Down South

Life has been fairly eventful since my last post on Thursday.  On Friday, Phil perked up sufficiently to go out and about so we were able to do some more exploring in advance of Phil's work trip this week.

As most people are probably aware, film and cinema is hugely popular in India and nowhere more so than in Mumbai.  Mumbai is the home of "Bollywood"; the morning paper (the HT) has a whole section devoted to sightings of its stars; and film seems to something that all parts of Indian society enjoy.  We watched a few Hindi films (with subtitles) before coming out here to get a flavour of Indian film and are keen to see lots of what's on offer whilst we are here.

Bandra has several modern multi-plexes, but a quick search revealed that there is an older style cinema very close to my office, so I went for a short walk at lunchtime on Friday to investigate.  It looked fine from the outside, if rather dated, with decor in a style from before my time which I recognised from 70s and 80s films....I tried and failed to buy our tickets in advance (I noticed small sign after a while that said that the box office is shut between 1230 and 1530, and that this was not flexible!) but noted that a couple of big hits were starting shortly after we finished work, so Phil and I agreed to meet there at 1800 later that day.

Mumbai cinema - old style

As a aside, I discussed my cinema choice with a couple of people in the office and they couldn't understand why we weren't going to the super-modern places in Bandra instead with reclining seats and where food is served to you at your chair.  I explained our desire for authencity and atmosphere which seemed contrary to expectations!

Anyway, we arrived at 1800 and bought our tickets for the princely sum of 65 rupees (~75p) each, made our way past the rather brusk cinema security guard, and found our seats.  We choose a popular comedy, Fukrey, one the basis that we might have more chance following the plot (Hindi, no subtitles) than for a complex epic.  We enjoyed the film (all rather silly) but did lose the thread of what was happening which seemed to get increasingly bizarre and complicated; though we read reviews afterwards to say that most people couldn't follow what was going on, so it wasn't just us! All in all, it was a fun experience with lots of random goings-on including adverts which were simply wobbly slides held in front of the projector, all standing for the national anthem before the film, generally lots of chatter throughout, and a great atmosphere with lots of people enjoying themselves at the end of the week.

Yesterday was our first free day (no work, no apartment viewing) so we took the opportunity to venture south to the older part of the city and more traditional tourist areas of Mumbai.  We travelled by taxi from the hotel over the impressive Bandra-Worli Sealink and arrived at the Crawford Market area 45 mins later.  Our taxi driver wanted to take us on a full guided tour and was appalled by the idea that we wanted to walk around to see the city.  To be fair, it was hot, but we saw a lot more by getting sweaty and wandering around ourselves than we would have done by staying in a car.

We spent a few hours wondering round a few sites in South Mumbai including Crawford Market, VT (the big railway terminus), the university, the old Fort area, the Prince of Wales museum, the Gateway of India, the (original) Taj Hotel etc.  All in all, the key things you might read about in a tourist guide to Mumbai.  Some of the architecture is stunning and it was enjoyable to wander around and take it all in, although spending large amounts of time outside can be quite intense.  The heat and often the smell of the city can be overwhelming; the main roads are fairly wide and ordered (for India), and the side streets vibrant and bustling.  It also struck us how much more we got hassled on the street (looking like white tourists) than in Bandra, where we've had no problems at all.  People don't just approach you in the touristy areas, they are very very persistant and will follow you around for a while before giving up and going away!

Victoria Terminus (pronounced "Way Tee", if you want a taxi driver to take you there)

Flora Fountain, where we met a man who told us a very rude (but quite funny) joke, not repeatable on this blog!

The Gateway of India

After a couple of hours, I was in need of an airconditioned environment so we took the opportunity to stop for a drink in the (original) Taj Hotel; the landmark overlooking the Gateway of India.  Phil enjoyed a Falooda, a rose flavoured drink popular in India, Pakistan and the Middle East, with vermicelli, jelly bits, milk and icecream.  Not my thing but Phil is a fan.  Afterwards, we had an obligatory walk past Leopold's Cafe (we both read Shanteram before arriving in Mumbai), mosied round The Bombay Store (lots of nice fabrics and cushions) and attempted to eat in Brittania (a highly rated Parsi restaurant), though went elsewhere in the end as the queue outside Brittania looked to be bigger than the capacity of the restaurant.

