Kanyakumari, the most southerly point of the Indian mainland. We arrived late so we didn’t see much of the town until the morning sunrise. We took this shot from our room:

We went out to explore the town and were pleasantly surprised by how pretty it was:

These two islands sit just off the shoreline, the one on the right sports a statue of the poet Thiruvalluvar who was apparently born in Kanyakumari. Surprisingly no-one has any real idea when he was born, dates range from the 1st century BC to the 8th century AD. The statue looks old but was actually opened to the public on January 1st, 2000:

The town is still a working fishing port:

This little dog came running up to us as we were walking along the front, he was a cute little thing desperate for attention:

Several of the houses were really pretty:

as were the local games:

 Sumeet – recognise it?

Except for the game we could easily have been in Cornwall but as we left the coast we were bluntly reminded that we were in India:

The Kanyakumari highlight for us was the temple on the seafront. From the outside it’s a long low building painted with red and white vertical stripes. From the inside it’s a three thousand year old work of art. Beautiful carved stone pillars, fabulous shrines, hundreds of people following their various religious rituals. It was a very calming place. Unfortunately photos were not allowed 😦

Having reached the end of the world we turned north again for Varkala. Along the way (just 13km from Kanyakumari) we stopped at a small town with another splendid temple, the Suchindram temple. This temple had a 40m high entrance way known as a “Gopuram”:

The feel of the temple was just like the one in Kanyakumari, these are living temples full of believers. The last time we saw such constant activity was at the Golden temple in Amritsar. It makes quite a contrast to a visit to an Anglican church!

Next to the temple was a large pool with separate bathing steps for men and women:

The temple attracted lots of people and the people attracted lots of stalls, if you wanted chillies you were in the right place:

After the Suchindram temple we drove on to the Padmanabhapuram Palace near the town of Thuckalay. This palace was built in 1600 and rebuilt in 1750. It is apparently a superb example of traditional Keralan architecture. We just thought it was very welcoming:

 A cluster of rooftops

 An internal courtyard

 Elephant steps

 The King’s privy and his reading chair

 Cobras carved into a stone pillar

 Curved granite slabs

 The kitchen

 The King (found in the garden)

 and the Queen!

The palace also housed a museum, there were some really interesting artefacts, this was a suit worn by people who were to receive capital punishment:

The notes didn’t explain why they had to wear the suit, presumably it was to stop them moving around and spoiling the spectacle.

There were also lots of carved stones each of which proclaimed something, the one below for example recorded the erection of a stone tub for giving drinking water to cows!

Eventually after a solid day of history we reached Varkala, here is the beach by day:

Varkala is big on sun, sea, sand, massages, restaurants, bars, stalls, yoga, and all things ayurvedic. We avoided the yoga and the ayurvedic bits, did the rest, stayed for three very pleasant nights and then left for Allepey – and the houseboats!

The road from Mysore to Munnar was always going to be interesting, we were climbing from 770m to 1600m and travelling once again through the beautiful Western Ghats. All across India we have experienced roads which offer great promise for the future but are generally “work in progress”. The roads of Karnataka were no exception:

It wasn’t long before we were in the Ghats:

and very soon afterwards we saw the almost mandatory truck accident:

There are several wildlife reserves in southern India and we seemed to drive through all of them in quick succession:

The scenery was wonderful, it would have been easy to imagine we were in Africa:

 Thuvanam Falls

Eventually we reached tea country, we found the tea plantations to be far more attractive than the coffee plantations, something to do with the vivid green of the bushes:

More hills, more accidents:

Cars going off the road is not such a surprise once you start looking closely at the tyres many of them are sporting:

We arrived in Munnar early but by the time we had detoured around height restrictions and weight restrictions it wasn’t early anymore!

Next day we went off to ride an elephant (very touristy but irresistible!):

and do a little sight-seeing:

After lunch we decided a massage would make sense. If you have been following this blog you will know we haven’t had great success with Indian massages but we decided to persevere. Bad decision!

We went again for an Ayurvedic massage (everything is Ayurvedic here, I even have Ayurvedic toothpaste!). The technique seems to be to soak you in oil and then do long sweeps from the tip of the fingers up the arm, down the torso and all the way down the leg. And repeat. And repeat. And ….

It turned out to be ninety minutes of misery. The rooms were cold. The music – what music. My masseur seemed to forget all his training and started making up new (ineffectual) moves. At one point I looked at him, he seemed to be in a trance although I think he was actually just bored! The combination of cooking oil and a very strange massage technique just didn’t work. By the end I was resolved never to have another Ayurvedic massage – and I’ll probably throw away the toothpaste!

The final part of the treatment was a steam bath. This turned out to be a steam cabinet:

 Note small hole for head and neck!

