EP 101 The storied streets of India; the new hotels you need on your radar & Australia's top road trips

Veteran journalist Andrew Conway has been to India four times, but this time he's doing things differently. His latest month-long sojourn was self-funded, and he took his husband, Greg, who had never been to India before. 

Andrew talks about how having a personal driver (details below) changed his entire experience and lets us in on some of the lesser-known places to go in this often chaotic country.  

1 Hotels opened its first property in Australia recently, and host Kirstie Bedford was there to review it, while host Belle Jackson was among the first to stay in the new villas at Alba Thermal Springs & Spa on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. We also cover all the other new hotel openings in Australia you need to know about.

And, love a good roadie? We cover off Australia's best road trips with Rollin' car insurance. 

Contact Andrew's driver Manoj via email: agmtourntravels@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Welcome to The World Awakes. Travel tales to inspire your wanderlust. Welcome back to The World Awakes. We hope you enjoyed our special celebration episode last week. Yay! We were celebrating turning, or having, our 100th episode, which is pretty exciting. Jointly, we're 100. No,

SPEAKER_02: 0:21

let's not say that. Celebrating our 100th episode, yeah. Waiters 100, we are not.

SPEAKER_03: 0:27

We're experienced. We're experienced. That's all that says. And if you didn't listen to it, then please head on back and take a listen because we have a tropical holiday to give away to Avani plus Kau Lak, thanks to Avani Hotels and Resorts. And we also chatted in that episode about some of our favorite episodes, which you can go back and listen to. And we asked each other, we always thought we should do this at some stage, and so we asked each other the question we ask all our interviewees, which is what's the most bizarre travel experience you've ever had?

SPEAKER_02: 0:57

Oh, they were so good. We had animal fluids. We had flying pigs and we had guns. It was all there. We tell the stories that inspired you to Apple, right?

SPEAKER_03: 1:07

Love

SPEAKER_02: 1:09

it. And look, if that prize Kirsty mentioned sounds like your cup of tea, that is a trip to Thailand's Phang Nha Province, which leading away, just jump on our Instagram page, the World Awaits podcast, or scroll back to the last episode. And the prize is, it's fabulous. It's four nights for two people in a deluxe room at the Avani Plus Khao Lak, which is on the Andaman Sea beachfront resort in Southern Thailand. And the prize includes daily bed and breakfast and dinner as well as round-trip airport transfers and even a Muay Thai boxing class if you want to let all of that stress go with a few well-placed kicks at the trainer, not at the person that you're taking with you. Hey, listen, Kirsty, speaking of giveaways, we also have five lucky winners of our book giveaways back from episode 97. That was an interview with author Tony Park about going on safari in Southern Africa. I loved it so much. I love Tony's advice. And I've actually read quite a few of his books. His upcoming book is called To Die by the Sword. And publisher Pan Macmillan is giving away five copies to these Lucky listeners who entered the competition on our Instagram and Facebook pages. And the winners are... They are... So, you will all get a copy hot off the press when the book is released in Australia on the... 29th of July and I'll be contacting you as well to get your postal addresses. So if you are listening to this on Playbat, jump back and take a listen to Tony's tips because he's got some awesome suggestions about how to go on safari without busting the budget. And also, can I just say, keep an eye on our Instagram page because there will be other giveaways and our Facebook page too. Look, giveaways. We're giving away a tropical holiday at the moment, right people? So... following tag and super exciting. So let's jump into our weeks this week. What has your week been besides celebrating and looking glamorous as buggery with your new profile pic, Kirsty?