The Taj Hotel, which my 91 year-old Great Uncle Bill says is "the only place to stay in Bombay" based on his travels of 60 years ago, demonstrating its long standing illustriousness

Falooda Focus

Obligatory sight for those who have read Shanteram, though feels very touristy today

Street food.  The puffy round things are Pani Puri, a street food classic

Cow in front of the Bombay Stock Exchange.  Phil has recently had the win-win-win cow hire business model explained to him...to be included on a future blog entry.

Cats relaxing in the heat.  Bombay is not short of cats.

There are also a lot of dogs, mainly seen in this classic pose, which is exactly what I felt like doing after walking around in the Bombay heat.

After a mid-afternoon Indian food fest (we rather embarrassingly ordered twice as much as we could eat as the portions were extremely big) at a restaurant called Mahesh Lunch Home (was pretty good), we caught a cab back up north (240 rupees for a 45 minute journey) so Phil could pack for his week away with work, and head off to the airport early that evening.

I'm now on my own for a week so likely to be mainly hotel and work based, but am aiming to plan some of our future activities in my free evenings this week.  I've been gathering recommendations and we're starting to set aside weekends to visit lots of different places; it feels like the annual peal planning session just with holidays instead!

Our hotel continues to impress and will be getting a glowing review on Trip Advisor when we leave.  After Phil left for the airport yesterday, the housekeeper came and ran a bubble bath for me without asking, and the DVD I ordered (from the list of complimentary films available in the room, I went for a cliched choice of Slumdog Millionaire) arrived with a drink and big bowl of popcorn. This led to a relaxing evening following a busy day out in the heat of the city.  I'm not sure that this level of service is likely to continue at home when we leave here so I might as well make the most of it whilst it's available!

India illness - Episode 1

The last few days have been rather uneventful, mainly because Phil succumbed to the classic Indian illness yesterday and has stayed in the hotel room for the last 48 hours.  It's a shame but the timing could be much worse, at least we are in a comfortable environment where it's easy to find the plain foods required.  He is looking a little better now though so is hoping to be back to fighting fitness tomorrow.

Without wishing to go into detail, I think this experience has helped my husband to acknowledge that he does not have a stomach of steel (contrary to his prior belief) and that India offers challenges to the digestive system not available in the UK.  Whereas it can be good to be exposed to germs and build up immunity in the UK, many Indian germs (particularly from dirty water) can floor any westerner at a stroke, and we know that we won't be able to avoid this kind of thing entirely whilst living out here.  We will build up some resistance over time, but will always have to be careful to an extent.

Having received several mournful emails during the day on Wednesday, I returned home in the evening to find Phil looking washed out, weak and wanting medicine, but refusing to see a doctor (this is standard).  To legitimately get the medicine you need in India, you must speak to a doctor to be told what dose to take before it can be issued.  I therefore (very valiantly) had a detailed phone conversation with a doctor regarding symptoms and potential cures at the busiest time of day in the lobby of the Taj Lands End hotel on Phil's behalf.  Impressively though, this did lead to probiotics and electrolytes being delivered to our room a couple of hours later at the princely sum of 135 rupees.  I was impressed.

I've been busy at work this week so my uneventful routine since Tuesday has been Gym > Breakfast > Work > Dinner > Watch Wimbledon > Sleep > Repeat.  Although, if I'm honest, the gym only actually appeared in that sequence on one day out of three (better than not at all!). A really excellent consequence of being 4.5 hours ahead is that you can settle down to watch the afternoon session of Wimbledon between dinner and bed, which I used to miss whilst in the UK.  Clearly, we have more adventurous plans that watching Wimbledon whilst in India, although I can't deny that I'm enjoying it in the short term.  On the topic of tennis, there are various courts and coaching opportunities in Bandra which I'm hoping to use whilst in Mumbai.

The apartment plans are progressing. I spent some of this evening going round the final four places on our short list to work out our requests for changes / additions before the negotiation process begins.  The most exciting part of this was getting caught in a traffic jam of a whole herd of cows (six or seven of them!) on the way back to the hotel.  Sadly, I didn't take a picture, but it made me smile all the way home.

The hotel continue to impress, this time with an elephant towel sculpture, though this had sadly collapsed on Phil's watch before I got home from work, so I'm hoping that they will make me another one. Here is what once was an elephant:

Elephant with third eye and collapsed trunk, reassembled to look as elephant-like as possible.

Our hotel is also very concerned that we must have got bored with the view by now and hence keeps offering to move us so we can look out in the opposite direction.  This is kind, although my enthusiasm for packing up and moving to an identical room a few doors away is currently limited, though we may get cabin fever in a few days time and decide to shift. 

