I spent much of my last day in Mumbai relaxing and eating toasted cheese sandwiches in the early afternoon I farewelled Padraic and travelled to the airport, my flight to Kolkata was late departing but arrived on time so all was well. I had arranged a pick up at the airport in Kolkata but when I arrived there was nobody there, so I rang my contact who had forgotten me so I had a long wait, a gentleman seemed concerned for my welfare and offered to take me to my hotel, unfortunately I didn’t have one as I was supposed to be on my way to the Sunderbans not feeding Kolkata’s mosquitoes. Finally they arrived in an old 1960 era vehicle only to tell me it was too late to go out to the National Park ... read more

On Saturday 3 March, we made an early start as we hoped to complete the hundred kilometre drive to the World Heritage listed Ajanta Caves before the tour buses and the crowds arrived and thankfully the car park was almost empty. Although the crowds were thin on the ground we still had to force our way through the swarming touts, which went a little bit like this- "Sir sir where are you from" Silence "Sir come this way" through a maze of strategically laid out shops One grabs my arm and I state calmly "Will you back off I don’t want your stuff" "Sir why are you so hostile and rude" a tout yells My response is "What do you mean rude? It is rude to harass people before they have even exited their vehicle" "Sir ... read more

I was roused from sleep by the call to prayer this morning there are few things more exotic in my opinion or annoying if you are trying to sleep in. The shower doesn’t work so a wet one bath was all I could tolerate, we left Badami after another crap breakfast of tiny pieces of toast and tea and headed further north to the predominantly Islamic city of Bijapur the former seat of the Adil Shahi kings (1489 - 1682). This crazy Indian practice of laying speed humps across the highways every bloody kilometre turned a reasonably short drive into a much longer one, but we arrived around 11.30am and stopped on the edge of the city to admire the Malik-E-Maidan or in English the Monarch of the Plain an extremely large 55 tonne canon left ... read more

The stunning city of Vijayanager is the capital of the destroyed Vijayanagara Empire is a showcase of fine medieval Indian architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was around 26 square kilometres and was encircled by seven levels of defensive walls many of which can still be seen. Our guest house is located within metres of the older temples on Hemakuta Hill, which we visited immediately after Virupaksha Temple, which dominates the small village and traveller enclave of Hampi Bazarre. I particularly like the older temples dating from the 9th century strewn amongst the boulder dominated terrain. We visited a number of smaller temples many of these were dominated by large effigies of various gods including Ganesh, before striking of down a dirt track with the plan of looping back around to some of ... read more

Ruth and I woke at 3.30am and were checked out and in a cab to the airport by 3.45am the trip at this time of the morning was fast and hassle free. We both leave from the same terminal at Delhi Airport which is a real bonus. On arrival we checked in Ruth's bags for her Singapore flight then lodged mine for Chennai which took significantly longer. I then walked Ruth to passport control we said our semi sad farewell as I know she is keen to go home and then watched her through the glass until she moved beyond and out of sight. I then headed to domestic departures (where I met my girlfriend LOL) and made my way though having a few moments panic when I forgot to retrieve my small pack after putting ... read more