Reset search
IndiaIndia
SatelliteEdit route

India

November 2018 - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Shahnavaz Read more
Currently traveling
  • 52footprints
  • 1countries
  • 1,992days
  • 306photos
  • 0videos
  • 7.6kkilometers
  • 3.2kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerIndia
    Day 23

    Happy 10 Year Anniversary of Pub Golf

    December 11, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Now only my uni students will probably know but me and Will had a funny old start of our relationship of which I won't go into here, but we finally got together today 10 years ago after properly meeting during Pub Golf. It's not our official anniversary but it was, as my mum would say, the start of our courting days. 😏

    Today we were moving accomodation... again.... We decided to move back towards our previous hostel so that we could easily access places to eat and see.

    In the morning we packed up, grabbed all our washing and went for breakfast at a Frog Life Cafe and had Egg Bhurji! At home we call this acurry, its spicy scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions and it's super super tasty. It wasn't quite my mums version but it was as close as I'm going to get so I'll take it. 😊

    Then Will took me to an amazingly cool cafe called Shanti Shanti that he discovered yesterday. Honestly I was in hippie heaven. The cafe pertruded over the river but on the opposite side to the other cafe we love and it had a live guitarist. The seats were positioned in a really cool fashion too. They were almost like sitting bunk beds and I felt like I was just hovering over the river. It was really really romantic. I do love this guy 😍Rishikesh is just a heavenly place to be.

    The day was reading and then researching what to do after our week in Mumbai ie over Christmas, New Year and until our visa runs out in mid January. Oh and drinking tea, eating amazingly fresh food (woohoo we had salad) is a given! We actually ended up spending the whole day till sunset there! It was so peaceful. After sunset we finally left and checked into our new hotel. 🤞 It seems pretty good so hopefully we don't have to move again!!

    For dinner we went to our good old falafel man and had falafel and chai. Gosh its nice to be back near the center.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 24

    Birds, birds and more birds

    December 12, 2018 in India ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Although very geared up for an adventure today the weather was against us for the next two days and decided to rain in the mornings. So today we spent the morning at our aloo paratha stall chatting, eating and enjoying chai and then in our cafe reading our books, doing a bit more planning and just enjoying us time. By the late afternoon it cleared up so we went for a wander along the Ganges. It was really good fun. We walked a bit, sat for a while, bird watched a lot and repeated until we got to the next town along. We spotted the following birds White capped water red start, Plumbous water red start, Indian cormorant, Indian treepie, Indian grey hornbill, Pied kingfisher, Great white pelican, White throated kingfisher, Black kite, Oriental Pied Hornbill! What a fab day of bird watching.

    In the the evening we watched the fire ceremony for sunset at Parmart Niketan and then went for an open meditation. It was amazing. I've tried to do some mindfulness and meditation through headspace myself but nothing has ever been as powerful as this joint meditation. The feeling of togetherness, and the power of silence was just beautiful. It would be amazing to do some more of it. In the evening we walked all the way back and went for dinner. I had mushroom palak paneer and Will had thee biggest thali I'd ever seen! The temperature has now dropped to 7 degrees and its getting seriously cold so we have been on the hunt for a hat. I finally found one and I'm not usually one for bright colours but I love it!

    The next day was a lot worse weather wise so we basically spent the whole day in the cafe reading our books. Honestly I feel so honoured to have this time to sit and read. In the evening we went for chowmein, sat chatting with a few other travellers and whilst distracted a huge cow came and licked my entire plate off the table! It was actually pretty hilarious I couldn't stop laughing haha He deservedly won the battle haha After dinner we found Will a hat and I bought some funky trousers.

    Over the last few days we'd heard that Shanti Shanti is a cute little place to go in the evenings as they have a fire and live music, so we decided to give it a go! There was a fire and we decided to plonk ourselves right in front of it haha we were sooo cold!!! We sat reading our books in front of the fire and it was a perfect end to the day 😊🔥    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 26

    Scootering in the Himalayas!

    December 14, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Well let's be honest we have been pretty lazy the last couple of days, so today it was time to hire a scooter and get to the top of one of these hills! First we stopped for a quick Egg Bhurji breakfast and then headed up to Kujapuri Shrine. The drive up was beautiful! It was such a perfect day. Not a single cloud in the sky!! The road was a very windy mountain road so it took quite a while to get up. After a while the road got really bad and it was basically us mountain biking up the mountain. After a while we decided it wasn't worth it and so walked the rest of the way. We had to walk 45 mins from the end of the road anyway so an extra 10 mins didn't make a difference. To be honest it was so nice walking as then I could bird watch again! I saw a red whiskered bulbul, a red vented bulbul and the himalayan bulbul.

