and onto our final stop - Dubai

We left Mumbai early evening and arrived into Dubai at midnight.

Rob, an Irish business colleague and friend of Dads who lives in Dubai, came to pick us up - so nice of him. Bit scarlet that we kept him waiting over an hour - Mals luggage was literally the last one to appear on the conveyer belt. Why, oh Why does that always happen ? It's the same with traffic lights. You're in a hurry and they're always red. You've all the time in the world and you get there in no time.
Rant over.

Rob's black Land Rover impressed me. In fact, I was in jeep heaven. Remember, we were used to cars Indian style -i.e. bits n pieces thrown together that tended to look like a motorised clapped out bike with shorn seats in the back.

We were staying in Brian's appartment on The Palm and holy hit, we were like chunky kids in a sweet shop.
The appartment was LUSH. Massive. Spacious and once again, CLEAN! I was so happy, I did a little dance around the kitchen when Rob left. I knew we were gonna have fun in this town.

I really liked Dubai.

Yes it IS fake in so many ways. i.e. everything is man made and everyone seems to have the best of the best in houses, cars, clothes....but So WHAT? Each to their own!

The folks had generously left a restaurant voucher in the apartment as did two of our friends as wedding gifts. It meant we were sorted for meals out for 3 nights! We ate at Gordon Ramsays, the uberposh michellin star which was an experience to say the least! Our second night out we ate at a divine Steakhouse where we devoured the most tender steak known to man. After 4 whole weeks in India, our mouths literally couldnt believe all this tender, delicious food.....mmmmmm. The piece de Resistance came on our final day when we booked lunch at the Burj Al Arab. I must say, I was sceptical at first. 7 star blah blah. I stand corrected. We have never had a lunch like it.

We opted for the Asian Buffet Fusion Lunch and over 3 hours, we sat, we drank, we ate the freshest, most varied food of our Dubaian lives!! It was divine. Naturally we did what all normal people do when visiting such a spectacular building. We tried to sneak into all the places you couldnt go and have a nose! We found ourselves on the 18th floor in a lift that overlooked the ocean  - awesome! We were like 5 year olds going up and down, up and down, 5 or 6 times squealing with delight as we looked out at the stunning green sea. I'd highly recommend it!  Once you get over the pompousness of having to stop at the main gates of the Burj, give your name, security check your booking and wave you on, it's a fantastic experience! Do it once in your life. Brilliant.

We went to the nearby Mall of the Emirates a couple of times to do some Dubai shopping and at one stage tried our hand at skiing in the indoor ski slope - mental when you leave 29 degrees outside to go into minus 4! Great fun though and so nice to come out into the warmth again.

And so the rest of our days was spent relaxing by the pool. swimming, a little gyming (stunning gym on the grounds, couldnt say no) and eating gorgeous food. We LOVED it.

So this is it! We are finally coming home. How can I sum up the experience?

Once in a lifetime. thats for sure. No regrets,  thats also for sure. I saw everything I wanted to see, I did everything I wanted to do, ate some divine (and some, not so divine) food and had the best fun, craic, banter with people from all around the world. All of this with my best friend, my brand new hubbie Mal.

We are just so lucky to have done this adventure together and will have the memories that'll last a lifetime.

See you soon on this blog, I think I'll keep going and have an occasional chat/rant/tale here.

Over and out for now - calling all last passengers to London Heathrow.....

Sue xxx and Mal x

Mumbai

Hello peeps!

I have been meaning to 'finish' off our travel tales for oooooh about 4 weeks now. But as you can imagine, the excitment of home comforts, familiar faces, the craic, a full fridge and carpet under our bronzed toes simply took over.

So I'm sitting down today to write a little before I lest forget.

I will also be continuing on my blog as I've a few things I'd like to get off my chest - that sounds a little aggressive, on the contrary, I have a few observations about people and life that jumped out at me on our trip. More to follow on that.

Now where was I? Ah yes, we left Goa to travel up to Mumbai to celebrate the New Year...

What Can I say about Mumbai? Well, we kinda liked it.

For starters, it wasnt Delhi!

Secondly, we had both read 'Shantaram', this amazing book about life in Bombay (or Mumbai as its now called). It was such a fantastic read, full of vibrant detail about this city and we were only dying to see it for ourselves.

