Well, here we go again. Feels a bit like deja vu, except that the bags feel heavier (Peter’s rucksack is now on wheels) and I’m not sure if my knees will last. Phil and Pat, our very good friends, took us to the station, as usual, and will be looking after the house, also as usual. I once said ‘ If I ever have to use one of those wheely things, shoot me!’ – I may be made to eat my words! Both my big rucksack and the good old ‘multi-coloured bag’ have been faithful companions for over thirty years!

Friday

21.8.26 – After an event free flight, we landed just ten minutes late. We just had to get through immigration and then track down our bags. I’d forgotten about Indian bureaucracy – the amoumt of forms we needed – lots of people wandering around, looking confused, being sent to other desks to get forms to fill out and join the back of the queue again. It doesn’t help when they have dofferent names for the same form. Peter had already done the health declaration online, but the one that you have to scan is called the SDF or self declaration form. Anyway, we finally got through that and then had to go up to the Air India reservations where, after quite a bit of confusion the boss was put in charge of getting our bags back to us. The good news was that they had not gone off to Kathmandu, the bad news was that they were with Customs and that we wouldn’t have them for another two hours. We met a couple of ladies who were in a similar predicament and were shocked to hear that they had been waiting for six hours! Little did we know!

The ladies finally got their luggage back after seven hours and, after several trips to the loo – a good six hundred metres away- arriving back after my forth visit, I was relieved to see Peter trundling our belongings out of the doors. Well, at least I got my steps in!

We flagged down a taxi driver – or rather he flagged us down and we began the hairy ride though the heavy rush hour traffic – or the hustle, as Raj called it. Highly skilled at sneaking his rather large vehicle through the tiniest of gaps, Raj was looking forward to semi retirement, having graduated from a tuktuk, to an Ambassador – a big feature of Indian roads when we first came twenty years ago, but now, sadly, nowhere to be seen. Raj said that the owner had gone out of business. All the vehicles looked like new models but were almost as battered as old bangers. One thing that I noticed was the lack of cows in the streets.

We arrived at The Hotel Ajanta, which Raj described as a very nice hotel and Peter had booked as it appeared as such and had old world charm, which we like, at about 9.30. Too late to do anything much but have a bite to eat, we delayed showering until just before we got into bed – or rather onto bed, as it’s way too hot for any sort of cover, we went down to The Cafe Vagabond, an adjoining cafe – and ordered a vegetable thali between us and a couple of spicy mango cocktails – all of which were delicious. After that we forced ourselves to go out and look for somewhere to have a beer, but failed miserably. Plenty of hotels and eateries around – maybe it’s a Muslim area, Peter speculated. Exhausted we returned to the hotel, showered and flopped onto bed, the lullaby of tooting car horns sending us to sleep

Saturday

22/8/26 ‘You know we’ve missed breakfast’ said Peter. ‘I know, but I didn’t want to wake you and didn’t think that you’d mind. I’m too tired to get up now’ ‘so am I’ – I’d originally woken at about 6.30 to the sound of a woman singing followed by chant like singing of a crowd. I wondered if it was Hare Krishna, but it went on for what felt like hours, with different songs – whatever it was, it finally lulled me back to sleep.

We eventually thought that we’d better get up about 12.30, as we had a few things to do: check out the railway station, get another adapter to replace the one that was smashed when Raj picked up my camera bag upside down and plonked on the road before I was able to ask him to be careful with it, and a couple of sim cards and and the, hopefully, a spot of relaxing. After a drink in the Vagabond, we walked off in search of the railway station The Indian street was just as I’d remembered them: dirty, noisy, chaotic, smells of spicy foods, incense (no cigarette smoke this time) and sewage. We dodged the tuk tuks, cars, piles of rubbish, cooking food and sleeping bodies and made our way to the station. Still no cows, but plenty of stray dogs. We found a little shop selling phone things and bought an adapter which the man assured me was the right one, despite my being somewhat dubious. (Edit – it wasn’t!) We found the station and Peter checked that it was the right place and we were to leave on platform one the following morning and continued up the road in search of sim cards. A couple of times a chap would appear along side us and start a conversation: ‘ where are you from?’ almost always being the opener. One such gentleman by the name of Sunil joined us as he was on his way to the Metro, his shift at the railway station finished, and we told him that we had just been there. We double checked with him that we were, indeed, due to leave from platform one and he asked to see our tickets. We showed them to him and he said that we should not have ‘general quota’ as this was solely for Indian nationals, and we also needed to confirm seats (this is normal on Indian railways as we found out to our cost twenty years previously – and that was more serious as there were three of us and we were on a sleeper) but he knew of somewhere where we could sort this out. He said that they could sell us sim cards too.

Once in the office, we spoke to Salman who said that we couldn’t, as foreigners, use a general quota seat and that we would have to rebook. He said all the Amritsar trains were fully booked – even the first class tickets weren’t available. It wasn’t looking good. He said that he would do his best and that a colleague was emailing to try and get something done. Meanwhile, he ushered upstairs to see Manu, who could sort some things out for us. Manu was keen to sell us several trips, but Peter had already arranged practically everything. He told us that it would be fine and that we would be able to go ‘general quota’, and sold us a trip to a bird reserve on our return to Delhi. Sim cards were £30.00 each for 28 days of 5g. We left a few quid lighter and none-the-wiser as to what was going on with regards to the tickets, but a strange feeling of ‘being had’ came over us. Typical first day happenings – when you’re shattered from the journey and off-guard. Still – we were given a beer and shown to the restaurant over the road, which was ‘very nice restaurant’ and we were able to relax a bit, over a rather nice meal of mushroom jalfrezi and some sort of korma that i didn’t really want, but my aubergine and peanut thing was unavailable! All washed down with a couple of Kingfishers.

