Arrival
I’m sitting in my hotel room wondering what to do and trying to contact Megan, so in the meantime I thought I would write some blogs…
We’re here!We arrived about 3.20am, and got out the airport around 5am, into Pune about 9am… A long trip. It involved a 7 hour flight from Manchester to Doha, with me sat next a young family going to Mumbai with a toddler who seemed to enjoy kicking me a lot. 2 Hours in Doha, which is crazy hot – We got in around 7.20pm, it was already dark but still 38 degrees. When you stepped off the plane the heat and the air was crazy, luckily an air coniditioned bus took us to the airport and then inside it was cool and breathable. The next leg was definetly a hightlight! When boarding me, Sarah, and our new friend Jackson got bumped to business class – but for some reason they didn’t bump Abi which was rubbish! The next 3 and a half hours were spent watching movies on a big screen, enjoying a 3 course meal, sipping endless drinks, and playing with the crazy chairs!
Spent quite a while in Mumbai Airport as the queue for immigration was long, then the baggage took forever to come out, and kept getting interuppted by the power flicking and them having to restart it. Eventually we got the bags, changed out money, and walked outside. Compared to the inside of the airport the outside area was pretty nice, and VERY hot/humid. We found the taxi, said goodbye to Jackson and walked to the other side of the car park – which I nearly didn’t make, I slipped on water from the rain and very almost decked it, but luckily only about 200 people saw it.
The taxi from Mumbai to Pune was fun, if a bit terrifying. It started off well when the driver tried to reverse out of the car park and whacked the edge of the bumper off a massive curb or something. Driving through Mumbai is mental, I was in the front seat so had the perfect view or every rickshaw we nearly crushed, ever bus that almost had us as a new hood ornament, and every person who nearly got squished. It was quite fun, though I don’t think I will be attempting to drive while I’m over here.
Even though it was about 5am, the streets were still mobbed. There is so much construction going on in Mumbai, everywhere you look there is a building site or a new motorway being built above you. When we got closer to the edges we passed quite a few slums and some really run down buildings which confused me. They all still had lights on, but from the outside they were just covered in black dirt or soemthing. They looked abandoned totally abandoned apart from the lights.
Mumbai to Pune express way was a great drive, you go through all the hills which are covered in waterfalls streaming water down to the edges of the road because of the rain. Huge tunnels were just carved through the hills, very poorly lit and usually with a huge lorry stopped inside that was only visible when you got really close to it! The rain covered the windscreen quite a lot of the time, and the window wipers didn’t really keep up – so not being able to see whats in front of you is a bit scary.
Horns! You hear them constantly, they seem to be used instead of signals, to alert someone you are passing them, or to alert someone you’re about to crash into them! Lots of lorries had “Horn ok please” painted on the back of them too, I think most people just sit back and relax while driving until they hear a horn behind them. Our driving had no shoes on and had one foot resting next to the gear stick whilst talking away on his phone! There were plenty of reminders of the consequences of driving like this on the expressway, I don’t think I saw any cars but plenty of crushed buses and lorries about. One lorry was stopped in the middle of the expressway where the back axle must of snapped and both back wheels were pointing outwards in opposite directions.
Now we are in Pune, I left Abi and Sarah at their hostel with Vigyan Ashram and took my first auto rickshaw to get to my hotel. I think the best approach is to just close your eyes and pretend nothing is going on. Going through a crossroads is definetly an experience. I have pretty much just slept up until now, which can be difficult when all you can hear is the sound of horns going off outside the window.
