A Warm Welcome to India...

Taxiing @ Mumbai Airport, India

As we flew over the lower half of India, making our way up to Mumbai, it was amazing to see the different shapes and colours of the mountains, hills and valleys in India; something completely different to anything I had seen before in Australia.

As we descended down to Mumbai airport, something else that is just not seen back home, were the slums crowded in around the perimeter of the airport, and some kids playing on an embankment running perpendicular to the end of the runway with some kites.

It was late afternoon when we arrived at Mumbai Airport and you could tell it was hot outside, the country seemingly ignoring the fact that it was late-mid Autumn.

You are here

Not to worry, I could now see the exit we had dreamt about in our forced march (rumours had spread of Airport guards with rifles at the back of the pack making sure no-one broke through the emergency doors leading directly into the terminal), as we turned the corner we could walk the same distance back down to the baggage handling area.

Here I had my first opportunity to use the bathroom since the airplane, and in a foreign country! Now, I like swimming as much as the next person, but it just seemed the amount of water on the floor was a bit excessive, but I made do with what I had, and I didn’t even get my jeans wet.

We collected our bags, applied liberal amounts of deodorant and proceeded through another baggage check before we were cleared by customs; we were now officially welcomed by the Indian government to their beautiful country! We exchanged our plastic Australian money for a wad of Indian notes and made our way out of the… Oh my God, how hot is it here!