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  • Shahnavaz Mehta
Currently traveling
Nov 2018 – Sep 2025

India

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    Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    An Extra Long Day To Myanmar

    January 18, 2019 in India ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today is our final day in Chennai and as we hadn't had a real bed in a while and check out at the hotel wasn't till 12pm we made the most of it and just lounged about, got our bags airport ready and then checked out. We had a few hours to kill but hoebstly there isn't anything to see or do in Chennai so we just ate a biryani, went to a juice place where I had a fruit salad and Will had a date and vanilla ice cream shake and we just sat and read for a while until we were falling asleep at our seat. We went to the airport early so that we could just sit there instead. There were various methods we could have taken but we decided to take the 1 year old metro line. Yesterday Imran told us that is still really clean, efficient and new because the locals don't want to take it, instead they all take the slightly cheaper local buses or trains. We didn't quite believe him as let's be honest no transport is actually empty in India... But wow, it actually was. When going down the esculator there was only the two of us until another family arrived a couple of minutes later.

    In half an hour we arrived at Chennai Airport with plenty of hours to spare, so we grabbed something to eat and then checked in. Luckily we ate before as once on the other side the choice was very limited and more expensive than in the UK!

    The flight was fine and we soon arrived in Bangkok at 2:30am where we found some chairs to sleep on before deciding our next move. To be honest I had some of the best sleep in a long time on the chairs. In the evening we have our flight to Yangon so we were contemplating going into town to sightsee but to be honest neither of us enjoyed Bangkok last time enough to go do a 2 hour return journey in,so we read our books ate and rested.

    At about 3pm we got the shuttle bus to DM Airport and it was loooong, but luckily AC'd.

    On arrival we charged our phones, had dinner and waited for the flight. When going to our gate it was absolute carnage. It was sweaty, hot and just a sauna of people with every square of floors and chairs covered with people. Air Asia had a few delayed flights... We went straight back up to the main section and found a seat there until last minute. Due to other delays ours was also delayed but luckly only by 20 mins.

    By the time we were in the air it was time to begin the descent with only an hour and 10 mins flight. And what a change. We had 20 mins to get through immigration, get cash and get to the bus stop for the last bus. Normally we would know it was impossible but we went for it anyway. Within 10 mins we were through!! We asked locals where the bus was and even a taxi driver and within 1 min we were waiting for the local bus. No scamming, nothing, just really smiley helpful people. We then jumped on a really modern bus with aircon and a local pointed put sights along the way. He was so sweet and even told the bus driver where we needed to get off so that he would stop for us. Within the hour we were checked checked in to our hostel and in bed. Absolutely amazing start to Yangon and our journey in Myanmar. Fingers crossed it stays this way, it could be our best month yet!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Whistle Stop Tour of Chennai

    January 16, 2019 in India ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    In the morning we got up and packed for our final journey in India. We started the day with yummy Egg Dosa and then jumped on our train to Chennai where we met Matty and Anna again! The train was empty the whole way so we were able to take the window seat and chill for the 4 hours.

    When we arrived we went straight to our hotel, had a bit of a back and forth with the owner with regards to the cost of our booking due to added taxes but eventually we paid the amount we set out to pay. All four of us freshened up in our room for a while before heading out for lunch. As always we chose the most busy looking restaurant and just pointed until we got what we wanted 😂

    After dropping Matty and Anna off at their hotel we decided to split up and myself and Will headed on a local bus to Arulmigu Sri Parthasarathy perumal Temple Divyadesam and then to the beach. I must admit after being on the bus and the walk to the beach I was done with Chennai. Of what I had seen so far the city was really dirty, smelly and with huge piles of litter everywhere. Finally we got to the beach and wow it was huge!! It's actually the longest beach in the country with a distance of 3.7 miles and it was packed due to it being the festival of Pongal.

    At about 5:30pm we met up with Imran, a couch surfer host. He picked us up in his car and drove us first to the lighthouse to see the city view of Chennai, Santhome Church and then Usman Road which had the biggest jewellers I had ever seen, some buildings were 10 floors high!

    For dinner he took us to Murugan Idli shop where we tried Idli, Onion Oothappam Ghee Masala and finally filtered coffee. It was the best Idli we had in India! Super yummy.

    We then went on a little drive and listened to Tamil and Hindi music, including a tamil rock song! We drove to 10 Downing Street for a drink, but it was closed! I was gutted as Imran said it was free drinks for ladies on a Wed! Then we tried Bike and Barrel, which was also closed. We then realised there was a ban on alcohol for the festival. 😯 Ah well, instead we went to try Sweet Pan which is a local digestive and mouth freshener before he dropped us back at the hotel.

    I wish I'd known more about Couch Surfing before we came out, it's such a great way of meeting locals!!!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    A wander, sight seeing n lots of treats

    January 16, 2019 in India ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After a couple of days of western food I'm in need of a change so I'm going to risk it again... Dosa, puri and Pudi Appam for breakfast? Sure! Yummy!!!

    Just as we were eating breakfast we both received confirmation of our visa so off we go in search of a printer to get our final admin bit sorted. We then went wandering, sat in a park to read about the dos and don't of Myanmar, saw a Hindu Temple, had a coconut and then it was time to indulge some more!

    First stop a chocolate shop. Now these specialist chocolates actually have pretty nasty tasting chocolate. They taste like the cheap advent calendar chocolate, but their cakes, we had the mocha cake, are pretty good and I went crazy and tried the hot chocolate which was equally scrummy!

    Next we went in search of some proper lunch and found another bakery. To be honest everything was over priced and not great looking so I just got a croissant to tide me over and Will got a Vanilla Éclair.

    For lunch we decided to head back to our breakfast place for biryani but it wasn't serving anymore so we ended up in an artsy cafe and had ratatouille baguette and overly peppered pesto pasta where we sat and planning Myanmar. Pretty excited for it now!

    Stuffed and high off sugar we needed to walk it off so we wandered along the beachfront, saw the French Monument, the old lighthouse and the famous Ghandi statue. Pondicherry reminded me a bit of Southport. It was very windy this afternoon and my flowy pants were just going crazy so we took cover in an Italian Gallery. No idea why it was in Italian or what the exhibition was about but hey ho it took us our the wind.

    We were both getting tired now and it was only 5:30pm so we began walking back, via gelato and decided to just have a small dinner of corn on the cob and channa puri. Hopefully my tummy is OK in the morning...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Pondicherry

    January 14, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Although very small, Pondicherry was the largest French colony in India.

    As we arrived just after 4am we had plenty of time to kill before we could begin looking for accomodation so we decided to walk from the bus station to the White Town. Seriously, yes, the western area is called the White Town and the Indian area the Black Town. When getting off the bus the smog in the air was ridiculous. Along the way we saw hundreds of piles of rubbish being burned. I'm not sure if it was to keep people warm or to get rid of it but it wasn't at all pleasant.

    When we finally arrived at the beach we pitched up a spot and Will went for a lie down while I sat and read keeping an eye on the luggage. It was a long long long morning... Eventually it was 7am so we checked at a recommended guesthouse for availability and they said come back at 8am. We did but they were full. Luckily he recommended another guesthouse just down the road and we were able to get a room there. Finally a bed!! As it was peak morning to be honest it wasn't at all peaceful so we both just napped on and off until it got too frustrating to sleep anymore. When we woke Will was in a lot of pain under his arms and he had huge red spots. They had appeared the other day but they were nowhere near as bad. Today is going to be a bit of an admin day first do our washing, then doctors, pharmacy to top up on our supplies and get a photo for our Myanmar Visa.

