India, Mumbai
Arrival: 14th December 2019

After losing a few things on the way due to my hungover from the day before (nothing important though) and I also spilled a full bottle of water inside the plain I made it to Mumbai airport.

I couldn’t connect to the wifi so it was hard to get in contact with Yash. Yash is my friend made in New Zealand who invited me to come over to India to explore and celebrate Christmas and New Year here. After having some troubles at the customs I managed to pass!

Temperatures above 25 degrees, the sun’s out and it seemed like all the people were out as well. It was a full packed airport!

Yash was waiting at the exit and after we met we got into a taxi that took us to his house and surprise surprise, we got stuck in traffic..
Well what do you expect in one of the most overpopulated country in the world ..
The ride took us about 1.5 hour that is easily done in 45 minutes.

That night I got a little settled and introduced my self to the family. They are the sweetest people ever, Yash his mom started to give me food almost immediately. ( curry’s all day long! Yummi!)
I ate so much food that day.. I might need to get a gym membership straight away when I arrive in Australia! But those are worries for later.

Yash lives in Vasai a district of Mumbai, it’s a little out of Mumbai center. He lives together with his Mom, Dad and sister.
But his house is an open house considering that his friends are almost like family. He has 3 really good friends that are living above him (he lives in a flat apartment on the ground floor) and they just walk in and out when ever they want too. Sometimes they stay for dinner or they just have an afternoon nap here. It’s all possible.
His mom is the sweetest ever, she is busy in the kitchen all day long so I’m able to try all the traditional Indian dishes and believe me, she’s good!
I can get along with everyone so well and I really feel welcome here, it’s going to be hard to leave India at the end of the month.
Also his sister I can get along with pretty well. She’s very girly, the first time we met she wanted to do my nails immediately (bright pink!) and she did my makeup and pulled out all her nice dresses to make me look nice for the party that we were attending that evening. So far so good!

My first experiences of India?

Lots of people!
While being in the taxi to Yash his house I’ve seen Mumbai on so many different perspectives. I’ve seen very poor neighborhoods but also very luxurious hotels.
The woman’s here are dressed either traditional with very colorful dresses without showing off their shoulders and legs above knees and men are dressed just casual, most of the time a lose t-shirt, long jeans or half long jeans and everyone is wearing slippers! But what I noticed is that woman do show off their back and belly but the rest is covered. They also don’t wear their hair lose, they always have it tight up nicely.

So I’m kind of cooperating with that. Yash told me that in Goa everyone wears shorts and tops and you don’t have to worry to much about how you’d like to dress, but here I’m the only foreigner around and of course I don’t want to drag to much attention so I just go with the flow.

I’ve been in India now for 3 nights, still can’t believe I’m here though haha, who would have thought that 2 nights in New Zealand (that’s where I met Yash) would end up having me over in India, crazy right!! Well that’s what happened!

So we are going to stay in Mumbai till the 19th and the 19th we are going to Redi where we are going to stay for 4 nights to meet some more of Yash his family. On the 24th we will go to Goa where we eventually will meet Chris, another friend from the same hostel in New Zealand. We are planning to celebrate Christmas together and we are going to Sunburn festival for new years!

My experience of Mumbai so far:

Some places here in India are just what you expect them to be. There's not much hygiene and people don't have much money. But some place are also the opposite, I find India a better version of Bali. It has more too offer culture wise, Bali now a days is nothing more then a country ''made'' for tourist. All about social media and making that perfect instragram picture of your or so beautiful made breakfast superfood bowl.

That's why I like it here, India is such a different experience, just what I hoped for. For example you eat with you hands here and when receiving something from someone you always reach with your right hand first, I think it´s because of cleanness and religion.
On the back of a scooter I've already seen most of the city. Yash and his friends have taken me to heaps of places. Yesterday we hiked upon a high mountain to see the whole city from above, we had a beautiful view and we visited a temple that was surrounded with monkeys.
I did some slacklining and I've got my first recipe in my book thanks to Yash his mom! So excited!
Last night they even put me in traditional Indian wedding clothes, I felt so pretty with all the bright colors and the jewelry. We did a photo shoot with a professional camera and we enjoyed every minute of it.

The day after the shoot we took off to Redi. To get to Redi we had to take 2 trains and a rickshaw (tuktuk) for 45 minutes. The first train we got in was a complete new experience for me. It didn’t had doors and there were people literally everywhere, sleeping on the floor, sleeping hanging against each other, big bags full of freshly harvested vegetables with the moist still leaking out of it, were stacked everywhere. It was something that I had never seen before on any previous travels, it was something really typical Indian. Not that I felt scared, but, that moment I was glad that Yash was there with me, ever since I arrived I’ve been the only foreigner and if you like it or not that already drags lots of attention.
So you can imagine, being in a local train with farmers, mothers and children, so fully packed and all of sudden there’s a fair person inside the train makes you feel a little uncomfortable.

Well after arriving on the main train station where we had to change trains I started seeing more foreigners, we got into a more fancy part of the train with AC and ‘’bed’’ stools. There was a waiter constantly walking around asking if we needed food or drinks (not free of course) but that made it very pleasant.

