LIFE ON WHEELSTRAVEL + LEISURE / MARCH 2016
There’s poetry in the rattling movement and the exquisite
cameos framed liked paintings on the windows.
Onboard the opulent and recently refurbished luxury
train, one revisits the historical and the
modern by slowing oneself to the pace of experiential
travel, findsKALPANA SUNDERINSPIRED BY THE IMPERIAL CARS of the fl amboyant
Maharajas of yesteryears, the Deccan Odyssey
(operated by Cox and Kings) has many experiential
train journeys in South India, Maharashtra
Splendour being its whistle-stop tour of spiritual
towns like Nasik, Kolhapur, Goa, and Ratnagiri.
The coaches painted in royal blue and burgundy—
each named after some facet of Indian culture like
Bollywood, Tirth, and Abhang—take you on to see
the world unfurl from dawn to dusk. Green fi elds
bursting with sugarcane, two-wheelers with
milk cans strapped on their carriers, and small
stations with cacophonous vendors selling sweet
chai and hot vada pav.
It’s a history and culture ride bunged
together—at stations we are serenaded by pretty
girls in traditional costumes and treated to localLiving the
Dec c an Odyssey
A ceremonial welcome
with trumpets at the
Kolhapur station.