Incredible India (or so they say...)

"You'll either love it or hate it!"
"India is so amazing, I'm in love with it!"
"Be careful of the Delhi belly"
"Don't eat anything off the street!"
"It's so spiritual"
"Oh I'm so jealous you're going to India"

Just some of the phrases people say when you mention India. I must say I'm one of those people who had India on my hit list just by pure hearsay and the "I need to see it for myself" attitude and strive. Well I kinda did, but a work trip to Bangalore doesn't really count (if anything, that was not a great experience and I would have dismissed India based on that). Anyway, after our 2 weeks trip to India, I'm one of the few who don't really have much to say about India - neither love it nor hate it, just "shrug the shoulders" kinda of feeling. Unsatiated. Slightly disappointed. Not overwhelmed. It could be due to the locations we went to, or just that we couldn't take a "no adventure" vacation, but that was the feeling we both got after the trip. There were still bright spots along the way and good experiences to share!

So as we were planning for our Xmas getaway, the criteria was "Warm" "Sunny" "Tropical" "New place" "Interesting" "Experience" and ultimately the boyfriend convinced us to head to India primarily because he wanted to "ride on the train roof" (only after we booked our trip did we discover this is now a myth and not doable unless you're in some remote village, so he did not get his wish).

We kind of prepared ourselves that this trip to India will not be an active one because there's really no diving where we will be heading to and also not much hiking as we went to the South and not the North. And why South? Because the North was cold at that time of the year! He was much more excited than I was but I was just glad we're going somewhere warm and hey India is not such a bad place??

Our preparation started with him posting a "hello...tips...india..." message on couchsurfing, lo and behold, Indians are so super friendly and welcoming! Some of them were obviously preaching their tour guide services, but there were loads of geunine CS who gave us lots of tips and offered to host us! Seriously, he got like 10 messages a day from these people and more and more as the days went by! We were pleasantly surprised by how helpful they all were and there were some good tips and information in there! So for anyone planning a trip to India, I highly recommend looking into CS! We ended up meeting with one guy (Ahkil) in Mumbai and staying with another couple for a night! More on them later but both were great experiences I highly recommend!

And so started our Journey to Incredible India.

We landed in Mumbai International Airport and took an Uber to our guesthouse. Tip #1: Uber is awesome in India! Especially from the airport. Don't wait for taxis, use Uber!

We booked ourselves into Traveller's Inn Hotel - Fort for a night. For a double bed with private bathroom it was 2,240 rupee per night (not exactly cheap but Mumbai is not cheap either). The guesthouse is average, nothing fancy, location is pretty central and close to the central train station. There are many more around with the same price range, so I wouldn't be too worried about pre-booking. After a short nap, we went out to meet Ahkil for a walk and some snack! He's a smart guy and a good conversationalist. If you're heading that way, highly recommend hooking up with him to show you around for a bit. He introduced us to the best street food snack you can ONLY GET IN MUMBAI - VADA PAV!! Tip #2: Never leave Mumbai without trying Vada Pav! We met him in the Dadar area and after some convoluted walk around that area, we arrived in this nondescript shop along the street that looks like mama shop - but behind those packaged snacks, there is a small assembly line to make the best vada pav ever!!! Cheese Vada Pav! They make the Pav in their house just opposite the shop and assemble it. Apparently they only sell the cheese variety on Sundays so we were damn lucky! And the most interesting condiment is adding potato chips in the Pav. If you happen to be in that area Rajesh Provision Shop is the place to go (google the shop and you'll find the address).

Ahkil and I with our Cheese Vada Pav

Next day we made our way to find our CS Host Prem! He lives near the Dharavi slums. We took the train up - the trains are really cheap (10 rupee each person) and frequent, so it's the most convenient and cheap means of getting around areas which are serviced by the train. Beats getting stuck in traffic. One thing we found strange was that taxi drivers do not always want to pick you up! We had that in Fort area where tons of taxis were parked waiting, but none of them wanted to take us to our hotel (which was maybe a 15mins drive!) No reasons given, they rather not have customers. We asked Prem later, and he too can't figure out why sometimes - apparently some taxi drivers rather wait for long routes than take short routes (even if it means no route at all??) Tuk Tuk is a little different - apparently they only service a specific area and cannot run outside of that area, so you might get rejected. That's why Uber is so popular!

