Seven years in the making with Maya Jain & Malini Sarma

Malini Sarma 0:00

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Gladiatrix. I'm your host, Malini Sarma. Today is a check in episode. I'm really excited to share that I have completed 10 episodes so far and I would like to know what you think of the show. If you have any ideas question or comments, please do drop me a note. Malini at Malini Sarma.com or on my Instagram gladdiatrix podcast. I will have this information available in the show notes. In this COVID times I know everybody is going through a hard time they're probably all thinking about their trips that they had made in in previous months or even last year. In my case, however, I have to say 2019 didn't start off all that great and I thought it was going to be the worst year of My life because in February of 2019, I got laid off. So while everybody else was devastated, so I was not the only person there were quite a few people that got laid off. And they were all looking for other jobs. I already had a plane ticket in hand. Well, it started off with going home, meaning I was going back to India to see my my mother to celebrate her birthday. Except I ended up going earlier in my mother was not happy. Or she was happy to see me. She was just not happy that I showed up a whole week earlier and surprised her she hated surprise. She hates surprises. And I got to stay longer, a whole lot longer. In fact, I got to say a whole year So what started off as a terrible 2019 ended up being one of the best years of my life. And I'll tell you why. Not only did I get to go home to India to see my parents and celebrate their birthdays, I also got to travel to South America, to Europe, to the Middle East. I got to climb mountains, meet the most fascinating people and see the most amazing sights and learn to live on a lot less and appreciate everything that I have. And realize that you actually don't need a whole lot to be happy. So let me tell you about my South American trip because that was something That has been in the works for seven years. So this is something my sister and I had planned to do. For the longest time, it was supposed to be a girl strip only. And my sister is nine years younger than me and she's got kids who are elementary school age, my kids are much older and already out of the house. So every time we decided to have make, make a plan and make a trip or plan something, there was always a reason why we couldn't do it. There was always somebody who had to say something that was always some trip or some thing in the family, or someone had to say I can't believe that the two of you are going to go off on by yourself. That's not something that you know you do sure somebody shouldn't come with you. You know, it's not safe. So we decided we were not going to tell anybody. We were going to play And this whole thing, of course, our spouses and parents knew. But besides that nobody in the extended family need to know about it because we didn't want to hear any negative comments. So we decided to keep the super secret, keep everything on the down low. And we're not going to tell anyone until because they couldn't do anything about it. I invited my sister Maya to be on the show, so that we could talk about our South American trip in Maya. Hi, I am really excited to share our amazing trip that we had to Machu Picchu. That was how long? Seven years in the making.

Maya Jain 4:48

Yep, seven years. 2012 I think we started planning.

Malini Sarma 4:52

Yeah. So I think Mishti that is your daughter was three

Unknown Speaker 4:58

years old.

Malini Sarma 5:00

Yes, at that point, and we finally made our trip last year. Yes. So I wanted to I wanted to just share the story because it is so, you know, I think the one thing that comes to mind is the perseverance, right? We had decided, come hell or high water. We were going to go. And every time we talked about it, something or the other happen, and we couldn't do it. So the first time it was like, I think I couldn't get vacation. Right. And then I think the kids were, how did it start? how did how do we start thinking about the strip?

Maya Jain 5:39

I think you had a very crappy week at work. And I had two weeks consecutively where the kids were unwell. First Dhruv was sick and then followed by misty being sick and I was exhausted and I called you up and I said, I desperately need a holiday. I'm

Malini Sarma 6:01

not like it's not like we would just plan Hey, let's go to the weekend somewhere. Let's go to Maachu Pichu.

Yeah, of course, you know, I don't think people realize you live in Bangalore in India and I live in the US. And you were never planning to come to the US and i the only way I could meet you is if I made a trip in my annual trip to India. You know, it's like a two week hurried vacation where I get to see everybody literally go two days in every place. And we spend a few hours and then I have to leave right because we're always like, man, we just spend more time I don't think we want

your your holidays but generally jam packed but you know, I need to visit with a family with in laws and probably through a small trip and so you'd see some part of India you could show the kid some part of India before you went back.

Yeah. And then I think my whenever I was free the kids at school, and then and I don't think we had ever I don't think we've ever taken a trip together just the two of us, right? A ghost. We know. We need to do one of these. We need to do one of these. And everybody was just looking at us and like, you guys are crazy. Like, no, we really want to do this.

Hey, when I was single you were in that Phase with you know, your kids and yeah, is and kids in school. And by the time you got all freed up, our kids

are in school. Yeah, my kids was really small at that point.

Yeah. So finally, I think and then after that, once the kids got a little older, then when we decided to make this trip, and I think then then my daughter Mallika was like,

Unknown Speaker 7:39

I want to go to like a, this is no.

Unknown Speaker 7:44

I remember. He said, it's a ghost. And she said, I am a girl

Malini Sarma 7:48

That's right. Because I will go I can come because I think our husbands are like one person said they were coming the other person said they were not really no No, no, no boys allowed was there's going to be a girls trip only And then like I said, I want to come to him like, Oh, so that's how we had to make it super secret. And then that's when we decided we were going to have a, we started with a Pinterest board. Remember, we created a Pinterest board, a vision board, and we're like, nothing is working. So we started with a vision board. We made it super secret. Nobody else knew about it. And we started posting articles, you talk to your friends, we could get how the how you know how she planned her trip, we started looking up. Because we realized that we needed to have a guide, and you could not just go and do it by yourself, thank God because we would really have trouble. And then we looked up. I had looked up on Instagram, and I had actually seen that there was somebody who had gone and they had posted pictures and they had really great reviews. And so we decided to go with key expeditions. Right? And then we wrote to them and ask them and then they gave us all this information. We're like,

Unknown Speaker 8:55

oh my god. Oh my god.

