Every day brought a new favourite curry

We are really at the end as I sit here at 01:00 Indian time at Delhi airport waiting for our flight to Heathrow. The three weeks have flown by, literally as we now find we have “frequent flyer” status with Air India/Vistara having taken five internal flights so that we merited an upgrade on two. Whilst we have only had one more stop than our recent trip to Italy, India is a huge country and if you don’t want to confine yourself to a single area then you have to accept that there will be a lot of travelling. We only really had three long days of driving, one of which was after a flight and one was broken up with sightseeing stops. We were fortunate that we had a large Toyota MPV for the two of us which was comfortable and we could stop when we wanted. We knew we’d packed a huge amount into our time and “front loaded“ the first two weeks with the majority of the hardwork leaving the last week as the great unwind. Reflecting now at the end, yes it was worth it as the south is so completely different to the north and we would certainly have missed out if we’d spent the whole of our three weeks more leisurely in the North. However there were a couple of days when we questioned it at the time. On top of the travelling and the tours, there was the heat and a barrage of information that we were fed from dawn to dusk. I can’t remember which Maharaja or Mughal Emperor was which, which is why I’ve written some of the basic stuff down to bore you with! It has inspired me to read up in more detail, although the finer details of the Hindu and Moslem royal lineage is unlikely to be retained. There is no doubt our guides were excellent, knowledgeable and helped make the holiday. However I am sceptical about some of the more anecdotal information they gave us. For example we were told that Vasco da Gama died of gonorrhoea. Various internet articles cite different causes – malaria, overwork and “unnamed illness”. Gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted diseases are of course a possible cause of death and could be the “unnamed illness” and I suppose if anyone is likely to know, it is the population of Kochi which is where he died. But take some of what I have told you with a pinch of salt.

We have stayed at some fabulous hotels and we can’t fault any of them. Our hotel in Delhi even had chairs for handbags – I thought they were magazine racks until someone placed their handbag on it. I was thinking of asking for one for my camera bag but I’m not sure that would have gone down too well🤣. Shower of the holiday award goes to our last stop at the Niraamaya wellness resort in Kumarakarom. Not only was it powerful with copious amounts of hot water, it was easily big enough for a party of 18. We had tried to stay at only Indian hotels but unfortunately as we arrived just before Diwali there was limited availability at some of the places as it was a national holiday and in particular in Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur many Indians were on a pilgrimage. At these places we stayed in three different multinationals. They were by far our least favourite hotels. Whilst there was nothing wrong with them, they lacked authenticity and the “feel of India”, and the service was not as good and some times even poor. Labour is cheap here and the Indian hotels were very well staffed and this contributed to their better level of service and feel. We couldn’t lift a finger and Steven wasn’t even allowed to make his own toast in the morning! The Indian hotels also tended to serve complimentary afternoon tea, Indian style. No cucumber sandwiches but plenty of savoury Indian snacks and sweet treats and of course copious amounts of Indian tea, and coffee when asked for. I have no idea why some of the hotels had bathroom scales. I didn’t need to weigh our suitcases and I certainly didn’t need to weigh myself – I have clothes that are telling me exactly how much weight I have gained.

This was always going to be an “experience” and the colour, noise and culture made it a very different but enjoyable and memorable one. And that was the point of the trip. The Indians are so friendly, warm and welcoming, so helpful, polite and hospitable. I suspect that has a lot to do with their faith and I now understand a lot more about Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Jainism than I did before and this trip just reinforced my belief that we have more in common that should unite us, rather than divide us. As Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism the people in Vietnam are very similar and genteel. But whilst the traffic is similarly chaotic, Vietnam just feels so much quieter and generally there isn’t the colour and vibrancy there is here. Italy was a holiday more about the places than the people and whilst we’ve seen some amazing places here, the people are intrinsic to the essence of India and I hope I’ve done them justice in my photos.

We didn’t walk around on our own as much as other holidays although we never felt unsafe or threatened. It was more to do with a full itinerary and being chauffeured everywhere. Yes Delhi and some other towns in the north have many beggars but it is possible to walk and avoid them if you know where to go. Our biggest problem was that we look so different that we were forever being stopped just so people could say hello, ask us where we were from and then if we knew random English people some of whom I’d never heard of, and then have their photo taken with us. I suspect we are secret internet sensations and Facebook is littered with photos of us travelling round India. Having been told we were insane for using the Tuk Tuk originally in Delhi we quickly moved onto Uber and used them extensively throughout the country ferrying us between hotel and our chosen restaurant. We never paid more than £2.50 per journey, and that included the tip.

