This is going to be a touristy kind of post. So this is not for those who live and work in Mumbai… because I’m sure they’d have seen and done these things every time an out of town relative or friend popped by. This is for those who come to Mumbai for a holiday or for those who like me needed to put together a touristy plan for visiting relatives.

I had friends and family from abroad visiting Mumbai for 4 days. In order to make the most of those days I got on to Google, Facebook, and Twitter and got a ton of suggestions on what to do in Mumbai. Below are the some of the highlights of the ‘Fun Plan’ that I put in place!

Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel

Built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, the Gateway is like the Statue of liberty… the first sign of Mumbai for travelers coming from afar. It’s a beautiful structure and the usual melee of tourists, pigeons, hawkers and the majestic view of the famous Taj Mahal Hotel makes it a nice starting spot for a Mumbai Darshan. Also the whole angle of 26/11 shootings adds to the touristy value and now guides there will tell you where they saw the terrorists, how the gunshots reverberated through the air, how the Taj burned on that fateful day etc. Worth one visit for all non Mumbaikars.

Walk to Flora Fountain and CST station (And Shopping at Causeway)

The whole allure of South Mumbai is this old world charm that exudes from the buildings there. Just walking down from the Gateway towards the CST station is a pleasure. On the way are street vendors selling everything from paintings on a leaf/ bus tickets/ rice grain to collages, handmade jewelry and all kinds of other artsy stuff. Flora fountain itself is a little bit of a disappointment, with all the algae stuck over it and without water it just looks like a lonely warrior in a sea of human traffic. The CST building is impressive with its stain glass windows and impressive architecture. A must photo op for the visiting folks.  

Dhobi Ghats

So this is where ‘Munna Bhai’ is supposedly shot…. But after I saw the place, I wasn’t sure there was enough place for the cast and crew to even stand. The place is a bunch or rectangles filled with water and half naked men beating the hell out of clothes. The clothes line where the clothes dried was interesting… it seems as if the clothes were clubbed according to their shades!

More tips on what to do in Mumbai coming up in Part II of this post!

Hideout (www.hideout.co.in) is an eco farm set up by Hemant Chabbra (yes, the one of the bicycle project fame!) in vikramgarh, some 2 ½ hours out of Mumbai. Set among hills, the hideout is a quaint little place done up beautifully, offering an experience of the simple farm life.

The first thing that struck me was the open air non permanent structure of the farm. Thatched roof, lanterns, cow dung leveled floors, earthenware pots and pans, wood fire stoves, fresh flower decorations, beds on swings and no walls… the place was beautifully rustic.

Gramma Chabbra was there to welcome us with some fresh carrot juice and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her. Gramma Chabbra, definitely over 75, was as energetic as ever. She definitely knew how to welcome people to her home with warmth & absolutely awesome food! J

Hemant joined us later in the day and took us around the farm. The farm is spread over 5 acres and has different varieties of banana (he has 21 varieties at his farm!), various salad leaves (I even got to pick some fresh rocket leaves for a salad), mangoes, maize, fresh herbs, lemons, pineapples, chillies, brinjal and a host of other veggies. We got some much needed exercise and an interesting download on organic farming.

Our room, an extension of the theme of no barriers between nature and man, had no walls. To offer some privacy, there were curtains that one can pull around the four corners of the room. Tastefully done up, the room was comfortable and cool. The bathroom was a permanent structure and had all the modern amenities one would need. Well, it would have been nice to have something that would repel frogs… but I don’t think such a device has been invented yet. The frogs, not very threatening, looked scared themselves. And so after we had given in to the fact that there was no getting rid of them, Abhi and I would contest on how many frogs one can pee amongst!

The early evenings were spent in interesting conversations, drinking lemon grass flavored chai, eating freshly made banana chips (thanks to young Aditya Chabbra, who btw is a gifted chef) and listening to the natural passing of the day into twilight.

Mosquitoes were a little bit of a challenge and the ancient way of smoking them out by burning dried coconut shells had our eyes watering. Being a village, it also had its set of electricity cuts, but as long as the electricity stayed the afternoon (it got really hot and sweaty between 2:30 – 4:30), we were ok.

The next day, we decided to go check to local dam and waterfall out. A little bit of the disappointment (the pic on the website looked a lot more happening- apparently that is natural waterfall and on only till December), but we had fun none the less. And we finally wrapped up the day with a nice bon fire.

