In India at Last

We’ve finally made it to India! At last.  We’re currently (or we were when I wrote this) in the guest room of Bhravi’s house.  We left Edinburgh airport at about 3 on Friday and flew down to London.  At London we had a wee bit of a wait until we had to board the plane but me and Sarah had discovered we had been put in completely different seats.  When we made it on to the plane we thought we could just ask the person that I was sitting next to if he could swap with Sarah but he was a bit undecided as he really wanted to have a seat in the middle section (the plane had two aisle, the biggest plane I’ve ever been on) So after causing a little bit of confusion and having lots of people looking and laughing I just sat down in the seat I had been given and Sarah went to find hers, but just before the flight left Sarah came up to where I was saying she had a seat free next to her.  Causing more confusion and seeming to annoy everyone in the plane we headed back up to the back.  So right at the back of the plane, right in the far corner there were two wee Scottish girls. 

(Also my soundtrack to writing this is Calvin Harris – Summer being blasted from some speaker outside..)

After discovering I could watch Captain America on the screen I did as we were given dinner.  Which was amazing.  It was two curries with rice.  Sarah found a Bollywood film that she had already seen which was amazing! I sat in the dark and sobbed as well. It was really good.  It’s just a shame that I really can’t remember the name.  After very little sleep we landed in Mumbai where we had a very quick turnaround.  Just about two hours.  So we practically ran off the plane and to baggage claim.  We had to fill in an immigration form and we had to ask for help as neither of us have done them before.  After going through more security we were directed to sit in a waiting area until a bus could take us to the other terminal.  We seemed to wait there a long time, it was a little stressful and we had to be reassured by two English woman who were on holiday and heading somewhere else.  No one really told us what was happening.  It happened a few times, no one really told us what to do!! We just had to trust the little information we were given.  Finally, 25 minutes before the plane was supposed to leave we were hurried onto a bus which took us straight to the plane.   It drove us all the way around the airport so we got to see the massive slum which literally sits at the border to the runaway.  It’s incredible.  We’d be told about it and we expected to see it but to actually see it with your own eyes is a very different thing.  It’s a massive shanty town spreading so far that you couldn’t even see the end, even when we were coming into land on the plane. 

Once we got off the plane at Hyderabad we were met by our rep, Abhilash.  Again, not really given much information, we just had to trust everything.  After that it was our first experience with India and Indian driving.  Trust me, all the stereotypes are true.  They don’t wear seatbelts.  They lean on the horn all the time.  They don’t use indicators, our driving had his hazards on most of time.  And the scooters weave in and out of all the other traffic.  It really is such a colourful country.  Everywhere we looked there were different colours and it’s surprisingly green! There are actually a lot of trees around Hyderabad, especially by Bhravi’s house.  (My soundtrack is now a lot of drums and singing). Bhravi and his wife are so welcoming and are constantly feeding us.  But again, didn’t really tell us what was going on! (it seems to be a running theme) Last night, Sugathi, Bhravi’s wife, took us out to a market down the road, which was really interesting (cue staring from people).  And then we met some friends of Sugathi who invited us into their house to look around and take some photos! They were really polite and their daughter is just 17 and is currently at college doing engineering.  It’s really amazing how much emphasis they put on education. 

We are constantly told how cold it is here the now and how cold is it is Bangalore.  It’s really nice the now. Pleasant I would say.  But we were given normal water instead of cold water in case we caught a cold… It’s about 29 degrees Celsius.  Apparently it was fifty here not long ago. 

We were told more about our project and Indian culture, a lot of stuff that couldn’t be covered on Coll because it’s really from an Indian perspective.  Like don’t really cross your legs.  Sarah and I are just sitting in our room the now as it is Sugathi’s birthday!  And there’s family round and we don’t want to intrude.  It has been an interesting two days and tomorrow we fly out to Bangalore, our fourth flight.  To be honest I just want to sleep but hopefully everything will be great when we get there!