My first visit to India ended with a Bollywood encounter I never expected

For a trip that began with endless warnings of “don’t eat the street food", I didn’t expect my first encounter in India to include meeting a Bollywood star. Yet, on my flight back from Mumbai, that’s exactly what happened.

It was a fitting end to my visit to a country I was experiencing for the first time, one that often sparks different opinions. My five-day itinerary took me from the lively and buzzing city of Mumbai to the peaceful, palace-lined hills of Udaipur. And while India wasn’t a place I had thought much about visiting before, I found it refreshing to arrive without any real expectations.

I arrived in Mumbai after a short 3.5-hour journey from Dubai. Since my flight landed in the evening, there wasn’t much to see, but I could still make out my hotel, which was connected to the airport. What should have been a quick 10-minute ride ended up taking much longer thanks to traffic. Not only was it bumper-to-bumper, but it came with a soundtrack of non-stop honking, something I’d become very familiar with over the next few days.

When I finally reached my hotel, I couldn’t help but think it might have been faster to walk from the terminal. Still, the detour gave me an immediate taste of life in the city, something I'd discover more of over the next couple of days.

Mumbai fascinated me because it felt like a place full of paradoxes – some areas were dirtier than expected, while others were overly clean; wealth sat shoulder-to-shoulder with those who had far less, some areas are incredibly urban while a few streets away a more rural existence seems with