Mysore We saw elephants that morning. On the edge of the tiger reserve there was an elephant sanctuary where orphaned of injured elephants were cared for and put to work. Some of them were used in logging while others joined the park rangers and were used to patrol the park for poachers. We saw the younger members being fed their balanced diets and watched as the more mature ones were taught to carry logs. It was a long drive to Mysore but we arrived on the out...

Big Game Hunting. Another long travel day in the bus but with something special promised at the end of it. We were off on a jeep safari to look out for wild elephants, tiger and leopard. In the late afternoon we arrived at our safari village. Having purchased some beer on the way, we sat out on our veranda enjoying a glass or two before setting off in pursuit of our quarry. The previous week an Indian lady had been killed by a domesticated elephant. She wanted ...

Borrat the bird man. The following morning we were off early to visit caves which had been occupied by stone age people from 8,000 years ago until around 3,000 years ago. Our guide for the days visits reminded me of Borrat, one of Sasha Barron Cohen's characters. The caves were a 2km hike, near the top of a mountain, on the way Borrat entertained us with his repetoir of bird calls. He would make a call and a response would come back out of the jungle. He could ...

Embrace the Bizarre. This is one of G Adventures slogans. Our CEOs wear it on their T shirts. In india something bizarre pops up every 30 minutes or so. It happens with food - boiling milk on your cornflakes. In shopping - receive a chitty for the goods you want to buy, go to payment desk to pay, take receipt from payment desk to packing desk where someone else has brought your goods, present receipt to packer who will identify your goods by matching his copy o...

Travel Day The next day we set out early and took the train from Kochi to Calicut (the home of Calico). This was a highly entertaining journey with the on board official "Meals on Wheels" service competing with the local Del boys to provide the passengers with a full range of snack food and drink. Every 30 seconds or so a vendor would pass by calling out his wears. Chappaties, pukora, samosas, kulcha, veg curry, chicken curry, chocolate, crisps, nuts and fruit...