because we’re white non-Hindus, that’s fine (as long as men take their shirts off), but because of the massive queues. The free queue was taking 10 to 12 hours to get into the temple, the 100-rupee (£1) queue about six hours and the 250-rupee (£2.50) queue that we went for still took an hour. The Subrahmanya temple is the second-most important one in Tamil Nadu and it was packed with pilgrims who got more and more excited as they finally neared Murugan’s shrine, a distant God in a shrine like a box at the end of a long dark tunnel, and scuffles broke out as they tried to push to the front of the disintegrating queue to present their offerings. All round the inside of the temple people were making offerings, lying on beds and going to sleep or just walking about. All round the outside of the temple were pilgrim camps with families and their possessions setting up their temporary homes on rattan mats, surrounded by their washing hanging up to dry. There was even a place where women could have their saris washed. There was no sign of any other tourists and certainly no tourist infrastructure in the town. We spotted the temple elephant just too late as it was led away to go home, and we walked outside and found the Ramesh Iyer restaurant that had been recommended and had a nice dosa with six or seven bowls of spicy accompaniments for dinner for less than £1. Fri 9th. We were up early (for us) and walked round the outside of the temple again but didn’t queue to go in. There were still huge crowds queuing and living in the pilgrim camps. We met a man and his wife who had come and queued at 2am because it didn’t take quite so long (although still several hours). Among the crowds were groups of musicians drumming, singing and playing horns and groups of men and women around them dancing so of course the main man spotted us and came and dragged Sheila in to jig about, which was very popular with the hundreds of people sitting around (we were again the only white people in sight). She tried to sneak off a few times but was dragged back. Eventually, as we walked back lots of people came over to shake her hand because they’d seen her joining in the dance. Back at the hotel we had the spicy samosas we bought yesterday for breakfast then our taxi arrived to take us to Kanyakumari. First we had an unexpected and interesting stop at Manapad, a Christian fishing community not far from Tiruchendur .... .... where we went to the very historic Holy Cross shrine, a church on a hill surrounded on three sides by the sea, which was founded in 1540 when a Portuguese ship was wrecked off the coast but everybody survived. Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India As we approached Kanyakumari we passed through what is reputed to be the biggest wind farm in the world, with hundreds of windmills as far as you can see in all directions. We checked into the nice government-run Hotel Tamil Nadu where we stayed ten years ago and got one of the ‘cottages’ overlooking the sea and the statue on the island at the southernmost point of India. We went to the restaurant and ordered some lunch then discovered that they will deliver it to the bar (but the bar is not allowed to deliver drinks to the restaurant) so we had a couple of Kingfisher beers and very tasty curries with all the trimmings for lunch. As we walked through the garden back to our room we noticed a big black cloud overhead and a few drops of rain started falling, and as we closed the door to our room the monsoon swept in, great claps of thunder literally rattled the windows and started all the peacocks mewing and squawking and the rain came pelting down. We settled down for a cozy afternoon indoors. In the evening we were still full from the late lunch so we had a beer and nibbles in the bar. Sat 10th. We tried to get up early to go to what is billed as ‘the largest flower market in Asia’ half an hour north at the village of Thovali (although it didn’t seem that big). You really need to be there about 6am to see it in full swing and when we arrived at 9:30 most people were packing up. However there were still some colourful corners where men were threading fragrant jasmine flowers onto strings for offerings at the temples and sweeping all sorts of flowers and petals into sacks. Back in Kanyakumari the taxi dropped us at an ATM in town and we walked back towards the hotel, but the monsoon has temporarily disappeared and it was very hot and tiring in the sun. We ordered tasty egg curry for lunch from the hotel restaurant and went to the bar again to have it with a beer and a nice almost port-like red wine (measured in an egg-cup for £1). That evening the seaside crowds were here in force. We walked around the temple that sits on the southernmost point of India and looked at the bathers splashing in the surf and being called back by the guards with whistles. Along Beach Road were lots of brightly-lit stalls with cheap tourist paraphernalia which makes Blackpool look upmarket, then we looked around the interesting small aquarium near the southern gate of our hotel. The rain stayed away so we walked about a bit more then went back to our hotel bar for some drinks and ordered a meal. Unfortunately the restaurant was overwhelmed