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On a Shoestring to Coorg
With her five-year-old daughter as a traveling companion, Dervla Murphy set off for Bombay, with plans to meander through southern India. Traveling by boat and by peasant-filled buses, Dervla and Rachel made countless friends. Along the way, they fell in love with Coorg, the smallest of Indias natural beauty brings to life this tiny mountain paradise.
261 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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About the author
Dervla Murphy
53 books282 followersDervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965. Over twenty travel books followed including her highly acclaimed autobiography, Wheels Within Wheels.
Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.
Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.
She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.
Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.
Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.
She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 19, 2021
This is a diary style book, with diversions into the local history, the local culture and some of the many people that the author a her five year old daughter come into contact with on their four month travels in Coorg, in 1973/74.
Never a fan of big cities, Murphy heads out of Bombay relatively quickly, and spends only a few days in Goa before finding a place they like, and base themselves in Coorg (now renamed Kodagu), a district in Karnataka. From there they take shorter excursions, returning to stay a couple of months and for a short while become a part of the village community.
I really enjoy Murphy's writing. For me, she gets the balance right. She writes about the things I find interesting, and she gets the mix right - explains in detail some things and skims over others, and for me at least it all works. I also find her pretty amusing, which I know not all people do.
Like others I felt some apprehension about the fact her five year old daughter Rachel joined her in her travels (this is the first book which Rachel features, although I have read a later book - Where the Indus Is Young: Walking to Baltistan which also features Rachel). Initially, for the author, Rachel accompanying her means she is not on her bicycle, and cannot undertake the hiking or climbing to the same extent, and so is on trains and buses more than your usual Dervla Murphy book, but really for a five year old, Rachel is pretty easy work. She is ridiculously independent and seems to have common sense beyond her years - well she is portrayed that way in the book... Really her presence adds to the book, and doesn't diminish the story at all.
I found it pretty amusing the way the author was quite happy for Rachel to make her own experiences, despite the risks. It is fair to say this lack of parental guidance in 1974, was still pretty unusual, but I can't see the same level of trust (trust in good luck maybe?) now.
Having literally just arrived at their first hotel in Bombay:
... I saw her disappearing up the street with two new-found Indian friends. It seems she has gone to lunch with someone; I felt too exhausted to find out exactly with whom, or where. P5.
And another example (of several) at a wildlife sanctuary in Thekkady
After lunch I left Rachel playing in the jungle near the hotel - where there were two tame elephants and lots of non-shy langurs to entertain her - while I walked halfway back to Kumili in search... P157.
And another quote I stumbled on while looking for child abandonment examples:
At a little distance from the Co-operative building, on the edge of the forest, stands our 'local', a ramshakle cottage from which Subaya every morning procures my breakfast litre of palm-tody for 50 paise. (Where else nowadays could one buy a litre of beer for 2 1/2 pence?) ... If one neglects to drink it within a few hours it is said to do terrible things to the innards, so at last I have an excuse for drinking beer with my breakfast. The Coorgs think it so health-giving that even elderly female pillars of respectability habitually have a glass (but not, admittedly, a litre) before breakfast. P187, (her brackets).
Excellent stuff.
Never a fan of big cities, Murphy heads out of Bombay relatively quickly, and spends only a few days in Goa before finding a place they like, and base themselves in Coorg (now renamed Kodagu), a district in Karnataka. From there they take shorter excursions, returning to stay a couple of months and for a short while become a part of the village community.
I really enjoy Murphy's writing. For me, she gets the balance right. She writes about the things I find interesting, and she gets the mix right - explains in detail some things and skims over others, and for me at least it all works. I also find her pretty amusing, which I know not all people do.
Like others I felt some apprehension about the fact her five year old daughter Rachel joined her in her travels (this is the first book which Rachel features, although I have read a later book - Where the Indus Is Young: Walking to Baltistan which also features Rachel). Initially, for the author, Rachel accompanying her means she is not on her bicycle, and cannot undertake the hiking or climbing to the same extent, and so is on trains and buses more than your usual Dervla Murphy book, but really for a five year old, Rachel is pretty easy work. She is ridiculously independent and seems to have common sense beyond her years - well she is portrayed that way in the book... Really her presence adds to the book, and doesn't diminish the story at all.
I found it pretty amusing the way the author was quite happy for Rachel to make her own experiences, despite the risks. It is fair to say this lack of parental guidance in 1974, was still pretty unusual, but I can't see the same level of trust (trust in good luck maybe?) now.