Inside was a seat which was supposed to be adjustable. Even on the lowest setting I didn’t fit in the cabinet (and I’m not tall!). I spent the next twenty minutes twisted up like a contortionist trying frantically to keep my feet away from the steam source. At one point my contortions resulted in me banging my knee against the door which brought the masseur rushing into the room looking very concerned. Anyway it’s official – that was our last Ayurvedic massage!

One very interesting thing I noticed (or not depending on your point of view) was the steam generation system for the steam cabinet. This was it:

 A hotplate and a pressure cooker!

By now we really needed to be spoilt so we went for dinner at The High Range club just outside Munnar:

This place was a blast from the past. There was no alcohol (although we did succeed in procuring some), the staff would have graced Downton Abbey and the whole feel was truly eccentric – we loved it.

Before dinner Leishia and I snuck into the Men Only bar which was undoubtedly the best room in the place, here we are:

 Poor shot but it was rushed!

Dinner was variously said to be at 7pm, 8pm and 8.30pm. It turned out to be at 8pm and was typical Indian fare, enjoyable but served at a bit of a sprint! There were just two resident guests (Nathan, an economist and his girlfriend Vanessa, a lawyer both from London) so we sat together and set the world to rights.

We were minding our own business drinking a pot of tea in the lounge after dinner when, at 9.20pm precisely, the Club Manager appeared and announced that the club closed at 9.30! So that was an enjoyable evening cut somewhat short! Despite the early finish it was certainly a memorable few hours.

The next morning we were on the road early once again driving south through the beautiful Western Ghats towards Kanyakumari. There were some great sights along the way:

 A three storey Christian shrine, prolific in S. India

 Beautiful country

 A very common sight

 A shop on wheels

 Another accident

 And another wonderful elephant!

The drive from Munnar to Kanyakumari (at the very southern tip of India) is long and especially via the scenic route we chose. Nevertheless we managed to reach the tip with daylight to spare. The last 50km stretch was amazing, we were constantly passing windmills, there were thousands of them, this is a dusk shot showing just a few:

So 120 days after arriving in India we finally made it to the southern tip, the place where the Arabian sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. We were happy!

We left Panaji, travelled south along the coast, turned inland at Mangalore and headed back into the hills, we were on our way to the coffee plantations in Coorg. Having left a little late and driven all day we decided to stop overnight at a small roadside hotel and enjoy the climb into the hills in daylight. We stopped at a village just east of Mangalore. The rooms were nothing special but the food was great:

The climb the next morning passed all too quickly punctuated only by chai and an omelette at a roadside cafe, here’s Leishia sampling the delights:

and here is our cook:

We booked into a room on a coffee plantation and enjoyed some lovely walks and  spectacular scenery:

 Coffee, almost ready!

Just outside the plantation was the Nalkand Palace (so called). A local King “Doddaveerarajendra” built the palace in 1792 in what was, at the time, a very remote jungle location so that he could hide from the British. Seems he was quite successful, he finally surrendered in 1834.

Here is the palace:

Elephants at the steps leading to the verandah:

A beautiful structure in the garden:

The palace was locked when we arrived but the caretaker appeared from nowhere and gave us a quick guided tour. As interesting as the palace was we were more taken by the little school next to it:

After a couple of days relaxing we were off again this time heading for Mysore, this was a typically Indian sight along the way:

 Washing the laundry and the car!

Our route to Mysore took us past Bylakuppe home to thousands of Tibetans who were given refuge in India after the 1959 Chinese invasion of Tibet. The area is truly Tibetan from the food to the purple and saffron robes to the prayer flags and the monasteries.

The highlight is the Namdroling monastery and the Golden Temple, the statues are very impressive. Lord Buddha sits in the centre, he is 60 feet tall. He is flanked by Guru Padmasambhava and Buddha Amitayus, both 58 feet tall:

The wall paintings around the temple are intricate and some of the detail is really strange:

Well worth a stop and reminded us of our time in Tibet.

We reached Mysore in good time and trotted off to the railway museum! Run down as it is (apparently they are building a new one) there were some great exhibits:

 Sadly only a picture!

 I still want to be a train driver if I grow up.

 The Mysore Maharani’s railway carriage.

 Her bedroom on board.

 A rail crane which apparently still works.

That was enough for one day! The next day we went to see Mysore Palace. The palace is the pride of Mysore and justifiably so:

 The entrance and the palace behind.

 The entrance at night.

 The main palace building.

 Leishia courting danger (as usual!).

Unfortunately photography was banned inside the palace which is a shame because the rooms and decor were well worth seeing. You’ll just have to imagine it or have a look at the virtual tour here:

http://www.mysorepalace.gov.in

After the palace we went to the zoo, Mysore zoo prides itself on not taking any animals from the wild. All the animals in the zoo have been rescued in one way or another or born in captivity. We especially liked the elephants:

The giraffes:

The crocodiles:

The signs:

 Dead peacock included for effect

and this particular example of Homo Sapiens spotted escaping from the zebra enclosure after he had rescued his daughter’s purse:

Good day out!

The next morning we had an early breakfast where we met Wilson and his boss Ranjiv. Wilson is the factory manager of a clothing factory, Ranjiv has a stake in a private equity firm which owns the company (30,000 employees and over 20 factories, no small concern) and is the deputy CEO. Ranjiv was apparently the Indian equivalent of Barry Sheene in his day! Here they are:

 Ranjiv (on the left) and Wilson

After breakfast we left Mysore headed for Munnar and the tea plantations but more of that next time!

So here we are on the road again!

But first please indulge me for a few moments and let me share a couple of very special pictures. The first is of our brand new Grandchildren, Samuel and Roman, both are doing well now and Samuel is home from hospital:

and the second of Toby, a good friend of ours who, twenty eight months ago, suffered a serious head injury during a cycle race which left him paralysed and in a coma. Toby and his support team have worked really hard to get him to the point where he can enjoy a little rough and tumble with his children:

 Well done Toby!

Anyway leaving England wasn’t difficult given the stark choice between wind and rain in London and sun, sun, sun in India … easy.

I came back with my luggage full of brake discs, callipers, pads, glue guns, multimeters, etc. Incoming luggage is screened at Mumbai so I wasn’t too impressed when at 1am, after two flights and a stopover in Doha, an over-eager Customs inspector decided the vehicle spares should have been shipped cargo. He passed me on to a far less eager lady who couldn’t have cared less what I had in my luggage and waved me through – which was nice 🙂

I devoted the next few days to getting Elsie sorted. She is now in the best shape she has been since we left the UK in October. Leishia devoted her time to relaxing and being spoilt – she’s in pretty good shape too!

On our last evening in Mumbai we finally met Taruna (sister of Sumeet, a very good friend of ours) and her partner Anand. They took us to a wonderful Keralan restaurant, Trishna:

 Taruna and Anand

The company was terrific and the food was so good we’ve already planned a return trip!

In the morning we left Mumbai heading south and it wasn’t long before we saw a sight which we see every day in India:

We seem to see truck accidents all the time, most of them are vehicles running into ditches beside the road or turning over. This one was carrying a load of rolled sheet metal which worked out well because they had rolled right off the road!

Perhaps the drivers would do well to pay more attention to the road signs:

There are two main routes south from Mumbai towards Goa, the first is the route 4 motorway and the second National Highway 17 (NH17). We decided to ignore both of them and instead drive down the coast wherever we could. That choice took us to some very pretty places, this the Janjira island fortress offshore from Murud Janjira:

We spent our first night at Mahad, this was the view we woke up to:

The next day we were driving through beautiful scenery for the entire day – the Sayhadri or Western Ghats, yet another of India’s thirty UNESCO world heritage sites. We loved the orchards where every tree had a separate growing area marked out by a low stone wall:

We crossed several tidal rivers:

and arrived early at our second stop at Tarkarli beach:

Tarkarli beach is several miles long with beautiful sunsets:

We left Tarkarli soon after breakfast and drove the short distance to Goa and Panjim. Panjim is a coastal town with a beautiful church:

a colourful cow:

and not much else! That said our hotel served excellent food (Goan fish curry) and was blessed with a very creative waiter. We had finished dinner and retired to our room with a cocktail leaving instructions for them to bring the bill up when it was ready. The waiter arrived with the bill which somehow had a pot of tea added on.

Me: “We didn’t have a pot of tea”. Waiter: “I can’t change the bill now Sir and I have to close my accounts”. Me: “Do you expect me to sign for a pot of tea I haven’t had?” Waiter: “No Sir, may I bring you one?”!

The next day we went to Old Goa, once the capital of the state. The churches and convents of Old Goa are a UNESCO world heritage site and are very impressive.

Leishia seemed to think it very amusing to get me to pose for a picture next to this sign which reads “A world heritage monument”:

So, to matters more serious …

These are the remains of the Church of St Augustine, a huge convent built in 1572:

And this is Leishia imagining life as a nun:

This the view from the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary:

I could drown you in pictures of churches now, but I’ll resist. Suffice to say that there are several huge and imposing churches, you’ll get the idea from these two:

 Church of Se Cathderal Church of St. Cajetan

The fascinating thing about the whole complex is that it seems entirely out of place, it really is a little piece of Portuguese culture transplanted to Goa almost five hundred years ago.

So that’s it, we’re on the road again!

Or almost it, here’s one last picture for anyone missing Leishia and her sashaying!