GO GOAAA.................

It was an all new motivation for me going to Goa in the sweltering heat, this time around it was about the road to the destination than the destination itself. The sheer adventure of driving from Mumbai to Goa in a newly acquired mini monster, the Skoda Fabia 1.6 and exploring the beautiful countryside this route has to offer was an exhilaration unlike any other of my previous expeditions. Our trip was an unplanned one, so one March evening I called up one of my friends and it was an instantaneous decision to drive to Goa the next morning for the weekend.

With our bag packs and a compiled list of the best songs for the road trip, we started our 575 kms of journey at 7 in the morning as planned. Our only predicament was which road to take, should it be the beautiful and scenic but risky two lane NH-17 or the boring but quick four lane NH-4, both highways have their own pros and cons, but after a toss of the coin we decided to drive the latter while going and the former on our way back.  The drive on NH-4 Mumbai-Bangalore road is smooth and with what I call a monster machine in hand it was a delight cruising comfortably in the Fabia 1.6, except for the regular truck traffic on the Katraj Ghat, a little after Pune. However, with an average speed of 120 kmph and with one break for some delicious Maharashtrian kande pohe and hot tea, we covered 350 kms of our trip and touched Kolhapur in good 5 hours. Kolhapur is a heaven for connoisseurs of good food and Kolhapuri Mutton is one of the popular dishes of this region. Since we were right in time passing through Kolhapur during lunch hours, we decided not to give it a miss. After a sumptuous meal our journey on the smooth NH-4 ended about 70 kms after Kolhapur at Gadhinglaj, subsequently from here we get off NH-4 and cover rest of our journey on a not so polished two lane boulevard, but one with beautiful surroundings that has everything from tight uphill and downhill turns, to some good open stretches up till our desired destination.

When its goa we always prefer a cheap goan holiday. We booked for ourselves in a decent but luxurious hotel owned by an english couple who were on their extended lifetime holiday in Goa and decided to hire a scooter to ride around. For the next two days it was all about riding the narrow roads of goa, exploring this divine destination in the best possible manner, soaking the sun on the beaches and lazing around the local shacks.  

After a good holiday time for us this road trip only gets better as we drive back from Goa to Mumbai on NH-17. NH 17, the west coast interstate highway is among India’s best, traversing through the ghats and negotiating plenty of bendy bits. It’s a wonderfully scenic drive, with a good stretch of road by the river, lined on both sides with forest, paddy fields and coconut palms. However, offlate travellers forsake the risky NH-17 for safer routes, but if all cautions are observed, we pay heed to accident signs, use the car horn liberally and drive watchfully the Goa-Mumbai can be a road trippers delight.

Goa...Like, Live, Laugh!!!

Goan holiday is once a year affair for me since last 5 year, sometimes its twice or thrice too. Hence, whenever I get together with friends and if we are planning a holiday my first suggestion for a destination is always Goa.  Goan vacation for me is all about lazing, soaking in the sun, exploring, guzzling gallons of beer and consuming tons of beef,chips and fish. But my latest goan holiday was not only about the things I have been doing all these years, it was also about a lot of observing, acquainting and knowing some things funny and some things weird I would never come across in my daily routine life or even for that matter in any of my other vacations.

ADVENTURE GALORE!!!

As at all times I am itching to go to Goa, so was kind of harassing my partner in crime to the core till she finally said yes one fine day in the hot month of May. I had never been to Goa during summers, my visits before has been either in the raining month of August or festival month of December, so this time i was expecting to come back a chochlate colourd boy. When its goa we always prefer a cheap goan holiday, so no flights for us nor any 5 star stay. Its always the bus, train or drive, stay in a decent but luxrious place and enjoy lavish food and drinks in the shacks put up throughout every nook and corner of Goa.  The moment I got a go-ahead, we fixed on a weekend, I immediately applied for a one day holiday, booked the bus tickets, booked ourselves in a good hotel and we were all set to rock and roll. We decided to leave on a Thursday night to reach Goa the next day early morning, but things were not really going as per plan. The bus left Bangalore a good 5 hours late and to add to our misery it broke down at 4 in the morning somewhere close to Hubli, about 300 kms away from Goa. The people repairing the bus informed they had arranged an alternate transport for us which was supposed to arrive at 10 in the morning, so if we are supposed to wait for the transport we would reach goa not before 3-4 pm the same day, which would be a complete waste of our day. Therefore, we decide to hitch a ride in the next available transport device that goes by, even if it was a bullock cart. But to our luck, it was a KSRTC bus that was going the same way we wanted to travel uptil Karwar, the conductor of the bus was kind enough to stop for us and also guided us on how to reach Goa from Karwar. We had to take another bus ride to Goa about 100 kms from Karwar and we finally reached Panjim, Goa at 11 am. I must say it was a terrible but one of the most adventurous journey for us and although would not love to do it again but we did love the complete experience. 

MELTING POINTS!!!