For now, our adventure plans for this week have stalled (this included Bollywood film at the cinema and further exploration of Bandra food options) but this has actually given me time to review our travel guides and start planning weekends away and listing the places we would like to see. All being well, I should have an Indian bank account by this time next week which will make everything a lot easier.

Phil leaves Mumbai for Singapore on Saturday so the top priority for now is him getting better, and we hope that we'll be able to explore a bit on Saturday (maybe with a South Mumbai visit) before he goes.

That's all for now.  The match I'm watching is hotting up and requires my full attention...

A busy first weekend

In the last two days, we’ve continued to explore and learn more about India as well as make progress with organising the big ticket requirements for our life here; getting an apartment and a car.

The apartment search is ongoing; we’ve seen over 30 different places between Saturday and Monday, and our agent has now got a good handle on what we are looking for.  Specifically, we don’t seem to fulfil the typical expat mould (according to our agent) of wanting to be tucked away down a long leafy drive where a car is always required.  Phil in particular is keen to be in the heart of the action and we’ve now seen some apartments which we both really like and would feel happy living in.

 Light at the end of the apartment search tunnel?

The process of putting a lease in place is not a simple one.  Our next task is to shortlist five or six different places, and to visit them all again to determine exactly what we want the owners to do before we can move in.  This can include new floors, white goods, changing furniture, decorating, changing bathroom / kitchen fittings; and this all has to go in the lease before it is signed or the owner will refuse to change a thing!  It’s crucial to work out if anything is broken before moving in else the owner will have no obligation to fix it.  All these factors are then taken into account before our agent enters the hard negotiation phase to agree the rent and deposit (which can be shockingly huge) to try to agree a decent deal.  He will do this with several different apartments until a deal arises that we are happy with.  This is all slightly intimidating and, again, we are very pleased that we are not doing this alone!

In addition to the apartment activity, yesterday we met with a couple who are leaving India and looking to sell their car.  After going for a test drive (with their driver, not me, behind the wheel), we’ve agreed to buy the car (to be exchanged next weekend) and also take on their driver.  We’ve had lots of useful advice from various contacts regarding employing a driver and everything about doing this seems typically unofficial and adhoc.  The employment contract is verbal, and our question regarding how we allow for administrative formalities on his salary caused our apartment agent to laugh for some time as our query was clearly so ridiculous. This will all be new to us and I’m sure we’ll have a lot to learn.  What I know though is that I will not be driving in Mumbai; it is a completely different system to the UK.  What has impressed (and scared) me most so far is how all vehicles can come incredibly close to each (at a reasonable speed) on the road, and yet not touch (most of the time).  I will be staying in the passenger seat for now.

Aside from the apartment and car, we’ve made several attempts to learn more about Indian life and the local area in the last two days; some more successful than others.

On Sunday, we walked to Bandra Fort on the southern tip of the suburb (very close to our hotel) which has excellent views of South Mumbai and the impressive Bandra-Worli Sealink.  The fort was bustling and appeared to be a popular venue for couples, some behaving themselves more than others in the gardens next to the fort.  It’s definitely worth a visit by those exploring Bandra.

In the evening, Phil successfully located a Raan (marinated and grilled leg of lamb) for dinner and enjoyed a meat feast, though it became apparent later in the evening that he had somewhat overindulged.  Less good was that we had intended to watch some of the India vs. England cricket last night in a bustling bar; although the bar we went to turned out to be empty and the cricket had been rained off.  There will be more opportunities in the future.  We heard in the morning that India had won; news that several Indians enjoyed sharing with me throughout the day.

On Monday morning, Phil explored the local area a little more before starting work and was particularly happy to see his first street monkey (as it was stealing the clothes of someone in the street). 

Further, he is very proud to have purchased six bananas for 20 rupees (22p) which our apartment agent told us is only a little over the typical price (30 rupees for a dozen, but in a cheaper area), an excellent result for early in our fruit purchasing career.  He also helped someone practice their English (although this was apparently non-existent) when they stopped him on his run.  As of this morning, Phil has introduced an hour of Hindi learning into his morning routine each day, so I’m expecting some fluency very soon!