    It was 2pm by the time we were out and we were dying of hunger and "When in France", so we went out for a luxury Chicken Mayo Baguette and a Mushroom, Spring Onion Grilled Toastie at Cafe des Arts. Bread heaven!!!

    Cafe des Arts recommended to go to Clinic Nallam, to which we did and Will had all his medicine within the hour. Pretty good service I'd say.

    Next stop was to find a passport photo shop. We tried to find quite a few on Google and none of them existed so eventually we just asked around and found one straight away. It took quite a while to make her understand that we don't need anything printed and that we need an electronic copy on our phones for the evisa. Eventually we got there and it was all sorted. We have 4 days to get our visa approved... Eek!

    Now famished we were in search of something scrummy. We were wandering down the street and huge crowds were round Takka Pizza, well we couldn't say no could we. Initially it felt just like a Indian version of Pizza Hut, but actually the pizza wasn't too bad!

    Far too tired and full to handle anything else we wandered home via the beach in need of a good sleep.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Cafe Day

    January 13, 2019 in India ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Today we had grand plans to go on an adventurous hitch hike and hike that Sonny told us about last night. But for once it was me that didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Hats off to Will though, he got up and out for Sunrise! I'm a bit gutted I didn't now as for the days we have been here we've not had a very good view of the valley but he did this morning.

    As soon as he left I did get up and got ready thinking he would come back soon but he wanted to give me a lie in so stayed out. I wish we had 2 sims! I was inside our icebox waiting for hours. Ah well he had a nice morning hehe

    The rest of the day was spent eating and chilling in a cafe. The last picture is of a kid that got a mega paper dosa, zoom in, its huge!!

    We are both utterly exhausted now and the thought of coming home is now very high on our agenda. We can't wait to have a real bed, not feel constantly exhausted, not have a dicky tummy or the constant feeling of a cold. We probably sound like such ungrateful gits but let's just say travelling is not easy!

    At 6pm we picked up our bags and after 45 mins of not having a clue where the bus picks us up we eventually jumped on the bus and straight into our beds. Again we splashed out on the slightly more upmarket ones so we could get a good night sleep. Each bed had a TV and speakers and this time someone was actually using them to watch a crazy action packed bollywood film in the birth behind so that wasn't ideal for sleeping... It's now 3am and we all got woken up and kicked off onto a seated bus! 😭 Can someone let me sleep please...

    Tomorrow is going to be difficult.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Let's see where we can get to!

    January 12, 2019 in India ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Umm maybe we should have found somewhere new to stay... Last night I swear I slept in a freezer. No matter how many layers I wore or how little I moved I could not get warm. But... at least we have a warm shower! So no we didn't move...

    Today we decided to go to the bakery in the morning as I was still not risking Indian food. So I had a very healthy breakfast of a pizza slice, chutney sandwich and muffin 😊 We met some travellers outside and soon got nattering and lost track of time. When realising the time we got up and decided to see how far we could get today as I was feeling much better. We walked for a while and then was able to hitch hike to the next town along. We then walked to all the various view points along the way. Wow it was busy!!! When we arrived at Green Valley it was hilariously foggy again. You couldn't see past the metal fence! Two minutes back onto the road and it's glorious sunshine but in the valley it was freezing and foggy. It was quite the sight. As we had no particular aim in mind we carried on walking past Pillar Rock, Gunan Cave and finally to Pine Forest where we sat and chilled for a while munching on snacks.

    In the evening we had planned to meet a couch surfing host for a drink so just before 3pm we decided to begin the journey back in case we couldn't hitch a lift. If we had to walk back it would have taken about 2 hours, so we were quite keen to hitch a lift if possible. We got onto the road and within 1 minute we were picked up by a family from Chennai who were so sweet and took us the whole way back to Kodaikanal. We were back by 3:15pm! We had a few hours to kill so we went to the cafe with a fire, had a hot chocolate and some chips and sat chatting to some guys from Watford who had just started their travels. They were definitely lads lads haha it was good fun.

    At 5pm we went to meet Rudy at his house. When we got there we were greeted by his wife as Rudy was still out on a run. He actually didn't get back till very very late, he ended up running nearly 100km! Instead Sonny and his wife kept us company and we had a good old chat about our travels, their travels and how they ended up in Kodaikanal. People are so fascinating! Rudy and his wife were both travelling separately and met in India. Since then they have never returned to Switzerland and have a beautiful semi detached cottage with Sonny as their neighbours. I'm so overwhelmed by everyone's openness and hospitality to strangers.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler
    1

    Ahh Crap...

    January 11, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    By wearing all our clothes and not moving I was actually able to stay warm last night but wowzer was it cold in the morning in the room. Inside our room we wore all our layers, but as soon as we got outside we had to take it all off as it was actually warm outside. We went for breakfast at the same restaurant and just as we ordered my stomach went crazy. I had to run back to the hotel and it was not a good sight. Let's just say I had to also use a bucket when on the loo. If the room wasn't so cold I would have just got in bed and never got out. I was feeling so sorry for myself. I felt unbelievably drained, homesick and so sick of feeling ill. As I'd left Will at the restaurant and didn't have data I plucked up the courage to go back and I got so upset. Then when I asked for the bill the guy had put a few things that we didn't ask for on it. This can be quite common and they think that tourists will just pay. It was so stupid because we liked the food and would have been willing to come back everyday for breakfast but now he'd lost our trust. So I paid for what we actually had and walked out.

    I wasn't having a good day at all and I honestly just wished I was home. To top it off I was feeling so guilty because I was now ruining Will's day because I was so ill. He was amazing though and we just went back to the local bakery and he sat me there for a while. As I hadn't eaten he bought me some cookies water and some coca cola for my stomach. We sat for a while chatting and I slowly ate the food and got rehydrated again. At about 11am I was feeling a bit better so we decided to go on a little gander. We saw a church, a waterfall and then headed towards Mountain View. We stopped for lunch just before the hike down the valley and I had Smileys. Haha by this point the clouds in the valley had crept in and the view was absolutely covered in fog. We descended to the first view point and couldn't see a thing so sat for a while before deciding to abandon ship. We walked an alternative way back taking in a few more sights along the way and taking a lot of rests. After a while I started getting tired so we decided to try and hitchhike back. Hitch hiking seems to be pretty easy! I wish we'd done more of it. We soon got picked up by 3 teachers who brought us all the way back to town.