At Panjim I hired a bike to reach our hotel near Candolim beach and this bike was also our much needed mode of transport to travel around Goa for the next three days we were there. Marina Bay was the hotel we had booked for ourselves, owned by an english couple from UK. They had come to goa about 4 years back for a holiday and they fell so much in love with Goa that they decided to extend their holiday for life, so to earn a living for themselves while they holiday they decided to build this hotel. We had a cosy and spacious suite booked for ourselves and the room was spanky clean and nicely done by the couple themselves.  

After a refreshing hot water bath and a hot cup of tea we were in our colourful goa outfit and ready to ride to my holy place in goa “Brittos”.  Brittos is a shack in the crowded Baga beach, its one of the most popular joint serving good food and chilled beer all through out the day. For me it’s a must visit on my every trip to goa, cos other than the beer and view of the beautiful blue sea I come here to devour one of my favourite dish – the mixed grill, its basically an assortment of all kind of meat, chicken and fish served with a tangy sauce and chips. Brittos also serves some exceptionally good Indian cuisine and home made caramel custrads. After spending a good 5 hours at Brittos we decided to take a stroll at the baga beach, do some shopping at the baga market and go for some tea and pasteries at another of my another favourite and popular place “Infantaria” on calangute-baga road. Infantaria is simply unassuming, but you will only realize once you are inside how great a place it is for some very good Goan food, especially pork sorpatel, beef burgers, cheese croissants and home-cooked brownies which are just too yummy. After riding a little bit around Calangute and Baga, we decided to continue with our evening back in the hotel. The party in the hotel went on till 11pm, but finally after a dramatic and exploratory day we felt the exhaustion creeping in and we decided to wind up and hit the bed instantaneously.

THE ANNOYING ANCESTORS

From today is when is when I started noticing, observing and knowing a lot of funny incidents and things. It was a beautiful second day and after a hearty breakfast we decided to just ride around not knowing where to go. Riding in Goa is an exceptional experience, with narrow roads, gorgeous greenery, tiny bridges running over watercourse, no traffic lights and no pollution you can ride around all day long and explore the beauty of Goa. While riding, in one of the direction board we noticed a place called Morjim located in North Goa, we had not been to this place before so just wanted to check it out. When we reached there, it was a beautiful surprise for us. Morjim has an almost virgin beach with hardly any crowd and tiny shacks which had their beach bed placed on the sand to just lay down, laze under the sun and enjoy the beautiful calmness of the sea while sipping on some chilled beer. It was all silent and peaceful till the first funny & irritating case in point happened. A full-size family from some place North came and spoilt the party for us by playing cricket and shouting their lungs out for no reason when playing. The females in the group too where loud for nothing while enjoying their swim in the sea. The funny part was they had got their tiffin boxes for lunch, which they washed in the sea water after their meal and once done with all the playing and eating almost all of them went of to sleep on the beach beds. Looking at them I am just wondering “People….If this is what you came to do in Goa, than why take the pain of coming to Goa.” 

 

THE DROOLING CURSE

Simultaneously, there was another funny occurrence which I coudnt help but notice in Morjim beach. Three russian chics wearing a two piece bikini suit just next to our beach bed where enjoying the beautiful afternoon by the beach, till one of them decided to go for a swim. Little far away a group of 5 men saw this girl go for her swim, assuming these men had a fetish for white skin and moreover seeing the girl getting into the sea alone, two of the pot-belly men from the group decided to follow her. They followed the girl in the same direction she was trying to swim in, but the girl without paying any attention was enjoying her swim. The girl went a little deep into the sea and I guess the two guys did not know how to swim, so they just stood there lusting for her. After a little while I could see the two men coming back with a dejected look on their face which clearly stated “Aisa kaise ho gaya…Hum dono handsome hunk ko ladki ne ghaas hi nahi daala…ham mein aisi kya kami thi”. The next time another of the russian girl from the same group decided to go for a swim and it was a similar pattern followed by other guys in the group. At the end of it, the girls had a good laugh and time teasing the pot bellied men in a weird way I had noticed for the first time and more over the russina chics basked in the glory of clicking some sultry pictures in front of those men to take back home to Russia as memories.

EXPLORING IS KEY!!!

After Morjim, we were itching to explore some more new places around and we ended up in a shack named “Calamari” in Candolim, behind the Kingfisher Villa. The shack was at a height and we had to run down to enjoy a swim in the beach, but we were not really in a mood to get into the water again after Morjim. So we just decided to relax in the shack, again drinking some beer (I hate to drink water when in goa, I feel it’s a crime). This was another peaceful place were you could enjoy the beautiful sea in a serene environment. We decided to stay at this place for the rest of the evening and it was a beauftiful sight of the sun going down just before we left the shack. Since it was a Saturday night evening, we decided to do some pub and shack hoping for the rest of the evening.   

DAY IN A GOAN SHACK NAMED LUCKY!!!

On our last day in Goa, since we had our travel back to Bangalore in the evening, we decided to go easy and did not want to do much of travelling around. So we decided to go to Baga again and sit in a shack to sip on some beer, converse and hog. While doing what we came to do, we noticed a lot of weird things happening around us and it was all happening in and around this shack.