Hemant, who is one of the cofounders of the bicycle project (read about this interesting idea on Hemant blog – http://thebicycleproject.blogspot.com), made a wonderful host. We had a really great time at the hideout and would recommend it to everyone who wants to take a nice relaxing break, experience the simple life and meet the interesting and warm Chabbra family. J

Well it’s been close to three weeks and we’re at the lag end of our holiday here at Toronto. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone! This is by far the longest holiday I have ever taken ( I got 2 weeks off for my wedding!) and zooooop (!) it’s over.

Yeah, I’m heartbroken over leaving Rhea and everyone else here behind… but the bright side is that finally I will be able to feel some sun and warm on my face. I mean, for us the cold and snow was great, but after a bit, I can see why everyone who sees it so much here isn’t so enthusiastic about it. It looks pretty and all, but it’s windy, cold and wet! You have spend upto 15 mins putting on a series of warm things before you can step out and you can’t do much outside expect go to malls and restaurants.

Anyways, we managed to squeeze in a lot of touristy stuff and even with the cold managed to do all the things on our checklist. So here were the top few things we did and would suggest to anyone who is planning to go to Toronto in the winters.

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) – Quite a Royal Treat!
Located near the beautiful Toronto University, the ROM is a treat for all history lovers. It’s a huge modern 5 floor building (check the fancy facade in the snap below). Multiples wings with so much to see that it is not possible to see everything in one visit. So we picked the areas of our interest and only decided to see those sections.

The Dinosaurs section awesome. The highlight for me was the huge Barosuarous…. A neck that long, I wonder how it ever held it up. Teradactyls were quite the treat too and scenes from Calvin’s (from C&H) classroom reveries kept popping into my mind. I also quite enjoyed the special section on the trypillians (Aboriginal ancient tribes from Ukraine). Another interesting section was the natural world wing. With a colourful autumn scene done up, this section was definitely the most popular among the kids. Different animals, various show and tells for kids made this section lively and interesting.

Royal Ontario Museum

Casa Loma – A royal rags to riches and back kinda story
This is a fairy tale kind story. A young Henry Pellatt starts of as an industrialist making a fortune in public utilities like electricity. Too much money and fame almost always is very difficult to keep going for too long… so some bad investments and poor Henry was not so rich anymore. Though while he was rich, he really did dream big…So a palatial house he built, which he put so much money into that he could not finish it before he went bankrupt and had to sell it all.

Besides being a little wannabe type, the castle can be compared to any real castle in Britain. With all the fancy trimmings of the post industrial era (hot water and an intercom included) it still manages to look like a 16th century piece of art.

Casa Loma

City Habour Front
Freezing temperatures of -7 and an even higher windchill, and this was the day we decided to check out Toronto’s habour front. Not an ideal scenario, but we managed to still have a great time. Bundled up, we walked the habour front which offers a breathtaking view of the lake. We even managed to have some fun ice skating and checking out some of the boats harboured.

City Habour Front

Down town lights and Christmas displays
Christmas always is a time for festive lights, but nothing prepared me for the festivity of Toronto down town. With light displays along each road, huge structures with beautifully lit designs, it was quite a treat for us. Eaton Center (a mall) had a beautifully done up swaroski Christmas tree. Outside, The Bay (a big departmental store) had some really beautifully intricate window displays. Scenes from Christmas done up with in depth details, the thought and effort of the displays was really noteworthy.

Check out one of the snaps below. All the down town buildings added to the festivities and had the lights for all their floors lit till late in the evening.

Eaton Center Swaroski Christmas Tree

The Bay's Christmas Window Display

The CN tower (CN being Canadian National) was built in 1974, and at 553.33 m (1,815 ft, 5 inches), it is the World’s Tallest Building. Besides being a broad casting tower and catering to 40 radio & TV networks, it is a huge tourist attraction with over 2 million people visiting it every year.

Our trip to the tower began one cold winter morning with us as usual takng a bit to figure our coordinates. Their is a sky walk one can take from the Union subway station to the Tower… a much better way to get to the tower without the winds lashing at you. But no…adventures that we are, we landed up getting out at the wrong end and walking around the whole block to the tower. See some snaps of us trying to figure a way to the tower!

