Slum Tour & Holi Pre-party

In Mumbai I met up with 2 people I’d met before in India, unfortunately they were both suffering with food poisoning and had endured a 20 hour bus journey to arrive in Mumbai.

We explored Bandra East, which reminder me a lot of Paris or Marseille, with the hills and steps decorated with street art.

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We also spent some time in the very south of Mumbai, it is immediately obvious that the area was built by the British, it gave an almost eerie vibe.

My favourite part of Mumbai was taking a guided tour of Dharavi slum, the slum made world-famous by Slumdog Millionaire. I decided to go with Reality Tours, which are connected to an NGO that works with women and children in the slum and I feel that it’s the most reputable company offering tours there.

Throughout the tour we learnt a lot about the huge amount of industry and commerce that takes place in the slum and how that many people choose to rent places here (at not-so-cheap rates) because it’s now one of the best connected areas in the whole city. Certainly it changes my perspective on what the word ‘slum’ means and how areas classified as slums aren’t necessarily places filled with unemployment and crippling poverty. There were huge amounts of textile, leather, pottery and food production, as well as a huge area dedicated to recycling.

As it was nearly Holi, once the tour was over, it was time to play Holi with some of the kids that the tour company’s NGO works with. Playing Holi was one of my top things on my list for India and I was very excited to have an extra chance to play before the actual day! There were trays of powder, a DJ and plenty of willing participants and it was so fun!

Mumbai Madness

Less than a minute after arriving in Mumbai I had already caused a scene. Upon reaching the top of the escalator from the train platform to the exit, I felt something pulling me back. It quickly became apparent that one of the straps from my smaller backpack was trapped in the escalator. A mildly chaotic scene unfolded as I fought with the strap, while a steady flow of people kept arriving at the top of the escalator. A small group of men gathered to help an eventually after a few minutes a man pulled a knife out of his pocket and cut my bag free.

After eating some food from the nearest restaurant, I was treated to another unfortunate situation. I had ordered an uber to my hostel, but in classic Indian uber driver style, the driver had decided it was best not to come to the exact pickup point. Instead he was waiting somewhere in the general vicinity and was calling me to tell me this (in Hindi, then in broken english). After realising I had no clue what he was saying, he instructed me to ‘give phone to someone’.

I quickly handed the phone to the nearest man, who after a confused look, began speaking to my driver on the phone. After 30 seconds he hands me the phone back and simply walks away. So I’m left pacing up and down the busy street looking for my uber.

After a couple more minutes I feel something pulling on my bag, it was the man who I handed the phone to! He tells me to come this way and points down the street. I decided to follow him as I had no other ideas of how to find my driver.

He grabbed my wrist as we crossed the street (not a completely unusual thing for an Indian person to do), but then he managed to position his arm so he was resting against my boob. I pull away and he asks ‘what happened?’, to which I simply respond ‘no, no, no’. After grabbing my arm much harder with both hands, I shout for him to get off and pull away.

At this moment I finally see my uber and rush into it, only to see that I’ve been followed and the man is getting into the front seat. Luckily the uber driver shouted him out of the car and we were safely on our way to my hostel at last!

Sun, Sea and Drinking in Goa

Early warning, I have zero pictures from Goa besides 2 pictures of my face covered in mosquito bites, which are not at all flattering and will not be shared!

I didn’t want to spend too long in Goa, since my plan was to head to the North of India in time for the holi festival, so I wanted to choose just one town. After speaking to a few people who had already been, I decided that Arambol was the right place and I think that was a pretty good decision.

The journey from Gokarna to Arambol included a 3 hour wait between trains. A kind stranger showed up at the deserted train station, saw me stranded and shocked at the lack of tuktuks (except one, who laughed at me when I asked to be taken to the nearby beach) and offered to take me and my backpacks to the beach. I will be forever grateful for being spared a 3 hour wait at the empty station and being able to eat lunch on the beach instead!

I stayed at my first ‘party hostel’ in India on the recommendation of someone I had met in Gokarna, which had a great group of people staying there. I’ve certainly not been in a party mood so far during my trip, but it was nice to let loose a little. I quickly adjusted to being able to drink alcohol freely (and very cheaply!), being able to show shoulders and knees and being in the presence of a lot of western tourists. I didn’t actually go to any actual parties, but drank quite a few beers and mojitos during my 5 days there.

One day was spent riding on the back of a scooter, which is one of my favourite activities while travelling. I, along with 3 Germans decided to drive around and go cafe hopping. We successfully dodged 3 police stops before the other scooter had a policeman stand right in front of them, with no hope of escaping without paying a fine (aka bribe). Luckily they were able to pay only around £1, after claiming that was the only money they had with them. We also got a flat tire on the way home, so it wasn’t the luckiest day of driving, but fun nonetheless.

