EC-Rider Travels

I felt truly sad leaving Glyngarth and saying goodbye to kind, generous Mariam. My goodness, I have had just the most amazing time and I am not sure have ever been more comfortable or so beautifully looked after. It has also been so lovely getting to know Mariam more, not just as a RBS supporter but as a friend… she is an amazing lady.

A charming driver came to collect me mid-morning and we headed off on the three hour windy journey back down to Coimbatore. The roads were even busier on a Sunday with cars, bikes, tuktuks, busses, lories, cows, horses, goats and people all sharing the road. Everyone seems amazingly good humoured, most on a mobile phone, both in and out of the car, (no hands free) – how there are not accidents every five minutes, I don’t know.

We passed through a number of brightly coloured villages, with endless retailers selling the same things often with the most wonderful English signs and spelling. I loved ‘Deals for Wheels’, it seems everything has a price! Some of the hotels also have the most brilliant names and locations, one literally through a petrol station forecourt! If you decide to rebuild your house, it appears you simply tear it down and leave the bricks half way across the road. There are men and women carrying huge loads on their heads and everything you can possibly imagine is being sold on the side of the road. As we headed down through the hair-pin bends there were masses of bonnet macaque monkeys with their babies on the side of the road (very sweet!) and many areas where subsidence had caused landslides at least half way across it. Rubbish is everywhere and although they are trying to reduce plastic it remains a real problem, especially for all the cows, horses, goats and dogs which, although owned, wander freely around during the day and eat everything in sight. Ilona told me, much of her time is spent operating on animals to remove plastic. It is so wonderful to see the total lack of Western influence in this area of India, particularly in dress, almost all women in beautiful saris and the majority of men are still in lungis.

We reached the airport in good time and I had a smooth passage through to departures, where I seemed to be the only Westerner. Our flight was on time and we were all ushered on to a bus, which grandly headed off, drove once around the airplane and dropped us back straight in front of the gate we came out of – maybe five yards closer to the plane! Mariam had booked an extra seat for me as she was concerned I might not like my neighbour so I had a very comfortable journey and forty five minutes later I was in Chennai. This time Mary was first off the carousel and there was Dhananjayan to meet me and drive me back to the Ram’s lovely city home.

Ram took me for the most amazing dinner in the Chinese restaurant of the Leela Palace Hotel. It is like walking with a celebrity, everyone knows who he is and wants to speak to him including the chief of police who ‘just had to come and shake his hand’! Dinner was utterly delicious and beyond spoiling.