Malini Sarma 8:58

I think the moment You decided you are going to be in India for a year. We just knew it was all gonna happen. And we were anyways planning to travel that you're so, you know, 2019 was going to be the travel every month, I was out of the city every month. I've never had a girl like that was fantastic. But I think the moment you decided that, you know, you're going to be in India.

I think for me too, I think Let every man do it.

Yeah, cuz if he didn't do it this year. I'm so glad we did it. Especially given that the pandemic right now. Yes. Imagine if he pushed it by a year or something. Buddha never done it again. No,

no, when I think for me to 2019 I didn't think that it was going to be so amazing. I think I don't think I stayed in the same country or the same continent every single month. I was like literally packing my bags and going somewhere. So I think that was really amazing.

So and I plan to do that the moment the kids are off to college.

Unknown Speaker 9:57

Yeah, let me know. I'm gonna come with you.

Unknown Speaker 10:01

Continue with our girls trip that nobody else can interrupt.

Malini Sarma 10:05

I think that we fun. So once I came to India, once we decided that we were going to do this. Now by by that time, of course nobody could kind of, but we still kept a secret.

We didn't tell anybody took Africa secret. I think I told my husband because he is going to have to deal with kids. So I told him, You know what, I'm going to take the trip, and I think they're much older and a lot of things you know, they can handle. And I think, one one midnight. I mean, you were home that weekend, you'd come home every weekend to teach mystery dance and you will home that weekend. And I think it was like two in the morning. We were sitting and talking. Got the cleaners out, went Yes, we went down. We made shy computers out and we said, okay, let's just do it with we're just doing this we'll figure out the rest of the data. And we went ahead and we did all the research. And that makes me wanting to call my husband. I said, You know what, these are the dates. I'm doing my bookings. And he's like, yeah, that sounds good. We can we can do that.

And I said, You do realize the girls trip, right? He said, Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna come to Machu Picchu and all that. Thank you very much.

See, that's the reason why we did it at midnight, and we kind of locked down everything because we didn't want anybody to interrupt our trip and you know, say things like, Oh, you can't do that. Or you shouldn't go there. Or how can you do this? Why are you

doing this? Why don't you do it this way? Yeah,

yeah. So we know this is the way we're doing it. And we just kind of like mixing everything in place. And we really did I mean, it and I think it's what

it is, and we worked with a budget. And we worked so we had like literally everything within our budget. And it just everything just fell into place. I think in 2012 when we started planning the flights world Like, twice as expensive, is really, really expensive. And honestly, I didn't

I didn't even like to just be a fit.

See, I didn't even look at the flight cost. I was like, because when I was coming from the if I had booked my flight to go to Lima from the US, it would have cost me half the amount it would have cost me 600 maybe less than $600. Because it's like so close, I would have gone to Miami and has flown from there and would have taken me like, maybe three hours to fly.

I think at one point we even discussed. Should we do that?

Yeah. If you're again, you're like, Oh my God, I've come all the way to the US. And you were like, nope, there's no way I'm coming. And I was like, and I remember when we were looking at flights, all the flights for me was like, Oh, you fly to Miami. I'm like, I am not going back to North America. I don't care if I have to pay extra and fly extra but I am not going back there. So finally ended up going through Europe. You were very, very very clear about that. Yeah, I was like, Nope, nope nope nope nope not come back to us. And so, so what was our flight was like so we our flight was via Madrid.

Yeah. So we could go while London London chose London because I was anyway coming back for a three week vacation when after that, yeah, after that. So

I think that kind of nice. I mean, I think that the planning part is amazing because we that really worked out finally because I was like, so adamant about new. So I think Finally we worked it out because if you want to go from Chennai, to London

via I'm gonna drop the kids off at my mom's place here. So we are going via Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi,

Abu Dhabi. So we went by Abu Dhabi and we, from to to London, and then from London to Paris, and then Paris to Lima. And then he moved to Cusco and then in the same way back so once I had all the flights and everything taken care of we were like, now we can start wait but before that we had to get a visa because you needed a visa and I didn't to get a visa to figure out a trip to get a good focus you were in we were in Bangalore and you had to actually go to Delhi to get a to apply for your visa.

Yes, I wasn't too worried about the Peruvian visa but I was really worried about the UK visa and I was thinking you know her whole life hinges on us going to London and then taking the flight from London to and there was no and if you are going to Madrid then we need to realize that there is one day in Madrid so ideally you should plan for that and which means in which case I needed a Schengen visa. So I was going to the UK and UK you know they sometimes give you data sometimes they like you know but I think it worked out fine this time with a very stringent with their visa laws. So it kind of worked out okay, and I got The visa man,

we did a lot of praying to make sure that

I was a lot less worried about the Peruvian visa though that trip to Delhi was so much fun. Yes, yes, I agree. I remember.

Yes. First of all, holi was there, festival of colors. That was that was a lot of fun. Got to meet, meet some of the other cousins and you know, hang out and I think it was the first time and I don't know how many years that I actually played Holi in India, like that was that was a lot of fun. And then when we had to go and get the visa, we were like the BB we thought we had everything locked down. And then like last minute, they said, Oh, we need one more piece of documentation. And I'm like, I

don't want they wanted the bank statements to they wanted a six month bank statement. Like, oh,

crap, No, what? And we turn around and there was a Shiva temple. I'm like, we're gonna be fine. You're gonna get your stuff. Don't worry about it. Right. And then I think mine was able to send you the two on On the phone, we were able to go and then just get printed out and be handed to them literally within 30 minutes.

No I in fact, you know when we went looking for, you know to get a printout I didn't just meet him find the place and find the place we could get it printed out and then she said just send me the soft copy. That's fine. Send me the PDF.

Unknown Speaker 16:25

Yeah, saves us a lot of time. Yep. So once we once we had the visa, then we were like,

Malini Sarma 16:32

why are you going to tell me why you went to Delhi and we're like, we're just gonna go check it out. You know?