I also spent a lot of time on the beaches, including the ‘secret beach’ with a small fresh water lake on the other side of the sand. Although the beaches were much busier than the previous ones I’d visited, I still enjoyed spending time in the waves and on the sand, as I knew this would be my last time by the sea for a while.

My favourite evening consisted of a midnight trip to the beach with a group from the hostel. We were already a little drunk and told we couldn’t play music at the hostel any longer, so we took some beers and speakers down to the beach. Fairy lights and banana bread appeared from someone’s bag on arrival, which could not have been better received. We made friends with some stray dogs, who sat happily being stroked for hours and a dip in the sea revealed bioluminescent plankton. It was an evening of unexpected surprises that were all the more exciting due to being tipsy and one of my favourite evenings of my trip so far.

Chilling in Gokarna

After spending some time in the hilly tea plantations of Munnar, I was ready to return to the beach.

Gokarna turned out to be the perfect choice. It was a quiet beach, with golden sand and clear blue waves. I was treated to 4 days enjoying the beach, in the company of the tiniest, cutest puppies I’ve ever seen. I didn’t stray more than 150m from my hostel, which was practically on the sand. I alternated between beachhut cafes, laying in the sand and taking a dip in the sea.

One afternoon, just before I was about to eat lunch, I noticed some commotion less than 50m away. A group of men were collecting wood and seemed to be preparing a fire. Then somebody casually mentioned that someone had died last night and they were preparing to burn his body. I almost thought they were joking, but over the next 30 minutes I saw the preparations unfold and the burning beginning, it was a pretty surreal experience.

Lockdown in Rishikesh

I’ve let the blog get quite out of date, I’m about a month out of date I think. But I thought I would skip ahead to the present and announce that I’m currently in Rishikesh on lockdown due to the coronavirus situation. The local authorities seem pretty vague on what’s happening and I’m getting all the news secondhand from my hostel owners. But since yesterday no hostels in the state are taking new guests, so I’ll be in the same hostel, stuck in isolation for an unspecified amount of time.

I’m not feeling too worried or stressed, I’m feeling ready to ride out whatever is coming my way. The town I’m in is pretty nice, my hostel is cheap, with nice people, and balconies and a rooftop with pretty views. I’ve stocked up on food and made a lost of things I can do while stuck at the hostel. I’m actually kinda excited to stay put in one place for a while and finally get around to doing things I’ve been putting off, like getting my blog back up to date!

The view from my hostel

So you can expect a bunch of blog posts coming soon about my adventures during the past month. I’ll also be posting any updates to the lock down situation as they happen.

I hope everyone is staying safe and sane where ever they are and whatever situation the coronavirus has put them in!

Amazing Views of Munnar

After a week away from Kerala, it was time to make a quick return, before leaving for good. I was excited to be back in Kerala and I made the most of the opportunity to eat as many kerala parotha as possible before I left.

I took a sleeper bus from Bangalore to Munnar, which ended with around 2 hours driving through beautiful windy roads. Each turn revealed a new breathtaking view of the tea plantation-covered hills.

The views didn’t end when arriving at Munnar. The entire area surrounding the town was amazing. I stayed at a hostel just outside the town, which was perched on a hill, allowing for almost 360 degree view of the hills.

Besides constantly admiring the scenery, my time in Munnar was spent learning about Keralan cooking in a cooking class, taking the bus to a dam and then coming scarily close to a snarling monkey and having a chance encounter with a couple I met in Varkala.

After eating lunch in town one day, I boarded a bus back to my hostel and was greeted by smiles and waves from the front of the bus. We promptly realised we were staying at the same hostel, it was the biggest coincidence I’d experienced in India!

Exploring Bangalore

The main reason I stayed in Bangalore was of course to attend the wedding, but I was pleasantly surprised by the city itself. I wasn’t expecting great things, since everyone had warned me about the terrible traffic. I was told that it’s the worst in India, you must allow hours to travel distances usually covered in 15 minutes and how you can spend half an hour at a standstill in the back of a taxi.

I didn’t really experience this hellish traffic at all during the few days I spent in the city. I mostly walked and took the metro, along with a few rides on the bus/uber/autorickshaw.

I also found the city to be very modern compared with other places I visted, with plenty of international restaurants, lots of women in western style clothes, reasonably clean and walkable streets without too much pollution, as well a a big pub/bar culture with numerous microbreweries in the centre of the city.

Some highlights of my time in Bangalore (excluding the wedding!)

Going for drinks with Nikhil, who owns the hostel I stayed at in Varkala, but works in Bangalore during the week.

Going for drinks at a microbrewery with one of the Americans I met at the wedding

Eating lots of food, including lots of non-indian food and one spicy paneer burger from McDonald’s that was so spicy I couldn’t finish it!

