Like the middle class Indian families on their weekend breaks and honeymooners we've decided the perfect way to run away from the downsides of India, is to head to the hill stations. For Mumbai city folk, the small town of Matheran is an oasis of green, 3000 feet above sea level and the best place to rest ones lungs. At the top of the hill, taxis and other automobiles are forbidden as there are no roads in Matheran! A bit like entering a theme park, we paid our entrance fee (a small price to pay for litter free streets) and then [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to the gateway of India, Mumbai, its biggest city (17 million) and it most modern. For the first time we felt like we were in a "city" and not just a huge town. Skyscrapers, funky bars and eateries, ATMs on every corner, meter cabs rather than rickshaws, traffic rules, imposing grand architecture - all signs of a city and one that truly reflects the 21st century and modern India. Consequently, Mumbai was a place we can say we felt comfortable in - the Victorian neo-Gothic architecture further reminded us of familiar signs of home. The area we stayed in, Colaba, [View Full Entry]

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Our 100th Blog Entry!! Nasik (or Nashik) is one of India's most famous holy cities sitting on the banks of the spiritual River Godavari but that's not the main reason why we came. It is a place of common pilgrimage amongst millions of Hindus but that's not why we came. Nasik is home to thousands of temples and colourful bathing Ghats but that's not why we came. No, the reason we came is because Nasik is the home of the pioneers of Indian wine - you may scoff but it's true and we were ready to take a quaff and taste [View Full Entry]

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Travellers use the city of Aurangabad as a base for exploring the nearby caves of Ellora and Ajanta, we followed suit. We made our first balls-up of the whole journey so far, missing a train by over half an hour. The coolest thing though was despite us being at fault we still were able to cancel our ticket after the train had left and claimed a refund of 50% - imagine that happening in the UK, I don't think Messrs Branson & Co would agree to that!! Our balls up actually did us a favour as we were able to take [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop took us into our fourth Indian state of our journey so far, Andhra Pradesh and its state capital, Hyderabad. Once known as the "City of Pearls" because of its importance in the Indian pearl trade - a result of a former Mughal emperor of Hyderabad having a love of the ocean's jewels. That created industries which still flourish today - polishing, grading and drilling. More recently the city has been dubbed, "Cyberabad", as a result of the flourishing IT industry here. Hyderabad is also known across India as the bangle capital - Laura was keen to get shopping [View Full Entry]

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We really liked Hampi. The surrounding boulder-strewn landscape alone makes the visit here well worth it. This medium-sized village, has a peaceful (for India) air about it, helped by a partial road block on autorickshaws and other vehicles. The town has almost the same number of travellers as residents, partially due to its proximity to the crowds in Goa. There are lots of chillout cafes serving water-free fruit juices, decent food alternatives and lots of floor cushions to laze around on. It was chillout time for us too. This is not just a place to laze, Hampi was once the site [View Full Entry]

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There's a buzz in Bangalore - no, not the high-pitched one emitted from the too numerous autorickshaws but from the many besuited men and women who are the backbone of the global tech/financial firms that have outsourced their operations to India. Now, I'm not sure what the work conditions are like and I know for certain they are being paid a hell of a lot less than their counterparts in Europe, but there is opportunity out there and as a result more signs of a certain wealth in this city than anywhere else we've been to in India so far. For [View Full Entry]

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After Kochi the next place of interest was Mysore - apparently a fave with travellers because of the many palaces and architechtural delights that you don't often find in southern India. From Kochi the journey was just that bit too far so we made a brief overnight stay in Calicut. Oddly, that night, we were informed by the Indian TV version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", "Crorepati", that the town is named after the material it originally exported - Calico! It's evident that there are more Muslim people in this part of Kerala which I should imagine is partly [View Full Entry]

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We were pre-warned by passing travellers of Fort Cochin's reputation as a mozzie-fest and were almost put off from visiting at all. It's island setting and abundance of water is the perfect breeding ground for the little critters who reputedly eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and the posh mozzies even tuck into you at supper). Regardless, we felt we had to visit and brave it anyway, as one of Kerala's historical and cultural highlights, it was not to be missed. The journey from Kollam to Ernakulam (the mainland jumping off point for Fort Cochin and part of the wider [View Full Entry]

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I'm not going to be soft on the city of Kollam - it's a bit of a dump with few redeeming features and nothing architecturally interesting. But we didn't come to Kollam for the city we came to use it as an embarkation point to explore the beautiful rural backwaters. With our trusty LP's help we chose Kollam, the southern gateway to the Keralan backwaters, as the starting point for a cruise. Most people head tro Alleppey further north but LP advised to avoid most people for a more serene and less congested waterway experience. Of course, what they failed to [View Full Entry]

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