The first observation here was about this young couple and when I say young they looked as if they had just passed out of school and had come to Goa on their honeymoon after effecting their child marriage rituals back home. They were a couple, but they were trying so hard to be or look like a couple. They did not know what or how to talk, so both were least interested in looking at each other and rather preferred looking all around the shack and beach. For food, like a good boy and girl they called for some typical north Indian paneer and capsicum dish and juices to drink.  The 30 mins or so they were in the shack, the only words they spoke was when placing an order for food. Again I wonder “Why..why..why come to Goa if you don’t want to enjoy Goa. And if you don’t enjoy each other’s company at least you can try to enjoy the food and drink in Goa”

Moving on, a group of about 10-12 Gujju boys occupy a table next to ours. As usual they were loud in their conversations and all of them where boasting about the tattoos they had got for themselves on different parts of their body. They were feeling totally elated and proud about getting tattoos on their body which was temporary. Suddenly, all go quiet and I wondered why, the reason was this big size American national with arnie like build and long hair walks inside the shack and the dude had permanent tattoos all over his body. Our gujju boys are drooling at him and are now discussing “aye, uske haath ka tattoo dekh, uske per ka tattoo dekh, uske chest ka tattoo dekh”. They go berserk and just couldn’t stop staring or talking about this guy, the next thing they do is one by one all the gujju boys get up and want to click pictures with this arnie dude and when clicking pictures all boys were trying hard to hide their small temporary tattoos, which they were very happy and proud till a few minutes back.

This next incident is the funniest of all I observed. An English couple walks inside the shack and are looking for a table to sit, the couple was in their late 50’s and had a plump body. One of the waiters from the shack helps the couple with a table and is all nice and sweet to them, makes conversation with them in English and is giggling and laughing with them.  I guess the couple had ordered for a bottle of water, so just as the waiter is done talking to the couple he turns around and shouts out loud to his colleague “Moti paka rahi hai yaar, ek paani ka bottle de Moti ko” and I just go “Huhhhhhhhhh!!!! What just happened”. But this English couple was an instant hit among all the underprivileged kids around the shack, they were buying coke/pepsi from the shacks and offering it to all the kids. Another foreign national who is a regular to this shack walks in and one of the waiter is smiling at this foreigner and shouting to his colleague “Tera Buddha Agaya, sambhaal ise”. Weird and it happens only in Goa.

One thing is for sure the more you visit Goa the more it is beautiful, the more it is interesting and there is always more to do.

FOOD for the ROAD

Which is the most important fuel when you are travelling? Well…for me it’s the fuel for my body, good food and when I say good I really mean very good food. Good food boosts my horse power and gives me that extra torque to travel good and travel hard.

The Chinese food you gobble in India is not the Chinese served in China, to taste authentic Chinese food you have to go to China. Similarly, to taste some authentic Indian cookery, you have to be in that part of our country and travelling gives me the opportunity to taste the most delicious cuisine from across the country.  Travel and you will get to taste the genuine flavor and experience true aroma of finely prepared food. I have always been fanatical about good food since childhood, I still remember our enthusiasm of travelling from Bombay to Mangalore in a truck during summer holidays. When a child, my grandfather had a transport business and he had 4-5 trucks which used to regularly ply between Bombay-Mangalore, so it was the most convenient and comfortable way for me to travel. It used to take me 2 full days to reach Mangalore, I guess it was these travel times when I really started exploring different places and I was always excited about our food stops. I still remember in one of our dinner stop in Ankola (South Karnataka) I had this well cooked mutton liver fry (thick gravy) with white rice and fish fry, the food tasted so good the aftertaste is still engraved in my taste buds.  Unluckily, I being a kid then I did not know the preparation, I never found that place again and I never got to taste that kind of food again.

I got my craze for food and cooking from my grandfather and from our regular summer vacation travel trips to my native in Mangalore. The Mangalore style of cooking and taste has always captivated me. My grandfather was nuts about good food and I loved the way he used to totally dig into his food and relish it like there was no tomorrow. For mornings granddad used to have something simple like “Ganji with Uppad”, its basically brown rice with rice water and pickle, sounds boring, but totally healthy and tasty and I developed a taste for it too. Granny always knew what grandfather would like for food and his wish was always fulfilled. Granny and mom cooked the chicken or fish curry in clay pots and its paste grinded in stone grinder, that gave a heavenly taste. The different type of dosas and idlis with coconut chutney is unlike I had anywhere else.

After home, I find the best food preparation with raw fresh spices oozing aroma  in Kerala. Travelling across Kerala is not only about exploring “Gods Own Country”, but also their food.  In between lifting their lungis 24/7, Keralites also love to eat and I love their food. The beef chilly fry, biryanis, karimeen, fish curry with brown rice, crabs, avial, dry prawns chutney are their specialties and can be devoured only in Kerala or as I have experienced specially in Calicut. The city is all about food, any place that offers good food is always thronged by people . In fact, there are restaurants 40-50 kms outside city, but people in Calicut do not  mind going that far if the place serves delicious food.               