with a weekend influx of guests and completely forgot our order, so after waiting for too long we had to go and chase them up several times before we eventually ate. The nice waiter was so apologetic. The second fortnight – Kerala and Lakshadweep The Palace of Travancore Sun 11th. The driver who took us to the flower market yesterday seemed quite good but as we set off with him this morning it soon became clear we were mistaken. He couldn’t just drive smoothly, he had to keep jerking forwards and back, revving and coasting every second, even on a clear road so we were like nodding dogs, which soon drove us crazy. Eventually we got to Padmanabhapuram where we visited the lovely palace of the Rajahs of Travancore. The palace, several hundred years old, is not grand but is quite extensive, with a series of two-storey wooden buildings with stone pillars, tiled roofs and smooth floors, built around courtyards and gardens. It was most enjoyable and picturesque to wander through the cool wooden rooms looking at the sun shining on the gardens outside. Trivandrum We resumed our annoying journey for another two hours, which soon dispelled the good mood from the palace, and when we arrived in Trivandrum we agreed to go to the driver’s choice of hotel, the KTDC Chaithram, rather than have another argument, and it turned out to be really good. We had a very clean, well-furnished room in the new block (so new we could be the first people to stay in it) with luxuries we’d been missing like a door on the shower so it didn’t wet the whole bathroom floor, a bench to put the suitcases on so we can get into them without scrabbling on the floor, tea/coffee making facilities, really comfy beds and a comfy chair and table where I’m writing this. The hotel also had a bar which, although it was dark and gloomy as they all seem to be required to be, served several types of beer and a very nice Indian Shiraz-style red wine called Raya by Grover vineyards of Nandi Hills for a very reasonable £9 a bottle. They also served a good range of snacks and meals so lunch was a foregone conclusion. While Sheila snoozed off lunch I crossed the road to the station and enjoyed the bustling Indian railway station ambience, although Trivandrum Central seemed to be cleaner and better supplied with amenities like chairs and escalators to the overhead walkway than other stations we’d experienced. Unsurprisingly dinner turned out to be Fosters beer, Raya wine and a nice curry in the hotel bar. Mon 12th. We enjoyed the nice South Indian buffet breakfast that was included in the price of our room then set out in a tuk-tuk with an actual meter, to have a last go at getting the pad repaired. When two computer repair shops declared it impossible we gave up and gave the remains as a gift to the nice man on reception who said his friend might be able to fix it. We then went to a big, well-organised department store to buy silk for some cushion covers, then down the road to a chaotic, cluttered workshop where they made them for us. We checked some train times at the station then retired to the hotel for a light lunch of beer, wine and nibbles. Our evening followed its normal course with beer, wine and a delicious egg biryani in the hotel’s ‘beer and wine parlour’. Tues 13th. We got a taxi to the Fort district which is the old town of Trivandrum (although there isn’t a fort any more) and walked through small, interesting streets around the Padmanabhaswamy Temple where a small procession with drums and horns and temple priests carrying offerings was in progress. The grand front entrance of the temple was reflected picturesquely in the temple tank. We went into the adjacent Puttan Malika Palace, built by the Rajahs of Travancore when they left Padmanabhapuram palace in a similar style with wooden galleries, smooth floors and tiled roofs, which was very pleasant and interesting. In the same complex the nearby Chitradayam Palace was basically a big gallery of large photographs of the royal family in the 1920s and 1930s, many hand-coloured like old postcards, which was interesting at first but soon became repetitive – we made our excuses and beat a hasty retreat. We went and swapped some books we'd read at a nice dusty old bookshop down the road near the hotel, then got a tuk-tuk to pick up the cushion covers from the workshop near the overbridge junction. On the way Abu the tuk-tuk driver skillfully upsold us from the train we were intending to take to Kollam tomorrow to his taxi instead. We went back to our bar and had a nice dinner of egg biryani with raitas and lime pickles with Fosters and Raya wine, which all became rather riotous when the lads at the table next to us gathered round taking endless selfies with us and calling us their mother and father! Soon it will be grandma and grandad, when did we get so old? Kollam (formerly Quilon) Weds 14th. We sent out on what should have been a simple two-hour taxi ride to Kollam but it turned out much better than that. Our nice taxi driver called Abu decided to turn it into a sightseeing trip and took us along the coast road instead of the congested main highway. Firstly we stopped at a huge, impressive, modern church of St Thomas in a Christian fishing community. Then we