We arrived into Mumbai airport and off we went to find ourselves a cab.
Picture Dublin/Cork/Shannon airport and the taxi system there i.e. you walk out, queue up, give yer man your destination and off you go. Mumbai, not so.

We walked out to a chaotic mass of 100's of locals all shouting, waving their arms like mentlers from an assylum, all beckoning us over to them. I looked over at the hubbie unsure of what to make of it all - he shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said 'come on lets give it a go!'. Bravely, we walked over to the crowd and I caught one locals eye. Not believing his luck that HE had been chosen, he jumped forward and ever so enthusiastically grabbed our bags and started walking to his 'taxi'. I use the word 'taxi' in a generous fashion.
I'm surprised the contraption could even start.

We both cracked up, hopped in and told yer man our destination. Holy moly, you'd swear we had said 'givvus your left arm mister;. The look of disgust over his left shoulder at us!

Apparently in comparitive terms, we were doing a 'swords trip from Dublin airport' i.e. less than 5 miles from the Airport. Jees, get over it gunter and get a move on!

Our disgrunted driver took off and began weaving through the traffic. Indian traffic is bananas - the bigger the city, the mentler the traffic. Mumbai was one of those cities. Nobody cares if the light is red. Everyone just pushes through - think the M50 at rush hour and 15 different exits. Cars, trucks, rickshaws all traveling in their OWN direction, hand constantly on the horn and cutting across everyone and everything that moved. Mal and I having been in this country over 4 weeks at this stage, had begun to get accustomed to the madness, or to phrase it in another way - we werent scared shitless anymore!

1 hour (no joke), and 2 quid taxi fare later we arrived at our Hotel. I did the usual 'smile at reception desk, mention we were on our honeymoon and asked for an upgrade'. Hurray, we got one! A grand size room, considering we were in Mumbai (about 3 star hotel) and lo and behold, a spotless one at that. WINNER.
I didnt care if we were in a room the size of a wardrobe, so long as it was clean. I'm too old for that...

And so we spent 3 days in Mumbai. How can I describe it?

Mumbai is enormous in size but there IS something that makes you feel ' yeah, i kinda like this place'.
Its got all the madness of India but not as intimidtaing as Delhi - it has the crowds, the dirt (wouldnt dare to go out wearing flip flops), the holes on the streets (watch your step or you could be in Mumbai general with a broken ankle) and the masses of food stalls selling spicy unidentifiable street food by the local 8 year olds.

That afternoon, we took a taxi to South Mumbai, an area called Colaba. I'm not joking, the taxi journey took 2 hours. Cost about 15 quid. Had a dead leg at the end of it.

Colaba is gritty and has got an almost a silent rhythm to it. You can walk around for hours and hours watching and listening. It's like nowhere else in India.

The uber luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is in Colaba, as is the Gateway of India. 
We visited both and were blown away (not literally)

Due to the Mumbai attacks in 2008, it was very clear for all to see the level of security around the city - this was around New Years Eve afterall and we had no problem walking through a metal detector into the Palace Hotel - a first going through one into a Hotel but hey, there's a first for eveything!

We tried to blend in at the Palace Hotel but looked so ridiculasly out of place, it was comical.
For starters, my penneys tank top didnt really resemble a Hermes item on sale at the in-house store for 3 grand. Guests sitting in the foyer looked like they were gazillionaires and flashy ones at that. Think of really posh clothes, posh luggage, posh aftershave....Need I go on? Then think of us, pikies with 50 quid in our pocket, our worn clothes from all the travelling but with content smiles on our faces!

We sat down in the restaurant and tried to order come coffee. 'Your hotel room number madam' came the reply from the uberposh Waiter. Mischeiveously for a split second,  I thought about it. Will I or wont I.....i didnt in the end! Figured there probably wasnt a room 1014 (battle of clontarf) and we'd be turfed out. Instead we did the walk of shame ourselves, out the door through the metal detectors and out onto the street for a cup of street Chai instead (5p).