The most favorite type of food in south is “MEALS READY”, basically an assortment of different preparation. Well, I love the meals served anywhere in south cos its less greasy, tasty, served in abundance and not pricey, but one of my favorite place for meals is when travelling on Bangalore-Mysore highway. It serves this north Karnataka meals on a banana leaf, it’s not only the food that is good here, but the people serving it too. They treat you like in their own home, keep you serving with a smile till you are full and if they find you eating less they considerately convince you to eat just a little more. Another interesting serving on this highway is “Tatte Idli” – flat plate size fat idli as big as a round roti served with green, red & white chutney and sambhar. And if you travel further on this highway you will reach the Switzerland of India (its nothing like Switzerland) i.e Coorg and here I got a chance to relish some yummy pork gravy with rice, I ever had before in my life.

Travelling over the years I have noticed that the same food with same preparation tastes different in different places. I can say the Maharashtrian food in Bombay and Maharasthtrian food in south of Maharashtra in places like Kolhapur or Sangli  are two different flavors with similar preparations, and the cause is the masala that goes into it. In Bombay people use the packed masala, while in restaurants and dhabas in south of Maharashtra use home made fresh masala which when cooked well with chicken, meat, fish or vegetables makes it astonishingly juicy and tasty. I find a similar difference in the taste of vegetables we eat in south and vegetables we eat up north, since most of the vegetables are cultivated in northern part of the country they are available fresh to people there, so the difference I guess. But nothing beats the northern style of cooking and eating specially punjabis and their food, their funda in life is “KHAO PIO ASH KARO, KAL HO NA HO”. The biggest  paratha served to me for breakfast in Ambala with fresh white butter splashed on it along with a humungous glass of lassi, the butter chicken made with pure cream served with hot rotis tossed out of a tandoor in Jalandhar, the butter filled dal makhani and mutter paneer in Chandigarh, the tandoori chicken fresh from a tandoor ki bhatti in Ludhiana are unlike anything I had seen or eaten before. Even though there are not many type of food preparations in this part of the country, the punjabi’s know how to serve it large and serve it big, they craft their food “DIL SE”.

There was this one time, I got an opportunity to travel to Palampur, a quiet and unexplored hill station in Himachal (wish it always remains unexplored), almost all food here are cooked using lot of fresh curd and without using any onions or tomatoes. The preparation have these slight sweet and sour taste that you really don’t miss  the absence of onions and tomatoes in them.  My favorite of all dishes was the meat (mutton) cooked in a covert preparation but tasting ecstatic, the mutton was cooked so well and it was so very juicy, it just melted in my mouth. But even though all food tasted good, the one thing missing in them was spice. I guess spice is not a part of himachali style of cooking, a reason why when we told a dhaba guy to make the spiciest chicken chilly, he still came up with a dish that did nothing for my spice quotient. It was a similar experience when we travelled further to dharmashala & mclaudgunj in fact the food even in vaishnodevi in jammu was kind of similar, we had to ask the restaurant guys to serve us with spicy pickles and plate full of chillies along with regular daal, roti and paneer.

  

During college days me and friends used to regularly travel to nearby places in search of good dhabas to eat, there was Sunny da Dhaba close to lonavala and a lot of other places that served good food on Bombay-Pune highway, but one of our favourite was Krantiveer dhaba near Karnala. It was a kind of one man dhaba, where the owner was the cook and he also waited on us. The guy used to make this amazing gaavti chicken curry and serve it to us with tandoori roti  and rice, it was a simple, homely and typical maharashtrian style of cooking, but tasting awesum. The friends I made and still have since my college days also share a penchant for good food with me, the one crazy of all is Big Momma Joplin or Moon as we call her. She loves to cook, she does love to eat and she loves to feed some amazing cookery she frequently comes up with. One of the best dish I still remember that she made was prawns curry with rice, eating it was as good as in seventh heaven.  Another friend is Swapi the Great, for this dude food is close to good sex, I guess he gets a good orgasm when he consumes good food and he I am sure fantasies food. I can proudly say in some ways I developed a liking towards cooking cos of this dude. Then ofcourse there is The Biwi at home, she is all about innovations at home, just tell her what you feel like eating and she will come up with something delicious I have never tasted before, I also love her non greasy, less spicy, simple north Indian style of chole, rajma, paneer n chicken. 

Travel and you will find good food everywhere, you just need to have a fondness for food. And for me memorable food experiences when travelling are like messages found on the beach; beautiful, timeless, and relished at just the right moment.

                                              

Backpacking across London & Scotland

Day 1 - We leave for the airport at 11 pm in the night on Friday 25th Sept and our good friend Mr Sule is kind enough to drop us to the airport. Don’t know what had got into him, but the man was driving like a maniac that night, the driving did not help him much as it took us a good one hour to reach the airport. After our check-in and winding up with all other formalities we settle in the airport and take a quick nap as we had to board the flight at 05.10 am. The flight is on time and will land at Doha, Qatar for about 3 hours on our way to London. It was quiet a decent travel from Mumbai to London via Doha. I was sleeping throughout both our flights, wifey was enjoying her movies and was taking on/off naps. During our halt in Doha, we went around the duty free shop and did some window shopping and freezed on the stuff we have to carry back to Mumbai, on our way back, as we again had a 5 hour halt in Doha on our way back to Mumbai from London.

