Obese Hong Kong food writer walks it off in India: 8 days in and weight change has begun

Mischa Moselle has already seen his waistline shrink and he can walk an hour without stopping, but he’s finding it hard to avoid the carbs at mealtimes

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Mischa Moselle

Published: 2:30pm, 7 Dec 2015Updated: 11:08am, 11 Dec 2015

You know you’re unfit when you’re wheezing up a hill and a nun breezes past leading a group of children.

It’s day eight of my attempt to walk 1,450 kilometres in 90 days in India and I’m at the Edakkal caves in Kerala, known for the inscriptions several thousand years old on their walls. Nothing here is quite as it seems. The “cave” is actually a gap between two boulders with a roof made by a further boulder that rolled on top.

I’m told the climb is “a short walk and then just a few steps”. It’s a very steep short walk to me and there are 200 steps. Scores of people pass me on the way up but eventually I keep pace with a group of middle-aged women who are as intimidated as me but far less breathless.

SEE ALSO: The route of obese Hongkonger’s 1,450km quest to shed the kilos

The climb is one of nature’s jokes, with quite a few false summits. Then the caves are down a set of stairs that you well know you will have to climb back up again. But the steeper the climb, the better the view. There really is a gorgeous panorama of the hill-dotted plains of Kerala.

I’m told the climb is “a short walk and then just a few steps”. It’s a very steep short walk to me and there are 200 steps

I feel like I’ve done 45 minutes of cardio and blown away the cobwebs from the early disappointments of my starting point Bangalore and then Mysore.

I timed my arrival with the end of the monsoon – for 99 years it has ended by early or mid-November. Not this centenary year – it’s the longest monsoon on record and as a headline in The Times of India says, “Bangalore set for wettest November on record”. It’s not just that I’m not equipped for rain, the weather casts a depressing grey blanket over everything.

On a walk through an upmarket Bangalore side street I almost vomit on the spot as I pass some rubbish that has been soaking in rainwater and then been sitting in the warm fug.

Next stop Mysore has the Wodeyar maharajah’s palace and is full of parks. It recently won a prize as the cleanest of India’s 479 cities but seen through a constant drizzle it doesn’t look that endearing.

I manage one good walk – on a day trip to see historic king Tipu Sultan’s summer palace and mosque.