followed the interesting coast road between the beach on one side and canals or lakes on the other, through villages of houses that varied from run-down hovels to over-garish mansions (built by returning Indian expats from the Gulf or elsewhere). We stopped at the tidy Anjuthenga Fort, a classic square 17th-century fortress which was apparently the first British presence on the Malabar coast. Further along we had a look at Varkala beach, from the clifftops overlooking it, and drove through Varkala town which seemed to be inhabited by quite a few western hippies escaping from the package tours that have invaded Goa. We arrived in Kollam and with a bit of difficulty found the 250-year old former British Residency which now operates as a guest house for government officials and occasional hotel for tourists if you book well in advance, but unfortunately all the rooms were currently kept for visiting officials (but not occupied) so we couldn’t stay there. We did walk through the impressive old building and admired the well-kept gardens. Changing to plan B we went to the boat jetty on the lake and tried to negotiate a price for the magnificent houseboat owned by Abu’s friend. It was so expensive that we went and looked at some other boats that were pretty awful, so by the time we went back to the first boat and agreed to rent it for two days it was too late to start today and we had to stay the night in a hotel. We wanted to be dropped in Alleppey at the end of the cruise so that it felt like another stage on our journey up the Kerala coast, but that costs an extra £80 because they have to bring the boat back empty. We stayed at the Sudarsan hotel which was overpriced and not very nice, and went to have a couple of beers in their friendly, if dark and gloomy, bar. We went across the road to the nearby RP mall where we had a meal and Sheila had some beauty treatments in a salon. The Backwaters Thurs 15th. I had a quick walk round Kollam town, formerly known as Quilon when it was the centre of the international spice trade in medieval times and for hundreds of years the main port on the Malabar coast, but now there’s not much to see. We went down to the boat jetty to begin our backwater boat tour. Our ‘rice barge’ called ‘Palm Tree’, was a big boat with a solid feel to it, smooth wooden floors and brass fittings, one large bedroom with a comfy bed and an ensuite bathroom. It had a spacious canopied area at the front with a dining table and a comfy couch for relaxed viewing of the scenery as we chugged gently down the waterways. There was a crew of three, a captain/driver, a cook and a guide just for the two of us, to pamper our every need. It seemed very expensive at about £300 a night, but for a nice hotel, all meals and the ever-changing view it’s worth it. First we crossed a series of lakes then entered the ‘national west coast canal’ that goes 150 kms to Kochi. After a couple of hours we moored up and they served a huge, delicious lunch with a series of varied veg dishes, a fish fry with meaty slices of tuna, a very spicy little fish dish and a raita to cool it down a bit. We had a lovely relaxing afternoon continuing our gentle cruise along the waterways in the sunshine, looking at the scenery, fishing nets and wildlife including these eagles, according to our guide. We moored up for the night near a temple that was preparing for a big 41-day festival that starts on Saturday. People were already giving offerings and making ritual circuits round a heavily-decorated nearby tree. We went to a nearby beach just too late to see the sunset and Sheila paddled in the warm Arabian sea, then we returned to the boat for a huge, delicious evening meal cooked up by our chef. Fri 16th. Since 5am ferry-loads of people had been arriving at the temple to set up for the festival or make pre-festival offerings, so we went to have a walk round the pre-festival bustle where, among lots of other activity, a large group of women were cooking up a sweet rice concoction which you could offer to the gods, take home to your family or give samples to Sheila which she loved. As we walked back to the boat the monsoon caught up with us again and by the time we set off and were having a tasty breakfast on our covered deck as we cruised along the canal, the rain was pelting down. About one o’clock we moored up and they served us a huge lunch, dishing out 12 different curries with pickles, rice and poppadums onto big banana leaves, and Kerala fish fry – four fried fish – and three tiger prawns that we bought from a passing boatman last night. We ate until we couldn’t move and there was still lots left. After a short half-hour cruise on the main waterway we stopped at Munroe Island and transferred to a small wooden canoe that a man poled through the narrow backwaters in and around the island, through villages, jungles, coir making and fish farms. It was all very peaceful and scenic. Returning to the boat, still full from lunch, it was time for afternoon tea and a ‘snack’ of deep-fried bananas. After a bit more cruising we moored up for the night by a small house in the jungle where there were no roads and no temples, so the only sounds were cows, cockerels and jungle noises. Luckily dinner was not