    For dinner Will had found a restaurant that had a fire so took me there for a mini and well needed date. I decided I was off Indian food for a couple of days and so I had a veggie burger with a runny egg and chips. I was in absolute heaven. A fire, a burger and my boy. What more could I have asked for. In the cafe they had a few books and I'd heard really good things about Who Moved My Cheese. As it was a short read we read it and as I'm attempting to get prepped for the real world again it was a fun insight back into the working world. I'd definitely recommend it. So even though the morning started off quite rough I'm glad I persevered and ended up having a really lovely day.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Kodaikanal - The "Lake"

    January 10, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We arrived at Kodaikanal at 7am and as I was woken to a guy yelling last stop I was very discombobulated when I got off. He kept hassling us for our hotel to which we didn't have one and then he kept saying oh I'll take you to one etc. I snapped... And said "I've literally just woken up, I don't even know where the hell we are and we need a couple of minutes to pack and get off the bus. Indians do not know how to leave you alone when they can see dollar signs in their eyes!! After a couple of minutes we were able to orientate ourselves and feel a bit more normal. We let the guy show us a hotel but we had to wait for a while to see the room. Huge crowds started pouring in and he said we should see a few other hotels, come back and then choose. So we did. We saw a few places but they were all pretty crap for the same price so we told the guy we would just go with the first one as it looked like a proper hotel. We filled in the guest form and when I said the agreed price was Rs 700 the owner said a flat no. He realised he could get a lot more customers for more expensive so he wasn't willing to bargain. Bear in mind we had been wandering round with our backpacks for about an hour now so I was not at all pleased. I found the guy who had supposedly negotiated this price and gave him a piece of my mind. It was an absolute waste of time so we walked off in search for ourselves. The guy kept following us and I as calmly and politely as I could told him to get lost haha He just wanted to gain commission and wasn't even showing us places within our given budget.

    We then sat on a step looked on line for a couple of options and decided to just go in and see if we could bargain. We went to a hotel called Jayaraj, we got the price down to 500 and then went to check out the room. It was freezing and very run down but meh. Just as I was about to say OK Will spotted mice droppings on the bed! So we quickly declined. He then showed us another room which was in a separate building. I must admit the room was knackered looking, but it didn't smell like damp like most of them, it wasn't really clean and it was even more of an icebox than the last, but it did have a hot water tank. We ummed and ahhed for ages and eventually just agreed as we were tired and in need of a shower.

    After a good freshen up and a few internal screams due to feeling so cold in the ice room we got out in search for breakfast. We had Pooris and lots of cải tổ warm us up while planning the day. The plan for the day is to attempt to find scooter hire for the next 2 days and just get our bearings around the lake.

    We went down to the lake and wow what a mess. Now to be fair Kodaikanal had been hit by a cyclone in November so it was very clear that they were still doing a lot of work to clear up the destruction, but our expectations of the "Lake" soon decreased. Sure it was a lake but it had tatty stalls all the way round, you couldn't actually sit down and enjoy the scenery because there was a huge fence around the lake. To be honest it was an absolute let down. We started walking around laughing at the situation when Will decided to turn it into even more of a comedy, by hiring a tandom bike. The tandom was definitely for kids and was hilarious. First Will was on the front and it went quite well. Then half way round we switched and I just couldn't steer properly. Will was so heavy on the bike and everytime he cycled he would bump his knee into my bum as he was too tall. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. All the locals were laughing at us along the way. It was great half an hour of fun.

    In the afternoon we went exploring up towards upper lake view and we sat drinking tea. We were having no luck with regards to getting a scooter and found out that the taxi union opposed scooter rental so once again the taxi mafia were able to do and charge what they like to tourists. We had quite a long walk back and decided to try hitch hiking. It worked! Some uni students in a jeep picked us up and brought us all the way back to town.

    We walked past the local bakery and it seemed super busy so we went in to see what was happening. Outside everyone was eating ice cream so obviously we had to try it too. The owners were soo sweet. They gave us overly generous tries of all the flavours, I must have had 2 scoops worth of tries, before I settled with a really yummy Pear ice cream. When paying they gave us a veg pastry on the house too. I'm obviously coming back tomorrow 😋

    We then went for dinner at a small cafe and had veggie burgers with nachos. To be honest it wasn't great but worth a try!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Whistle Stop Tour of Bangalore

    January 9, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    😭😭😭😭😭😭 I did not sleep a wink. The entire carriage was full of fog horn snorers. Even Will decided to join in!! I felt like I'd been in a car crash when we arrived in Bangalore but I was determined to get on with it.

    We arrived at the station at 6.15am - still dark. We had no idea of what our plan was. Do we stay in Bangalore or do we make a move to the mountains in the south for a short stay. We stumbled off train and sat down with Anna and Mattay to gather our thoughts and drink chai while the cleaners cleaned up around us and constantly asked us to move. Eventually we came up with a plan. We were going to spend the day in Bangalore and get the night bus, our first night bus in India, to Kodaikanal which is in the Western Ghats. We also decided to make the most of being in Bangalore and set up a public hangout on Couch Surfing in hope of meeting a local and we soon organised a late lunch with a local family man.

    We had a morning to kill before meeting up with Mohsin so the four of us started walking across the city towards Cubbon Park, we didn't make it very far when Anna was feeling very very ill. I think she had what I had 😔 So we made it to Freedom Park and chilled out with them till about 1pm, when myself and Will decided to begin walking to MG Road to meet Mohsin.

    Along the way Will got talking to a nut job. Will was initially oblivious to his crazyness until he said he was 90 years old and looked 60 because he had never taken public transport in his life, he was British and that his name was Einstein Hyde and descended from the Hydes that made Hyde Park. Will finally realised he was crazy. Oh Will! After departing from the company of Einstein Hyde we saw the High Courts which was hidden within Cubbon Park. I wish Anna had been well enough to walk a tiny bit further as chilling in Cubbon Park would have been much nicer for her!

    Eventually we got to MG Road which is quite a hipster area. Mohsin told us that a Bangalore resident went to erurope and loved the European feel and decided to design the MG Road area in the same feel and style. Mohsin took us for lunch and we ate Paratha, kerela style chicken and Chicken Virnela. It was super tasty!! We all instantly got along and it was like we had known each other for years. After lunch we wandered around the area for a while and then headed for some local Indian sweets and then a coffee. Let's just say I was absolutely stuffed and on quite a low from the sugar, coffee and no sleep. Its incredible how much common ground you can find with absolute strangers. We must have been talking for hours. Eventually Mohsin had to leave to pick up his daughter and as Bangalore is so famous for its brewing we decided to go to Arbor where we ordered a taster tray of all the ales on tap. The original plan was to then go to MTR which is now a famous chain of Indian restaurants with the original one in Bangalore but we enjoyed Arbor so much that we just stayed and ordered surf and turf nachos! Heaven!!

    Finally it was time to jump into a taxi and catch our night bus. We had to wait around a lot and change buses, but eventually we were on the bus and it was surprisingly comfy, roomy, with bedding and even had a TV! Luxury.

    At about 2am I was dying for a wee. Unfortunately Will had taken a sleeping tablet, we were on the upper berth and I was on the window side so let's just say getting out of the bed was nearly impossible. Eventually I got down and headed towards the driver to ask him to stop. Just as I opened the cabin door his out on his break and I went flying into the door. I smashed my head, my left side and cut my toe open. After going to the toilet I had quite a big cry and passed out from the pain I think. Next thing I new it was morning...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Human Again - It's Scooter Time!

    January 8, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Finally I woke up clicking my heels ready for a day out! But.. Guess what, Will had a crazy fever last night so let's say it wasn't a great night sleep. The plan for the day is actually a tad busier than I would have wanted as we are leaving Hampi, but we have to leave at some point so today is the day. We have pretty much the whole day to enjoy Hampi before catching our sleeper train to Bangalore so we first went for breakfast with Sam and Tes and I was sooo excited to eat. I ordered veg and egg dosa and Will ordered veg pakoda and masala dosa. Then Will insisted he wanted to try driving a manual bike before he goes home, so we rented one. At first I must admit I was pretty scared but I soon realised it was just like being on a normal scooter, albeit a bit clunky with Will getting used to gear changes.

