Coffee, fly machines, and helpful websites.

Being in India for 3 weeks I realized I’ve taken a lot for granted. Coffee is on that list. For years I’ve been spoiled owning a Yoga studio upstairs from a coffee roaster and cafe. I could simply walk downstairs and get a freshly brewed cup of coffee or a bag of freshly roasted beans for a French press at home. Most of the coffee here is Nescafe Instant. Last week we stumbled upon Divine Cafe, a fancy looking resort. It appeared to be open so we went inside to have a chai. They had filter coffee on the menu. A step up from Nescafe Instant. It was OK. A nice surprise in the land of Nescafe Instant. A few days later we tried a place called Ira’s Kitchen. Highly rated on Trip Advisor (helpful website & app) Ira’s Kitchen was a delight. A 3 year old Indian girl greeted us at the entrance without saying anything she made her way inside and we followed. We sat and took a menu. A while later her mother, a smiling young Indian woman wearing bluejeans, greeted us at the table. She struck up a conversation with us that focused more on where we were from, how we were doing, how long and why we were travelling, and how we came to her restaurant. My coffee radar noticed a French press on the opposite table. I quickly ordered one (90 cents) and it was great, especially since it was only my second coffee in the past 3 weeks.

At Ira’s Kitchen we struck up a conversation with 2 young ladies at the next table who were travelling in India. One was from Florida, had taken a year off, and asked about the French press. I told her it was great. She told us there was an espresso machine at a place on the other side of the river. I took mental notes.

One thing you notice when you sit still for a while in India are the flies. Most visits to sit-down restaurants include getting acquainted with flies. It makes sense (see previous post on pooh). Where there’s pooh there are bound to be flies. Since pooh is everywhere then flies could be everywhere too. Some places are better than others. When you find a place with minimum flies you make a mental note. You’ll probably come back and eat at this place again especially if you didn’t get sick from the food. I saw some places with a fly machine. This is an electric contraption that has tubes of UV lighting combined with some sort of miniature electric fence. The problem is most of these places have the doors open so there’s a constant stream of new flies coming inside. The machine seems like a waste.

In my mind I started to conjure up the perfect place. A utopian hideaway right in the thick of things are in Rishikesh. A place with a fly machine. A place where they kept the doors closed. A place with an espresso machine. Maybe even WiFi that worked for more than a few minutes. Of course within 24 hours I envisioned myself opening up a new place here. It would be a huge hit. I’d fork up the money for the fly machine, espresso machine, a sign that said “Please keep the doors closed”, and a wired, high speed Internet connection with a wireless router. It would be the talk of the town.

Enter Honey Hut. The next morning Laurie used Google and Tripadvisor trying to find a place where we could maybe have a coffee and work on our blogs. Honey Hut was highly recommended. We decided to give it a shot. It was a tiny, ultra-modern place. There were a handful of customers. There were at least a half dozen employees, some with hairnets on earnestly washing dishes in the tiny kitchen area. Others manned the tall front counter consisting of a large glass case full of all sorts of cakes and chocolate muffins and other goodies. But I was there for the coffee. Lo and behold there was the espresso machine! CHECK. We ordered lattes which set us back $1.33 each. We set up shop at a small table.   Honey Hut markets itself as a place where they offer honey based products. They promote honey as having many health and wellness benefits. They had me at the espresso machine.

We sat down and tried logging onto the WiFi. I looked toward the street and noticed the doors were closed. CHECK. Just to the right of the doors, you guessed it, a fly machine! CHECK. I relaxed and enjoyed my latte and honey based chocolate something or other. The WiFi here, like most WiFi in India, isn’t worth much. Places tout free WiFi but the fact is you can get on and check your email and FB for a few minutes but if you’re working you’re usually out of luck. You switch over to your own, Jio mobile hotspot or set up a hotspot with your Indian phone (see previous post).

The espresso machine, the closed doors, and the fly machine kept me there for a 2nd latte. I used the time to sketch out our next move. A flight from here back to Delhi and a stay at an Airbnb there. A flight from Delhi to Chennai and an Airbnb there. Travel times from Chennai to Tiruvannamalai (still haven’t learned how to pronounce this yet). Flights and lodging in Sri Lanka (the next country on our radar). Yes we use the Airbnb website and app a lot. We’ve stayed in a lot of Airbnb’s in the U.S., Canada, Portugal, and 3 bookings in India so far. We’ve had great luck so far. The only unsettling experience I can recall in an Airbnb is finding a giant beetle in my bed in the middle of the night in Charleston, S.C. Two other websites we use are Adioso.com and Rome2Rio.com.

Adioso is a really quick way to look at available flights. Adioso simplifies things by showing you the 1 fastest and best price search result. It doesn’t list all available flights unless you ask it to. The thing I like best about it is that it displays the ticket prices for the 3 days prior and the 3 days after the date you put in. It’s all right there. So if you’re flexible with travel dates you can sometimes save a bunch by looking at alternate travel dates.

Rome2Rio is really cool. You enter where your travelling from and where you’re travelling to and the site kicks back all sorts of interesting modes of travel. Bus, train, car, taxi, planes, etc., all with prices. When you drill down deeper they’ll set you up with searches for actual purchases.

The site we keep coming back to and using a lot of the time is good old Expedia. They seem to be able to match or beat ay price for planes and hotels most of the time.