India’s little-known southwestern region is an enlightening place for the newcomer, with tea plantations and royal cities, fairy-tale palaces and bustling markets. What could be more inspiring than a road trip through Karnataka in a type 320 Open Touring Car.

Conveniently located in-between tourist favourite Kerala, and backpacker heaven Goa, Karnataka is a huge state that is very difficult to summarise. Taking an overnight train from the rice paddies and ancient dusty ruins of Hampi where farmers ride ox carts and women still wash clothes in the stream, to the glitzy restaurants and bars of Bangalore, one of the world’s foremost technological cities, you will feel as if you have travelled to a different country, rather than still being in the same state. Not only that, but somehow the train journey has flung you forward in time about 100 years! As the slogan of the Karnataka Tourism Board goes ‘One state. Many worlds’. They’re right!