SPEAKER_03: 3:26

Yes, we do have a gorgeous new little tile for our podcast. And as Val mentioned, make sure if you're listening to this on playback, just remember that, yeah, we will have other giveaways too. So even if you're listening on playback and you've missed out, On this one, we will have other ones. And yeah, gosh, this is the king of all giveaways, right? I was lucky this week to be one of the first to stay at the very first Australian One Hotel. So that's their first brand in Australia, which is in Melbourne. And it's Riverside and the Docklands area that makes it a little bit quieter than if you're staying in a hotel in the city. I love that. When I was taking note of that, because I do find city hotels are very light sleeper and I really struggle with too much noise. So it was nice being Riverside because you definitely didn't hear any traffic noise. But the key to this place is... It's all about, the hotels are all about sustainability and everyone's talking about sustainability, right? And the travel industry is, and there's a lot of greenwashing going on. But these guys do it really well and they actually are renowned for it in their properties all over the world. And so they've done the same here in Melbourne. So they even went so far as to a really key part of the design feature of when they, before they even started the hotel was, was to restore this 1941 Malcolm Moore crane, which is right outside the hotel, and they moved it so that they could keep it there and have it as a key design feature. And when you walk into the lobby, you can see it through the windows and the main bar is named crane bar after that particular crane. And there are also 7,000, can you believe that? That's remarkable, isn't it? 7,000 plants inside the hotel. and 4,500 square metres of reclaimed timber. So when you first walk into the reception, there's the actual desk, the actual reception desk that you check into, was made with repurposed elm trees from Melbourne's Metro Tunnel Works. I love that so much. And an artwork above it was actually created from 60 kilograms of textiles that were otherwise going to go to landfill, and they made this incredible piece. artwork, which is so beautiful when you walk in this kind of very nature vibe. In the lounge, they've used decommissioned railway bridges for the staircase. And even the floor is off cuts of timber that have been hand cut into tiny little tiles. So they just look like little floor tiles, but they're actually hand cut timber. And the vibe's all calming because of all those plants. Like when you walk in and you walk down into the bar across the floor to ceiling windows are just all these beautiful plants. And it's all like neutral tones in the wood. And it also, the plan is for them is to make it a bit of a local community hangout. So they don't just want the bar and the restaurant and the spaces to be for guests. They want it to be a place where locals can come and have dinner or have a meeting, have some lunch. There's a great little, in the main lobby, When you walk in where that Crane Bar is, there's this great little cafe called Neighbours Cafe. And it looks like a little miniature general store. It's so cute. And they sell goods there and you can get coffee and grab some food. And then above that is a speakeasy style cocktail bar. And then there's also the signature restaurant, which is downstairs next to Neighbours Cafe. It's called From Here by Mike. And they're really focusing there on dishes using coffee. really hyper-local produce. So things like Port Arlington Mussels and Port Phillip Bay Calamari, and 40% of the wines on the list are local. So that's pretty impressive. And the cocktails are actually also all crafted with repurposed ingredients. So they're making sure that they're using wastes, things that would otherwise go to food waste. I personally think it's probably best suited to couples who are looking for a little kind of eco-romantic getaway. And there's lots to do if you're couples there without even leaving this property because there is an amazing spa. And the gym is you can work out while you overlook the river. And there's like a living wall, a green wall where you can work out to as well. And the pool area is on. So when you got to level three, there's one door that leads to the pool area, one door to the gym and then the spa. And the pool is indoor. And there's a little plunge pool and beautiful windows overlooking the river as well. So yeah, definitely one to put on your radar if you're next visiting Melbourne. And the room rates range from$450 to$6,000 if you're going to splash out and stay in the penthouse. And you can read my full review on Carry On, which is k-a-r-r-y-on.com.au. And now you had an amazing stay too, Val. We were both super lucky to have some local getaways.

SPEAKER_02: 8:14

Yeah, absolutely. Very different vibe to yours. I was quite interested that yours had a bar called Neighbours Cafe. I wonder if it's like Arlene Minogue or Alf is going to serve you a drink in the bar.

SPEAKER_03: 8:27

Ah, it's not. Neighbours Cafe is not a bar. That's the general store.