Then went looking for some real beer. We found it just around the corner at The Ministry of Beers. The oldest microbrewery in Delhi, founded just ten years ago and we were lucky enough to meet Sandeep, one of the co-founders. A decent range of beers from a IPA to a coffee stout are available, and obviously we had to try them all! Luckily they do a taster tray – served on a map of India.

After several of these delicious beverages we somehow managed to fall into a tuk tuk and once again collapse onto the lovely wide bed, having somehow managed to pack everything up for the early train the next day. We set both alarms for 5.30

Sunday

23/8/26 After an extremely hot and sticky night, and having looked at the time several times during the night, we both woke up about quarter past five and decided to get up then. Feeling a little fragile we showered and, as seems to be par for the course, several seconds after drying off, we were soaked again – this time in sweat.

I went down the tiny ‘room for three people’ lift, which felt more like a dumb waiter more used to delivering plates of food than a person and several heavy bags, and Peter walked down the stairs. Not only was there not enough room for both of us, but I am still extremely nervous in lifts, especially Indian ones, since getting stuck in one in Chennai twenty years ago. That, for those who don’t know or can’t remember, involved a young bellboy who was instructed by his employers to climb out of the lift (about a foot of opening was showing at the top when the doors opened) – which is an extremely dangerous thing to do. Peter was ‘quite insistant’ that he not follow his employers instructions, and told them to use the manual wheel at the top. It was such a hairy experience that I woke that night shaking and thinking that we were having an earthquake. I do not want a repeat of that experience.

I was still concerned that we would not be allowed on the train, or kicked off it. Something was bound to go wrong – but it didn’t! It all went a bit too smoothly – got a tuk tuk to take us to the station, were able to find a seat to wait the over an hour for the train – unlike in past journeys where we have had to sit on the platform floor. Got on the train and found our seats with plenty of space for our luggage. Not thrown off by guard for not being Indian. Food and drinks provided. (Delhi to Amritsar 470 km (about six hours) on the train £18.75 for both of us. This includes all these meals so far!) Train on time. Man waiting at the station with car.

A very short drive to our home for the next three nights – Ranjit’s Svaasa – the name of which means Ranjit’s breath, named after the man who owned the place, who died in his early forties of cancer in 1998. The current owner is his son, Abhi, whose great, great, great (I think!) grandfather built the mansion about 200 years ago

Well after we arrived here at this beautiful place, we showered, washed hair and slobbed around our flat – which is pretty much what it feels like! We then took a tuk tuk to the Rajit Singh Summer Palace, as it looked green on Google Maps and isn’t far away. We thought that we might find a few birds there. Also, Peter had woken up with a bad back, so had had a pretty uncomfortable journey and we thought that the walk might do him some good.

The tuk tuk driver dropped us off outside and we walked into the grounds of what looked like – and is – series of abandoned buildings in an overgrown, no doubt once beautiful garden. We are not yet in ‘going out birding in hot country’ mode and had forgotten insect repellent and, once under the trees, were bitten unmercifully. We did, however, see a few birds. Indian rose ringed parrots squawked over head – flying quickly and disappearing into the the trees, blending seamlessly with the lime green leaves making identification difficult. Jungle babblers poked about on the ground and with the black rat family that took advantage of the food put out for the birds. Mynahs everywhere and three striped palm squirrels initially confused us by their bird like calls in in the canopy – adults and juveniles scurried everywhere on the ground.
We walked once around the perimeter drive, where it appeared that anyone could drive their vehicles round, paid our respect to the redundant building standing forlornly behind a algae filled pool, no doubt the harbour of or tiny enemies and made our way back to pick up a tuk tuk home. It certainly does make like easier in this sauna of a city to know that you can so easily pile into one of these happy little vehicles without any planning – even if it’s only 700 yards (about the same distance as it is from Air India reservation desk to the loo!)
We had to have another shower, as we were both drenched with sweat, lolled around in our robes for an hour and went to dinner.
Chana Dahl, a new vegetable to us – a little like parsnip or a cross between potato and plantain in texture and flavour. Sparkling water to drink – will have to fix that tomorrow at the wine and beer shop that we saw down the road

24.8.26 Well, today we were going to go to visit Jallianwala Bagh, and the Golden Temple in the morning and go and watch the Attari-Wagah border ceremony this evening. Sadly, Peter had a bad night with his back and a mild fever (possibly) He had been complaining of a ‘gripey tummy’ for a while and, as a result, neither of us got much sleep last night. However, I was determined not to miss breakfast again, and got up and ate alone, whilst Peter has decided on a no food day (wish that I had that willpower!) I’m catching up on my website etc, now drinking coffee in one of the lovely sitting rooms and Peter is still in bed. He feels much better today, he says (thankfully), so hopefully will be up to the ceremony this afternoon. We still have tomorrow for the other two visits. At least we are in a lovely place to hang out, and it’s always a shame to stay somewhere like this and not make the most of it

Unfortunately, Peter is not feeling that much better. Abhi very kindly ordered him some rehydration powders and advised that we leave the ceremony until tomorrow. Maybe we can have a little stroll this evening, if he’s feeling up to it.

Peter managed to drag himself out to see the Golden Temple. Quite an emotional experience – like many others where one is familiar with a work of art or famous building. The number of people was huge – which was to be expected. What I didn’t forsee was that every person appeared to be Indian – not a westerner (I won’t say ‘tourist’, as most of these people were probably Indian tourists) to be seen. Where were the hoards of Americans? Where werer the huge groups of South Koreans?Not British (white) people.

There was one potential moment of mirth for the crowd when Peter tripped going into the foot bath. Luckily for him, he managed to save face, but it could have been very different (remember the broken arm in Nepal eight years ago?)

A young family asked for us to pose with them for a photo – this took us back twenty years, when our son, then ten, was the object of much interest at the Taj Majal and asked to pose with Indian tourists. Thats’ how unusual we are here!

