-
To The Beach: Arrival In The Wrong Part Of Goa
Well. It just goes to show, even grounded and experienced travellers like us can mess up, although we’re mystified as to how we of all people made this error. In trying to work out the best places to stay in Goa to get a decent coastal fix but steer clear of the overblown party towns, we spent ages poring over the merits and demerits of just about everywhere until we settled on two locations in South Goa, missing out North Goa and its party scene completely. It’s not until we leave Goa International Airport that it dawns on us that something is amiss, when the hotel driver (we’d pre-arranged collection)…
-
A Different India: The City Of Mumbai
Udaipur. Thursday, 6.30am. Chilly. Dark. Not many people about, those that are, are wrapped in quilted coats, caps and scarves. We’re in T-shirts. Taxi to airport, flight to Mumbai. Disembark Mumbai a short time later. Just gone 10am and it’s already a sweaty 27 degrees. How is that even possible? Baggage tags have the 3-letter airport code on – you know, like LHR for Heathrow or LGW for Gatwick. Except that if you’re heading to Mumbai then you now have a bag with a label clearly stating “BOM”. Got to see the dark humour in that, yeah? Brand new metro system, Line 3, the Aqua Line. All the way to…
-
To The Lake City Of Udaipur
Suddenly I feel like I’m on television, on a travel documentary or similar, at that point when the presenter turns either to the camera or to their co-presenter and makes a poignant comment indicating just how special is the moment, and then looks wistfully out at the scene before them. It really is like that, just as awe inspiring, just as exotic. We’ve just arrived in Udaipur, late afternoon, and we’re standing on the balcony of our haveli gazing at the scene before us: classic India, maybe even classic Asia. The lake – Lake Pichola – is flat calm, the amazing City Palace sits away to our left, temples and…
-
Walking Jodhpur And Meeting The Lentil Man
Jodhpur plays out its days in a decidedly lower key. Such things are relative of course – you probably wouldn’t describe Jodhpur as “low key” in many countries of the world – but compared to other Indian cities it is precisely that, especially among the narrow twisting streets of its old town. Under the watchful eye of the gigantic Mehrangarh fort looking down from the hills above, Jodhpur is probably the most tourist friendly Indian city we have seen so far. Throughout the old town any number of dark staircases lead up four or five storeys to rooftop restaurants affording fabulous views of the fort which is imposing during daylight…
-
Exploring The Sights Of Jaipur
The city wall of Jaipur, visible from all around the city, is not your normal city wall by any means. Rather than the remaining sections being deep within a congested sprawl the likes of which one might see in many cities, this is an undulating major construction which circles the city some distance from its outer limits, following the contours of the land even where the inclines become steep and the peaks become seemingly inaccessible. It is in its way rather reminiscent of a scaled down version of the Great Wall Of China. Our three days in Jaipur are spent exploring many of its notable sights. Rather than trot out…
-
From Ranthambore To The Pink City Of Jaipur
Breakfast is curry. Dinner is curry. Lunch, if you have it (we haven’t had room) would be curry. By our first Saturday we’re on curry number 10. That’s going to reach a very big number by the time we see anything like a change of cuisine. Tummies, you better be ready. Saturday afternoon and our fourth sortie into the Ranthambore National Park sees us take a break from seeking out animal sightings and instead we climb to Ranthambore Fort, the huge 5th century hilltop construction from which the National Park takes its name – indeed the vast area covered by the park once formed the fort’s hunting grounds. Today the…
-
Indian Safari: On The Trail Of Tigers
Well here’s something different, India without humidity. All of our memories of this country are of clothes drenched within half an hour and sultry cloying heat which saps the strength, but it’s not like that now, in December, where even in Delhi despite its ever present pollution there is an uncharacteristic freshness to the air. And as we are shortly to discover, it’s properly cold at 6:30 in the morning. With Alwar now off the agenda and trains to our next destination at unfriendly times of day, we explore the cost of travel by road and find that, remarkably, an “inter-city Uber” will take us the 350 kilometres for only…
-
Capability Overdrive And Delhi By Default
Monday December 1st. It’s one of those very English days where the sky is heavy, rain falls in intermittent bucketloads and it never really seems to get properly light. The tube from St Pancras to Heathrow is ridiculously rammed, full of wheelie cases, backpacks and sweaty bodies in overcoats. I am a sardine in a tin, Michaela is trapped in a corner, overheating visibly. We make it to Terminal 2 early for our 21:05 flight. 21:05 quickly becomes 21:20, then 21:45, then 22:00, 22:40 and eventually “CANCELLED” appears on the app and “GATE CLOSED” on the screens. Everyone crowds around the desk, haranguing the poor airline staff as if they…
-
Another Week In Pictures: Homeward Bound
Our last full day in Mostar brings what is easily the best weather for quite a while, a beautiful sunny warm day to give us our last views of this remarkable city. Tuesday morning sees us hauling the backpacks through pre-dawn dark streets to catch the early bus across the border, arriving in Split before lunchtime. Split is a city we last saw just over five years ago, and we have good memories – well, apart from when we got stuck in a lift. Anyway, this week we’re granted two days of sunshine to enhance the city’s engaging seafront. Cruise ship passengers pour through the city as we enjoy the…
-
Our Week In Pictures
Saw this in Ljubljana, it gelled with us.. “We travel not in order to escape life, but in order that life may not escape us”. Monday morning, woke in a village named Vopovjle near Ljubljana airport, flew to Belgrade where our connecting flight was delayed and left us stuck in the terminal for five hours before we flew on to Sarajevo. Hard to comprehend that the bustling city of Sarajevo was ravaged by warfare, genocide and war crime atrocities a little over 30 years ago. The scars are visible but so is the conciliation in a city where mosques sit beside Christian churches and a line in the street depicts…