    We basically went the same route as the other day around the local little town, along the rice fields to the lake and then back. We saw some huge white bodied and black headed birds called Blackheaded Ibis, plenty of kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Egrets and much much more.

    Unfortunately we then had to get some late lunch before heading back to the campsite. As we got to the campsite we realised that everyone was sick! They had all been at the campsite all day being ill. I felt so bad for them and fully understood their pain.

    We quickly packed up, jumped on the bike and headed to the ferry terminal. As always travel can't go exactly as planned... There is a public transport strike so the buses aren't running. Obviously the rickshaw mafia became even more irritating as we got off the boat informing us of this and that they have now doubled the rate. Luckily for us we had left plenty of time to allow for such problems and there were 7 of us so there was plenty of time and room for bargaining. I just made sure that everyone was happy to go for some dinner first so we could let the rickshaw drivers sweat it out. They had openly told us that they were taking advantage of tourists in need to get a train and so we would just have to pay. I don't think any of them know me very well. We had swarms of tuk tuk drivers walk along with us each of them telling us there's no buses and that we must take their offer. I calmly said no thank you we are going for dinner and then we will go. This made them so irrate (to be honest I don't really know why...). So we did exactly that. We went for dinner at the bus stand amongst all the rickshaw vultures. Each time they tried to negotiate pricing I strictly asked them to go away and that we were eating, they soon realised they would get zero business if they carried on. Just as we finished one guy walked past me and matched the offer I asked for so we got up and went 😊 Oh the power of time.

    We arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare and said our goodbyes to Sam and Tes. Mattay and Anna were catching the same train as me so we all just chilled and eventually got on our train where I jumped straight into bed.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Temples, temples and more temples

    January 7, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Having agreed to go early to Hampi with Sam and Tess, I got up bright and early at 8 am to get ready. I headed to the bathroom, only to find that the water was out. Turns out that the night before the staff had been doing some gardening and accidentally put a hole in the water pipe. Cue 5 men scrambling to construct a makeshift pipe to get the water running!

    So, with nothing to do I sat and waited for the girls. Alas, despite my early start the girls had decided to sleep in! Eventually the girls awoke, the water was fixed and with everyone ready we headed to out usual breakfast place where Shahna and I had Egg Dosa and coffee for breakfast. Shahna headed home for some more R&R, after giving me permission to explore Hampi with the girls. As they had bikes they headed towards the next nearest village Anegundi where there was a cheap ferry crossing, while I had to get myself a bike still. So I hitchhiked on the back of a local's bike up until the dirt road which headed to the ferry crossing. After walking for another minute I found an Austrian man called Frederick riding a Royal Enfield, so I jumped on the back of his bike to the crossing, before crossing over the river and negotiating for a pedal bike - down from 200 to 120 rupees.

    I'd agreed to meet the girls at Queen's Baths, around 40 minutes ride away. So in the burning midday heat I cycled to the Queen's Bath (aptly named as it was a queen's private bathing quarters). There I waited under the shade of a tree while several people asked me if I wanted to buy magic mushrooms... I politely declined.

    Unfortunately the girls had decided to visit the Vittala temple first which was on their way. Had I known I could have gone straight there, but a 50 minute ride was too much for me, so I sat and waited. Eventually I got bored enough that I decided to visit the baths and the royal compound while I was waiting. Finally the girls arrived at the royal compound and we went and explored the compound (including an intricate step well and a hidden underground meeting room) and an intricately carved temple nearby.

    We then proceeded to the Lotus Mahal and Elephant Stables. These are two of the "star attractions" for which you need to pay entry. I duly paid my 600 rupees ("how much?!?" asked incredulously the local in Hindi on hearing this, who only had to pay 50 rupees) and we entered. The Lotus Mahal is a small building with some lotus-shaped archways. The elephant stables, as the name suggests, we're stables used for storing elephants in. Neither attraction was really worth the money - the free temples were far quieter and more atmospheric and at an unbeatable price!

    With the sun lowering in the sky, the heat dissipating and the time of the last boat drawing near we headed back along the main road towards the ferry crossing, stopping once or twice to see some minor temples briefly along the way. Being lazy I didn't want to get off my bike, so I cycled down a dirt track towards one, stopping in a courtyard in front of a statue of Lakshmi. Somehow I'd failed to notice that I couldn't ride there, so cue the locals shouting at me while Sam, clearly wiser than me, had parked safely just to the side. Whoops...

    All hungry, we pressed on to the Hampi Flea Market where we all ordered Gobi Manchurian (cauliflower fried in crispy batter with sweet and sour sauce) rice and a nice glass of masala chai. Then I dropped off my bike, met the girls at the ferry terminal and we took the ferry across the river.

    Sam and Tess returned their rental bikes and decided to rent a scooter so they could explore the following day. Their plan was to go cliff diving. Again, not knowing how Shahna would be in the morning, I declined to rent a bike and decided to walk.

    The prospect of a long walk wasn't, in fact, very appealing. Generously the girls agreed to try and fit 3 on one scooter and so, crowding on, we set off for home. After a couple of minutes riding, some locals warned us "no three person, police!". Getting the message I got off the bike, resigned to walking back.

    All of a sudden two tourists shouted to us from a rock in the rice fields "Hey, are you looking for a phone!? We found someone's phone. Do you know anyone Portuguese?" As a matter of fact we did. "We know someone Portuguese called Anna. She's staying in our hostel."
    "This phone belongs to an Anna!"
    "Do you have a photo"?
    "Yes, there's an ID in the phone"!

    Running over, we discovered with great fortune that it was indeed the Anna from our hostel. Disbelieving, we took the phone, excited at the prospect of reuniting phone with owner.

    Sam and Tess headed off with the phone, while I started walking. Luckily, not twenty seconds later a local drove past on a bike. I stuck out my arm, "Hannumanhali?", "Sure, get on". My local driver was faster than the girls, and I quickly overtook them to return home.

    I found Shahna still in her tent suffering. Still, she revived enough for us to all go out for dinner. I wasn't feeling 100%, so I just stole some of Shahna's Thali and then shared a banana and chocolate dosa with Shahna.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Sickness Strikes Again

    January 6, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After my attempt of having no alcohol, which I didn't I woke up exerting out of every oraphus. It was not a pretty sight and I was gutted. Yep its happened I have full on Dehli belly... As I have absolutely nothing to talk about for the two days as I just led in a tent feeling sorry for myself I thought I'd invite guest writer Will to speak to write the next two footprints about his fun days out instead. (I'm not jealous at all...)

    Shahna was feeling ill, so had plain paratha in the tent. I walked over to the cafe with the group for late brunch of masala dosa. Sam and Tess has decided to accompany me on the scenic route to the ferry terminal across the boulder fields in Hampi island. Along the way I grabbed bananas for breakfast (tasty, but later a bone of contention) and water and set off. We hiked across the river crossing and through rock formations to sunset point. From this stunning location you can see the rice fields, temples and boulders strewn about the landscape. We watched the views for a long time and ate bananas. Then we found a path down to hippie village (which we had failed to find the day before), and crossed the river by boat.