Tuesday 25.8.26

Another day of lounging around. Disappointed not to go the Golden Temple for the food and washing up, but neither of us feel like eating (I have a cold now – great!) and the queues are huge in the intense heat. We really don’t want to miss out on the Wagah border ceremony, and so are saving ourselves. I just hope that we are able to make that!

I am pleased to say that we did make it to the Wagah-Attari Border Ceremony. The car picked us up at four and we drove for about 45 minutes, where we, and thousands of others, were deposited and, having taken photos of the exact spot that the driver would be afterwards, we all walked up to the stands. We bought a couple of Indian flags to wave and after being directed through various gates (some foreign/nationals, some male/female) we were shown to the foreigners’ section. It’s very small and there were fewer than twenty of us, but we had a good view of proceedings. The ceremony doesn’t start until sundown, which was about 6.10, so there was well over an hour to wait and it was incredibly hot. Huge fans were place in various areas and a few people would come down to stand in front of them. Extremely loud music was being played on the Indian side, and the same was happening on the Pakistani side – it was clear that they were trying to drown each other out. The atmosphere was one of great fun and good humour.

There were soldiers everywhere – many of them women – and all very friendly and helpful. One of the soldiers was a sort of master of ceremonies, whipping up the crowd to shout at the Pakistan side – of which there were far fewer people, they arrived much later and a good many of them were dressed exactly the same. It certainly looked like our side was having more fun. The ‘MC’ was highly energetic and called out what we should be shouting Freddie Mercury style – in fact it felt as if he was going to go the whole hog with the whole Live Aid ‘EEEEEEEEEOOOOOOO’ – he even had the physique and moves of the great man.

Large Indian flags were paraded up and down, and there was a long queue to have a turn at this – mostly children, but there were a few groups of women, who had obviously dared one another to take a turn, laughing and smiling as they did.

There were various announcements being made in Hindi and one could catch a few words like camera, but then one had the word ‘dance’ in it. Suddenly women came down from the stands and started dancing to the music. The atmosphere was electric. After two ‘numbers’, I couldn’t stand it anymore – I went down to ask one of the army women if foreigners could join in. She said yes, so I went down there, tapping another ‘foreign’ woman on the shoulder as she stood taking photos ‘are you coming to dance?’. I didn’t wait to see if she came, but just joined in with the merriment. The ladies appeared delighted, and we all danced together and photographed one another and took selfies.

After the dancing, we all went back to our seats, exhausting and sweltering, and the actual ceremony began with the first soldier whose high kicks went right behind his head – he was obviously picked for the job based on this talent. The others were all pretty good too – including the next two soldiers, who were women. We couldn’t tell if any of those on the other side of the gate were women – or even if their kicks were as good.

The soldiers came up to the gate, marching in ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ style, mostly in pairs and then we were all asked to stand for the flag lowering ceremony. Sadly, since March last year, the gates have been permanently shut as the border is closed due to a terrorist attack, as they would once have finished the ceremony by slamming the gates shut, but now they just lower the flags, fold them up and take them ‘away’.

Wednesday

26/8/26 Notes –

‘We’re not getting out of the car! Our driver insisted that we get out of the car for ‘just two minutes’ This was the second thim that this had happened, and the second time that he had asked for money for ‘gas’ and we had refuse, saying that we had paid for everything, including fuel.

‘Our taxi driver had picked us up just before 9.30, so at least he was on time. . He had phoned Peter about half an hour before, but the latter had absolutely no idea what he was saying, as we don’t speak Hindi. We had confirmed the number of bags by phone the day before, but the driver seemed concerned that we had too much. That was the first problem. Then there was only one working seatbelt in the back. The car was pretty tatty with a broken windscreen and the car display screen obviously didn’t work as he used his mobile phone, perched on his knee, and kept looking at it every few seconds, even as we were driving on a long main road. I’m sure that he was watching a video or something. The one saving grace was that he was only doing between 40 andd 45 miles an hour.

We stopped to get some fuel. The driver asked us for money, but we refused, as we explained that we had already paid for fuel.He then asked us to get out of the car. He couldn’t give us a reason why, neither could the garage men, so we sat tight, they refuelled and we went away The second time we needed fuel, the same thing happened, but we didn’t get any fuel. Instead, the driver left the pumps and went to park elsewhere. An argument ensued. ‘We’re not getting out of the car. Tell us why. Just fill up and drive on. We are already really late” Peter was ‘less than pleased’ . We had been told by the taxi people that we should be in Shimla by 1.45 and Google was already telling us 4.45. Suddenly, it occurred to me that there might be something lost in ‘no translation’. I looked up ‘ As we call it ‘petrol’ in the UK and they call it ‘gas’ in the USA, we had assumed that the word ‘gas’ meant ‘petrol’. It didn’t. It was actually gas. Compressed Natrural Gas or CNG. I looked up ‘law getting out of car gas india’ and, lo and behold, you have to, for safety’s sake. Not that they seem to care about any other form of safety like, oh, I don’t know – riding four on a motorbike on a highway with no helmets and babies on board, or driving the wrong way down a main road – and I don’t mean just a motorbike on the hard shoulder – I mean a full grown car lorry or bus on the left hand lane driving brazenly toward the oncoming traffic. But this law, they will adhere to – or maybe it was because there was a policeman pumping up his tyres on the premises this time. Either way, they weren’t going to budge.

Having made my Google discovery, we agreed to get out of the car ‘for two minutes’ whilst it was refilled and we were on our way.

About an hour before we got to the hotel, Peter had a message from Suchet, our friend in Nepal, to tell us about a devestating flood that had washed away a number of villages and thousands of people. We were due to start a trek from Syabrubesi – one of the most devastated villages. In fact, our original plan was to start off in Nepal, but having looked at the best times to go to certain places, we revised those plans. That was why we had problems with the bags – we already had flights there. We would have been there then. We are so thankful that we changed our plans and our hearts and thoughts go out to all those affected, including all the wildlife that has been swept away. Utterly horrific, and a consequence of global warming.

