This Is India 2017-Part Five

February 17^th – 20^th, 2017 – Bangalore, India

So far my flights were on time no problems, until now.  I was in Cochin airport which is 100% solar powered and for some reason, many flights were being delayed that night.  I didn’t have any plans until the next day so it was ok but I wanted to get to Bangalore soon.  Finally, the plane took off and I was in the air again! 😀

Bangalore is known as the IT capital of India, therefore a great place to work if you’re an engineer.  Many of my friends are engineers and I was about to meet one of them again…Darshith!  🙂  As it turns out, it’s Darshith’s birthday so a very big Happy Birthday to you Darshith, I hope you have a really fun and inspiring day that is full of gifts, cake, and love ❤

When I arrived at my hotel which was an hour cab ride from the airport, it was really late and I was tired so I didn’t do anything except text my friends, that I arrived and went to sleep.  The next day I had plans to meet Rafat, Darshith and Pratik, another friend of Darshith’s, who is a very nice guy too.  Unfortunately, Rafat wasn’t feeling well so she couldn’t join us, so the 3 of us set out to Cubbon Park in Bangalore and there was so much to see there!  First, we went to eat which was great because all 3 of us were hungry already!  We had dosa, salad, noodles, everything was so good, I’m getting hungry again!  Then it was time to go to a museum in the park.  We took lots of pictures, saw many things including a 3D film on bugs which was very good!  We even took turns to go on TV to tell the weather to all of India!  It was fun being silly and feeling like a kid again in the museum, we had such a blast!  We later went for a walk in the area and Bangalore has some really nice green spaces and the weather there is awesome.  I took some more pictures and then we were all hungry again!  Time for supper!  We had so much to eat, I don’t remember what we had but I do know it was great and really fun.  The day went so fast, but I was glad we still had Sunday to roam around.  Darshith was so nice he gave me 2 books and some sweets that his lovely family had made for me which were so delicious, I ate them at the hotel and throughout my trip!  A very big thank you to you and your family Darshith for taking great care of me!  It was really great to meet you too Pratik, thanks for a fun Saturday!

On Sunday, I met Darshith again and we set out for the day.  First, we ate lunch at an amazing buffet!  If there’s one thing about Darshith and me, we love to eat and we are always hungry!  We definitely worked up a good appetite trying to cross the street in Bangalore in their traffic because it’s like taking your life in your hands and tossing it up in the air!  What would normally take about 20 seconds to cross a street here, it took us 10 minutes to inch ourselves across the street while standing in the traffic in the middle of the road while cars circled around us, honking, not stopping!  I held on for dear life and we finally made it.  This is India.

Darshith was so sweet and bought us tickets to see a speaker named Dirish do an inspirational talk called A Take On Life.  The topic was on Connections and it was one of my favorite things to talk about and listen to so it was perfect.  The talk was held in a bookstore and people of all ages gathered to not only hear what Dirish had to say, but to participate too.  I have to say, this was a great activity that inspired everyone and once again, I was the only foreigner in the room so when I spoke, I had lots of fun!  Please check out the page A Take On Life on Facebook and see what it’s all about or attend a session if you’re in Bangalore.

When A Take On Life was over, we met another blogger friend of ours, Noorain, who is a professional food blogger in Bangalore!  What a perfect night out for all of us!  Noorain and her husband picked us up and we were heading out to a great restaurant called NH8 that Noorain knew was awesome and with all her moutwatering pictures on Instagram, everything she posts is amazing so we were in GREAT hands!  NH8 was so good, they served Rajasthan style food and so many dishes were on one big plate!  I was stuffed way too early, I wish I had that plate again now!  Noorain you have such a bubbly personality that is very fun to be around, I hope to see you again soon!  Thank you so much for a great time Darshith and Noorain and for the gifts, you both gave me as well.