I mean, it was I think for for you. They did ask you a lot of those questions. For me. It was more like, Hey, you know what my husband's working out on gogo and I don't get to spend as much time with them and I need to go. The kids have a spring break. So they're going to spend it with my grandmother and I'm going to go to Dell

haven't been to Delhi. Long time, so I'm just going to go hang out. That was my thing. So once we once we had the visa, then it was a question of, okay. Now what do we need? That's when we started packing and shopping. Right? Yeah. When did we figure out that we couldn't carry that many things?

Was it I think we printed out a ticket. And I when we were when we had to, you know, apply for the visa, I had to give them a printout of the ticket and when we get the printout of the ticket is when we realize that, you know, the, it had like a very tiny print said you can't carry more than and it was not there when were you booking the ticket? Yes. And then when we checked it showed that we needed to pay 20 grand extra that's 20 Indian rupees, sorry 20,000 rupees extra in order to

If you wanted to increase,

yes, increase the baggage amount to like, a decent amount. I mean, 15 clothes and we were like 15 additional kilos. Yeah, we will I

will figure this out. I don't want to change a ticket,

because we had decided that we were not going to because we had to carry all our bags on our own. And

you called Air France And they said that, you know, we're not responsible because this is from the booking site. And when we went to the booking site, it didn't show us. Yeah, that, you know, this was there.

So anyway, yeah, that is an adventure by itself.

Yeah, I think I think we made a decision. We were like, you know what, I think we can do this because we got backpacks. Remember you we had borrowed a backpack and then your Sparta backpack. And we were doing taking the tracking backpacks, and they said, Oh yeah, this can carry a lot of stuff. And we're like Okay, and then we I think that was my proudest moment picked up

the lightest cloth that we own. Yes. And when we went out and we shopped for really really thin dry fit tees that look very stylish and very nice and we could just wear it on paper tracks

i think i think i think the heaviest items that we had were our boots

and our jack and our jacket.

Yeah, I think because in South America was cold because it is it's the opposite. So when we went in May, and it was the winter, it was a winter the winter so we had to have something warm. And we were going to the mountain so we knew we needed to have one coat so when we had to have boots because we were going to be climbing tracking. So we needed to have that into socks and remember how we were wearing

Unknown Speaker 19:51

wearing so we are in India where it is like super hot. And here we are in our pajamas wearing boots and socks and walking around. Everybody's looking at us like What's wrong? Yes, we needed to. We needed to break into it. Yes, I know everybody else is like wearing you know, slippers and stuff. And here we are in our boots walking up and down and I think the funniest site was

Malini Sarma 20:19

commented on children wearing boots, garmi nahin lag rahi hai

and she knows I tend to feel really really hot. I mean even in winter I'm like, Oh, you know what? I'm not feeling as cold especially in Bangalore and she was like looking at me. Oh, my God. Are you wearing boots?

Yeah, I know what I'm trying to break it in.

Unknown Speaker 20:43

I think the funniest site was a sinner like pajamas in reboots.

Unknown Speaker 20:49

walking up and down the stairs. finally mom was like you need to like wear it outside. So I would, I would have to I would wear it and go for walks with dad so that I would you know break into this thing.

Malini Sarma 21:02

Man, even even going going shopping for the boots through and looked up everything to figure out what is the kind of booths we needed. And the guy at the counter was trying to be like super smart with us. And because all you guys are going tracking and we're like, yeah, we're going to climb some mountains. And he was asking us where, and what do we say? We said, Machu Picchu and he just

kind of look at the picture and he wasn't Yeah, he wasn't really sure where it was. So

now what pissed me off over there was he took one look at me and decided that I was not fit enough he said, so he looked at you and said, just who you are You also met and I said no for me to you know.

Unknown Speaker 21:45

I'm actually pushed with the guy because he never checked the boots. I found out only

Malini Sarma 21:53

I only end of the

trip that I was wearing two boots of two different sizes. So the guy was have been so interested in what we were talking about. He didn't do his job. I mean, condescending comments. Oh my gosh.

I don't need to be judged by Yeah, you know, watchdog guy. Yeah.

But But nobody really worked hard at that we because they told us that one you have to be very careful about altitude sickness because Cusco was when we were flying in Cusco is actually higher than Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is a valley. So Machu Picchu is at 8000 feet whereas Cusco is a 12,000. So you need to actually acclimatize and you have to be fit otherwise you could be in some serious trouble. People die of that I had no idea but people actually could die or altitude sickness and you can breathe you know you your tummy is upset, your head hurts. And you just want to like crawl into a ball is the only in when you are at that level. level, the only the local people which is the indigenous people to capture, they have the crew they make cocoa tea. And in some they have herbs and stuff like that to help with that, but the only other The only other way that you can combat altitude sickness is moved to a lower altitude. So we were really afraid of that. So we were like climbing and walking up and down the steps and making sure that you know what triggered that. I mean the whole so I had gone for a Girls trip with

a bunch of my friends and we went to this place and we went on the track in Bangalore. It's just a lovely place outside Bangalore.

small hill, okay, and we went on a track in the morning. And by the time I reached the top, I felt like my lungs were on file.

Unknown Speaker 23:56

And I remember I when I came down and I I think you called me that evening and I told you that this happened to you is that you better start planning. We can't have this on our Machu Picchu. I can't have you fallen sick. Okay. And I think we started doing breathing exercise is yes. And that was like a good two years or a trip. No, no, this Dineshwari trip was two years before. Okay, and I actually started doing breathing exercises every day since then.

Malini Sarma 24:30

But that really helped.

