Last days in India, travelling with our friends John and Sue. Highs and lows, fabulous wines, sightseeing and technology rescued us twice. Plus we all picked up a bug – well this is India…..it’s inevitable.
Great beer…….shame about the hotel
We put together a short trip acting as tour guides for our friends. Overnight train to Nasik for some wine tasting and then to the World Heritage sites at Ellora & Ajanta, and a meteorite crater at Lonar for sightseeing. Booking the train turned out to be the usual Indian headache, Cheryl & John managed to get 2 good seats, Neil & Sue were on a waitlist – but we eventually had confirmed seats together just hours before the train departed.
cheeky slurp 
G’night John Boy 
Suz enjoying the ‘luxury’ travel
We arrived in Nasik just before lunch time and we got to the hotel which had deteriorated in the usual Indian way since we were last there. Hard beds, grotty pillows and grubby marks on the walls. Time for a quick shower, and then off to Sula Vineyards for a tour followed by a tasting session. We negotiated a ride with 2 tuk tuk drivers and then pulled into a petrol station where the drivers consulted an English-speaking Indian lady who could explain that they had not realised how far we wanted to go and they decided they wanted substantially more money than they had agreed to. We parted company amiably and then had a ‘what do we do now moment’. John decided this was a great time to try Uber in India and after a 5 min wait our taxi pulled up for a bargain price – result!
Tasting room at Sula 
Refreshments on the Terrace at Sula
The short tour and tasting at Sula was interesting. We then headed for the balcony to have some tasty snacks of cheese, olives, nuts, bruschetta and, of course, several half bottles of wine. Sue & Cheryl decided to indulge in the desserts – warm chocolate fondant & cardamom crème brulee. Both were excellent. Suitably refreshed we blagged a ride to a nearby vineyard called York. Here was much of the same, hic, with the bonus of a free baseball cap with the tasting session. We then settled for a delightful bottle of their flagship Merlot to go with our dinner. We all slept soundly that night.
Next day it was slightly less of the same as we were all feeling a bit jaded, especially Cheryl who had had a very bad night (both ends…….too much information?). This time we chose Vallonne Vineyard, which had the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable young Indian winemaker. It is also situated above a huge and beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere. Finally, on to Grover Vineyard which was nearby.
Grover Tasting 
Both these vineyards are around an hour or so south of Nasik. When we got back to the hotel, Neil was feeling bad (no ends involved just shivery) and missed out on dinner.
The following day we discovered John & Sue had had an interesting night (both ends). Cheryl however, was feeling on top form and was irritatingly bouncy. Morning train to Aurangabad where we were met at the station by our driver, Salman, in a very clean and comfortable car.
We headed straight to Ellora Caves. Ellora has around 30 caves cut into solid rock built at differing times by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. The most impressive sight here is the Kaillash Temple which is the biggest temple hewn from one solid lump of rock. After our sightseeing, Salman took us back to our hotel, JP International, which had surprisingly stylish rooms, comfy soft mattresses and a very quirky feature in our room.
Nice room……but what about the view?
Our night was marred by a ‘domestic’ on the same floor as John ‘n Sue’s room. It kicked off at around midnight and took some time to resolve, including some Indian men threatening to punch John after he had the audacity to ask them to keep the noise down…….all very sad considering that everything else about the hotel was superb.
On day 2 Salman took us to the Ajanta Caves. These are also cut into rock but the site is fairly remote and peaceful, and the paintings inside the caves are very well preserved. We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon before we got back the hotel for a roof top dinner and several bottles of KF Strong…..mmmm! Top tip for travelling – join in with anyone singing ‘happy birthday’ and you will get a slice of the cake.
Day 3 started with quick visit to what is known locally as the ‘mini Taj’. It was exactly as described – a cut down version of the Taj Mahal. Cheryl & Suz couldn’t resist the obvious pose.
Cheryl and Suz at the Mini Taj
This was followed by a long drive to Lonar where we visited the Lonar Crater. It was formed thousands of years ago, when a meteorite crashed into the earth and it’s the third largest salt water lake in the world and it’s 7 times saltier than the sea. The crater is 6km round and is an amazing site especially when you see how small the temple at the bottom looks.
There was only one hotel in Lonar, run by Maharastra Tourism. The rooms were surprisingly good and we all looked forward to having a good dinner on our last night as we were all better now and feeling hungry. Unfortunately the food was appalling, the menu was useless as everything we asked for was ‘no have’, so we were forced to take whatever was on offer – bony, salty fried chicken, salty bony chicken curry and a greasy bony chicken biriyani. Neil managed to get an omelette and that was at least edible. There was also a ‘permit room’ which is India speak for licensed premises and that was a series of outdoor private drinking rooms – all very bizarre. However, it did sell a strong beer called Cannon 10000 which went some way to making up for the lousy food. Amazingly, it all stayed in with no surprises the next morning!
We went for an early morning walk round the tiny village and viewed the crater from a different angle. We were the only foreigners and this was rural India a far cry from the ‘economic miracle’ of the major Indian cities. We skipped breakfast and a 3hr drive brought us back to Aurangabad Airport where we had to bid farewell to John ‘n Sue as we were going to Delhi and them to Mumbai. We had a fabulous week with them always finding a laugh to get us through the down moments. Thank you J’nS, we really enjoyed your company…….it was a brilliant week.
Can you spot John & Suz ?
Our Delhi Hotel turned out to be an absolute winner. Airport hotels the world over are never great and Indian hotels are amongst the worst. So, unless you really want to up the budget to 5* then you might as well take the best of a bad bunch……it’s always a lottery and you’re usually disappointed. We chose a new small hotel with reasonable reviews – however we needed the help of Google Maps on Cheryl’s phone to help the taxi driver to find it as it was down a tiny alleyway. We arrived late in the evening, checked into a fine room with soft bed, the guys got us some KF strongs, we slept soundly and the included breakfast in the morning was excellent. The minus point was that it was 45 minutes by taxi from the airport but even when you added in the taxi it was still good value at 2500R all in (about £30).
The flight with Air India to Bangkok was surprisingly good. It was a new Dreamliner with excellent IFE and when we asked for G&T we were given 2 small bottles each of Beefeater gin and lots of wine to go with the meal. After drinking Indian gin for 3 months when you get the ‘real McCoy’ it just slips down beautifully……so much so that Cheryl was forced to have a third!
Cheryl & Neil Our Story 