It’s a very – consults Beatles’ back catalogue for phrases – long and winding road to Shimla. Perched, as it is atop and extremely steep hill, it is astounding how many buildings and roads and their accompanying vehicles it can contain. A mere 56 km is, according to Google Maps – see right – 1 hour and 44 minutes. We eventually arrived in the general area of the hotel, but had our access blocked by yet more officials, as we didn’t have a permit. Our driver and the officials had a ‘discussion’ whilst we sat there none the wiser as to why we couldn’t get to our hotel. I had visions of a trip into the mountains in Kasakhstan where we arrive at the end of a road to be told that we couldn’t drive there and the hotel was about two miles up the road. Anyway, we went round again and with the marvels of modern technology Whats’apped the hotel, put it on video call so that the receptionist could see exactly were we were and guided us safely in, to the lovely heritage Woodville Palace Hotel Shimla

The hotel was built in 1866 and has a rich history of hosting numerous dignitaries and what we would today call celebrities. We asked where the bar was and were shown to a locked, dark room. It was opened for us, and although it felt rather uninviting at first, it was actually rather charming and all we needed was a gin and tonic and we would be sorted. Peter was feeling much better now, and, although tired from the drive (and his lack of sleep the night before) we were ready to indulge in a bit of colonial luxury! There didn’t appear to be any gin at all. After getting down some Sambuka, thinking that it was vodka – then spotting something that looked like vodka, and thinking that we might have to have Bacardi or one of the many whiskys, we spotted a dark brown bottle with the word ‘gin’ on it! Success! Balakram was delighted – as are we!

Happy with our drinks a rather bizarre thing happend. My friend David Whatsapped me to ask if I was around as he was coming down to Devon to see his parents. I started to respond in text to say that, unfortunately I couldn’t, as we were in Shimla, then I thought that it would be easier to do a video call. I did so and started chatting to David, who was on the train, when a voice said ‘that’s Miss Stevens’! Some of my students from a school that I teach in had somehow seen/heard me. It was hilarious, and really made my day to see them waving back. Again, the marvels of modern technology. Will they remember when I see them again in October? I hope that they look up Shimla on the map and learn a bit about it.

Shortly after that we were joined in the cosy, atmospheric bar by a couple of young men. Aatish and Ajay are regional cricketers – wicket keeper/batsmen (or batters now?!) We had a good natter with them before going down to the Italian Cafe for a rather lovely mushroom taglietelle. We bought a bottle of wine, but had only a small glass each as we were both so tired and made our way to bed. A comfortable bed, which could only be improved by a nice, fat mattress topper!

Edit

Week 2 – starting Thursday 27.8.26

Peter not good again, so I went to breakfast alone. A huge spread awaited me, but I opted for a bit of porridge and honey and some fruit .I then went back up to the room and he wanted to rest some more, so I caught up with some of this. At about twelve, we decided to try and go out to the Viceregal Lodge, so we booked a taxi from the hotel to take us there and back. How times have changed! On the way, we stopped off at a chemist to buy some more rehydration salts (funny how it’s called a chemist still in India, which we used to call it in the UK, but now we refer to a Pharmacy like so many other parts of the world)

It was an interesting visit to the Viceregal Lodge, which is now used for scholars, and houses one of the best academic libraries in the world. The entrance hall was stunning and an ingenious automatic fire-fighting sprinkler system that is built into the glass ceilings. It uses wax-coated glass outlets connected to large overhead water tanks, so that when there is a fire, it melts the wax and shatters the glass releasing water from 24 water tanks. Three storeys high and all teak, with balconies all round, it is an impressive sight. You are not allowed to take photos inside.

After the guided tour, we had a brief walk around the gardens in search of birds, and made our way back to the arranged meeting place for the taxi. I took advantage of the ‘facilities’ and, just outside, there was a group of Rhesus Macaques. A mother sat on one step, baby in arms, and as I approached the loo (which was towards them) a third monkey ‘squared up to me’ and grimaced. The mother then took the baby to a nearby roof, and the ‘angry monkey’ made plaintive little ‘ooh’ noises towards. me. A larger, presumably male, monkey then jumped on the roof scattering the others. A delight to watch and marvellous to see that all the monkeys here seem to get on with their own thing, not fed by humans and therefore not a pest. (We had had tapping on the window a couple of times outside our room, and they turned out to be macaques, but Peter also saw a Hanuman langur on the air conditioning unit. Maybe we’ll see more tomorrow. We are off to dinner soon.

E

Friday

28.8.26 I had a bit of a ropey night, not able to sleep for most of it, but woke to Peter getting into the shower at nine. We rushed our things together for a trip out to the Water Catchment Sanctuary, in the hope of seeing a few birds, and maybe the odd mammal. By the time our taxi had arrived it was half ten and eleven by the time we had started off our little walk. For some reason, the man didn’t give us the old person’s discount – maybe it was our stunning young looks – he charged us for the cameras though.

The first part of the walk was noisy with traffic, as although we were in the reserve, our flat track followed the same contour. As we pulled away from the road, the cicadas were deafening – again, we couldn’t hear any birds. Anyway, as Peter pointed out more than once, we wpropeere too late for most of them anyway. Then the cyclsists started. Loads of them, shouting and playing loud music, despite signs telling people to ‘maintain silence’ and ‘groups of two are good, groups of two are bad. Still, at least we got to see and identify some birds. And a lovely troop of Hanuman langurs (monkeys)

On the way back to the hotel, we made the decision to go up to the Jakhu Temple where we could also see the 33 metre statue of Lord Hanuman, his tallest in the world. We were warned to be careful of our ‘specs’, as the monkeys have a propensity to steal them, so, rather than risk having them ripped from our faces by the little darlings, we took them off and put them in our pockets. Later, we saw a man about to have his taken off him, but he fed them. As did another woman. No wonder! In some places in the world, macaques (for it usually is macaques) are known for stealing high value items such as smart phones and demanding food for their safe return – and if you don’t offer enough, you don’t get them back! You have to admire their smarts!

