Where to shop online from - Jabong.com

For me the only reason to shop online is to avail discounts on the brands I normally buy or to buy something really stylish but affordable from an unknown brand. Most of the times these two points are never ticked off either the known brands hardly have some offers, if there is an offer than the right size is never available. Or if there’s even something decent available from an unknown brand it is never worth the price. 

But offlate I feel there is one website that has totally upped it’s oomph factor and that is Jabong.com. From associating with Lakme Fashion Week to introducing their uber cool magazine The Juice to tying up with celebrities like Alia Bhatt for limited edition collections to bringing UK giants like River Island, Dorothy Perkins and New look to India. It has really kept the interest of its shoppers alive.

Thus, when I wanted a pair of simple but affordable tan shoes to match my everyday wear I thought I should give the website a try. On entering tan shoes there are quite a few interesting options that come up.

On the left hand side there are different filters to help one choose from different barnds, sizes. I entered the budget that I wanted.

On entering my budget there were quite a few options that I liked. But I shortlisted on the one below

The site allows gives a good view of the product on zooming as well. It helped me to check if the sole is of good quality and non-slippery. There were some more colour options available too and the size chart also helps in selecting the right size for you for that particular brand.All the things looked fine to me so I went ahead and checked out and bought it. 

As soon I made the payment I got an SMS and an email id with my order details. the order was shipped and dispatched on the same day and arrived at my doorstep within the estimated delivery date.

 

In all I was quite happy with my purchase and the whole experience with jabong. Here's what worked for me and what could be better:

What worked:

• Excellent delivery service - No follow ups required, prompt intimation, no shipping charges
• Always on Sale - There is always some or the other sale on, on the website that will tempt you to go check if your kinda stuff can be availed for lesser
• Premium and Designer Brands- Aldo, Mango, Dorothy Perkins, Tresmode, River Island, Veromoda all present under one roof alongwith biggies like Ritu Kumar, Manish arora, Satya Paul. Need I say more?
• News and Style - Gives you the latest updates on beauty and style trends. Good reading material before you decide on what to shop

What could be better:

• Style filter for clothes and Accessories: It would be great if they had a filter on the style of clothes (like v neck, round neck or maxi, mini etc) just like how they have a filter for sizes,brands and colours

Overall it was a quite a smooth experience shopping on jabong. And next time if I want to also buy something from one of my favoruite brands without stepping out of my house I know where to login!

P.S.Look out for their GOSF 2014 offers. Some of the offers that I am looking forward to are

• Buy any 3 shoes for 999
• Fcuk at upto 50% + extra 30% off
• Carlton London at extra 30% off

Happy Shopping guys!

My Hong Kong & Macau travel diary - Overview

My posts are slowly becoming a once in a month phenomenon, and because of that a post that I thought I'll write in Jan is seeing the light of day now. 

Having been to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Dubai I was really looking towards travelling outside of Asia and in Europe last year. However, the husband couldn't make a trip between July- September (which is the best time to travel to Europe) due to work commitments, hence it was back to good ol Asia again. Since, we were making this trip in December I thought why not coincide it with the New Years & my 30th birthday and make it a nice 7 day trip. That's how we started planning for Hongkong & Macau.

As mentioned in my earlier travel blog I like planning and booking for my trips on my own. That way I can ensure that I'v researched enough to know what I like and where would I like to go. It also helps in cutting down places that do not personally interest me. So with least interference from my husband I planned my trip with lots of help from tripadvisor and some other bloggers.

Airfare:

Since, our trip was in the peak period we booked our tickets well in advance to get them at a good price. We flew by Cathay Pacific and our Mum - HK non stop flight tickets were INR 28,000 per person. It is a 6 hour journey.

Visa:

Indians get a free visa on arrival to both HK and Macau. Hence no paperwork! Enjoy!

Accommodation:

Our 6 nights there were divided as follows:

• 2 nights - The Metropark Wanchai, Hongkong - Great location, 2 mins walk to MTR
• 2 nights - The Venetian, Macau - Houses world's biggest Casino
• 2 nights - The Holiday Inn Express, Sheun Wan, Soho, Hongkong - Not so great location, avoidable

We decided to split our stay in two in HK as we wanted to explore two different areas. - Bad decision! Wanchai - Although a little sleazy, is full of life and vibrant with host of food options around however, Sheaun Wan (atleast the part we stayed in)  is very dull after 7 with hardly any options for food. The whole area becomes deserted in the evening and in general felt very gloomy. Also we decided to spend the new years in Macau and hence we had to keep that part of the trip in between our HK trip. Bad decision again! When it comes to space HK is worse than Mumbai.On an average hotels in this densely populated country has rooms that are big enough to occupy just a double bed. even a 5 foot person like me could hardly fit into the bathroom. Imagine our state of mind, when we were transferred from  a palatial Venetian suite to a  less than 30 sq m room.

