Get a cup of tea if you intend to read this - it's a long'un!

Day 1 - 14th September 2015
Set off from home on the 7:49 train to Gatwick. Flew to Istanbul but the flight was delayed so we arrived late in Istanbul and had to run to make the connection to Mumbai. Flew to Mumbai arriving at 4:30am local time.


My first view of Mumbai on leaving the airport.

Day 2 - 15th September 2015
Arrived at Mumbai early. Bags were not transferred at Istanbul despite assurances that they would be. So we had no luggage. With little choice, we chose to go to our first hotel, Apollo Guesthouse, in Navi Mumbai. We took a Tuk-Tuk (my first experience of anything of the kind) to the nearest train station, Andheri. Here, James acquired us tickets to Vashi (the stop nearest our hotel) for 15 rupees each (approx. 15p in British money) before we went to the platform. Here I encountered my first experience with local beggars. The first simply stuck their hand out and, following advice prior to arriving I simply ignored them and they went away. The second beggar was a little more disturbing, they were a child themselves carrying a baby which, while I'm not a medical expert, I'm fairly sure was deceased. I judged this from the way the baby's neck was bent over and the slightly bloated look about it. There was nowt to indicate life within the child. Luckily the train arrived so we made a move towards it.


A lot of Tuk-Tuks parked - most are blocking each other in!

We jumped on the first carriage to a lot of shouting. It took us a moment to realise we were the only males in the carriage and we'd stepped into the ladies only carriage by mistake. I didn't even know they existed and was simply following James but we quickly found another carriage that was correct for our tickets. It was quiet at first but we were the first stop for this train, it soon became very busy, with very little space to move. The rush hour tube in London seemed like a distant paradise compared to the cramped conditions on Mumbai's second class unreserved carriages.
We arrived in Navi very hot and sweaty (we were still in western clothes due to the lack of luggage). Foolishly, we opted to walk to the hotel not knowing how far it was - it took a long time in very humid conditions. However, on finally finding the hotel, we were told (in very broken English) that the reservation James had made online and paid for didn't exist, and they had no room to put us up in. It was difficult to communicate due to the language differences so we left Vashi to seek a room elsewhere. We went down the road to the Yogi Executive but were told they were also full but they would let us have breakfast, which gave us a chance to chill in the air-con and refuel. I had a lot of watermelon to re-hydrate while James tried a traditional Indian breakfast. We came up with a plan for our predicament at the breakfast table.


One of many trains at Vashi station

We decided to head to CST, the touristy area of Mumbai (according to James' Lonely Planet guide) where the Gate of India is. We took another Tuk-Tuk to the train station and a train from Vashi to CST, which was still packed despite being about 11am at this point. On arrival at CST we found a hotel, City Palace, which had a room with air-con which we took. We cooled down in here for a while before heading back out at about 4pm (cooling down and having a nap - it had been an exhausting morning!).
After the nap we headed out for a walk to find a change of clothes and see the Gate of India (no point wasting the time in CST). While at the Gate, Indian people took their photo of us - white people are a strange sight it seems. On the way back to the hotel we tried to find a change of clothes, but we could only find a change of underwear and a t-shirt for James (an XL in India is equivalent to an English medium, which didn't fit me but would just fit James). We also stopped at a local pharmacy for washing supplied. On returning to the hotel it was time for dinner and, because of the complete mess of a first day with a lack of luggage and first hotel, we opted for something familiar - a McDonald's opposite the hotel. Alas, curried burgers do not taste nice...


Mandatory tourist photo at the Gate of India

Day 3 - 16th September 2015
We woke early to decide what to do about our lack of luggage options (and lack of clean clothes). We decided to head back to the airport early and see if the bags had arrived yet (despite no emails or phone calls confirming this like the airline promised). We took the train from CST to Andheri, changing at Dadar which was busy - preparations for a festival of some kind were taking place. The train to Andheri was packed but we managed to push on and push-off, just, when we arrived. It took a while to find out where to go within the airport - we got sent to several different places all over the shop, eventually having to wait outside for someone to come and speak to us (we weren't allowed into the airport without good reason - apparently them having our bags is not a good enough reason...). Luckily, it turned out our bags had arrived that morning and we were able to obtain them, though it left us a bit tight for getting the train back to CST for our afternoon train to Pune, so we opted to take a taxi from the airport to CST. It was an interesting journey, but the memorable bit was stopping at a red light and the driver apologising, saying he only stopped because of the police officer on the corner. James then tried to explain the concept of red lights in the UK (how we stop at all of them even if it's 3am and we're the only car on the road) but the driver couldn't understand the concept. Thanks to the taxi though we got back to CST with about an hour to spare before our journey off to Pune.


