Thoughts as we leave India…

We bloody love it – the sounds, the ‘busy’, the colours, the heat, the people, the food. It was exactly what we were hoping for.

Other thoughts in no particular order

• All the cars are white – why is that?

• Rubbish – there is SO much rubbish everywhere you go. There is no rubbish removal service so it totally makes sense. It does make it such a shame. It also makes us pleased that we are not using any plastic water bottles, or straws.

• We have managed to stay plastic bottle free this whole time. Our steripen broke FOUR days into our trip. So annoying. Luckily I bought a Lifestraw filter bottle as a back-up so we just shared that. And to give the company their dues, they sent us a replacement steripen to Udaipur which is great. And it’s still going strong – woo hoo! We’ve also managed to stay mostly plastic straw free too. Me “steripenning” in Delhi airport. It’s a 90 second UV light that makes any water safe to drink. Amazing.

• Everyone’s clothes are brilliant – beautiful bright coloured sarees. People must go to the UK and wonder why we are wearing such drab black and white!
• Street dogs – they are not nearly as bad as I thought they would be! They all seem well-fed, don’t follow you and totally fine. I get the impression, they are fed/ watered by the locals. Obvs we aren’t touching them to find out!
• The staring thing – we don’t get it, but are used to it. The kids actually say no most of the time which I respect. We give them the choice. It makes me feel a bit bad, but when you are asked about 50 times a day then it feels okay to say no! Charlotte has a rule of 9 no’s and 1 yes!

• We have loved the people – everyone is just so kind in India

• Our bag weights on departure – kids around 4-5kgs each. Mine 11kgs, Ts 15kgs. Not too bad – we are being ruthless with trinkets. Kids can buy anything but they have to carry it! The water we carry weighs a LOT so on a daily basis we (I mean, T!) are carrying lots of weight. We have a 2.5l bladder we take in the day bag so we always have lots of clean fresh water
• Hotels – we’ve stayed in such a variety of places. Our cheapest was £9 per night (that includes at all 3 meals!) in Khuri, Jaisalmer and most expensive £100 a night in Delhi after we arrived. Generally we’ve been paying around £30 for a family room per night – staying slightly outside of the centre so we can get some space, and the prices are slightly lower. Not sure we’ll find anywhere much cheaper than India, but we’ll see!

• Last but not least, shh, I’m almost too scared to say it out loud, we didn’t get dodgy tummies – Henry a tiny bit but nothing dramatic. I honestly think the hygiene in India is fine – the government supply clean water to everyone, even the slums. And there are sinks (with soap) everywhere! Don’t get me wrong, we were sensible – peeling all fruit, using antibac etc but we did eat street food and the like and were fine!