Having literally just arrived at their first hotel in Bombay:
... I saw her disappearing up the street with two new-found Indian friends. It seems she has gone to lunch with someone; I felt too exhausted to find out exactly with whom, or where. P5.
And another example (of several) at a wildlife sanctuary in Thekkady
After lunch I left Rachel playing in the jungle near the hotel - where there were two tame elephants and lots of non-shy langurs to entertain her - while I walked halfway back to Kumili in search... P157.
And another quote I stumbled on while looking for child abandonment examples:
At a little distance from the Co-operative building, on the edge of the forest, stands our 'local', a ramshakle cottage from which Subaya every morning procures my breakfast litre of palm-tody for 50 paise. (Where else nowadays could one buy a litre of beer for 2 1/2 pence?) ... If one neglects to drink it within a few hours it is said to do terrible things to the innards, so at last I have an excuse for drinking beer with my breakfast. The Coorgs think it so health-giving that even elderly female pillars of respectability habitually have a glass (but not, admittedly, a litre) before breakfast. P187, (her brackets).
Excellent stuff.
November 29, 2021
Sometimes the best trips are the ones with the sketchiest of outlines. So it was with Dervla Murphy who is accompanied by her five-year-old daughter, Rachel in their four-month travels in Coorg, in 1973/74. They had landed in Bombay but were there very little time as it was too busy and oppressive so they decide to take the slow route to the southernmost point of India, Cape Comorin.
One is a much less light-hearted traveller with a foal at foot.
Rather than move ever onwards, they decide that they like one region so much that they choose to return to it and spend more time there. In the end, they end up staying two months in Coorg settling into life there on their tiny budget. This longer time spent there gives Murphy the time that she needs to really understand the people around her.
She is a much braver person than me, I am not sure that I would have taken a five-year-old to India. That said, I think that her daughter Rachel really liked the trip even there were a few heart-stopping moments. To say that she has a relaxed parenting style is a bit of an understatement, she allows Rachel her own independence to choose those she wants to play with, leaving her home or with other people while she undertakes chores and shopping trips.
Every day I fall more seriously in love with Coorg; it is the only place outside of my only little corner of Ireland, where I could imagine myself happy to live permanently.
I have had a few hit and misses with Murphy’s books before, but I thought this was really good. The diary format works really well for this book as she recounts the events of the day that has just passed and the time spent in one place gives an insight that someone passing through would never see. She is a pragmatic traveller, wanting to experience the country and slowly but surely falls in love with Coorg and the people there. If you want a flavour of what India was like in the early 1970s this is as a good a book to read as any other.
One is a much less light-hearted traveller with a foal at foot.
Rather than move ever onwards, they decide that they like one region so much that they choose to return to it and spend more time there. In the end, they end up staying two months in Coorg settling into life there on their tiny budget. This longer time spent there gives Murphy the time that she needs to really understand the people around her.
She is a much braver person than me, I am not sure that I would have taken a five-year-old to India. That said, I think that her daughter Rachel really liked the trip even there were a few heart-stopping moments. To say that she has a relaxed parenting style is a bit of an understatement, she allows Rachel her own independence to choose those she wants to play with, leaving her home or with other people while she undertakes chores and shopping trips.
Every day I fall more seriously in love with Coorg; it is the only place outside of my only little corner of Ireland, where I could imagine myself happy to live permanently.
I have had a few hit and misses with Murphy’s books before, but I thought this was really good. The diary format works really well for this book as she recounts the events of the day that has just passed and the time spent in one place gives an insight that someone passing through would never see. She is a pragmatic traveller, wanting to experience the country and slowly but surely falls in love with Coorg and the people there. If you want a flavour of what India was like in the early 1970s this is as a good a book to read as any other.
December 10, 2016
Dervla Murphy is one of my heroes. An Irish woman, she has travelled the world on a shoestring, getting around by foot, donkey and bicycle. I first came across her work when I was looking information about Africa and took The Ukimwi Road: From Kenya to Zimbabwe out of the library. Fascinating reading, with much to say about Central Africa, including how AIDS was transmitted along a major international highway, and, well before the horrible genocide in Rwanda, the way that Tutsis, pushed out of Rwanda in an earlier conflict, were waiting in Uganda to return.