Metropark Wanchai Hotel Room

The Venetian suite - Love it!

Tip 1: Always plan your Macau trip at the end. And no worries about transfers to HK airport there is a direct shuttle is what I hear.

Itinerary:

Tip 2: Keep the HK Map and the MTR map handy when exploring the city on your own.

HK Day 1: Arrive at HK. The Peak, Madame Tussauds, Sky Terrace

HK Day 2: Disneyland

Macau Day 1: Arrive and check in at Venetian Macau. Roamed around the Galleria in duty free shops, Casino Visit (supposedly the biggest in the world)

Macau Day 2: More shopping at Cotai central, Sands Cotai, Visit Hard Rock hotel,visit to City of Dreams. Celebrated New years at Venetian with  a countdown and a live band

HK Day 3: Back to HK. Rest out the new year's hangover. Followed by a night at LKF (HK's most lively strip of pubs)

HK Day 4: Visit to Stanley Repulse Bay, Victoria Harbour - Avenue of Stars/Symphony of Lights, Ozone Bar at Ritz Carlton (the second highest bar after Atmosphere in Dubai), Ladies market at Mongkok (phew!! yes it was tiring but it can all be easily covered in a day)

HK Day 5: Leave for Mumbai

Watch out for my detailed follow up posts on each of these days 

Restaurants and Bars:

While it's difficult for vegetarians to explore street food and local cusisines here. The cafes and restaurants in every part of HK have plenty of options for vegetarians like me :) Here are the places where we ate and enjoyed our food.

Places where we ate

HK:

• Coyote Bar & Grill - Wanchai - Lovely mexican food
• Mes Amis - Wanchai
• The Spaghetti House - Wanchai
• Burger King - The peak
• Main Street Corner cafe - Disneyland
• Beirut - LKF - Lebanese food,one of the few places that serve sheesha
• Ebeneezer's Kebab & Pizzeria - LKF - owned by an Indian, both the pizzas and the biryani were yum

Macau:

• Golden Peacock - Venetian - Indian food
• McSorley's Ale House - Venetian - American Food
• Hard rock Cafe - Hard Rock Hotel
• Venetian food court - avoid the Indian food here instead go for the pizzas and falafel they are yum!

Shop:

Shopping in general in HK is slightly expensive. Tip 3: Ditch the regular malls and try going to small boutiques and street markets instead

• Street markets - Temple street, ladies market, night markets - for mobile accessories, souvenirs, bargains on clothing, shoes and bags
• Jonhston Road - There were lot of small clothing and accessory shops on this street with bargain deals
• Sasa - Chain of beauty of local beauty store in HK. Take back home some hand creams and lip balms in cute packaging for your self and as gifts for friends
• Duty free shops in Venetian Macau - If you want to buy a premium or a luxury item at a discount do check these shops out. Every designer brand that you can think of from Michael Kors to tory Burch to Bottega Venetta is available here. Not to forget the popular street brands like Zara and Mango are here too

This sums up my trip! Watch out for my more detailed posts on each of the days, incase you are planning a trip there.

Where to get nose piercing in Mumbai?

Remember my post from here? I've been wanting to get my nose pierced since eons. The only reason I was resisting is not because I wasn't convinced of the idea but because of two reasons a) I was scared it may react badly and will leave a scar on my face. b) I was looking for the perfect place to get it done. I wanted a place where they do gun shot piercing and was hygienic,experienced and safe.

After asking a few people I shortlisted on these 3 places:

• Al's at Bandra  - This is the place where I got my tattoo done. And was considering going there,but I got mixed reviews about this place for piercing
• Le Bijou at Bandra - Recommended by a friend. But this place is really tiny and, also my friend had gone there a long time ago hence was not sure how well do they do it now
• Cutis Clinic at Bandra - Recommended by an aunt who had gone there to fix her earlobe piercing. This place is a skin clinic and they have trained people on board, super hygienic and professional. Thus this was the place i decided to go to. Click on the name and you can see their website and some pictures of their clinic.

