Christmas Day in Mumbai

Christmas Day 2013 has been rather different from previous years.  We've been planning an exciting Christmas Day for a while.  The day was going to start with a run in Joggers Park, followed by a massage session at the Taj Lands End Spa with my Mum (for her Christmas present) and Christmas lunch at the Taj Lands End (Special Christmas Brunch).

Unfortunately, we woke this morning to find that my poor Mum had been struck with Delhi Belly during the night.  Oh dear.  She had stopped being ill by the time I woke up but was clearly not up for either a massage or lunch.  Peter wasn't feeling on top form either, and my Dad had been up during the night helping my Mum.

We had some family time in the morning and opened our presents together.  The most mysterious item was a big box of Quaker Oats, but this will come in very handy even if it is a little unusual.  The top novelty item was a 2014 calendar customised on Vistaprint by my parents with lots of family photos.

Anyway, Christmas goes on, and after spending the morning at home (although Phil did make it for a run to Joggers Park) we made the call that at least some of us should proceed with brunch (i.e.me and Phil).  A whole day in the apartment together might have been a little bit much.  Peter had a second wind and recovered just in time for the departure to the Taj at 1230.

 

 Sunny morning in Joggers Park

Brunch lived up to all expectations and we had an alternative Christmas feast.  It was all excellent, but the puddings were a particular highlight, visually as well as to eat.  We paced ourselves and enjoyed a wide range of delicacies which are usually difficult to find in India.  Peter's Christmas present for us was lunch (thanks Pete!) so we're pleased that he recovered in time to treat us all.

Cold buffet spread fit for a maharaja

 Lobster bisque

First platter of the meal

Food photography photography

 Cheers

 Beef Wellington

 Turkey

Large numbers of delicious fancy chocolates

Phil's dessert platter number 1

The chocolate yule log in the background was particularly awesome

A takeaway for my parents.  Unfortuntaely they melted in my bag and I'm still finding bits stuck to the bottom...

The full spread

 Trifle and yule log

More puds

Pleasing symmetry

 Exquisite chocolate carving

Contented

Paying the bill

Mum recovered enough to meet us at the hotel with Dad and walk to Bandra fort before wandering along the Bandstand to walk off (some of) our lunch.  The highlight for my family was their first ride in an autorickshaw, quite a change from calm car journeys in the UK.

We're now resting in the apartment and preparing to have Skype calls with friends and family later today.  We are travelling to Rajasthan for a six night holiday tomorrow so our top priority is for everyone to get well again before then!

Six month anniversary

Friday 20 December marked the six month anniversary of our arrival in India.  Eek!  It feels like our time in India is passing very quickly but, equally, like we've been away from our previous UK lifestyle for quite some time. 

To celebrate, we went our for lunch on Saturday to Yauatcha, a smart Chinese restaurant in the Bandra Kurla Complex which I had been to previously with work and was confident that Phil would enjoy.  They have especially good and fancy puddings.

Blood orange chocolate cake with blood orange sorbet.

Raspberry and hazelnet chocolate mousse with raspberry ripple icecream.

Following lunch, we made progress with our aim for the New Year, to continue to keep up momentum with going away at weekends and exploring India.  It's easy for this to lapse once you settle at home, but we want to continue to travel and make the most of the opportunity offered by our secondment.

So we got out our diaries and have fixed trips to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Rajasthan (Jaipur, Agra & Taj Mahal, Ranthambhore Tiger safari), Orissa (Puri and Sun Temple), somewhere near Bangalore for a weekend, Sagar's village (!) as well as 10 days in the UK in March.  We'll try to squeeze in a couple of weekends to Goa / Kerala too, plus Phil's got trips to Chandigarh, Lucknow and Israel before the end of April.  

In the short term, we're travelling to Rajasthan for a week on Thursday, so will be back in the swing of travelling again soon.

Preparing for Christmas in India

This year, we will be spending Christmas in India with my parents and brother who arrive in Mumbai on Monday.  It has only recently dawned on me that Christmas is coming for the following reasons:

1)  The temperature (although it is winter here) still approaches 30 degrees with consistent beautiful sunshine.
2)  The last month has not been packed with Christmas parties / drinks / dinners leaving me feeling like I've had more than enough Christmas-related indulgence before 25 December has arrived.
3)  There are no Christmas advertisements on the television!

