On 13 April, we flew to St Petersburg with a couple of friends, for a long weekend. On the night of our arrival, Britain, France and the USA thoughtfully arranged the bombing of Syrian targets, the proxy bombing of our hosts. In the hotel bedroom, we watched the BBC and CNN relay their take on events to the world, and to Russia. Continue reading
Travel
At the midnight temple
Indian notebook 5
We were prepared for most things. We carried a formidable medicine chest, barely used. Our digestive systems behaved. The one thing we were not prepared for was the price of alcohol or even, on several occasions, its complete absence from hotels. [read more]
Walk like a cow
Indian notebook 4
The best advice we received in India was from our guide in Mumbai. We were marooned in the central reservation, wondering how to cross a three-lane highway with fast-moving traffic and no apparent end to it. Our guide walked out casually between two cars. ‘Walk like a cow,’ she said. So we did. And then we did it everywhere else. It never failed. [read more]
3.3 million gods
Indian notebook 3
The Hindu religion has 3.3 million gods. According to the Katie Melua song, there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing. Given the rate at which China is motorising, there may soon be more Hindu gods than bicycles in Beijing. [read more]
Wherever I lay my hat
Indian notebook 2
High in the uplands of Kerala, surrounded by acres of tea plantations, sits the town of Munnar. We were visiting anyway and, prompted by a friend who grew up there and whose father was a tea planter, we searched out the High Range Club, an unreformed relic of the imperial age. In the bar, surrounded by the stuffed heads of tigers and leopards, we found her father’s hat. Anyone who was a member for 30 years or more was entitled to have their hat hung on the wall. The hats are still there, but not the culture that engendered the Club. [read more]
The world through other eyes
Indian notebook 1
Travel may broaden the mind, but tootling down to south-west France for four months a year doesn’t broaden it very much. A first visit to India, however, is a different matter. Having just returned from three weeks there, mostly in Kerala and Rajasthan, with a finale in Delhi, my senses still feel bombarded by the assault of sights and sounds and smells. Now is the time to rationalise the experience. [read more]