The experience

Having taken a prior appointment for me and a friend, the clinic sent me a message to confirm the same and a reminder on the day of the appointment. After arriving at the clinic, they seated us and asked us to fill a form , post which they took our profile pictures for their record.

They then escorted us to a room where they rested uson reclining chair. The doctor/skin expert came in and helped us decide the exact position on the nose where the piercng would take place with the help of a red marker. She then placed the tiny swarovski stud in the gun and shot it in my nose. I'll be honest here. I was dumb for a split second. It felt like a sudden THUD on the nose as if someone's hit you really hard on it. And there is after pain as well, which lasted for two days. But the expert was quite comforting and did try to console us saying it'll subside.

We were then each given an anti septic gel  to apply on our nose for a week so there is no skin reaction to the piercing (I also regularly applied oil  on the piercing to make the stud loose, on my mom's advice).

My first selfie post piercing!

Overall I was quite satisfied with this place and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get piercing done.

Fees Charged: A little expensive compared to what other places charge- INR 2000 inclusive of the titanium swarovski nose stud. 

5 Step Easy Recipe - Honey Garlic Potatoes

I love cooking. I find it to be therapeutic. But not the normal roti sabzi kinds (thank god I have a cook for that). I like trying out something new everytime. Most of the times this is also because I have some vegetables that need to be consumed so I just try mixing them together, or do an ingredient based search on tarladalal.com (such a blessing for vegetarians). And yes nowadays, I also draw inspiration from my favorite tv channel - Food Food (they make cooking look so simple and interesting).

So here's one such recipe that I made as a side dish with fried rice and stir fry vegetables. It is quite quick (as long as you use pre boiled potatoes) will not take more than 15-20 minutes of your time.

The pictures have been taken with my Iphone 4 so excuse the quality.

You will need:

2 potatoes - preboiled chopped legnthwise
3 cloves garlic - crushed
2 tsp honey
1 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp chilly garlic sauce/ tabasco
1 tsp sesame seeds
A handful of chopped cashewnuts - these are optional but add that crunch to the taste and is my favourite ingredient for any oriental recipe
3 tbsp sesame oil - can be substituted by groundnut oil
Salt as per taste

The process:

Sprinkle the cornflour over the potatoes. This helps the sauces to coat over the potatoes better.

Then pour the sauces and the honey as well as salt

Take a  non- stick pan and heat it. Dry roast the sesame seeds and the cashewnuts for sometime and pour some of the oil.

Toss in the garlic. Tip : The later you add the garlic the stronger the flavour you get

 Finally once the nuts, seeds and the garlic get sauteed well add in the potatoes.

Voila! Your dish is ready in just 5 simple steps.

Do share your ideas. I would love to hear and try them out!

There you go again! - Time to make her feel special

If you are a woman reading this then send the link to your man and if you are a man reading this then go ahead  :)

First of all - I am no feminist and I believe if you want to be respected you have to earn it. And that is why I take celebrated days like these with a pinch of salt. But for you my dear man, I have a message -I really feel for you! 

It all starts with Dec - Jan, when more than half of India has it's wedding anniversaries, then comes Valentine's Day and just when you thought you are done planning and gifting and making your girl feel special and loved, you are bombarded with women's day ads on TV and newspapers talking about sales and gifts meant just for this day.And there you go feeling pressurized once again, and to top it all she drops not so subtle hints asking you what's your plan for the day (guilty as charged!).

Image courtesy Jokesie.com

But incase you have still not planned anything.. Do not fret, just tell her you have a lot of things planned and  here some quick and pocket friendly ways of fixing things up (Yes! you can thank me later!):

Plan a movie date at home:

Image Courtesy: marriagesuccess.com 

Nothing beats the good ol charm of watching a chick flick with some pop corn, cola and icecream. Incase you have no DVDs a home, just browse through your TV guide. I'm sure Star world, Movies, HBO and alike have lots of women's day shows and movie marathons on their schedule. Just pick one up, let her enjoy the movie while you cook up some popcorn and call for a pizza

Chocolate Indulgence:

Image Courtesy: ohcrumbscupcakes.co.uk

Go give some business to one of the gazillion cupcake shops that have recently sprung up in your neighbourhood. Add a small personalised note - And poof! You are the best boyfriend in the world.

Book her and her BFF a salon appt

Image Courtesy: someecards.com

This may not be that easy on the pocket, but  think long term -it's like killing two birds with one stone. Not only will your girl love you, her BFF will feel grateful and love you too. You'll be the new benchmark for the "best husband/boyfriend" in the group.