Unknown Speaker 24:31

That really helped. Yeah,

Malini Sarma 24:32

you know what, climbing that mountain was hard work. So I'm glad you did that. So once we once we got all our stuff, then I think the next exciting part was the packing. Right? We finally got everything. I know we took pictures of it to prove that we actually waited to make sure that we actually I had that what we call the portable weighing scale with me, I man, you know what I still use that that is the most useful thing ever. And we kept weighing our stuff to make sure that we were well under the limit. And we kept moving things around and making sure that we had rolled up everything and, you know, shoved it all over whatever place we could find in that in that tracking backpack. I think that was the most useful thing too. And then, once we got that, I remember I was like, man, I can't believe we got all this stuff in seven kilos. And I was like, most proud of that. And then of course, and that's how we were still in Bangalore. We had the kids with us. And then we had to drive to Chennai, which is like a five and a half hour drive. And we had to take our stuff, the kids stuff while they were in on vacation in Chennai, and then your stuff with the UK all packed in separate bags. So we had what 14 bags

or something. We had 14 bags, yes,

your 14 bags and the four of us and the driver, and we had to fit all that in the car and they were bets going I'm sure about how we could fit all that stuff in because they're like, oh, there's no way you can fit this in I remember taking a picture. I'm like, Look at us now people.

Unknown Speaker 26:06

Don't tell us we can do it. Because guess what? Oh, actually,

Malini Sarma 26:12

what I was most impressed by is you and I hate packing. Yes. Oh, we leave,

we laugh. And yes, you tell me a little. And we still manage. We actually got it all done in time and got out, I think 10 minutes ahead of schedule. And be one big thing about the trip. I went to left my credit card as a restaurant, in route when we were going to Chennai. And when we went shopping in the evening, we realized that oh my god, the one credit card is not there. Yes. And then we had to rush back. There was no time to get a new one. So it was a very new thing that we kept one day. Yeah. You know, it's in Chennai.

Yeah, that was smart. Yeah. So we We took five and a half hours to reach there and then at the end of the day we realized we didn't have the car the next day you went back almost halfway back to Bangalore pick up your credit card, come back to where we still managed, get everything done and we got to the airport. Got on that plane. We were actually go I remember the picture we've taken on the plane. It was like,

Unknown Speaker 27:21

actually going this

Unknown Speaker 27:22

is happening. There's no kids. There's no husband. There's no anybody. It's just too much.

Unknown Speaker 27:28

Yeah, he finally made it.

Malini Sarma 27:31

There was a what an eight hour flight to London,

right? Yeah, I think why Abu Dhabi, right. Yeah.

by Abu Dhabi. And then once we got there, your sister in law came and picked us up or brother in law he came picked us up. We got to spend one night in London dumped all dumped all your whatever stuff you needed to be at. didn't open the backpack at all because we had packed it so well. We didn't want to you know, mess it all up. A little Literally the next day at like 4am or something because I got a taxi to take us to the airport to catch our flight to the we were going from London to Paris and then Paris to Lima nonstop which was like a 14 hour.

Unknown Speaker 28:14

me Yeah, yeah. That was crazy and then of course we had Mallika telling us Oh my god Amma, you need to go and check out this place in Paris in the

Unknown Speaker 28:24

airport. Yeah, yeah.

Malini Sarma 28:26

No, and prepaes airport was under construction. She said you got to check out the what are the things called macarons? Like, we found whatever. But we were like so excited about Glasgow. We've been thinking about anything else. And then from there from Paris, we got to Lima. And then our Airbnb host came and picked us up from the airport. And that's when I realized and all this time I've been learning or I'm not learning my Spanish. I'm working on my Spanish stuff. And nobody asked me and all I knew was all like almost done. We began Okay, which is Hello, how are

Unknown Speaker 28:57

you? Good. I'm doing good. And then I Like, oh, yeah, he's talking to me. And he hears me talking saying what I was telling you. He just goes on. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, wait, what?

Unknown Speaker 29:07

They You know what? Thank God for Google Translate.

Unknown Speaker 29:11

Let me tell you, yeah, learning Spanish, talking Spanish, listening to Spanish and actually trying to respond to somebody in Spanish is very, very different.

Unknown Speaker 29:20

So that's when I realized that I was under the impression you knew. I didn't really bother to learn the language.

Malini Sarma 29:30

I tried. Okay. So actually, there was, I was, I would, I think when they realized that they had to speak slowly, then I would pick up on some keywords and I kind of figured out what they were talking about. And then I was kind of put the Google Translate in front of them so that I could kind of pick up the words, but the people were really nice and they were really friendly. So it actually kind of worked out.

Maya Jain 29:51

And because that was pretty sweet.

Malini Sarma 29:53

Yeah, I think, you know, and then he dropped us off at the airport the night we literally just went there crashed got up the next day. left. We didn't even like waste much time. But Lima to Cusco that's why it was awesome. And then when we landed at the airport we had somebody come pick us up and when we

did we were fine for the first hour.

Actually for the moment you start with the moment we got to the Airbnb in Cusco you were like, gee, I don't feel so good. I was like, You know what, I have a headache and I never attribute it to altitude sickness. I just thought it was like, Oh, you know what we've been where we you know, we were a tire because we had been slapped and we're too excited and we hadn't drink enough water. I didn't even think about the fact that it was altitude sickness. But then the lady at the at the lbr host she gave us the cocoa tea and I felt a lot better the next day. You are man, you are in bad shape. I was worrying I

I had I had the worst migraine I could barely open my eyes and my stomach was a mess. My I wanted to puke all the time and I wasn't keeping food down and she just kept loading me up on coca tea. I don't know if if it weren't for that. I don't think I was crying.

No. But then I think after the second day, when the first day I was there, I was feeling better. And then when she realized that you were still not feeling good, then she added more stuff to your tea. I don't know what it was. But whatever it was, was you after that you were like, I'm not and I don't think I've ever prayed. done so much healing. And you know, because I'm like, we're determined to get this trip. Sucks. We have to be happy. We've planned way too long for this not to work. Oh, yeah, this is just got to work. We have to do whatever it takes. I don't think you have done as much healing

during those few hours, oh my god, but we slept and I think that that really helped. We just slept. I think for the first time Do I think it was what?

hours or something like we should we didn't get up till the next evening or something right. So tired. And then once we once we were up, I think your tummy was still kind of tender. But at least you didn't

Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't have a headache and no migraine. I can do anything. Yeah.