Given that less than 5% of India's population is Christian, Christmas is not nearly as an important a festival in India as in the UK.  Saying that, India's Christian population is concentrated on the west coast (Goa, Kerala) and we live in Bandra, the base for Mumbai's Catholic residents, which has several big churches and Christian schools.  On top of that, Mumbai is strongly influenced by Western culture so many people are more than happy to enjoy Christmas festivities, irrespective of the underlying meaning of the festival.

So here is how we have prepared for Christmas.

1)  Christmas tree

When leaving the UK in June, we didn't pack our artificial tree as (i) we initially thought we would go back to the UK in Year 1; and (ii) we didn't know how much space we would have in India, so packing a Christmas tree and a big box of decorations seemed a bit gratuitous.

Last weekend, when Phil was still away in the UK, I set it as my challenge to find a real tree in Mumbai.  I'd spoken to others who have managed this, so thought that this task would be straightforward, but Sagar and I unfortunately failed to find any of the garden centres that they'd described to me (not on the map...).  We trawled around for ages, including visiting several artificial tree shops (Sagar was keen, me less so) before finishing the day at a little plant shop close to our apartment.  I was completely fed up by this point but the enthusiastic shop owner pointed to a bunch of ferny-looking branches which he claimed was a Christmas tree, so I went with it.

Admittedly, now the tree is at home and insitu, it is clear that it is more of a plant than a tree.  In fact, it is definitely not a tree.  Nevertheless, we have festooned it with lights, baubles and tinsel and it does the job.  I'm not sure that I'm ever going to be allowed to take charge of Christmas tree purchase again though!

Our Indian Christmas plant

2)  Decorations

Phil brought back a bag of decorations from the UK (kindly donated by Phil's parents) and we found some cheap tinsel in one of the many tacky Christmas decoration stalls nearby.  The highlight for me though is a set of six decorations that I found in my new favourite shop (Good Earth) which are metal Indian style flat baubles in the shape of lions, elephants and peacocks. They are lovely.

Lion

Elephant

Good Earth has beautiful products but at western prices.  I will try to treat myself sparingly.

3)  Presents and cards

This has been extremely calm and lacking in stress this year.  We bought presents for Phil's family early so that we could take these to the UK in October, and Phil completed the shopping and wrapping whilst in the UK last week.  My family are easy.  I've booked to take my mum for a fancy massage (completely with sauna, steam room etc) on Christmas Day morning (she knows about this) and my brother is getting a six day holiday to Rajasthan, starting on Boxing Day.

We have decided not to send cards (except where Phil could deliver these in person in December) as my trust in the reliability of the postal system is not high, so we will be keeping our communication electronic for Christmas 2013.

All is all, being in India helps to keep Christmas in perspective and it is refreshing to be away from the present-buying and Christmas preparation marathon this year.

4)  Christmas Lunch

We will be having our first ever Christmas lunch away from home, as my brother's Christmas present to us all will be Christmas Brunch at the Taj hotel in Bandra.  Super!  But will Christmas feel the same without many hours of cooking build up and temperatures rising in the kitchen?!  We will find out on Wednesday...

We have though stocked up on a few Christmas essentials...a big stilton, chocolates, port etc.  There are some things that really should be around at Christmas, wherever you are in the world.

5)  Spreading Christmas cheer

My team at work is still relatively small (seven people) so we took the opportunity to invite everyone round for Christmas dinner last week whilst our team is still small enough to fit round our dining table!  We should have grown to over 15 people by this time next year, so that will be more tricky to organise.

Cooking a full Christmas dinner can be challenging in itself but we had the additional considerations of (i) vegetarians; (ii) no alcohol for some people; (iii) lots of traditional meal components being tricky to source in India; and (iv) we don't have an oven.  The last point on this list was definitely the most challenging!