    The walk was as lovely as the ride. The views were incredible and it was so nice to see all the local villagers getting on with their day.

    For dinner we treated ourselves to a pizza! 😊Wups it's our second in India. Shhh!    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    1
    Day 27

    We saw snow!!! Very far away...

    December 15, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    After yesterday's day of fun scootering, walking and birdwatching we decided to go out and do it all again this time south towards Rajali National Park.

    First stop, the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Today we had Masala Dosa, a dish that has never disappointed. How can you go wrong with a crispy pancake stuffed with Masala potatoes and doused in dhaal and coconut chutney? You just can't. Well actually I lie, I had a made up version of it once in Manchester and left utterly upset.

    After breakfast we headed along the Ganges on maps.me there was a skull and crossbones icon so we drove there first as I was just intrigued. I'm not sure what it was supposed to symbolise but it was not very deathly... In fact it was just a flat path surrounded in trees with birds. So we sat and attempted to bird watch. With a combination of the rays from the sun and the forever fluttering birds it was very very difficult to spot them. We eventually saw various bulbuls and the very impressive Black hooded oriole. We then carried on to a dam and ended up going over a super sketchy... I don't know what it was to be honest but I've put a picture on the blog...

    We then set off further not before long we were in the forest and after a while we started heading up the mountain edge. The gravel road was pretty rough going to be honest and we had a couple of hairy moments but Will is a pretty good driver now and has perfect control over the bike. Soon we are at the top and wow what a site! It was soo gorgeous! Although we were currently based at the bottom of the Himalayas there isn't snow where we are, but in the distance we could see the magical mountains of snow!! We were so excited!!!

    Along the driver back we saw male peacocks and Himalayan Goldenback which was a great spot on the moving bike if I do say so myself.

    For dinner we went and had Baijan Masala, Veg Masala and Matar Mushroom with chapattis. We ate like Kings! Then as we didn't have lunch we decided to have a cheeky look at puddings in a posh cafe. We had two amazing cakes for £1.90. Splashy!

    Well the day has come, it's time to leave Rishikesh... Although I cannot wait to get some heat inside me and not have a constant head ache and sore hands from the cold I am going to miss this peaceful and beautiful town.

    Now we don't really know what our plan is tomorrow... All we know is that we need to be in Dehli on the 17th at 4pm to catch our train to Mumbai. If we take the bus as we did to get here it will take forever so we are going to wake up in the morning and hope we can get a train for the 17th, but they only sell the tickets the day before so we need to be on it! If we get the ticket we will either get the train on the morning of the 17th or the evening of the 16th or end up getting a bus tomorrow. So who knows what tomorrow will bring. Either way I know I want one last aloo paratha, a chai and then a coffee in our lovely cafe with a view 😊

    Speak to you tomorrow!!    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 28

    All "cold" things have to come to an end

    December 16, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    So today we are going to attempt to book last minute trains, which is supposedly very difficult. All we know is that on the 17th we need to be in Dehli by 4pm for our train to Mumbai. Rishikesh is about 300km from Dehli. So hear goes! We checked out of our hotel in hope that it was all going to go smoothly and then went for breakfast. We were so eager to get on with our day that our normal Paratha or chai man hadn't setup yet! We went to another chai man until breakfast was ready and then we had our last yummy aloo paratha. It's sooo good! Why do people in the UK not have this for breakfast?!

    We had to kill time till about 11am which is when the Taktal foreigner day before train ticket window opens,so we went back to our coffee place with a gorgeous view and enjoyed a coffee with a view of the Ganges while reading our books. When 11am struck we jumped onto our phones and after a bit of too and froing we booked a train ticket from Haridwar to Dehli for tomorrow morning in hope of little delay so we can make our Mumbai train. After such relief we just relaxed for the rest of the day and enjoyed our views and the atmosphere of rishikesh. Will got his hair cut I read 50% of my book and then we had a yummy falafel dinner before heading to Haridwar for the evening.