This time I was looking for portraits of South India for my next book project. (Called Unidentical Twins, it will compare various political entities that are the same yet very different, including the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.) During the trip that Murphy recounts in this book, she takes her five year old daughter on the pair's first major expedition, and the account is fascinating. They travel very light: two backpacks, one small enough for little Rachel to carry, and that's it. The time is December and January 1973-74, and while they have contacts to visit, the pair are very much on their own.
Rachel is a trooper, as is her Mum. They have mishaps--including a bout of brucellosis, not a disease you mess with--but they see people, places and things that few Western travellers did at that point. Travelling with a child opens new possibilities too.
Well into her 80s, Murphy continues to travel. Rachel's early experiences apparently had no bad effects: one of Murphy's most recent books tells of her travels with Rachel and Rachel's three daughters in Cuba, The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba. That one sounds like it should be good to read in this post-Fidel Castro days.
This time I was looking for portraits of South India for my next book project. (Called Unidentical Twins, it will compare various political entities that are the same yet very different, including the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.) During the trip that Murphy recounts in this book, she takes her five year old daughter on the pair's first major expedition, and the account is fascinating. They travel very light: two backpacks, one small enough for little Rachel to carry, and that's it. The time is December and January 1973-74, and while they have contacts to visit, the pair are very much on their own.
Rachel is a trooper, as is her Mum. They have mishaps--including a bout of brucellosis, not a disease you mess with--but they see people, places and things that few Western travellers did at that point. Travelling with a child opens new possibilities too.
Well into her 80s, Murphy continues to travel. Rachel's early experiences apparently had no bad effects: one of Murphy's most recent books tells of her travels with Rachel and Rachel's three daughters in Cuba, The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba. That one sounds like it should be good to read in this post-Fidel Castro days.
December 18, 2025
Parenting with Dervla Murphy: The tone is set on page five when she and her five-year-old daughter, Rachel, land in Mumbai: “It seems she has gone to lunch with someone; I felt too exhausted to find out exactly with whom or where.” Over the course of their stay in Southern India, Rachel swims in polluted water, plays in 80-foot-deep wells, wanders through jungle alone, and generally spends most of her time delightfully and perilously unsupervised. Perfect book to read while stir-crazy and setting in with a newborn!
As with Full Tilt, I loved the writing but could do without the sweeping generalizations (and defense of colonialism). I might try her autobiography or book about Ireland next time - the heavy handed opinions might be easier to take when they're applied closer to home.
As with Full Tilt, I loved the writing but could do without the sweeping generalizations (and defense of colonialism). I might try her autobiography or book about Ireland next time - the heavy handed opinions might be easier to take when they're applied closer to home.
January 8, 2015
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.
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.
October 16, 2012
And with that comment I was content.
Last line from On a Shoestring to Coorg. I hoped this would be an exciting travelogue to read after the disappointment of some others I’d recently read. Sadly, this book was focussed on banal factual details rather than the experience of travelling in India, which made it a drag. The only aspect that cheered up the book was the amusing comments of Dervla’s 5 year old daughter, Rachel.
Last line from On a Shoestring to Coorg. I hoped this would be an exciting travelogue to read after the disappointment of some others I’d recently read. Sadly, this book was focussed on banal factual details rather than the experience of travelling in India, which made it a drag. The only aspect that cheered up the book was the amusing comments of Dervla’s 5 year old daughter, Rachel.
July 5, 2017
A slow read, but a delightful antidote to the "Do everything in 48 hours" type of travel book littering the shelves of bookshops. With this book you get the flavours and the smells, and you also get the child's-eye view as this is an account Murphy's first extended trip with her then 5-year old daughter. You have to remember it's written in 1976 so its account of India is outdated, but it's all the more fascinating for that. A joy of a read.
April 9, 2015
Very interesting diariased account of travels by mother and five year old daughter through India in the early 1970s - mainly Coorg area. A little too pacey in places and flits over quite a lot quite quickly when you would like to have heard a bit more. But those passages that are given time are beautifully descriptive and overall a really good read.
June 5, 2019
Decent read. Just couldn't deal with the racism of the author despite her going out of the way to explain to us why her racist opinions are not racist.
July 15, 2024
Another Dervla Murphy read, this time about her travels in Southern India with her 5-year old daughter. I find Murphy's books about her travels with her daughter as a child endlessly fascinating as a parent. I know parenting mores were different in 1976 but the level of independence she allows her 5-year old is quite something. Few parents of the time would have been comfortable with letting their 5-year old run off up the street with new friends in a city abroad they've never been to before where they don't speak the language. Today I would estimate about zero parents would be comfortable in doing so. Her daughter also acquires brucellosis (surely avoidable if they had just drank pasteurized milk or boiled it first), a sprained arm and an infected foot that swells up to twice its size(!). CPS would be on high alert with Murphy if it was today. As a parent, my hair stood on end at times reading what poor Rachel went through but she would now be in her 50s with adult children of her own so clearly no permanent damage was done (no physical damage at least...).
