JULY 2019 111HOLIDAY
Planning an Indian escape? Here are some handy tips and recommendations
from EL readers and staff!SNAPSHOTS
Visiting... Kerala
My husband and I took our first trip to
Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala,
on SilkAir in April this year. We went at the
end of the peak season and it was hot. If you
take your children, I’d recommend finding
accommodation with a pool so they can cool
off during the hottest part of the day.
We stayed at the Graceful Homestay for
our first two nights. We had a friendly driver
who drove us around the city and to the
famous Indian Coffee House. We also had
the chance to have a sumptuous sadhya feast
at Mothers Veg Plaza.
After that, we travelled to the seaside
town Varkala, about 45km north of
Thiruvananthapuram. We got there by car
using the scenic coast road, but you can
choose to go via the expressway, which is
Visiting... Mumbai
When one of Roy’s colleagues invited us
to his son’s four-day wedding, I leapt at
the chance – it would be my first trip to
Mumbai, and my first wedding in India.
“Prepare to be overwhelmed by the noise,
the colours, the dancing and the feasting,”
one of my Indian expat friends
quicker. We passed fishing villages with
brightly coloured houses and churches
along the way. We stayed at the Kaiya House
homestay. While there, we enjoyed local
food, morning swims in the ocean and
Ayurvedic massages, we had clothes made,
and we chatted with the friendly locals.
Varkala is also home to the 2,000-year-old
Janardana Swami Temple, which is well
worth a visit; buy some flowers from the
temple sellers and make an offering to one
of the deities.
After a couple of days, we went back to
Thiruvananthapuram. We celebrated our
19th wedding anniversary by having dinner
at Villa Maya, a magnificent restaurant in an
18th-century Dutch mansion.- JULIA LEIMANIS, AUSTRALIAN
warned me. “And the hospitality shown
to guests at a Sikh wedding is out of this
world.” How right she was!
We had just three days to see the sights
and shop for wedding clothes before the
wedding began. The wedding party was
spending the week at the
outstanding Trident Hotel
Bandra Kurla, so we did the
same. Most of Mumbai is
not pretty, to be honest. The
traffic is indescribable, and
the sheer mass of humanity
and scenes of painful
poverty can be distressing
for the uninitiated. But
we enjoyed shopped
for wedding clothes at
the upmarket Mumbai
Millionaire and at glorious
sari emporium Paaneri in
Dadar East.We ticked off sights such as the Gateway
to India, Gothic Revival-style Victoria
Terminus, Hanging Gardens and the
Colaba Causeway market. We had a beer
at Leopold’s Café and watched the sun
set at the Chowpatty and Juhu Beach,
famous for street food such as pani puri.
Other highlights were the tranquil CST
Museum (previously the Prince of Wales
Museum), and tea and Indian snacks at
the Taj Mahal Palace’s Sea Lounge.
But the moment that most stood out
for me was the wedding day baraat,
the noisy, colourful and festive street
procession of the groom’s party to the
gurdwara; in the midday sun, on dirty
pavements and in the crazy Mumbai
traffic, dressed in our finery, family and
friends danced frantically to the beat of
the band and the rat-tat-tat of fireworks- unforgettable!
- VERNE MAREE, SOUTH AFRICAN