Hotel reception in Pune

We had seats in the 3rd tier air-con carriage which was very comfortable in comparison to the other train journeys we had taken in Mumbai. The journey was uneventful, arriving in Pune around 5pm local time. It wasn't as hot or muggy as Mumbai and we took a Tuk-Tuk to our hotel. Unfortunately it got lost and we ended up at the wrong hotel but it was only a short walk to our actual hotel. The hotel in Pune was much nicer than the last-minute one in Mumbai. We took advantage of having our luggage to have a shower and a full change of clothes before going to dinner in the hotels restaurant. The dinner was nice, we shared some curry stuff and then went for a walk before bed. Now that we had our baggage, a nice hotel and a decent place to be, it felt like the holiday could really begin...
Day 4 - 17th September 2015
Woke early to have breakfast. I played it safe and stuck with cornflakes, jam and a boiled egg. After breakfast we went for coffee round the corner from the hotel before taking a Tuk-Tuk to the North-East of Pune and had lunch at a German Bakery, which, while nice was still distinctly Indian. After lunch we went for a walk down North Main Street, stopping only for another coffee after a dog had started following us persistently. Clearly some western people had fed it at some point and so it latched onto us. After coffee, we went to Aga Khan palace, the place where Ghandi was imprisoned during the second world war and where some of his ashes are now interned.


Monument containing Ghandi's ashes

After Aga Khan, we went back tot he hotel briefly before going out to see a festival/market we'd noticed on our way out in the morning. There was a lot of music and noise and we joined in, had our photos taken with lots of locals and ended up with red dust (paste?) all over our faces and clothes. On the way back to the hotel, we saw a parade with drummers and dancers as part of the festival before having dinner in a local veg restaurant.


Covered in something red

Day 5 - 18th September 2015
We woke early again on day 5 for breakfast and to prepare for our next journey from Pune to Goa by night train. The train wasn't until 16:30 local time so we didn't know what to do with the luggage, especially given the wet weather that day. Luckily the hotel agreed to look after it for us until we needed to go to the station. We went to a Big Bazaar - a shopping supermarket type place that I would liken to Sainsbury's as a UK equivalent. It had three floors with food on the ground, clothes on the second and electrics and home appliances on the third. It was interesting seeing the prices of some things which were considerably cheaper than in the UK - shame about the inability to bring it back in our luggage!


The electrical safety in the Bazaar was astounding...

After browsing for a while we went for lunch at a nearby vegetarian cafe before killing time by walking to the nearby McDonald's for a coffee (and to get out of the rain). After coffee, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and head to the train station for the train to Goa. It was a night train and we had beds reserved in the sleeper class. The train was late, arriving about 18:00 but our beds were empty so we could get settled (we'd been warned and James had experienced in 2010 people sit in the beds during the day until night-time when people want to sleep). The train was uneventful, and as I wrote in my log, "not much to do but sleep." We did have some mysteriously flavoured ice cream though which tasted nice, it was green and we think the flavour was pistachio but we're not sure...
Day 6 - 19th September 2015
We arrived in Goa in the early hours of the morning and took a taxi to the hostel we were staying in. Luckily we could check in early and put our bags away so we didn't have to worry about having them for the day. We walked to the nearest beach, which was warm and sandy and had a quick dip in the sea before being called out by a coast guard. It was a red flag area, but given no one had obeyed a single law/rule since we'd arrived we thought this would be no different. But alas, the one rule they do enforce is the no swimming in a red flag zone. Who knew? So we returned to the hostel and organised some motorbikes to go to a beach further north that James knew of.

 
 Breakfast on the beach watching a moped get stuck...

We arrived at the beach and had breakfast before a dip in the sea (couldn't go too far out lest we irk the whistle blowing life guards...) but we got a good dipping in anyway. In the afternoon we decided to go for a ride out on the bikes, going to the north of the state and dangerously close to the state line and seeing an old fort before returning to the hostel for the night.
Day 7 - 20th September 2015
The log begins to get a little small in Goa, we did mostly similar stuff, went out on the bikes and looked at some beaches. On this day we sat on the beach all day reading our books and having occasional dips in the sea to cool off but, mostly, just stayed in one cafe, drinking and reading. It was a peaceful day...

Day 8 - 21st September 2015
We went to the same beach and cafe as Day 7 and continued reading and drinking. We played pool in the evening at the hostel before retiring to bed before our final accommodation change.

