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India, what can we say....let's just say it was the biggest eye-opener ever!
The Rough Guide says you will either Love it or hate it and unfortunately it was the latter.....
We arrived at night to be welcomed by an army of mosquitoes...the book warns to cover yourself in repellent before leaving the terminal as Mumbai airport is surrounded by large slum encampments & therefore is a malaria black spot-not the nicest welcome but we know this so this wasn't going to put us off....we paid for a pre-paid taxi inside the terminal & went outside to find the car number we have been given, the driver took our bags to put on the car roof! The 90 min drive (would normally take 30 mins but traffic was at a standstill) was not a good start, the driving is SO dangerous, no orderat all, we thought Turkey was bad but this was unbelievable & no seatbelts-all we could see were slums & poverty all around, it wasn't going well so far.Arrived to our hotel-another disaster! Our room had bad dampness & stunk, the blankets on the bed were minging & there was a connecting door to the next room that had gaps in it so you could peek (Oz stuffed the holes with toilet paper), oh and there was no window-just plastic & a mosi net which didn't lock & could be opened from both inside & outside-great! (What's worse is we didn't realise this until night2)Cried a lot, neither of us have ever felt so unsettled, unhappy & so desperate to go home!
Daylight just made things look worse! When we went out street children & beggars around Colaba & VT were grabbing onto us & trying to take our drinks from our hands.We got hassled a lot from street sellers & taxi/rickshaw drivers too.
Mumbai just seemed to be bursting at the seams-excess traffic, people, cows, pollution, poverty, slums-not pleasant at all.
Delhi was better as we have friends so they were able to take us to nice restaurant s & got us good prices for stuff, it felt a bit cleaner than Mumbai & certainly less crowded although slums still dominate.The 2 days that our friends couldn't take us around we hired a driver, it costs around 7pound for 4 hours.We were staying in an army complex (our friend had arranged for us as it is very safe) so we couldn't get local transport easily & it's best to take taxis anyway.I still felt extremely homesick.It's not a happy place to be & it's certainly not a healthy place to be-however we must say the staff in restaurants, shops etc were all very friendly& all speak exceptionally good English so there's never communication issues.Are we glad we went?I would say no but I guess we can say been there done that.... India definitelychanges the way you see the world.
Singapore here we come.....
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Raja My wife is suffering with Psoriasis and poasirtic Arthritis from last 13 years. She also have severe pain in all the joints. Koi upay bataye bapuji.Hari OM