India a DeuxDay 1
You know you're in India when you see a cow in the airport car-park. Arriving in Delhi with boyfriend Guy after a fifteen hour flight, we're met by our personal taxi, hired to take us around North India. Make sure you get one with panic handles. Between the cows and the Indian highway code (beep, put your foot down, and never mind the indicators) it's quite an experience. Feeling mighty fragile when we arrive at the hotel, we stuff ourselves with comfort food at Delhi's new Pizza Express!!!
Day 2
Up at six to hit the road to Jaipur. Otherwise known as the "Pink City" for its pink painted buildings, Jaipur is six hours' drive from Delhi, but it's an interesting trip, with other road users including brightly painted elephants and camels. Real curry for dinner tonight accompanied by the sound of the sitar. Then on to a market where I try haggling for the first time and am inordinately pleased to get two beautiful puppets for just 100 rupees.
Day 3
A visit to Amber Fort, which clings to the side of a steep hill above Jaipur. it's a long walk up, so we take an elephant (200 Rs), fending off sellers all the way, including one who offers puppets identical to the ones I bought last night for just 10 rupees a pair! Luckily the view from the fort restores my mood. Later, our taxi breaks down and we spend hours in a back street while the radiator is replaced. To cheer us up, our driver sticks on a Phil Collins tape and I wonder if I can feel the first twinges of Delhi belly or just my usual reaction to the music.
Day 4
Leave Jaipur for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Stopping en route at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary where rickshaw riders literally fight to give us a ride (30 Rs an hour), we're thrilled to spot a huge python, eight feet long, lying in the grass. We approach with trepidation but the local children fearlessly prodding it with sticks confirm our suspicion that the snake is dead.
Arrive in Agra just in time to see the Taj Mahal at sunset. I know Guy's been dreading this moment at the most romantic place on earth in case I expect him to propose. He doesn't. But I'm not too disappointed. Breathtaking is the only word for the Taj. We have to take off our shoes to explore the white marble mausoleum built in the 1600's by Shah Jahan for his favourite wife, Mumtaz. Legend has it that he then cut the hands off the artisans who worked there so that they could never create anything so beautiful again. We stay at the Taj until dark then wander away in awed silence at its beauty and the stark contrast with the cardboard city just outside its walls where children getting ready for bed wash themselves in puddles.
Day 5
Good job we saw the Taj last night, because when we get there at dawn to watch the sun rise, we can't see a thing for fog. Cutting our losses, we move on to Agra Fort. Inside its high walls the fort opens out like a magic box with each doorway leading to a more beautiful courtyard. It even has its own marketplace, where local traders set up their wares in a private Harvey Nicks for the women of the harem.
We gaze in vain through the mist for a view of the Taj from the quarters where its creator Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his own son to stop him squandering the family fortune on a matching black one.
Day 6
No mistaking it today. I've got the dreaded Delhi belly and just in time for our 17 hour train ride to Bombay (2000 Rs approx). The train is an air-conditioned sleeper, so I take a double dose of Immodium and pray I can sleep through it. Crawling into my bunk and refusing all food (included in the ticket price and very good, apparently) I long for Bombay...
Day 7
And in Bombay I long for Battersea. Cruising into the city, now renamed Mumbai, as dawn breaks, we pass the kind of slums you hoped didn't exist. Toddlers play inches from the railtracks, while their parents complete their morning ablutions in full view of the commuters. It becomes clear that every pile of plastic bags and rags is someone's des res, and yet the women who emerge from them look as elegant in their saris as the ladies who lunch in New Delhi. Which is more than can be said for me. Travelling with a squitty partner is a true test of dedication but Guy passed with flying colours when he actually stuck his hands out and caught my vomit to save my favourite trousers!
At Bombay Central, we grab a taxi to the nearest hotel so that I can nurse myself in peace. Driving along Marine Drive I am strangely reminded of Los Angeles. With cows. Twelve long hours later, it is time for us to catch the catamaran down the coast to Goa (£35 approx). It's midnight, the sea's rough, and I'm trying to sleep with my face in a sick bag when a one-man band sets up in front of the emergency exit and belts out "I just called to say I love you" and a variety of Hindi classics, to the accompaniment of some weak clapping and a lot of genuine retching.