 

 Finally we land in Heathrow, London on day 1 i.e. Friday at about 1300hrs (London time). After completing all formalities, we make our way to the London Underground (Train station attached to the Heathrow Airport). Its quiet simple to find your way to any place in London, signage’s are all around the place and you can easily get anywhere you like, if you know were you want to go. We are supposed to go to Leicester Square station and meet our friend there; the station is on Waterloo Line. Like Mumbai has Western, Central and Harbour lines. London has Northern, Waterloo, Bakerloo, DLR etc etc lines. Just

download a London underground map from the internet and carry a print out with you for your comfort. We reach the station and at the station ask for the Oyster card, it’s basically a prepaid card which is used for travelling in London underground trains. Just fill the card with a certain amount of money and flash it at the entry/exit in all stations. The money will get deducted from your card depending on the distance travelled by you. You can also use this card to travel in buses in and within London. We filled the card for 20 pounds each. This saves you the time and also money of buying tickets, every time you travel in train or bus. Do not take the taxis, unless you have lot of money to spend, as taxi travel is quiet expensive especially when you are holidaying on a shoe string budget. Moving on, we enter the station platform and are ready to board the train to go to Leicester Sq. With 2 big bags and 2 hand bags, it was a cakewalk to board the train; moreover it was afternoon so it wasn’t rush hour. The train journey was quiet comfortable and smooth and we reached our destination in exactly 1 hour 10 minutes, at around 3 pm. We called up Sugandha after reaching the station, our friend in London and the person we are supposed to stay with for the 4 days we are in London. She came to pick us up; her office was walking distance from the station. We dropped our bags in her office and went for some coffee. Over coffee, Sugandha suggested us places we can visit over the next 3 hours in and around Leicester Sq, since after 3 hours Sugandha was supposed to get off from work and we were supposed to go to her place in Lime house (DLR Line). She told us to visit Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Sq, Green Park and Big Ben. All these places were close to her office and walking distance. We paid for the coffee and were on our way to Trafalgar Sq, walked ahead a little bit and reached the Buckingham palace & Green Park. Through our walk there was a regular photo session going on and it was a pleasant experience walking the streets of london. Since it was a day before the weekend, people were all out on the streets, getting into the weekend groove. There were families and children with their dogs playing in the park, couples coochy cooing and sipping on chilled beer (its legal to drink on streets in London), a old gentleman feeding squirrels, a lady feeding the ducks, tourists clicking pictures and office goers crowded outside English pubs drinking beer and wine. It was party mood all around. We walked back to Sugandha's office and called her, she told us to come to a pub were she and Daniel (her English boyfriend) had already started partying. We joined them, ordered our beers and it was 1, 2 and 3 beers for me, the last glass being bottoms up. The pub (I forget the name) was totally crowded with people partying after office hours. Next we decided to go and drink in a different pub, but I realised we had our luggage to carry home, so it will be quiet a pain to carry the luggage all around after getting a little drunk (which I wanted to). So we chucked our plan to drink more in a pub and picked our luggage and moved towards charring cross station, from here we were supposed to board the train to Tower Gate, walk to tower hill station and board the train to Lime house (final destination). Daniel bought some booze from a local grocery, wine and beers are cheaper to buy from a local store and we continued the party at Sugandha's house. Their house was walking distance from the station. We dropped our luggage, ordered for some Bengali food and Daniel suggested he will show us the place around his house, which is supposedly very beautiful. We got quite excited and went out for a walk and the first surprise was Thames river flowing right behind their house. Next surprise was a beautiful view of tall office buildings of HSBC, Citigroup over the river, all lit up these buildings are located at canary Warf, which is a 15 minutes walking distance from Daniels house. The walk through the lanes was quite & romantic, Daniel took all the efforts to show us everything beautiful that is in and around their house. We came back to the house after about an hour of walking and sat down for dinner and drinks. After all the flight travel, train travel, walks, drinking and carrying our luggage around , we were quite exhausted for the day and the moment we hit the bed the next moment I relaised it was 10am, Saturday morning.

