travel zen on tuesday - goa, india

Where is this place?

travel zen on tuesday - kerala, india

A mom and her son in the backwaters of Kerala, India. Where is it?

how to best see the taj mahal

The Taj Mahal at sunrise.

When I visited the Taj Mahal, I was blown away. It was as majestic as I imagined it to be. All the traffic, trash and feral monkeys outside the gate dissolved away and I immediately felt transplanted to a serene, special place.

There are plenty of sites that talk about the Taj Mahal so I won't rehash everything said on those sites. But, below are a few key things to know about it:

travel zen on tuesday - the taj mahal

The Taj Mahal at sunrise is stunning. You can see the soft rays of the sun hitting the white marble of the Taj. At this time of day, hardly anyone is around so you can appreciate its enduring beauty and romance a whole lot more.

Did you know...

what to expect in indian airports

India is huge. It has 27 states. So, if you plan to see more than one state, you may have to fly to get from point A to point B. (You could also take the train but that usually means traveling a minimum of eight hours.) If you have to fly, expect a little bit of craziness. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be. So expect the following at Indian airports:

Travelers trying to get in to 
the Goa Airport.

1.  Get yourself to the airport with plenty of time to spare. When Mr. Sazy Rock and I flew from Goa to Cochin, there was a crowd outside the airport with no identifiable line. It looked like a mob scene. Imagine hundreds of people with all manners of luggage and luggage carts trying to get through one door. It wasn’t fun. The only reason we made it on time was because Mr. SR insisted on leaving Candolim for the Goa airport three hours before our flight. (I know!)

2.  Print your itinerary and, if available, your boarding pass too. Don't wait to print your itinerary or boarding pass (if available online) at the airport. In order for you to get in to the airport, you need to show an airport employee a copy of your itinerary and/or boarding pass. But, don’t put those things away yet.  You will be asked to show them over and over again. In almost all our in-country flights and when we left India, we had to show those documents:

sazy rock's top 10 best street food dishes (to date) around the world

For me, there is nothing more satisfying than traveling to a new place and falling in love with the food. Let's face it, the way to this gal's heart is through her tummy (and sometimes, liver). When I look back on my travels, I often drool when I remember all the food I ate.

Last week, I listed my top 10 restaurant dishes.  This week, I'm sharing my top 10 favorite street food dishes I've encountered while traveling.  I'm not sharing those found in the United States because that's where I live (although, I particularly like this taco truck in Los Angeles called, Mariscos Jaliscos, that serves the most delicious shrimp taco I have ever tasted).

So far, these are my top street food dishes I've encountered while traveling listed in no particular order.

1.  Taiwanese sausage in Taipei, Taiwan.

I found all sorts of tasty food in the Taipei night markets. But, the simple Taiwanese sausage caught my eye, nose, and taste buds. My first bite snapped the casing and immediately released slightly sweet juices of the cooked ground pork. While I liked eating the sausage by itself, dipping it in garlic sauce added another layer of flavor.

Taiwanese sausage.

sazy rock's top 10 best restaurant dishes (to date) around the world

If you haven't figured it out yet, I really like to eat - and not necessarily healthy foods - when I travel. Eating while traveling makes me happy. In this first of my top 10 series, I will be sharing my top 10 restaurant dishes so far. I've excluded the US because I live there. I also reserve to change my mind about what should be on the top 10 tomorrow -- only because there's so much tasty food out there. So, without further ado, here they are:

1.  Various dishes at Azurmendi near Bilbao, Spain
This restaurant just outside of Bilbao served delicious, local, seasonal and beautiful food. The lobster on lobster dish was absolutely simple yet so tasty. The truffled egg was not simple but, biting into the yolk just showed how a great chef can elevate a simple egg into something ridiculously good. Oh, and the foie gras ash was so rich and creamy I thought I died and went to heaven. Okay, I loved a lot of dishes at Azurmendi, which I reviewed here. In fact, I'll just say that, in the past five years (and probably more), Azurmendi served the best dishes I have ever eaten anywhere (including in the United States).

Five of around 19 dishes served at Azurmendi. Clockwise from top left: lobster with lobster cornet,
foie gras ash with a block of foie gras underneath, squid, mullet, and egg yolk infused with black truffles.

Gran Reserva Jamon from Joselito's.

2.  Jamon Iberico de Bellota at Joselito's in Madrid, Spain
Technically, Joselito's is not a restaurant but a store where you can get Jamon Iberico to take home or eat in the store. When I visited, they offered different kinds of Jamon Iberico de Bellota, which came from black footed Iberian pig fed on acorns while freely roaming the dehesa of the Extremadura region of Spain. The best kind I tasted was the Grand Reserva, which was aged for up to five years before being carved. The resulting ham was nice and fatty (I'd like to think that the fat was good for me because you know, it's acorn fed). When I ate it, the thinly hand sliced piece practically melted in my mouth.