Last day ...

-


Today is our last day in India. We started the day having tea and cakes with our friends. Then, in exchange for last night's noodle cooking lesson we were give a lesson in dosa, samber and tomato chutney. This made a delicious and filling breakfast to prepare us for our journey. A spot of gardening and more tea drinking and then it was time to say a sad farewell. Our friend and his brother in law gave us each a lift, with our bags, on their motorbikes, to the bus stop. We caught a bus to the main bus station and then another bus towards the airport. Some buses in India are free for ladies and the airport bus was one, so the entire journey from our friend's house to the airport cost 37p for about a 2 hour journey. Possibly the cheapest airport transfer ever!

As both buses came as we arrived at the stops (unlike yesterday) we had some time to kill so stopped for some rose milk at the first station and then tea and samosas at a little cafe outside the airport.  We had a look around the local shops and looked at changing our remaining rupees.  Then we headed to the chicken biryani restaurant where you got unlimited biryani rice, sambal and onion riata for 150 rupees, so we filled our bellies with tasty food before heading to the airport.


Having checked in we headed to immigration.  We have never had such a grilling.  It started with how long we had been in  India, where did we go, what jobs did we do and soon progressed onto where did we stay. We explained we stayed in a mix of hotels and with friends.  Eventually the officer returned our passports but kept our boarding passes, handed us a piece of paper and a pen and told us to come back when we had written our full itinerary and where and with whom we stayed.  Back at the desk, more questions about how we knew the people we stayed  with and how we contacted them... We think we eventually established the issue was their system did not show any of the places we had stayed.  It seems all hotels and private residences must complete an online form.  Interesting that even the hotels we had stayed at had not done this, although they all took a copy of our passports for 'registration'.  Eventually we were given our boarding passes back and allowed to continue with our journey with the advice. That should we come to India again we should stay in hotels!!!! The first flight to Singapore was about 20 minutes late and we arrived in Singapore at 4a.m having managed to get a little sleep on the plane.


Popular posts from this blog

First Day Explorers

-
Image
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good. We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside. We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up. Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inla
Read more

Le Havre to Nevers (7th-18th March)

-
Image
We have been cycling for 2 weeks now and have covered a lot of ground.  We have had varying weather of heavy rain, scattered showers and dry but cold.  Night's in the tent have been pretty cold! THE ROUTE (Le Havre) After our last night in a 'proper bed' for a while, we stocked up on food and headed out of Le Havre. We cycled through farmland to a pretty little town called Harfleur and then on to Lillebonne. We saw 2 massive birds nesting at the top of a post. Our first night camping was beside the river, very tranquil. (First night camping on the River Seine) We followed the Seine down to Rouen. This is funky town with lots of bars and restaurants all along the river. Unfortunately the heavens opened just as we approached so, after taking shelter for a while we continued on to find a camping spot for the night, this time near a railway line. From Rouen we headed throy St Aubin Les Ebeuf and Les Andleys following the river.  We saw lots of beautiful houses and chateau
Read more

Around Valence 22nd March to 9th April

-
Image
We are now staying with friends. One lives one side of the Rhone in the Ardeche and the other on the other side, in the Drome Region. We had originally planned to visit for a few days, however, due to the weather we have been here over 2 weeks! The day we arrived we had blue skies and sunshine, which lasted the first day! Since then we have had a lot of rain, thunder, lightning and hail. Our friends have very kindly said we can stay as long as we like. We have spent some time mending broken things eg. the bike repair kit bag, which virtually disintegrated and the sleeping mat, which we have now accepted cannot be fixed easily! We went to the Salon des Vin de France for a wine tasting event and tasted many wines from around France - some good, some not to our taste and not worth the high price. One sunny day we explored Valence. There are some very pretty parks and lots of historical buildings. We saw the Maison de Tete and a house where Napoleon used to live. We wandered the
Read more