India travelogue 1996 part 2

Then to Lucknow to see the old British residency. Beginning place of the 'Indian Revolution' a spooky ruin. The cannon ball shelled gateway and all.

Then I took the daytime train to Varanasi. This place is a 'must see' like the Taj. A city on the river Ganges with the ghats leading down to the water. Unfortunately I never took a picture of it. There is something about seeing the Ganges for the first time for sure.

My favourite place to eat here was the 'Aces New Deal Restaurant' not only because the food was good but because the owner was mad. His daft Basil Faulty esque running of the place kept me quietly amused.

Only cycle rickshaws are allowed closer into the ghats. So a motor rickshaw will quote you a price and then half way there say he can go no further. Then you pay again for a cycle rickshaw!

Booking a way out was very hard. There was a tourist quota on the trains but the tourist lounge was always packed. I went to a travel agent in the end who did all the hard work for me. Got a daytime train 12 hour journey away. I was pretty tired in Varanasi and didn’t see that much of it but for walking the ghats a bit. Most of my time was spent trying to book some form of transport away.

The next stop was Patna. A town with a very British feel to it, and the best museum I saw in India. A good place to walk around and see the Ganges again. The railway retiring rooms were a great place to stay, very British Raj, and excellent mosquito nets. The view of the Ganges from on top of the Golghar (grain store) was great. Patna was quite nice really, the restaurant I ate in was super dark inside, which was a trendy thing in India at the time.

It was tricky to get away. There was no tourist quota on the trains. In the end I booked a lux bus for Silligri the closest stop for Darjeeling.

Darjeeling: you can go up the hill to Darjeeling from Silligri on the toy train, a small stream train. But it takes 10 hours or so! Less romantic but far quicker you can take a bus which takes 3 hours. Arriving after a 12 hour bus ride on very bumpy roads at 6.30am I was in no mood for a slow climb up the hill.

Darjeeling was my ultimate destination and I spent 2 weeks here. A sort of holiday within a holiday. It fulfilled all my expectations and more, was a really nice place in the hills, with very British overtones and lots of tea! Sipping tea with a fresh cake at Genarys Tea Rooms was superb. The Botanical Gardens were a quiet oasis with many types of tree and a wonderful glass house. The natural history museum was a collection of moth eaten stuffed animals. The town was great for walking around and being amazed at scenery and old British architecture. It is also a good idea to tell yourself not to buy too many books here! My favourite restaurant was the Dekevas restaurant. They did great breakfasts and it was a really cozy place to relax before a day exploring. 

Snow Leopards: I sew them at the 'special' part of the Zoo. As the actual Zoo was too harrowing for me, with Indians teasing animals and some cramped conditions. The Snow Leopards had their own part of the Zoo a little distance away and had a permanent caretaker. I was lucky and at the time there were young cubs. They say that they are disinclined to breed, so I think I was lucky to see them. At one point I heard someone doing very bad cat meow impressions, until I realised it was a Snow Leopard meowing. They say that Snow Leopards in captivity lose their spark, but the ones here were certainly in high spirits gambling about and having cat style games with each other.

The Windamere Hotel was for posh people. The Gymkhana Club for the faded Raj feel. Oxford Book Store still stocking a good selection.

They had 'strikes' when I was there. All the shops close and you cannot get any food.

The Shamrock hotel was wooden and not that cold compared to the concrete one I stayed in at first.

It was my 26th birthday when I was in Darjeeling and on that day I felt my first wisdom tooth coming though. I was also very ill with bum troubles, I think I got Ghadia in Goa and was still suffering in Darjeeling, I felt so bad it was a close thing me even getting to the Snow Leopards. On my birthday I treated myself to a day’s membership of the Gymkhana Club. Interesting, though not much to do: an empty ballroom, empty tennis courts and some ancient roller-skates. The library was interesting and I had my second ever Club Sandwich. In the evening I had a mixed grill and Genarys. The Ghadia loved that. 

To get away I avoided that toy train and went down to Silligri on the bus, from there I took the train as I was advised that the roads were too bad for the busses, and it would be a journey from hell. The night train took 12 hours to Calcutta.

Darjeeling was the place I wanted to see most in India and it was certainly worth it.

I got to Calcutta (was there before they renamed it) and as the train came into the city it was rush hour. Quite something to see fast commuter trains with people clinging to the outsides of the carriages.

Calcutta, was a nice city. The British 'Victoria Memorial' was pretentious nonsense, but a nice building all the same, the 'Lonely Planet' suggested they were tying to build a better Taj 

To get away, I was a bit fed up, and I just wanted to get back to Goa a.s.a.p. I bought a ticket for the Coromandal Express 2nd class air con for an easy ride for 28 hours cutting out an awful lot of distance in one go. I missed a lot of east coast, I know, but i was getting tired after 2/3 months travel.

In Madras (again, this was before they called it Chenai) I was in and out very quickly, so I can’t say much. I arrived at 5:30pm, booked a lux bus and was out by 10:30pm

Bangalore was very cosmopolitan and has an English language cinema and a KFC. There were also many really nice and almost gone wild parks. It was nice back in 1996, but I went back many years later and it was a very busy place (2013) with hordes of webdesigners on motorbikes.

I got away on a night lux bus to Panaji and motorbike taxi into Anjuna took 15 hours. Back in Goa, from Calcutta to Anjuna it took me 5 days! Whereas going the other way had taken just under three months.

Bombay (it wasn’t called Mumbai when I was there in 1996). On my first visit to India I flew back to Bombay to then got my flight home, but the second time I fancied trying the bus. Taking a night bus fitted with bunks for 17 hours which leaves from Mapusa. Arriving at the Colaba Causeway to hang around until the evening. The Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel to look at made an interesting day. In-fact it was nice back then at Colaba. Before my flight home I took a taxi to the airport, (as usual) beating the taxi drivers down on the price. That journey from Colaba to the airport was one of the journeys of my life. The road cuts along by the bays on which buildings thrust out into the sea. At night with the lights reflecting on the water of the bays it was an amazing sight. Then you’d come into the populated areas each time with swarming humanity and a unique Inida vibe.

2024 note: I have been back to India several times again over the years, it has changed there a lot.

You can see pictures of this trip at my website

This trip greatly inspired my novels Burning Wolfhound and Codename Wolfhound and I used my India knowledge to a great extent in those books.