Getting to the CN Tower

The tower itself is quite majestic. Slim and tall it’s quite awe inspiring. The elevators have glass walls, floor and ceiling. We could see our slow climb up the tower and watched the dity unfold in front of us. The Attendant explained that due to strong winds, the elevator speed was reduced and we covered the one minute journey in 4 minutes. The view is quite breath taking and the lake ontario spreads across in front of you endlessly. The Look out level at 1,136 feet allows one a 360 degree view of the city. We spent a wonderous hour watching the city go about it’s business and marvelling at the architectural brillaince of the building. One level below is the glass floor level. A beautiful christmas tree aside, the level has a large glass floor one can walk over, look right down onto the ground hundreds of feet below. Check come snaps below.

The Glass Floor at 345 Feet

Panoramic View from the Viewing Area of the CN Tower

Having had our fill of looking at tiny people, buildings and cars, we finished off our trip with a super fast descent (in under a minute! And totally not for the faint hearted ). A quick trip to the gift shop and a small detour via a simulator ride (that had absolutely nothing to do with the tower and was kind of confusing) we were done for the day!

More tomorrow as we venture deeper into this beutiful city. Keep tuned in….!

Its a beautiful time here now… the pristine white snow covering eveything is quite a treat for us people from the tropics. Landing in toronto and the arial view of the city bathed in white was was breath taking.

People had warned us of -6 degree temperatures here. Not being one for the cold, I was dreading stepping into the cold, freezing and keeling over… But thankfully, if one is dressed for the weather, it is really good fun to be outside and in the snow! Once i got a little used to it, I had an absolutely awesome time snow stomping, trying to pack a snow man, snow balling people and rolling about in the snow!

Yesterday, we even got to witness a ‘Snow-ma-geddon’! Thats what the call a good hearty snow storm here. With temperatures going down to -11 and wind chills of -22, everything in the city was at a stand still. Meanwhile, I had a lovely time watching the snow fall while being nested in a heavenly hot tub in the condos indoor pool with clear glass walls and cieling. Once the storm warning was called off, we even managed to step out for a bit and had quite a ride driving over the snow laden roads and watching the snow ploughs clear the roads. Check out some of the snaps.

View from my Balcony

The Snow is Everywhere

Once we were settled in a bit, we felt confident enough to venture out into the city by our own. The subway is quite a convinient way around the city. Though the signage in and around the subway leaves a little to desire….Nothing to beat the london tube in terms of signage and making travel idiot proof. After a few boo boos (thats little Rhea talk for a faus pax) of going around in circles and not being able to find the sub way entrace or going to the lotto center and asking for sub way tickets (don;t even ask me how we managed that!), getting on the wrong direction train etc.. we’ve managed to figure the subway and it’s lines.

Well, thats all for starters…. We’re planning to see the top few city attractions over the next few days and so will keep posting. Aure voir for now!

It took us over 3 hours to get to the place. It might be a good option to take the train for people travelling from the central suburbs as it is a mere 30 mins from the Neral station. The place is quite rustic and if it weren’t for the uncharacteristic heat of early October, we would have had a good time trekking up the stony paths to our huts –cum – dorms. The dorms, a tad basic, were clean (that’s if you don’t take having frogs on the bed as a sign of uncleanliness!) Lolz… Apparently the place has many and we had quite a time watching the farm boys chasing the frogs all over the room and having to deal with a bunch of terrified loud women!

The owner of the place is a young foren returned types who inherited the farm and was really enthu to down load our large group with all the fun things his place had to offer. Fishing, swimming in the river, taking a tour of the rice fields, riding buffalos, milking cows, watching locals make wood products, he had a full day planned for his… but the heat was already getting the better of us and we decided to head for the bliss of cool waters.

Fishing and the river bathing were our choices and anything that required us to walk in the sun was straight out! Having never done fishing before, I was apprehensive about having to hook worms to lure the fish. But hey, these fish were vegetarian and were happy to be hooked for some wheat dough. The fishing lines were simple cane rods with a thin wire attached to them, at the end of which a small hook hung. One had to wrap some dough around the hook and throw in the line and watch intensively to spot the slightest tug on the wire, which indicated that the fish were nibbling on the dough. And wham, you jerked the line out and there, dangling and withering was the poor fish. The first and the only one I caught gave me quite a scare! I yanked the wire out and all the wriggling just scared the hell out of me! I couldn’t bear to watch and kept dipping it into the water until one of the farm boys rescued the poor fish, unhooked it and asked me whether I wanted to eat it. Jeez, after that show I was ready to become a vegetarian… so obviously I asked him to throw the fish back into the water.