Day 9 - 22nd September 2015
Day 8 brought about our final change in accommodation. We travelled by taxi to the 4th place, however, on arrival we found James had accidentally booked the wrong one (it was a chain - it was also 4am on Day 1 when he'd booked it so he isn't totally to blame). This time however, (given this was the third time we'd gone to a hotel that didn't have us) they had room and we were able to check in and transfer our booking. The hotel had a pool which we sat in for the afternoon, drinking and reading again before heading out for dinner in the evening.


Raj - a guy we met at the hostel and very good pool hustler!

Day 10 - 23rd September 2015
Had breakfast by the pool and a quick dip to start the day. Then we got more motorbikes and went to Aguada Fort, which was fun but it was very very hot out in the sun so we didn't stay for too long. Then we went to Old Goa which took a long time to get to and saw some old cathedrals which, while historically interesting aren't my cup of tea and we didn't stay for too long there either. They were our token Goa tourist trips. We returned to the hotel and had dinner by the pool and did some swimming, before going out in the evening. I went to do a bit of shopping to find a t-shirt and a souvenir. I couldn't find a t-shirt that fit, same problem as in Mumbai with the sizing...


Fort Aguada model within the Fort itself

Day 11 - 24th September 2015
Had a dip in the pool in the morning to start the day chilled before going out on the bikes to Anjuna beach for lunch. We walked the length of the beach and saw the preparations for peak season occurring before riding back to the hotel (the beach was about half hour away). Back at the hotel, we decided to go for ride outs alone. I went to a book shop not far from the hotel and got some books on the cheap - a couple of Doctor Who (Ninth Doctor) books I hadn't read for 100 rupees each (approx. £1 each) and a couple of other books. James went in the opposite direction and ended up being stopped by police at a check-point but the police were corrupt, targeting him as a tourist as they fined him but gave him no paperwork for it. I found out about it when I got back to the hotel from the book store.


A building site on the beach - where else would you put one?

To make the best of a bad day, we decided to go for a drink outside of the hotel bar, walking down towards Baga beach. We found a club which was empty and had a drink and a game of pool. We went to have a dance but the club was completely empty so we returned to the hotel fairly quickly.


The club was empty so we played DJ for a bit...

Day 12 - 25th September 2015
Woke up to a bit of an issue - the hotel wanted to check us out as they'd accidentally double booked (so they said) on our arrival and James had lost his bike key. A hurried shower thinking I had to pack and prepare to depart when the hotel rang the room phone to explain it had been a mix-up and it was the next day (our actual check out day) they had been thinking about. James also found his bike key so crisis averted. After this bad start, I went out to the local supermarket to get some souvenirs and some sweets - I found some very nice sour cherry type sweets, much nicer than those in the UK. We then spent the afternoon relaxing in the pool and reading one of the new books I got the day before.


The Kingfish supper (modelled by the waiter) was very nice

For dinner we went out to the beach and had a fresh fish supper which was very nice. It came with chips and despite being on the bone, was a very enjoyable meal. After dinner we took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel ready for our last night in a proper bed - for we began our journey home via Istanbul the next day...

Day 13 - 26th September 2015
We had to wake up early to return the bike keys and check out of the hotel, which went without a hitch. They were kind though, and let us stay by the pool for the day until evening when we would catch a plane from Goa to Mumbai. I went for a stroll in the morning, then spent the day reading in the pool again. It made for a relaxing end. We took a taxi in the evening to Goa airport for our flight to Mumbai, arriving in Mumbai just before midnight local time. We were to wait in the airport until morning when we would catch the plane to Istanbul.

Day 14 - 27th September 2015
We arrived in Istanbul around 10am local time and took the metro to the touristy areas. We had a kebab, the first time for having meat in a long time before wandering around the park near the Blue Mosque. In the afternoon we took a boat cruise around Istanbul and saw a lot of the old and interesting buildings by the river. Afterwards we went to a Starbucks and stayed in the air-con cool for the rest of the day, as it was very very warm in Istanbul, before returning to the airport for another night without a bed before flying back to Gatwick the following morning...


The boat cruise around Istanbul

Thus concludes the log of my first international trip to India (with a day in Turkey). I'm not too sure if I'll return, while the places were nice (except Mumbai) I don't feel any great need to return. Beach holiday's are not entirely for me I've decided, while reading is nice I don't enjoy not being busy so beaches aren't for me. Similarly, I feel happy I visited the bits to see in Pune, Mumbai and Goa, so the need to return isn't there just yet. Of course, there is always the North of India but for now, it's time to get back to work with plenty of research to catch up and Grasshopper hacks to figure out...