Anyway, we adapted and creatively assembled something close to a traditional Christmas lunch.  Turkey was replaced with chicken (from the excellent local butchers, a good find); Christmas pudding, cranberry sauce, stuffing mix and good coffee were imported by Phil; and I searched most shops in Bandra to find red cabbage (mission accomplished!).

After quite a bit of prep (having a maid is excellent in both the vegetable preparation and washing-up stages of the meal), we had a lovely evening and introduced several of our guests to new foods.  The bread sauce and stuffing went down particularly well.  We served smoked salmon and cream cheese nibbles, pumpkin and ginger soup, slowed cooked chicken in red wine with mountains of vegetables and trimmings (mushroom risotto for vegetarians), Christmas pud and Jamie's Oliver icecream / dried fruit / cake bombe, and mince pies (provided by my manager Melanie).

The team

Jamie's Christmas icecream bombe (thanks to Mary Earis for the recipe)

Unfortunately, we massively over-catered, but this meant that Veronica (our maid) and her family all had Christmas lunch too as we packed it up for her to take home the next day.  She was delighted.

6)  Keeping in touch

Christmas is the time when you can feel most distant from family and friends, so we're very happy that my family will be joining us in India, and that Phil spent time with his parents when in York earlier in December.  We will be doing lots of Skype-ing on Christmas Day, and distracting ourselves afterwards with a six-day holiday to Rajasthan (Jodhpur and Jaisalmer) including taking my family on Indian trains and a camel safari!  We'll be back in the UK for Christmas 2014, but intend to make the most of this alternative Christmas experience this year.

Children's parties...but not as I know them

As Phil is away for two and a half weeks in the US and UK (only one week to go now!), I have spent my weekends pootling around in Mumbai.  The weekend before last was relatively cultural, including a Bollywood film and tour ("photo trail") of one of Mumbai's original fishing villages with Phil's work colleagues who were visiting for a few days.  Unfortunately, my camera refused to save any pictures, rendering blogging about a photo trail rather pointless without any actual photos, but I will write about that once I've sourced some photos from elsewhere.

This weekend was more western in style, including a couple of long swims (I'm getting quite into my swimming now), meeting up with friends for breakfast, inviting another friend round for dinner, and going to the cinema to see the new Hunger Games film.  I'm not usually into big blockbuster action flicks, but the HG series is well done and has got a bit more to it (IMHO).  Plus I was craving a couple of hours in a normal, air-conditioned, western environment, and a trip to the cinema to see an English language film seemed like it would do the trick.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film but the cinema trip was an experience in itself.  I'd chosen to go to a big multiplex which looked much smarter than the previous cinemas I'd visited in India (the ticket price was a whopping £2.20) and, as expected, the entrance was gleeming and American-style, with the obligatory security gates and bag search to get in.  Anyway, it turns out that the 1330 showing of the Hunger Games in a wealthy area of Mumbai on a Saturday afternoon is a magnet for rich Indian teenagers who are incredibly noisy and have very little if any concern for anyone else trying to watch the film.  It was amazing.  Whole groups of wild youths were having openly loud conversations and there seemed to some kind of verbal mating ritual going on between groups of boys and girls at opposite ends of the cinema.  Some of the adults were even better behaved, standing up and turning round to shout to the teenagers to "shut the f*** up" regularly throughout the film!  It was bizarre, but also quite fun, and any on-screen kisses or attractive top-less men (watch the film, you'll know who I mean...) met with cheers, wolf-whistles and enthusiastic rounds of applause from the audience.  There is some irony that the higher the class of cinema, the less well-behaved the audience...