So I think then on day three is when we had, we had our guide, he came and picked us up. For me. He was from key expeditions that we had a driver and we had a van all to ourselves. It was just the two of us. You will Jorge, I think that was his name. He was really good. He explained everything and give us all the history. You know, he gave us all the local tastes of things. And he wanted medicines he kind of told us which to get and you gave us like he said, Oh, you should try this because this really works for the local people. And the first day when we go to the first day

I think we did a first We did the ride around Cusco and then we took the train to Ollantaytambo. No, we went to Marie Marie Marie. Yeah. From there. Yes, we went, saw the ruins there. And then from there, I mean, he showed us a number he showed us that the shoe you could actually see the issue from Ori and he told us about the issue with the rodian relations that are like melting at a very alarming rate. And I mean, yes, world over, you are facing the whole global warming issue, but in the room, their main source of water as the glaciers and the world. Yeah, and they were, it was melting and they they are worried and they are talking about.

So when we were in the town, he was showing us the construction of how Incas and you know how they had access and Ollantaytambo. Yes, yes, the how they had built it so that the reservoir and the water will be coming in from the melted. The glacier water actually comes down into the town and into you know, and that's what they're using, even to this day that all construction or the ancient construction is there supposed to be like amazing architects and city planners, because would they use those days is still working? And what they're worried about is global warming them What if the water runs out? What are they going to do? Because they don't have any other source?

Yeah, so in fact, because of the glaciers, I think this place was built in the 1700s. And it has certain units of 1500. Anyway, it has never dried up.

Yeah, that's what you're saying. It is never dried up so they don't know what it would be like not to have water there. Yes, it's kind of scary when you think about it. And then from there, is that where we saw the chocolate? All the chocolate?

Yeah, yeah. We're so hard not to buy anything. I think that's a decision we made anybody going there, I think the whole Sacred Valley tour and we ended up in Ollantaytambo. And anybody going there should actually just spend the day there. It's a very, very picturesque little town. And it's really nice. It's got a whole nice white bubble, Carnival kind of wife. And we went and saw the ruins. Remember, we stood next to the stone and the stones like double our size, and we were trying to figure out, so they had done the analysis of the stone, and they realized that it was not it is brought from a query that is 12 kilometers away.

Yeah. And nobody knows how they how they brought the stones there. And they weren't they weren't small at all. And they have some kind of mechanism Do they have you know, with a slaves who did this? We didn't even know how they did all this stuff. Yeah, and then Yep, in I think we It was kind of sad. We had to kind of make a decision about not doing any shopping Man, all the stuff that we could have bought over there, but the chocolate was amazing. The chocolate liqueur which we didn't buy, you know, although everything yeah, we tasted a chocolate chili chocolate was

Unknown Speaker 36:12

yeah

Malini Sarma 36:14

and the chocolate or even got you was like Was it a chocolate named Maya? Was that what it was?

Yes. Chocolate me mile. Yeah. And I took like pictures with it I picked up one and I think we polished off I don't think it lasted we thought of you know buying it and keeping it and all that I said the family but anything anything any chocolate replica blast? No,

I don't think so. Considering wood chopping

board I could keep down okay with that. Yeah, you needed that. Yeah, you need Yeah,

I'm gonna go with that. We couldn't get any llama wool stuff because you know, we didn't have enough space. So we had to really, we really had to pick and choose what we were going to buy because of the week restriction. So we definitely have to go back Looks like there's a lot of things that we haven't seen yet. But from there from origin travel, we, we took the train we spent then we went to our scallion days spent the night there, right? Yeah.

And then that's when he took us for Peruvian food and then realized that we were vegetarian so we get to eat. Couldn't be in a nice neighborhood of the menu. Yes. And then the vegetarian stuff that you could eat. I was anyway.

Yummy was your tomato

tomahto so I didn't I wasn't sure I could keep things down. So I was just had a soup. And he's like, you come to Peru and you heavily

disappoint? Yeah, he has he actually took us to this fancy restaurant because he wanted us to really try a spread and I had soup and I had juice and yeah, I remember that.

But we had a good we had a good breakfast though and we went be slept up over there. The town was very preacher. I mean, I think it was catered for tourists because they know so many people who come because I think when you go to when you go to Machu Picchu is very restricted one, you have to go with a guide to you have to book your tickets way early to get permits to go there because they only allow so many people at a time. You have time slots when during which you have to go. And we didn't we didn't do just Machu Picchu. We also decided to climb the mountain. And they only allowed 200 people in a day, and they go into slots. So you take the 7am slot or you take the 10am slot and by noon, I think it is noon, right. But everybody's off the mountain. There's nobody I think they had a couple accidents. And so after that they're like Nope, that's it. You cannot so if you don't make it in time, you You missed your slot. So everybody is very conscientious about making sure Getting there on time getting ready on temperature to catch the bus and the advantage of having a guide because they know exactly who to talk to where to go where to stand. So usually good but doesn't mean he was with us the entire time. He was really good. And so then after that after breakfast, we stood in the queue. I remember we got on the bus, right? And then would you

had a good breakfast? I was on one slice of toast. Oh, yeah. So you were so boring. I

know. The The other thing is, there's no bathroom.

Unknown Speaker 39:27

Remember,

Malini Sarma 39:27

there's only one thing out yeah, this if you decide to go to the bathroom, or you have to come out all the way in that's like, wait a minute that you have to walk all that man.

Unknown Speaker 39:37

So we had to literally we were like, so careful about what people eating and drinking.