too overwhelming because we had still not got over lunch but we still couldn’t finish it. Sat 17th. Yet more delicious food for breakfast then we chugged back to Kollam jetty by about 8:30. Abu the driver was coming to pick us up to go to Kochi but there was a problem. In the middle of the night a state-wide strike had been declared and all commercial activity was banned for the day. Abu set off to meet us but he was spotted by some strike pickets (taxis and commercial vehicles have yellow number plates, private cars white plates) and they broke his windscreen with a rock. He gamely returned home and borrowed his friend’s (private) car and set off again, and arrived about 20 minutes after we docked. We set off and apart from a delay near Alleppy to wait for a protest march to go by all was going well until Abu seemed to be overcome by tiredness, started driving erratically and before we knew it, had crashed into a motorbike. It could have been much worse – the motorbike driver managed to stay upright and the only injury was the lady passenger on the bike’s badly skinned ankle where the car hit her. The bike was undamaged but somehow the car’s wing mirror had been broken off. We took the lady to a hospital down the road while Sheila tended to her and checked that nothing was broken (she`s seen too many episodes of Holby City on TV) and the lady was whisked away in a wheel chair but apart from this everyone stayed very calm and there were none of the dramatic theatricals that you might have expected. After a lengthy delay the hospital declared that she had no serious injuries and we set off with a much subdued Abu to arrive in Kochi without further incident. Kochi (Cochin) In the row of fine old merchants’ houses, now hotels, near the waterfront in the historic Kochi Fort area is a three-storey, double-fronted one called the Koder House. When we were here two years ago they offered us one of the huge front rooms for a bargain price but we had already checked into another hotel and didn’t like to let the nice people there down. Sheila has always regretted it and one of our main reasons for coming back (apart from the fact that we really like Kochi) was to see if we could stay there this time. Sheila went into full negotiating mode, the friendly staff called the manager, and because we committed to stay for six nights we got the fabulous front room for about £70, less than two-thirds of the published price. It had a huge bedroom with four-poster bed, so high you needed the footstool to get up to it, with a good quality mattress, pillows and sheets changed every day, then there was a large dressing room and a large bathroom with a bathtub and loads of hot water and a separate big shower. The whole suite was 30 yards long end to end. We immediately went across to the waterfront and bought some huge tiger prawns from one of the stalls there, and arranged with Kafé D Kochi, one of the nearby open-air restaurants, for them to cook them later. Then we went in search of the XL bar, one of our haunts from last time, and they had a good selection of beer and wine (£14 a bottle) which we sampled. We always thought it was a rather dark place but now, after the dark and gloomy bars we’d inhabited so far this holiday, it seemed almost bright and lively (but wasn’t really). Finally we went back to the restaurant where they cooked Sheila’s prawns in a delicious tomato, garlic, onion and spicy curry sauce and I had a tasty aloo gobi with jeera rice. Sun 18th to Tues 20th. We fell into what become our Kochi routine. After a nice breakfast at Koder House we walked around the town looking at a few shops and some of the other characterful hotels such as the very plush Brunton Boatyard, browsed through a nice cluttered bookshop opposite St Francis church, the oldest church in India where Vasco de Gama was buried until they relocated his remains back to Portugal, posted some postcards at the nearby post office and stopped for a coffee at the pleasant Cochin Club, where the restaurant is open to all but the café, lounge and library are for members only and you can swim in the pool for 500 rupees (our hotel had a pool but we didn't use it). We walked back along the sea front until we got to the fish-sellers’ stalls and bought some even bigger tiger prawns for the night’s dinner, and walked over to the ferry terminal to see the new bigger RORO (rollon-rolloff) ferry load up (cars had to reverse onto the previous very small ferry so they could drive off) but even so the queues were still very long. For lunch we went to the Teapot Café for delicious samosa chaat (mashed samosa with onion, coriander, yogurt and other spicy ingredients) with a pot of tea (proper loose tea, not tea-bags). Our evening routine started with glasses of wine at the XL bar and we had a nice chat there with an Indian chap who had worked in Dubai for 20 years and spoke perfect English. One evening before we could move on to the restaurant a massive thunderstorm broke over the town with almost continuous lightning flashing, power cuts and torrential rain. Our friend said the forecast was that it wouldn’t stop until 1am so he lent me his umbrella and I splashed back to the hotel to fetch our pacamacs. Wearing these we splashed