The Bandra area has Portuguese heritage and a strong Catholic influence demonstrated by the large number of churches in the area.  Phil wandered by Mount Mary Church earlier today which he says is quite impressive:

As much as we love the Indian food, a happy moment of my day was finding out that our hotel serves a western menu (with basically anything western you would want to eat), including fresh pizza at any time between 1130am and 4am.  Whilst we won’t necessarily want a midnight pizza, having a plate of pasta for dinner was a relief, however adventurous we’ve tried to be so far.

We didn’t partake, but the hotel has a buffet which is a visual feast in itself.  The dessert assortment this evening was a work of art such that I would have felt bad removing anything and destroying the symmetry.  You can get tasty food in all prices range in India though; we’ve found great mini-cakes for 15 rupees a piece from the bakery down the road.

Other positive hotel experiences: the housekeeper for our room came to greet us with great enthusiasm as we arrived back at the room yesterday.  He was keen to show us something; which turned out to be a mouse mat that he had found for Phil as he noticed that he didn’t have one at the desk.  We hadn’t even thought about this, but he’d clearly noticed and tried to make things easier for us.  We sadly haven’t had a repeat of the excellent swan sculpture, but I might start dropping a few hints (including trying to construct one myself) in a few days’ time.

In other news from the UK, we were pleased to hear the great result for Cambridge in the National 12 Bell competition, and to manage our first semi- successful Skype call home to my parents (the audio was there, we just need to work on the video bit).  

Finding a home

It is undeniable that finding a home to rent in the UK is straightforward.  Full details of rental properties tend to be readily available online, landlords are regulated, the price quoted is generally what you will end up paying and it is much easy to get a feel for the suitability and safety of an area in a country which you know and understand.

Like most things, finding somewhere to live in India is a bit of an adventure! Thankfully, we have an agent to help us, but fundamentally the only way to go about it is to look round lots of places and find out what you like.  Before we arrived, we drew up a rough list of requirements (number of bedrooms, general area, not infested with anything, good access to local amenities etc.) and sent these through to our man, who compiled a list of around 30 properties for us to look at this weekend.

So today, on Day 1 of our search, we traipsed round 18 different apartments accompanied by a series of brokers, meeting several landlords and generally trying to work out what we are supposed to be doing.  Our agent made this much easier for us, and let his views be known to the brokers if he wasn't impressed with what was on offer.  On one occasion, we listened to him speaking rapid Hindi with the only identifiable words being "s**t apartment" within a sentence which was quite entertaining.

Anyway, we haven't found the ideal place yet (though there are a couple of apartments on the shortlist) but now have a much clearer idea about what we would like, especially Phil who hasn't experienced the joys of an apartment search before. There is a cultural barrier though; including expectations regarding standard of bathroom and our requirements that we'd rather be able to comfortably walk to some shops and restaurants if possible (the expectation seems to be for us to drive everywhere).  We're optimistic about tomorrow though - ruling out several things on day 1 (generally too small, too expensive, or not in good condition) helps to narrow down the search for Day 2.  We're very pleased that we've got a knowledgeable guide in any case, I think this would be challenging to sort out by ourselves...

Overall though, it was all pretty good fun and we met lots of locals, including some showing us round their apartments.  Whilst some apartments had been done up and clearly targeted at expats, others were Indian homes being let where the style and furnishing was often quite different.  One highlight was meeting a cheery man who was particularly enthusiastic about the disco prayer room (!) in his apartment and showed us all the different colour combinations of his lights.  It was very surreal.

Disco prayer room

Room 101 - The people showing us the apartment didn't see why we thought this was funny!

Roof terrace focus

When the apartment search was over, we returned to the hotel and tuned into the 12 bell final live stream.  The sound quality was remarkably good and the live presenting super.  We caught a bit of the Birmingham touch (predictably excellent) and went for a swim before returning to listen to the Cambridge test piece.  Once Phil had provided his feedback, we had more excellent Indan food for dinner (venturing into Biryani) and are now listening to the introduction to the results.  It's fantastic to be able to listen to all of this whilst so far away, and this makes the world seem very small.

Hotel Living

In our first full day in India, we have experienced a range of somewhat cliched (though possibly true based on circumstantial evidence) aspects of Mumbai life; supreme hotel service, the monsoon, Indian bureaucracy and traditional North Indian cuisine. 

To start with the first of these, the staff at our hotel just cannot do enough for you, at a level we haven't seen elsewhere. Today's slightly surreal special touches included creating a swan sculpture out of a towel and bath mat and consolidating all shoes strewn around the room into a neat line with slippers laid out for us by the bed. It feels decadent, although extra tidying and lining things up in parallel does go down well with me....I made a special effort to tell the room staff how fantastic the towel sculpture is so we're holding out for another animal tomorrow. These things are all superficial, but the people working here seem to take genuine pride in doing them.