After everyone had tried their hand at fishing…and surprisingly, almost everyone got a catch, we were happy to head to the river to cool off. The river was a narrow one and they had cordoned off a little area of the river for the bathing pleasures of the visitors. It was a weekend and there were multiple other groups at the baug, so it felt more like standing in a pool full of people. None the less, the water was cold and we could have stood in it for hours just to cool off. We actually did have a good time, until the buffalo decided to join us. Apparently the buffalo rides we were promised were to be with the buffalo in the water. The buffalo clearly was not a happy one… all the crowds and the happy shrieking was clearly pissing the poor chap off… so were asked the helpers to take him to dry land to save us the scare and him the pain.

Hunger finally got the better of the heat and we decided to head back to our dorms for a bit. Bathed in clean water, dressed and voraciously hungry, we were happy to sit in the sweltering heat to eat the simple village food. Dal, chawal, Sabzi, roti…the food was tasty and wholesome. A quick snooze and some group games later we were ready to leave for the long drive back home at 5.

All in all the place is worth a visit if you’re looking for a fun day out. It would be even better if you plan to do this during some pleasant weather. Also if you book in advance, you can book the beautiful lake house for your stay (it’s bang in the middle of a small lake and looked like fun to stay in).  

I’ve been to Goa a number of times…. Done the regular beach things one would expect…. But this time round when we got chance to go to Goa in the monsoon season when most beaches are closed, I was wondering what we would really land up doing. I needn’t have worried… we had the most awesome time!! From visiting the basilica of Bom Jesus wherein lies the almost intact body of saint Francis Xaviers after 400 years to lazily walking the corridors of the portrait gallery, Goa and its architectural heritage has a lot to offer. Walking through old Goa with a beautifully exquisite church around every corner, one has the feeling of stepping over atleast a hundred years backwards. The baroque architecture, the handsome gargoyles on the gates of old rustic houses, small winding paths shaded in more than history, one cannot experience Goa without someone local to show you the all the state has to offer. We luckily had, a dear ole friends working in Goa to show us all and more. Our friend, a historian turned sales man, had a Goan History fun fact always ready to be presented where ever we went!

So here were the 5 best things we did on our trip

1.     Drove around in Old Goa…and walked into the numerous beautiful churches.

2.     Visited Basilica of Bom Jesus & the Cathedral – Principal Chapel

3.     Ate authentic Goan cuisine at O Coqueiro (The place besides its brilliant food, flaunts its celebrity status as the place where Charles Shobraj was arrested. Their menu highlights that Charles could not resist their Chicken Cafreal and risked arrested to be able to eat it!! The place even has a statue of him with details of all his gory history. BTW did you know he escaped from jails in 4 different countries? Wow. He could have written a book and given Shantaram a run for his money!)

4.     Drove down to the northern most beach of Goa – Arombol. The drive is so refreshingly, that getting to the destination was a little bit dampner. But the beach is beautiful and free of the maddening crowds. Drinking beer and eating French fries as the rain came down on the withering Ocean… it was a moment I wish I could capture in its entire splendor.

5.     Played ‘The Game of Life’ (yes, the board game) till late into the night. Ok I know, you don’t have to be in Goa to do this… but we did and it was crazy fun!

Summer in the UK is by far the one of the most beautiful things in the world. The beautiful British country side is indescribably stunning in all its sunny & green grandeur. So when I was there one summer, a few friends and I decided to visit the Harewood Estates in Leeds.  A short bus ride (route 46) from the main coach stand, Harewood is a very close to Leeds City. We landed up in front of the large ancient stone & iron gates early one July morning.

Walking though the lovely shaded walkway, looking at the manicured gardens, we were delighted that it such a beautiful summer day. The sky was clear and a heavenly blue that I’ve only seen in the UK, and we would have walked the 1.2 kilometers to the castle happily, if it had not been for the kind old gentleman who showed up with a small motorized buggy. It would have been something if they had had the old style carriages for these rides around the estates….complete with horses with flowing manes and coachmen!

Ok, this would be a good time for a small history lesson. Harewood Estates was built by Earl Edwin Lascelles between 1759 and 1771.  Being related to the royal family does not apparently guarantee wealth and thus this family made their fortune (and thus this beautiful castle) by taking our sugar and selling it elsewhere (!).  It has been inherited down the long line of descendant of the Lascelles family. The Sixth Earl was also a cousin to the Queen Mary, who by the way also spent her last dying days here.  And I think the current descendant is the Earl of York and related to Queen Elizabeth II. The running history lesson that they give during the tours is sometimes difficult to keep up with and I hope I managed to get most of the history right. Anyways, since I was never really good at history or with the memory, you probably should not depend on these details. The historically inclined may please visit www.harewood.org for more details.