SPEAKER_02: 8:32

Oh, that even sounds more Neighbours-y. But yeah, that sounds absolutely fantastic. It's a part of Melbourne. That part of Docklands is really... just been neglected. It's really nice to see it finally activated there. So mine, my getaway, totally different in a lot of ways, but also quite similar. So I was down on the Mornington Peninsula, back down in my old stomping ground at Alba Thermal Springs, which if you, if Alba Thermal Springs are opposite the hot springs, the peninsula hot springs, which they both tap into the same aquifer of water. And the vibe here is that the springs have been there some time, but what's new is the accommodation. And I was one of the first people to stay in the accommodation, which just opened the night before. So there are seven rooms and villas, five villas, which are built on the hillside. So they're overhanging the bushland. And I was in villa number five. They call them sanctuaries. So I was in sanctuary number five. Take a note of that one because everybody said to me, this is the one with the best views. And And characteristically for me, Kirsty, I got up early on the morning of my stay. I got up before sunrise, before first light even, to watch the dawn as it was coming up over Afton's Seat. So I was actually looking back up the peninsula. I was looking north and the sun came up and it just broke over Afton's Seat and it flushed all of this bushland that I was looking at, all of the Kazirines, the Sheoaks and or the natural Australian bush just flooded with this incredible golden light. Great for photos, but also great for putting your swimmers on and going down and having an early morning jump into the thermal pools because this is the whole point of it. Even if you're staying for just one night, but I would advise to stay two, you come in the afternoon, you have access to the day that you check in and the day you check out. You have access to all of the thermal pools. So which if you are staying on the weekends can get quite busy. So what this gives you is that really quiet early morning dip where you soak in these incredibly mineral rich houseful hot waters and have all of those bathing experiences in a really beautifully designed space. The architecture in this property is phenomenal. So the package for these villas includes things like two days of thermal bathing, And you also get breakfast in time restaurant, but I wouldn't have it in the restaurant. I would order it and take it up into the villa because that gives you that sense of attachment from everybody, especially if you're floating above the bushlands. And there's yoga and meditation. There's yoga mats and guided meditation soundtracks in the villa. So you can sit there and just have that time away from everybody because, of course, you're wrapped in a frittata robe. If you know your Italian linens, this is the robe. to bolt down onto your body for the entire time that you're staying there because it's so gorgeous. And in keeping with Albert, it has made itself a very Mornington Peninsula experience. The mini bar, which is all included, except for a couple of cocktails. The wines are from 10 Minutes by Tractor, which is a local, one of the local producers down here, and fantastic. I've got to say, you know, bang on, my friends. But then also all of the coffee is from Little Rebel, which is a local roaster based in Drumana. All the breads, the nuts, the peanut brittle, all that stuff that I just lay around and stuff my face with for the entire time I was in the minibars is all sourced locally as well. So it really does keep that sense of a very peninsular experience, which is really phenomenal. So... Five villas, two rooms. The rooms are priced from$900 a night and the villas are from$1,400 a night. So this is not a, hey, let's just go and have a little quick getaway. They are two things. They are going to book up incredibly quickly. They were fully booked from the moment that they even opened bookings on those villas in a pre-release. And I think they're going to continue to be heavily booked as well. And so the price point is pretty much a kind of a, it's a special getaway. It's an occasional. I get away, but when you add in all of the other extras, it does build itself into being a really special experience. It does give you access to one of the three private bathing experiences that Alba has there. So we did a float tank, which is basically like going to the Dead Sea, but without going to the Dead Sea. So you go into a float pool, a highly salted float pool, and I put these weighted iron masts on, and then you've got weighted floatable pillows as well. And so you bob for about 40 minutes in the salt. And your body actually crusts up with salt. But it's very good for you. And then you scour yourself down later on. So really fabulous bathing experiences. We also put dinner in Time Restaurant for the night before. And the food is phenomenal as a dining experience on the Mornington Peninsula. Because you can just go in there and have dinner as well. Friday night was completely packed. Cassie, I'm saying even at 8.30, quarter to nine, there were groups of bathers coming in because the the spring stay up until 10 p.m. So people are coming in and nobody wears their regular clothes. They just come from the pool, throw their robes over their swimmers and schlepping to this fabulous restaurant for dinner, a glass of sparkling, some local wine. It's super, super local. Like it's hard pressed to find things that are off the peninsula. Yeah, like nobody is here not wearing clothes. We actually did change out of our swimmers because I was thinking I can't sit and dine for two hours in my wake. People wear one piece, but yeah, really beautiful experience. That is at Alber Thermal Springs, which is alberthermalsprings.com.au. I was driving that for Explore Travel, which you can find. The review will come out in the Canberra Times, Border Mail, and all of those kinds of things. So there you go. That's my experience. Yeah, two great experiences in Victoria.

SPEAKER_03: 14:24

And Australia is definitely having a bit of a moment at the moment because there's some other really cool properties that opened this year too. Journey Beyond opened Monato Safari Resort, which is in South Australia's Murraylands. I love this property. God, it looks amazing. It's actually a luxury lodge that's set within what is the largest open air safari experience that you can have outside of Africa. How cool is that? And there are 500 animals in the park.

SPEAKER_02: 14:51

And another exciting opening this year is the EVE Hotel in Sydney, which was the transformation of a derelict shopping centre in Redfern. I've got to say, it was shabby. And it's been turned into this five-star hotel and dining precinct called Wonder Lunch. main precinct. It's at the bottom of Crown Street in Sydney. And I have to say, it's all about biophilic design. So bringing nature into the architecture. And I ate at its Greek restaurant Olympus last time I was in Sydney. And the best tables are the open air ones. So if you are making a reservation, which I highly recommend you do, And in

SPEAKER_03: 15:25

Queensland, the Mondrian Hotel opened on Burley Heads. This is definitely one of the most luxury properties in the Gold Coast. And it is beachside and the restaurant is oceanfront and the pool overlooks the water. It looks absolutely spectacular. There's no mistaking when you are when you stay here because obviously it all just opens out to that beautiful ocean. And as you would expect for this brand of hotel, it's also uber stylish. And we will put a link to all of those points in the description. properties in the show notes. Welcome to the show, Andrew.

