Day 50 + 51 - India here we come!

Well. We are now in India!!! It's a bit of a different vibe from the clean, empty and colder steppe. Let me tell you a little more about how we got here...

Today was the designated pre flying faff day, original todo listo was: fix Ben's bike, find bike boxes, pack bikes, find malaria tablets, and get to airport for ~11pm. And given we'd located boxes and got Ben's bike fixed the day before, we'd recognised that that we could have a chilled start, and have plenty of time to get to the airport... But turns out we both have an exceptional ability to fill any available space with endless faff. Magically it was 4 pm, all we'd done is have breakfast at the hotel, complete our Tapioca bubble tea tour of Kazakhstan, unsuccessfully find malaria tablets, hang out with the most gentle cat ever, and successfully find Ben a barber*. 4pm.

So while Ben's in the barber with a terribly confused lady because neither of them know what to do or what he wants, I left them to it to go get malaria tablets, flying snacks, and bike boxes.

I unintentionally wait till it's thoroughly raining outside, grab a coffee (café 100% picked based on the fun cat picture inside) and start a few km walk to the bikeshop for boxes. Anyone ever noticed how slow walking is???

Highlights of the walk: the imitation shops; IKEA, McDonald's

6pm, regrouped back at the hotel, Ben's cleaned up (but still bemused by his 1.5 hour hairdresser and cut-throat razor experience 🤣), bike washed, got boxes, now we actually start the one job we had to do today, and completely take over the hotel lobby packing bikes.

We've now successfully filled the entire day with faff; head out for a banging pot of tea (the Kazaks really know how to tea!) then start the surprisingly tricky job of getting bikes to the airport. The guy at the hotel indicated it would be an easy job of call 2 cabs, pay the equivalent of 1€ and be at the airport in 10 mins... but after the first 3 or 4 cabs didn't accept us, he made some calls, some more calls and just like that, we've got 2 bikes in the back of a station wagon, 2 people in the front (not sure why), Ben's on my knee and we're on our way to the airport for ~3€. Overall success.

So (again) we cause total chaos at the airport.... To fly with bikes you need to make a formal request at least 24h in advance (which we'd unsuccessfully tried to do) and then pay for it at the airport to the ground handling people. But again, some one calls someone , who calls someone, who calls someone, and once there's 6 people behind the counter, we go upstairs to pay 20,000 tenge (€33), and the bikes are getting loaded (until they aren't.... because Bens got to open the painstaking wrapped box to get the backup phone that's packed inside.... Allegedly not allowed in check in bags. Wrong, but the guy wasn't going to budge on that.)

The rest is easy. And side note, Ben has ticked a life goal, because buisness class tickets were only €20 more, so just like that we're on a plane with a drink and a fancy meal, a blanket and A LOT of space... And just like that, it's the next day, we're in Almaty, then on another flight and we're in Delhi.

Mum and Dad are also travelling in India at the moment, and they sorted us out a hotel and ride from the airport (thanks a lot guys, much appreciated!!) ...driver waiting at the door, so chuffed doing what he's doing, half dancing as he leads us back to the car. And just like that, we're in the middle of Delhi.

The 1h drive is chaos but brilliant, more like organised chaos....a lot of horns (in quite a structured way) twice as many vehicles abreast as there are lanes, but it works, and the cars/ busses/ hand carts/ tuc-tucs/ cows/ bikes/ mopeds/ trucks/ rickshaws all flow in chaotic harmony.

After a hilarious discussion with the travel advisor at the hotel (who was keen to explain that with a driver for the day we can drive around Delhi and visit this, this, this, this, this and this in one day, and we still have time to visit this this and this tonight 🤯), we clarify Delhi isn't a box ticking exercise for us and that we'll visit a couple of things, but mostly just want to go and wander around on foot amongst the carnage tomorrow.

He asked if we need a SIM card. Moments later a young man shows up who's walked from the local telecoms store and sits down to set it all up. Night and day from battling to the store yourself without Internet and queuing to do it. 7 euros for 30GB of data - brilliant!

We do a quick shower and food and catch a tuctuc across town to visit the most amazing Hindu temple (Swaminarayan Akshardham), only completed in 2005 incredibly detailed in hundreds of thousands of marble carvings. No phones/electronics allowed, so no photos, which was actually really nice, because it meant everyone was just appreciating it. We stayed there for a few hours, just wandering around and soaking in how detailed and interesting this place was.

Back to the hotel in the tuc-tuc, ( these things are such a fun way to raz around) can't wait for tomorrow!

*Ben took to heart my comment that his prided beard had that pubey look, so that changed the mornings priorities...🤷.

Food spend day 50: 46.09 euros

Food spend day 51: 23.70 euros