Getting to the point, in the first half of the film (there is always an interval, when the film cuts off mid-sentence in non-Indian films!) I noticed a lot of noise from a couple of rows behind me.  As soon as the lights came on at the interval, it transpired that there were at least 40 pre-teenagers there to attend the same birthday party.  In military style, several cinema employees marched out into the theatre carrying trays piled high with burgers, chips, popcorn and sugary drinks.  It wasn't even lunchtime!  The party attendees piled in indiscriminately, seemingly trying to grab as much food as possible.  It was carnage-like and manners were non-existent.  A few stray chips landed on my head throughout this feeding frenzy.  A quick look around showed that these children were covered in designer brands and, to be blunt, most of them could have done with eating fewer chips rather than stuffing themselves.  Given how many people struggle to have enough money to buy food in India, these children were starkly at the opposite end of the spectrum.  The aftermath of this feast seemed to be an awful lot of half-eaten and wasted food lying around. I had a nice chat with a Chinese tourist in the next seat who seemed just as bemused as me.  I used to have birthday trips to the cinema as a children, but I'm sure that this used to involve five to six friends maximum, sharing a box of wine gums and a Happy Meal afterwards if we were well behaved.

My second birthday party experience of the weekend was, unexpectedly, at 5 o'clock on Sunday when I went for my late afternoon swim.  Sunday afternoon is a great time to go as the pool is invariably empty.  Yesterday afternoon was no exception, but with a little more poolside activity than normal. 

The club staff (around ten people) were decorating the pool-wide area for a princess party, but this was like no princess party that I've ever seen.  Pink and white balloons were strung everywhere, across the roof, up the walls, and in arches making a walkway round the pool.  In my 45 minute swim, I did an audit of the number of balloons and counted between 700 and 800 on the ceiling and walls alone, with many more in the arches.  I really really wish that I'd had my camera but unfortunately a camera is not part of my typical swimming kit.

At least 15 six-foot high 2D cut-outs of Disney princesses (Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White etc.) were fixed to the wall round the edge of the pool, but the crowning glory was suspended over one end of the water.  I joke not, someone had made a castle facade, including turretts, a entrance way, windows and a balcony and suspended this over the pool.  This six metre wide, two metre high monstrosity was strewn with fresh flowers, fairy lights and more balloons.  What's more, to swim my usual lengths, I had to effectively swim up the drawbridge, through the moat and into the entrance way, hoping that boiling oil wasn't part of the set-up.  Knowing how Indian health and safety is non-existent, I was a little nervous about the possibility of a castle-collapse to begin with, but I'd come for my swim and I was going to have my swim, and that was that.  At least the swim helped to build up my appetite, partly from the exercise and partly from the piles of food being brought out to a groaning table awaiting the guests.

On the way out of the club, children were beginning to arrive, to run the gauntlet of three separate photographers with massive cameras positioned between the front door and the party pool.  For me, a young child's birthday party involved a vigorous game of musical bumps, pass the parcel and stuffing yourself on ice-gems and cheese and pineapple on sticks until you felt a bit queasy.  I'm sure that parties like this must happen in the UK but I personally haven't seen anything on this scale.

I may sound like a grouch ("In MY day.....etc") and I don't mean to be, I'm up for people having a great day out with friends on their birthdays, but there is something about everything I've seen this weekend which jars against the backdrop of the lives of so many other Indians.  From what I've seen, if you are rich, then more is more.  If you've got it, then flaunt it, with flash clothes, jewellery, car and, apparently, children.  Expat parents I've spoken to tell me that parties are a statement symbol - everyone in the class is invited, no expense is spared and there is a culture of giving the other children a "gift" to take away, which can be pretty valuable (iphone speaker, for example).  What happened to penny sweets and party bags?!  I don't know if it's to do be with being British or something else in my values, but sometimes less is most definitely more in my view, and I'm not coping too well with the splash-the-cash-on-frivolous-things mentality.

Saying that, would I turn down an invitation to a fancy bash?  Probably not.  It's up to others what they spend their money on, but if I ever construct a moat for a birthday party then somebody please bring me to my senses.

Lost in translation

Yesterday, I invited a friend round for dinner and decided to bake a cake for dessert. Sourcing basic cake ingredients in India is non-trivial; I'd sent our driver Sagar to find plain flour and caster sugar earlier in the week and found some local butter in a nearby shop on Sunday morning. You can buy imported brands including President and Lurpak here, but I can't quite bring myself to pay £4 for a small block of it...Eggs though are two a penny (almost) and I picked up a pineapple to complete my tropical cake theme.