SPEAKER_00: 16:30

Thanks Kirsty, thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03: 16:33

So nice to have you back on The World Awaits and let's start by tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to work in the travel industry.

SPEAKER_00: 16:42

Oh goodness, I don't want to give away any trade secrets here but I've been a journalist since I was 19. I can't quite believe it. That's almost 45 years ago. First as a news reporter and then a feature writer, but I'd always had a real passion for travel and I'd traveled fairly extensively as a younger man. And then about 30 years ago, one of my editors at what was then Fairfax newspapers asked me if I would take on the role of travel editor. And I'm like, wait a minute, you want to pay me to travel the world? And he said, well, have a think about it. And I said, no, I've thought about it. It's good. I'll do it. And suddenly I was the travel editor of the Sun Herald and then the Sydney Morning Herald. And then I was founding editor of Luxury Travel Magazine. And now I'm the editor-at-large of Signature Luxury Travel and Style magazine, which is based in Sydney, one of the really lovely travel and lifestyle magazines. And I've had a wonderful life and career running around the world like a kid in a candy store. So very lucky, very blessed.

SPEAKER_03: 17:50

Yes, you are. And Signature Media do have beautiful publications. And I was also assistant editor of Essential Asian Travel and Style. So that is how we know each other. And Andrew, you are an absolutely beautiful writer for anyone who's ever read your work. What about for that? And what an incredible background you've had in the industry. So let's jump straight into India because this is a specific trip that I'm so excited to hear about. Now, this is your fourth time. So tell us a bit about what made you decide to do this one a bit differently to the other trips and how you did it differently.

SPEAKER_00: 18:23

I've always loved India. People say you either love India or you hate India. There's no halfway house with India. And I'm one of those people that love it. And I went for the first time 40 years ago. But I've always been hosted in India as a travel writer, and hotels or airlines or resorts have kindly invited me in the past. But I'm getting to the age now where I want to see things with a different eye. I'm looking for more authentic, perhaps unfiltered travel experiences, seeing it through my own eyes and at my own pace. So My husband and I, Greg, it was his first time to India on this trip, and we decided that we would do a fully self-funded trip for a month in northern India. No hostings, no freebies, no upgrades, no special treatment, and it certainly wasn't a cheap holiday. We opted for higher-grade hotels along the way, but I can't tell you how refreshing it was, how liberating, and just to be traveling as any other normal person and paying for it. And it really makes a difference. So we decided to do this trip in northern India, essentially retracing a trip I'd done almost exactly 40 years before. And I'd always traveled by train before in India. And India has an extensive and pretty reliable train network. And this time we decided we'd change it up. We're in our mid-60s now. We just... couldn't wrap our heads around sort of the hassles of stations, train stations and rigid timetables. And to be honest with you, we're just too old to be getting down and dirty. I'm not saying that 65 is old. I'm just saying we're getting older. 65 is the new 40. It's just, we're just a bit beyond the backpacking and getting down and dirty. So We'd heard about the network in India of cars and drivers. We absolutely didn't want to drive in India. It's absolute madness for anyone to do that. It's so chaotic. But there are cars and drivers, and we were recommended someone based in Delhi via friends in Sydney, and he turned out to be an absolute gem of a travel companion. He, having the car, it was a Toyota vehicle with room for five. There were only two of us in the car with the driver. And it just took all the hassle, the day-to-day, minute-by-minute sort of hassles of traveling in India, from the minute he met us at the international airport in New Delhi. And he was, I can't tell it, Obviously, it's a more expensive option than doing it by train because you're paying him a daily rate. We still thought it was very reasonable in Australian dollars, but he was absolutely worth his weight in gold. No question about the best money we spent in India, bar none.

SPEAKER_03: 21:37

And did he stay with you, that one driver, the whole way? And tell us a bit about where he took you and where you went.

