We flew from Zanzibar over to Dar es Salaam on the smallest plane you could imagine! We had to climb up rope ladder type steps and then when we were on the plane it was impossible to stand up straight the ceiling was so low! There was one pilot who we could see clearly and the seat next to the pilot (that had controls in front of it) was occupied by a passenger too! We flew pretty low straight over the sea to Tanzania’s coast… it only took about 20 minutes to get to Dar! That day we wandered around the city and found the street that one of James’ friends used to live on and took a picture! We just stayed the one night and headed out to the airport the next lunchtime.

From Dar we flew to Nairobi and from there to Mumbai. As we got onto the flight to Mumbai we realised we were experiencing our first taste of India! (There are a lot of Indians living in east Africa and I think there were 2 other white people on the plane and a few Africans but mostly Indians… mostly women and hundreds of children!)

We arrived into Mumbai airport at 2am expecting a nice sleep on a hard floor before we got our connection up to Delhi 5 hours later… However Mumbai airport had different ideas for us! We had to change from the International to the Domestic airport which we were told to do by bus… so we left the airport building to find the bus… only then to be told that the bus leaves from inside the building but that as we had left we weren’t allowed back in! We finally managed to talk our way in and queued up to check in for our next flight... this took about an hour even though there were only maybe 3 people ahead of us in the queue! Then when we finally got to the front they said there was a problem with James’ ticket which took about another hour to solve… we then had to wait for the bus to the other airport and once we got there had to queue to go through security… This was all between 2am and 7am so you can imagine people’s senses of humour were not very high (mine mainly!) and I was not really that excited about what India had to offer if this was what it was going to be like the whole time!!

However, (although it was pretty much like that the whole time!) I soon realised there was a lot of amazing stuff to see and do and after a full days sleep and a meal at pizza hut (which was AMAZING! Haha!) I was much more optimistic about what lay ahead!

In India we were doing an ‘Intrepid’ tour for 2 weeks which started and ended in Delhi… We went to a lot of places in a short amount of time but we really made the most of it and got to do and see so much with a lot less of the hassle you’d get if you tried to do it on your own! We had a great bunch of people on our tour from all over the world and our guide was a local who was really knowledgeable and adapted to suit our needs.

On the first day of the tour we got a local bus to Delhi’s oldest mosque, the Jama Masjid which was pretty incredible. We then walked around the old part of Delhi down narrow streets and went to a spice market. We also visited a Sikh Gudwara where we were shown around and visited their kitchen and dining area where basically anyone of any religion can eat for free and volunteer to make food – we helped make chapattis! We then got the metro which cost 8 rupees (about 10p!) to Connaught Place (which I think is like the centre of Delhi) I couldn’t believe how clean and modern the metro was… it was so strange to one minute be in a poverty stricken, busy, dirty, crowded street and then the next minute be underground in a clean, cool, quiet environment! It was a million times better than the London underground! In Connaught Place we ate lunch at TGI Friday’s… I had sour cream for the first time in months and it was amazing!! Haha the joys of the big city! We rested in the afternoon before catching the overnight train to Mirzapur.

We were in the air conditioned (which meant a fan!) sleeper coach but it didn’t have separate compartments like I was expecting. We got a pillow, sheets and a blanket… although it got really cold in the night! I drew the short straw and got the top bunk (3 tier bunk beds so it was pretty high!) but at least there was some privacy up there! I kept waking up in the night convinced the train was going to topple over or crash it was swaying so much and going so fast… or so it seemed! When I looked out of the window the next morning it was going very, very, very slowly… if it was going at all! But in all it wasn’t too bad and I slept a lot better than I was expecting to!