 

The weekend flew by so fast but I was still in Bangalore for the day on Monday and another blogger/published author and friend of mine was coming all the way from Tamil Nadu to see me for the day!  Miss Deepika Kumaaraguru!  This inspiring young lady is in her early 20’s, she wrote her first book at 17, published it, wrote a second one recently and published it, now she’s working on a 5-part series that is due to come out this year.  I’ve never met anyone like this and she’s one of the biggest commenters on my blog with multiple emoticons which I love 🙂 ❤  I was very excited to meet her and on Monday morning, she arrived with her mom and grandma at my hotel.  We hugged so tight and I talked with her mom and grandma so much. They are all very sweet and lovely and I felt like they adopted me on the spot!  Later, Deepika and I stayed at the hotel while her mom and grandma went to visit Cubbon Park for a few hours.  We talked so much over lunch, it was great to meet this wonderful friend of mine that I only knew from the comment section of my blog and her writings as well.  Deepika was so sweet, she gave me a copy of her book Etheral and I am very honored to read and review it.  I believe there are still copies of it on Amazon for you to purchase.  Thank you very much, Deepika for taking the train from your home with your family and meeting me in Bangalore!!  I have such great memories of our meet up and talks! Lots of love to you ❤

That night I was flying back to Cochin because I had plans to stay at a nice hotel with an awesome pool and just relax and do nothing for a few days on my own before gearing up for the next bloggers meet up and wedding!  Stay tuned for more stories of This Is India…

Much Love ❤

Jen

 

This Is India 2017-Part Four

February 14-17th, 2017

I took an Ola cab from Pune to Mumbai on the 13^th and cabs in India are not expensive.  I was able to ride 3 hours for about $40.00 Canadian.  In comparison, for me to go 40 minutes to the Ottawa airport from my house, it costs me about $60.00 Canadian.  I don’t even want to think about how much 3 hours would cost here, I’m getting heart palpitations already! 😛 Then I realized, hey, This Is India!

I met my friend Vineet again because the next day we were heading to Alleppey by train and he was able to have the time to visit some places with me which made it fun not to be on my own all the time.  On the 14^th, we boarded the train and the trip was going to take roughly 20 hours to get there.  Trains in India are not the same as here.  They run slower because of the tracks so it takes longer to get there which is ok because there’s more time to look at the scenery and talk.  Your seat also becomes your bed so every cabin has bunk beds along with sheets, blankets, and pillows.  I liked this idea because I could stretch out my legs the entire trip and not be sitting the whole way.  I slept like a baby and workers on the train came around to serve food, chai, and coffee.  It was a really great time to experience train travel there.  Alleppey is located in Kerala which is more tropical than Mumbai so as we got closer, the vegetation changed and so did the temperature which I loved.  Temperatures were at +40 C each day!  That’s better than -40 C here in February!

                        

Prior to leaving Canada, I spoke with another friend of mine, Srinath who connected me with his friend Soni who connected me with his friend Binu in Alleppey because Binu owns a houseboat there.  And when you go to Alleppey, you have to try a houseboat ride on the backwaters of Kerala.  When you board the boat, you are not the only ones out on the water.  Numerous houseboats are out at the same time each day showing tourists the beauty of Kerala.  The houseboat ride was roughly 6 hours long and lunch and snacks were included.  The food was incredible and we docked at lunchtime to eat.  Binu was very good at taking great care of us, picking us up and touring around the town.  Many thanks to everyone for arranging this day in advance for us.

Alleppey is a nice place that’s not too big, it’s on the Arabian Sea and the water is so warm and clear.  The hotel was located right across the street from the beach and it had great views from the restaurant and also very good food.  The sunset was amazing and we were lucky to see one on time, so many people were on the beach at that time compared to during the day.

I bought some famous banana chips and managed to bring some home for the kids.  I think I liked them more than they did, I’ve never had such great banana chips!  This Is India!  🙂

It was great to see the southern part of India and have good company along the way.  Thanks for joining me Vineet, I had a great time traveling with you! 😀

On Friday the 17^th we went our separate ways because I was flying to Bangalore to see more blogging friends for the weekend!  😉 ❤ Stay tuned for more fun and excitement…

 

Much Love ❤

Jen