Having mentioned the beggars that leads me on to the poverty. For some that is a reason to not visit this country. We have never seen poverty like this. We cannot believe that anyone would fail to be touched and appalled and would not want to help and give money, especially to the children. But your head has to rule your heart. Our guides confirmed the exploitation of children and the disabled and told us if anything we should give packets of biscuits to the children. We saw at first hand what happens when a tourist gives money to one beggar but not to others. She was surrounded by those she didn’t give to and they started to put their hands on her to persuade her. But it’s not just the beggars. I was more affected by the large numbers of families just living at the side of the road, particularly in Delhi and especially near Government hospitals. Their home is a tiny patch of ground demarcated by some towels/material, bags and sticks. Their children play in front of this which is effectively the bicycle/motorbike lane into which numerous cars swerve at speed. And then the cows just meander in and out at will. This was worse than the Dharavi and any of the scores of ramshackle ruined buildings filled with peoples’ “homes”. ‘Driving round India you see endless handcarts selling fruit, vegetables and even shoes and other household goods, many near these homeless people. Initially I wondered how they all made a living, but then I realised if you don’t have a home or you have a tiny 10 sq m home as in Dharavi, then you don’t have anywhere to store food and certainly not space for a fridge. You buy for each meal as you use it. They aren’t the only people that buy from handcarts as many workers stop on their way home, but the number of handcarts did seem to be largest in the poorest areas.

We mustn’t confuse those with traditional ways of life with the homeless in the cities. Yes they may use cow dung patties for fuel and for insulation but they have homes and have an income working as farmers, labourers, cleaners etc etc. It’s hard manual work and it doesn’t pay well and their life, to us, simple. They have access to education and hospitals, although I’m unsure about the water supply and basic hygiene in all areas. It was explained to us that they test the quality of the milk by dipping a hand in and see how much of the milk protein sticks to their hand as they pull it out before they agree to buy it. A single full size churn could have 100 of these “tests” a day. I was impressed about the public health messages about Covid even in some of the remotest areas we saw. They live in villages with an incredible sense of community and most now have electricity and particularly the younger generation now have mobile phones and travel by scooter or motorbike. As they have benefited from some of our modern innovations would the complexity of our world benefit from some of the simplicity of theirs?

As you will have gathered India is rapidly modernising. There is building work everywhere – massive infrastructure projects not just in the major cities but road expansion/upgrading on all the routes we travelled. This is probably the most rapidly modernising country in the world. It’s not just about the shiny glass skyscrapers, look at the modernisation that is coming to tribes like the Bishnoi. They are managing to integrate modernisation with their traditional way of life as they reap the financial benefits of tourism. There is no state financial support for individuals other than government schools and hospitals and as modernisation and “gentrification” continues in the big cities and the ramshackle, no doubt dangerous homes to literally thousands disappear, then I do wonder where all the vulnerable people living there are going to end up. We were told about educational initiatives (door step schools) and we saw first hand evidence of upward social mobility. Not just our tour guide in the Dharavi but our driver of the whole of the North. He comes from a small village and his father cannot read or write and his signature is his thumb print. He keeps and tends water buffalo trading in them and their milk. Yet his son speaks excellent English, has a good job as a driver for a tour company and sends his two children to a private school. Every one of our guides and drivers told us that at least one of their children wanted to be a computer engineer. No doctors or lawyers, thank goodness.

With all this modernisation comes traffic, and noise, and chaos. One of our guides told us that when they were learning to drive they were told that 1 in 2 people break the rules of driving and they could choose which type of driver they would be. It didn’t really matter which they were as long as they were vigilant to avoid the other type of driver and they learnt the language and art of blowing the horn! On the road there are huge numbers of every type of vehicle and on the inside lane they aren’t all necessarily going in the same direction. No wonder written on the back of virtually every tuk tuk and van/lorry is “blow horn”. It doesn’t matter if the brakes aren’t working as long as the horn works! Whilst the bright green and yellow Tuk tuks add to the vibrancy they tend to frustrate the other drivers as they go relatively slowly by comparison, although it feels perilously fast when you are in them. So people just weave around each other, aiming for any patch of space. You can overtake from any lane with no need to use indicators. Lane markings are completely ignored and there is always one more lane of traffic than there are lanes marked on the road, as the “actual” inside lane is half off the road where the food stalls etc are. Then throw into the mix that a motorbike or scooter may contain a family of up to five. On more than one occasion I saw a mother with two small children/babies one on each knee at the back, her husband in front and in front of him an an older child standing astride the scooter/motor bike holding onto the middle of the handle bars. Don’t even ask about the helmets. I’ve seen 14 people in a tuk tuk, four children were in the parcel shelf at the back on the outside of the vehicle. Then there are the “double decker” coaches, where the upper deck§ is the roof. People just stand on the outside of trucks at the back holding on. These are not exceptions. This is all the norm and is part of the honking, swerving tsunami of traffic. And then there are the cows who are completely oblivious to all of this and just meander at will. Despite all of this we have only passed two accidents. Don’t think the markets are any better – same vehicles minus the lorries, but on very narrow streets. There is no pavement and the street is paved only with rubbish. Occasionally there were open manhole covers, and when the diameter of the manhole is 3 – 4 feet that is a liability, especially if you are a tourist looking at all the market stalls and not at the road!! The markets tend to have more cows because of all the food and we were advised not to wear open shoes in India for good reason.

