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Weekender Travel: Variety the Spice of Life on India Trip
By Alun Palmer
 TIRED, cold and dusty after an epic trek, what I wanted most was sleep.
Getting out of the car in the wilds of India's north-west frontier after a flight from London, connecting flight from New Delhi and then bus from Jodhpur airport, all I needed was a hot bath and a clean bed.
But emerging into the courtyard of Fort Chana was, quite simply, breathtaking.
Greeted by men on camels, a local band and staff bearing cooling drinks the sight was entrancing.
Stepping into the central square of this beautifully restored building erased all desire for sleep.
India, to many, conjures up images of beggars and depravation or Goa's hippy beaches. But there is more, far more, to it than that.
And our trip to Rajasthan in the north and Kerala in the south took in just two of the stark contrasts in this simply remarkable country.
The Fort was our first base, located just an hour's drive from Jodhpur. It has a delightful pool and during the peak months, specialist Ayurvedic masseurs are flown from Kerala in the south to help treat patrons.
Centred on the edge of the desert you can venture out by camel to watch the sunset.
Or you can go and spot the black buck antelopes springing through the bush.
Or you can meet the people - definitely meet the people.
The villagers of Luni welcome visitors warmly, proudly showing off their homes.
And in a small hamlet outside the village a stop for lunch gave us a real insight into their culture.
As the women prepared lunch, the men gathered under a small awning, out of the heat of the blazing sun.
As their children happily played at their feet, the men enacted an age-old ritual.
Crushing a pellet of opium, they mixed it with water before filtering it through small cloth filters.
Finally, after laboriously repeating this process six times, they poured the liquid into their cupped hands.
Tradition dictates that you drink out of your companion's hands so, not wishing to offend my hosts, I slurped down three handfuls of the sweet liquid (which did nothing for me).
Frowned on in the west, this is an accepted Rajasthani tradition, one immune from all changes in society.
Back at the Fort, the evenings are spent on the lawns sipping cocktails with the Maharaja as the air is filled with the beautiful music of Rama Ram.
Glasses are magically refilled as you feed on delicious little nibbles of mutton, liver and chicken tikka. Indeed, you are never allowed to go hungry as the superb local food comes course after course after course.
Jodhpur city offers the magnificent Meherangah Fort, a bastion of defence against invasion from the north.
Now it is a museum dedicated to the place's colourful past.
The narrow streets are packed with hawkers and the overhanging buildings provide perfect shade for shopping.
Jodhpur is the perfect spot if you are after a new pashmina. Items made here and destined to be sold for pounds 200 in exclusive Hermes and Armani boutiques can be picked up for just pounds 30.
After this feast of the senses we travelled to Kerala, a coastal community in the south of India.
It boasts that it's one of India's wealthiest and most literate regions. It is also known as the Venice of the East.
Just south of hippy hideaway Goa, it is astonishingly beautiful.
The backwaters, as they are called, are a series of stunningly beautiful freshwater lagoons that edge on to tea and spice plantations.
The Poovar Island Resort is in the heart of the backwaters and to get there you have to take a boat through flocks of sea eagles.
Both Poovar and the nearby Marari Beach Hotel offer extensive treatments which draw patients from around the world for many different complaints.
In these surroundings we found the perfect tonic for Mumbai's urban hustle.
Like Rajasthan, Kerala provides a stark contrast to that city, and shows how much India has to offer.
Source: Daily Mirror
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