    In the evening when getting a tuk tuk to Haridwar we had heard there are local tuk tuks a bit like uber pool so you can share them, so we went in search of these. When we found them we asked the price and obviously they just made up a price. I said OK ok and then happily asked the locals what the real price was. They happily told me and were angry that we were being charged different and told us to only pay the same and walk off. Easier said than done sometimes! Anyway we got in the tuk tuk and wow how many people can you fit in a car... Supposedly 10 including a driver!!! Let's just say the next hour was horrifically uncomfortable but it got us straight to our hotel and for barely any cost. So it worked out OK in the end. When we arrived at Haridwar it was really bustling! I was gutted to have already had dinner as the street food smelled lovely! Instead we checked in, Skyped with the family and eventually got to bed ready for our early morning.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 29

    28 Hours Later

    December 17, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 17 °C

    Well today is going to be fun!! It's our first train and to be honest I'm quite excited. It was really 5am and it was 5 degrees so we were wrapped up to the max. We had booked 2S class seats which are supposedly the lowest... They were perfectly fine! Sure the windows weren't great and so it was pretty cold but to be honest it was better than the Darwen train at home 😂 we arrived only half an hour late in Dehli, which was fine as we gave ourselves plenty of time.

    We had been so excited to get to Dehli mainly for its warmth, I was so wrong. It was still cold! We were only here 3 weeks ago and definitely wasn't like this. I guess I'll have to wait till Mumbai to feel heat.

    We then attempted to get across Dehli to our next station. Now this wasn't as easy as expected. We ended up asking a bus conductor who took us onto his bus, dropped us off for free at a random bus stand and then we had to take another bus to the station. No one charged us the whole way! I have no idea why...

    We arrived at our train station and as we hadn't eaten all day it was time to eat! We found a guy making fresh puris and then we sat in the waiting area with plenty of reading time to spare. Just before the train we went out again for an early dinner of Aloo Paratha and then jumped on our posh sleeper train. We booked 3AC on this train as was advised by a lot of people as it was affordable still but comfortable. To be honest it was luxury and everyone was very chatty.

    Around 9pm the baby next to us decided it was time to wail and wail it did for what felt like forever so we both popped sleeping tablets and had a pretty good sleep to be honest. I remember at one point I got up needing a wee and as I was on the top bunk I avoided it as long as I physically could. Eventually I couldn't hold it any longer so in a very dreary mess I scrambled down, went and then found it impossible to muster the energy to yet back up! I went as far as I could and had to belly flop and slide my body in a very unflattering manner onto my bed. It was not my finest moment haha    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 30

    Good Morning Mumbai!

    December 18, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    After leaving at 5am on the 17th we finally arrived at 10am in Mumbai. And to my astonishment we got picked up by a family friend Cyrus from the station! It was just what we needed. He then took us directly to our friends house. The drive took 2 hours, the traffic was absolutely horrific but wow... When we arrived... One of Will's friends from university has let us stay in this house. Its HUGE but completely abandoned apart from the housekeeper. We were told that this area is actually full of bollywood stars so I'll keep my eye out! We are meeting her tomorrow so I'm hoping we get to know more about the place as its beautiful!!

    When we arrived we crashed, but instead of resting we had showers, did washing and got out by the afternoon. I treated myself to a legwax. It was heaven!! Now this is a bit personal but meh.. So, it's interesting... Since travelling I've not cared that I'm actually quite hairy. Normally when in the UK I'm embarrassed about it and have to wax my legs, but since travelling I don't know why but it doesn't feel like an issue. And no, it's not what you think, it's not because I've become a lazy hippie, other people on the travels aren't hairy like me but people haven't cared. And most importantly I've not cared. Back home you put so much pressure on yourself and put ideas in your head about what other people think or might say. Would people really care? I'm not sure...

    After getting rid of my bear coat we went to Juhu beach and just sat enjoying sunset. The location of this house is soo lovely, I can't believe we are on the coast and out of the hustle and bustle of the city.

    In the evening as we hadn't eaten at all all day we decided to splash out and go to a famous Parsi restaurant called Sodabottleopenerwala, seriously that is its name! Haha As most of you know I'm a Parsi Zoroastrian and our food is actually very different from normal Indian food and so I was super excited to have some homecooked food. We really did splash out, not only did we have our first alcoholic drink of India, but also our first meat dish in India! It was sooo good!! We had Sali Boti ni Pav (Mutton in a sweet and sour gravy sauce with potato sticks on top served with bread) and Vegetable Parsi Curry with Rice. The restaurant was a super hipster place with really funny Parsi related jokes on the wall. I loved every minute of it. It was a great start to our time in Mumbai.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 31

    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

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 32

    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

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 33

    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

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English