Delhi days – the final countdown
It’s hot and the pollution is thick as Vegemite back in Delhi and it’s only 6am. Love a good start to the day. Delhi’s main train station is doubling as […]
NOTEBOOK
Canter past Patagonian icefields. Sail the tranquil waters of Lake Como in Italy. Sip coffee in a Palestinian village. Listen to the ancient voices of Australia’s Arnhem Land. Climb the mountain paths of northern Albania. Let’s go!
Stuck at the Jammu railway station
From first glance, there’s not a whole lot going for Jammu, one of the main towns of the northern Indian region of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The areas around railway […]
Pony trekking in Kashmir
Unfortunately, there is rather more trekking and far less pony action that I’d hoped on this pony trek in the Kashmir valley. Not too early this morning, after a small […]
A quick drive in the Kashmir Valley
So we’re in the jeep gunning it to the hiking trailhead of Naranagh, in central Kashmir. We are: my guide, Salim, the driver Daba and a small white chicken from […]
Kashmir pyjamas, punts and politics
The safety announcements were in one language only, and it wasn’t mine. And there are no other blondies on the plane. Praps they’re all going on the direct flights to […]
Delhi traffic and books I should have read
I was stuck in traffic. Nothing new in Delhi. The city is plagued by traffic jams of epic proportions. Perhaps not as bad as Cairo, where midnight traffic jams are […]
Cow pats and incense
“Why is it that every foreigner goes to Varanasi?” a well-travelled Delhi local asked me. At the time, I was in the car going to the airport. “Beats me, I’ll […]
Cows and holy men: Varanasi
“You haven’t been to India until you’ve been to Varanasi,” a well-heeled woman told me last week. “After that, everything is India Lite.” Varanasi is India’s most holy city. Lord […]
Life in the slow lane…in Delhi
“Breathe in, stretch up. Breathe out, palms on the ground.” Rajneesh is taking me through morning yoga by the mirror-like 50-meter pool that stretches out along the ground level of […]
Divine intervention: don’t kill your television
What’s on Indian TV tonight? Veging out to Cory Feldman killing vampires, I flick the channel to find lots of ads for Fair & Lovely face-bleaching creams, news of the […]