We got back to the hotel, got ourselves sorted and took our ‘offices’ down to the cafe. How nice it would be, we thought, to sit in the shade, sipping on a beer and catching up with our various tasks – Peter sorting out which birds we had idetified and me writing this! But no, we couldn’t order beer in the cafe – no idea why, since we had had wine in there the other night! I didn’t want coffee, and Peter didn’t want to sit outside on the mud, so I went out and he stayed – both tapping away on our own devices. The staff must have thought that we’d fallen out! He did come out eventually and joined me for a beer, and when the manager came round, we mentioned that people might not like having to walk across a mudy lawn in their nice shoes. A deck or paving area would improve the feel no end. I wonder if he will take our advice!

In the evening, we met David and Jen for a drink in the Hollywood bar, and requested gin and tonics. This time a brand new bottle of gin had been sourced, and there was a Kingfisher in the fridge (only Corona at the ‘field bar’) We then had dinner together and enjoyed swapping travel stories.

Saturday

29.8.26 Another travel day. This time two trains back to Delhi. The first was The Toy Train, as it is known, due to the narrow guage. Unlike the Toy Train that runs from Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, the train didn’t meander between people’s houses, so close that you could shake hands with them from their windows, or so slowly that children ran to catch up with it for a free ride. Every station was clean and tidy, but five and a half hours on relatively hard plastic ‘cushioned’ seats meant that we were quite pleased when it pulled into the station at Kolka

Trains seem to have changed quite considerably in India since we were first here twenty years ago. All mod cons, food arriving in printed packaging – very little evidence of the many hawkers and vendors who made the experience such a colourful one. One shouldn’t

Sunday

30.8.26 30.8.26 We were picked up by Umish (he actually got there really early, bless him, but we didn’t see the messaged. We drove for about forty five minutes to the bird reserve, only to find that it was closed. We weren’t the only ones. Nowhere on the website does it say that it is closed for months. We had no choice but to go back to the office to try and get our money back. Baba wouln’t give us all our money back, despite the fact that we had had a wasted day and it had cost us. He finally agreed to about 75% (I haven’t worked it out). Sure, it wasn’t their fault, but as tourism people they should be on top of this sort of thing – that is what we pay them for.

After we left the tourist place, we headed back to the Minstry of Beers for a couple of coffee stouts, IPAs and a mango beer, as well as a light lunch. It’s not how we had planned our day and we were really just killing time until we had to have an early night, which we did after a delicious evening meal at the Vagabond Cafe

Monday

31.8.26 ‘Stranguloni! Mama mia gratzi ono duo…’ whatever – I don’t speak Italian, but this loud woman right outside our window at 11.30 last night was talking to her friends woke me with a start. Why do people do this in hotels, when they know that some people may have to get up at 4.30 a.m. for a flight to Leh‽

We did that, went down to reception and another ‘discussion’ ensued when the chap tried to charge Peter again, when he’d paid in full yesterday. He also charged him for the ‘free’ airport transfer.

Then there was the confusion over which doors we could use to enter the airport (some have a special downloadable thingy that some people use). Then big panic for about a minute as Peter pats down all his pockets and can’t find the passports, realising that one of his zips is open at the bottom, and they’d clearly fallen out! We came out of the queue and wondered what on earth we could do, as they could be anywhere – outside the hotel, in the taxi, at the aiport. Thankfully, another pat down revealed them to be in the ‘secret’ zipped pocket. He’d been trying the zip that turns the trousers into shorts! Panic over! It’s way too early.

Then, unlike the flight over, where we didn’t even have to take laptops out, we had to take out everything – cameras, batteries etc. – and all in separate trays. What a way to loose stuff! When my tray with The Multicoloured Bag and my belt purses came through, I was shown the screen and told to take out all electrical items! Phones, battery pack, plugs, wires (the other camera, which I’d forgotten), torch everything! Had to completely repack. Thankfully, we had plenty of time.

Sitting here waiting now. Apparently there’s a very good hospital in Leh that gives you oxygen if you’re struggling. Good to know! I probably won’t have a Sim card for the next couple of weeks – this one won’t work in Ladakh. Hopefully the hotel will have wifi – it’s called Gasha Birder House, if anyone’s interested

Arrived in Leh. We have to do nothing for a couple of days to aclimatise to the altitude (only 3,300 metres, but will be going up to over 5,360).

We were met at the airport by Stanzin, our bird guide and Karma the driver and presented with khatas (Tibetan scarf to welcome us) They can go with the twenty year old ones that we have at home from Darjeeling. Then, when we arrived at Gasha, Chol presented us with two more. Gave us chai and buckwheat pancakes for breakfast (although we’d already had one breakfast on the plane!)

Gasha Birders’ House is lovely. Chol Dan, the owner built it out of grass and mud and the views are spectacular. Birds cheeping (bloody house sparrers, innit!) No traffic noises. Very warm, surprisingly.

Think that I might have a nap now!

On Nepal – We first heard about the disaster on the Wednesday, on our way up to Shimla, from our Nepalese friend, Suchet (with whom we were supposed to be doing this Ladakh trip, until a family emergency curtailed it), then my sister got in touch – her daughter is an editor at The Times, so of course, they hear about stuff early on.


This has meant that we have to change our plans, unfortunately, but we are very lucky in that we were going to stay at Syabubeisi, which I think has gone, and in our original plans we were going to start off in Nepal, so would very likely have been there when it happened. 

We still don’t know quite what we’re going to do. Suchet (who, like Peter, works as a guide for Naturetrek) is looking at options for us. Lots of tourists are cancelling Nepal altogether, which is the last thing that they need, financially. We have a guide and a driver booked, and we don’t want to let them down. We can’t go up the Langtang Valley as the road is closed. We’ll just have to wait and see. 