Spending a few hours at the Sunday morning dog park, where dog owners bring their dogs to socialise and dogless-dog lovers are welcome too

Attending an Indian Wedding

Before coming to India, one of the top things I wanted to do was attend a wedding. Miraculously, I was asked to dance in an Indian wedding, by a stranger in a cafe, just a few days into my trip. It seemed a little too easy. So, as with most things in India that seem too easy, it didn’t work out.

But, what I now had was an interesting story to tell people about how I nearly went to an Indian wedding and how I’d love to go to one. I preceded to tell this story to almost everyone I met, hoping that someone may hear it and extend a wedding invitation to me. After a week or so, my plan had worked! I was invited to the wedding of someone’s brother in Bangalore on Valentines day.

It was a South Indian style wedding, so it was not a crazy 3 day event, where 500 people turn up! The wedding started around 4pm and I was extremely excited on the uber ride over to the hotel, dressed in a pink and green Indian outfit, complete with big gold earrings. (As an aside, I’ve taken infinitely more uber rides in India than in England!)

I was part of the grooms guests, so I saw his closest family present him with gifts (mainly fancy envelopes of money) and circling incense/candles in front of him for good luck. Then a highly decorated horse showed up, along with 4 men playing traditional Indian instruments and things really got going. The groom and his niece rode the horse from the hotel entrance to the back garden where the ceremony was being held, all the while his guests (including me) danced in front.

We arrived in the garden where the bride’s guests greeted us with flower garlands and powder for our foreheads and cheeks. The groom was taken to the ceremony area and some rituals were performed. Until this point, the bride was still nowhere to be seen. The groom was then hidden behind a sheet and the bride arrived on a golden throne, being carried by four men. A big show was made about hiding the bridge and groom from each other until they were toe to toe on the stage.

For another hour or so, more rituals were performed with the couple, with women chanting continuously for most of it. It was quite mesmerising to observe. Then the couple were officially married and the photos started. After a while dinner was served and the food was amazing. After dinner I, along with some guests who were American, asked if we could take some photos on the stage and were able to take some nice pictures.

The bride bid farewell to her family and the newlyweds then drove off together to ‘the grooms home’ which, in this case, was simply one of the hotel rooms. There were a few games played by the couple and the grooms family, but it was late and I was staying far away, so I headed back to my hostel.

And that concluded my Indian wedding experience! I’m so happy and grateful for being able to attend the wedding. The couple met in the US while studying and were really welcoming to me, as were their friends attending from America and all of their Indian relatives. I even got some compliments on my outfit!

Kerala to Tamil Nadu

After over a month in India, the time had come to leave Kerala and travel to a new state – Tamil Nadu. This meant taking my first sleeper bus in India, which involved sharing a double bed which a stranger who decided to watch movies in the built in screen all night!

My first town in Tamil Nadu was Pondicherry. I met a Belgian guy as soon as I arrived at the hostel and we spent a couple of days being treated to a lot of good French food in cute cafes, a legacy of the town being a old French colony. But I couldnt help missing the sunsets over the ocean, something I took for granted in Kerala.

We decided to visit Auroville one afternoon, which is a town started by an Indian Guru in the 1960s as a town that belonged to all people. Unfortunately as a day trip you are only allowed into the visitors centre and on a short walk to the golden dome. To really understand the place, you have to stay in the town for a few weeks.

After Pondicherry I went to Chennai to meet Amrutha, who I met in Varkala. She took me to a Hindu Shiva temple in the evening and explained a lot about the rituals and beliefs and it was incredibly interesting. After the temple she kindly took me shopping to get an Indian outfit fit for a wedding, as in a few days I would be attending a wedding in Bangalore!

Brief Ashram Stay

After chilling for a little too long in Varkala, I was ready for a change of pace. After hearing about a nearby Ashram, I decided this would be my next destination. I was on a little bit of a tight schedule, as I had been invited to a wedding which was happening in just over a week, so I was only able to stay 4 days.

An ashram is essentially a Hindu retreat, where meditation and yoga are practiced.

The ashram I was at had a strict schedule, which you were required to stick to every day (see above). Meals were served twice a day and allowed for unlimited extras, which would have been nice if I had been able to stomach the food a little better! But besides the food and the 5:20am wake up call, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I’m considering staying longer in another ashram before returning home.

It is completely different to anything I’ve ever done and everything was a little alien to begin with. Due to the repetitive nature of the schedule though, everything quickly became familiar. Soon the peculiar meal procedure, the Hindi (or maybe sanskrit) lyrics to the numerous chants and prayers we sang many times a day, the sequence of yoga positions in each class, they all became familiar. Even 2 weeks later, I frequently catch myself chanting some of the chants in my head!

As someone who has had very little exposure to any form of religion in my life, I didn’t feel any religious connection to the prayers or religious chants. What I did feel was a connection to everyone in the room, all saying the same words, all following he same schedule, eating the same meals and that was powerful.