SPEAKER_00: 21:43

He did. So we booked him for the month. Obviously, he needed time off and he got time off as we went around. Generally, he would pick us up from the hotel if we were leaving the hotel to go to the next destination in the morning. His car was pristine. He was in a uniform. He was always perfectly washed and clean in the car and everything. It was basically like having a traveling hotel room. If we hadn't quite packed properly or we were in a bit of a rush, he was there to just smooth things over for and we spent most of our days with him. And then a few meals, we would invite him for dinner. But car drivers in India, there's a network of roadhouses and they take off in the evening and they go to these roadhouses where they meet up with their other driver mates and they do their own thing. They have their own meals and everything. But we did dine with him from time to time, maybe four or five times through the month. And that just added to, we got to know him very well and super, super guy. So our itinerary, we started in New Delhi. which is the pretty obvious gateway for northern India. Agra, of course, for the Taj Mahal. Ranthambore, which is a little south, but on the road to Jaipur. Ranthambore is a tiger reserve, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. Jaipur, the pink city of Jaipur, obviously. A little place called Chhatrasagar, which we'll talk about later, which was an absolute revelation. And then back to the big cities of Jodhpur. Udaipur, Jaisalmer, really the best of Rajasthan. It's like the Golden Triangle, but we went further west as far as we could go towards the Pakistan border, really, in Rajasthan.

SPEAKER_03: 23:24

Amazing. So what actually made it such a great way to travel? Obviously, like you said, you have someone with you all of the time and he can just pick everything up at the last minute. But obviously also you, so you're paying him a certain day rate and he's just got the car topped up and ready for you whenever you need be. And is it because you can obviously also get into places that maybe were a little challenging without the car? Was that something you found?

SPEAKER_00: 23:51

Well, places that we wouldn't have seen by train. Again, the train network is great. You're going to see lots of countryside by train. But as you're traveling by road and you start to move further west out of the bigger cities into the desert country of Rajasthan, the only route for him is to travel through very remote, little-known and otherworldly villages and small towns and villages It just opened our eyes to parts of India and Indian people who just welcomed us with open arms wherever we drove into, that we just couldn't have dreamed of seeing in India. But beyond that, the joy of it was in the car itself, because his name's Manoj Kumar, and he's New Delhi-based, but he lives outside of Delhi. He's married with children, young children. He's a fully licensed driver. He's been driving for 20 years. He's worked with production companies on some major films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and He Pray Love and Victoria and Abdul and Slumdog Millionaire. So he's got this really interesting sort of history to him. He's been doing it for 20 years. But Part from the driving, and I've mentioned the driving, is beyond chaotic in India. It's organized chaos, but it is chaos. And you really have to close your eyes because there is all manner of human, animal, and vehicular life on those roads going in all sorts of different directions all at the same time. But He became, he's not a guide, a licensed guide, but he became a very insightful guide. He was incredibly helpful as a translator in the areas where there was no English being spoken. He was like our personal shopping assistant. He took us to the best stores. He took us to the most interesting restaurants. He did our laundry, for goodness sake. We would be going four or five days, and then he'd look at us and say, I think you need to wash your clothes. And he took our clothes and just washed them overnight, brought them back. He was a funny man. He was full of stories about Indian culture and life and religion. He talked about his family. He... It was such an insight into India. That was one of the great surprises. We never... ever thought that would happen. And we still talked to him on the trip six months ago. And he called us the other night to see how we were going. And we called him and we got to know his family a little bit. And it's more expensive. I'm not going to lie about that. But for the cost effectiveness of what he offered across the board and the way it opened up India was a no-brainer. Absolute no-brainer for us.

SPEAKER_03: 26:54

Yes, and I can imagine after working on all of those film sets and what with everyone so keen to do jet setting these days and set jetting, I should say, and follow in the footsteps of and see some of these places where these films were shot, I can imagine that he must be finding that quite busy. So what were some of the places that you particularly went to that were most surprising or that, because you've obviously been before, so what was it or what were some of the places and things that you did this time that really inspired were really special or took you by surprise?