 

On our way we decided to get a SIM and that was a nightmare. Tip #3: It is near impossible to get a SIM in India. You can't just buy it off any shop. You have to register to get a SIM, and the process is a headache. You need a local contact person (that's impossible if you're a tourist, the Airtel guy eventually relented and used his contact), you need a passport size photo for registration, and wait in line forever to get registered. It took us more than an hour to get the SIM. Even then, they offered us so many options that we just went for the cheapest (apparently 2GB data per day is insufficient for them - crazy!). Then you need to wait 24H to activate it and make sure you switch your phone to LTE (3G doesn't work). On the other hand, it is very cheap! We paid less than 300rupee for a 28day SIM with 2GB data per day, free incoming calls and text messages. On another note Tip #4: Get Vodafone if possible because AirTel sucks! Tip #5: Though near impossible, having a local SIM is very useful for contacting guesthouses, making reservations, Ubering, and getting around. It is so cheap that even if you're there for 2 weeks, it's worth it (not the trouble of getting it but the benefits are aplenty)

Us with Prem, his wife and friends

Sweet Betel leaves - never again

 

When we finally got to Prem's house, it was just a day of relaxing at his place, chatting and sharing experiences with him and his friends and wife and eating Indian food! It was a really nice experience just hanging out with the locals. They took us to this amazing place where you order food from the shop and eat standing. After, we took a drive along the coast and tried betel nut leaf for the first time (and the last time because not my cup of tea).

Next morning we visited Dharavi slum where slumdog millionaire was shot! We were given tips on shops to visit to buy real leather stuff (they manufacture them there and sell them to branded shops like Mulberry, Gucci etc). We didn't think we would get anything until we got there! There are many leather shops selling the same stuff but some are fake while some are real. Tip #6 recommended shops are Zaraa, hide shop and Leather Corner. We ended up buying a couple leather bags, couple leather jacket, and Ian got himself a pair of leather shoes. Really cheap and real leather (jackets were around EUR50, the bags were like 10-20 EUR). We did a quick tour of the slums - as a lot of tours advertised, they are not as depressing as you might think. The place is cramped but the people looked happy, they have electricity and as you walk around, you really do not feel like the world is falling.

Soon it was time for us to say goodbye to our lovely host and head downtown. We went to the train station to check on the status of our train to Goa. Tip #7: Book your train ticket WAY IN ADVANCE. They usually open 120 days before so book it asap otherwise you'll end up in our situation. We were waitlisted since the very first day we booked it (2 months ahead), and on the day of the train itself, we were waitlisted 1 and 2. A lot of people were saying you'll get it eventually but no luck. Until the last second (you have to go to the train station and ask for the final status after 630/7pm). Disheartened, we decided to book flights next day to Goa. Unlucky for us, after we booked the flights and walked out the station, we got approached by agents selling bus tickets to Goa!! The buses are cheaper than the trains and they offer sleeper buses. But we were too late. Tip #8: Stay around the train station if you can't find a train because they are there selling buses. We were too invested in the train that we did not really look into buses. The bus was leaving Mumbai at close to 10pm and will get you to Goa around 10am (about 12hours). Make sure to ask if it's a full sleeper or half sleeper. Apparently the guy was offering half sleeper as the full ones were sold out. I think we wouldn't have had a good night's sleep on a half sleeper.

 



We flew JetAir next morning. Unfortunately the flights we booked via Cheapticket.in were not confirmed (only knew it when we got to the airport and tried to check in) so JetAir gave us compensation and bumped us to the next flight out (which was 1 hour later). Tip #9: Don't trust cheapticket.in. They didn't acknowledge the issue even after we complained about paying for a flight we did not get. It took forever to try to reach them via their customer service (we tried no less than 10 times to call but couldn't get through). They do not allow cancellation within 24hours even though JetAir allows for that. Anyway, we were happy to get the compensation (it was 9,000 rupee each).

On landing (flight was pleasant), we headed straight out of the airport to negotiate for a taxi. Tip #10: Don't bother queuing inside for the official taxi, it'll take you ages to get to the front of the line. Look at the printed rates, walk out to the front and negotiate. You'll get a taxi with either the same rate or slight more (100rupees more for avoiding the queue - which is reasonable). We got one (air-con) for 1,500 rupee (advertised rate was 1,400rupee). Took us about 1 hour to get to Anjuna beach.

We booked ourselves with Funky Monkey hostel on recommendation by Prem (the hostel is abit hard to get to with the car especially when the flea market is on (Wednesday only) so we walked. Funky Monkey is a nice hostel in Goa not far from the Anjuna beach. Nice people there as well. However, it is expensive for a hostel! We paid 1,900 rupee each for a bed per night!!! Money NOT WELL SPENT! After 2 nights, we found ourselves another place (closeby) for 2,000 rupee for a double room with shower included! Chill Inn - recommend! The owner is wayyy chill and WIFI works great!

Beer by the beach and being Indian already!