Malini Sarma 39:42

Like, ah, okay, so you couldn't carry too much weight either because you had to carry all that weight, especially up the mountain. So this is a very tricky balance when you think about it. Yeah, so and we decided and yeah, I think some snacks we had like Things to keep us going up the mountain. But I think having the having the guide there was really good because he gave us the history. He kind of took us around and he did they do a fabulous job about keeping the place up and making sure that it's, you know, they had guides everywhere you had to follow a certain path, of course they will do is, you know, obnoxious tourists who were like screaming and they were like told to shush because they couldn't, you had to be respectful of the place. And I mean, that was that was something that that place was just awe inspiring. You know, did you notice that? When we were driving in the in the bus, the mountains, even the shape of the mountains are different. It's not like the Himalayas, where it's like, you know, triangular. This is like, they look like monoliths, you know? Yeah, it was that. Oh, the sky was amazing. With majestic. It was huge. Yeah, it was

it was. It's just because we're from India, and you tend to compare everything to the Himalayas. But these look quite majestic. Yeah,

they were. I remember looking at them like what is that stuff I can see things that are yellow and green. It's only when we got closer we realized that those are bromeliads. You know what really we're seeing that oh when you if you're in Cusco if you are having trouble when you go down to Machu Picchu, you'll be fine because you're going down you're going to the bottom or you're going to the lower altitude, and it's called a paradise on earth is because everything grows there. dmpc pineapple

disagrees our pineapple with our pockets while doc

pretty I know. I was like I was just blown away. I was like, wait, what I mean, because considering that we came from a tropical country, we didn't expect to see that when the rest of the country was going into like in the middle of winter, right. And here you have like a valley that is like so lush, so green and it has Everything, everything that I was fascinating. I think one of the other things that he did he say that there seemed to be a place where there were all women. Yes, it was like either women and children because the way that designed, you know the school room and how they have the windows with the sun's rays, you could tell which month it was based on which window the sunrise would fall into fatalis time of the year. It was the way they had laid out the entire city almost was

Yeah, so he had told us remember that the Incas really didn't use draft animals. So again, not sure how they got the rocks to the place. But one of the things that he did tell us is 60% of Machu Picchu is actually what you can see at underground, we still have you know the way it's constructed, because no because it is in an earthquake zone. So the way they built. He was talking about that he talked extensively about that. The way that they have built it is literally an engineering marvel.

Yeah, it's 1000 years old. And he suddenly disappeared and he goes, they don't they don't they have to go back and think about it and look at it. And they do. They don't understand where they came from and where they went. But they would they said that there was an engineering marvel. And they said, they're still discovering, I think,

yeah, they're still discovering. So the story he had told us was the ruins that we saw in

what you see in

Ollantaytambo, Ollantaytambo. He has spoken about how the Spanish were attacking, and what these what the Incas decided was because they were at that height, they decided to flood the plane because they had the water. So they flooded the plane so then the Spanish couldn't get to them and They moved their capital from there to vilcabamba in the forest, which I think they still haven't found, and that is what he was talking about. The guy who hadn't been. Yeah, he has been the guy who went looking for vilcabamba ended up landing in Machu Picchu. Like by mistake.

I don't remember that strip. I do remember it's in pieces. I remember him talking about how they were still trying to discover it was like 20 kilometers or something away, or something was there, but he pointed us in that direction. remember seeing that?

But I think you've missed this bit because a lot of the history he told me when he and I were walking up.

We were tracking up the

Unknown Speaker 44:48

mall. I was ahead of you guys. I mean, you're like,

Malini Sarma 44:51

way ahead. But he was telling me the stories and did you know that when Heron landed in Machu Picchu or found my beetroot there were actually three families living there. Really? It wasn't like a Yeah, it wasn't like a complete food and they were living there. They were farming the place. Hmm.

So I remember taking a picture of where it says, you know, here man was the one who found this place and everything that was his, there's a sign over there. So

apparently somebody else also did because they had signed off on one of the rock. Things somebody was here, but I don't remember though. He told me some name, but I don't remember the name.

But I'm glad he was there. Because he was he told us all he was able to take pictures of the universe just had selfies the whole time. Yeah.

Just our faces. Oh, yeah. There have been just you and just or just me and Yeah, exactly. But he also knew the right vantage points to stand and take pictures and I will take pictures and I will do this. You stand there and to worry about

it. Yeah. And he knew exactly where to you know, so we could stand it. I think that was really good. So And once we decided once we saw Machu Picchu and then we decided to climb wayna Picchu. You did pretty good. You were worried that you wouldn't do it. But you were awesome. I mean, you got we got to the top I, I thought,

by the time I reached the top, I was at a place where I was like, okay, either my lungs are gonna explode. My heart's gonna explode, but hey, I survived. Well, it was a good I took small breaks. And

that led me company and telling me stories, I think because he kept constantly talking to me. I didn't realize,

yeah, you know, but you know what, that climb was really hard. It was 1000 feet going straight up. And there was no railing. heatons Yeah, extremely steep. I mean, there were some places where you literally had to crawl up because there was no there was no railing. And then if you looked on one side was a steep drop into the into the forests or mountains or wherever it was. On the other side was like all rock. So that was I mean I have something like going really careful. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I know. And remember when we got at the top we called on the phone I had my phone was working and we called and she showed them and then so it was like

Unknown Speaker 47:17

I'm getting dizzy just watching you for

Malini Sarma 47:21

yeah he said my knees are shaking mama

when I showed him the drop, I think we call them a one.

He was like my big key and they were like my big supporters. And

I call him when he called him and he took a look at the drop and he's like, oh my god mama my knees are shaking. Why are you standing there move to the side hold onto something.

Unknown Speaker 47:49

Here we call Monica we told her we got here too. So

Malini Sarma 47:53

yeah, because both of them because both Malika and Manoj Yeah, call them.