    In town Sam found something she wanted to try - "goli masala soda". It turns out that this was a mix of lemon, cumin, salt and soda. I joined her in having one. It's not the nicest drink, although it's palatable...

    We then walked to see a monolithic bull statue carved from a single stone and Achyutaraya temple. This is an incredibly atmospheric temple surrounded by boulder fields. With the light dying we sat and contemplated life as the only tourists in the area. We rushed back to get last boat across river. On other side the girls rented two bikes which after a tense negotiation I got 20 percent off. I didn't rent one since wasn't sure what Shahna would be doing.

    Instead girls offered to try a "backie", so with the girls sharing a bike we set off home. We stopped at restaurant on the way for food - I had Thali and sent menu to Shahna who asked for plain egg fried rice. I ordered this for take away and insisted no spice at all, which the chef agreed to. Well, apparently their understanding of no spice means "add plenty of green chillies". Once I got it back to Shahna and delivered it to her tent, we discovered that the rice was, in fact, very spicy and Shahna couldn't eat it. So I asked the restaurant at the campsite for 2 parathas and scrambled eggs. The young chef (of 16 yrs) didn't know how to make scrambled eggs, so I taught him. Eventually Shahna had her meal...of disappointingly undercooked paratha and ok scrambled eggs. Feeling ill, she decided to go to bed. I was about to join her, when one of the other guests Anna invited me to learn how to make Makrame bracelets. Deciding this was a good idea, I sat down and started making a spiral pattern bracelet for Shahna. After an hour or so of work I had an adjustable size bracelet 🙂 Shahna was a little grumpy when I woke her up getting into bed, but was happy once I presented her with her present. At last, time for sleep.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Scootering around

    January 5, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    This morning was an absolute right off... In the end we got to bed at 2am. We originally got up at 8am but then decided to go back to the tent and have a nap. Finally feeling a bit more alive we did our washing and went for a Thali. It was sooo yummy and just what we needed. Over lunch Rajesh messaged and said he would be coming back to the campground tonight and will be armed with Rum again. 😭 I WILL NOT be drinking tonight.

    The rest of the day was actually surprisingly full packed. We hired a scooter and drove around first to the gorgeous Sanapura lake, then through small villages and rice fields where we stopped a while to bird watch. We saw...... Then we drove round to Anegundi which is a small village with a few ruin temples in. Here we saw parakeets and 2 beautiful Hoobies, they were cool looking birds! For sunrise we drove back to the campground. I was desperate for a lie down so I nodded off for a bit while Will took the bike back and then walked up.

    So glad we had the scooter as the day would have been a right off otherwise. Instead we were able to have a full day out.

    In the evening Rajesh and all his family came to the camp site and everyone began drinking again! I absolutely refused and although I was shamed for it, I didn't care. It was still really good fun and another very very late night. Hopefully this time I can wake up and feel human!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Ancient Ruin Temples

    January 4, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Hampi is a UNESCO heritage site and an ancient city. And today we are going to explore the ancient city via the Bedrock Village of boulders with a quick stop for a Masala Dosa breakfast of course! Exploring Bedrock (honestly it was like a scene from the flinstones!) was great fun. Huge volcanic boulders, rice fields, banana trees, palm trees and ancient ruins could be seen for miles. We then took a boat across the river to begin our hunt for ancient ruines.

    We visited Vurupaksha, had a quick Gobi Rice for lunch and then visited the Ganesh statues which have been carved from a single boulder.

    Unfortunately at that point the heat really got to me once again and I had to sit out for the rest of the afternoon as I was feeling sick again. Will carried on looking around the various temples and I just sat and tried not to through up...

    In the evening we had already planned to meet our couch surfing host and other couch surfing guests. He kept giving us sooo much rum and we hadn't eaten. Eventually we ate but to be honest the damage was already done. Let's just say I did not feel at all well before bed...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    I think I've entered Jurassic Park!

    January 3, 2019 in India ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Last night we had such a fab sleep in our little tent. The tent is super teeny but really cosy. It was so nice to wake up in the peaceful countryside! And wow what a surrounding to wake up to. I'm pretty sure we have landed in Jurassic Park. This place is like no other that we have ever been. So today we did our washing and then headed out to explore. We went for a cheap masala dosa (Rs 20!!) and then we explored the Jurassic Park boulders. It was a true spectacle to just sit and watch.

    We then went back to our tent site and chilled for a bit ensuring we had WiFi in case our new tenants needed help. We met 2 other couch surfers from Bradford and wandered up to Kishkanda Temple for sunset. The walk there was just stunning and absolutely swarmed with incredible looking birds including various types of cranes, 3 stunning blue kingfishers, green bee eater, bull bulls and many many more. Anna and Alison must have thought we were crazy as I was constantly stopping to look at a new bird haha When we finally arrived at the temple and climbed the 547 steps the temple was swarmed with monkeys! Luckily they were nice ones. We watched an incredible sunset then walked to Hippie Island for some dinner. It was a fun day but I was definitely ready for a sleep by the end.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    To Hampi

    January 2, 2019 in India ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    In terms of Indian standards the journey today is supposed to be quite short. It should take us about 7 hours depending on if buses align. Normally we would have taken a single overnight bus to Hampi but due to New Years the prices of the bus have quadrupled in price so we decided to take local buses instead. We have to take 3 buses but hopefully it should be pretty smooth.

    At 5am our dreaded alarms went off and got up and ready to begin our journey. First we walked across the beach and then up the steep hill. We jumped into a tuk tuk to town and then took a bus at 6:45am to Kumta. The bus was unbelievably efficient and we arrived spot on 7:30am as expected. We were then told the next bus to Hospet was at 8am so we had a quick Puri Bhaji breakfast before heading back to the bus stand. We waited... And we waited... And we waited... We constantly checked with the bus drivers and it wasn't till 9:15am when a bus driver said there's no 8am bus it's at 9:45am! And at exactly 9:45am a bus arrived and left. Phew. After an hour we stopped pulled into another bus station and I'm not quite sure what happened but all of a sudden our driver got into a fight with another driver! Oh the fun of local buses 😂 We soon headed off again and to be honest apart from the journey being crazy long, we didn't arrive till 5:30pm at Hospet, it was OK. We then had to jump in a tuk tuk as we were going to miss the last boat across to our couch surfing tent. Luckily we arrived just in time, walked for another 35 mins and after being awake for 14 hours we arrived!

    We decided to couch surf in Hampi as there is a guy who has a campsite and just let's out tents to travellers. It's dark now so we can't see much but I'm super excited to wake up and see the surroundings. It seem super remote and beautiful!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    R & R, New Years Eve and more R&R

    December 30, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today is our calm before the storm of New Years Eve.

    It was our day of catching up on reading, swimming, chatting, eating and just chilling out and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

    For breakfast we had the nicest Idli of our trip so far and for lunch Charlotte, Will and I shared a huge paneer salad, falafel and pasta.

    The highlight of the day was when we sat and ate Gobi Manchurian, Paneer Dry Chilli and Chips for dinner haha Its been a simple day 😊

    But... Then life got real and we had to sit down and plan our final country and... Dare I say it... Our flight home 😭 it's all booked and we will be back mid Feb up North and probably early March in Laandan so watch this space!!

    It's New Years Eve! Today is a day of getting stuff done. We took a scenic coastal walk to town and it was so peaceful. We sat for a bit watching the sea and even spotted 2 gorgeous blue kingfishers.