Day 2 - Sugandha and Daniel had a day off from work, but they had classes to attend that they were taking to enter the best B-School in UK (all the best to them). They had left their spare house keys for us and by the time we got all ready, made some breakfast and left the house for the day it was 12 in the afternoon. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and today we decided we will go to see the London Eye and from there walk to all the places we can in and around central London. We board a train for Embankment station, which is closer to London eye. We got out of the station crossed a bridge and on the other side was London eye. The streets below London eye was packed with people enjoying a good sunny day, there were tourist, children cycling around, babies in their baby carts, doggies and oldies just taking a stroll. It was like a huge street party kind of scenario. There were entertainers on the streets entertaining people and earning their livelihood. There was a huge queue for the London eye, so didn’t want to go on it. Rather we decided to sit in a nice quite place overlooking the river and sip on some beer. After a the short break, we walked further towards the west minister road leading to green park and Hyde park. We had to cross a bridge and on the bridge i saw this guy who was asking people to gamble, here we had to find a ball from 3 boxes, I bet 10 pounds first and than 20 pounds again and lost all my money:(. That’s 30 pounds gone down the drain for me. I was quite upset and wifey too was quite upset with me, I fell for something silly like that. Idiot Me!! (Gambling is addictive, never fall for it). Anyways, didn’t want to spoil my holiday, so we walked further clicking pictures enjoying the sun on a cold breezy windy day. We reached Hyde Park, wifey was quite hungry and i was thirsty. So picked up some sandwiches and coke and settled in the garden to eat. In the meanwhile, Alim & Suprita - our friend from Mumbai, now settled in London, called us to meet them. We decided to meet outside Covent Garden station at around 7 pm. After our meal we decided to walk the lane which had the best designer shops of the world, this was in Knightsbridge. Then from there we went to Harrods, one of the biggest shopping mall in the world. It seems it takes about 2-3 days if you want to see the entire Harrods mall. Behind Harrods, I don’t know the reason i saw some of the most expensive cars parked i.e. Bugatti, Rolls, Ferrari's, Bentley's and more, but for me the London taxis were more attractive to click pictures of. After Harrods we walked toward Knights bridge station to catch a train to Covent garden. Since it was Saturday night, Covent Garden station was crowded with people ready to party the night away, i didn’t know this place was a party hub. We met Alim and Supritha and decided we will pick some beer from Tesco (grocery store) and walk around enjoying our beers. Walking, we reached china town and like all china town streets across the world, even this had a typical setting of red lanterns, Chinese restaurants and all flashy and glowing. It was total fun clicking pictures here with Alim and Supritha. From china town the next stop was a toy store which sells all kind of soft toys, we spent a little moment going around the store, the store had quite a interesting jungle set up. Just 500 meters outside the store was Piccadilly Circus, the place which has the TDK, Sanyo advertisement signage. You must have seen it in many of the movies. There was also, the Ripley's Believe it or not building for which you had to buy tickets incase you wanted to see around. We preferred hanging around Piccadilly Circus clicking pictures and just enjoying the evening. The place was packed with people of all colour, caste and race. It was chaos, but in a good enjoyable way, not like the one we see outside VT station. We are done with our beers and hungry for food, so Alim suggested we eat in china town. We walked towards china town and were looking for a nice place to eat, we entered a restaurant and wifey was hungry for dim-sums. Unlucky that she was, the restaurant didn’t serve dim-sums, so we went to a restaurant next door which did serve dim-sums, but what attracted me was the delicious buffet set up (mind it, it was delicious to the eyes, not to your stomach). After we were done with our dinner, i was fuming enough to break few glasses of the restaurant. The guys were serving tap water for 30 cents, there was a service charge on food, even though it was self service and every food item in the buffet was full of grease and soda. So even before you start eating anything, you feel full. So, bottom line "What you see, is not what you get always". Alim and supritha had to rush back home, as the next day they were shifting houses, so they had a lot of packing to do. We parted ways and we walked towards charring cross station. Every lane we walked through, every road, every pub and restaurant was buzzing with people and party goers. It was literally a scene of people partying on the streets. We lost our way to the station, but after some 30 minutes of walking we did find it. We finally reached lime house at around 11pm and were exhausted. Daniel and Sugandha had already hit the bed after dinner. Even we decided to go off to sleep. All in all it was a nice fun day.

Day 3- It was a beautiful and sunny Sunday morning, kind of rare in London. A sunny day is like a picnic and outing day for people in London, specially if its a Sunday. Today, we decided to go to Greenwich (Pronounced-Grenich). Its a district in south-east London, England, on the south bank of the river Thames. It is best known for its maritime history and as giving its name to the Greenwich Mean Time. From Sugandha's house we did a small walk till Canary Wharf Pier. Pier is basically a boat station from where you can get into a boat to go from one place to another in London. These boats are quiet fast, cheap, comfortable and scenic. We spontaneously decided to do a boat ride to Greenwich, instead of the train or bus. And the boat ride was all worth it. Places to see in Greenwich and its a must see are the Royal Observatory, Royal Naval College, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich park and the town center. It took us about half a day to see all places. At about 2pm we decided to head towards London town from Greenwich and walk around in the city. We decided to take the boat trip again; Sugandha decided to head back home, myself and wifey took the boat trip to London eye pier. We were really hungry for the afternoon, so decided to look for a nice English restaurant and we did find one. We had some chilled English beer and fish and chips (must eat in this part of Europe). There was nice music, a lovely ambience and perfect feel of a good English pub. After a good meal, we decided to walk around the city, visited places like Piccadilly, Park Lane, St James Park, Hyde park. Today it was kind of little tiring for us, so we headed back home early, around 8 pm. We picked up some beer from the grocery for home. Back home myself, wifey Daniel and Sugandha had a wine and beer party with some cigars. It was a beautiful evening spent with them, just relieved us from all our tiredness of the day. Finally, bed time as we had a early morning the next day and catch a train to go to windermere.