Tuesday

1.9/26 After a really good night’s sleep in a very comfortable bed we had a breakfast of lovely home made bread by Rinchen with butter and local honey, another rest and then a short stroll of about an hour around the riverside next to the homestay. Saw plenty of mountain warblers, citrine wagtails a few hoopoes and a flycatcher. Now for another well-earnt rest!

(My card reader now won’t work, so no pictures of the birds, I’m afraid.

Buckthorn

Mountain Chiffchaff

Unidentified dragonfly

Hoopoe

Spotted Flycatcher

Friday 4.9.26

Left Agham Villa at six, but returned for breakfast and then made our way to a

Solpon Homestay for the night. Prior to that we spent about three hours sitting on the hillside looking for lynx. Sadly, we missed out this time. We were told that they were extremely difficult.

Today is Saturday 12th September – We arrived in Kathmandu last night, and I have a lot of catching up to do, since we had no internet access for days, and it’s very slow here, so please bear with me. We are sitting in The Three Monkeys cafe eating a very late breakfast (11.20am) of cake and coffee. I’ll do my best!

Saturday 5.9.26

Relatively successful morning. Nice views of snowcock, saw a pika, a few other bits and bobs and went over the Changlapass (17,688ft). Very hairy scary high hairpi bends, especially with huge army trucks and petrol tankers hurtling towards you. Also stopped to help afellow motorist with a flat tyre.

Snowcock, Eagle owl. Merak at Pangon lake cold shower.

Sunday 6th September

No internet from now on, so backdating photo dumps. Will do wildife later, as it’s all on the laptop.
The highlight of this day had to be at the end of the day. We were originally told that Pallas’ cat was relatively easy here at Hanle, but due to the huge numbers of tourists flocking to the area to see the stars (clear skies), often with loud bikes/cars, the three cat families that were known about have been driven out, so expectations were low. Then, as we were driving along I saw an animal walking through the grass ‘ ‘what’s that moving? It’s an animal! It looks like a cat!’ – and it was, indeed, Pallas’ cat! We spent a few hours watching, as it hunted voles – a long way away, so apologies for the quality of the photos. I have others, but this was taken by Stanzin through his telescope with my phone. We were then met by another family who had not managed to find a guide, and they were delighted to watch the cat too. They have not been seen in the area for at least two months – we felt very privileged – and got quite cold watching it, but it was so worth it!

Monday 7th September

Peter had a bad night with very little sleep, so I went out with ‘The lads’ to go looking for Tibetan gazelle – the Indian family came along too, and we had some great sightings, also of Ladakh pika, kyang (the Tibetan wild ass and lots of birds. After lunch (all the food has been fabulous) woke Peter at 3.00 and he was feeling better – overdid it and we think that it was heat stroke) we went out again for a few more hours, hoping to catch another glimpse of the cat, but also plenty of birds

Wednesday 9th September
Tea at 6.00 and out at 6.22. First sighting was of a really close Tibetan wolf. What a start to the day! Drove around the freshwater lakes d saw pikas, ruddy shelldick, bar headed geese (100s) Then spent a happy half hour standing in a Stoliczka’s vole colony surrounded by hundreds of vole holes. They are extremely timid, and we stood very still trying to photograph them. Blandford’s snow finch, 20 Tibetan sand grouse and a tea (qawar) and biscuits – the Stanzins looked after us so well!. Then back for breakfast and a ‘bath’ in a bucket of steaming hot water. Peter had taken halff a diamox tablet (I’m on them for altitude, but he can’t take them. Anyway, after a bad night of breathing difficulties, he had some, but had horrible side effects) Lunch was a Ladakh speciality of a soup of vegetables, pasta and tofu. Delicious. Then we went looking for Argali sheep. They were a very long way away, but Stanzin drove us off road in the Toyota Crystal – a bit hairy for me as you can imagine. We did get better views, albeit a long way away. When we did eventually get back to the road we had a Saker falcon. Back for the most delicious meal

Week 4 – starting Thursday 10th September

Last day with Satanzin and Stanzin. Up early, as usual maybe a touch later, as left at seven. Had another gpod look for Tobetan snowcock, which their eahle eyes spotted! Spent at least an hour trying to see far, far away flock that Stanzin had spotted, relatively close, but they flew as soon as we saw them. These lads worked so hard to get us the views, and we eventually found another group, slightly closer. Then Stanzin C tried hard to find me silvery vole, but to no avail

It was lovely to see Choldan and Rinchen agsin for a final night, and we were treated to a spot if chang (Ladakh barley beer) which I had wanted to try.

Friday 11th September

Travel day. Said our goodbyes to Choldan, Rinchen and Stanzin and took a flight to Delhi, followed by a flight to Kathmandu. Arrived about 6.30, dumped our stuff at the Funky Monkey and went upstairs to the ‘rooftop bar’, where it was dark and noone came to to serve us our drinks. Therefore, we went in search of a bar and found La Bella Restro Bar, where we had a couple of beers and some hot and sour soup and watched the world go by below us.

Saturday 12th September

We’ve had a very relaxing, laid-back day. Got up around 10.30 eventually. Had the coffee and banana bread in one place, then moved on to La Bella… for a beer, and then a meet up with Naryan and a jolly good chat for a few hours. Then – well, oops – we really didn’t need another lovely carpet, but hey! Manzoor Parray Parrayr is such a good guy! Dinner in a quate nace place (mushroom risotto, for a change) and now back to La Bella… for last drinks. There’s more of a vibe in the evening – last night was live music.
Anyway. Here are some kyang – such beautiful wild asses. Only found in Ladakh – one of only five species of wild ass, and two live in India.

Sunday 13th September

Today we are having lunch with Suchet and Badri to discuss tomorrow’s arrangements. We will be driving to the first hotel/teahouse that we stay at before starting our trek. I don’t know what teh internet will be like and won’t have the laptop.

