Riding the bike - now totally unconcerned - into the heart of the temple complex at Srirangam

Riding the bike - now totally unconcerned - into the heart of the temple complex at Srirangam. The thousands of polychrome gods and goddesses at Madurai, and the crush of a thousand pilgrims. The smell of shrimp drying on the fishermen's beach at Kovalam, and that of pink flesh roasting on the adjacent tourist beach, the two separated only by a lighthouse on a headland.That, and the shifting rhythm of the road. I'd advise half throttle only going up through densely populated Kerala, past inland waterways and lagoons and coconut plantations - so many slender trunks that they seemed to stretch forever. A squeeze of the brakes for Cochin city with its crowded streets and merchant houses, the oldest church in Asia where Vasco da Gama was buried and the even older Jewish Synagogue.

Then down a gear or two for the climb up into the Westem Ghats and the Nilgiris, the road twisting and turning through mountain forests with working elephants hauling lumber, before breaking clear into rolling uplands and tea gardens around Ooty, where I watched a film crew shooting a Bombay starlet down by the lake.A kaleidoscope of dazzling colours and split-second visions of tranquillity as you go rushing past, the single cylinder thumping lazily away - that's what motorcycling through south India is all about. And at the end there is a certain sense of achievement, that you made the distance without ramming a rickshaw or being mown down by some maniacal trucker in an Ashok Leyland At times it can be frighteningly intense. But that moment when, at speed, you pirouette around a buffalo's upturned hornsJonathan Gregson's book "Bullet up the Grand Trunk Road, a motorcycle journey through India and Pakistan 50 years after independence and partition", is being published by Sinclair-Stevenson in June.FACT FILEROYAL ENFIELD'S motorcycle tours of south India can be arranged with tailor-made dates and itineraries for groups of 10 or more riders. Costs include accommodation, meals, vehicle maintenance, taxes and fuel, and run from $1,060 (pounds 680) per person for two people, one riding pillion and sharing rooms, to $1,330 for a lone rider with single room.Flights to Madras are not included, and it's advisable to take your own helmet (though wearing one is not legally required in India).

Also arrange your own insurance, as most travel policies don't cover motorcycling For details of tours, contact Royal Enfield Motors, Madras Tel. 00 91 44 54 3300, Fax 3253, or e-mail via the internet: enfield giasmd0l.vsnl .inOther tours include two weeks around Rajasthan, departs 17 February, 24 November or 15 December, from $1,295 (pounds 830); and the 17-day "Roof of the World" tour over the Himalayas and into Ladakh (no pillions), departs 14 July and 18 August, costing $1,615. For these, flights should be booked to Delhi.Warning: motorcycles are hired out to tourists by local travel agents or bike shops in resorts like Goa, Kovalam and Pondicherry Some don't have valid road tax, licences or insurance. I've heard "horror stories" from friends who hired a motorcycle and were immediately arrested by police in Goa who had been tipped off Imprisonment was threatened unless bribes were paid So double-check all documentation is in order.. The basement walls are painted ice cream pastel. Funky PVC sofas are filled with bright young things sipping cappuccino and nibbling bagels. A visiting fashion editor casually answers the phone while a svelte "It" girl in Tocca flicks through club flyers.