    On the way we spotted a library. I'm not sure why but 70% of the books were French! Upon leaving we had another Will moment... We'd heard quite a few stories from the expats about cops and them doing drug searches and sometimes demanding money even if you don't have anything. When they came towards us my guard was on and they stopped Will and said "empty your pockets". To which I replied we aren't going to give you money so we are leaving. Now... Will somehow interpreted my mention of money as "Run, they are going to Rob you". And so he suddenly started running! The cops grabbed him and the situation soon escalated. Luckily I kept my cool and yelled "hands off he's scared". They quickly released him and explained they are doing a drug search and didn't want our money, but only wanted to search Will. I allowed the search to happen but I explained they have stopped probably the only 3 people on this beach that have never done drugs in their lives and they soon realised they weren't getting anything from us and resumed pleasantries and let us on our way. Charlotte was with us and she just froze at the whole situation. Sometimes I do wonder how these situations might end if I wasn't here!

    After that craziness we were in desperate need of food and a calm down. We went to Perma Restaurant and ate the biggest Thali I've ever had! I must admit I was pretty uncomfortably full by the end and I didn't even eat half!In town we loaded up on Old Monk, snacks, sorted our route to Hampi (our next destination). We finally rolled into a tuk tuk and got a lift back where we had to just sit and attempt to digest our food, before we went for our swim. Then it was time to refresh and get ready for the partaay!

    First we sat in Hanumans enjoying a few Old Monks before heading over to Uma Garden where they were playing Tribal music. It was really good fun and we made sure that we always drank out of sealed coke bottles so that people couldn't put anything in our drinks this time. It's always a shame not to see any Indian women at thee parties but I guess it's just the way it is and so instead the men go a bit nuts. It was good fun though!!

    Reflecting on 2018 I realised it was a year of not a single day of work, I was living my dream of travelling, I'd visited 12 countries, I'd seen two of our older friends get married, I'd lived out of the same 10kg bag for a whole year and I lived a simple life with my best friend. What an incredible year.

    The next day was obviously a bit of a right off and we just chilled out, savouring and enjoying the incredible beach life before our big move to Hampi tomorrow.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Willy P and Shahna On A Beach Adventure

    December 29, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Today we were determined to conquer the beaches of Gokarna! So starting from Kudle beach we wandered over to Om Beach and went to meet Grace. We had a little dip in the sea but felt our skin prickle so quickly got out and sat chatting with Grace for a bit.

    Next we wandered to Half Moon Beach where we stopped for lunch. I had fruit, muesli and yoghurt with a yummy coconut shake and Will had an amazing and huge Thali with a banana shake.

    It was now the hottest part of the day and we decided to carry on our wander along to the next beach, paradise beach. I was instantly dripping with sweat and very much looking forward to getting to the next one so I could jump in the sea. We soon arrived and quickly got in. Initially it was very refreshing until a boat came into the Bay and the water very quickly stank and tasted of diesel, so we had to get out. It was far to hot to sit and chill so we just kept hiking.

    We finally got to the end of the hike at Belekan Beach where we spotted tiny fiddler crabs. They were amazing!! They have one huge claw and a small one and they were battling! It was hilarious to watch. We waited for about an hour for the local bus. The bus was actually really fun because it took us through the small villages and was full of really friendly smiley locals.

    We got dropped off in Gokarna Town centre had a sneaky ice cream and then we had our last 30 mins of hiking to get home. As we'd had a full on day we had a cheeky aubergine pizza, chips and salad for dinner 😂 Yum!!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Exploring Om Beach and Gokarna Town

    December 27, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    After two days of chilling we decided it's time to see more of Gokarna than Kudle beach, so Will Charlotte and I met up and headed over towards Om Beach to do some exploring, bird watching, reading and swimming. We saw Green Bee Eaters and Brahminy Kites along the way. When at Om Beach we met Grace who we had originally met on Kudle Beach when we arrived and we decided to hang out there until late.

    The next day Grace, Will and I went to explore the town. The day was full packed with exploring, getting out day pack fixed, looking at trinkets and clothes, having a laugh with the locals, finally eating affordable food, finally catching up on my blog and most of all getting our Airtel Sim card fixed. Since buying it in Mumbai it hasn't worked so Will has been contacting them through every means possible to get the problem rectified. Guess how he got it sorted in the end? He contacted a random Mall in Mumbai, not where we bought it, who happened to have the direct contact number of the Manager of the Mall that we bought it from. She then conference called everyone together and eventually was able to get us in touch directly with the same airtel store we bought the SIM card in!! Honestly the whole thing was ridiculous!!! Anyway we got it sorted just in time for our old Sim expiration. Phew!

    I think my highlight of the day was when we went to the hammock shop. He was making a blue and purple hammock as we approached and I fell in love so we got one! Well you can't say no when it's only £2! Can't wait to put it up in our flat 😂

    After picking up a few beers from the wine shop we sat at the beach and enjoyed some peace and quiet from the town.

    In the evening we went for dinner at a rooftop near the beach which had a beautiful view of sunset. The main dishes were really yummy but the naans and breads were super disappointing! When we finished we wandered back in the dark which was actually quite fun! For the first time we could see the stars quite clearly and it was so romantic hearing the crashing of the waves with the stars above.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    It's Christmas!!

    December 25, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Well the day has come. This time last year we were in England attempting to plan our what we thought would be a 3 month trip travelling in SEA. In fact this time last year we hadn't even booked our flight even though we left on the 11th. Its just crazy to think about it.

    In the morning we went for a Christmas day swim, got ready and then went to meet Charlotte. When we met her she was paralysed in her hammock haha!! So we just sat, read our books and chilled. We met someone called Ady who got on like a house on fire with Will. While chilling Ady spotted dolphins!! They were super close!! It was very exciting.

    After a while Charlotte joined and we were able to encourage her to come and grab some lunch with us. We spent the afternoon just chilling, chatting and reading. By dinner she was feeling much better and we ventured further down the beach for dinner ate amazing aubergine, paneer and cashew potato cream with tandoor chapattis. It was sooo good.

    For 10 days the police have put a 10 day ban on alcohol at the beaches in this area because supposedly young Indian men go crazy wild and so its to prevent them. For foreign tourists this is obviously crazy especially for this time of year, so obviously there has started a black market for it instead. And I must admit we did join in. We bought cartons of old Monk Rum and coke and had sneaky drinks in the local restaurants to celebrate. Haha I felt like the teenager I'd never been able to live! We then found out about a local pool party so after a couple of sneaky rums we were up for a boogy. I had my reservations but actually it was good fun. Not many people actually went into the pool and to be honest it was a pretty chilled out party.

    It was a Christmas with an emotional and surreal roller-coaster but it was certainly different and fun!

    I honestly don't have much to add about the next day. We juzf sat in Hanumans Cafe and chilled out reading books, chatting and eating lots. 😊❤️    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Bye bye Mumbai - Hello Gokarna!

