And we‘re off...And we’ve arrived.

On the 6th of April 2019, 18 of us set off to embark upon an adventure to India (Mumbai specifically, as certain members of our group discovered only as we boarded the flight). Despite an early start, spirits were high as we boarded the coach and the anticipation built for what we were to be immersed in during our time in India.

We were met by a friend at the airport, found somewhere within Helen’s HUGE rucksack was a teddy bear, who we promptly named Indigo (a combination of India and go, which was a perfectly apt name for a bear embarking with us upon our adventure).

As time passed, films were watched, interesting cuisine was consumed, most of which was surprisingly edible, although the concerning mix of e-numbers rephrased as a “mouth freshener”, did taste like a mixture of “air freshener and fennel”. 

Film reviews:

Instant family : “That was good and I cried at the end, like proper cried”

Mary Poppins: “I enjoyed it, it was really interesting”

Peppa Pig: This was a low point of the journey, we were just half way through the flight when we had to resort to the kids zone, having watched all Disney films which can be deemed remotely appropriate for our age range. The plot was neither enthralling nor amusing. 

To any parents reading this, we would like to assure you that an abundance of homework was completed upon the plane journey, despite the excitement of our final hours in the luxuries of technology.

When we eventually landed, we then faced the adventure that was getting through border control. This was a lengthy and poorly sign posted experience, which included getting into every single queue of border control, and once we eventually reached the front, being told that we were in fact in the wrong queue, and had to join THE LONGEST QUEUE. Then, biometric records were taken of us all, including fingerprints and photos, and once this process was complete we were finally free to properly enter India.

We had the luxury of not having to struggle to remove our cases from the moving conveyer belt, since border control had taken so long that our cases had been removed for us and left conveniently in a neat line for us on the floor. Thank You Airport staff.

Exhausted, we all staggered onto the coach and scarcely kept awake as we were driven to the hotel, eventually arriving at 2:30am, where we immediately headed to bed (after attempting to learn how to work the air conditioning units in the rooms, with some rooms being far more successful in these attempts than others).