Unknown Speaker 47:57

They were like okay, we did it. We got here. We can have proof

Malini Sarma 48:02

we did it.

Yes. No, I think I think that was that was a great. I think there was a great trip in perseverance. That's what I could say. No, once we got back your your knees are swollen. So

when you walking down I mean walking up wasn't that much of a problem and in my knees were fine was going up.

And I usually worried about my lungs, honestly. Yeah, no going up. You see. You see when you go up, it's your thighs that hurt. And when you come down your knees are because of the

my downward pressure fine. Yeah, I was more worried about my lungs. But when we were coming down, I was fine. But by the time we got out of Machu Picchu and got to the hotels, I noticed my knees were swollen. Because the amount of pressure you put on your knees. Yeah, yeah, and all your dancing help because you are actually fine. Your knees are fine.

Well, the amount of squatting that you do with your downswing Yeah,

my I didn't hurt as much. I was on as bad shape as you your knees were swollen. One year. I was

Yeah, I was very worried because I've never seen

knowing he gave us a he gave us what it was a local Lindemann to whatever it was that he said, or I use it for soccer. So you know, good for me, it will work for you. And so that was really good. He

was really, really good.

Yeah, that was really good. And then we spent the night he dropped us off at our Airbnb. Next day. We literally caught the flight and went straight to Lima. And we took an Uber and got to their Airbnb, and that was a fabulous apartment facing the ocean. I had

Unknown Speaker 49:51

no idea that there was an ocean in lever. Like, what is that? Like? Wait a minute. What's

Malini Sarma 49:59

up It was so awesome. We were on one of the top floors. And what for seven or eight or whatever. And if you were the to the, to the balcony and we could see the ocean to see the sunset oh seven and even on the eighth floor at Lima when we got there, I think we were on the 13th floor a 13th or 14th floor.

Maya Jain 50:21

Hi, okay. Yes. I was really, really nice.

Malini Sarma 50:25

That was That was good. And because the rest of the apartments does not get occupied with anybody else. So we pretty much had the apartment ourselves. That was

really cool. And very pretty. And very well done. Yeah.

I mean, it was built

for me that. Yes, yes. And I remember that early morning when we got up trying coffee and we was like,

You were so surreal, because we're like, Wait, did we actually do this? Did this actually happen? Right Because it was a last day there because we had to fly back the next day, or that evening or something, right? Because we had to. Yeah, yeah. So we would be like one day, we landed in the evening, and we spent the night and the next day, we had like, one day to decide what to do. And we're like, we were like, I know, I was like, I can't believe we had totally free shop. Yeah, that's right. We couldn't shop because there was no place.

Unknown Speaker 51:23

No bags to carry anything. But it was

Malini Sarma 51:27

I was just like, I couldn't I couldn't believe that we'd actually gone and see one of the wonders of the world. I think that wasn't for me that just blew me away that we actually accomplished something that had taken us seven years to

plan planning. Yeah. So I think we have to decide when that place has been on my list like for ever okay. I think because

it was on your list. It came on my list.

That's the reason we've been talking about I've been talking about going there. I remember when manager and I first started dating and he is like You know, we were talking about traveling and I said, you know, this is, these are the places and Machu Picchu was one of the was in the top five. These are the places I want to go. And these are the places so the pyramids of Giza are wasn't the top, and I think Machu Picchu was a third. So it's been there

forever. Yeah, I've only heard about, I've only heard people talking about you have to go see the sunrise at Machu Picchu. And I had no idea where Machu Picchu was. And for me, it was like, Oh, you're going to see the sunrise. But then remember how we were thinking about oh, maybe we need to do we want to the track, which is like a four day track? Or do we want to just take the train that way we because we only had so much of time.

And then we had all these other plans also right you were talking about going to Lake Titicaca, we wanted to go see the Rainbow Mountain. And I think we were trying so hard pressed for time and we were trying to figure out how to fit everything in I'm glad we just did. I mean, I know a lot of people tend to be kind of annoying anyway all you know, I mean, it's really hard and you're going all the way there. You might as well try other stuff, too. But the Rainbow Mountain was a 66 hour track, and we even have my knees work.

I also didn't have enough time to get back and

yeah, and we were talking about doing the two day jungle tour and then want to go see

Amazon. Looks like we just need to make another coaster. That's it. That's what's gonna happen. We'll have to make another vision board. I got to start, you know. Start from there we go

to the Amazon jungle, my son trying to leave.

I want to go to the forest. I wanna work for the conservation. Sorry, though. Yeah, whoever figured that out.

Well, once you went there, so that's when we found when we went to Lima is when we found out that Pisco sours are in vented by an American bartender in Lima, right, so we're like, Okay, we got to go check out a pisco sour. And we wanted, which I didn't have because it had a Yeah, that's right. I had one wasn't I'm not a fan, but whatever. And we wanted to go eat Indian food, because we were so tired of not eating anything spicy. And you needed something to eat because you hadn't eaten anything in three days. Except for toast.

Yes, and I couldn't anyway, eat the Peruvian stuff because I wasn't keeping it down. I said, Okay, let's go try some comfort food because

yeah. And once we got to the restaurant, I think we were just so happy. I think we giggled the whole time and the people were like, looking at us like we were crazy drunk or something. And all we were doing Oh my God, I think we ordered everything on the menu.

And then when we did, yeah, what is it called mantra? Mira Mira Flores. Yeah, that part

and then So we went to see Museo laco the museum.

That was beautiful. If anybody listening to this goes to pero, please go to museological

you will panke actually

is a private museum, and they've done a fabulous job of documenting all about the history and the archaeology and you know, they have all the artifacts

incans the pre incans everything. Yep.

beautiful building. It's got fantastic gardens and whole places with colorful

colors. Yes, the bulgan villa. Oh, this is gorgeous. They've done a fabulous job maintaining the place and there's a restaurant next door that has great food.