    December 23, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    In the morning Cyrus was an absolute god send and picked us up, took us on a bit of another sightseeing tour around the suburbs of Mumbai and told us about how the whole area used to be Marsh land and jungle. We then saw his home area and then went to a shopping centre for lunch and to sort out our airtel Sim card. It was a full packed day, so much so that we were nearly late for the train! Luckily we arrived just in time, however we didn't have time to grab a quick dinner. The train that we booked was a 12 hour train to Gokarna, but as we booked so last minute the only seats we could get was SL class. This is the most basic sleeper class you can book... I must admit when I ran onto the train I was gutted that this was happening. The train was a thousand degrees, it smelt sweaty, it had no windows and so when passing dusty areas the train would just fill with dust, it had way too many people but to be honest once it got going it got much better and turned out to be a pretty nice journey. Everyone stopped chatting and got in beds by around 9pm which was just perfect. Unfortunately our stop wasn't the last stop so we had to get up and ready for its arrival at 3am. Even more unfortunately the train was an hour late and we ended up arriving after 4am eek...

    When we arrived, after a bit of haggling, we jumped into a tuk tuk and soon arrived at our little hut on the beach. It was pretty spooky walking along the sandy beach at night.

    As we didn't arrive till the early hours the next day we rested till about 12pm and then met Charlotte, from Kochi, at about 1pm. It was soo nice to be reunited!! Especially in such a beautiful, quiet, beach location. For the rest of the day we just chilled at the beach and caught up on the events from the past month. It was good fun, but not really worth taking up time on the blog! After dinner we Skyped my family for Christmas Eve and honestly it hit me how homesick I was. I ended up crying while talking to them. I was so upset!! Christmas is just such a nice time of year to be around family and friends and even though I know I have many many many years to do it properly it was sad to not be home and be part of it.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Food Glorious Food!!

    December 22, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Today we are spending the whole day with Adi. The plan is for her to pick us up in her swanky Jag and then we will go on a foodie/ finish off our sightseeing tour. She was going to an exhibition in the morning and as last night was an unexpected late one and traffic was so bad she wasn't able to pick us up till around 2pm. To be honest it was a good job as I was finally feeling a bit peckish again 😂

    First we drove through an area called Bandra which was quite the higher class shopping district. We then headed for our first stop for food at Bombay Canteen. Adi ordered quite a few dishes and to be honest we were happy not to make a decision for once and just role with it!

    Adi said we should also look at the menu and see if there is anything that we like the look of. Will saw a dish that was basically made from sheep's testicles. When we got talking to the bar guy he said it's pretty good so we went for it. Honestly we thought it would be minced up testicles... It wasn't... It was just 2 testicles in a porcini and cream sauce. I would rate it 4/10. None offensive but not very tasty.

    Then we carried on looking at the menu even though fullish/ new we would be going to another restaurant next, but we saw Gulab Nut, which was Gulab Jamun soaked in Old Monk Rum with Pistachio cream. Oh my goodness I died and went to heaven! It was my 3 favourite Indian things in one. I'm still dreaming of it whilst writing this blog days later!

    Our next stop was Shiv Sagar for Idli. My brother LOVES Idli so we thought we would try it. I must admit it's not my favourite but it's OK.

    Then we had a bit of a break and went to a shopping mall where Adi needed to pop in and see her friend's shop as they were having a beauty treatment sampling for customers. So we joined in and had a bit of a laugh. The lady was in disbelief when she tested my skin and the result was normal. When she asked how I wash my face, I replied "With Water", she then asked with facewash? To which I replied "No". She then asked do I use moisturiser or a cleansing routine. I said I don't and she just looked at me with horror. She was so surprised that I have normal skin and don't use anything at all. Will went through exactly the same process and it was pretty fun haha We then all got given samples and then headed off to our next place, Shanti Snacks.

    At shanti snacks we tried 3 different dishes and once again they were all super tasty! But this was the icing on the cake, we were now super full!

    We finished off the day sight seeing at Haji Ali Mosque (honestly if you go to Mumbai skip this. Its absolutely disgusting and dirty inside. You have to take your shoes off and the floor is just covered in food and litter, it's shocking!), a really lovely Jain temple and then we finally walked around Hanging Gardens at night.

    The night ended back at Adi's house were we sat and chilled out. It has been such an amazing last day and we are unbelievably grateful for all the love, kindness and generosity that everyone has shown us during our stay here. We are super sad to leave.

    Mumbai wasn't what we thought it would be. There is an obvious difference between the rich and poor, it is a bit crazy and busy, but honestly it's an Asian city! Everywhere is over populated and it just can't cope with it and I think all the documentaries that we watch just don't give the city fair justice.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Happy 10 Year Anniversary!!

    December 21, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We are in a really weird time zone at the moment. We are watching all our family and friends break up for Christmas and go to numerous celebrations and honestly I can't believe its the 21st December. We didn't even realise the meaning of the date until halfway through lunch haha But yes today is the official date me and Will decided to be Boyfriend and Girlfriend 😏 Anyway enough of the soppy stuff...

    Today we are meeting my dad's very good friends from his college days and I'm really excited to see them. I remember meeting them when I was much younger but I only remember Zarine being a very active, enthusiastic and energetic lady and Kersi being a calm collected man.

    Our first stop though was to go and watch the famous Dabbawallas. If you've seen any documentaries about India you will probably know about them. It's an amazing system where all the wives cook the mens food for their lunch at home. Then a man comes to all the houses and collects them. These are all then brought by train to town. They are then sorted and delivered by men on bikes to each persons desk at work. The Dabbawallas are illiterate and therefore have a number system for their delivery. It was unbelievable to watch!! Supposedly they only get wrong 1 in 6 million and they do 80,000-100,000 deliveries a day. That is more efficient than any other current delivery system! It was amazing to watch happen live. Its such a simple system but wow honestly I was amazed that it still works.

    We them went to meet Kersi and Zarine. They were just as I remembered them! They hadn't changed for 19 years!! I couldn't believe it. They were both unbelievably kind and showed us lots of sights in the area including Nariman Point over the sea and commercial district, horniman circle. Then we went to the famous Jimmy boy Parsi Restaurant where me and Will had a Parsi Laagan 4 course meal which they insisted we have. For starter I had Patra Ni Machi (Pomfret with chutney baked in banana leaf) with chapattis, Chicken Sali Boti with chapattis, Chicken Biryani and Parsi Custard for dessert. Obviously we couldn't eat it all so we ate most of the first two courses, had a rest, ate the dessert and packed up the Biriyani. Its possibly the best thing I've eaten in India so far. It was truly delicious. Cooked in a very homemade style and really authentic. Over lunch we talked all about our travels and their stories with dad. It was so so nice to hear. After lunch we then walked to where dad's home was when he was at college, then the famous Victoria Temrinus selfie point, Crawford market, then went for falooda and finally said our farewells. To be honest I'm feeling quite overwhelmed being here and hearing stories about my father but it's really helping me and making me stronger. I hope he's watching over us at the moment and keeping track of our adventure!

    Afterwards we attempted to sari shop but to no avail so we headed home as we were unbelievably shattered. On the way back we stopped at the largest outdoor laundry in the world, dhobi ghat. Well it was pretty impressive to be honest!

    As we were about half way back Adi rang and asked what we were up to. Honestly the only thing we had on our mind was that we wanted to lie down haha It was a Friday night and we probably were being quite lame. We were mostly home anyway so we decided to go back anyway, freshen up and then decide. At the spur of the moment we decided we might as well meet up with her and go for a drink. So we headed back out (by the way we aren't actually staying near the centre, it's about an hour away so us going out was actually quite impressive!). We met for drinks at Doolally which was a craft beer bar with boardgames. It was good fun. After a while we decided to see Adi's apartment and it was super swanky. They had gate men, a lift man and housekeepers. As we entered we were greeted by the most excited Shitzu I've ever met. He's only 4 months and he was bouncing off the walls!! Sooo cute!!