So back to the 21^st Century and the historic (J) day we were there

The castle per say is a small part of the estate. It stands in the middle of widespread and manicured gardens. On the outside, it’s not really that much to look at. It holds a close resemblance to the Buckingham palace and the boxy look seems to have been the trend among royalty in England.  It’s probably a good thing that the façade outside is so deceptive, because when you step in, you are completely overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of the interiors. 

The entrance hall has, besides a few chairs near the walls, only one other occupant. This is a giant sculpture of some nude man-monster type thing called Adam. It stands over 8 feet tall and is actually quite ugly. Makes you wonder why they wasted all the efforts on the beautifully hand painted ceiling when they wanted everyone only to look at the monstrous naked man right in the center of the room. After we pretend ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ on artistic talent of some guy Jacob who made the monster and snickered on some not shareable in a public forum kind of jokes on the obvious flaws of the anatomy of the giant, we were happy to escape to the first of the many Libraries of the castle.

Called the state library, it was a sitting room with a beautiful view of the estate gardens and the various fountains. Books on books adorned the walls. Every little space clamoured for attention. Beautiful Paintings, stunning tapestries, ornate wallpapers, sculptures, intricate frescos on walls and ceilings, rich wood work, little nick nacks that warrant a closer inspection….there just wasn’t enough time to stop and appreciate everything!

Made by the famous Chip and Dale (who were by the way were brothers renowned for their artistry with furniture), the furniture really is worth a special mention. Exquisitely carved, it made me imagine little squirrels carving away with their teeth and creating these pieces of art.

The castle has some 3 libraries (such a pity that they don’t let people near the numerous books… it would have been interesting to see what people read in those times) and 4 dining rooms (named yellow, cinnamon – to go with the colour of the wall paper of the room and state and family to describe the use they probably got put to), 4 large bedrooms ( including one dedicated to Queen Mary and her large wardrobe!), multiple small ones, a few sitting rooms, a huge gallery, a music room, ante rooms in addition to random rooms called the china room, the portrait room and others that I can’t remember.  

There was even a special room (I can’t remember what it was called, but we thought it could be referred to as the ‘Adult’ room) that had a bunch of nude paintings. It was like the people back then just saw too much cloth on all the people around them ( you have to look at the amount of cloth that went into a lady’s gown to really know) that they just did not like their art wearing any! Sculptures and paintings were all preferred nude. It is intriguing, don’t you think?

The rooms used by the family were on the first floor and the ground floor (which was really more like a basement) is referred to as the ‘below stairs’ and in this section the kitchens, scullery, staff and help quarters were there.

Interestingly, for all the beauty and opulence of the castle, the below stairs is so starkly plain and depressing, it surprising you.  Plain white washed walls and hard cement block floors fill the space and there is little thought given to natural lighting. I could just imagine the cold foggy winter mornings where the maids had to heat the large tubs of water for the mistress of the house and haul it up through the water chute into the nearly modern washrooms upstairs. The kitchen is a large space and one can see the myriad utensils that were used to cooking in those times. We had an interesting time trying to figure some of them out and what they could possibly used for. One can see some of the uniforms that the scullery maids, cooks, help used to wear and even try them and take pictures!

One of the weirdest things I saw were the service corridors leading from the below stairs to each of the rooms upstairs! It was like a network of tunnels, about a 2.5 meters in width and lead to each of the rooms upstairs. The tunnel entrance to the rooms was hidden behind a tapestry or some item of furniture and one can go through the rooms without knowing that there is a tunnel entrance right behind the bed/ the sofa. Apparently, the royalty did not like to see their servants. Even in those days there was a sophisticated system of bells through which one could pull a cord in a room and at a switchboard kind of room down stairs a small bell would ring that would show from which room the command has come from and one of the servants would be dispatched through the tunnel to attend to the summons. The servants would be expected to enter through their tunnel, do their work and be gone! It made me feel sick… to think of the dark dunky tunnels and the servants scurrying like mice through them, at the bid and command of the people upstairs. Jeez… rich people could be real mean back then.

After the dingy below stairs we were happy to step back into bright sunny morning and see the gardens around the castle.

The estate also boasts of a rich bird garden with a wide array of exotic birds, such as the colourful parrot, Chilean flamingoes, ostriches, penguins and peacocks. We had an interesting time walking through the delightful garden and feeding the birds.

