I was sent on my first ever job outside the Uk as a service Engineer to India to setup equipment for a customer. While travelling and working in India I managed to grab a few days to do some touring, take some pictures and try the real Indian food! I must say now that Indian food has to be one of the best tasting meals on the planet and I take my hat off to its greatness!

My Journey began when I landed in Mumbai (Bombay)where I got a heavy dose of culture shock as I walked out the Airport and got swarmed by loads of taxi drivers and hotel sales men. Not being one to ever had to barter for much in my life and one who likes to be very polite, me and my work mate had a hard time trying to get rid off the the crowd. As well as ended up paying a rather expensive taxi ride in a small black and yellow cab to our arranged hotel. The old British Leyland designed cab wheel spinned off and slipped around almost every corner to our Hotel which was was fun and scary experience at the same time. It was our driver and the other traffic which then gave me the next cutlure shock, when I saw that there appeared to be no rules on driving and “closes shaves” with other traffic was very common at every turn. In fact later on in the month I witnessed a road accident as a ladies foot was clipped by a 3 wheeler , causing some bleeding, some screaming and possible fractures or broken bones.

Once I arrived at the hotel I was amazed at its grand arcitect of one giant reception room with all the accomindations surrounding the outside. This hotel was 5 Star and cost the company £60 a night for me to stay there. Of course I was impressed that I was staying in this hotel and how well organised it was. But again I also found my self shocked once more as I looked outside the window of my room. There below for as far as I could see was a load of small tightly cramped huts made out of various wood, metal and other materials.

I found it sad to be standing within a 5 star hotel spoilt with grand arcitecture overlooking a large area of slums which I was sure didn’t have a water supply let allone electricity. In fact with my later return trips to Mumbai I saw people living in half colapsed buildings, tents on the side streets and was extremely shaken when two young girls in rags and in heavy rain while carrying a baby where knocking on taxi cab windows asking for money. Mumbai felt at the time like where the rich are extremely rich and the poor are extremely poor and where ever I walked on on the streets beggars or sales men of every kind would approached you. I had to remind myself that this is a developing country and one that is developing fast. Therefore just like England and every country in the past or the present has or is gone through a similar phase.

To get to the drilling ship I had to work on I had to pass through Chennai and hydrabad stops to arrive at Rajamundry. Rajamundry was a small town which i explored and enjoyed greatly (and will talk about soon) and it was in Rajamundry where we had to catch a helicopter back and forth to the Drilling ship. This was my first time ever on a helicopter and although i am not a fan of heights or planes, i found the helicopter experience great fun. Plus not to mention the great and breath taking views of the beautiful Indian country side.

Once I arrived on the Drilling ship I was given a short safety induction and given a tour of the rig before starting my work. The ship was big and i was soon to find I had to share a small room which had 6 bunk beds, 1 small bathroom, 1 small sofa, 1 desk and 1 small TV which has only CNN on it (groan). Internet was restricted to two computers for a crew of a 100+ men and women and people are only allowed 10min phone call home a week! This place place was my home for most of a month where I worked 12 hours a day for 7 days of the week. In the little free time I had I went to the gym and watched movies on my computer, finding interests to do was hard to find.

When I first arrived on the ship we went straight to work with rigging up the equipment which took 3 days. We had to work in North Atlantic specification coverals, hard hat, hard boots, ear defenders, gloves and glasses. The temperature outside was about 30 degrees and we had to spend most of our time working in the shaker room which was 35+ degrees. As you can guess we sweated heavily and drank heavily and had a routine of working inside for 40mins then come out, colapse, drink some water for 20min and then go back in. The work was hard at the beginning and after one month of working in India I lost 2 Stone in weight.

Once the rig up was complete I then found myself working back to back on 12 hour shifts with my work mate in our sister companies mudlogging unit. This unit was small and had normally 8 people crammed inside, but luckly had air conditioning to stop us cooking alive. Our sister companies workers comprising mainly of indians and one Philipino where a great bunch and we got along very well together.

When Dilling operations stopped for a period of time the customer would kick us off the ship and back in to town where we could then do some exploring of Rajamundry. We first went to a nice River side hotel by an arranged driver who used an old ambassador car to take us there. I love this car and long drive to Rajamundry. At the hotel we saw some unusal activites coming from the muddy brown river. Indian locals where wondering into the river for their daily washes and several boats with 6 to 8 people would stop in the middle of the river and the people holding shovels would get out and start digging up sand and putting it into the boat. They would then transport it to shore while the top of the boat is about an inch from the water line.

While In Rajamundry we spend a few days touring aroung and hired a small 3 wheeler taxi for the day. The taxi driver took us around town where we did some shopping, went to Hindu temples, and nice spots of the town. I bought a set of 3 hand crafted boxes and a Elephant statue. The Indian wood craftmanship was amazing and I wished i could bring back more!

I visited four temples while in India and only dared enter with my Indian friend so he could explain to me what I should do within the temple. We had to leave our shoes outside and inside i was encouraged to join the others in prayer and was given a blessing by the priest. I must admit i have been given a blessing by a buddist priest in Malaysia and by christian priest in the Uk, therefore I not sure if these multiple blessing are a good thing or a curse! But either way i enjoyed the the experience.

Within the Temple there are many story boards with illustrated pictures of a myth or tale. Above is my favorate one about a boys revenge on some cheeky girls by stealing their clothes and hanging it in the tree.

During my time in India I saw cows wondering the streets and given the highest priority on the road and batts that where bigger than birds. Had great experiences and bad experiences. But Going to India was another eye opener and both good and bad experiences i feel have educated me more on life and especially on how to barter and deal with the swarms of people! India is a great country with some wonderful people, culture and fantastic food! Although it does have some problems and sad memories i will keep, but then again every country has its good and bad side!