First member of the towel animal zoo

Geometrically pleasing footwear

Breakfast. In shot you see unusual breakfast mix of masala dosa, salty lassi, masala chai, smoked salmon, rye bread, sweet yogurt pudding....and this was Phil's second round of food. I did comment that he has 29 more days to sample what's on offer.

Saying that, the 600+ rupees I was charged for a mango lassi in the hotel last night (this was particularly extreme) compared with the 14 rupees that Phil paid for masala chai on the street illustrates the extremes in wealth here. The hotel service might be very good, but the happiest person that Phil saw today was the auto driver who leapt out of his cab, beaming, to shake Phil's hand when he gave him a 12 rupee tip. I shouldn't romantacise this though, other auto drivers were pretty grumpy! We'll try to strike a balance between enjoying the perks of the hotel and seeing life outside over the next few weeks. We've already started to explore a bit, including Phil going for a run up the path by the Arabian Sea this morning before getting down to work for the day.

We've also seen (and felt) our first rains today. It wasn't for long, but the rain comes down hard, the streets seem to fill up with water at a frightening rate, and the air around you feels saturated. Umbrellas don't make a great deal of difference! It's an impressive natural spectacle.

Rainy day

Moving onto bureaucracy, I had my first meeting with the bank manager today who helpfully came into work to meet me, but rather less helpfully seems to require a fathomless number of pieces of paperwork (a signed letter stating which hotel I'm staying in?!) and 20 signatures to even contemplate giving me an account, despite the fact that I already have accounts with the same bank in the UK. Saying that, I am fortunate to be getting lots of help with setting these things up which is making everything a lot easier for me.

We ventured out to Panchos this evening, a Punjabi restaurant in the heart of Bandra. Dal Makhni was a highlight, as was my sweet lassi (a sixth of the price of the hotel one). Less good was Phil's drink (jaljeera) which sounds good on Wikipedia but looked like a glass of dirty water and didn't taste much better. Not the best thing to order in India.  Maybe we just haven't acquired a taste for it yet...hoping he won't be ill in the morning!

Tomorrow's fun is gym (necessary given current hotel diet) followed by a day looking for our home for the next two years. Hoping to find an apartment that will work for us soon if possible.

Meanwhile, Phil's greatest concern is finding somewhere atmospheric to watch the India / England cricket match on Sunday. You've got to get your priorities right...

Getting from A(irport) to B(andra)

I'm pleased to report that we have successfully made it to our hotel in Mumbai with no delays, lost luggage, random detours, or other less than positive experiences.  This hotel will be our home for the next month until our possessions arrive from the UK and we can sign a lease on an apartment. 

Whilst I'm sure that we will be more than ready for our own home in a month's time, for the moment, the hotel is a bit of a treat which we indeed to enjoy.  The standard of service in this (and other similar) hotels in India is markedly above what I've experienced elsewhere, although it does get a little bemusing when 10 different people spontaneously deliver something to your room (extra water, dressing gowns, fruit, biscuits, contact details, coat hangers...) within an hour of arriving when no request has been made for anything!  The sheer number of people employed in the hotel to provide services is striking to a Brit not used to this set up.

View from our hotel room

Predictably, today's activity has been mainly transport related; incorporating an airport shuttle, flight, several cars and, most excitingly, an autorickshaw (also known as tuk-tuks elsewhere in the world).  For those who have not encountered one of these three-wheeled wonders, they are similar to scooters but with a little cabin on the back, and are especially handy for squeezing through narrow gaps in traffic to whizz around the busy streets of Mumbai.

Autorickshaw

There's a story behind my autorickshaw ride which I'm sure will be the first of many learnings experiences regarding relative prices in the UK and India.  We landed at Mumbai airport just before lunch and were picked up (along with our six suitcases) by car to travel to our hotel in Bandra, an area known as "Queen of Suburbs", in north Mumbai.  After checking-in and a quick shower, I decided that the most sensible way to get to my first afternoon working in my new Indian office would be using a car hired from the hotel; on the basis that this gave me the highest chance of arriving in a respectable fashion given the unpredictability of the rains of the current Monsoon.  I knew that the fare of approximately 700 rupees (£8ish) one way was high by Indian standards but, since I'd just arrived after a long journey, I thought I'd take the hit.