We strolled down the street and came across Leopolds cafe, another popular sport for backpackers and tourists - it features heavily in the book 'Shantaram'. What fasciated me were the bullet holes clearly on view from the horrendous attacks back in 2008.  The story goes that the cafe was packed on afternoon when suddenly 4 men in balaclavas and guns came in and started firing shots. Over 8 people were killed including a number of innocent tourists and waiters along with many injured.  Since these attacks, there is 24/7 security on all their doors and bags are checked on entering the cafe.  I felt a little vulnerable as I sat in Leopolds drinking my beer given all that had happened one innocent day two years ago but in a kind of perverse way, I felt a bit of an adventurer too.

The following day, we set out to visit Dahlwari Slum, the largest slum in India and home of the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Its not possible to walk into the slum yourselves, you have to go with a Charity local Tour company. We made some calls and signed up for a Slum Tour and off we went.

Dalhwari is incredible. It is absolutely gi-normous - over 1.5 million people live in this slum alone.
How can I sum up the sights and sounds that I saw? The people within the Slum are so happy, especially the children. What a shame that photographs are forbidden. I met so many beautiful, happy and smiling children running around, playing with their friends and all wanted to shake my hand and touch the 'white' person.

The men are pure grafters in the Slum. They are incredibly innovative and our tour guide told us that over the last 30 years, the slum folk have worked up a 25 million rupee Recycling empire. Absoloutely nothing goes to waste and everyone has a very specific job within the recycling areas. Everything from paper to bottle tops to oil cannisters to old televisions enter the slums in trucks. The items are then either cleaned, melted down, re-modeled and shaped and then packed off to companies who buy these products to use. There about about 10 parts to each recycling process from start to finish with approx. 70% of the men from the slum working in these recycling workshops. It was just so humbling to watch them at work, sweating in the 70 degree furnace heat, banging on the hardware,  re-modeling the 10,000 items they do each day and occasionally looking up from their work at us, the passing tourists, giving us a toothless grin.

It goes without saying the poverty in Dahlwari is enormous and the dirt in the slum is at another level. I couldnt get used to seeing large rats the size of a mans fist running around over our feet and into the endless holes on the ground. It distressed me to see that over 6 people would live in a house the size of a single tiny bedroom in a western house. Children ran around shoeless, holding their younger siblings as they played on the mounds of rubbish. What absolutely amazed me about it all though, was the fact that everyone was smiling. Everyone seemed happy, content and being part of this buzzing close community. Apparently people who have 'done well' and could easily live elsewhere often return to the slum to live. They simply dont want to leave. it was an incredible experience and I'm glad, despite all the poverty, to have seen it with my own eyes.

And so, New Years Eve arrived and Mal and I, having done some local research - i.e. where to go and what do do- found a hotel nearby offering an all inclusive dinner, drinks and dancing for 20 quid each - winner!

We dressed up in our 1 dress (me) and 1 shirt (him) and off we went. It was brilliant.  We sampled little bits of food from over 8 buffets including a Sushi bar, a Salad bar, Indian delicasies (I took it easy there), an Italian counter, a Carvery whilst being topped up by beers and wine throughout.

The 'old Sue and Mal' would have just lept in and horsed into the food without thinking and would have been too stuffed to move. I like to think that after 4 months of eating food from all over the world that it wasnt such a rushed affair this time. We took our time, we nibbled on food and rather smugly werent too full at the end of it! Off we went for a boogie in the disco next door. Ah lads, the musica in Mumbai.....

Music is MASSIVE in Mumbai. Think Jai Hooooooo Music. Indians love to dance and they're great movers!  Mumbai is home of the Bollywood movie and with over 10,000 movies made each year (true), its no wonder everyone gets into it.

Turned out we were the only 'white' people in the building and the locals were loving us. We hooked up with a gang from Jet Airways - Mal was loving his new female air hostess friends (gorge) and I loved my new gay best friend, an air steward called Mohammed or Mo for short as I called him. We put our hands up in air, put our hands up in the air....Indian style and danced in the new year. Brilliant.

As we packed our bags and headed towards the Airport, our time in India had come to an end.
What a Trip. What a country.

Would I go back? No.

Did I enjoy it? Some parts yes, some parts no. Overall, I'm really glad to have experienced it. You cant really explain it other than to go and witness the craziness for yourself.

I have oh so Yes, ticked that box.

Next Stop and our very very Last One ..............DUBAI!!!

Happy Christmas from Kerala & Goa!!!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you enjoyed yourselves last night and are feeling optimistic of what 2011 will bring. Given that 2010 was one of the best years for Mal and I, we hope that 2011 can match it with health and happiness.

