So in a couple hours time, we will have been in India for 24 hours and what a 24 hrs it has been. I’m not even sure where to start but I can tell you that since check-in yesterday in Joburg, Nancy and I have barely stopped laughing. To say India is an experience is a massive understatement. It all started back at the check-in counter. While standing in the queue we were greeted by a gentleman who had asked us if we were on our way to India and if it was our first time. He then told us that he had the best advise for us as he had visited his family in India at least twenty times in his life. After an awkward silence he said, “have a good sense of humour”. We thanked him for the advise but it seemed that saying it once was not enough. He must have said it at least fifteen times. “When they rip you off, as they still do to me, you have to just keep a good sense of humour.” We thanked him for the millionth time, and as we walked away we could still hear in the distance ….humour… We were finished, giggling the whole way to the plane.
Arrival at the Mumbai airport an hour and a half late, making it one in the morning, we got caught up in the current of people as security screamed some inaudible orders only to find ourselves in line to catch a connecting flight that we weren’t meant to be taking until today. Luckily we pushed against the sea of people and somehow made it out alive.
Our taxi was a dream, no, he wasn’t, made it through five or so almost accidents and I think we lost about 3 years off our lives, only to be greeted at the hotel with news of bombs in Mumbai earlier. Not cool.
We finally climbed into bed at about three, after a room service milkshake, but if we slept an hour that night it was a lot. We were awake by 09h00 with the intention of touring the city. That didn’t happen after some sound advise from the locals.
Another death defying taxi ride to domestic, we checked in at 12h00 only to be told there would be a delay. So what to do when you stuck in a Mumbai airport? Go for reflexology of course, and then buy a book on Gandhi.
What felt like years later we were finally flying to Cochin. Then came the ultimate journey of our lives, an hour and a half of peak hour traffic doing about 190km/h. Okay not really, but it was fast and crazy and then there was a giant ant trying to climb onto Nancy. It was all too much for us and we laughed ourselves to tears.
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