India: Part I
# 24 May 2008 19:18
So, first impressions of India after the 8hr flight, plus at least an extra hour of flying around in the stack waiting for landing permission at Mumbai, and another 20 mins sat on the ground waiting for a space for the plane to pull up and let us off:
Mumbai airport is basically a dump. My initial reaction was that they haven't finished building it, and then as I went inside I thought maybe we'd stopped at some disused terminal as the building was grotty and the walls were plain untidied concrete with a ceiling that looked like it was supposed to have suspended ceiling tiles, but instead had electrical cables hanging down from it.
Security coming into the country seemed almost non-existant: A quick look at my passport, then claimed my baggage and that was me free to roam India. lol
Anyways, so I get outside and as my dad had said their driver, Sheike (sp. to be corrected later, lol), was there to pick me up, holding an A4 sign with BEARD written on it. Fair enough. Then I had to push my way past (the words 'excuse me' did nothing) to reach him then came the 3 hr drive from Mumbai to Pune.
What an experience. At first I had thought "oh they drive on the left like us", but now I know better: Sure they drive on the left; but not like us. lol. Driving in India is dangerous, IMO. I felt like I was risking my life--not that the driver was bad, just that nobody seems to have any road-sense.
In most places there were no road markings or pavements at the side of the road. People drive wherever they want, and people walk around the edges of the road and cross without looking all the time. Other road users are an equally hazardous thing too; with cars weaving in and out of eachother, constantly beeping their horns to get past, say thanks, or just plain say 'hello', it seems. Traffic lights do not seem to mean anything either as they appear to be mostly ignored. Pedestrian crossing might aswell not exist.
I can't adequately describe the roads in words; it is something you have to see for yourself to believe.
There is also a randomly large amount of wild dogs roaming the streets, but they don't bother you at all. Less can be said of the children begging in the streets downtown, who will hound you until you enter a shop and wait til they pick on someone else to make your escape.
Other than that it's nice to be with my family again, but I am missing David terribly. So that's abit of a double-edged sword, really. :(
Jenn's birthday today... 18, woo! Got to sleep first though, so I'm not entirely sure what we are doing tomorrow, although I think we will go to the local bar, which should be interesting...
At some point I need to check out the local McDonald's which doesn't serve meat other than chicken, apparently. Also there is a pizza place nearby that apparently does a Hawaiian pizza, but fails to mention that there is no ham on it....so it's a ham & pineapple pizza without the ham, basically. Oh and no tomato sauce on the base either... Crazyness. Indian's obviously haven't got the hang of pizza yet. lol
We had Chinese today, which was nothing special. I wouldn't be surprised if it was wild dog meat instead of chicken though... Hmm... lol
Anyways, hope you are all missing me ;)
Laters!
Andy xx
© Andrew Beard, 1997—2008.