We are thoroughly enjoying finally having a relaxing holiday in India, where we are not constantly rushing from sight to sight. Today we drift slowly through the streets of the French quarter in Pondicherry. We start at the Botanical Gardens, which were probably once the Kew Gardens of their day but now look distinctly run down. They are certainly peaceful.... We look at all manner of trees with strange names – the bullet wood tree, the screw tree and the cannonball tree, for example. There is a solitary ‘greenhouse’ which is essentially a large tent housing a bunch of plants sold in every garden centre in England as pot plants. Next stop is the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ church, another good example of Indian Catholic style – bright colours and flashing lights around the pictures ... read more

Mahabalipuram is a UNESCO world heritage site. In the 7th and 8th centuries the Pallava kings built a number of monuments right on the seashore of what was then a major part. They comprise rathas (temples in the form of chariots), mandapas (cave sanctuaries), giant open-air reliefs such as 'Arjuna's Penance' and the Shore Temple. The Shore Temple is our first stop. We pick up a government guide at the parking lot, with the apparent approval of our driver. The Shore Temple was built out of granite and is on the beach, although fenced off from it and surrounded by grass. The carvings are heavily eroded by wind and sea spray and some are pretty difficult to di... read more

Day 2 in Chennai and the first stop is Fort St George. (Skip the rest of this paragraph if you’re not interested in history!) The fort was built by the British East India Company on land granted to them by the local Nayak ruler in 1639 and completed on St. George's Day 1640. It was established as a fortified trading post, not as the basis for military expansion or the creation of an Empire, whatever revisionist historians might argue. From its establishment by Royal Charter granted by Elizabeth I in 1600, the Company was only interested in trade. It regarded war as unfavourable to trade. However as events transpired over the next centuries, Fort St. George, which was the foundation of Madras town and became the seat of the Madras Presidency of the Company, was the ... read more

The next day we check out of our cabin after a surprisingly good night's sleep and a bracing walk on the beach. We head back cross country to the I -101 through Petaluma (home to the filming in 1973 of American Graffiti, an early George Lucas film that gave Harrison Ford his first break) and head south to Berkeley. We are going to for Sara's birthday lunch to Chez Panisse, where all the cool people dine in Berkeley. This is preceded by a stop at Safeway to buy more beer, just in case we get thirsty that afternoon. Very nice lunch waited on my effortlessly cool staff, all very Berkeley, we fit in effortlessly – yeah, right. Time to go into San Francisco, over the Oakland Bay bridge. We hit a mega queue for the toll ... read more

We say goodbye to cool Portland and head roughly south east into central Oregon towards Bend. Miles of highway through endless forest over undulating terrain. We pass by Mount Hood, another active/inactive volcano looming large to the north of us. We take a comfort stop at what purports to be a ski station with a few sad two person chairs hanging inert in the now chilly air, and seemingly half of Mexico on a road trip also taking their comfort break here. Unlike us, they have broken open the jumbo size cooler boxes and appear to be starting a party. The endless forest gives way to high plains, low scrub and endless horizons, the Cascades away to the east in the haze. We look in vain for cowboys, but none are to be found as there ... read more