About

Rashmi Narayan

I strongly believe in living every moment with happiness and travelling is an integral part of this. Over the last few years, I have been working towards encouraging people to travel, especially to those who would love to go on a journey of discovering new places, and also setting a path towards discovering new cultures, cuisines and broadening one's horizon.

Living in London is a huge advantage as it is so well connected to the rest of the world (probably not Australia, but you get the point). I try to save up as much as possible, thanks to low budget airlines and sales to discover new cities and places I've never seen.

Even back in Bangalore where I'm from, I used to take my car and drive wherever my heart told me to go. In this blog, I would like to share some of my travel and food adventures with you.

Another trend I've noticed is that many people have the willingness, time and money to travel but refrain from going to a destination alone and often regret not going there sooner. Yes, there are certain countries where I wouldn't want to travel as a solo woman, but to those countries where you can, why not just go ahead and do it? Being in charge of your own itinerary is very liberating. Try just going away for the weekend at some point, and you'll love it.

Covid-19 update- All Plans on Hold till further notice.

Like the rest of the world, my travel plans and visiting restaurants in London are currently on hold due to the circumstances involving Covid-19.

Here's a glimpse into my past travels:

India (1991-2010):
I am very grateful to my family for being well travelled and this is possibly where my love for travel stems from. Before I moved to London, I was proud to look back and discover that I had travelled to nearly every state in India, except for Punjab, the North-Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and the Andaman islands. There's no favourite as I love India immensely and miss it, but I highly recommend my readers to visit Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu if you are planning your first trip to India.

Egypt (2003):
This was a very special 'history trip' from my university back in Bangalore. We were a fairly large study group of 80 students who explored all of Cairo including the legendary pyramids of Giza, sailed down the Nile to Luxor and then back up north to the catacombs in Alexandria.

South Africa (2018):
A country that's very close to my heart as I worked closely with the High Commission in London. I only had five days here so made the most of exploring Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto, Sun City and Pilanesberg National Park. I cannot wait to return and explore the Western Cape.

United States of America (several visits):
A part of my family lives in the southern states and I've been there a few times now. I loved Austin, it's a city I can easily picture myself living in with a vibrant food scene and plenty of nature trails. I had an incredible stargazing experience camping in Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, where we spotted the Milky Way. I also visited NASA in Houston and went on a day trip to San Antonio in Texas.

Europe (Given the close proximity, I tend to visit many countries here quite often):
France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Belgium, Poland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Portugal, Greece, United Kingdom, The Vatican City and Liechtenstein so far.

United Arab Emirates (2009):
Most Indians tend to have family across the globe. It's a norm over the last few decades. I have a cousin in Dubai and after I quit my job at a newspaper in Bangalore when I decided to move to London, I took a 10 day break to visit him and his family. We visited all the seven Emirates and while I see the appeal for Dubai, I was more drawn to Al Ain, a lesser known city in the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.