Renaissance Mumbai has got to be one of my favorite hotels in the city, one that I’ve been visiting for over four years. Built on a hill, it offers a stunning view of Powai Lake. I’ve blogged / vlogged about them so many times before, but these photos of the Powai skyline taken from the hotel lawns & the feast I had at Emperor’s Court for Chinese New Year are my two favorite (blog posts and memories).

The property is celebrating it’s 15th year in a grand way with the launch of Quan Spa. Inspired by the natural elixir of life – water, the spa borrows the restorative quality of this natural element to provide healing therapies and treatments which are pure, natural and help to repair the natural balance of the body. Quan Spa offers an exotic menu of exquisitely designed treatments that uses organic ingredients to calm and soothe the frayed nerves of weary travelers.

I was invited to experience the Jet Lag Massage Treatment which came at the perfect time!

The waiting / reception area of the spa is really large, soothing & tastefully decorated with fresh flowers. After having a look at the services they offer, I was led in. Little did I know how much bigger it is inside!

The first step is obviously to get out of my stuffy jeans & into some spa appropriate garb! I was given a robe, disposable panties & slippers, while my clothes & belongings were kept in a locker.

Excited about my massage, thought it called for a selfie. I was then taken to these cute little day beds, loved the natural light streaming in here. There were a ton of magazine & I was served a cup of lemon tea. One of the best parts was the view, it looked onto the manicured lawns with a fountain.

After a quick bit of pre-massage relaxation here, I then met with my therapist, Aruna & was taken to the massage room.

It was dimly lit & tastefully decorate with subtle Indian accents. My massage started with a foot rinse in the brass tub by the chair, before heading to the table.

The next hour was basically pure bliss. The Jet Lag massage is a full body treatment said to relax tired muscles & nerves as well as improve circulation. Before we began, Aruna asked if there was any place I wanted special attention paid to, & I requested the upper back, because that’s where I carry a ton of tension, plus spending long hours at the computer has really messed up my posture.

My treatment started with a few minutes of dry massage, followed by a very thorough oil massage, where every part of my body (think neck to toes) was coaxed into a state of extreme relaxation. After the massage, I got a full body steam (my first time!) followed by a quick shower. Didn’t want to leave there, but of course I had to move on to the next part of the evening!

Post my pampering at Quan Spa, it was time for some grub. Mom & I headed to Nawab Saheb, their contemporary Indian restaurant. Though I had been to Emperor’s Court many times, this was my first visit to Nawab Saheb & that was enough to make me seriously anticipate the meal!

Nawab Saheb is headed by Chef Yunus Khan who specializes in Indian gourmet. He was lovely to talk to, asked us if we had any special requests & came around many times to chat with the diners.

Started with some fruity mocktails.

Nawab Saheb has a Kebab Festival (Kahani Kebab Ki) on till the 27th of November, serving a wide array of various vegetarian, meat & seafood kebabs. You have an option of either a la carte dishes or ordering a set menu, which is the best because it lets you sample more dishes.

Under set menu, you could opt for Meat, Vegetarian, Seafood or do what we did & opt for mix – it’s the best of all worlds!

These were every kebab we tried. They were all tender, not too spicy (just as we requested) but bursting with flavor. I’d have to say that the paneer one was my favorite – I was skeptical about the dry fruit stuffing but it works magnificently.

Mom & I aren’t big eaters, so when the time came for mains we were pretty stuffed & hence requested smaller potions to avoid wasting food. These were a few dals & curries.

I’ve mentioned time & again that I’m not much of a biryani person – I always found the dish to be a bit overhyped & I never quite got the fuss surrounding it. Well after trying this Ghosht (mutton) biryani, I’ve now officially a convert. It was moist, fragrant & the best biryani I’ve had in a while, it sort of reminded me of this excellent Lamprais I tried at Mount Lavinia Hotel, Colombo earlier this month (ok Biryani & Lamprais are two different dishes but I do think they’re closely related!)

After dinner, it was time to head to the dessert section – mainly Bengali sweets & a dizzying array of flavored paans!

