The Sane Lunatic

The last day in Goa started off very lazily, with me staying in bed till 11, after which I ordered the usual breakfast and got ready for the day. I continued my practice of making sure that I went out for lunch to a local eaterie. But when I left the hotel that afternoon, it was drizzling, which did not dissuade me. It simply reduced the radius I could cover, and luckily I found a small food joint just as the rain kicked up. The place was not promising in terms of quality, and it delivered on the low expectations it projected. I ordered some chilly fry calamari that was more chewy than the standard eraser. I barely got through half of it, before I gave up and decided to fill up on french fries. The walk back was luckily rain-free, and very pleasant. Once at the hotel, I whittled away the time till the evening, which was when I headed to the beach for one last visit. I was lucky to watch the sun set halfway before being hidden behind the clouds. It was a remarkable sight, making up...

Now, I know that this installment has come rather late, but you will see why. Let's pick up from day 2 in Goa. The first priority on my mind was to try and find a way to rent a car to drive around in, but I couldn't get through to those guys on the phone in the morning. This is after I went out for a quick trip to the beach early in the morning and a nice western breakfast in the room (3 egg omelette, toast, sausage, hash browns and fresh fruit; it was goood). I remembered the name of the nearest car point from one of my conversations with the car rental guys the day before, and it was the city nearest my hotel, called Madagaon. There were only 2 options, rent a scooty (heck no!) or take the cab outside the hotel. I went with my only option, and they know they are your only option, so they overcharge like crazy. I paid INR 600 for just 9 KM! Anyway, so I arrive in the town market, slightly pissed off, but looking forward to exploring the area and maybe find something int...

I've done it. I've finally made it to Goa. And it's simply...boring. After the endless conversations about plans to go to Goa all through high school and college, I've finally made it. The travel cost is much cheaper if I fly here from Bengaluru so I thought I'd better make the most of it. But, for some reason, there are very few flights from there to Goa, and the cheap ones at really odd hours. I took the 6:30 AM flight, which meant I had to wake up at 3 to get ready to leave by 4. Not fun, that. Surprisingly, there were a LOT of people travelling at that hour on a Wednesday. The flight was one of the shortest ever, just 55 minutes of flying time, but still a painful one with a crying baby 2 seats behind me. Luckily the noise-cancelling on my JBL headphones works just well enough to drown out the wailing and murmurs. Once on the ground and outta the airport, the ride to the hotel was quite scenic and pleasant. I have to say, the roads here, as of now, a...

Alright, here's the final installment of the posts from Loon's first trip to Mumbai. Starting off from the last one, day 8 was also spent mostly lazing at home, just watching TV and reading on my tablet. I helped a lil in the house chores and just chit-chatted with my cousins. Day 9 would be pretty much my last day as I was flying out the next afternoon, so I headed out to town one last time. I had a clear check list of where all I wanted to go, and that's exactly what I did. I left near noon, took a share-cab which meant an alternative route that I hadn't seen previously. That's pretty much the only time I'd take those share cabs, when I don't need to reach in a hurry and to explore a city. Anyway, once there, I headed for the Leopold Cafe for a nice lunch and a cool beer. Last time I had enjoyed the pasta, this time I had some BBQ chicken and fried rice, which was actually a better buy. T'was a good meal, and here are some pics: The next...

Let's start right from where we left off in part 2. I still had the evening planned out ahead of me for day 4, and this was in a part of Mumbai called Lower Parel. I had to reach there by 8 but I didn't dare take the local trains at rush hour so I went in a share cab. For the most part, we were heading in the opposite direction of the rush hour traffic so it wasn't too bad and we were making good time. But for the last stretch, we came across a full-stop traffic jam at a crossing. Being a first timer, I figured this was just another one of those infamous peak hour traffic jams of this city, but once our cab finally made it to the front of the jam I got to see what caused the block up. In a very recognizable fashion, the busy intersection was being manually managed by the traffic police, which consistently enough manage to make things worse at rush hour. Anyway, I finally did reach my destination, just a lil late since I left ahead of time. I was visiting a close f...

Alright!! Lets  get to it! This post will take up from day 3 and we'll try to cover all the stuff till the time of me starting to write this post. A lot happened in these last few days but I'll try and keep it entertaining and not too long. So day 3 was working day, which meant my cousins went to work and I had to figure out for myself what to do and where to go. I spent the first half relaxing at home and then decided to hit another touristy spot, the Prtihvi Cafe. I took an auto, but somehow when I said "Prithvi Theatre" and he said "haan", I still managed to be dropped off at the wrong location. From there it wasn't too far either so I walked to my destination. Now, I had heard a lil about this place and the kind of crowd that comes here, a lot of cool folk, some hipsters, some for business and some just to hang out. My regular readers would know I don't prefer crowded places, especially if they're popular and I'm trying to have a go...