Day 8
After Bombay, Goa seems like paradise. Dumping our bags at the hotel, we run straight into the sea and the horror of 10 hours glued to a sick bag is quickly washed away.
There's a beach for everybody in Goa. From the busy Med-style golden sands of Candolim, Calangute and Baga, where you can try parascending (800 Rs) or hire a jet ski, to tranquil Colva in the south, and the cows' favourite, rocky Vagator in the north. On Wednesday we take an auto-rickshaw (6 Rs per km) to the flea market at Anjuna to stock up on gifts and watch the amazing side shows. Rumour has it someone is juggling a baby on a pole...
Day 15
One hour by plane to Cochin in Kerala (£35 approx). Kerala means "Land of the Coconut" and it's easy to see why. From Cochin, a city where India meets Portugal meets China, we take a trip into the beautiful backwaters where cormorants and eagles vie with the locals for fish. At the harbour you can pick your dinner straight from a boat and eat it on the sea-wall under the jealous eyes of a hundred cats.
Day 18
Next, a real Robinson Crusoe experience. Lakshadweep is a small archipelago of coral islands off the west coast of India, of which only one, Bangaram, is open to foreign visitors. Flying there from Cochin on a tiny eight-seater plane (£200 approx), I look forward to doing nothing but sun myself or swim. I'm working hard on my tan when I'm dragged from my hammock by diving instructor Sikandar. Luckily there's no comparison between Crystal Palace pool and diving on a real reef, with real fish, including bright clown fish and parrot fish big as dinner plates. Seven days in paradise end with a dawn trip back to the mainland, for the first part of which we are accompanied by giant turtles.
Day 26
To Kovalam in Kerala, where we spend our last night in India listening to a local band run through Guns and Roses tracks in a beach shacks. The shack next door is showing a video of Titanic, not yet out in the UK. Chatting to Leo from Brixton who has just started a six month stay, I sip a Kingfisher beer thoughtfully and wonder how I can do the same...
Palace of the Winds, Jaipur.
Guess where...?.
Chris, on Bangaram Island. The fact that the boat is leaving without her is just starting to dawn.
Getting Around: If there are two or more of you, it's well worth booking your own personal taxi and driver for a few days. Though incredibly cheap, bus rides are not for the faint-hearted. We travelled with Kumar Tours of Delhi (Fax 00 91 11 3755 121).
Great food: You can stuff yourself silly for less than a quid. Try butter dhal and chappatis for lunch (30 - 60 Rs) with sticky gulab jamun for afters. Goa and Kerala are great for sea-food. Try the Mish Mar beach hut on Majorda Beach, South Goa for really friendly service. The seriously home-sick can find Wimpy, Pizza Hut and Pizza Express in Connaught Place, Delhi.
Shopping: India is a bargain hunter's paradise. You can find beautiful fabrics, especially sari silks, in just about every town and get a favourite dress copied in an hour by a tailor on Kovalam beach. In Goa don't miss the Anjuna flea-market, every Wednesday, for some serious bargains and a taste of Goa's hippy haven past.
Places to stay: It's easy to find somewhere cheap to stay in India. We particularly recommend The Holiday Beach Resort in Candolim, Goa (India 00 91 832 27 6088), just a few steps from the beach, with a pool and restaurant/bar serving the best pina coladas outside Rio.
Watch out for: mosquitoes and the squits. Vital India equipment includes Immodium, for diarrhoea attacks, rehydration salts (try Dioralyte) and anti-malaria tablets. Talk to your doctor about the jabs you will need before you go.
Our travel arrangements were made by Ravi at Goa Way (0171 224 3344). Flights to Goa from £299.00 sterling plus tax, accommodation from £45.00 per week. Special thanks to David of the Davidair travel agency in Fort Aguada Road, Candolim for making us feel so welcome in Goa.
©Chris Manby, 1999