We have visited numerous ancient ruins on our trip but never has the landscape combined with the architecture to create such incredible scenery as in Hampi. The giant boulders and tumbled-down temples and palaces were at their most evocative in the warm light of sunrise and sunset. We enjoyed a relaxing few days cycling through [...]
Bengaluru (formally Bangalore) provided us with the opportunity to attend a cricket match. The quarter final of the Duleep Trophy between South Zone and Central Zone was in it’s third day when we attended. we were fortunate enough to see Rahul Dravid and Dinesh Karthik score centuries. Typically for such a match the ground was [...]
We had been dreading the long bus journey from Kozhikode to the town of Mysore. It actually turned out to be quite a pleasant six hours with plenty of beautiful scenery to keep us entertained. Mysore was a lovely place to spend a few days. We stayed in the Ritz Hotel – a colonial building [...]
The busy coastal city of Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) was a stop off point to break the long journey from Ernakulam to Mysore. Although there were a few sights of interest we didn’t have the chance to visit any of them as the few spare hours we had we spent trawling around the city in search [...]
We decided against staying in Fort Kochi, opting instead for the ugly ‘modern sister’ Ernakulam. Ernakulam is linked to Fort Kochi by an incredibly cheap ferry service. Whilst waiting for ferries to arrive we would sit and enjoy a cup of chai at the bizarrely named ‘Ken Livingstone Cafe’. Apparently the owner had seen Livinstone [...]
The much anticipated backwaters of Kerala certainly lived up to their reputation. We based ourselves in the town of Alappuzha, often dubbed the ‘Venice of the east’. There was not much to see or do in Alappuzha itself but it was a perfect spot to spend few days relaxing and doing some much needed planning. [...]
We broke our journey from Tamil Nadu to the Keralan coast at the mountain town of Kumily. We planned to enjoy the cool mountain air for a few days and take the opportunity to do some wildlife spotting at the Periyar Tiger Reserve. The air was certainly cool. Once the sun had gone down we [...]
The three countries which can be seen in the photo are Burma (on the left), Laos (on the right) and Thailand (in the foreground). The opium producing area known has the Golden Triangle has been narrowed down, mainly for the sake of tourists, to this spot at the Thai town of Sop Ruak where the [...]
South India is a great place to enjoy a filling, cheap and delicious breakfast. The majority of the dishes are breads and pancakes made from rice flour and served with sambar and coconut chutney into which pieces of the bread are dipped. Here are some of our favourites: Dosa – huge rice flour pancake (even [...]
The massive gopurams of Madurai’s Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, ‘writhing with multicoloured mythological figures,’ are claimed to be the greatest man-made spectacle of southern India. We couldn’t believe our luck as we arrived in Madurai to find that the twelve-yearly renovations were in progress. The allegedly stunning gopurams were completely covered in palm leafs obscuring our view. [...]
