We’re up early to take in one last sight in Ahmedabad before driving to Vadodora. It’s the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kalupur, the temple of a Hindu sect that worship Swamirayanan who founded their sect. It was built in the 19th century of brightly painted teak wood. We enter through a massive gate into a courtyard with a haveli on three sides of the square and the temple on the fourth. At 8.30am it is teeming with people who have come to make their devotions. We are surprised to see what looks like a large yellow bell shaped tent approaching. There seem to be two women inside, and David is ordered to move away with all the other men, as only women are allowed in the immediate vicinity of the moving tent. Mystified, Sara looks on as ... read more

Sadly we have to leave the idyllic pleasure of the Taj Mahal Palace. As usual hotels worry about traffic and we arrive at Mumbai airport ludicrously early at 930am. The queues look horrendous with the hordes returning from their Diwali holiday, but Indigo have an enormously efficient queuing system for bag drop and we are through security by 10am. The security check ignores three bottles of water they find in our hand luggage, but confiscate one bottle – “Water not allowed sir”. “Can I keep these bottles though?” “Yes sir”. Hmmm....maybe he was thirsty. The new Mumbai domestic terminal is a huge improvement on the old one, efficient, light, and spacious. Indigo are also a revelation, a seemingly brand new A320 neo, with more cabin luggage space than BA business and plenty of leg room. We ... read more

It is not the most auspicious start to our seventh trip to India, 1.5 hours late departing due to a bird strike on our plane as it came in to land. Once on board BA seem to confirm that they are continuing their progression to a budget airline even in business class. What a sad deterioration in our national flag carrier. Arriving in Mumbai and driving in to the city with our driver, we are struck by just how massive the city has become. It is clearly affluent but the squalor of the slums cannot be completely hidden behind the fences and railings for mile after mile along the highway. Compared to Delhi the driving seems almost civilised and there is much less honking of car horns. It’s smoggy too, but not as bad as Delhi. ... read more

We spend three nights at Siladen doing nothing. My sister Angela would be horrified at such a waste of time as she spends her time here diving backwards off boats and taking pictures of fishes 100 feet down. But we enjoy our time of idleness! On our last day there we take the boat back to Manado where the resort bus is waiting to take us e to the airport. Suddenly all the oncoming traffic starts to flash at our driver. He stops and checks the tyres. We have a puncture. Our chance of getting to the airport on time suddenly seems very slim. But he stops at a roadside ‘garage’ – the sort that sells petrol in bottles for motorbikes – and uses their airline to reinflate the tyre. Won’t do the job for long, ... read more

We are, of course, the only guests at breakfast. Fruit juice so thick it’s more like puree, a plate of fresh cut fruit and a club sandwich appear. The latter seems an odd item for breakfast, but as that seems to be it, we tuck in it. It’s very tasty. As we take our last mouthful, a plate of fried rice arrives. It is followed by bacon, a large omelette and some deep fried savoury balls with an unknown but tasty filling. We definitely can’t eat all this! We set off at 8am with today's guide Modi to Gunung Mahawu (pronounced “Ma –how”). Everyone is off to church today in their Sunday best, the ladies especially, first service apparently at 0530hrs. We drive through winding roads and across flat cultivated land and paddy fields, stopping on ... read more