I'd found a recipe for fresh pineapple cake online and everything was going swimmingly; I was even feeling a little bit smug for adding an exotic twist of vanilla and cardamom when poaching the diced pineapple.

Unfortunately, at the key moment, I could not find the flour anywhere. Our maid, Veronica, has a very tidy but often complex and ever-changing filing system in the kitchen, but she was stumped by the location of the flour when I phoned her to check after searching high and low. Defeated, and short of time, we had flambeed pineapple with ice cream for pudding instead.

This morning, Sagar insisted that he'd bought the flour last week and Veronica swore that she'd never seen it. Puzzled, but not wishing to make a big issue out of a such small matter, I simply added flour to this morning's shopping list to make sure that we had some in for future use.

Sagar completed his shopping tasks this morning, phoning me to confirm that he'd bought everything on my slightly eclectic list (mouthwash, melon, flour, new battery for kitchen scales) without difficulty. After a long and busy day at work, I returned home to open the fridge and contemplate how to transform its contents into a tasty meal for one (Phil's still away in the UK).

I took a double take owing to the large white bowl filled with chopped cauliflower in the middle of the fridge. Exactly the same thing had happened last week; I hadn't asked for cauliflower and yet it had been mysteriously added to the shopping tally. Last week, there was such a lot of cauliflower that I was eating cauliflower biriyani for three days and still have more in the freezer! I only managed to polish off the last of it in a stir fry this evening.

After a baffled moment, the penny dropped.  Flour....cauliflower...ah! Suddenly it all became clear.

A lot of cauli-flour

Problem solved, now all I need to do is buy some actual flour and find a decent recipe for cauliflower cake!

Our first visitor

Last weekend we welcomed our first guest to our apartment, Rosie Brooke, who is currently two months into a six month secondment in Bangalore.  We've been really looking forward to having friends and family coming to stay and Rosie's visit was our first opportunity to think about what to do in Mumbai as a tourist.  Mumbai is so large and complex that it's tricky to capture in one weekend, but we put an itinerary together to give Rosie a decent overview of the city, allowing time for catching up and (a little of) relaxation too.

Rosie proved to be the perfect guest in that (i) she was completely easy going about where we went and what we did; and (ii) she's already been living in India for a while so knew what to expect from Mumbai. It was lovely to have her staying for the weekend - thanks Rosie!

Rosie's plane landed at 1030pm on Friday so we took the opportunity of our driver Sagar working in the evening to travel to one of the restaurants on my "to do" list - The Banana Leaf, just north of Juhu.  This restaurant serves pure veg south Indian cuisine and is now one of my favourite places to eat in Mumbai.  The masala uttapam was simply awesome as a starter and the mains equally good (a mushroom dish and green mango / pumpkin curry) though when South Indian food is described as spicy that *means* spicy.  My mouth was on fire and was only cooled by a coconut milk based pudding; hence we were feeling full and content when setting off for the airport at 10pm.

Twinkly lights and an illuminated triangular arch led us into the restaurant 

Tasty South Indian curry and chutney, served on a banana leaf as expected

After an uneventful airport pick-up (Sagar's been having "police problems" there recently...usually resulting in a 100 rupee fine), and a late evening beer at home, we were ready to head to South Mumbai for a day of sightseeing on Saturday.  We decided to go to see the Elephanta Caves which are situated on a small island to the east of South Mumbai, accessible by a one hour trip on a rather rickety boat.

After parking up and a quick toilet trip to use the facilities at the Taj Mahal Hotel (possibly the fanciest bathrooms I've ever used, we were intending to go for a drink at the hotel later on though ran out of time...), we stopped for a look at the majestic Gateway of India before boarding a boat to the island.  The trip is worth it for the views back to the mainland, where you can imagine how it must have felt for those arriving in Mumbai in the past after a long sea voyage, when ships docked at the Gateway of India.  Less convenient perhaps, but more spectualar than landing at the building site of the international airport surrounded by slum!

The Gateway of India

On the top deck of the boat (a 10 rupee surcharge).  Phil's hair starting sticking up at funny angles after he put his hat on wet hair in the morning.

