10th-12th May 2018

A little more surreal luxury awaited us at the Sukvillas Hotel. It consisted of many sand coloured buildings laid out in a vast campus all meticulously paved and planted in regimental fashion.

Little golf buggies were on hand to ferry guests from area to area.

We were given a short tour and then ushered to our quarters, a ‘royal tent’. It was a canopied room with beautiful furnishings and muslin curtains. It took a while to work out how to do the basics as the controls were all electronic. This had some hilarious repercussions which I will relate elsewhere.

We unpacked a little and went for a swim. The pool was immaculate with a lonely life guard on duty and no one else there.

Having failed to iron anything, (the plugs all heavily concealed behind the drapes), but dressed for dinner, we were collected by buggy and transported to the Indian restaurant, which was in a separate area, some distance away. It was all very grand in the softly lit courtyard, and we were treated with great deference. But we were strangely missing the coziness of Wildflower and the simplicity of all our other experiences.

This little fella was waiting for us on the bed when we got back. Someone clearly had a sense of humour..

Jeremy fell into a deep sleep. I couldn’t however, and sat outside just allowing everything to defragment and settle somewhere in the folders of my brain. I rang home and spoke to my cousin Simon. The builders were a bit behind, which soon brought me back to reality.

The next day a new driver collected us (a friend of Anil’s) who took us swiftly on to Amritsar, to the place where we had begun this whole odyssey: Ranjit’s Svaasa.

Chochi the dachshund was still there.

How different we felt from seven weeks ago when we’d arrived. A great booty of treasured memories and a cornucopia of film and photographs would be coming home with us.

We were welcomed back like old friends, and, having got there so early, decided to go for one last foray by tuk tuk into the denizen of souks for some silks. Once chosen, some vigorous bargaining took place and I had to walk away. But we did return with one or two which I was very pleased with.

Next morning, Saturday 12th May, we boarded the plane home. By some fluke Jeremy had managed to rebook us onto a direct flight. How lucky we were.

The plane slowly pulled away. The engines whined. The Airbus peeled itself from the ground.

Minutes later I filmed the cloud, lost in a haze of memories and people who will be with me for ever.