Murphy's love for the people of the Coorg region (now known as the Kodagu district, I believe) shines through the narrative. She appreciates the culture and religious beliefs and is largely respectful of local norms and traditions. At times, the text's 1970s provenance is all too clear and Murphy's mindset is dated but that is to be expected for a book that is about 50 years old. Overall, her love of the region is apparent and she makes the effort to get to know local people and explain their values even if she doesn't always share them or understand them. I found this book to be a very interesting insight into an India that is now long gone. The region she writes about is now much more developed economically and I'm sure much wealthier.
Murphy's love for the people of the Coorg region (now known as the Kodagu district, I believe) shines through the narrative. She appreciates the culture and religious beliefs and is largely respectful of local norms and traditions. At times, the text's 1970s provenance is all too clear and Murphy's mindset is dated but that is to be expected for a book that is about 50 years old. Overall, her love of the region is apparent and she makes the effort to get to know local people and explain their values even if she doesn't always share them or understand them. I found this book to be a very interesting insight into an India that is now long gone. The region she writes about is now much more developed economically and I'm sure much wealthier.
September 1, 2021
Observant, intrepid traveller with numerous insights into Coorgs in southern India. Murphy is your classic 70's Western couch-surfing, I know a friend of a friend, who manages to have an extraordinary trip on little money, not a tourist but more as an embedded visitor. Descriptions of weddings, funerals, caste system, trains, buses, etc. are all fascinating and eye-opening.
Interesting for another reason, too. Here's a typical passage regarding her daughter: "Rachel said she would like to live here always and I can see why. There is never any fuss about the dangers of motor-traffic, or about getting too hot, too cold or too wet--she can run naked all day through the forest and over the paddy-valleys and in and out of as many streams and ponds as come her way. This morning she was out with friends from 8:00 to 10:30 and returned mud to the ears, having obviously had a whale of a time in some buffalo hole."
Rachel is five-years-old. Book published in 1976, so probably a child of the late '60's.
Free-spirited Mom giving her child the chance to learn on her own? Lazy self-centered Mom risking the life of a five-year-old by pretending that neglect is actually a virtue (freedom) so that she can pursue her own interests while leaving Rachel to hers? Rachel makes it through, but not without a series of illnesses (lice in eyelid, for example), injuries, 10 mile walks, stomach ailments, wanderings in villages, etc. Murphy goes to great pains to tell the reader repeatedly how much Rachel loved every part of the trip . . . The lady doth protest too much? She took numerous risks and got away with them all. Being lucky isn't being wise.
Interesting for another reason, too. Here's a typical passage regarding her daughter: "Rachel said she would like to live here always and I can see why. There is never any fuss about the dangers of motor-traffic, or about getting too hot, too cold or too wet--she can run naked all day through the forest and over the paddy-valleys and in and out of as many streams and ponds as come her way. This morning she was out with friends from 8:00 to 10:30 and returned mud to the ears, having obviously had a whale of a time in some buffalo hole."
Rachel is five-years-old. Book published in 1976, so probably a child of the late '60's.
Free-spirited Mom giving her child the chance to learn on her own? Lazy self-centered Mom risking the life of a five-year-old by pretending that neglect is actually a virtue (freedom) so that she can pursue her own interests while leaving Rachel to hers? Rachel makes it through, but not without a series of illnesses (lice in eyelid, for example), injuries, 10 mile walks, stomach ailments, wanderings in villages, etc. Murphy goes to great pains to tell the reader repeatedly how much Rachel loved every part of the trip . . . The lady doth protest too much? She took numerous risks and got away with them all. Being lucky isn't being wise.
December 18, 2017
I quite enjoyed this travelogue of a mum taking her 5 year old daughter to what sounds like a delightful part of India in 1974. The writing doesn't feel dated and it's easy to forget that the little girl would now be 48, until there is a specific time marker (a party for the Dalai Lama's 38th birthday, for example)
I do wonder what today's mothers of young children make of this, though. I can't imagine some of my friends telling their 5 year old daughters they can go for a walk by themselves, or just to put up with people pinching your fair skin because they think you're pretty and you shouldn't hurt their feelings! The child is also allowed to go off and play for hours with new found friends or is left with babysitters the author hasn't known for long. Can't see that happening now.
