Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 6

Early start, woken by the shrill alarm clock, ugh. Breakfast coffee, mango juice and a cake I bought from the hotel pastry shop last night, for breakfast. Then down to reception, checked out and into our 7.30 am waiting taxi. At Mumbai airport we were well on time for our flight and goodbye to India and an incredibly wonderful holiday. Can't take Indian currency home so had an enjoyable time spending our spare change in one of the nice tourist gift shops then onto our plane and up and away we went. Short 3+ hour flight to Dubai, then the longer 7 hour leg to Manchester and home. Quite uncomfortable by the time we landed, and by the time we were home, having been picked up by Jane, Bob's daughter, was really pleased to be there. ... read more

That's the relaxing beach bit of the trip over, now to head back to the city for our final stopping place, Mumbai. Bob had chosen a nicely timed flight out of Goa, at 3pm, so we had a leisurely start to the day. Packed our cases, breakfast in the sun, a farewell to the lovely friends we've made here and then down to the edge of the beach for a read in the sunshine. The hotel restaurant by the beach has some well positioned sunbeds though Bob did regret his position later when he found ant bites on his ankles. Little creatures round here, roaming the sand but with an itchy bite. I had of course move my feet up off the sand so was unaffected. Checkout time and we were pleased to find that the ... read more

The small furry one had decided that he would be organising the day, our main hope being that it wouldn’t involve a hunt for pistachio’s, bearing in mind we haven’t found a single one since arriving in India. Woolly says – Now that is a good idea, although having covered quite a bit of the country and not finding a single one it might take longer than a day! My plan however was slightly different, having arranged our transport and arrived at the starting location, I gave myself a pat on the back as we saw the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum and its amazing building for the first time. Having done the usual bag and body checks as well as managing to get Zoe in as a student, thereby saving us quite a lot ... read more

Woolly says – Our last day in Hyderabad had been most pleasant, our plan to go to the Zoological gardens had failed when we realised that it was shut, but as were used to that happening to us, we immediately implemented plan B and headed to the science museum. Sadly, we couldn’t take any pictures inside the buildings, but it provided hours of fun with the pushing of buttons and standing in front of optical illusions, before seeing a huge collection of Royal Doulton figurines and Worcester Plates and vases. The basement gave us hundreds more carved and sculpted Hindu Gods to admire, having sat happily with ice creams in the garden area before making ourselves comfortable in the planetarium which promised us a session of time travelling through the stars. The music was ... read more

Few years back in 2012, I happen to visit Paris and I promised myself to revisit the city once I will find my forever to be. I truly believe what Ernest Hemingway said about the city, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” As promised, I decided to go for a yearly vacation to Paris and Italy with my forever. We started planning in the last week of April for a travel in June first week. So we have good 25-30 days to make the bookings and get the visa. As a pre-requisite for applying visa, we booked non-refundable tickets and made hotel bookings as well, as both of ... read more