I’ve eaten petha & I’ve eaten meetha paan, but I’d never eaten Petha Paan (the green triangle, below) – such an innovative dessert.

A good masala (spice mix) is the cornerstone of any Indian dish, & all the masalas used to prepare the dishes at Nawab Saheb are made in house through traditional methods, Chef Yunus very kindly gave us some garam masala, I can’t wait to try it in some of my preparations at home.

I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at the hotel, I’d like to thank the team at Renaissance for putting together this truly wonderful, personalized experience for me.

I also vlogged my highlights of the evening, which you can watch below! x

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We often get cake though, but it’s less about the special day & more about our love for chocolate cake – any excuse for cake, am I right?! Not like we need an excuse, I’ve lost track of the number of times we bought chocolate cake just to eat it, you know? #NoExcuseOrOccasionNeeded!

I didn’t really have anything planned for this Mother’s Day either, so when The Park Hotel (in Navi Mumbai) got in touch to ask if I’d like to come over with mom to spend Mother’s Day with them, I said YES without hesitation! While they gave me a vague idea of the day, I wasn’t too sure what they had planned but hey, we just like surprises!

So what follows is pretty much a photo diary of our day, if you prefer video I also made a vlog of that day (you can watch it here or scroll down to the bottom of this post!)

So our Mother’s Day began quite early as we both hadn’t slept properly, for whatever reason. At 7:45 AM we got a call from the chauffeur that The Park sent to pick us up. We picked up our stuff & went downstairs to find a beautiful Mercedes sedan waiting for us – the kind in which the back seat has arm rests. Not just that, the car came fully equipped with Tintin comics. Tintin has a very special place in my heart & was the subject of one of the earliest posts on this blog (if you decide to read that, please keep me mind that was written more than seven years ago, I was still very much a teenager & this blog started as a very personal & often silly space. I’ve kept up most of my old posts for posterity!)

It was Sunday morning so there was practically no traffic & the ride was very smooth. We were there in no time! It was my first visit to The Park & I quite liked it. The architecture is inspired by Le Corbusier & while it’s not as big as many other five star hotel, but just big enough, & characterised by wonderfully warm & friendly staff just like it’s sister concern Zone by the Park. Also did I mention that it’s surrounded by hills? Urban yet beautiful.

We were received by Mehul who gave us quite a few options of what we could do first, we opted to get breakfast! There was a lovely variety of meat & vegetarian dishes, Indian & continental. I was quite excited to see Pongal at the breakfast buffet – it’s a Tamilian breakfast dish similar to khichdi or risotto. Incidentally my first time tasting it was during my first trip to Coimbatore with Zone by The Park, & I got pretty obsessed with it, to the point that I hunted for it on every subsequent visit to Tamil Nadu & even ordered Sona Masuri to try it at home – sadly it just didn’t taste as good! Mom was quite happy with the fruits & fresh fruit juices.

After breakfast it was on to the our room on the fourth floor. I couldn’t document the room properly because I didn’t carry my wide angle lens (oops!) but there’s a room tour in my vlog if you’d like to see! Basically it was pretty large, plush but still homely, with a wooden floor, high ceiling & plenty of natural light (the latter being the most important criteria for me, always!). I decided to take advantage of the beautiful location by doing a quick outfit shoot, just as I was getting ready we heard a knock on the door and we opened it to Mehul & another staffer wheel in a grand surprise for us – a chocolate cake (YAAAS!), fruit basket, a second basket with chocolate & cookies a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Cabernet. I was really quite overwhelmed at this point… we definitely weren’t expecting any of this!

We quickly went down to the poolside to snap a few pictures (which you’ll definitely see soon!) & came back to our room to pop open the bottle & cut the cake. And it was a goooooooodd cake. After a sufficient amount of celebratory sips & noms, we headed to Aqua Zone, the hotel spa where I dropped mom off for a one hour Swedish massage & I came back to the room to grab forty winks!

Once she was back it was time to grab brunch. The Sunday Brunch, along with dinner was billed as a Mother’s Day Special complete with a large Mother’s Day Cake at the dessert station.