Day 4 - Woke up at 5 am and travelled to Euston station as we had a train to catch to Windermere and also validate our Brit Rail pass. First let me tell you more about a britrail pass. BritRail passes are the most comfortable way to travel in and around UK, if you are on a bag packing trip. You can just hop on and off from any train depending on the pass you have bought. We had bought a 4 day consecutive pass valid in England, Wales, Scotland & cities just close to London. It excluded Ireland. We bought the pass from a travel agent in Mumbai before leaving for London, as this pass is not sold in UK, its only for people holding a non UK residence passport and the passes have to be validated in a train station from which you will be doing you first day travel. This pass is not valid on the london underground. Although, its not required to book a seat in any train for short distance journey, but if its a overnight journey, its suggestible to book seats in advance.  The pass will be valid from the first day of validation for the next 4 continuous days, on any train travel and during your exit or entry at stations, the pass will be checked by the ticket collectors. The pass cost us Rs 25,000 for 2 people, and it was all worth it, hands down. We took the Virgin Atlantic train from Euston to Preston, were we had to change train to reach Windermere. Train travelling experience is heavenly in UK, information at train stations are easy to get, the comfort inside the train is wonderful, the scenic view during the journey, is unlike anything anywhere in the world. We reached Windermere at around 11am, picked up the city map from the station and were back on foot to take the tour of this city. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England and it has been one of the country’s most popular places for holidays and summer homes since 1847. The climate was perfect for a good walk, we just ventured not knowing where we were supposed to reach. But, believe me it was one of the most amazing and romantic walk of our existence till date, through woods, through these huge farms with sheep’s grazing, by the lake side with small waterfalls on either side, nothing less than like in HEAVEN. The long walk made us hungry and again we didn’t want to settle for anything else but a good English pub, which we found in the main market. Again it was the similar ambience, set up and good food and beer pints like in all English pubs. After lunch we were back to walking around the city, the market, lake and places just outside the market which was full of summer homes and beautiful scenic views all around. Finally, at around 5 pm we were kind of done with exploring Windermere and decided to travel to Preston and explore another city close to Preston i.e. Lancaster, as we had a 11 pm train from Preston to Inverness (our next holiday destination). We hopped on into a train from Windermere station and reached Lancaster by 6 pm. It was getting dark and we could see the town during night. But it was worth walking the streets and exploring it during the night too. It was a beautiful cold evening; there were some beautiful castle structures in the city, pubs bustling with youngsters. After some shopping we were back to Lancaster station and reached Preston by 10pm. The train for Inverness was on time and we had already booked our seats, which had the comfort of a business class seat like in an airplane. The moment we entered the train and settled ourselves we were off to sleep.

Day 5 - We reach Inverness in Scotland at 6am in the morning and our first priority was to look for a B&B (Bed & Breakfast) as we had decided to stay overnight in Inverness. B&B is basically a house were you get a room to stay overnight with breakfast. The charges may range between 30-50 Pounds depending on the facilities available; bargaining is not really a possibility as these places go full round the year. After checking out some 5-6 places we settled for a place very close to the train station as we had a train next day morning at 7.30 am to Glasgow. The place we stayed was owned by a lady, who had a huge dog;). She offered us a nice cozy room for 50 pounds a night. The overnight train journey was very relaxing and we had a good sleep to, so we were all fresh and ready for our day ahead in Inverness. The lady of the house offered us our morning breakfast; we had a nice hot water bath and were out to explore the city by 9 am. Inverness is a city in northern Scotland and it’s the northern most city in United Kingdom. It was a beautiful day and again we decided to walk around the city instead of taking the bus tour. Our first stop was a castle just 5 mins away from our B&B, it was a short uphill climb to the castle and we could see the cityscape from here. After a small photo shoot around the castle, we walked to the main Inverness city. The city is very well planned around the river Lochness. We walk around the main city market, doing a lot of window shopping and a little bit of grocery shopping i.e. for water, beer, chips & chocolates. Finally, we reach a road which is the main highway and connects Inverness to Glasgow and Edinburgh. We didn’t know if we should walk further on this road, but just out of curiosity and to explore more we kept walking and reached a place were there was a small river flowing, here people could do rafting, a old man was fishing, people were walking their dogs and some were out for their jog. It was like a garden built around the river and a place for people to have some quiet moment. We decided to sit on a bench by the river and were enjoying the weather and decided to sip on some beer. After our beer and hogging on some chips we walked around the place and decided to walk further on the main highway. We realised that walking further we would reach nowhere and there was nothing ahead, so we decided to walk back to the main city. by around 2.30pm we reached the main city and very very hungry for food. But there was a small problem in hand, our phones dried out of battery and we couldn’t contact anybody in case of urgency. So we decided to go around the city looking for a phone charger. After visting few shops, we decided not to buy a phone charger, as it was pathetically expensive. So we decided to walk into a shop and request them to charge our phone for a while. We found a shop and the lady attending to us was really helpful and she told us we can come after 2-3 hours and collect the phone from her. In the meanwhile, we decided to find a good restaurant for food. We found one after a 10 mins walk and we wasted no time in ordering our beers and food. After spending about 1.5 hours in the restaurant we went back to the phone shop and collected our fully charged phone. Close by was a marks and spendcer shop, so we decided to do some shopping for ourselves and also my office colleagues who had given me a list of things to buy. It was 7pm and  after our shopping we decided to go back to our house for the night, but i wasn’t done yet for the night, so we walked around the river side in the city and after a while decided to walk into a cafe for some coffee. We found this hustling bustling place and decided to sit there for the evening. Well, the beer freak i am and with different kind of beers being served at this place, i didnt want to settle for a coffee. So i decided to get a wheat beer for myself and coffee for wifey. The place also had a steak festival going on, but we had our last meal just 3 hours ago, so had no option but avoid eating anymore:(. After our coffee we had a beautiful walk back to the house, changed and were on bed by 10pm.