After my initial induction (including lots of forms and signatures), I was chatting to the extremely friendly and helpful reception who was horrified to learn of the fare for my journey and insisted that I should try getting an autorickshaw home, and pay no more than 35 - 36 rupees (~45p) for the journey (25 minutes).  It looked fun so I gave it a go and loved the experience; though the fumes from surrounding cars may mean that it wouldn't be the healthiest way to travel an everyday basis.  This is not recommended for anyone with a bad back or weak constitution, but a handy way to get around which I'm sure we will be using in the future. 

Whatever mode of transport you use, you will always see the stark poverty and challenges for many people on the street.  I had seen this in trips to the city in January and February this year, but it still comes as a shock to me, and it's clear to me that it's crucial for any visitor to India to find a way to help others who are struggling in some way...

The autorickshaw driver was friendly although we did have a few minutes at the start of the journey in which he had no idea what I was saying and I just said words loosely-related to our destination until we both agreed on which way to go.  We got there in the end. It looks like I will need to improve my accent to get around in Mumbai!

This evening, we simply unpacked and relaxed over dinner in the hotel, sampling Indian (Gujarati) dishes, all of which were a treat.  A particular highlight was a delicious tomato chutney with a liquorice flavour (fennal, anise? I've googled it but am not quite sure) which we will be hunting out again in the future.

Wine arraged in shape of India in the rack behind Phil at dinner

Whilst I know that this novelty could wear off over time, for now we will enjoy all the new things around us whilst we settled in to our new life.  We balanced the food indulgence by locating the hotel swimming pool and gym, though cannot claim to have actually used them yet.  One for tomorrow.  Rain-permitting, we are intending to investigate the local outdoor jogging possibilities over the next few days too.

It's finally happening...

We are currently sitting in Heathrow Terminal 5 with two hours to go before we'll be boarding our plane to Mumbai.  As many of our friends and family will know, our India plans have been in the pipeline for some time, although it's only in the last few days that our move has become a reality. 

The last fortnight has been a whirl of goodbye meals with friends (primarily curry-based for some reason), relocating our belongings and frantically putting together each piece of the logistical jigsaw required to get us to India.  48 hours ago I didn't have a passport (or visa), any packing completed (or started if I'm honest), flights booked or accommodation sorted for our arrival, but in a blaze of activity and hard work from lots of different people, everything has now fallen into place.  This is great news and a relief for me and Phil, who is currently looking very relaxed with a glass of wine and big plate of tasty, smelly cheese, two things easy to come by in the BA lounge but that we may have less of in Mumbai...

Our little house in Cambridge is now empty after a formidable clearance effort by the relocation company yesterday, and a little help from our friends, and our furniture is now on its way overseas.  It was very strange to leave our first home knowing that someone else will be living there for the next two years, but we hope that they enjoy it as much as we have. 

Very big lorry arrives

Lots of boxes

All gone

I know that there will be so much happening setting up our life in Mumbai that we are unlikely to remember all the excellent events of the last few weeks unless we write it down!  Goodbye highlights include:

- Weekend with friends and family in Yorkshire
- BBQ with Katherine, John and the twinlets
- Goodbye curry with friends at the Pipasha
- Goodbye post practice party at GSM
- Goodbye lunches, coffee and drinks at work
- Goodbye dinner with my brother (he took me to a "genuine authentic Bombay style cafe" in London called Dishoom.  I really enjoyed it but will pass judgment once we've spent more time in India!)
- Last Cambridge Parkrun with the gang (with PBs for the two Phils!)
- Last peal at GSM (which nearly broke Phil)
- Last handbell peal, with much success at clearing the remaining contents of the wine rack afterwards.
- Annual Cambridge ringers rounders match - double success of an 8 - 0 Youths victory and us managing to distribute the contents of our spirits cupboards to the students (you can't take much alcohol to India...)
- Final evening in the UK chez Pipe with an excellent Cecilia curry and some traditional Tarantino viewing.

We're exhausted and we haven't left yet!  Only joking.  It's been a fantastic couple of weeks and reminds us of the great people we're leaving behind - so you better come and visit us!  A couple of pics below...

Post Parkrun

With Mum on Beamsley Beacon

Anyway, now we look ahead and are excitedly planning the coming weeks and months.  We're awash with guidebooks, hints and tips from others, Hindi dictionaries and the enthusiasm to make the most of our time in India.

More updates will follow soon!