I've returned from India in (largely) one piece, so stop celebrating my absence you lot! Would have post sooner but work was straight on me as soon as I got back with a visit to our London office being sprung on me only a few hours after getting back >.< full report and photos to follow once I've downloaded them from the camera (likely to be early next week as I'm at Brands this weekend - straight back into the mix!).

How has everyone been?

Hi honey I'm home

Had a great few days away.


Went down to Mawgan Porth Cornwall on Friday until Monday for a friends wedding.

Then went over to Goodrington sands in Devon for two nights to re visit our holidaying area. Walked around Berry head and then Brixham.

Didn't take many pictures but the ones I did I'll sort them out and add them to this post later.

Set off back yesterday morning  and called in at an old Monkey mate Acca  who has now moved to a lovely cottage at the side of the canal in Bathampton, Bath (goodringnton to bath 120miles 3 hour drive).  We had a 1 hour 15min walk into Bath along the canal and they shown us a few of the sights, had coffee and cake in a cafe (and how posh do the staff in Baaaaaaaath sound) yaaa yaaa    then had the same walk back, god my legs was aching by the time we was back due to all the walking we had done the previous days. Said our goodbyes and then had another 177mile 3 hour drive home    one was rather tired when one got home haha.

All in all a great 5 days away, busy all the time and a cracking wedding with perfect weather.
Did nothing but eat, drink, walk and sleep, starting everyday with a good hearty full english breakfast.
Can't wait to get out on the bike again on Sunday now and burn some of it off.

Don't bother with games much anymore, but couldn't say no to an old classic. If you have an android phone Colin McRea Rally is 10p. Yep, ten of your English pence. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...rs.cmrally

Looks like the next lads jollie will be a weekend in Prague next month if my brother gets his way. 

Anyone been?

I'm aware of the stag/hen reputation, but like Budapest I suspect we will probably miss this as we prefer to wander through quirkiness and avoid the main touristy nightspots. 

I've had a long chat with Nath (Festa) who has been a few times and loves it. He has given me some pointers and told me about the underground bars, some with entrances only accessible at night which sound mint. 

Anyone else able to offer some information from experience? 

Ta. 

Back to Cadwell this weekend for some Bemsee racing. Should be some good action in the hills, just a shame about the 4 hour journey to get there

What's everyone else up to?

Kingy - do Man U have another game to lose play?

Just back from my USA hols and have missed the 'football craic' after having to watch three games on the TV whilst away which I had tickets for. Ideally a lazy weekend would have been good, but I had tickets for Swansea v United away with a Sunday 4pm kick off followed by Bank Holiday Monday. Given it's a fair journey, and three of us were travelling together we booked into a hotel for Saturday night and travelled down Sat afternoon. 

After a fair old 245 mile journey, only getting slowed down around Birmingham on the M6 we were in Swansea for about 4pm. Good job my car is like wafting around in a big leather armchair. It made mincemeat of the journey. Parked the car up for the weekend, checked into the hotel and went down to the bar for a few beers and a bite to eat to 'acclimatise'. 

Had a night out in Swansea on the main street on Bank Holiday weekend. I can honestly say I've never been anywhere like it before in my life. It's as rough as a bears arse! Incredibly busy and very social too, but rough. I've not seen as many drunk women before, or blokes off their tits on coke. No intention of hiding it, just full on madness. 

I went for a pee. Before I got chance to wash my hands I was asked if I'd like to do a line of coke. I politely declined the offer. 

By coincidence we met up with some folk we know that were going to the match and had a good laugh with them in one bar. Everywhere was rammed out and we had a great time. 

We were wandering back to the hotel about 2.30am ish or a bit later and we heard an argument across the road developing. It quickly escalated and two girls started kicking seven bells out of each other. We paused, thinking about going and splitting it up. One of the girls started smashing the other girls head against the wall as both sets of mates shouted encouragement!   The 'dominant' girl them started to walk away, as the other pulled herself up and started following her mouthing off. We decided to walk on and leave the two sets of people to sort themselves out. Like I said - rough as a bears arse! 

We were up and out for check out at 11am and down to a cafe for a full English as we knew we wouldn't eat again. Back to the hotel/bar to watch the early footie kick off whilst Mark and Joe had a couple of beers and I stuck to coke (glasses not lines   ) as I was driving home after the game. 

Found the stadium easily and it's a nice place. 

