India Vol 1: First Time Around

  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...

  Today is Divali, and we had plenty planned. First we took an Uber to the Bangalore city palace. The trip advisor comments lead us to believe we’d be in and out quickly as it was apparently underwhelming, but we actually found it interesting to see this heavy Scottish influence over traditional Indian architecture and how they blended it, as best they could when oppressed of course. It was eye opening to see elephant feet turned into foot stools and illustrations of jungle creatures tamed into tiny zoo spaces. But that’s the history, unfortunately. We then went to 100 foot road to have lunch at a beautiful insta-worthy cafe called The Kind Roastery. They had some cafe favourites but with Indian spices throughout making for a really special treat. We took a walk through the shops and bought a few items before heading back to the hotel for a swim. Later in the afternoon we took a walk to the park, but it was pretty dilapidated and full of mosquitoes so we just turned it into a walk ...