Classic Mumbai - The Gateway of India and Taj Hotel - host to Prime Ministers, Presidents and English people after a pleasant bathroom experience pre-boat trip.

The island itself is a major tourist attraction and the 20 minute walk up to the caves is therefore lined with stalls selling tourist tat, but it is jolly and still spacious and quiet relative to Mumbai.  Again, the caves themselves are old and with some large carvings, though it's probably best to visit before visiting Ajanta / Ellora or even Karna caves as the Elephanta Caves are on a much smaller scale and not nearly as impressive.  The area was though full of family, friends and couples enjoying a Saturday trip out and the views over the island and mainland were good.

There is a toy train from the jetty to the steps up to the caves.  We walked.

Chair transport - one chair, two sticks, four men.  There is something a little uncomfortable (but also quite comical) about watching four lean Indian men carry a (more than portly) white man up a hill for 500 rupees.

Lots of rock.

Lots of carvings.  We didn't get a guide as Phil had hired one on a previous visit, but unfortunately couldn't remember the fine detail when we got to the caves.

 Another v.big carving

Jennie and Rosie enjoying the (35 degree) sunshine.

The main attraction, in my view, was the monkeys.  My previous monkey experiences have not been positive; they have either been big, aggressive and threatening, or mangy, mischievous and suspiciously rabid-looking; but Elephanta island has partially restored my faith in the monkey race.  These one were small, not interested in us, and very sharp and dextrous.  We spent a while watching pairs of monkeys preening, with one lazing and lying full length out in the sun, whilst the other carefully removed all its fleas, one by one.  They looked incredibly human and the little ones were having great fun play fighting and tree climbing.  Phil's handbell hopes have risen - he thinks that these one might be trainable!

Large cannon on top of the imaginative named "Cannon Hill".  This has something to do with the Portuguese.

Monkey preening

Monkey cuddles

I like the pair of monkeys in the background - someone is definitely enjoying his cleaning session.

After a snooze on the boat home, we (yet again) failed to get into Brittania (v.old Parsi restaurant) owing to a big queue outside and instead tried Ideal Corner, a Parsi cafe and conveniently another place in my book which needed ticking off.  Getting there involved a bit of carnage-life driving the wrong way up a one way street, but we enjoyed some tasty and meaty fare (I liked the Kheema dish) once we arrived.

Lunchtime Parsi fodder - Meat and pineapple juice.

After a swift driving tour around the main old sites of South Mumbai (Victoria Terminus, The Oval Maiden, Flora Fountain, Marine Drive etc.) we headed home for a bit of relaxed film watching before going out for dinner.  Tata Sky has lots of English language films but with comprehensive bad language censoring...watching Notting Hill whilst trying to fill in the blanks added a new level of fun to seeing a Richard Curtis film.

We went to our favourite Mumbai snack destination, ELCO, for dinner.  I hope that after Pani Puri, Bhel Puri, Sev Puri, Pav Bhaji and more, that Rosie has been converted to the wondrous street food of Mumbai.  A warning to all future visitors - you will be taken to ELCO - whether you like it or not!

As proof that we are all getting old, we were shattered and in bed by 10 o'clock.  After a pleasant lie-in (except Phil, who went for his early Sunday morning run) we were geared up for the weekend ringing slot, our first quarter peal in India, of Plain Bob Minor.  We were not cruel enough to force Rosie into a peal, plus we'd all had a nice long lie-in so wouldn't have had time anyway.  The quarter peal was uneventful (bar a very late single, which 1-2 and 3-4 managed with great poise and calm in my opinion) and proof that none of us had forgotten how to ring handbells.  I'm not sure that Rosie will take up our peal invitation, but we hope that she comes round to the idea:-)  This was hopefully the first of many more ringing performances in our apartment.

http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=312033

The first handbell quarter in India for all.

With the ringing completed, we caught an autoricksaw up to Juhu Beach for a Sunday morning stroll amongst the many cricket games on the sand.  Juhu Beach is not a perfect, clean, soft-sand paradise but I like it a lot; it is genuinely valuable open space in Mumbai to be treasured, and brings happiness and relaxation to so many Mumbaikars, especially those who like cricket.

