So, I finally make it to India. I have secretly been looking forward to getting here for a while now! When I was here in Kerala in the South of India a few years ago with my aunt, I really really enjoyed it...the people, the culture, the food…everything!

My first stop is Mumbai, still referred to by many as Bombay, where I spend a little under a week. I arrive just in time for the Cricket World Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka. What an experience - the Indians go crazy with bottles of champagne being popped and firecrackers and fireworks being set off on all the main streets until the wee hours. I've never seen so many Indians so drunk - the atmosphere is electric and I have my own personal bodyguard in the form of the local barman who sends any guy who approaches me packing! I quickly learn about Kevin O'Brien, the Irish cricketer who made some major world record against England in the world cup. This is now my claim to fame and probably the easiest and most recognisable way to explain where I'm from. In India, cricket is massive! Another strange experience of the night is the gay and lesbian party going on in my hotel! What an introduction to modern day India - drunken lunatics and an open gay and lesbian party!

I meet a lovely Indian girl called Niharika who is planning on coming to Europe to study. I'm invited to join her family for lunch in their home in the Santa Cruz area the following day. What an experience?! Many members of her extended family live with her so I'm guest of honour to her mum, sisters, aunts, uncles, granny and many others! I spend a lovely day with this warm and welcoming family who make me feel quite at home in busy Bombay! Her mum is also a professional cook and makes a huge array of typical Indian dishes for me to try. I'm happy here already J

Bombay is busy but lovely and I take to it immediately! I take a trip with a company called 'Be The Local' to the Dharavi slums, one of the largest slums in Mumbai and also the setting of much of the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. Without sounding like a clueless idiot, the people here seem happy (in general) and many have employment in local plastic, leather or cloth factories. Conditions in the areas I visit are relatively okay and a whole lot better than some of the scenes you come upon when entering many of Indians train stations - whole families living along the railways! However, I understand that in Dharavi there is a constant stream of refugees entering the slum and conditions for them can be very poor. As with any trip to the slums, there is always controversy as to whether it's a good thing to do or not, with the experience sometimes being a little zoo-like. My experience is great - I become the centre of attention for my freckles and am soon entertaining a growing group of adults and children who want to know if I'm sick and try to convince me to do some Irish dancing. Funnily enough, red hair is not something which is widely commented on as many men here dye their hair, including beards, red with henna!

While in Bombay, I also take in the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat. This is an area of Bombay where clothes and linen are sent to be washed - there are streets of wash tubs and clothes lines which make for some interesting photos. While in this neighbourhood I also visit the beautiful Haji Ali mosque. Back in the centre of Mumbai, I spend time at the Gateway of India and stare across at the famously luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel, wander about the Colaba markets and Arthur Bunder road and spend some time outside the beautiful CST (or Victoria Terminal) train station taking in the beautiful Raj era architecture and the passing dabbawallahs. The dabbawallahs (literally meaning 'person with a box') is a system whereby lunches are prepared, either in the home or restaurant, are packed in to little lunchboxes, collected by a dabbawallah who transports a number of these boxes on a long wooden cart to central locations where they pass same on to fellow wallahs going in various directions until the meal reaches its final destination. The system is used to feed thousands of people in Bombay daily - the system is so simple yet complex and it's estimated that only one mistake is make on every 6 million deliveries. The functionality, simplicity and success of this system have been studied by Richard Branson and universities around the world in an attempt to fully understand the process. It's pretty amazing and provides employment for quite a number of uneducated and illiterate individuals.

For anyone who has read the book Shantaram, a lovely book that will give you a flavour, if a slightly stereotypical one, of India and Indians, I discovered on a walk through the Colaba district that Leopold's cafe actually exists. Of course, it would have been rude not to pop in for a small beer!

On my final day in Bombay I'm walking back to Fort, the area where I'm staying, when I meet the young, friendly and enthusiastic Abhishek Kadam who insists on bringing me to Marine Drive to show me the Mumbai skyline. Hundreds of people gather here along the promenade each night just to hang out and take in the cool breeze! It's really beautiful!

Having met so many lovely people in my first week in India I have high hopes for the rest of the trip!

After Bombay, I decide to head for the beaches of Goa to see what all the fuss is about! I first arrive in Palolem which is a lovely little beach town. Accommodation is mostly in the form of bamboo huts lining the beach where you can stay for about €2 per night! Palolem is small and cute with some great restaurants and a regular silent disco night but I find it a little too honey-mooney on one hand and 'GAP yaar' (pretentious youngsters spending their daddies money being obnoxious and getting wasted.....am I getting old?!) on the other, so, after a few days, I decide to find another beach! I think the straw that broke the camel's back in Palolem was when a young guy comes up and asks me if I am traveling by myself (since I was sitting alone) - upon replying that I was indeed travelling by myself, I get an 'awwwww', pitying face and an invite to join a group who were probably younger than my baby sister! Ah, maybe I'm being harsh and I know they were only trying to be nice but really, traveling alone isn't all that uncommon, is it? Before I leave I try to local brew, 'feni', made from cashew. Every country seems to have its own special version but it all tastes like Irish poitin to me - it would burn the throat of you!

I head north to Arambol which I reach after a day's travel on busses, trains, rickshaws and of course, by foot. Finally I arrive in the village where I get stuck for the next few weeks. There's a great little café called Loekies that holds jam sessions three times a week. People just turn up and play everything from African drums to bongos, sitar to guitar, didgeridoo to harmonica and some sing too! A regular group consisting of Indians, Italians, English and Dutch keep the place going. I just love the atmosphere here and everyone is so friendly and warm! There's a real hippie culture here but it's really inclusive and so like the 'too cool for school' culture that you often get elsewhere i.e. you don't feel like you stand out for not having dreads or feathers hanging from your hair! I meet a great bunch of people including two lovely girls, Kelly and Laura from the UK. Spend time just hanging out on the beach, at the local clay/mud pools and either watching movies or listening to music with new friends - Indians and loads of other foreigners! I visit the weekly market in Anjuna and Igbos Night Market, both of which are only a short scooter-ride away. There's so much great stuff on sale including clothes, jewellery, musical instruments, food, leather bags/shoes/you-name-it and natural products like incense and cosmetics! It's hard to hold back from shopping (and anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not big on shopping) but the rucksack if the best antidote to shopping ever invented - there's no way I can carry any more! I have a really relaxing time here in Arambol and can feel myself slowing down both physically and mentally - I love that about India!

After almost two weeks in Arambol, I'm ready for some crazy India again. After a 30 hour night train (much easier than you would think) I spend a few days in Delhi which is an experience. Delhi is not at all as bad as people make it out to be but there's still a fair amount of hassle from auto-rickshaw drivers and street hawkers! Delhi is hot, noisy and smelly and the atmosphere is frenetic but it is all strangely appealing! I read an article that says 'India takes before it gives' - very true! Take away!