Air France review - Birmingham-Paris-Bombay

First time travelling Air France. On our yearly trip to India, its always been Emirates because of quality and then, because of price, Lufthansa. This time, because we booked a couple of months in advance and the prices were eye wateringly high regardless of airline, Air France was the cheapest by a few hundred pounds.
After the journeys and delays etc, have to say that Air France is better than expected. Not their partner Flybe (will come to them at the end).
First of all the service - the ground and on board staff were extremely polite and helpful, always smiling.
No, the children did not receive lots of goodies like Emirates, instead, with a child's meal, they were given a bag of crayons/jigsaws etc.
The food, subjectively was nice - its always good to have Indian food on a plane, yes, it is greasy and you cannot finish it all but nice to see the supari like sachets and the pickle etc. (As you can make out, I love going to India!). The children's meals were well thought out, with French cheese shaped like an ice cream stick, tiny potato cakes, uttapams etc. And, yes, unlimited icecream throughout the flight, the staff kept coming around with sticks, kept the children happy.
Ground staff very sweet to children, talking to them, keeping them entertained while checking in at 4am in Bombay. While going to Bombay, almost the entire crew was male and Vietnamese-French, who were all very nice. Lufthansa, we have always had good experiences with staff, but I have seen other passengers being spoken to badly.
Now the not so nice bits:
The planes both times weren't very clean, never found this with any other airline. There was leftover food in the seat pocket. Bits of biscuit in my toddler's seat. Air France is not a budget carrier, to skimp on cleaning.
Flybe was awful on ground. While checking in, the BHX staff made us shift weight for 2 kgs extra into other suitcases and it was horrible. We were Air France passengers, not Flybe and were nowhere over our total weight. Nasty check in staff, used to dealing with Flybe's budget rules. I fully understand the rules of luggage weight, but the woman would not budge for 2 kgs extra in one suitacse and 12 kgs less in another. Cue lots of opening baggage and moving stuff around. Have travelled with budget airlines before and stuck to luggage rules, this time round, were passengers of Air France.
For this reason only, will never travel or recommend travelling with Air France if Flybe is involved.
Rant over!



 

Calangute beach and an update on Calangute

 Calangute beach was our daily visit in the evenings when it was cooler. It hasn't changed, other than being much more crowded and dirtier than when we used to go every year as children. Loads of people, enjoying the water, sand and most importantly, weather. We've been to lovely beaches in Cornwall and Spain in under 18 degrees, but nothing as good as hot weather, well around 28 degrees, to enjoy the sea.

 There are loads more beach shacks and restaurants on the beach now.
Lots of shop and restaurant signs in, of all the languages, Russian! Bit of a surprise, but was told that the Russians form a large part of the tourist population now.
 After the madness of Calangute market, the peace and calm of my Mum's flat. The addition of a swimming pool is a semming must now for the new buildings we saw during our stay. Would have thought there was no need, with the beautiful sea so close. Our children enjoyed their daily swim nevertheless, double dose of the sea and pool.
The Calangute-Baga road is still very very crowded and narrow, with lots of stalls selling the usual tshirts and slippers besides souvenirs etc. Saw a few selling leather jackets and gold jewellery too.
This time round, only ate at Souza Lobo's in Calangute, not the rest. There is a lovely lady who delivers excellent and reasonably priced food.

Calangute fish market and the pretty fish seller / lovely prawns

 The pictures don't do her justice, unfortunately I am not a professional photographer, to capture this fish seller's very pretty face, in the middle of the chaos of the fish market in Calangute's Tinto. I had been left with the camera while others were elsewhere and came to buy mince samosas with my mum, who ended up buying the gorgeous prawns, pictured below.
Its madness, like a usual fish market, but the fish is lovely and very reasonable. The mainly ladies selling their fish/prawns even clean it for you and are very sweet and chatty.
In so many years of living in the UK, nothing comes close to the taste of fresh prawns from Bombay or Goa. Not the Sainsbury's tiger prawns or the Costco giant prawns or the city centre fish market's lovely looking prawns for a copious amount of money. Have paid more than £10 for a small handful but nothing tastes like these.
Just fried with some salt, and, in this picture, some suji/semolina, they are heaven. My dad used to love these and my children today love them just as much.

33 Degrees to minus 3 Degrees - Bombay to Birmingham

This is how much snow there is in the back garden - 11 inches and more. From the heat of Bombay and Goa to this. The little one is scared of walking in the snow and refuses to play in it, even watching his older brother go berserk.
 Back in Birmingham after a 22 hour journey, lots of delays because of the snow. Finally finished unpacking, still wading through the mountains of washing, sorting the food/masalas and giving out gifts.
So much to write about our holiday - post by post.

This picture is my car,too scared to drive in the icy slush that is our road.

The horror that is the aftermath of Nirbhaya / Jyoti's life

In the middle of our lovely holiday, with so many good things, every morning, the newspapers would brings the tragedy of poor Nirbhaya or Jyoti, who was gang raped and mutilated in a Delhi bus, watched by her captive boyfriend. So heartbreaking and sad. Now, there is no coverage.
What I feel so strongly about is the gagging of the media for the rapist trial and the silence after so many days. Hang the *******s asap. So much fury in the Indian people and the Government silences everything. And, the cherry on the top is the many many cases of rape being repeated and reported in a large number.
 The latest is the rape of a 7 year old in her own school in Vasco, Goa. Such an awful shame. The rapists continue their horrific acts without fear, in their warped minds, the inaction on Nirbhaya's case probably egging them on.  
I used to come home at 3-4am in Delhi when I was 20-21 and walked the streets of South Delhi on my own in the early evenings. Get dropped back by the television company's vans when working late. Fed up of defending Delhi's bad safety record for women to people in Bombay in those days, it was easier to listen to the shocking stories, than justify myself.

Now I feel ashamed and want to do something but who will listen? 

fish Thali at Ritz Panjim

Gorgeous fish thali for a little more than a pound at Ritz restaurant in Panjim. There is a big piece of fried fish, fried prawn salady thing, two veg, fish curry and mussels. Lovely. 

Calangute. ..freshly baked paos

Freshly baked paos and butter for breakfast in Calangute.... divine. Love being in goa and the children see our excitement and join in.  Bad internet so will have to delay more posts. 

Veg shopping in the Mumbai bazaar

Love the veg stalls in India - the first picture has coriander and curry patta in the foreground. Rs10 for 3 large bunches. In Birmingham, its a pound in Sainsbury's and a pound for 3 bunches in the Indian shop. Potatoes Rs20 a kilo. For the seller, I was another one of the whackos finding onions and potatoes picture worthy.
Looking forward to the pani puri in the evening....

In Mumbai!

Having a fabulous time in Mumbai, so much has changed, most of all the prices! The weather is better than it is in August when we usually visit and there are lovely Christmas lights on the neighbouring roads. Each walk out of the house, DH meets 10 different people he has known from childhood etc, I have met my friends, relatives and so on. MIL has made her usual excellent sorpotel and tongue and they are enjoying the children. The children, as always are completely over awed by all the relatives etc wanting them to talk, play etc but my three are extremely shy and quiet with people they don't know well.
The littlest keeps remarking how noisy everything is and loves the wibbly wobbly autos to bits.
It makes a huge difference to have a break in familiar, much loved places.
On we go to Goa!!