India Vol 1: First Time Around

  For our final day for the whole trip, we started at buffet breakfast and a pool swim. Which, considering the entirety of our trip has been spent doing this, it seems fitting. We played pool basketball and volleyball and Ethan had a kids attendant show him some games so Darcy and I got a short short break. We checked out and left our bags at the hotel while we caught a 20min cab to the lovingly named Arab Rd near a beautiful mosque. We walked the very cool streets and found endless Korean toy and Photo Booth stores. Yeah, stores decked out in themed photo booths, and that’s it. We had a coffee and then a storm rolled in. It kept bucketing for quite a while so we caught a cab back to the hotel to freshen up and then went to the airport. We purposefully rocked up at about 2 even though our flight was not until 8 because we knew we wanted to explore Changi and The Jewell shopping centre nearby. The famous one with the waterfall in the middle. They really do love an indoor garden and ...

  We were ready for a jam-packed day after a lightish buffet breakfast, and a rainstorm had just rolled over to incentivise us to get a move on. It meant that we didn’t go for a swim in the pool, rather straight to SAM - the Singapore Art Museum down by the Docklands in what used to be an old power station (think Carriageworks style). The driver asked “are you sure there’s a museum here”, and yes, amongst the random warehouse spaces, there was. And it had a cool kids space that talked Ethan through some modern artworks with a helpful sticker book. In the floors above, more art from this gallery and other private galleries too. It felt kind of White Rabbit Gallery, with billionaires private collections on display. It was modern Asian art, presented how we like to consume it - in a random old warehouse in a dank part of town. From there we caught a cab to the Duxton Hill area and found a sushi joint that was air conditioned and had wifi. It was good to cool off as by lunch time it ha...

  We always knew that Singapore would be a bit of a rush, because we only have two and a half days here, but we planned to fit a lot in and we certainly did. We all slept in because we’re still on India time, about two and a half hours behind, so by the time we went to the buffet breakfast it was already 9:30. Still, the St Regis in Goa holds the title of best breakfast because this one was only average, also a little chaotic with the business folk and families all rushing past one another to get their tasty morning treats. We had a quick swim in the big pool before showering and getting on our way for the day. First stop was the ArtScience museum, which we thought was a museum but is actually just an event space. There were two exhibitions on, but the studio Ghibli one was sold out so we saw the Future Worlds light show exhibit instead. It was a projection show, where each room showed different floral or aquatic landscapes on walls all around us. At first, Ethan wasn’t sure, but t...

  Not much to say, and not even a photo for travel day number 6. However we did make a wise decision staying so close to the airport as it took away a lot of the stress of navigating a foreign airport if it is only 5min from where you are. The flight was only 4hrs, although it was late, and with the time difference backwards we arrived in Singapore at about 8pm. By the time we got to the Shangri-La and checked in it was after 9 so we just went to the lobby bar & restaurant for some noodles and rice dishes before climbing into bed for our short but jam packed days in Singapore!

  A wedding had arrived at the St Regis last night and we saw them setting up and using the first lavish garden themed venue for the three day event last night. By morning, it was packed down - the staff must have worked through the night. But that also meant the breakfast buffet was pumping with new guests for the weekend. The pool also had a bunch of kids in it and we swam while they played “Marco polo”. We showered and got our taxi to the airport about an hour away. The driver took the windy and bumpy back roads so we all felt a little rough upon arrival.  Goa airport is nothing to write home about and neither was our unremarkable 50min flight. We changed our itinerary from another night at the Leela palace in Bangalore to the Airport Taj. This is because it takes a good 90mim to get into town and our flight had landed right before peak hour so that could have been longer. Seeming we fly out to Singapore tomorrow, we would have rocked up at dinner time, slept and then right...

  Have you ever had a day, a whole day, where you did nothing? When was the last time you took a day for you. And not for you, plus doing the washing and getting dinner ready. A day where you melted into the couch, or immersed yourself in your bed sheets… for us, today was that day. We were served breakfast at the buffet; all the wonderful foods of the world… plus our anti malaria medication of course. We spied some people doing a photo shoot at the pool on the day beds that we’ve come to know as ‘ours’. But by the time we put our swimmers on and gathered our reading books and iPads, they were gone and we took up ‘our spot’. It was about 9:30 by this point, and there we stayed until 6pm. We swam and played made up games in the pool. I did the local papers’ crossword and sudoku while Darcy read and Ethan played iPad games. We swam more. We shared a burger for lunch and swam afterwards once our bellies were settled. We read and played more and swam more and relaxed more. We made frie...

  Ethan had a terrible night sleep which meant that we did too, since our beds are about 50cm away from one another. So after multiple coffees and a refreshing cold swim we got in our car and had the driver take us the hour to Panaji - the Portuguese district of Goa. Everyone had a nap in the car.  We had planned to go to Confeitaria 31 de Janero (31st of January patisserie) but it was too busy with a tour bus of kiwis just having rocked up. We sighed, looked around the nearby streets and decided on an upmarket Italian bar & bistro called Casanova Trattoria. We had tasty pizza and beer, while Ethan had pasta and a pineapple juice. It was all delicious! Then we walked down the main tourist road of Portuguese inspired buildings towards an art gallery and pottery shop. Alas, they were closed! They have siesta from 1:30 to 3 apparently, right when we rocked up. Darcy was so disappointed so we pivoted and asked our driver to take us to Old Goa about 20min away on a windy and be...

