Every trip offers me a chance to meet people, different customs, different food and nice adventures. So why not sharing with you t funny or interesting stories that will give you my view of this country..
First thing I noticed it is the chaos of Mumbai, lively metropolis in every hour and my first adventure is to reach Colaba from the suburb Kandvali East where I stayed. My friend Puru explained me what to do in a rush hour when I supposed to go out and meet my friend in Colaba. If you're lucky in 1.15hr you will be there if not around 2 hrs but amazing experience.. first i went out and walked to main road with a roundabout easy: jump into a rickshaw and get off at train station.. I said easy? Well you have to fight for your seat with locals and first time when you just observe eheh it took sometimes and remind me a famous italian movie about commuters lol ..
When you arrive at train station you have a line uhm many lines in same one to get your ticket.. Indian man suggested me get a second class one, cheaper and more fun uhm just rps9 so why not but be ready to follow a flood of people get into the train and curiosity I discover you have wagons for ladies and others for gents.. what I noticed the kindness and curiosity about foreign people.. second class train is just for locals and in 2 days in Mumbai I never met a foreigner as they usally stay in Colaba the touristic area.. every time they helped me to find station, right train, right ticket and I started to be ready answering where are you from? do you like India? :)) and...
Can I have a snap?
If you visit India, be ready to be like a guest-star. Indian people loves taking pics with foreigners and asking many questions.. we discovered this in Murud nice beach village near Mumbai. I and my friend Dana were walking along the beach when some boys came close to us and friendly asked to have a picture with us.. one? They took a lot and you start to have a pic with 2 indians ending up with a pice with 20-30 indians what so fun!!! Moreover sometimes they asked me my signature in a kind of autograph book hehehe
Food
If you like spicy food, India is your place :) visiting South India I could try every kind of food from veggies, fish to meat mainly chicken. Every area has traditional food and a typical way to eat is to order a thali:
It is a selection of different dishes, usually served in small
bowls on a round tray. The round tray is generally made with steel with
multiple compartments, be ready it's spicy food. In Goa you can eat fish everyday and traditional dish is fish curry with kingfish and you can eat it with rice or their yummy bread like naan. Grilled fish easy to find and you can have a great meal for rps7-800. I liked very much food on the streets, very cheap ones but my favourite food was biryani: a set of rice-based foods made with spice, rice (usually basmati) and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. The name is derived from the Persian word beryā(n) (بریان) which means "fried" or "roasted"
My favourite indian food: Prawns biryani
Wedding experience
When we were in Ganpatipule, indian peole took so many pics of us but we also had a chance to take part in a real indian wedding :)... After a nice walk around the village, we thought it was right to have a dinner so I and Dana started to go to the only restaurant but on the way we heard lots of music and we saw an house full of bright lights and lots of people. We were curious and without thinking we just got closer to the entrance.. with our surprise people kindly invite to get in and wow indian wedding. You took off our shoes and first the wedding couple wanted to meet us then all relatives, many pics together and we also prayed their god as good blessing for their wedding. They offered first a yummy appetizer then we moved into the house and we had a tasty weddind dinner, sitting on the floor and eating by hands as indian tradition. It was so fun and every minute they cam to us asking if we want more food.. so surprised about their kindness and then we spent some time listening to some live indian traditional songs. We had great time and fun, an unforgettable evening before Goa..
Mapusa Market
I like being a voyager not a tourist so I am always curious to spend time with locals, learn some words and understand different point of views and culture. When I was in Goa, my first thought was this is not India: amazing beaches but where locals are? So a morning I got my scooter and ask my friends where I can find a local market nearby and they say go to Mapusa you will like it. It was around noon but I wanted to visit this market and well just few km away from the beach I discovered again the real atmosphere of India and what I liked more: People:)... first I asked where the market is and as usual i got different ways to reach and one was wrong when I started to hear people saying to me ONE WAY, ONE WAY ops wrong turn hehehe but next one i reached the market, so big. I was there to find spices, sari, flip flop for my friends, first I looked around to feel the place and my first bargain was spices.. I took some time and when they see a foreigner wow I had with me some people offering or helping in any way :D.. find right price is almost impossible so I said I will buy lots of spice but please remember I have friends in Mumbai and I am italian big crisis there lol.. I took different spices and she said rps400, well after 10 minutes and a promise to visit other shops with a friend of her I got my price: rps250 but when in Mumbai I discovered it was bit high but who cares, it was fun.
I kept discovering the market with this lady and a little boy, losing myself in this labyrinth of shops and another fight was to buy a sari: it seemed easy after i saw thousands I saw one that my friend can like and I asked the price. She said rps75 wow I got it and I gave her rps100 awaiting for the change: uhm she started to laugh she said sorry I meant rps750, WHAT? So another bargain started and I said ok 150? No she said 500 and we kept for a while till my last offer was 300.. she said no but I know she wanted to seel it so I gave sari back and said bye, after few seconds the little boy came and said ok you say 300 she says 500 lets meet halfway 450.. 450? halfway? I said bye again and when she said ok your last offer: I said agin 300 maybe too much but 300 and she agreed, yes I got it... now I had to set me free for these new friends talking everywhere, very easy market is so big and many corner so at first one they went straight I turn right and run a bit before I got lost.. but lost I found cheap flip flops and finally the way out just after eating yummy food in a small kiosk.. wow great day in Mapusa now time to relax a bit...
I'd like to know what you think :) thanks
RispondiElimina