We met with friends, David and Catherine, for lunch on Bandra's Carter Road and were ready for a snooze after a couple of hours of breakfast grub, waffles, sangria, sun and conversation.  After cooling down at the apartment, and a nice cup of tea, Rosie and Phil departed for the airport (Rosie back to Bangalore, Phil to Singapore for a brief work visit) and I was left alone.

Phil with the Viennese breakfast and a particularly girly strawberry smoothie.

And what better way to end an excellent weekend than with the final episode of Series 4 of Downton Abbey.  I'm pleased to confirm that the new DVD player is working perfectly and I have more than made up for lost Downton time since the failure of the old one.

Samosas, wine, Sachin, running, swimming, phones, bread, blood tests and weddings (not all at once)

After arriving back in India on Friday last week, I had a quick turnaround as we had planned a weekend away to Nashik; a city up in the hills 160km north-east of Mumbai.  I knew two things about Nashik before we set off; (i) it is a holy place for Hindus attracting many pilgrims who travel great distances; and (ii) it is the centre of the Indian wine growing industry and is surrounded by vineyards.  Both good from a tourist perspective.

We left home early on Saturday morning to avoid traffic in Mumbai (we had our driver Sagar with us for the weekend) and stopped off in Sion for a breakfast samosa at Guru Kripa on the way, an establishment recommended in my Savour Mumbai cookbook.  These 8 rupee goodies were extremely tasty though the 9 rupee samosas that I've had from BKC still have the edge.

Our second breakfast

Replenished, we travelled to Nashik which was an easy 2.5 hour drive up a well-kept highway.  The landscape soon becomes attractive upon leaving Mumbai, with undulating hills and noticeably fresher air as we climbed up to the higher-altitude of Nashik.  We saw several pilgrims walking along the road from Mumbai to Nashik, an amazing sight and impressive journey for people to make, especially in the heat of the day.

Flying the flag

Our first stop was the Sula Vineyards, a California style winery on the outskirts of Nashik.  Sula wines seem to be everywhere in Mumbai and we learnt, on the winery tour, that the company's turnover is huge and its wines are exported all over the world.  Sula was set up by a Princeton graduate and the climate in Nashik feels Californian; I fully expect that the Indian wine industry will continue to improve and develop as it has done for the last 20 years in these conditions.  St John's College in Cambridge has Indian wine on its wine list, and I'd expect to see much more of it around in the future.

We enjoyed the short tour and subsequent wine tasting with an informative although rather jaded guide who was patiently explaining how to taste wine to a group of people who primarily wanted to drink as much wine as possible.  He explained to us that the concept of wine tasting hasn't fully taken off yet, hence his detailed description of how to taste wine properly (see, swirl, sniff, sip etc.), but that knowledge is now improving. He explained that all Sula wine is now in screw-top bottles as many Indians do not own or know how to operate a corkscrew.  I'm not sure I believe this and consider this statement to be rather sweeping, but that's what he said to us!

We enjoyed the Shiraz and Viogner (both Californian-style) and purchased a few bottles to stock our (rather depleted) wine rack at home.

Impressive modern wine tasting bar 

The sniff test 

Sula vineyards looking out from the main winery building 

Lots and lots of wine

For a complete change of scene, we drove into the centre of Nashik to visit the ghats and templates that draw Hindu pilgrims to the city.  This was not a touristy place, we were the only non-Indians in sight, but we were not hassled and enjoyed seeing another side of Indian life.

View over the main ghat and temple area 

The only two tourists in the area 

Living temple 

Water edge teeming with activity 

Washing 

Obligatory cattle picture

We had a relaxing evening at our hotel and early night owing to our very early start on Sunday morning.  After booking our weekend break to Nashik, we'd found out about a 10k run and 21k run happening at the Sula vineyards on Sunday morning.  In preparation for January, we signed up and looked forward to the opportunity to run in a cooler environment with clean air; although this would require a 5am alarm on a Sunday.

Cake on our hotel buffet.  The great Indian cricket hero Sachin Tendulkar retired on Saturday after playing his last test match in Mumbai.

