Best and cheapest

Hiring a car  and driver seems to be an easy thing to arrange in India, and we used this mode of transport three times on this trip - for periods of four days, two days, and one day respectively.

It's not actually cheapest. It's considerably more expensive than the extraordinarily cheap trains and buses, with a typical rate of about $40 per leisurely day, including the driver, his accommodation and his other expenses. So it's very affordable for your typical western tourist, and  incredibly convenient.

'Best and cheapest' was actually the frequent refrain of our first driver, Anujee, who was with us from Bangalore to Calicut, with stays at Mysore and Wayanad along the way. He took great pride in delivering us to lots of excellent little cafes and roadside stalls for our snacks and coffees. They were always the 'best and cheapest', just as he promised they would be.

It's recommended you give your driver a tip of $4 or $5 per day at the end of the hire. Some of ours were so good - so helpful, courteous, and informative - that we gave them a little more. We soon got into the routine also of having them join us at the table for our in-journey snacks and meals, and paying for them whenever they would let us.

We weren't quite sure what to do about the habit of at least one of them of sleeping in the car, while we were in our very comfortable hotels. We eventually reasoned that they had probably been given an allowance for paid accommodation - many hotels apparently have cheap accommodation available for drivers - but had probably opted to pocket this instead. They seemed very happy with their lot anyway, and always turned up in the morning with a freshly cleaned limousine.

Not so many years ago in India the only car you saw or got to ride in was the good old Ambassador. Now it's all changed. We rode in a variety of perfectly modern small white cars, made by Indian and foreign owned companies.

These drivers fortunately tend to be a different breed from the bus drivers. By and large they try to shield their delicate foreign passengers from the horrors of the traffic outside. The trucks and buses hurtle around, trying to kill each other and us. We concentrate on gently and submissively avoiding them. We did see the aftermath of one small bingle between two small white cars, but we ourselves came through it all unscathed.

One unexpected little expense on one of our car journeys was incurred when we parked on an innocent looking patch of roadside for a few minutes. When we came back a very official looking chap had turned up and was filling out a parking ticket of some sort. No way was our driver going to handle this one - he turned it straight over to us. The fellow wanted 20 rupees (40c), and of course didn't have change for our notes. Usual story. We went through all our wallets and pockets, collected all our little coins together, and they totalled 17 rupees. He settled for that.