So we're almost at the end of our Indian adventure and I am....................thrilled to be leaving!!!!

Thankfully our Southern Indian adventure was really nothing like the North. We left Delhi and fley to Kochi which is in the province of Kerala- think county Clare for location. We chilled out in a place called Fort Kochi for a few days which was a lovely sleepy fishing village and just caught up on sleep. Given there wasn't much to do other than chill out, do some souvenir shopping (well, if I must) and eat! Although we were still dodge from Delhi so we took it fairly handy on that front.

We had been told by friends that we definitely had to do a 'Backwater' tour of Allepy which is basically villages built on the sides of rivers that come in from the sea. Grand so, we'll have one please! We got a transfer and were thrilled to see that our driver called Prabaker drove a jeep. No more bashed up tuk tuks for us, and a bit of luxury.

So off we went - brand new spanking jeep with the plastic still on the seats and us both stuck to the plastic after 2 minutes. Plastic in cars+  heat of 30 degrees = don't mix. Why do people keep the plastic on? Why?!!! Come on people,live life. Take it off.........

Anyway, twas only an hours drive according to Prabaker. Conversation goes as follows;

Us - hello prabaker, you know the way yes?
P - oh yes sirs. It is 1 hour away. We go to the jetty for the boat.
Us- oh great, and you have the name of the boat.
P- yes sirs, velly good sirs. this way please.

2 hours later and no joke, having asked 14 different people on the street (Prabaker thought nothing of it to suddenly, sans indicator, whip off the road onto the footpath, and shout at some passerby for directions.
Needless to say, each time this happened, we were horned out of it from the mad look of the drivers behind us who hurled abuse and gave little calm prabaker the bird). After 2 and a half hours, and many phone calls to the boat (he didn't have the name of the boat) we finally got to the jetty and our home for the night.

We climbed on this beautiful houseboat where we were going to spend the next 24 hours and settled in. And off we went...........Now, Id love to be raving about this amazing trip but I can honestly say it was one of the most boring 24 hours of India!!! How so? Well for one, our gorge houseboat was huge so it meant we couldn't drive down the smaller backwater rivers and see the families, houses etc. Instead we sailed up and down this massive wide open lake about 2 miles and hour, for a day and a half. We saw a few birds flying around and that was kinda of it. Then the rain came so yer man on the boat closed the curtains and then we definitely couldn't see anything! We laughed at just how boring it was. Mal and I played 110 cards for the entire time! So what I would advise is, do a day trip on a small boat. It's less expensive and you get to see the good stuff - families working, smiling children running on the banks, fishermen untangling their nets and freeing their fish into containers. Shame we missed it.

Next stop was Goa and boy were we pleased to see a beach and some sunshine....We had some time to chill out here so we decided to explore a little and spend half in the north in places called Baga, Calangute and Candolin before hitting Palolem in the south on Christmas Eve. We eventually settled in a place called Candolin where we relaxed on the beach and stayed in a really nice place called Casa Sea Shell (sounds lush doesn't it!).

My thoughts before I went to Goa was that we were going to be surrounded by young hippies wearing very little clothing and dancing around all happy hippy style.  Not so in Northern Goa!Candolin etc is more older folk from Newcastle (aye aye pet) who love their 'egg beans n chips' and many an aul biddy who wears clothes far to young for her, downs vodkas to beat the band and sings very bad karaoke in bars. You know the ones I'm talking about!

Mal and I are not headwrecker hippies who wanna go off the beaten track and chant 'ommmmmmm' for a week but I must say, we really enjoyed chatting to the locals and was lovely to get to know them a little over the few days. I bought a few things from a souvenir shop from a man who was just so nice, so happy and so friendly. I reckon most of the tourists walk into these shops all brazen and sunburnt, hardly look at the lovely locals, don't bother to try and say hello in their language, haggle to buy a bangle for about 5p and then leave. The knackers.