After a 8 hour train ride we arrived in Sawantwadi, It was very warm, I was wearing long pants and a t-shirt with a jacket while it was +30 degrees outside but I didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
Yash was buying some water at a shop on the platform and I waited down the road, when he came back the told me that the woman and the guy behind the shop were talking about me, whether I was a foreigner or not. They truly believed I was a south Indian because of all the clothing I was wearing!
Apparently in South India people are very pale, they don’t leave the house unless they have to and if they do they wear long sleeves so they don’t tan. It was a very funny experience!

Yash arranged a ricksaw to get to his family and after another 30 minutes travelling we finally arrived in Redi.
Yash his uncle and aunty are living in Redi with his cousins Akshay and Shukra. When we arrived they made us very nice food and after that we got down to the fort and the beach to watch one of the best sunsets I’ve seen so far.
We stayed in Redi for 4 days, in those days we have mostly been around the beach and I have filled my phone with lots of nice recipes for in my book. Yash can write it in my cook book because his handwriting it a lot better than mine haha. The book is a present from Miranda, thnx babe if you are reading this you are amazing.

There was one day when we got to the beach and a couple of sandbanks were filled with newborn craps!
Even the mother of Akshay told us that it was not happening daily, it was something special. I felt very blessed to be part of it. The sandbanks were completely pink because of the craps.

On the 4th day we went scuba diving and we did some parasealing and I paid less then 25 euro’s for the both things, couldn’t believe it my self as well.
We had lots of fun that day, it was a farewell as we left that afternoon to Goa!

After 15 minutes in the ricksaw we arrived in Arambol, the very northern point of Goa. We arrived around 6pm in our cottage ‘’Samanta’s Inn’’. The place was decorated with big cloths with elephants prints on it and other hippy decorations. The cottages were full of bright colors, everything looked so good.

That day we bought some groceries to cover the breakfast expenses in the morning and we bought some alcohol to celebrate the first night in Goa and we danced the night away around a big bunfire, 2 very happy kids.

The following days were much like that: waking up, having breakfast, going for a swim, playing some frisbee, having food again, having a nap, waking up, chilling, going out for dinner and dancing the night away untill the morning arrives. Definitely not a bad life.

We also rented a scooter so we were able to move our asses for a little exploring between all the meals and naps.

After a few days Chris arrived, his birthday was on the 28th of October. Simran arrived that day with Pia her friend. Simran is Yash his sister so on that day we bought him a chocolate cake and a few candles. We celebrated it by going out for diner and we went for another party in Barga, Barga is one of the most crowded places to out in Goa. We enjoyed ourselves really well.

On the 29th of December we went to a party called Sunburn. It´s one of India´s biggest house – trance festivals. We payed 2000 rupees, that´s around 20 euro´s, nothing compared to the prices we are paying in Holland though, so cheap.
I think the festival had around 3-4 area´s and Martin Garrex closed it. We went there with Yash Chris Simran and Pia and later Anuu, another family member of Yash, we had lots of fun!

The day after that a friend of Chris arrived, Justine. She´s going to travel with Chris for almost a month.

During newyear we actually didn’t planned anything because we were all quite tired of all the parties before. We bought some drinks and went out for dinner together and watched the fireworks on the beach. Just when everyone got to bed, Anuu texted Yash that he had spare entrance bracelets for one of the biggest after parties in Hiltop. So at 3am in the morning we decided to take to scooter and to drive 45 minutes to enjoy 2-3 hours of trance music! I probably wouldn't do it again but the time being there was great, lots of fun and we danced all night long.

After Goa we travelled to Hampi, Hampi is one of the most historical places of India (yes it time for some education, we were done with partying) it’s has lots of ruins that's on the UNESCO world heritage list. We stayed there for 4 days exploring the area’s, detoxing our livers.

On the 6th we left for Mumbai again, to stay with Yash his family.
Together with everyone we went to an adventure park named Imagica, full of rollercoasters and other attractions. I felt like 16 again! It was so much fun, we screamed to much had so many laughs. Sometimes it’s really good to realize that life is not about age. The big difference between the EU and India is that the adventure park was filled with adults! In Holland they want to give their children a nice day and here I was seeing the children waiting for their parents to come out of the attraction haha.

Well, it’s the 11th of January now and Chris and Justine took off this morning to Rajasthan and I’m leaving tomorrow night to go to Melbourne!

So my shortcut of India:

Nice warm weather everyday and it hasn’t been raining at all.
Indians really know what hospitality means and they are the most generous people ever.
The food is AMAZING, nice and spice curries all day, lovin’it.
I haven’t seen many rural area’s of India because I mostly came to visit Yash, but what I’ve seen to far is that India is a better replicate of Bali. Less touristic and more culture.
Yash is family is great, It feels like I have a second family now. I'm really grateful for everything they and his friends have done for me.

And the only thing I can say right now is..

I'll be back!

Geschreven door NLD-wanderlust