Travelling by car helped slightly in avoiding the smog and air pollution, particularly in Delhi and other cities in the north. We kept being told it was due to the firecrackers and the burning of sandalwood for Diwali but it started before Diwalli and persisted long after. It’s actually due to the burning of the stubble from the paddy fields, with an extra contribution from all of that and the traffic. All rickshaws are electric and the tuk tuks run on compressed gas and there is an infrastructure for charging electric cars in Delhi and Mumbai that possibly puts the UK to shame. However the sheer volume of traffic especially of old and some illegal cars makes any other initiative pale into insignificance. Still at least it’s a start. The pollution affected my eyes more than anything but also left us with a slight dry throat. Large cities had neon information signs giving a breakdown of the air quality but it was quite amusing to see “pollution testing” centres in some of the villages that we drove through. None of them were open and they looked like decrepit old dodgy garages to me.

India prides itself on being a very inclusive and truly multicultural country and its national flag was designed to reflect that. Hinduism is the saffron stripe, Islam the green stripe and Jainism the white. Buddhism is represented by the Ashoka Chakra (24 spoke wheel) in navy blue in the centre. As I mentioned in one of my posts, we found this to be generally true with Hindus, Moslems and in the south Christians all living side by side in what appears to be harmony. There was nothing but respect to India’s Jewish history, and to us. I accept that we saw a very carefully selected tiny proportion of India and its people but given events in the middle east at the moment it could have cropped up in conversation more than it did. We cannot say that recent events spoiled our holiday. They didn’t and as I predicted before we set off, we’ve had an amazing time. I also said that I felt guilty about going away at this time and that was accentuated as we both independently checked our various news sources twice daily and it is with pride and gratitude that we saw so many of our friends and their families play their part in the British and Israeli response whilst we could only read on.

Finally, one might not think that there are any similarities between Italy and India. Having been fortunate enough to go to both this year we can say with certainty that they have one very important thing in common – they both certainly know how to cook their carbohydrates. So as we come towards the end of our reflections I think it’s time I address this properly as there appears to have been a dearth of comments so far. Completely out of character for me given my love for all things edible and curry in particular. Well we’ve made it the whole three weeks without any untoward incidents at all. Not even a hint of the famous “Delhi belly”. That Imodium can be passed on unopened to the next intrepid traveller. India is a dream for vegetarians. We avoided street food no matter how tempting it looked, apart from on our official guided street food tour. We were happy to drink hotel/restaurant purified water when available rather than formal bottled water. We chose to eat out at local restaurants as much as possible as we wanted to experience the real India by venturing out each night. We only really “ate in” on Friday night, at our last stay in Kumarakom and the night of the Cricket World Cup final when we couldn’t get an Uber driver for love nor money! Using recommendations from our guides/drivers and the “Happy Cow” app we have not gone wrong. Some of the places have been really small and “rustic” and in England we would never go anywhere near them, but they have had some of the best food. We have tried different dishes in each place and I’ve even tried Indian dishes at breakfast. No I can’t remember the name of them all, but I can say we haven’t had a bad meal. My most recent favourite is a typical Keralan main dish we had on the houseboat – pineapple pullisery where the sweetness and the tang of the pineapple are both brought out by the clever use of spices. And shock horror kids, you’ll need to sit down for this. Steven has eaten all his vegetables including cauliflower, green beans, okra and bright green spinach curries to name but a few and wiped his plate clean at every meal. We have really eaten like royalty and whilst it’s not about the money, one of the best meals we had cost £6.50 incl tax, tip and two 1 litre bottles of water.

Before we sign off it would be remiss of me if I didn’t update you on some of our immensely important holiday challenges and say a quick thank you:

• Isaacs v mosquito – resounding victory for Isaacs, thanks to “Incognito anti mosquito” products. Not one nibble and no dissolved plastic (v “Deet”)
• Fridge magnets – delighted that they aren’t really touristy enough here for these, but I managed to complete the collection with the missing Delhi magnet just now at the airport.
• Thank you to Bhavin Pabari from Rickshaw Travels (the final ‘s’ is really important) for arranging such a superb trip and being a delight to deal with. We were looked after superbly in England and more importantly in India. Highly recommended to everyone.

We can now board the plane. Our adventure in a truly incredible India is complete.