The days walk will be short for you to enjoy the nature and wildlife.

14th September- Leave after breakfast with packed lunch. Drive to Dhampus (8-9 hours). Overnight at Dhampus in a lodge.

15th – Trek to Thulokharka after breakfast. Lunch and overnight at Thulokharka. Afternoon birding around Thulokharka. It’s the starting time for Raptor migrations and Thulokharka is best spot to watch them!

16th- Trek to Pothana and overnight. Afternoon birding around Pothana.

17th – Trek to Landruk and overnight.

18th – Trek to upper Tolkha and o/n.

19th- Trek to Thulokharka via lower path and O/n.

20th – Trek to Dhampus and o/n.

21st- Drive back to Kathmandu.

Monday 14th September

Today we are driving to Damphus on the other side of Pokora, where we will begin our trek. Tomorrow. In the car are our driver Pardeep, our qildlife guide Badri, our porter Basanta and us. IT’s a bit cramped and quite warm – and due to be about a nie our trip. We had to go a long way round due to blocked road from a landslide due to the floods. We are currently driving past Brenda Park which links up with Chitwan National Park, which we visited eight years ago

Today is the second day of Teej, or the women’s festival. On the first day the ladies all get together and feast (which is why Suchet’s wife was unable to join us all for lunch yesterday). Today they all attend the temple, dressed in red as yesterday, fast and sing and dance and give thanks for their husbands, or, in the case of the unmarried girls, pray for a good one.

After just over ten hours, and with several nimb bums and some very skillful driving from Pardeep, we finally arroved at our accomodarion for the night, Hotel Pardise. Curry ordered for donner and a very passable 8% beer, Peter and Badri have already had two species of owl (heard mountain scops owl and collared owlet. (Apologies for poor ‘design’, but I am having to do this all on my phone, as we have left most of our stuff in Kathmandu We will carry a daysack each (camera, wet weather gear etc.) and Barsanta will carry my rucksack with all our clothes/toiletries etc.)

Tuesday 14th September

Walked from Dumphas to Australian camp in the morning. What seemed like thousands of steps. Not too bad though, as we took it easy birding along the way. Had a beer and some lentil soup and chapattis (Peter had a veg omelette) and after lunch we went down the hill towards P… where we are going tomorrow. Visibility poor to non existent, so no spectacular views of the Annapurna range. Rained quite a bit of the evening and hammered down with thunder and lightning during the night. No hot water in evening but promised some in morning.

I will rearrange this when I can. No laptop, only phones.

Wednesday 16th September

Packed up, had cold was, discovered thatgas was not connected, hence no hot water, saw massive spider outsideroom and went for breakfast (porridge for me)Looked around village at birds, then off to P – a short walk birding along the way we could have done morw walkink to be honest. Arrived at hotel and our room is just two sine beds and a table. No en suite, towels, soap or loo paper. Dahl soup for lunch. More birding at three.

Thursday 17th September

Walked 9km to Landruk from Pothana, via Upper Tolka for lunch. We went down hundreds and hundreds of slippery, steep steps, mostly going down one at a time with the same leg, with a walking pole. It was a pretty exhausting day – but Basanta was like a goat, carrying his load of our rucksack, Badri ‘s and his own and, marching down the steps unaided. Discovering that the Upper Tolka restaurant had squat loos provided the next challenge!

Friday 18th September

Landruk to Upper Tolka

Saturday 19th September

Long walk from Upper Tolka to Australian Camp, via Pothana a for a well earned rest, beer and lunch. The day starts off well, with some nice bird views, but then about 45 minutes of rain when all the leeches came out and we had to check our boots every few metres and flick the little darlings off before they worked their way up and into our boots. Even then, thinking that I had got away with it, I discovered what amI thought initially was sweat, was in fact blood near my shoulder. Never did find the culpritAblutions in the evening – the good news was that the gas was connected, so we were able to have hot water, the bad – that the water was scalding hot, so a shower was impossible. Instead, we mixed it with cold in the bucket and had a bucket wash! At least it was warm!

Sunday 20th September

We walked down from Australian camp to meet the car to take us back to Pokhara. Paid a visit to Indra Gurung at his cafe for a coffee and then on to Pokhara.

We checked in at the hotel – Badri stayed there, but Basanta and the driver stayed elsewhere – and found ourselves a bar for a lovely lunch and a few beers. After that, we found a barber and Peter had his hair cut, but shaven and face massage!

Our next stop was at the Pokhara Micro Brewery – of course!

Took Badri out for dinner at the same restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday 23rd September

Wednesday 23rd September

We were up at 4.45 again to spend the day birding with our Nepali friend Suchet up to Phulchowki, the highest hill surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. We then had a lovely lunch of Dahl Bat at his favourite restaurant. In the evening we went to the festival and met Pravakar and his family, who invited us to share some of their food – and raksi!

Thursday 24th September

Took a taxi to the airport and had to wait for over an hour before we could even check in. I was very concerned that we wouldn’t be able to take all our hand luggage, as Budha Air are very stict, but we had bought another rucksack to accommodate our new rug, and we put a load of other stuff in that.

After we landed in Nepalgunj, was lovely to find Madhu waiting for us at the airport. The driver took us to the hospital where Peter was able to talk to some of the staff and thank them (including the director of the hospital by phone, as he was in Kathaandu on leave) and give a little something to the welfare fund, but way of a thank you.

We then drove the two hours back to Bardia Eco Lodge, where we were shown to our hut and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the restaurant overlooking the river

.

Saturday 26th September

Another rainy day (it didn’t stop all night) – Madhu had said to get up at 5.30 if it had stopped raining, but to stay in bed and have a leisurely breakfast if it hadn’t – I think that we were all secretly – some less secretly – hoping that it was still raining. Anyway, we went off in the Jeep looking for Ganges River dolphin. We were treated to displays from several, but it’s very tricky to photograph -especially when it’s pouring with rain!
Afterwards we spent some time on riverbanks looking for tigers. Sadly none showed up – but tomorrow is another day.
Really looking forward to tonight’s dal baht!