All in all, our harewood trip was wonderful and one I would recommend for all to experience.

Cheers!!

So before I went to the UK for a work assignment, I did all the possible homework I could do. I read all travel blogs to the UK, asked (…ok, pestered) people who’d been there for all the info they could give me, got a friend who’d been there to write down a step by step process of everything I would need to do from the time I stepped off the plane to when I stepped into my hotel room (ok…ok…I know this is a little extreme, but hey! I was going out the country for the first time! You can’t blame me for wanting to be fully prepared!)

So this blog is for all those others like me who want to be fully prepared, but can’t find everything one needs to know. Below are a few things you probably will not find in other travel blogs, but should know!

1. Getting through the immigrations, airport security, traveling through public transport etc are the easiest parts of getting to UK. But, if you’re arriving in the UK through Heathrow, then the first thing one must remember is that it is the busiest airport in the world! (A claim that Wikipedia doesn’t confirm, but really if you’ve been there, you’ll know it is infact really really busy!) So if you’re planning to land there at the really busy times (summer time and in the evening), then you should probably reconsider and pick an airline that gets you there in the morning. Evenings are busy and immigration ques can be long and winding. During the evenings, it usually takes up to 3-4 hours to get through the whole thing. And by the time you get out, the baggage claim for your airline is over! I’ve had a friend who landed on 6:45 pm flight, finished immigrations by 10 pm to realize that her baggage was locked up for the night because it was not picked up within the 2 hour specified time! So bottom line, take a morning landing flight and avoid the possibility of this.

2. Setting up for living in UK is simple. Renting apartments is easy given you have the required bit of documents in place (which in case you’re going for work, your company can help with). The important thing to keep in mind is that the contracts for rent will include a very (and a mean really really detailed) list of inventory for the apartment. From the number of spoons, to a spot on the carpet are all detailed. It is best to run through the whole property with a magnifying glass and highlight current state to the landlord/agent before you sign the dotted line. Cracks, spots, tears, all should be highlighted before you take up the apartment or you might land up having to pay up for things you have not done or even forgoing the whole of your deposit amount.

3. Appliances! Now this one’s for the slightly electronically challenged people like me. OK, I can use the micro, washing machine, TV, DVD etc… you know the regular appliances one is used to using in India. Well then what does one do when faced with appliances one has never used before… like the dish washer, or say the boiler, the wall heaters, home fire alarms etc etc. I can tell many a colourful stories from my own experiences on what can happen when appliances go awry… but lets save that for another day. The point I am trying to get to is that when you rent an apartment, ensure you get all the appliance manuals as part of the handover. Experiences of struggling with a washing machine which has locked in your clothes and refuses to open, having the dish water spew bubbles all over the kitchen and more because we put the wrong liquid in it, are harrowing ones… one which could be easily be avoided if one had the manual which details a ‘in case of problem list of items’ and contact numbers for service centers. ?

4. Unplug home fire alarms before making Indian food! Now this is one useful tip you’ll probably not find written anywhere, but every Indian in the UK will tell you. Even with the nice chimney’s that are part of most kitchen setups it is quite likely that your fire alarm will go off because of the smoke that Indian cooking (especially tadkas) can create. Making some simple parantha can turn into a dramatic event of running around like headless chicken trying to make the screaming alarm shut up and then explaining to the building concierge and the fire warden what the fuss was all about! So bottom line, unplug the thing before cooking and ensure that you plug it back up because it really is illegal to keep it unplugged.

5. Planning pays! Actually planning in advance will help you save your money. So this is nothing really unique to UK, because planning your trips in advance probably saves money in any country! But in the UK planning almost everything in advance will help you save. Your train, bus tickets can be bought in almost 1/20^th the cost if you plan your trip well in advance. Even things like theater tickets, sight seeing tours can be really inexpensive when booked early.

6. Being vegetarian in the UK. I guess being vegetarian is not easy in most countries, but in the UK, it would really be not one of the best things. (You know because of all the absolutely great authentic British food that one would be missing! ) Anyways, so if you are a vegetarian, then you should probably remember that in UK, fish and eggs are considered vegetarian. So be careful when you ask for vegetarian food. Responses I have got when I ask for vegetarian food vary from blank stares like they have never heard of that word to a smiling face that asks whether I would like it with egg or fish!

Well, thats that… those are the gems of wisdom I’ve got so far. I do hope some of this will help some of you, but hey, it’s always fun making your own mistakes and having your own fun stories to tell. So for now, Cheers Mate!