India is not an easy country to visit. It’s a land with some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, yet its towns and cities can be eyesores. It’s rich in magical experiences but awash with the most terrible poverty. It fascinates and appals at the same time. No wonder I approached our two…
Category: Asia
Udaipur, lakes and lavish palaces
The lakeside city of Udaipur has one of the most beautiful settings in all of India, nestled among the hills and waterways of the Aravalli Range. With its glorious, dream-like palaces and magical sunsets, it was perhaps inevitable that it would one day be featured in a James Bond film. And sure enough, back in…
Ranakpur and an Indian road trip
It goes without saying that India is vast. Travelling from one city to another involves hours and hours of travel, with lots of hassle thrown in. By the time we’d settled into our second week we’d travelled by plane and train, so it was time for the automobile to take a bow. Hiring a driver…
Exploring Jodhpur’s mighty Mehrangarh Fort
Set on a massive volcanic outcrop 400ft above the city of Jodhpur, Mehrangarh Fort is unmissable. It’s one of India’s greatest monuments, an imposing complex of palaces and fortifications that would’ve impressed and intimidated the friends and enemies of the ruling family. It was built in the 15th century by Rao Jodha, the then ruler…
Jodhpur – Rajasthan’s jewel of a city
Jodhpur is the fabled blue city of Rajasthan, its skyline dominated by the mighty fortress of Mehrangarh. After the chaos of Delhi and Agra, it offered a slower pace of life, warmer climes, fascinating history and a friendly vibe. Of all the cities we visited, Jodhpur was my favourite. We flew down from the capital…
A trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal
Agra is dirty, full of litter and shambolic, yet it’s home to the world’s most beautiful building – the Taj Mahal – and a spectacular Mughal-era fort. We couldn’t go all the way to India and not visit Shah Jahan’s monument to love but we almost didn’t make it because our Graham woke on the…
The temples and gardens of New Delhi
Delhi assaults the senses. It’s polluted, noisy, smelly and can look as rough as fuck but just when you think you can’t take it anymore, there are glorious gardens and majestic temples that restore one’s faith in the city. Many are in the districts to the south of the historic centre, in New Delhi, Mehrauli…
The drama of Old Delhi
The New Delhi of British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker is green and orderly, with wide boulevards, Raj-era government buildings and substantial colonial bungalows. It couldn’t be more different to historic Old Delhi. Situated just a few miles north of the showpiece architecture of the Raj, Old Delhi was built on the orders of…
Exploring Singapore’s Chinatown
I’ve been to good museums and bad, but among the best have been the ones that reveal what life was like for the poorest of the poor back when the Georgian and Victorian rich were living the high life. There’s the excellent Tenement Museum in New York, for example, which offers a compelling account of how poor…
Singapore’s glorious gardens and luxury hotels
We could never be accused of taking it easy. On just one sweaty Singapore day we visited the Botanic Gardens, tucked into a fine afternoon tea at the legendary Raffles Hotel and spent an evening gambling at one of the city’s most extravagant new destinations, the Marina Bay Sands. It was another hot and humid day so it was a…
Singapore’s National Museum and Fort Canning Park
There’s variety in Singapore’s weather. One minute it’s hot and sunny, the next there are downpours and crashes of thunder. On the day we were planning to visit the Botanic Gardens, it chucked it down and the buildings we’d got used to seeing from our bedroom window were lost in the murk. So we opted for the National…
Exploring Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore
There’s something ridiculous about going for a walk in a hilly Singapore nature reserve when the weather is so hot and humid. But we were never going to find out much about the country jumping from one air-conditioned building to another. So visiting the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve stayed on our list of things to do. However, our planned trip to…
Singapore’s stunning Gardens by the Bay
Singapore has spent a fortune making itself a city in a garden rather than a city with gardens. And one of the stars of the transformation is the amazing Gardens by the Bay. It’s the city-state’s answer to the Eden Project in Cornwall, but on an even grander scale, and it was top of my list…
First class to Singapore and Little India
As upgrades go, it couldn’t be better. Arriving at Heathrow for our business class flights to Singapore, we were told by the check-in assistant that we were going to be enjoying the 13-hour flight in First instead. I could hardly believe our luck! With better food, better champagne and a better bed, it was going to…
Japan: From Kyoto to London
The long journey home is invariably the worst part of any holiday. But this particular one promised to be more arduous than most, in part because we really didn’t want to leave Japan. With a planned morning departure from Narita Airport – situated well to the east of Tokyo – there was no way we’d…