Day 6 - We are up and ready to catch our train to Glasgow at 6.45am. It’s about 4 hours journey from Inverness to Glasgow, the train was on time and we reach Glasgow around 11am. Glasgow is one of the biggest industrial town of Britain, it’s got the characteristic of any other city, so i would not say there is anything special about Glasgow. There are some monuments and heritage structures which can be explored and  as always we preferred to walk around the city to explore these sites. We reached a open garden and it started raining here, it wasn’t surprising, as in Britain it can rain anytime round the year, so it is suggested to carry windsheaters with you, for us this was the only time it rained. We took shelter under a big tree and me and Wifey took out our beer cans and started sipping on some beer. When it stopped drizzling, we walked ahead and reached a beautiful museum, which showcased the absolute history of Glasgow. It was quite a good experience knowing the city so well. After the museum we walked through the market of Glasgow and finally we decided to reach the train station as we had a train to catch to go to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. Trains leave at an interval of every 15 minutes from Glasgow to Edinburgh. We reached Edinburgh at around 2.30 in the afternoon, we were not really very hungry so we decided to pick up some sandwiches to eat. It was suggested by friends to explore Edinburgh, so we decided to take this special city tour bus. We paid 20 Pounds per person for this double-decker city tour bus which had open roof tops and it takes you on a 1 hour city tour with a recorded voice talking to you about the monument or place you are passing through. The city tour starts from Waverley bridge right next to the train station and after 1 hour it drops you back at the same spot. I would have loved to explore this city by walk, but due to limited time in hand we had to settle for the bus ride. After a brief walk around the station area, we reach the station at 8pm and wait for our train back to London which is scheduled for 10pm. It was again an overnight journey for us and we reach London at 6am the next morning.

Day 7 – Since we had a comfortable overnight journey, today we were all fresh and ready to have an exciting day ahead. Today, we are supposed to go to Oxford city in south east of London. It is a 2 hour train journey from London and we reach Oxford by 10 am. There was a city bus tour here again, but since we had the entire day to spend in Oxford our preferred choice of exploring the place was by walking around. We took a map of the city from the train station and we labeled the route we had to take, it was a circular walk around the city. The buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every English architectural period and its known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking world. Our walk leads us through the heart of the historic city centre illustrating in itself  the history of Oxford and its university and the map in our hand gave us the description of  the architecture and traditions of its most famous buildings and institutions. Even though I was not a good student myself or much of a book reader, I felt it was a prolific day spent in Oxford, a city also prominent for its medieval university. Our day ended with some good coffee and we reached back home in London at around 8 in the evening.

      
Day 8 – Till date, all our days of the vacation were planned as to what we had to do or where we had to go, but today was an off day for us. There was no plan, we were just in a mood to chill and relax and do some shopping. So, we decided to spend the morning lazing around at home, enjoying a hot cup of coffee sitting in the balcony of Sugandha & Daniels beautiful house  with a view of the gorgeous Thames river flowing across. At noon we head to a flea market to do some cheap shopping, so we land up in Camden market and just across the road is Inverness street market where you can shop for about anything at a reasonable price. Biwi shops for some tops & dress and i get a good riding jacket for myself and we buy some souvenirs and posters. After our shopping, we stop for some light sandwich & coke lunch and since it is such a beautiful experience to walk around the city of London, we did not want to go back home early and decided to do some exploration of our own. The more we see of this city, the more we fall in love with it. But finally, we decide to end our day early as we had to do our packing for the flight next day back home. It was a one hour journey from the house to the airport so we decide to leave for the airport at 3 am in the morning since our flight was departing at 7 am. Daniel suggested the best way to travel at this time of the day was by bus, as there are direct buses every 30 mins from just below their house to Heathrow airport. The flight departs on time, we have a halt at Doha and here we do our shopping for gifts we wanted to take back for family and friends. With my fixation for scotch, i do my shopping for some chivas and JW's and we are headed back to the place where i belong and i must say after an amazing and adventurous backpacking trip we are happy to be home.

Finally, I would like to end this blog on a thanking note:
Biwi - Thank you for planning and executing this entire trip in the perfect manner possible. Love You!!!
Megh's & TJ - For helping us plan with places to see around London & Scotland.
Daniel & Sughanda - A big thank you and hugs to you for your hospitalility in London and guiding us with the travel and all the beautiful place to see around London & Scotland. Without you this whole trip would not have been as enjoyable and easy as it turned out to be.
The B&B Owner & All the people of England & Scotland we met and came across - Without doubt its one of the most beautiful countries we have been to, but its the people that makes it all the more beautiful. Thank you for all your help, support, warmth and kindness.