  Hmmm I wonder if you’re getting bored of hearing about our luxurious stay whilst it looks like the rest of the world is crumbling around us. Well, not the world, just the US for now. We’re not oblivious to the terrible news of the orange man’s reelection, but I did do my best to avoid it for as long as I could. We had a long swim this morning and I really only glanced at the news once or twice between dips. I suppose luckily it was all over pretty fast and Darcy and I reconciled that it is what it is and we should just go on with our holiday. We remained sad for those good folk that fought so hard, and worried for what it might mean for the world’s economy/climate/human rights… Gah! Best not let it get to us with a warm sun and cool pool right in front of us. Ethan can now swim the width of the pool - amazing! We had a pizza for lunch and rode bikes around the grounds (I rode ahead and Darcy jogged next to Ethan catching him as he toppled on sharp turns). It is easy to just waste...

  Today began much like any other day on holidays, with a buffet breakfast and a swim in the pool. Our days excursion was 50min away to a spice plantation. We were greeted with flowers and a herbal tea before meeting our tour guide. Even though the plantation is hundreds of hectares, we’re just shown a short 30min sampler tour of some select trees. We saw cacao, turmeric, pepper, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon to name a few amongst the many hundreds of trees along the pathway. The guide was upbeat and knowledgeable for our little group of 8, and she would scrunch up the leaves and let us guess the smell as we walked along. She’d point out where the fruit or but was and then talk us through how it is processed. The tour ended with a lavender spritz - which is just ice cold lavender water being poured down our backs! Refreshing for a hot hot day. She let me sample some cashew Feni which is the local alcohol made from the but - 40 something percent proof. Another guest said she hated it, b...

  I didn’t sleep well last night as the power kept going out and resetting devices and the fan/air con. So I was up before the sun and took a walk down to the beach. It was too dark to see anything so I sat in the foyer and watched an episode of Friends: The One With The Embryo. An absolute classic! When the others were up, we went for the buffet breakfast and this one has surpassed all others we’ve had - Thailand, Bali & Australia… it’s just better. A station for every country and every dish better than cafe quality. 5 stars. No notes. We walked to the beach and had a quick dip in the room temperature hazy grey water and then dug a hole and made a sandcastle in the soft but greyish sand. Not an Australian beach, but still nice enough. Since there was no breeze, we moved up to the pool instead and played there for some time. I squeezed in a nap and we shared a burger by the pool huddled under the umbrella out of the blazing sun. Early afternoon, we called it and went and had a ...

  After breakfast we had a short pool morning because today is another travel day. I still have a bit of a head cold so it’s kind of good that it’s a bit of a nothing Sunday. We are sad to leave the Leela Palace, as it was one of the nicest hotels we’ve ever stayed in, and there’s something very special about having most staff get to know you by name as you move around from venue to venue. We do stand out a bit - two white gay guys with a kid, but that just works in our favour, really.  Everything then fell into place today - the check out bill was less expensive than we expected, the Uber rocked up on time (and had air conditioning), and our flight was smooth and short. We had a driver take us the hour long journey through leafy windy roads to our hotel in Goa; the St Regis Resort. He let us put our music on via Bluetooth and Ethan had a short nap. Upon arrival, we had a coffee in the very lavish foyer and remarked how a scene from The White Lotus could have been played out a...

  Oh boy, today I woke up with a bit of a cold… coughs and aches but not enough to put me out of action, just enough to have me take some corral and have an extra nap whilst Ethan and Darcy played in the pool after breakfast. I had a quick dip also once I woke, which helped somewhat with any heat accumulating in my body. We went to lunch at Copper & Cloves close to the nearby 100 feet road and had a look through the recycled clothing store attached to it. It’s a vegan spot, so their coffee was oat milk which wasn’t the best but it was ok. We found a sustainable gift shop and bought some knickknacks before finding a barbershop for Darcy to get his haircut at. It was a really lovely barber that also did a head massage and steam for him while Ethan and I played on my phone in the foyer. We got a quick taxi back to the hotel to recharge and grab Ethan’s iPad and then straight back to 100 feet Rd to a bar and pizza joint called 1131. It was fine, but the cocktails were cheap and pot...

  We’ve read that Bangalore is mostly a working town, not so much a tourist town. But we wonder - maybe people just aren’t trying hard enough? We took an Uber to Cubbon Park, the largest green space in the city, similar to Centennial Park in Sydney. We spotted squirrels, Ethan climbed trees and rocks, and we meandered under the lovely canopies of trees. The kids play park was closed because of Divali celebrations, but it did look fun (they had a little train to ride… next time!). Just outside the park is the science museum, similar to a powerhouse or questacon. A lot of it was pretty simple (eg. here’s how a cog works, or look how bubbles float to the surface) but for a 4 year old it was really interactive and easy to explain. It was really busy and some of the bigger kids helped Ethan and cheered him on as he played with the exhibits. We bought the $2 tickets to see ‘science on a sphere’ which was an instructor lead session on the planets, all projected onto a giant sphere. Imager...