    After chatting endlessly we realised it was 1:30am so we booked an uber and headed home. The uber driver was an absolute disaster and although he had Google maps up he refused to use it. We eventually got home at 3am!! We felt soo soo bad waking up the housekeeper of the house we were staying in. But it's a very very different culture here. You have a person who does everything including opening doors for your own home.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    The Slums of Mumbai

    December 20, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Now we've all seen Slum Dog Millionaire and to be honest this a slum tour was not on our cards at all until we met a fellow traveller recommended it and said it was a really interesting tour. So we decided to do it today. We jumped in the uber and went to Dharavi to meet our guide Mosin. To be honest I didn't have a clue what to expect but we had heard it is more about the positive and business side of the slum.

    Mosin was very very well educated and was quite a fascinating guy. He was brought up in the slums but was a true business man at heart. He had got into Ruskin University in Cambridge for his Masters and was just waiting to hear back with regards his visa. He was doing the very same tour we had with a guy from Zurich and then did 3 consecutive tours with the same guy. After the last day he found out that this was a test and that he had been invited to give a Ted Talk! At first, I honestly didn't know what to believe but he sent us a link! How incredible is that?!!

    The tour was really really eye opening he knew his facts and figures really well and was so proud to have come from the Slums. There is a lot of political issues going on with regards to taxes, services and actually getting rid of the slums at the moment but surprisingly the people in the slums don't want it to change for various reasons. The slum has various sections including residential, services ie schools, hospitals and shops and also a commercial centre. They have a huge manufacturing sector where they take plastic, metals, textiles etc and sell them to various countries. They are unbelievably self reliant. They even wired in their own electricity and water pipes so that they could connect to the mains. So yes their taxes and service costs might be dubeous but wow they are pretty entrepreneurial and self sustaining. We were told that the slum area alone generates $3 billion dollar for the economy each year with 1 million residents. The average daily income is between $8-10 a day.

    The tour was supposed to last anywhere between 1.5-2.5 hours. Ours was over 3 hours because we loved it so much and were asking so many questions about everything from what sights we have to see in Mumbai to everything about the Slums. It was really really interesting. We even met his friend who at the age of 20 now exports leggings to China from a tiny tiny room in the slum. He even gave me a free pair! So if you see me rocking out some Just Do It leggings then they're the ones haha

    After the tour he put us on the next train (he even bought our train tickets!) to churchgate where I ate for the first time today. Honestly I was still full from yesterday and had a huge stomach ache so I decided to let it settle down. We tried the famous Egg and Veg Frankie. Yum yum yum. We also knew that we were going out for dinner and Cyrus had warned us not to eat!

    Then we went to the Foreigner Tourist office at the train station to attempt to book our tickets for our Christmas destination. For Christmas we decided to meet up with Charlotte who we met in Kochi at the beginning of our India trip. She was already at the destination and had found us accomodation which was so kind. But... Just as we were in the queue I decided to connect to Will's WiFi and double check everything was OK and she sent me a message saying the accomodation had been cancelled! At the time both myself and Will didn't know what to think or feel as honestly we were loving our time in Mumbai, so to be honest if we could stay an extra few days that would be amazing! However, if we could get to the new place that would also be fun. In the end Charlotte was an absolute life saver and booked us a new accomodation and then we finalised our train tickets. Finally Christmas is sorted!

    It was pretty late by the time we were done so we just jumped on a train back to our house to get ready for dinner. We got back just in time for Cyrus to pick us up. We met his beautiful daughter and neice too who were 8 and 12 and so unbelievably giggly and shy. They were really cute. Traffic was soooo bad so we ended up being a bit late for the dinner reservation but it was all fine in the end. Anyone who drives in Mumbai is a champion and super brave. I don't think is have the patience!

    For dinner we went to Barbecue Nation, uh oh more meat!! It was an Indian version of a Brazilian BBQ. First they give you unlimited kebabs of chicken, prawns, fish and veggies. For mains you help yourself to whatever you want from the buffet and for dessert you can get unlimited of whatever you want too. I hadn't been to an all you can eat since I was younger and there is a reason. I just can't eat so much and just having a plate of starters, mains and an ice cream made me feel really sick. Self control is not my strongest point! But it was really good fun. The restaurant was a family style restaurant and was full of birthdays too which was fun to see and sing Happy Birthday at.

    After dinner Cyrus dropped us off back at the house and we both died in pain haha I definitely don't think I'm coming back slim this time haha    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaIndiaTraveler

    Our First Local Train

    December 19, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    If I said I'm going to Mumbai what would you picture in your head? Remember all those documentaries that you've seen about the traffic and the ram packed trains with people hanging off? You're probably thinking oh my goodness they've done so well but now they've met there greatest challenge of Asian cities. Well let's see...

    Our first stop we decided to not attempt a rickshaw in fear of being robbed so we decided to walk for 40 minutes in 10am heat to a Parsi restaurant that turned out to only cater in advance for large orders... Wups... So we wandered around the area ate street food instead and I had Kanwi and Patra, two child hood favourite gujarati snacks. Will had a masala dosa and a Bhataka Pav (a deep fried spicy mash potato ball in a bun). We were then in desperate need of the loo and a sit down so we took refuge in the a McDonald's.

    When we gathered our senses again we jumped on the local train. Now I must admit my first experience of the local train was great. We accidentally got on the luggage cart but everyone was very friendly and we got a seat straight away. It wasn't super busy and we got all the way into South Mumbai in 45 mins for 10 rupees each. Me and Will noticed that from the outside it looks like the train is packed because men hang on the side and don't seem to move in. But the inside was completely empty!

    We then spent the afternoon seeing the sights of Mumbai. First Stop was Victoria Terminus, we then went for a quick Pepsi in an aircond cafe and then carried on with the day. We visited Fashion Street, which is a street full of fakes for super cheap, Hutatma Chowk, Flora Fountain, which was covered up due to the development of the new metro, Bombay High Court which was surrounded in very well lawyers and barristers, Rajabai Tower (Mumbai's Big Ben), David Sassoon Library, Jehangir Art Gallery, Prince of Wales Museum, the iconic Taj Hotel and Gateway of India where we sat and watched the ferry boats come into the Dock.

    In the evening we were spoilt to death by Will's friend from uni Adi. She met us with her driver near the Taj Hotel in her hot red Jaguar!! Sweeeeet!! She then took us to Leopalds Cafe which is a famous cafe for tourists owned by an Irani Zoroastrian and was involved in the 2008 terrosit attacks in Mumbai. There were still bullet holes in the walls that they have kept as a memorial.

    Then we jumped back in the Jag and went to the elite members only club - Cricket Club of India where we ate an Indian/ Chinese feast and I even had my first Old Monk. Old Monk is my favourite rum, it's an Indian rum, god I was in heaven! Honestly it was like we were back in the British Raj, with full table service. It really was an elite club full of quite old Indians that must be unbelievably rich! We were so honoured to be there!

    What an amazing 2nd day in Mumbai!!    Read more

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