through the almost deserted streets to Kafe D Kochi where they cooked our giant tiger prawns in the same delicious curry sauce. Weds 21st. We relaxed in the hotel then when we couldn’t delay checking out any longer we got an Uber taxi for the lengthy drive (nearly two hours) to Aaden`s Homestay, the Airbnb near Cochin airport. It was very difficult to find – even when we found St Mary`s church, the main landmark, it turned out to be the wrong one and we went to a different St Mary`s church a couple of kms away. It was in a nice leafy area of pleasant modern-looking houses, but miles away from any shops or restaurants. The people made us some simple lunch/dinner of chapattis and grated coconut and carrots with mustard seeds and we whiled away the afternoon relaxing there. Lakshadweep Islands Thurs 22nd. In the misty dawn the taxi took us to Cochin airport which was busier than we expected but well-organised, and after a nice breakfast in the Earth Lounge our Air India 60-seat propeller-driven flight to Agatti Island in Lakshadweep left right on time. On arrival they organized us into groups according to which island we were going to and we were loaded into an SUV and driven very fast, for some reason, down the narrow road through the palm trees and fishermen’s` villages with his horn blaring, scattering the locals, to the boat jetty. 12 passengers and five crew boarded the small wooden motor-boat and we set off. As soon as we were out of the lee of Agatti island the sea became quite rough and everyone was soaked with spray for the next hour until we arrived at Bangaram island. Bangaram is a lovely, picture-postcard tropical island with palm-fringed golden beaches and thatched huts where we were staying. The huts used to be quite primitive according to the guide books but now they are very nice with A/C, TV, tea and coffee-making facilities, comfortable furniture, a flushing toilet, hot water and a verandah with wicker chairs looking out over hammocks to the sea. By the time we had unpacked, lunch was served in the restaurant, a delicious Indian-style buffet, so we were back to eating far too much! After lunch we tried to set off for a walk round the island but didn’t get far because of the heat and the effects of lunch. At 5pm we had evening tea and biscuits in the restaurant then at 7:30 we took our bottles of wine from the café to the tables on the seashore and had a very nice buffet and barbecue (including the best naan ever, fresh from the tandoor) right there on the beach, under the full moon with the waves lapping gently on the shore. Fri 23rd. We had just arrived in the restaurant for a nice south Indian breakfast when another big storm came in, with thunder, lightning and torrential rain that was leaking through the kitchen roof and making puddles in the chefs` floor. Luckily the roof of our hut seemed sound and everything was dry, if a bit humid and damp. By lunchtime it eased off and after a nice lunch with a different set of varied dishes, we had a walk into the interior of the island, along a path past the lake with herons, eagles and other bird life, to the far southern end of the island. We then walked back along the beach, putting on our macs as the next heavy shower swept in. In the evening we sat at the Beach Shack drinking our wine and swapping traveller`s tales with an American couple, an Italian couple and a South African couple. Dinner was delayed while a film/photo crew used the restaurant to gather material for a new publicity drive for Lakshadweep, but when we finally got in the food was as delicious as always. Sat 24th. As we went to board the return boat at 7am the wind was blowing strongly and they handed out lifejackets to all the passengers (there were none in sight on the outward boat) which was all rather ominous. In fact it was a much smoother crossing until we were close to Agatti when a single rogue wave came flying through the window and soaked me in particular and got a bit of spray on others nearby (Sheila was OK, she’d wisely put her mac on), so that I spent the rest of the journey to Kochi with soggy shorts. It was a full flight so Agatti`s tiny airport was jammed full of people, but it left on time and arrived uneventfully at Kochi airport. Kochi (Cochin) again We got a good airport taxi back to Koder House and they welcomed us back as family which was nice. Back to our usual routine we had samosa chaat at the Teapot for lunch and a quiet afternoon, then a beer at XL bar and huge prawns for dinner, which they cooked in a more spicy sauce than usual which I enjoyed but Sheila was a bit red in the face and had to gorge on the raita to cool it down. Sun 25th. A nice day in Kochi with breakfast then flopping about in the hotel, lunch at Teapot café and a brief walk around, half-bottles of Grover wine at the XL bar and our huge, tasty giant tiger prawns at Kafe D Kochi. Mon 26th. We walked around a bit and exchanged some books with the nice lady at the bookshop and posted some cards at the P.O. Then we packed and checked out, left our bags with the nice people at Koder House and let a tuk-tuk driver talk us into going on a sightseeing tour. He was actually very good, spoke good English and knew some interesting places to go