Southall

We finally made it to Southall!

We had been meaning to check out Southall since we moved to London, along with a slew of other locations which still sit undiscovered on our to do list. One Saturday this month, however,(perhaps as a direct result of my insatiable Indian food phase), we hopped on the 207 on Uxbridge Road toward the Hayes By Pass. To Southall you can also take the 95 or the 260 Express toward Uxbridge. Alternatively, Southall has a rail station, and at a ten minute ride from Paddington Station, it's a quick and easy way to discover one of London's most ethnically interesting and rich areas.

We chose to take the slower 207 to get a peek at some of the other stops along the way, such as what lies further up Uxbridge Road, as we never head west on it ourselves. We passed through Ealing Broadway, and, note to Londoners – Ealing Broadway has high street shops similar to Oxford Street without the fuss of tourists and crowds. Might check it out one day soon.

And on to Southall. Stepping off the bus, we were awash with the feeling of being in a foreign land, the same feeling as if we had flown all the way to India that day. As we've said before, London Town is one of the most ethnically diverse arrangements of people on the planet, and Londoners are accordingly accustomed to dealing with people of many races, cultures and backgrounds every day. But Southall is different. Southall is Little India, and the true sense behind the nickname came clear as the 207 continued up the road and we looked around and realised we had been transported to India. Indian food, Indian people, not another white face in sight for hours, Indian music...

Speaking of Indian music...The high street in Southall is packed with music/movie shops, stocked fully and exclusively with Bollywood movies and Indian music – available both on CD and cassette!

We don't even have a cassette player, but were tempted to buy just for the old school principle of it all. Also purely Bollywood was the movie theatre in Southall - A legitimately large cinema dedicated almost entirely to Bollywood films.

The selection of street food in Southall is excellent as well, with many new treats to be tried! Unfortunately the taste of the sweets is not as good as the sweets appear. We had a rose-flavoured something or other which tasted like soap and big green bar of rather interesting tasting pistachio paste.

Once off the bus, we spotted the golden dome and headed straight to the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Temple as if drawn there by a higher force.

This imposing impressive building welcomes visitors, but alas, there was a wedding of some sort on that Saturday, and it was packed with Indian people dressed to the 9s in typical dress. We were lucky enough to spot quite a scene as some very well dressed members of the party loaded into their cars after the ceremony. Very cool, and has raised our Neasden temple trip to the top of our to do list.

We were hoping to chow down on some fab vegetarian Indian food, but the thunderstorms drenched us, the wind whipped us, and at some point we decided that some Indian take out from the comfort of our cosy home might be better.

Overall – If you want to visit a part of London far from the tourist centres off the beaten path, definitely head to Southall. Even Londoners will feel like a tourist in their own city. A must see.