So we took a walk along Anjuna beach, had drinks by the beach and watched the sun set. First impression - this is no Tofo, Mozambique. A little disappointed. The flea market has some really cheap clothes! I bought a summer beach dress for 200 rupee!!

One of our primary purpose to India was to do some yoga. A lot of people (on CS) told us "You'll find yoga anywhere", "everyone teaches yoga". To be honest, I didn't believe in any of these because I know the fact that anyone can teach yoga as long as they've done the 200H TT but that doesn't mean they know how to teach. And in India, everyone does yoga but not everyone teaches them correctly. I'm a bit anal with my yoga practice and I want to know that the teacher knows what he/she is doing and that he/she can do what he/she teaches. Ian, on the other hand, knows nothing and he believed that we can just find anyone to do yoga with. And at the end of the day, I was right. We had a hard time trying to find a good yoga studio/teacher. We did one class in Goa (for 300 rupee each) at Goa's Ark. They offer daily Yoga at 10am in the morning. Honest option, I think it'll suit beginners well, but to me, the class is too basic and too spiritual for my liking. It was just a couple of sun salutations after 10mins of spiritual stretching and then we started to cool down. We did some stretches but they were never deep enough to feel the benefits.

Start of our bike trip!

In the afternoon, we rode to Arambol beach after we got our motobikes (500rupee per day). It took us almost 1 hour to get there from Anjuna. Arambol beach is the place to be. It has a nice wide sandy beach with a lot more going on here (lots of yoga classes, lots of shops, people as well). The vibe is more vibrant and more like Tofo. Tip #11: Would recommend staying a few days in Arambol to experience it. We didn't have time for that.

 Tip #12: You have to make time for the Gelato shop in Anjuna! I mean seriously good gelato outside of Italy and cheap too!!! We went twice! Ian swears by their hazelnut gelato.

Happy face

What's better than good quality gelato under the hot sun!

Random cows sunbathing by the beach in Arambol

 

On the way back, we stopped at Goan Spice for dinner - the Indian food here is tasty though portions a bit small. Recommended for a meal stop!

Next day, we went for cooking class at Mukti Kitchen. She offers veg and non-veg options at her house! For 2,000 rupee each, we cooked a 4-course meal. I highly recommend doing a cooking class with her if you have the time. On that day it was just the 2 of us so we had a private class! Of course, you can't control that so we were lucky! Our menu for the day was Paneer Masala, Dal fry, Aloo Jeera and Lemon rice. You really get hands on experience as you prepare your food and cook it! After a couple hours of hard work, we get to taste our fruit of labour!

Mukti herself

Cooking is serious business

Fruits of our labour! Delicious Thali!

We went to Mapusa Market after. It's an electic place selling all kinda stuff - from spices to food/fruits to clothes and bags. We bought our spices from there!

Next day we just wandered around and spent the day by the beach before we headed down to the train station for our ride to Kerala. To get to the Goa train station, you could spend hours travelling by public transport (cheapest way but takes longest time) or taxi (expensive but quick). We decided to go with taxi (1,800 rupee) as we wanted to spend the day by the beach. It took us 2 hours to get to the train station because of the terrible traffic. Still when we got there, we found out our train was delayed. Apparently train delays are very common in India! We ended up waiting 4 hours for our train. Another couple we met was supposed to be on the earlier train but they were still waiting after we boarded ours! And finally we got our first class cabin experience! You have to check your allocated seats/cabin on the day of travel at the station. Our first class cabin was 5,700 rupees and luckily we got a 2 bed cabin for ourselves! The first class cabins are either 2 or 4 beds. Must say we were glad we got a first class cabin. After a long day of travelling and waiting, it was nice to be able to have a cabin to ourselves and rest. Wouldn't say it's exactly very clean and hygienic (people were on it before we got on and the beds are not cleaned after) but better than nothing. Tip #13: If you can, go for first class. Otherwise 2nd class AC sleeper for a comfortable ride.

Grumpy faces after waiting hours

First class cabin! How excited!

After a long ride, we finally got to Kerala! Checked ourselves into a hotel (used my points to get a free night) and wandered off to the Fort area. We took a tuk tuk (300 rupees) and got into Fort, wanting to celebrate NYE. Fort area is full of live and tourists (also lots of locals). You also get to see the Chinese Fishing Nets which were amazing. We also tried the Keralan prawn curry and Fish biryani (both amazing!). Tip #14: Kerala is a dry state - meaning it is very difficult to get beer and also expensive! Only selected restaurants sell them and hotels. I think it's a good thing as you don't get a lot of drunken people disturbing peace. Our plan to celebrate NYE went Kapuk when we (2 old souls) got tired and decided to go back to our hotel and have a quiet night! And going back is twice as difficult because no tuk tuks want to go out of the Fort area, or they don't know where we're going. But Uber to the rescue! For the same amount of money, you get a much more comfortable ride!

