A friend who visited Chennai (formerly Madras) a couple of years ago described it to me as a very 'liveable' city. Unfortunately, arriving there from the chaos of Bangalore, it didn't feel that...
Bangalore – a city of hijra, crazy drivers and family history
Bangalore is the largest city we visited on our journey around southern India and the fourth most populous on the sub-continent behind New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. All I can say is that it...
A crazy Indian day out
Before arriving in Mysore we had read that the local government ran a day tour around the city for a very reasonable price, so we decided it was something we should do. We located the office and...
Family connections in the Nilgiris
As I explained in a previous post, one of the main reasons for going to India was to discover more about Mark’s family history.
Mark’s paternal grandfather,...
A day out with Joseph in Cochin, Kerala
On our first full day in India, we met up with a friend who we had last seen a year before in Ethiopia. By coincidence, she was in Cochin at the halfway point of her overland trip through...
The Church of St. Stephen of the Bulgars, Istanbul
Probably not near the top of many tourists’ ‘to do’ list when in Istanbul, the Church of St. Stephen of the Bulgars is, nevertheless, well worth a visit; whether you arrive at it by...
A Walk from Ulubatlı to the Golden Horn taking in the Church of St. Saviour in Chora, Istanbul
One of the most impressive sites in Istanbul is, for me, not the better-known Aya Sofia or Blue Mosque, but, rather, the Church of St. Saviour in Chora (Kariye Müzesi in Turkish), home to...