Be her slave for the day

Image Courtesy: memecenter.com

I know you are always ready to help out, but for this one day just let her not leave the bed. You do the running around, serving food, get a magazine or two, while you do all the shouting on the maid. Bring the spa at home, give her a nice massage while she relaxes to the ligh fragrance of some aroma scented candles.

There you go. Hope your girlfriend/wife has a great day. Well as for me I thought I would wake up to some great smelling coffee and roses, but nothing of that sort happened! So I went ahead and planned the day for me on his behalf - some shopping and a dinner date coming up. Yayy!

Monsoon Getaway to Goa! Busting all the Myths

I had started writing this post and had saved it in my drafts when I was half done. On a long drive from Pilani to Jaipur, I realized I should get back to my long abandoned blog. I’m back with lot of travel stories (some trips within India and some International) to tell. Let’s first finish the Goa one.

It is kind of an annual ritual for me to make a trip to Goa. I just love the place besides every time I go there, there's something new to explore.  However, I have always been to Goa during the winter or the onset of summer. But never during monsoon. I was always under the impression that Goa shuts during monsoon. And there's not much to do ,the only attraction being getting off season discounts in five star hotels. But on the insistence of a friend we decided to go there in the peak of monsoons - during the end of June and no, it didn't feel like a bad decision not even once.

Goa in the monsoons

Myth 1 – Goa in monsoons is shut

While you may not be allowed to swim or do water rides, the beaches are open for people to take a stroll, Most of the restaurants and bars too are open.Everything that is super crowded and expensive during season time is available at steep discounts during monsoons in Goa be it hotels, flight tickets or even club entries. Let's not forget extended happy hours at every restaurant you go to :) Besides Goa does not receive that heavy a rainfall during June. It showers for 5 minutes and then stays dry  and cool for an hour or so followed again by a 5 minute shower and so on. We hired bikes through out and wasn't difficult to travel on them in spite of the rains. Do carry a windcheater though to save you from the occasional showers

My Goa Outfits

Myth 2 – Stay at a five star as there is no activity outside in the Monsoons

This holds true only if you go to South Goa. North Goa on the other hand is pleasantly buzzing especially the Baga - Anjuna stretch. We wanted to stay in a boutique-y place by the sea side that was not very expensive and yet was semi luxurious. After looking for ages on trip advisor, we finally hit the nail through good 'ol Google search. Surprisingly this place is not that famous as yet.  It felt like finding a hidden treasure - The Aryan's cottages is right on the Little Vagator beach. A resort can't get any closer than this to the sea and all at an affordable price of just Rs 3000 per night (after some bargaining by yours truly). This place is beautiful (you have to see the pictures to believe me) and both service and the food are excellent as well. Infact we hired our bikes also from here again at a very affordable rate. 

Aryan Cottages Goa - Best discovery so far

Myth 3 – A vegetarian can’t enjoy Goan food

You know the first reaction I get when I tell people about how excited I am about my Goa trip is “But what do vegetarians eat there?”  So this bit is to all my carnivorous friends. This is what we eat. Honestly, it is not so difficult to find vegetarian food anywhere in India and Goa is no exception. Although, the local cuisine mainly caters to sea food lovers, the restaurants would be more than willing to cook up some veggie food with the local gravy. 

Out of the four of us one is a sea food lover, the other a chicken eater, and the two of us vegetarians who also eat eggs. So whenever, we would go to any place, we would end up ordering almost everything from the menu.

We went to a good mix of shacks and restaurants for all our meals. This trip has been all about hogging.

Enough choices for veggies like me

Places we went to:

·         Infantaria

·         Sunny side up

·         Brittos

·         Cavala

Wishlist

·         Suza lobo

·         Thalassa (this is open only during season time)

Myth 4 – All shacks and party places are shut in Goa

While this may be true to a certain extent but all the popular shacks in the Baga stretch (Baga- Candolim- Calangute) are open all year round. Order your beer, with a hookah and some small bites and enjoy the myriad colours of the sky while the sun sets. While we were not keen to party in the two days that we were there, all the bars that we know of were open.

Curlies & Sunny Side up

Places we went to:

·         Curlies

·         Andy’s (This place has Karaoke every night)

Wishlist:

·         Sinq

·         LPK

·         Club Cabana

 If a nice quiet holiday with some bursts of music and partying is what you want then June is an ideal time to visit Goa.