I don't know why but I seem to wanna start these kinda blogs as if it were a vlog. Anyway, let me tell you about my first ever trip to Mumbai so far. So, I landed here on Sunday noon, and I gotta say, quite a view as your plane begins its descent towards the airport. O nce I was out of the airport, the weather hit me. It was warm & humid but with a nice cool breeze. My cousin who I'm staying here with  came to pick me up and we took the iconic 'kali-peeli'  taxi to get home. I spent the whole drive asking my cousin about Mumbai and my head just kept swiveling trying to take in as much of it as I could. We reached home base where I saw what I've heard about living in Mumbai. A middle class guy doing well will pay crazy amount of rent for a SINGLE room, not 1 bedroom, 1 room house. An amount for which he can get a 2 bedroom house in Noida or Gurgaon in a society with nice amenities. But for a working lifestyle, its quite an efficient way to live. Tha...

One of the highlights of my recent solo road trip to Agra, was stumbling across this awesome place called The Sheroes Hangout.  A cafe that employs women who have fought back for life and survival through heinous chemical burns and are now, on a course to define themselves as 'fighter's. It is a small but significant step in making our society better, in Agra. This cafe was an initiative that would imbue those who had faced unfair tragedy befall them and to not be defined by it. I was there at off hours, around 4:45 PM, so there weren't many customers there. But many wanderers did stop by to take pics of the place, and there were some hipsters who dropped by, clearly having read of the place on social media. Here's the link to their Facebook page, check it out for more information on the place and upcoming events. https://www.facebook.com/SheroesHangout/timeline It had both indoor and outdoor seating arrangements. As I later found out, they also...

Some time after lunch, it was time to head out into the city with my camera. Unfortunately, that time was 3 in the afternoon and the heading I took, turned to be the way OUT of the city. However, both worked out in my favor. It was after walking in one direction for 40 minutes that I realized I was going out of Agra and towards the next town. I was on the road that has the exit towards the Taj Mahal, and saw nothing unusual at the time. The main road was lined with hotels, restaurant franchises(Dominos, Subway, KFC, McDonalds, in that sequence), a multiplex, small shops selling 'handicrafts'(tea, shoes, ethnic wear, gift shops, leather shops), petha  shops and baraat ghars. Then there were the usual town basics like wine shops, grocery marts and the like. In the gaps between those, I saw dusty, broken lanes of the residential housing of the locals. I assumed by their proximity and economic status, that these were constructed when the hotel industry generated employment op...

I reached my hotel a lil before noon, and there was no parking space. Now, a lil context for what follows. When I was thinking of making this trip, I had gone to several websites, before deciding to use Expedia to book the cheap but comfy room for the one night, for myself. I found the best deal to be a room at Hotel Idea Inn, for price, location and requirements(WiFi and Parking were advertised). And with no advances or cancellation fees till couple of days before the booked dates, I'd booked the room more than 2 weeks in advance. When I got there, and found it to be located on the main road as advertised, but in an alleyway, with no parking, a panic of poor choice started to rise. So, I persuaded one of the store guys to lemme park for a few mins in front of his shop to sort it out. When I reached the reception and showed them my itinerary and reservation print out for the room, the girl said "I'm sorry sir, we don't have your reservation." As soon as she sa...

I've always wanted to go on road trips and travel around. But I see it as a costly interest, and with no source of income, even more so. And as I got older and grumpier, the list of people I would probably like to travel with got shorter and shorter. Now I'd like to travel alone. And when I got the keys to the old Accent in Jan this year, I figured I could probably do that. But then I got busy with my internship and final assignments, losing my enthusiasm along the way to go out at all. Not to mention the fuel costs of driving an old car, with still no source of income, it seemed an even costlier affair. But this month, a month after having quit my first paid job(Trainee in Client Servicing, JWT), I decided to go on a solo trip. Best birthday weekend yet! (3-4 October, 2015) So, the Yamuna Expressway is 160+ kms of driving heaven from Noida to Agra. A road so wide, sans-potholes and clear that the trouble is to remind one to stay within the speed limits. The travel time in...