We thoroughly enjoyed the run and our driver Sagar seemed to take the news about the 5am start remarkably well.  We bought him breakfast at the vineyards to make up for it...

When we arrived, there were lots of very fit looking people warming up with impressive stretches and the atmosphere was full of energy and enthusiasm for the run.   We somehow ended up on the podium, Phil was 2nd in the half marathon (despite a slightly dodgy tum, again) and I was 3rd (woman) in the 10k.  We're not quite sure how this keeps happening though running in races in India is a big confidence boost!  We also met several friendly and strong runners from Mumbai who welcomed us and shared their experiences of running in India.  We were told about the runner who won the men's open category in last year's Mumbai marathon - a poor Maharashtrian farmer who runs barefoot and slept on the ground the day before the race, before completing the marathon in 2hours 30mins.  Quite astonishing and very inspiring.

Post-race on a beautiful morning at the Sula vineyards 

My award for 2nd place in the 10k. 

Phil was left on the podium alone for a while as no one could find his trophy.  He started doing poses for the audience after a while.. 

There were two (incredibly bendy) Yoga teachers leading stretching sessions after the run.  We learned that (i) we have no sense of balance; and (ii) we are completely inflexible relative to the average Indian. 

With fellow friendly runners who we met after the race.

 

An overloaded truck on the road back from Nashik.

Now for the swimming bit...Phil went away to Chennai on a work trip yesterday and I aim to get some exercise in every day whilst he is away.  This started with a swim after work on Monday, much to the horror of Sagar who thought I would get ill swimming in the current "cold" conditions.  Err...the temperature is still reaching 30 degrees each day and the lower humidity is pleasant relief in my view.  There was a  children's swimming class happening in the pool (swimming widths) whilst I was swimming lengths (this involves a bit of diving child dodging).  Amongst a confident group of youngsters, one little boy was adamant that he did not want to leave the side of the pool and screamed loudly when the instructor tried to nudge him out to swim.  The boy eventually climbed out to his mother for sympathy who patted him on the head and promptly picked him up and dunked him in the pool again.  It was tough love, but worked eventually as he managed a few widths, but made a lot of noise about it!

Moving on to phones, I have recently been considering buying my first ever smart phone (yes, I know I'm behind the times).  Just about everyone seems to walk around with a smart phone in India so I had naively assumed that these are affordable for the average person...not so, they seem to be more expensive than in the UK!  The lastest iphone is more than £500 for the handset here, and that's before you get to the contract.

After looking at a few phones, feeling confused, and deciding that a cheap one to make calls will be fine for what I need, I discussed smart phones with Sagar who is saving up to buy the latest expensive one in January, worth several months' salary him.  This does though make me understand just how important phones are for the young generation in India, both for their actual function and as an important status symbol.

Bread...a small thing but the happy point of my day was returning home to find that Veronica had spontaneously made me a pile of chapattis which were keeping warm covered by plates in the kitchen. This was lovely and made me smile.

Another random event of my week is that I had to provide details for a new access card for the building at work, which bizarrely included my blood group.  I have never had a blood test so have no idea what it is!  In a perfect world I would love to give blood and know that it's an important thing to do, but I unfortunately tend to faint when approached with a needle.  Anyway, I've discovered that not knowing your blood group is considered to be extremely strange in India.  My work colleagues were astonished.  The standard reaction to any kind of minor ailment is to take a blood sample and people seem to have extensive blood checking tests as a matter of course even when they are feeling fine.  I visited a local clinic at lunchtime today and had a protracted discussion about what I wanted - they just didn't believe that I could not know what my blood group is!  After much discussion and persuading them that (i) I do not need to be referred by a doctor; and (ii) I do not want my heart, lung, liver and kidney functions checking at the same time at finding out my blood group, the test went ahead.  After all that excitement and parting with 150 rupees, I found that I'm O positive, as common as muck.

Another reason for smiling is that we've found out this week that Phil's brother Richard and girlfriend Frankie will be getting married in March.  Hooray!  All I need to find now is find an Indian wedding outfit...