to, starting with the Dhobi Khanna (laundry or wash house) which was fascinating, watching them iron the clothes with very heavy, glowing charcoal-filled irons – Sheila tried to have a go but couldn’t even lift it. We looked at a temple that was for Hindus only, then went to the top of a historic Portuguese building (that also happened to be an antique shop) to see the view of all the nearby islands. We finished with a visit to a spice shop where I was the only one to succumb to their hard sell by buying some loose tea. For a complete change we had a tex-mex lunch/dinner at Sutra restaurant and had burritos and sizzling fajitas sitting in the pleasant garden. Finally the time came to leave and we got an Uber taxi for the lengthy drive to the Atlas hotel near the airport where we had a very nice clean suite with a kitchen and lounge along with the bedroom and bathroom. That evening we watched Rick Stein cooking in Kerala on the TV. The last week – Udaipur, Rajasthan Tues 27th. We left the hotel at 6am and the flight to Udaipur via Mumbai was fairly straightforward and arrived less than an hour late about 3pm. We checked into the Kankarwa Haveli where we have stayed many times before and had a chat with our dear friend Mr A at Lake City travels. Then we returned to our favourite Ambrai restaurant to sit by the lake with a view of the city and palaces and have a wonderful meal of smoked chicken curry and butter chicken (our two favourites) and nice Sula Indian wine. Weds 28th. We had a day around Lal Ghat, chatting with Mr A, having a shirt made for £16 at a tailor’s and having wine and snacks at the Rainbow restaurant for lunch. We had a lazy read in our room with the fabulous view .... .... and watched the sunset in the afternoon. In the evening we set out to find a restaurant and as we crossed the little pedestrian bridge across the lake we saw the Little Prince restaurant on the other side and stopped to check their menu, then next door checked the Jasmine restaurant and found they had Sheila’s favourite comfort food, mashed potatoes with fried onions and cheese. When they said beer and wine was possible that clinched it and we sat at a table right by the lake (although the view wasn’t as spectacular as from the Ambrai) and had a couple of half-bottles of wine (which they brought from the bottle shop!) with Sheila’s mashed potato and I had a bindi masala (okra) and a nan. Thurs 29th. We set out a bit earlier than usual while it was cooler (and the roads were mercifully quieter) and walked down the road past the old clock tower to the vegetable market .... .... which was wildly colourful as always - even the salesman's beard matched the colour of his tomatoes! On the way back we stopped for a chat with Mr A who showed us how to do some clever things on the smartphone like copying and pasting, then retired to our room for a picnic lunch. This consisted of peapods and cucumbers from the market, a packet of cashew nuts from the flight four weeks ago, a packet of spicy peanut things from a shop near the market and a bottle of sparkling wine that we bought from the bottle shop and kept in the fridge, to celebrate the fact that we have known each other for 50 years this month (Sheila said if I thought I'd get away with this as the only meal to celebrate the event I was sadly mistaken). I whiled away the afternoon with a book and a coffee in the Rainbow’s downstairs café, then we went for a repeat of our meal with the fabulous view from the lakeside corner table at the Ambrai. Fri 30th. Our walk around this morning included going up the steep steps from City Palace road to look round the Jagdish temple .... .... and the Gokul temple. We went shopping for decorated doorhandles in one of the interesting shops nearby, feeding empty peapods to some cows (who seemed very appreciative, although they would have been more appreciative if I'd left the peas in the pods) and collecting the shirt I’d had made at the tailor’s. We went back to the Jasmine restaurant at the other side of the footbridge for a nice lunch of mashed potato etc. (Sheila) and bindi do piazza (okra and onion curry) (me). After another lovely sunset we set out for our final evening meal in Udaipur. We love Indian food but sometimes you just need a change so in the evening we went to the Charcoal BBQ restaurant on top of one of the nearby hotels and had a Mediterranean meal of babaganoush and hummus with olive flat bread, followed by lamb souvlaki skewers with tzatziki and chips – delicious! Sat 1st Dec. We had a last stroll round, a haircut then a cup of tea at Govinda’s café to watch the world go by on City Palace road, then said goodbye to Mr A and got the taxi to the airport. The flight to Mumbai was near enough on time and we got a prepaid airport taxi (cheaper than Ola or Uber) to the Hotel Pale International near the airport. We had a very nice drink of wine and dinner of fish and chips and veg Manchurian in their bar, then had a walk around the interesting and busy shopping and market area around the hotel, stopping to watch the henna artists at work. Sun 2nd Dec. We flew home. And finally .... a nice quiet place for a spot of sunbathing! If you would like to see more of our travels just click the map.