I do wonder what today's mothers of young children make of this, though. I can't imagine some of my friends telling their 5 year old daughters they can go for a walk by themselves, or just to put up with people pinching your fair skin because they think you're pretty and you shouldn't hurt their feelings! The child is also allowed to go off and play for hours with new found friends or is left with babysitters the author hasn't known for long. Can't see that happening now.
February 25, 2021
India 1973/4. This was my second book by Murphy I read in a row, written with 25 years in between. Except that I read the later one first (One Foot in Laos) so I was surprised that she had been much more mellow when she was younger. But she has clearly always been brave - to travel around India in the least possible luxury with a 5 year old child. It is lovely to read how much she respects her daughter's innate wisdom and allows her freedom to explore in a country that many Westerners see as dangerous. 5-year old Rachel had a childhood to envy for sure. I also appreaciate Murphy's books very much because she always tries to be where the locals are and take into consideration their customs, not impose her own. She gives long description of local festivals and beliefs. I've never been to Coorg but it seems a special place.
March 8, 2026
Dervla Murphy is a clever writer and makes her journey to Coorg really accessible. However, two things really bothered me with the text. The last four or five chapters of the text are such a drag because they are so pedantic. And yet, for all her curiosity to know about India, there is casteism in the text (for instance, her repeated use of the word 'Harijan' as compared to Dalit). Sure, a traveller shouldn't be expected to know the ins and outs of every place and its culture. However, for a traveller who is as pedantic as her, surely, she must have noticed the casteism operating in her narrative?
February 27, 2026
Initiation in Bombay
Hippies in Goa
Tibetans in Mundgod
Discovering Coorg
Musings in Mysore
Andanipura Farm
The Huthri Festival
A Glance at Kerala : Cochin's Kathakali Dance
Pilgrims at Cape Comorin : Family Life in Tamil Nadu
On the Coast of Coromandel
Fever in Madurai : Wildlife in Periyar
Ancestor Veneration in Devangeri
Caste in Coorg
Forest Funeral
A Naming Ceremony and a Wedding
Praying and Dancing
Hippies in Goa
Tibetans in Mundgod
Discovering Coorg
Musings in Mysore
Andanipura Farm
The Huthri Festival
A Glance at Kerala : Cochin's Kathakali Dance
Pilgrims at Cape Comorin : Family Life in Tamil Nadu
On the Coast of Coromandel
Fever in Madurai : Wildlife in Periyar
Ancestor Veneration in Devangeri
Caste in Coorg
Forest Funeral
A Naming Ceremony and a Wedding
Praying and Dancing
May 9, 2021
I have read several of Dervla's books and I find this one of my favourites. We must take into account that this was the seventies. It is immensely interesting to read that someone can leave her child unattended playing in the jungle in a foreign country. How times have changed! Dervla has amazing observation skills and does not shy to express her views. I like that. I don't agree with her thoughts on vegetarianism but then I remind myself this was written almost 50 years ago! All in all i find this a very good read, especially with Rachel being such an amazing travel companion (much more patient than my son and I've travelled a lot with him).
(I don't know if Dervla reads her own reviews, but if you do Dervla, I am a big fan of your writing and your attitude and greatly enjoy your books.)
To anyone who is interested to read about South India in the 70s, I recommend this.
(I don't know if Dervla reads her own reviews, but if you do Dervla, I am a big fan of your writing and your attitude and greatly enjoy your books.)
To anyone who is interested to read about South India in the 70s, I recommend this.
October 24, 2022
travel writer Dervla Murphy and her 5 year old daughter, Rachel, explore southern India in the early 70s
interesting diversions into local culture and history, particularly in the Coorg region
very relaxed parenting style, often leaving daughter to her own devices in remote village as she takes care of her chores or goes for a wander
interesting diversions into local culture and history, particularly in the Coorg region
very relaxed parenting style, often leaving daughter to her own devices in remote village as she takes care of her chores or goes for a wander
January 15, 2020
I started this book as I arrived home from a 5 month stay in South India. It was interesting and beautiful to juxtapose Dervla's experience over 40 years ago with my own. It is fascinating to see how different but at the same time how similar her experiences in India are to mine.