They have some geometry that ogen villas are supposed to be from pero they originated And pedals clearly I

have note that

no wonder we like it so much. I was looking at you know, the whole thing filled with envelopes and it remember thinking it's so gorgeous. But recently I was looking. We were researching something on me and stuff like that, but one of my kids and apparently it originated a very,

very cool now you know why we both liked it?

Yeah. And then after that we headed back man. That was one heck of a trip. That was one heck of a trip. Hopefully our next trip will not take another seven years plan.

No, no. As soon as the pandemic is done, I'm so done sitting at home.

I think most of us have never been in the same city for four months at a stretch. I always go somewhere every three months. And this has been

Yes, I think I think you echo a lot of other people who feel very much the same. So. So what is the one thing? What is the one thing that we wish we could tell people listening is based upon this trip? What is something that you would tell him?

I would say travel, travel as much as you can.

If you decide that this is your dream place, make that trip. It'll happen.

I'd say the one thing that I would say is just go for it. That is never the right time. Yep. It took us seven years. Because the timing just didn't seem right for hundreds of reasons. But I think when we just decided no, we're doing it. We're going you know, and we did yeah.

Unknown Speaker 58:01

turned out fine you know didn't get we didn't get arrested yeah we didn't get

Unknown Speaker 58:07

we didn't get very worried about

Malini Sarma 58:10

yes we didn't get deported you know we still managed we managed it but seven kills each and I think that's super shopping yeah no shopping which is like what

and we we we did fine we still need to make another trip to make up for all while the shopping that we didn't do when yes but I think we need to make another trip because we've got all those other things also that we need to do. We were talking about one week or two weeks in the Amazon working with conservation of forests and you decided you wanted one month you don't want to do it for one week or two weeks. We were talking about doing the Rainbow Mountain we were talking about going to Lake Titicaca and then of course you had all these plans to go to Bolivia and Argentina and also this is so much to do. Yes, there's a lot so many places to see.

Yes, there is a whole world out there for us to discover. I'm glad we started with Peru. And I'm glad we got to see. We go glad we got to see Machu Picchu. And I'm so glad we finally got to do our girls trip and I got to go with you.

Maya Jain 59:20

I know.

Unknown Speaker 59:23

I know.

Malini Sarma 59:25

I can barely believe it was happening while it was happening. And I'm like, oh my god mean, we planned this for such a long time to finally happen.

Yes. So if, if I had to say anything to anybody, I would say if you if you have a dream, write it down and make it happen. Don't wait for the right time. because like you said, there will never you never know when it's the right time. And we're so glad we did ours when we did because if you had to do it this year, that wouldn't have happened and now laughter the way the COVID is, we don't even know how travel is going to be anymore. You know

You know, at one time remember in January, you weren't sure whether your India trip was happening. And we were like, you know, if the India trip is not happening this year, then probably we have to put a put our trip. Wish our trip to next year. And can you imagine? Never happened if he had done that?

Yeah, exactly. So sometimes you just gotta make it happen. And just have fun while you're doing it. Because now when you look back, you're like, Wow, I can't believe I did this.

I know. Yeah. Okay, so now we know what it is the first time we've traveled together, and it will not be the last so much more. Yes, it is not the last. This is just the beginning. Yep.

At the end of the day, you know what? It's all about the mindset. It's all about what you visualize is all about how badly you want to do something. It has nothing Do with age because age is just a number. It has nothing to do with, you know what people say you can and cannot do. Because you can do if you decide to make up your mind that you want to do it. It's all about the mindset. And if somebody tells you that you can't do it, don't believe if you really want to do something and you think that is something that needs to happen, you figure out a way to make it work. Just like I just like I did this trip. And to be honest, I didn't really think that I would be would even do it. We didn't even realize that it was going to happen in once it started things started to fall into place. It happens so quickly. Before you know we were on a plane we were there we were back. Man do we want to stay but so So, bottom line is, life is is all about having experiences. So if you want to do it, you should and if somebody tells you, you know Don't believe you can still do. So hopefully you enjoyed listening to this story. I do have, I do have to tell you the rest of my trip for 2019. But that will be for another episode. Also, I met some fascinating people while I was on this trip. I traveled to a whole lot of different countries in watching and seeing some of these people and some of the struggles that they went through. You know, some of the people when I saw in Nepal, how they survived in spite of not having half the things that most people do is really inspired me is actually one of the reasons why I started this podcast not realizing that I wanted to start a podcast at that time. It just once again just fell into place. Sometimes you know what the universe just gives you a hint and gives you a nudge and things start to fall into place. And the next thing you know you you have something that you didn't even plan for, and it turns out to be a beautiful thing. And this podcast isn't Example of it. So if you think that you want to do a podcast, you should. It is an absolutely fascinating medium of getting your message out to people all over the world. That's the best part about it your audience is worldwide. And if you ever think of if you ever want to start one I used Pat Flynn's power up podcasting. If you want to do that, you should check it out. And I do have a link on my on my website if you ever wanted to try it out. And I use buzzsprout to host my podcast. So if you don't know what buzzsprout is, it is actually a major. It's basically a podcast host, which helps you get your show listed on every major podcast platform. And it gives you if you don't Have a website gives you a podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people listening to promote your episodes and a whole lot more. Basically, they have done a hundreds and thousands helped hundreds and thousands of podcasters use best route to get their message across out to the world. And if you would like to use it, please do. I will have a link in the show notes. And that basically lets buzzsprout know that I sent you and you also get a $20 amazon gift card if you decide to sign up for a pay plan. Besides it also helps the show. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you have a comment or question, please do reach out. If you would like to leave a review, please do and remember that you could be one story away from being inspired. Thank you listening, and I will see you next time on another episode of Gladiatrix.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai