Here’s a short video from our descent on Darjeeling’s Toy Train:

We decided to stay in the Darjeeling Planters Club – a remnant from the colonial hey-day.  Our hotel was somewhat unchanged over the last 90 years or so – the curved concrete facade and wooden balconies wouldn’t look out of place on a Victorian sea-front.  The drafty club was packed to the rafters with all [...]

After a long and eventful journey that I’ll expand on in a moment, we have reached Darjeeling, the most eccentric and eclectic place I’ve ever visited: imagine that somebody decided to build an English seaside town 2900 metres above sea level (tea shops, shops, teddy bears, donkey rides, a bandstand, chilly weather) , then somebody else dumped India on top [...]

Since reaching Northern India numerous travellers had warned us that Agra was the least appealing city on the Golden Triangle route so, considering our feelings about Jaipur, the Taj Mahal had a lot of pressure on its beefy marble shoulders to justify our two night stop off.

That’s the anti-booze campaign slogan in many parts of India; I don’t know about family but the shenanigans of the last two days have temporarily ruined my health and James’ life since he has had to put up with me throwing up and whinging all morning.
Until we reached Jodhpur we’d been back on enforced detox in [...]

Jeannie’s got a theory about the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur ‘Golden Triangle’.  She thinks it’s called ‘golden’ due to the sweet stench of fermenting piss.  I thought she was been cynical, now I’m inclined to agree.

Forgive the frantic blogging of late, we are fed up of talking to each other and have resorted to any other means of communication. Only joking, it’s just been a busy few weeks and our rather surreal pit stop in Mumbai warrants a mention.
Following the epic train journey we arrived bang on time at 4.35am and [...]

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks – we’ve been busy exploring the wonderful green state of Kerala and Matt (my bro) has also been here for a week. We’re now sitting on a train for the next 40 hours (en route to Mumbai) so we’ve finally got time to scribble down our exciting [...]

From Varkala we moved inland to Kumily for the last few days of Matt’s visit. Kumily is a great little town, perched conveniently close to Periyar Wildlife Reserve in the beautiful, fragrant Cardamom Hills on the border of Tamil Nadu. Thanks to the proliferation of coffee, tea and spice plantations most of the town smells [...]

James has grown incoherent with rage over the Prawn Incident again so I’ve taken over. Varkala is a little seaside resort characterised by fresh seafood, beautiful red cliffs and a multitude of Sunday Times reading ‘hippies’ practicing yoga on the beach and sampling Ayurvedic medicine.