Time for takeoff India 2025, Maharashtra Tour. First stop The World Heritage site, Ajanta caves. But how to get there? Well a few firsts first. First time I’d been to Munich (admittedly just the airport), then first time on the huge Airbus double decker, A380 and first time Premium Economy (even though I’d flown Business class a few times!). So I arrived in New Delhi at 1am, a few hours kip before the last legs, a 4am flight to Aurangabad…
So I got the overnight train from Hubli to Goa. My ticket was to the end of the line – Vasco da Gama station arriving at 6am. However, I utilised a top tech tip that had been a real boon on this trip. Maybe not so new to more tech savvy readers, but this India trip was the first one I had made really good use of google maps on my phone. I could have been completely lost but when…
Unlike most people’s conceptions of India, there are plenty of areas with a thinly spread population. Northern Karnataka is one such place. Subsequently public transport is rather sporadic, something I had already experienced. So for my next leg I decided to splurge 3500Rs (£35) on renting a car (with driver) for the 150km/4hr trip to Hampi. The first part of the trip was along narrow potholed roads across agricultural land – mainly sugarcane but also jowari which I found out…
My previous post starts with the problem of getting a bus from Bidar to Bijapur and the fickleness of non existent timetables. this post will be no different. the previous day I’d been told there was a bus from Bijapur to Badami at 6.45am. Arriving at the station at the appointed time I was then told there was no direct bus but I had to get the 6.45 bus to Kerur and change there. That would arrive at platform 4….
Sun 19th Feb 2023. I was up and about early and off to the bus station. I’ve often found in the remoter parts of India, bus timetables are a fickle thing. The guidebook may say one thing, people at the bus station say another and then the actual buses confound them both. Today I was told there was a bus to Bijapur at 9.30 but someone else said it was better to get the bus to Gulbarga and change there….
After a four year hiatus, I was back in India. This time, I was to explore northern Karnataka concentrating on the architecture of the Deccanni sultanates and the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, finishing up with a few days in Goa. First up was Bidar, now a small town in the middle of nowhere but formerly the capital of a great Muslim kingdom of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a bit of trek to get there because as it…
My latest trip to India was almost at an end. I was up early and checked out of the hotel, the Bundi streets were strangely quiet first thing in the morning, as was the station, but the buses were still running and I managed to catch one to Jaipur just as it was leaving. The roads were surprisingly quiet as well so it only took four hours rather than the five and a half I was expecting. Jaipur and its…
Getting the bus from Udaipur to Chittorgarh was no problem. Semi-deluxe, that’s a laugh but I got a seat. The journey was pretty boring, just views of major road works everywhere and dust. The station in Chittorgarh is across the river from the old town so I managed to avoid the trishaw drivers and just walked across the bridge observing the hill fort in the distance. I found my designated hotel, Hotel Ganesh, pretty easily. Their website describes it as the best…
The beautiful lakeside town of Udaipur is supposed to be one of the most romantic places in the world and a travellers’ favourite. I was about to find out. The seven hour bus journey from Jodhpur wasn’t too bad. The station is in the modern, eastern end of the town but soon I was headed by rickshaw into the old town cum tourist centre attractively situated next to shimmering lake pichola. My chosen hotel, the Little Prince Heritage Home, was on…
My 1994 trip to India took in the entire Western side of the country, but I only managed a day in Jodhpur. This time (Feb 19) I was going a bit deeper. I was spending a couple of weeks in Rajasthan and four nights in Jodhpur. The hotel was certainly a bit more expensive. I noted in my diary that it had cost me one pound! This time I stayed in the much more salubrious but still fairly cheap and…