SPEAKER_00: 27:26

Well, I kept the itinerary to the major icons because it was Greg's first time. So I wanted him to get the real overview of India. So of course we did the icons. We did Agra for the Taj Mahal. We did the pink city of Jaipur and Fatehpur Sikri in between, an absolute must visit. We did the blue city of Jodhpur, the lake city of Udaipur and out into the desert in Jaisalmer. But there were two places that absolutely blew us away and much lesser known. One was Ranthambore National Park, which is not directly between Agra and Jaipur. So you have to head south and then back up again to Jaipur. It's a national park. It's been going for decades. It's the home of the Bengal tiger. And I went there 40 years ago, backpacking. There were no hotels there. I stayed in a very primitive sort of house really with no electricity in the middle of the park and there was a jeep and he took us around we never saw a tiger 40 years ago we saw footprints we saw spore but we never saw a tiger because a lot of them had been wiped out over the years 40 years later they've had a regeneration program there i cannot tell you the place was crawling with bengal tigers of all ages and We took a couple of jeep safaris there. And to be within feet, within a couple of meters of these majestic animals with that And then a very small place, Chatsrasagar, which is between Jaipur and Jodhpur. And this was part of a hotel group that we picked three hotels that were sister hotels. One in Jaipur is part of the RAS group, R-A-A-S, small boutique hotels, heritage largely. And one of their hotels is in a bird sanctuary called Chatsrasagar. And it's a tented camp. like an African safari type of thing, but an Indian safari set up. The tents are set up on a dam, an old dam that was built to dam the lake. and to bring water to the area. And as that lake has filled, it's brought with it an extraordinary, I'm not a bird person, but an extraordinary collection of, I think, 250 species of birds. And you get up in the morning and you go on boat safaris on this lake setting with petrified trees in the middle of it. exquisite bird life and it's beyond idyllic so chatrasaga if you can put it on a an itinerary very much very much worth looking at and the tents were hand embroidered with indian thread And on the inside, so you looked up from your bed into the sort of the ceiling of the tent, and they were hand-embroidered with birds, with silk-embroidered birds flying across the roofline of the tent. Again, not cheap. We're talking high-end luxury kind of safari camp, but worth every penny that we saved up for to go there. So those would be two absolute standouts for me.

SPEAKER_03: 30:53

Amazing. And what about for Greg? What did he say about what were some of the highlights for him? I

SPEAKER_00: 30:58

think he was surprised. I think he felt that he was going to be really challenged with India. And India is challenging. There's no question. And I feel like India almost needs demystifying. It has this thing, oh, is it safe? Am I going to get sick? What about the water, poverty, the pollution? It's a country of 1.4 billion people. And it has challenges. Any country would have that size and volume of people. But he took to India like a duck in water. And I was so intrigued to watch him settle into India after the craziness of Delhi, because the first five days were full on. But he settled into the rhythm of India and he got to understand sort of the pace of it and even better than I did 40 years later or for the fourth or fifth time for me. So first time visitors, I'd encourage you not to be put off by a lot of the sort of negative press or the negative stories about India because it really is. Have you been

SPEAKER_03: 32:09

to India? I haven't.

SPEAKER_00: 32:12

Put it on your radar screen because I think you would love it. I think you would love it. The history, the culture, the food. I thought, you think I'm going to get sick, so deli belly and I'll lose a few kilos, whatever. No, no, I put five to ten kilos on the food. It was so good. And who knew that India made wine? good wine. We were thinking we're going to drink beer and maybe go vegetarian. And what? No. In Delhi, we found that India makes wine and we drank really good quality wine as we went. Made outside of Mumbai in Maharashtra state on the eastern side of the country. Just huge surprises. But Manoj, our driver, simply opened our eyes and our hearts to India. He was the catalyst. He was the conduit and the car by association to show us India in a way that I had never experienced before in four or five visits before this trip.

SPEAKER_03: 33:28

Amazing. And you're so right. It's such a good point to make, isn't it, about the perceptions we can have of a place and yet the Sometimes, whether it's time or just looking at things in a different way or where you particularly travel within that country can give you such a vastly different experience. So what would your sort of top tips be for those who are planning to travel who have maybe never been to India before?