New Year's Eve at Kerala

Chinese fishing net

Next day, we decided to travel down to Chengganur to start our volunteer teaching. Ian got contacted by Jacob via CS to teach in his school for a couple of days. We decided to give it a go for the experience and thought it would be a nice thing to do. So 2 travellers with no experience with teaching and had no clue what to do went down south to the middle of nowhere. We should have checked the train schedule earlier. Getting down to Ullannur was quite a journey. First a train to Chengganur, then a tuk tuk ride to Ullannur. You really need a local's help to get you to the school location because there is no landmark and without the language or local knowledge, you can't get there! Jacob arranged a tuk tuk driver to drop us there and after a 45min ride, we arrived in our prison for the next 2 nights! Geetha, the caretaker, greeted us. Her family takes care of the school as Jacob is not living in the country (as we found out only the day before we got to the school). She and her family do not speak English so communication was limited. Airtel is shitty there (hence Vodafone recommended). And the house we stayed in looked like it hasn't had anyone in decades - wood is disintegrating, spiders and rust all around, and we had to lock ourselves in. Honestly, it felt quite depressing to be there, with no way to communicate because we had no signal.

Not so impressed with the living conditions

We were told to lock up both gates at night..

Next morning we thought we could explore around the area since the school is closed (only found out after we decided to travel down). But there is nothing around the school and getting somewhere is a hassle if you don't know where you want to go! So Jacob arranged the same driver and took us to the elephant sanctuary (waste of time) and a lake where you can take a bamboo ride (another waste of time). Went to the supermarket to get some food supplies for the kids next morning.

Kids playing before school

And the next day we braced ourselves to the onslaught of KIDS!!! We walked into the school way too early (we were told it stated at 9am when in fact it started at 10am). The teachers that came basically ignored us until we approached them and asked them what we have to do. It did appear that they had no idea we were coming, and they thought we were staying long term. Without much briefing, we were just told to talk to the class about where we are from and go from there. No structure, no plan. We had no clue what their level of English was and that made things difficult. At the end of an exhausting day, we managed to do 2 classes and distributed sandwiches to the kids.

School photo

It was a nice experience, the kids were fun and really appreciated us being there, but I thought more could be done to make the experience even smoother. There were other volunteers before us and maybe because they stayed longer, they were able to get more out of it. But we felt like we were thrown into the deep sea and it was either sink or swim. Communication was not perfect and we were not given any materials to work with. We were asked by Jacob to teach English but when we got there, the teachers did not really give us anything to work with in that respect. We also felt the isolation was quite hard to take - after school ended (4pm) you're left on your own in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. Maybe we were being too picky, maybe the other volunteers had a good time. I'm just speaking based on how we felt. Anyway check out RRUP School, they have about 114 students there.

So at this point halfway through our journey, we were not really satisfied with the trip so far and felt like we hadn't done much but waste lots of time travelling from one place to another. We decided to head to Munnar, a hill resort, where we thought it'll give us a much better time! After spending 3,600 rupee to hire a taxi, which was driven by an Indian who did not know his way and was preaching Christianity to us, we arrived in Munnar after 3 hours. We booked ourselves into Namasthe Munnar for 2,000 rupee per night double room with bathroom. The location is just off the main road towards the center and with a view out to the greenery. A 10 rupee bus ride takes you to the city center, or a 150-200 rupee tuk tuk. Or if you're lucky, a shared jeep for 50 rupee. Namasthe offers dinner (pre-book) which is at a reasonable price and tasty.

The first night we booked ourselves to 2 shows - traditional dance (don't bother if you don't have the time) and the Kalarippayattu martial arts show (recommend!!!) Tickets can be purchased at the location or with your guesthouses (no difference).

The fighting was really good!

Next day we booked a trip to the tea plantation (full day hike for 1,200 rupee per pax) with a private guide Rajash arranged by our guesthouse. On hindsight, we should have bargainned the price down Tip #15: Bargain always! We managed to bargain down the price for our 2nd hike.

Tea plantation

It's always Acroyoga time!

Recreation of #followme male version

It was a nice hike and the most activity we have done in the 2 weeks! The hike itself is not difficult and the view is great! We had a little chill out time at the top before continuing down. It took us less than 5 hours for the whole trip including the many breaks in between. After the trip, we stopped in the city center to wander around and had some snacks and chai! It is pertinent to note that at this point in the trip, we still had not experienced the so-called delhi belly everyone was talking about!!!

