We decided to fly from Goa to Kerala to avoid an 8 hour train journey followed by a 6 hour train journey. However, Indian airports provide their own special kind of pain. Continue reading
Diary of a terrible travel day
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Monthly Archives: November 2017
Sound horn!
The image above shows a British road sign. It means “Don’t sound your horn unless absolutely necessary. Keep the peace!” Continue reading
Holiday hydration
In the western world we’re continually presented with information about how much water we should drink every day – 2 litres, 3 litres, 8 glasses, a complicated calculation involving your height, weight, age and activity level… there’s plenty of advice out there. Continue reading
Ruinenlust
The German language has a word that seems to have been made for Bernd – Ruinenlust (Ruin-Excitement). It means the delight one can feel at seeing ruins. Continue reading
Getting back to nature
I’m not a big fan of “getting back to nature” on holiday. I would never go camping, I think as a species we’ve evolved past that point and why anyone would want to sleep in a tent without electricity or running water, even for one night, is beyond me. I do enjoy a country walk as long as it ends at a pub or cafe and I’m in my own warm comfy bed at the end of the day. Continue reading
Yoga retreat – Part 2
Here’s some more of the spiritual mumbo jumbo we were involved in at the yoga retreat. Continue reading
Yoga retreat – Part 1
We recently spent a week at Swan Yoga Retreat in Goa. I learned a lot – mainly that not only am I totally non-religious, I’m completely non-spiritual as well. Here are some of the activities we threw ourselves into. Continue reading
Ayurveda
We’ve been at Swan Yoga Retreat in Goa for the past 5 days. Out of interest, I had a consultation with the Ayurvedic doctor here. It reminded me of when George saw a chiropractor on Seinfeld: “Well hello, doctor”. Continue reading
Dharavi slum tour
After debating the pros and cons of slum tourism in my previous post we decided to go ahead with a tour of the Dharavi slum in Mumbai by Reality Tours & Travel. At 8.30am we journeyed from Colaba to Dharavi and prepared to enter one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Continue reading
Slum tourism
For many years I’ve been a big fan of Indian literature. Some of my very favourite novels are by Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. The slums of India often feature in these books and I’ve long been fascinated by the microcosmic worlds of these cities-within-cities. Continue reading