December 2, 2021
I like Dervlas grit but seemed more than a tad racist in this book but maybe that's a colonial hangover. Not a page turner for sure
January 12, 2026
Very pithy observations on an immensely complex world. Delightful rich imagery without any pomposity of verbosity
November 4, 2011
Well I didn't finish this so it's a bit naughty to review it. But it was my book group book, and I probably would have finished but I had to go away and I just didn't want to take it. So it wasn't great and unputdownable, but it was okay.
Murphy biked. bussed and walked around remote places for decades. In the 70s, when she visited Coorg, it probably was remote and hard to get to. Now she could update everyone on her experiences on her facebook page, and most of the Indians she met could read her blog as well. The world is no longer so intrepid.
Book group discussion was mostly about her daughter accompanying her - her 5 year old daughter. They got sick, they stayed in grotty accomodation, she let her daughter wander off with all sorts of Indian families and just trusted that her daughter would be safe. We had the same discussion over the Glass Castle - should parents do this to their children? Or was this accepabtable once?
I liked the information about the caste system and the differences between Indian provinces, but it wasn't gripping. So I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, but I didn't feel cheated of the 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back by reading it :)
Murphy biked. bussed and walked around remote places for decades. In the 70s, when she visited Coorg, it probably was remote and hard to get to. Now she could update everyone on her experiences on her facebook page, and most of the Indians she met could read her blog as well. The world is no longer so intrepid.
Book group discussion was mostly about her daughter accompanying her - her 5 year old daughter. They got sick, they stayed in grotty accomodation, she let her daughter wander off with all sorts of Indian families and just trusted that her daughter would be safe. We had the same discussion over the Glass Castle - should parents do this to their children? Or was this accepabtable once?
I liked the information about the caste system and the differences between Indian provinces, but it wasn't gripping. So I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, but I didn't feel cheated of the 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back by reading it :)
August 23, 2012
I loved Dervla Murphy's The Ukimwi Road, 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.
June 14, 2012
Its a travel memoir set in the 1970's where the author takes her 5 year old daughter to a trip to India. She stays in cheap hotels or with friends, travels using the local buses and trains. The author has been to the main city, Bombay (now Mumbai) before and does not seem to like it from her descriptions. She travels down south to Karnataka, Kerala etc. Of all the places, she loves the Coorg the most and a huge chunk of the book is devoted to her love of Coorg, its history, the people, the culture. As an Indian , I could relate to a lot of things, like the passion for reading among the Keralites as well the practice of caste system, which sadly is still in force till date.
The book drags at places. People who are Indians or have been to India might like this book. Many things and even names of places are outdated so not for people who is planning their trips. Just read if you want to see a glimpse of old India or love reading travel memoirs.
The book drags at places. People who are Indians or have been to India might like this book. Many things and even names of places are outdated so not for people who is planning their trips. Just read if you want to see a glimpse of old India or love reading travel memoirs.
February 8, 2017
This was an interesting read. Dervla Murphy travelled a bit around South India with her 5 year old daughter in the early 1970s. She remarks on many occasions about how she hates travelling by bus and is only doing so because of Rachel, her daughter. This does get a little annoying after a while. She obviously likes southern India far more than the north which she complained bitterly about in an earlier book. While I realise that the early 1970s were a much different time to present, I couldn't quite get over the number of times she left her 5 year old either in the care of someone she had just met or seemingly on her own - once saying that she left Rachel playing in the jungle beside their hotel while she walked into a village some distance away to get shoes! On the whole, this is a well written book and quite different from other travel books, as Murphy is very different to other travellers.
August 30, 2012
I was looking at a more gripping travelogue cos the author was making her way through Coorg with her 5 year old daughter. I was however quite disappointed with the writing style... though I admire the fact that she bicycled through parts if India when getting around and getting through was really difficult.
July 30, 2016
Really nice diary style travelogue. There are a few digressions (and opinions) that make this a book of its time, but Murphy's observations are familiar forty years on. It's a gentle read that is particularly enjoyable if you have familiarity with Karnataka.
December 29, 2021
I haven't enjoyed a book so much for a while. I appreciated the slow travel in this book vs. some of her others; laughed a lot at her approach to embracing life (in a good way); and now really want to travel in India again.
March 28, 2008
Read this in India, which made me totally identify with the author's tales of traveling through the southern part of the country...
May 10, 2012
One of the first and most charming books I've ever read on India
February 10, 2014
Loved this road trip book, all the characters they meet along the way and the chapter on Tibetans is lovely. Makes me even more lustful to travel to India.
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