Next day was unplanned as our supposed trip to hike up the mountain failed as we faced a road block since we travelled late in the morning (we have a suspicion that Rajash knew about it but didn't tell us and deliberately made us travel and in the end had to pay him for the ride). Anyway we ended up taking another cooking class with Nimis for 2,000 rupees each. She runs classes daily but do drop her a note before you go to check availability and time! You get a copy of her cook book after the class. To be honest, we didn't think the dishes were that great - compared to Mukti, we prefered Mukti's dishes. We made semolina rice (not a big fan of it), pineapple curry (really didn't taste like curry and too sweet), Kerala fish curry (the best dish, not spicy), stir fried beans (well, nothing special) and sweet dumpings for dessert (really did not like the stodgy dumplings).

Everyone is serious about cooking

Final product

Finally the next morning, waking up at 430am, we made our way to hike the mountain with another couple. The hike in itself is not difficult. Hell nothing is difficult in this part of India! Rajash took us halfway and left us to hike up to the top ourselves. The view from the very top wasn't amazing (cloud cover be damned!) but the view from halfway was pretty decent. In all, the hike took 3-4 hours up and down (like I said, easy peasy). After our bargain, we paid 800 rupees each.

Before dawn

 

We checked out of Namasthe and moved to another location down the road Blue Bells Valley. We booked it via Oyorooms and at 1,800 rupees, much cheaper and a much better room! The room is a lot bigger and the shower much better water pressure. It is a long way down from main road to walk but they have a jeep which can take up back up to the main road! WIFI is also decent in Blue Bells. I would recommend it.

The water which you can't get to apparently

We hiked to the nearby waterfall (which you can really get close it) but at least we got a little bit of walking down before we leave Munnar the next day. Found ourselves a taxi in the city center for 2,800 rupees who will bring us direct to the Kochi airport hotel where we spent our last night in India.

 

We also had good India food in Munnar! That one restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet (Rapsy)- forget it. We went there, but the menu is very small and not that interesting so we left without eating (suffice to say it was overly crowded). Head to other places - the night market is fantastic and really cheap, Saravana Bhuvan serves authentic Indian food on a banana leaf (and no cutlery!), Hotel Sri Nivas - had the most amazing Thosai there and Ian had a really good Thali set!

Saravan Bhuvan

Special Thali set at Sri Nivas

They print your name on the Thosai!!!!!

Night market

We ate street food and had no problems - deep fried peppers! Yum

 

 

Again an efficient flight with JetAir to Mumbai - and guess what we did? Straight on to our last Vada Pav in Mumbai before we leave the country!! Based on google review, we selected Ashok Vada Pav - a short Uber ride and we're there! The Vada Pav was good (Ian had 2!) but the Cheese Vada was still the best ever!.

He had 2! 20 rupees each - vada pav with deep fried fritters

Gateway of India

 

We then walked around Mumbai - to the gateway of India, to the Taj Hotel and Leopold's cafe and then took a taxi to the airport. Would recommend an Uber instead of a taxi but for some reason we just took the taxi. Made the mistake of entering the airport before we went to collect our bag from storage. Tip #16: Once you get into the airport you cannot get out unless signed out by airline officials. Tip #17: Trust your own instinct and not your boyfriend's. I knew we had to get to baggage storage from the outside (the guy said so to us) and not from the inside but Ian insisted we go from the inside since we should go via parking. And guess who was right. So we had to wait 3 hours for the BA counter to open and ask one of the staff to sign us out of the airport to collect our bags and come back in again.

And so ends our India trip. Tip #18: Always have toilet paper with  you. And hand sanitizer. Most public toilets do not have toilet paper (e.g. trains). And we did not have dehli belly even though we were eating street food. In fact, we were kinda constipated the first couple days (I got my rhythm back but Ian suffered longer). Sounded like we did a lot but in fact we didn't. Much time was spent travelling from place to place, and a lot of time was spent not doing much, or thinking about what to do! We were quite bored a lot of times (not of each other but of the trip). And so at the end of the trip, we concluded that India is overhyped. We spoke to another couple who had the same feeling as we did. So of the 6 quotations in the beginning of this chapter, we did not feel any of them. Maybe the North would have been a better option for us, what with the mountains and nature but we didn't want to be in the cold in December yet again. Food was overall a good experience - but after a few days, all the curries tasted and looked the same, even though you see 20 different names on the menu! To a certain extent we were glad no more curries after 2.5 weeks. We actually had pizza and salad at the airport on our last day! After so long, we craved for fresh vegetables - which in Indian cuisine is not really the case as they are all stewed in curries until you can't recognize them.