So I haven’t been very well prepared for this trip. Working right the way up to the end and packing last minute has left me underwhelmed and (just a little) stressed. 

I managed to pack it all up get myself vaguely ready and into a taxi on the way to the airport where I met the lovely Sam. 

We checked in, dropped the bags and we were ready to go! Until- Sam mentioned I should have printed out my visa. It was inevitable that something was going to go wrong after all of the disorganisation. So we went traipsing up and down the terminal looking for somewhere to print off. We managed to charm an airport lounge desk clerk to print it off for us and after a 30 minute stress we were now – for real this time – ready to go!! 

We grabbed some food quickly and then boarded the flight. The first thing I notice of Indian culture is the emphasis on hospitality. The air stewardess kept plying us with beer and 10 beers later she still offered more. 

Later on we went to to back of the plane to get a snack and were met by 3 male air stewards who also were keen to supply us with booze. After an interestingly amusing conversational exchange we left the back of the plane with 10 mini bottles of spirit and a litre of whiskey. 

The entertainment wasn’t great and my seat didn’t recline so I did spend a great portion of the flight staring at my screen waiting for the flight to end. That meant that when an air steward called me to the back of the plane to “discuss the whiskey” – I embraced it with enthusiasm. I spent the next 10 minutes with the air stewards trying to work out how I would get it through customs and security. It was a source of great distress to them and they resorted to calling the captain of the plane. Unfortunately, he also couldn’t solve our issue. And I went back to my seat with one of the air stewards promising he would send me a bottle when I get back to the U.K. We ended up having to donate the bottle to the man in the seat next to me. Somehow I think he’ll probably enjoy it more than us. 

Sam with only a small amount of the booze! 

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful and it was a relief to get off and finally be on Indian soil!

We had reached Mumbai!