I Prefer Tamil Nadu

Nicholas Coleridge writes:

• When people ask me where they should go in India, I always say either Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu. Mostly they choose to go to Rajasthan but I think prefer Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan has the exotic colour, the turbans and the saris but in all other respects Tamil Nadu is exactly what you want from India. It’s very lush with huge, centuries-old trees, great shrines and the best and least-visited Shiva and Vishnu temples. The temples are almost all impossible to pronounce, let alone spell, like Gangaikonda Cholaprurum, Chidambaram, Darasuram and Mamalla-purum, which is probably why people don’t go to them much.
• You fly into Chennai so it’s a bit off the tourist track and hard to get to, but it’s worth it. You could spend at least two weeks going south from Chennai to the Polk Strait and see something fascinating every single day.
• Tamil Nadu is intensely hot but with lots of cool shade. There are jungles and paddy fields and beautiful villages full of straw huts — thankfully they don’t seem to have discovered concrete. The combination of strong heat, shimmering landscape and incredibly sexy temples with their 1.001 ideas is wonderful.
• One of my favourite places is the French enclave at Pondicherry, a mini colony on the Coromandel coast. One of my dreams is to live there some day. The beach is so serene, with white sand and palm trees and wonderful swimming. It’s like Goa was 25 years ago, so far not ruined. One reason is that rich Indians haven’t built their third homes here and the Russians and Italians haven’t swarmed in as they have to Goa. My other favourite place is the magical city of Madurai. It has an extraordinary spiritual feel.
• I first stumbled on Tamil Nadu 20 years ago. I was travelling through India with my wife, Georgia, and we arrived in Tamil Nadu for the last stage of our journey with low expectations. It turned out to be the most interesting part of our entire trip. We hired an Ambassador car with a driver and toured around, staying in basic but perfectly comfortable and clean places. We ate lots of fresh fish and lots of things involving bananas. They fry them, grill them, turn them into every kind of drink and one morning they even turned up with my eggs for breakfast.
• Of course there is the occasional downside. The pace of life is slow so don’t expect a train to run on time or for a taxi you’ve ordered to turn up. You need to make extra time here. This really isn’t a place for tourists, which is a huge plus in my book. There are no coaches or hordes and you’re not yet likely to be offered a cocktail menu, thank goodness. It’s still beautiful, magical and remote. Just thinking about it makes me want to go there. In fact, I’m definitely going to go later this year.

Nicholas Coleridge was talking to Charlotte Metcalf. His Deadly Sins is published by Orion at £12.99.