Our First Day

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NEIL:
We've finally got away after what seems a long time since we decided to take the plunge. Thank you to everyone at home for all the nice parting comments and expecially to Fiona for the tin of pea and ham soup!!
We arrived at Heathrow about 5 hours before we flew out, so we had planty of chance to walk around with ourback packs on. Once we checked in I was asked to step out of the queue for a special security check where they took all sorts of xrays of my body from varying poses. The advantage of having this done, is that it sent me right to the front of the long queues. All I had to do was put my bag throught the xray machine - a straight forward task as i had almost nothing in it - so i was surprised when the pulled my bag to one side for a in depth inspection of the contents. After a five minute wait a nice lady came over and informed me that I was unable to fly with a tin of pea and ham soup in my hand luggage!! I don't remember putting that in my bag, Nicky!

We landed in Mumbai and I fely i was farly well prepared for what the city could through at us. As expected the drive from the airport was quite scary and very noisy, and once we realised that with about 40 mins of the taxi journey to go that out Taxi driver kept falling asleep at the wheel of his Austin Ambassador our fears were increased.

On checking in at the hotel, i got the first indication that Nicky may not be fully appreciative of all that Mumbai has to offer. We'd booked the hotel for two nights, but on my suggestion that we only stay one night Nicky growled that she wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

Since then we have both got used to it a little more but we;re off on an overnight train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. A journey i'm partly dreading due to the loose state of my stomach and bowels!! About 20 minutes ago I was sick right in the middle of the Gate Way to India with millions of people looking on in interest.

NICKY: M is exactly what i expected - a massive culture shock. But that doesnt mean that I was exactly prepared for just how noisy (the cars dont indicate they beep as they move), smelly - food, cows, dogs, goats, many unidentifiable things!, dirty - people just spit in the road or out of their cars etc etc If someone had offered me a flight out M less than an hour after we arrived I would have bitten their arm off!! (particularly following the minor crash we were involved in in the taxi going to the hotel!!) but 24 hours later i might consider staying, at least for a while, before taking the flight out. I have got used to M and I cant say i like it much but it is so different to anywhere i have been before. We have booked a train and hostel in agra - v excited about seeing Taj Mahal and hopefully that wont be quite so bad.
Hope everyone is well, we will put pics on as soon as poss. Look forward to hearing all your news

PS I would like to add that I feel absolutely fine and although I am sure it will be my turn soon enough feel very smug that neil was the first to get sick!!

Lots of love
N & N

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Comments

[Jenn]

OH my Lordy doors!
Oh my dear. that sounds very eventful.lol. Sounds like ur having great fun!lol. we did find it highly amusing about ur bowels and stomach.lol. Hope u feel betta. Love ya xxxxxx

[Angela and Jim Rider]

Hi both
Hi you two, your first few hours in India sound a wee bit too eventful!!! - you must have been wondering what you had let yourselves in for - am guessing its not a city you want to go back and visit. Are you feeling better now Neil? We made it home in record time, back by 6.30, although the queues had built up going towards Heathrow so probably good to have left when we did. Hope to hear from you soon, take care of each other. Lots of love Mum, Dad and Toby xxx