We found the locals to be just fab. One women called Anita (at least that's what her name sounded like and what I called her) used to greet me by name and a big cheesy grin that showed off her gap filled teeth everytime I walked by. When we stopped and chatted, she told me all about her family. She looked about 19 but had 4 kids aged between 12 and 2 years. Needless to say Mal and I ended up practically buying Anitas store out to give her a few bob. Its the 'Frank' in me. Our taxi man Sanjeet who drove us from north to south told us all about his own family, gave us his address, kisses on each cheek, hugs and asked for an Irish T-shirt to be posted to him! HOW could you refuse? The cuteness. Carrolls Irish Store, Ill be in, next week!

Palolem was a lot more relaxed and we chilled out on the beach and met up with some folk from clontarf who come every year. was really nice to have a few beers with some familiar faces especially at Christmas.
On the 25th itself, we spent it on sun loungers in bikinis (well, Mal in his shorts) sipping diet coke and eating club sandwiches! That evening,  we had a some bubbly on our porch before dinner which was 'unique'. Chicken Roulade turned out to be cold and far too salty for us - we couldnt eat much of it but hey, we drank wine, clinked glasses, toasted our families and wished each other a Happy Christmas! A Ger special Turkey & Ham dinner with all the trimings, gorge sprouts and the ever famous delicious stuffing, it wasn't. Really missed that.

Next stop - Mumbai for 3 days over New Years and then we fly to Dubai. More on Mumbai as it happens xx

Top 5 quotes we've heard in India to date

1. Sorry sir, thats an Irish Credit card, it wont work here.

2. Taxi man - you want air con?
    us - yes please
    Taxi man - that costs an extra 120 rupees

3. Bloke outside restaurant - you want food?
    Us - we're just looking thanks (as we look at menu)
    Bloke - yes lady, we do not sell rat or dog. Only velly best in our restaurant. Yes lady.(we slowly edged our way away)

4. Bloke - Can I help you sir?
    Mal - Do you sell bottles of water?
   Bloke - yes sir, very good sir. We only sell putrified water here
   (sue- ahhh bless)

5. Guy - where you from.
    Us - (as we sigh) England!
    Guy - lovely jubbly (in a hindi accent)

Namaste (Hello) from Northern India !

Greetings, greetings!  Holy moly, what a week we have had.

We arrived in Delhi having spent a fantastic 5 days with Damien and Moira 

in Siem Reip, Cambodia. Honestly, I loved that place. 

Ankor Wat is amazing and the whole place is just so relaxed and

everyone is so happy, calm,  chilled and cheerful.  

Twas great to chill out with D and Moira, we had such a laugh 

with them drinking 'Tombraider cocktails (nearest we'll ever be to Ange)

 and catching up. Thanks for meeting up with us, was fab to see ye x 

And so, off we went ready for our next adventure. ENTER INDIA 

M.E.N.T.A.L is the word I would use to describe Northern India. 

Bananas is another. 

The hubbie and I joined a group of 15 people from all over the world on an 

Intrepid Tour and took off to experience the Golden Triangle which consisted of 

Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and back to Delhi - about 700km in total over 7 days. 

The type of tour meant we caught local transport - buses, trains, tuk tuks.  

Ok, how can I explain it? Delhi is like being on a different planet!! Honestly. 

The hoards of crowds on the streets, its so so so filthy everywhere you look, 

its just so poor (and so upsetting to see tiny kids with flip flops way to big for them

 on their feet roam the mounds of filth with the pigs looking for food) not to mention

 locals squatting on the side of the road (oh yes) to do their business. 

And I'm not talking a number 1. 

Add tens and tens and tens of anorexic looking bulls, cows, diseased ridden monkeys, 

painted camels, pigs, elephants and millions of skanky looking emaciated dogs roaming

 all over the streets along with music blaring from all over, street vendors shouting and

selling their stuff, hundreds of tuk tuks, lorrys, cars, rickety old bikes, richshaws,  beeping 

beeping BEEEEEEEPING every 2 seconds and you get the picture. 

MADNESS..............Shhhh India be still for a minute, pretty please. 

And so, a few SODster things that I observed on this trip . 

 1. The Movember tache seems to be an annual thing in this country. Lads, its not cool.

2. Blokes walk around arm in arm or hand in hand with no sexual implications at all.  

Women don't really do it as much, wierd. 

3. Indians love our white skin. So much so they think NOTHING of coming up to you and

 whipping our their camera phone in our face (oh yes) and taking a VIDEO of you.  

