We left the hotel at seven for flight to Ushuaia, in the far south of the country, from which 95% of Antarctic expedition ships depart. We had been to Ushuaia several years before when we finished a driving trip through southern Patagonia here; it is a pleasant own of 60,000 or so whose culinary claim to fame is its Patagonian baby lamb rack-roasted over a charcoal fire. By noon we were digging into this finger-licking delight at one of the specialty restaurants on the main street, Avenida San Martin. Afterwards we had time for a short walk and some duty-free shopping before meeting up to board the Minerva in mid-afternoon. We had chosen Minerva based on the recommendation of friends who had sailed aboard her, as well as an assessment of other ships doing the route ... read more

I decided to head south the next day, Wednesday, to Kuala Selangor, about 80km northwest of Kuala Lumpur. I expected much of the road to be familiar to me since in the early 1980’s I often used to drive the coastal route from KL to Lumut, to take the ferry over to stay on Pangkor Island. In this part of Malaysia, however, the landscape has changed beyond recognition. What were once narrow, quiet, traffic-free kampong back roads are now exceptionally busy, lined in places with industrial estates, and for a large part, the route consists of a four-lane divided highway. I didn’t even dare drive into Lumut, a lovely old small town that I used to like very much, as the urban sprawl on the outskirts made me fear the worst. In actual fact, the old ... read more

I left the very pleasant Tanjung Sutera resort and set out north. By three-thirty I was checked in at the Hyatt Kuantan, and slept for the next eighteen hours. Once I’d been up a couple of hours on Friday I felt vaguely better, and caught up with a few things, had a buffet breakfast, and then addressed my laptop which had been giving me problems the past couple of days by just turning itself off or refusing to boot up again. It worked for ten minutes this morning and then died again, so I called Acer in Singapore who gave me a Kuantan service centre address which I found without too much trouble aided by a hotel map of the town. The very helpful and pleasant staff spent about an hour with me and we ultimately ... read more

Pondicherry and Mamallapuram: Experiencing the Unexpected We left Tanjore early since on the way to Pondicherry we wanted to make an unscheduled stop at the small town of Chidambaram to see a temple that closed at noon. We had a beautiful early morning drive through the url=http://infochangeindia.org/20040304367/Water-Resources/Features/The-Cauvery-delta-An-economy-under-threat.htmlCauvery delta, full of bucolic, agricultural landscapes although some of the villages were clearly dirt-poor, accommodation comprising tiny mud shelters with atap roofs. Arriving at Chidambaram we found that Narayan, our driver, had telephoned ahead for a friend of his to show us the temple. He was about 4′10″ and lacked many teeth, but he spoke impeccable clear English and was very knowledgeable. The Nataraja Temp... read more

Kochin and the Kerala Backwaters We awoke to yet another beautiful day although it did seem to be getting a shade hotter as the days went by. We had coffee by the Nilaya Hermitage pool and a large late breakfast before packing for our trip back to Cochin. Rami and Donna were staying one more night before returning to London so we made our farewells to them and to all the wonderful Nilaya staff and headed off for the airport. Arriving in Cochin in the early evening we were met again by the ground agent Biji, and by our driver for the next ten days, Narayan, who had driven over from his home in Chennai in a rather old Toyota Qualis SUV (the Indian version of a Kijang). Lisa had as usual slept the whole way ... read more