SPEAKER_00: 33:55

I would encourage to up the budget. Look, if you're younger or a hardy person, older soul and an experienced traveler, by all means, plan your itinerary, do it by train or bus even, and go for your life if that's how you want to do it. And it can be done very economically. I say save up the pennies like we did and go for a higher quality hotel. The car and the driver was a no-brainer for us. And Then trust your guide. Trust your guide wherever you are. You're going to pick up guides with or without a driver. Our driver was not our guide. Everywhere we went, he arranged guides for us in the major cities and destinations. Trust your driver. Trust your guides because they will show you things that you wouldn't ordinarily see otherwise. And invest in better quality hotels. The driver will take you to the best restaurants, the best shopping. Well, throw in a tip here. India is about shopping, not shipping. Okay. We made a bad mistake. We've just, we built a new house in Australia on the New South Wales coast. We're trying to fill it with furniture. We thought we'll shop in India and ship at home. And we bought quite a few larger pieces and the shipping home issue was awful. It, uh, Hours and hours of paperwork, a lot of extra money to get it through customs in Australia, a lot of hassle. So I would advise, if you're going shopping, just buy what you can carry home with you and watch the excess baggage amounts and all that sort of stuff. But India's, the only exception I would say to that is carpets. They're very, India's very adept at sending carpets and rugs home very quickly. And there's no sort of customs side of things with rugs. So that's an easy thing to buy. And then will ship it for you. India's about clothes and fabrics and artwork and things that generally can fit in a suitcase you can bring home with you. Poverty, pollution. begging, you can't escape it. I'm sorry, there's no sugarcoating it. It's there. It's right in front of you. And you have to turn a blind eye to it. I know it sounds awful, but it's so everywhere and so prevalent. But giving money away is not the solution to it. Talking about giving money away, India relies heavily on tips. So we found that we were tipping a lot of people everywhere. We were a very small amount like minuscule amounts of money, but it would be good to take some Indian rupees with you in small denominations because a lot of people survive on small tips that get handed out. Food and water we found fine. The water is not an issue in India now. Obviously, you're not going to be drinking it out of a tap in a roadside village or whatever. In the major cities, bigger, the finer hotels, not even the finer hotels, most hotels, all the water is sanitized now and you're unlikely to get sick, but obviously you should take all precautions before you go to India. It can get very hot, very dry, very dusty, so just drink lots of bottled water. And finally, the volume of people, 1.4 billion people. I think we met 1.3 billion of them. I said to Greg, We will never be alone from the minute we wake up in the morning to the minute we go to bed. And he said that was very true. There will always be someone standing next to you or in your field of vision, always. But Indians are lovely. We love Indians. And there were a couple of shout-outs, a couple of small shout-outs. If you want a soft landing into Delhi... The Imperial Hotel, an absolute gem of a luxury heritage hotel built in the 1930s. It's almost 100 years old, but it is maintained meticulously. And the facilities, the restaurants, again, I paid for it. This is not a promotion. There were no freebies, service levels, and they've just... Levated the spa and beautiful gardens and swimming pool. Absolutely highly recommended. And in Udaipur, the lake city, the lake palace, I'm sure everyone's seen pictures of this gorgeous white palace hotel sitting on a rock in the middle of Lake Pechala. It looks like it's just floating on the surface. And... You go out by boat. It sits in the middle of the lake. It's all white. It looks like a big wedding cake or a Christmas cake. And at dawn, when the sun comes up, and at dusk, when the sun goes down, it is one of the most magical places you could... It's just dreamy. Absolute dreamland of a beautiful space. But again, you might have to mortgage the house. These hotels... Do not come cheap. I am warning you now. Unfortunately,

SPEAKER_03: 39:12

we are running out of time. So we're going to ask the question, the last question that we ask all of our interviewees, which is what's the most bizarre thing that's ever happened to you on your travels? And it can or cannot be in India.

SPEAKER_00: 39:25

I'm going to go to the very south end of the planet, down to Antarctica. And I went on a almost a month-long trip with Aurora Expeditions. So shout out, full discretion, it was hosted. And we went down to the Arctic Peninsula and to South Georgia and Falklands. And I went polar snorkeling. It is a real thing. You snorkel everywhere. around icebergs. You snorkel in a dry suit in freezing cold waters. You swim with penguins. You splash around with baby fur seals. And I would have to say it was the most bizarre but most incredible experience of my travel life. Polar snorkeling. Who knew? Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03: 40:12

Well, that's incredible. Gosh, everyone will have to put that on their bucket list as well. Look, it's been so wonderful chatting with you today and thank you so much for your time, Andrew.

SPEAKER_00: 40:21

Thank you for the opportunity, Kirsten. We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_02: 40:26

I loved Andrew's text about using a personal driver and we will put a link to how you can contact his driver in the show notes.

UNKNOWN: 40:40

Music

SPEAKER_02: 40:44

Our tip this week is for those who love a good road trip. And car insurance experts at Roland analysed 22 of Australia's most iconic road trips and created index scores and rankings to highlight the top picks across the country. So these are the road trips you definitely want to put on the to-do list if you love nothing more than a good scenic drive.

SPEAKER_03: 41:06

But the data found that the most loved road trip in Australia is... drumroll please, Victoria's Great Ocean Road. And so this trip is a 243 kilometre roadie from Torquay to Allensford, probably most famous for the Twelve Apostles. And this trip received 83,900 monthly searches in Australia and more than 33 million posts on TikTok. Jeez, I absolutely love this part of the world. I have driven it many times, but not all of it. And it was actually the first time I saw a koana in the wild after living many years in Australia. We were driving along near Lawn and we pulled over because all these other people had pulled over and there were a whole lot of koalas up in the tree and it was the first time I'd seen it. So that was pretty exciting. And that's what I think of every time I think of the Great Ocean Road.