 

Inside the concourse was buzzing. Fantastic atmosphere. Encouraged (if you are Italian) or spoiled (if you are anti football or love health and safety) by a red smoke bomb being set off inside. You can just make out a reddish haze. It didn't photograph too well. 




Got to our seats and we were front row. not always the best as many pitches curve up to the centre, but this one was flat enough to make it a good view. You do lose a bit of depth perception at the other end, but as we don't have many shots on target anymore thats not much of an issue! 



That ^^ is the United team before the game warning up. We looked unbeatable at that point! Ha ha. 
As you may be aware we lost the game 2-1. As we scored first we got to have a good loon around for a while so thoroughly enjoyed it, but you can't win them all. The Swansea fans were good value. Nice and loud and the ground really helped with the acoustics. Despite it being a smaller capacity the noise stayed inside the stadium.

So, a great weekend. Shame about the result but it didn't spoil the craic. 

So what have you read lately and then thought, nah, that can't be right! 


Just read a label on a bottle of wine which said... this ripe and lush fruity style perfectly complements most moods and assassins.



ok maybe it said occasions.... although I prefer my version

I'll add to this thread over the next few days as I'm struggling for time with being back in work (boooo!). 

As folk will know we had our hollibobs over the last couple of weeks. My wife Yaz works for BA, so whenever we go on our jollies we fly BA. It means a drive down to Heathrow or Gatwick - but I really don't mind that as I love driving and we have a big 'funbus' that eats the miles up and is like driving a big leather armchair. 

This year we had decided we would go back to the Gulf Coast. We love the place and would both like to live out there at some point. I managed to sort it so I had 10 days off which is a luxury for me. We flew from Gatwick on a Wednesday and a week later than we usually would have. This was good ... and bad.

Good: Flights weren't as busy, so we got on and got bumped up. We got bumped to Club World seats there and back. These are the 'pods' which can lie flat. Were we paying for them ourselves the full cost of our flight (only) tickets was £17,400.  Yes, you read that correctly .... £17,400 just for flight tickets. Needless to say, the flights were amazing.   I've flown Club World a few times, but never got bumped 'both ways'. 

Bad: I missed three United matches.   I know that would be a 'good'' for a lot of you, but I've never missed a game I've had a ticket for. Still, £17,400 seats was a fair trade I guess! 


So, we park the funbus in Gatwick longstay and then within 12 hours we land at Tampa International Airport. Part of my holiday is arranging car hire. I have a very specific taste in cars, so it's something I enjoy doing. We got there and had to wait 30 mins until they reluctantly stopped trying to fob me off with vehicles they thought were suitable and gave me what I'd ordered .......

Behold, The Beast ....



A GMC Yukon. 5.3 Litre V8 Petrol engine. Auto with stick shift.
All the bells and whilstles. Electric everything. Easy to set up as my car has very similar kit, so setting everything up just took minutes. 
Officially seats 8 people, so plenty of room for the four of us. We always leave a lot of kit in the car for beaches, so want a bigger car - plus with petrol at £1.44 a gallon why not have a big monster like this!  

Best economy I saw was a huge 24.2 mpg at 55 miles per hour on a stretch of freeway (cruise control) and worst was 1 to 2mpg when booting it hard! 
Fantastic, ridiculous dinosaur of a machine and I loved it. 


To be continued ....

My partner's younger siblings are staying with us for the weekend (some summer holiday fun that I got told about yesterday!) and part of the 'plans' was to take them to Longleat safari. However, they tend to get a little bored on car journeys (can't say as I blame them), so we opted to play a new game to keep them entertained. It stemmed from one of them asking why I always said "there's a motorbike" whenever I see a motorbike (which I do if I'm with bike unaware passengers to highlight how many you can come across on a journey).

So the game was simple, spot a bike and say "motorbike" and get a point, person with the most points wins (I was judge and not allowed to play because apparently that would be unfair...). Over the course of the journey there and back, we encountered maybe a dozen or so bikes, and each one was found by one of the youngsters, with the occasional disagreement over who saw them first.

While completely irrelevant to most things in life, I did ponder whether there would be some benefit in later life if this were a regular 'car game'. Would it impact on youngsters when they then begin to drive, subconsciously spotting bikers because they always used to get the points? I suspect a proper psychological academic assessment may be needed to actually define whether playing a 'spot the motorbike' car game would increase motorcycle awareness in young drivers or not, but I wondered what you guys (as fellow bikers) thought about trying to ingrain motorcycle awareness through these sorts of measures at young ages.



P.S. To raise awareness for cyclists, I opt for the good old fashioned 'ten points for every one you hit' game