I loved Dervla Murphy's [b:The Ukimwi Road|1419349|The Ukimwi Road|Dervla Murphy|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183442863s/1419349.jpg|469974], so I was excited to see this on a book-swap shelf at a hostel. At the same time, I was reluctant to pick it up, fearing that 30 year old descriptions of India, a place I'd never been, would mean little to me, as would this book's focus on travelling with a small child. That first fear was accurate - though I found Murphy's descriptions of India's history and the caste system interesting, the rest of her experiences just didn't grip me. As for the latter fear, I ended up wishing she had devoted more of the book to her daughter, and made "my first trip with my 5-year-old daughter" the overarching theme for her story. Instead, her daughter is given equal (or lesser) billing with descriptions of scenery and villagers, and the book's theme ends up something along the lines of "look how peaceful Coorg is and how nice the people here are", which is as cliched a travel-writing trope as you can get.

This is my first proper Dervla travel book. Before now I'd only read her autobiography on her early years growing up in Ireland. I love travel accounts by people who like to do slow-time travel and really explore the area. People who travel by foot or by bike are great. In this particular journey, November to March in the 1970s, she's not on the bike because of her little travelling companion: her five year old daughter, Rachel. This may have alarm bells ringing for many with the cutesy alert, but it's really not a problem here at all. Dervla comes across as a great down to earth mother, and they do the same exploring as she would have done on her own - even hiking through a national park together for several days.

The initial plan for this trip was travelling around Southern India for a few months, which they do. But I don't think she'd reckoned with falling in love with this little known, hilly area, Coorg, where they end up staying for a couple of months and experiencing all aspects of Indian life, including marriage, funerals, name ceremonies etc... It's an insight into life in India, and the caste system / albeit as it was in the 70s and this wonderful idyl of just getting away from it all. It's not the kind of thing most of us could ever afford to do - certainly not me - so well written books like these give me an outlet for these day dreams.

I do wonder what Murphy would make of India now - not that I've ever been - but I don't suppose Goa is still the relatively untouched hippy paradise it was back then. And I wonder what Coorg is like now. Bizarre to think that the children there in the book will now be middle aged.

Here's one of my favourite bits (a moment when I wish I was there):

"Suddenly I stopped and pointed into one of the wild mango-trees that grow by the roadside. Rachel looked and went scarlet with excitment.

"Monkeys!" she whispered ecstatically. "Millions and millions of monkeys!"

"About a dozen," I corrected prosaically. (p. 36)

It's just been such a great trip through India whilst I'm stuck in dreary January.