SPEAKER_02: 41:54

Yeah, absolutely. And second on that list was, I mean, it's no surprise that the Great Ocean Road is there. Second on the list of most popular drives around Australia was New South Wales Grand Pacific Drive, which goes through rainforest starting in the Royal National Park over the Seacliff Ridge, which is phenomenal. I drove it late last year and gosh, I was in a Polestar, one of those Swedish e-cars. And so it was really quiet and I was just shushing along the sea cliff bridge. It is so incredibly photogenic. If you have not done it, you really have to do it. This one had like, you know, bazillions as you expect on social media, 24,000 monthly searches for it and loads of TikTok posts. And this coastal route has click-hugging roads. It's got plenty of Insta-worthy stops. And it winds from the National Park all the way down to Shoalhaven. And it's just spectacular. I cannot write about it enough.

SPEAKER_03: 42:53

Amazing. Rounding out the top three is the Great Beach Drive in Queensland, which connects Sunshine Coast and Gary, which is formerly known as Fraser Island. And it's a 380 kilometre trip. And while searches on that were, the research said that the searches on that were quite a bit lower than the other two, it is really renowned, obviously, because it's a bit of an iconic stretch and there's lots of sun. and sand and, you know, just a typical sort of what you'd expect on Australia roadie. But it still had 622,000 Instagram posts.

SPEAKER_02: 43:25

And Sydney to Melbourne is the next, the road trip. Look, I have to say I've driven this route countless times. So the scenic route is, you can do it two ways. One is it's fast and dirty, literally gunning it down the Hume Highway. And the other is the scenic route, which is following the coastline. So down the south coast of New South Wales, through such highlight towns as Huskersen, Jarvis Bay, gorgeous, gorgeous, and Mallacoota in the far northern Victoria. So it's just absolutely breathtaking. There is no point in rushing this trip. It is one that you really need to build a couple of days into and just stopping on the way, especially if like now it's in Wales flooding season. And of course, you know, the Hume Highway, much faster, unless you're pulling off the road to discover those villages in the high country, it is definitely simply a means to an end.

SPEAKER_03: 44:15

And how many hours does it take to do that trip?

SPEAKER_02: 44:17

So if you are doing the scenic road from Sydney to Melbourne, they say about 10 to 12 hours, but really it should be done over two days because that's a lot of driving. And why would you want to miss all of those gorgeous little places to pull in for a cuppa, for fish and chips and stuff like that? That's what makes it, I think, that's what makes it a great road trip. It's not the, you know, if you're doing speed, you're doing the hue. But yeah, so 12 hours, but yeah. Really, a couple of days, three days at best, I

SPEAKER_03: 44:47

reckon. I agree. The best road trips I've ever had have been when you pull in and find these amazing little places to stay and incredible little cafes and general stores, which Australia does so well. And not surprisingly, Western Australia's Gibb River Road was fifth, and this is a 660-kilometre four-wheel drive track, which is really renowned by off-grid RVers. So if you've got a good off-grid camper or motorhome. And it starts in Derby, but it was originally constructed, this is really interesting, in the 60s to transport cattle from outlying stations. And you go through Winjana Gorge National Park and into Western Australia's oldest cave system, Tunnel Creek, and Drysdale River Station, and you end at Kununurra. And we will put a link to all of Australia's most loved road trips in the show notes. If you'd like to help support our production costs, you can buy us a coffee at coffee.com slash the world awaits. That's ko-fi.com slash the world awaits. So we can continue to bring you inspirational travel interviews with the world's best.

SPEAKER_02: 45:52

Next week, we are going into our winter series and we're bringing you some of the highest rated episodes over the last six months. So we are taking you back to the Amalfi Coast and the south of Rome for the Italian episode. We are going to travel by train and hop a few islands in Greece. We're also following in the footsteps of two of our favorite women explorers and we head to some of the country's best beaches and island escapes, including the Cocoskeeling Islands where Kirstie was a few months ago. Don't forget to enter our competition with Avani Hotels and Resorts, where you can win four nights for two people in a deluxe room at the Avani Plus Khao Lak on the Andaman Sea. And the prize includes daily bed and breakfast and dinner, airport transfers, and even a Muay Thai boxing class. Just listen back to last week's episode to find out how you can enter.

SPEAKER_03: 46:42

And if you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Click on our profile, scroll down to the bottom to ratings and reviews. And if you're on Spotify, go to our main page and click the three dots underneath our photo or simply drop us a line at hello at theworldawaits.au. We love nothing more than hearing from our listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 47:01

That's a wrap for The World Awaits this week. Click to subscribe anywhere you listen to your favourite pods. Thanks for listening. See you next week.