Sunday 27th September

It rained all night – again – so here we are again, watching the river and passing/perching birds over a cup of masala tea and catching up on ‘admin’. We might go out a bit later, but a safari might prove tricky, as everywhere is so wet and it was pretty boggy a couple of days ago! Kathmandu has had flooding and many of the roads are now impassable due to landslides.

Apparently it wasn’t going to rain today, after it had stopped at about 9.00, so we went out in the ‘windy wagon’ without a cover. We had a fabulous morning that included watching a herd of elephants – that was exciting enough, but when the bull got angry and started chasing us, it really upped the adrenaline!. Lunch of pasta on top of the viewing tower and two lots of absolute torrential rain!

Peter’s camera stopped working after this, due to sitting in water on the seat of the Jeep!

Monday 28th September

Today was a walking safari. Just six of us (2 guides and four of us old duffers and three sticks to protect us from tigers, elephants, rhinos, leopards etc.)
‘Highlight’, if you like, was being scared shirtless by the same group of elephants that we saw yesterday

Tuesday 29th September

Peter has woken up with a cold, so is not coming with us today. I’m going out with Pete, Snay and their guide. We all had a lovely evening together last night.

We got charged by the bull elephant again today – I think that he is fed up with us all watching him and his family. there were at least three babies in the group, and while it was delightful to hear their funny little cries, it was certainly alarming when the big ones trumpet and flap their ears!

This tiger ate three people and a lot of livestock. His ‘punishment’ is life behind bars. Four others have met a similar fate in various zoos for eating ten people between them. Not sure which is worse, really. A long life behind bars in a tiny enclosure or ‘the death penalty’.

Wednesday 30th September

Our last day in Bardiya. Peter and I went out with Anu, the bird guide and a driver in the open top jeep. They tried ever so hard to find us a tiger – and at the last minute, Anu saw one, but it sadly never came across our path as anticipated. We did, however see plenty of birds.

Thursday 1st October – beginning of week seven

Arrived at Nepalgunj airport – possibly the most stress-free airport ever! Check in wasn’t even open more than an hour before flight. Loos spotless (Think that I was the first ‘customer’) No horrid trays to put all your stuff in and a lovely café for coffee and banana cake for breakfast.

Then we got to Kathmandu, and had a wait of about five hours before our flight to Delhi. We had originally been going to take a later flight, but were advised by several people to rearrange it as the flights are often delayed – something that we had experienced already!

The flight was more or less on time, but when we got to Delhi, our problems started. Peter’s visa had expired. He had bought one for thirty days – not the original intention, but he reckoned that 30 days meant thirty actual days in India, as opposed to thirty days from date of issue. We sat in immigration for over four hours, whilst having no idea if we (he) were going to be deported. Every now and then the official dealing with it would come over and tell him something or ask him something, but we were pretty much in the dark. Eventually he was able to get a

Friday 2nd October

Having had an horrendous day yesterday, when Peter’s visa was invalid and we spent four hours at immigration with people coming to see us occasionally, since we were looking deportation in the face, we then got to the hotel, desperate for a drink, only to find that it is Gandhi Day – a ‘festival’, or ‘holiday’ where no alcohol is available! Crap and ridiculously expensive hotel.
But today – this is more like it! Neemrana’s Three Waters is a fabulous place. It is part of a group of ‘heritage hotels’, which is our very favourite type of accommodation – somewhere with a lot of history, character and charm, but wit all mod-cons in the bathroom. A very comfortable bed, excellent food, a shower that works and works well, plenty of shelves and hooks and beautiful, natural surroundings. The staff are all super helpful and friendly also.

Saturday 3rd October

After a very leisurely morning of getting up early – just because we were awake – and watching the estuary, then looking at some of the birds around the pool, including Mr and Mrs Malabar grey hornbill, who were exchangimg gifts of fruit, then a traditional indian brakfast, we went for a gentle pootle to th water’s edge, as far as we could get, temple, fort and back. Then, at beer o’clock, we sat beside the pool to watch birds.
After lunch we will go for a little ride to the beach for a dip.

Sunday 4th October

Another lazy morning getting up slowly (although quite early), pootling about looking at the view and a wander down the road and into the garden before breakfast. Catching up with a bit of admin in the room, before going out somewhere, to do something – not quite sure what yet. Haven’t kept up with this as much as I should have, as have been too busy doing stuff. Will try to upload more photos later

Well, we didn’t go out – just lazed around doing ‘admin’ and then a dip in the pool. Tomorrow is going to be full on, as we are going on a trip into the Western Ghats – leaving here at 5.15 am and back at seven

Monday 5th October

Today we go up at 4.45 to leave for a day in the ghats birding. Savio picked us up and we started with a two hour drive to the reserve, stopping a couple of times on the way to see a few birds including giant hornbill

Tuesday 6th October

Very lazy morning getting up slowly, having a leisurely breakfast and taking the hotel taxi to the beach on the other side of the estuary. We sat ourselves at the first bar that we found and used it as our base to sit around, drink beer and cocktails and have a few dips in the sea.

Wednesday 7th October

– leaving day
Just been for a stroll up through the fishing village if Betul, which on first sighting appeared a bit of a shanty town, but this is deceptive. All the houses have tarpaulins and other coverings over the sides of the houses and garages, but they are actually very nice houses. Then, walking the other way towards the temple, we saw a dolphin. He is old, apparently, and lives and feeds there, as the fishermen pray as they pass the temple, then feed the old dolphin with some of their catch on the way back, by way of thanks.
Goodbye Three Waters, goodbye Betul, goodbye Goa and goodbye India – until the next time..