I've been feeling a bit famous this week but man, its so annoying when they pretend

 they're not taking a picture and then they follow you and then pretend to take a picture  

of a tree. Its got to the point now where I almost believe I'm a popstar and to get it over 

with make eye contact with them so they come over and jump in a pic.  (scarlet for me). 

Literally, my week of fame.  

4. No such thing as 'this is my personal space, this is yours' in India. Its taken us a while 

to get used to this. 

5. Same for queueing. Doesn't exist. Can you imagine the fun we have had trying to get

train tickets and the like. Fun! 

6. We have been walking along the street when people have come up and thrown 

themselves at our legs and touched our knees. I know! Initially, we were like 'get offfff 

you lunatic!' but then we were told touching someones knees is a sign of humility and respect.  

Jeeeeeesh. Go on then Singh, just one touch then! 

7. Asking some something in particular tends to get lost in translation as we have found out 

many a time. In fairness, we are in THEIR country and don't speak their language. 

But, when we do speak slowly in English and ask them if whatever we're looking for can

 be done, they tend to look at you blankly. In the end you hope for the best.

One example of this was ordering a taxi transfer to the airport. We had met a couple from

 the UK on our trip who were also travelling on a flight similar time to ourselves so we said

 grand we'll share a cab. We went to reception ; heres an idea of how it went ;

Susan - hi, could we order a taxi to the airport for tomorrow please 

Guy - taxi? yes, yes. morning or evening. 

Susan -morning please, at 7am

Guy - 7 in the evening mam? 

Susan - no 7 in the morning, early please 

Guy - ok evening 

Susan - No morning. 7am very early. 

Guy - very good mam

Susan - can you also order a big car as we have 4 people? 

Guy - car? 

Susan -yes, big car? We are very big people (steady now peeps!), we need big car for 

taxi tomorrow morning

Guy - yes, yes

7am comes. I am not joking you. The car was a Fiat Cinquento!!! We all looked at 

ourselves and the size of each of our backpacks and cracked up. What followed was

 pure comedy.....

Yer man (who wasn't a taxi driver at all, he was a mate of yer man at reception) 

decided to tie all our backpacks onto the roof of the cinquento.  With eh, one rope!! 

Off we tore down the road, yer man with one hand on the horn (apparently its normal 

 here giving us little heart attacks as he practically went up on two wheels to get through 

many a gap on the road)Every few minutes, we would glance behind us hoping NOT to

 see a lost bag on the road! Next thing, we get to the airport and we're about 1km away, 

we're tearing along when suddenly the car cuts out. And wont start! We all start laughing 

coz we're fierce giddy at this stage, and yer man turns to Mal and Darren and says, can 

you push? No problem Gunter! So out the lads get and start pushing the car with us chicks 

still in it, yer man the driver shouting yes yes velly good, yes After 30 seconds of pushing

 and running, the engine starts to cough and splutter and jump, the lads jump in as

 the car is tearing up the road and yer man shouting and laughing 'velly good'  

Two minutes later we get to departures and we girls have tears streaming down our 

 faces from all the laughing....and this is now 7.25am! 

So yeah its just been classic. I know I will look back and think 'we did the madness' 

and regale the tales. 

By the way, and I definitely have to mention the highlight of the Golden Triangle trip

 was the visit to the Taj Mahal. Its awesome. 

Taj means 'Crown' and Mahal means 'Palace'. Most cities in India have at least 3 or 

4 palaces so I am a bit 'Mahal'-ed out of it at this stage. 

The Taj though....WOW. Its HUGE and when you walk in and see it, you draw a 

breath and think 'crikey,I'm here'.  Awesome. 

For now, we are off to Southern India where we hear and we HOPE the madness and  

noise is no more and we can chill out for a few days before hitting Goa for Christmas. 

Enjoy the lead up to Chrimbo at home, everyone- man, bit envious :(  

Namaste (good bye!) from the North 

Shilpa Bradley x

A Taste of India

Street kids, Jaipur

 Delhi women working on a building site.Chicks, less of the smiling, wheres the hard hats?!

 View from our bus passing through a country village. Note the bull sifting thro the rubbish.

Mal getting to know some Delhi passengers on a local bus

Yes, that is an elephant coming towards us on the road. As you do....

Mal 'Singh' Bradley!!

India....and the madness

                                          and you wonder why people get Delhi Belly.....