All bar none

I've never been one for the multi-cloned chain pubs that seems to have saturated many parts of the UK and also globally much preferring to go for something a bit different or a little unusual, this does sometimes come at a price including solo ventures as some of my travel companions would really not like to frequent some of the more salubrious places. I mean who can't warm to sitting into a cafe full of Afghanistani's in a side street in Munich drinking some very odd beer out of a teapot and teacup and looking at a lot of maps.

I've visited some cheap places (Vietnam - 6p for 'unfiltered' beer) and not so cheap places through to the likes of Kuala Lumpur where it was over £10 a beer and would have been cheaper to fly Air Asia to another country for the evening and drink there and fly back again. I've gone through secret doorway/passages to hit the inner sanctums of same strange drinking holes in many a different city and met some great characters. One bizarre episode was during one of the many India visits in Kerala where I decided much as I loved the luxury of the Taj Group Hotels I needed to find something a little more local and with that had my unofficial passport stamped from my wife to wander for the next few hours.

Four of us were on a mini tour around south west India and had Kochi as our main base in between various other excursions, the Hotel looked great online and in fact Charles and Camilla had stayed there a few months earlier so high hopes and it was the Taj which had never let me down - so far so good but when it came to the sea-view I could only relate it to looking at Canvey Island with the view from the infinity pool being that of a wall of large multi-coloured containers but the sun was hot, the staff lovely and the food great however it was time to have a little parole time.

A quick skip and nod past the always friendly chaps on the security gate and I was out, I'd already been into the main town via the local ferry for the great value all day travelcard of 4p so this time it was land based not across the water. There was the added bonus of a disused railway station to explore as well.

A short walk and a load of crumbling buildings which looked like they could be fun, the security at best was dormant and persuadable but the main threat was the pack of hounds who could and did appear in large number at random points and not having the safety net of a scooter I put risk against reward and for once and walked the opposite way. It was thirsty work but the sun was firmly past the yard arm so a cold one was in order but nothing obvious until I ceased a champagne or rather kingfisher moment. I asked at this gate if there was a bar nearby and was ushered into a hole in the wall place initially with no lights and a flickering TV showing Dirty Dancing with India Sub Titles - I thought this will do but as I was tucking into #2 I was asked to leave

But it was not all bad news as word had got around they had an English visitor and before I knew it I was being taken to the Officer's Restaurant and I was asked what ship I was from, thinking on my feet and probably as a result of watching too many Bond Movies , I said I was part of a security team from the UK Navy on a secret mission, it went down a treat as I got taken into the Maharajah's bar , sat down , fed and watered and a stream of people walking past and either shaking my hand or just looking at me. But it was time to end this mission before I got rumbled and also as usual somewhat over my pass from the Hotel. I tried to pay but they would have none of it so a few photos later from the main team which are probably on the wall there now and I was on my toes back to HQ and report back into M.