Along with the regular dishes they had a lot of live counters like sautéed fish / mushrooms, chaat, sorbet (but more like gola, actually!) & ice tea. The Ice Teas were so weather appropriate & I loved the unique flavors.

I wish I could say we did something interesting & fun after Brunch, there certainly wasn’t any shortage of options. But as I mentioned earlier, we hadn’t slept properly & the bed was just too damn inviting, so that’s how we spent the next few hours until dinner. #NoRegrets!

Soon we woke up & it was time for dinner… Did you know I call mom Crazy Salad Lady? She acts mildly insulted but she’s actually super proud of it! We paired our dinner with a Mojito & a coke and lime mocktail (I think they called it black rose?)

Just as we finished dinner & were about to leave the staff wished mom again & presented her with this beautiful bouquet of roses!

Thank you to The Park hotel for treating my mom like the queen that she is on Mother’s Day. I thoroughly enjoyed my day & look forward to returning soon. As it’s just out of Mumbai in Navi Mumbai, it’s the perfect place to spend a chilled out long weekend, I’m already making plans! x

The Park Hotel, Nirmaladevi Marg, No. 1, Sector 10, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra 400614 

• official website • facebook • twitter @parkhotelsindia • instagram @theparkhotels

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On Sunday I took my first trip to Pune to be a part of the #FollowTheGenX ride in Pune. The main agenda for the day was to hear about & experience the new GenX Nano Easy Shift AMT.

I never learnt to drive so I couldn’t take the car for a spin myself, so I was just a very enthusiastic passenger on the ride. From a completely driving noob’s perspective though, the car has a lot of nifty features- it’s compact size makes it very easy to manoeuvre, turn & park. Despite that, it’s still vey comfortable inside with a good amount of leg room for the front & back seats. It has a USB Aux IN, Bluetooth for making calls & a very efficient AC as well as improved safety features. The drive also had an interactive aspect wherein people from twitter kept throwing us challenges that we had to complete all while driving through the streets of Pune. Along with the drive, there were also some other great things arranged like a drum circle with Varun Venkit of Taal Inc.

I have a short vlog from the drive above if you’d like to see what it was like! The whole experience has motivated me enough to learn to drive, now to search for a good driving school!

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love,
Magali

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This is my first ever order from Asos.com. I initially ordered five things- the chunky cross ring (gold), a skinny peace ring (silver), pretty stacking ring set, and the bikini separates (bandeau top & side tie bottom). I placed this particular order on the 7th February & it was dispatched soon (Asos dispatches their orders in an hour!) I was told that my order would be here by 21st February. The 21st came & went, still no parcel.

1. Chunky Cross Ring (Gold) – Size Small

This ring was available in both gold toned & silver toned. And a few years ago, I hated gold (both pure gold & gold plated stuff). I found is very old lady like & hated it. Interestingly, I’m interested in vintage dressing now & gold accessories are just the thing to complete the look. Also I think this ring is very ’80s! It’s the small size yet it’s a tad large for me. Oh well, the old wrap-string-around-the-band-trick will have to be employed.

2. Pretty Stacking Ring Set – Size: Medium

I got this stacking ring set for my mom. She just buys me so much expensive stuff all the time that when I was finally buying some stuff on Asos with my own money I wanted to get her a small gift. So I got her this stacking ring set. It has four rings, a cloth (chiffon) flower (with a textured band), a cameo, a pearl (again with a textured band) & a very simple gold ring with the word love etched in it.
To the left you can see a photo of me wearing all four stacking rings on my thumb. The reason I curled my thumb is because I didn’t want my untidy, chipped nail polish to show but that was a total fail because it’s showing anyway!
The rings are very pretty with a vintagey Victorian look to them & I think my mom really liked them.

3. & 4. Asos Swim U-Wire Bandeau top & side tie bottoms – Size: both UK6

Now onto the bottoms. It may not look so, but these are skimpiest bottoms I’ve ever owned. And they are unforgiving. I really need to start exercising at least a bit!
Both my parents commented on the fact that I bought a full black bikini. I am not generally a huge fan of black but I thought this was a nice change from all the summery, floral & bright colored ones.

,
Magali

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