20 Nov WEDS. Farewell to India (till the next time)!

On this trip we visited 6 major Cities in the North of India and so we probably had fewer opportunities for R&R than when we head out into the 'sticks' but we've enjoyed it.   

Our favourite places were definitely Amritsar and Varanasi but we have a soft spot for Mumbai and feel comfortable here.

On our first evening in Delhi (Friday 8th) we did a 'night street food tour' which I'd pre-booked through Viator.   We were really pleased to find out that the tour guide works for Reality Tours (and Viator was just the booking platform).    Whilst we were in the Delhi spice market, on our tour, our guide greeted a fellow Indian and introduced him as Krishna Pujari, co-founder of Reality Tours who is normally based in Mumbai but was visiting Delhi with a friend..       

We've used Reality Tours in Mumbai in the past to do a fascinating walking tour of the Dharavi slums where over 1 million people live and also a street food tour which gave us an insight into dishes commonly seen 'on the street food stalls' which we'd never have dared try on our own.  In fact, it introduced us to some of the 'street food' which featured in the High Tea menu at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.      

Reality Tours is a profit-sharing model and funds its sister organisation 'Reality Gives', an NGO (non-governmental organisation).   80% of their post-tax profit goes back into the community to educate the kids, teaching them English, computer and life-style skills to help them break out of the cycle of poverty.

Krishna was thrilled to hear that we'd been on a couple of the Mumbai tours (especially the slum one) as he said that had been the most difficult to get off the ground.   He's so passionate about what he does (he's very inspirational).    

He and a friend founded Reality Tours in August 2005 but didn’t run a Dharavi slum tour until January 2006 because they couldn't convince anyone to visit a slum.  Hotels wouldn’t work with them because they wouldn’t pay commission and people were sceptical of flyers being handed out on the street.   He didn't give up though and despite only having 350 visitors in 2006 he knew that Dharavi was a fascinating place and that the tour was an important step to raise awareness.  Their big break came when Lonely Planet included Reality tours in their 2007 guidebook.  

In 2014 they expanded into Delhi doing much the same thing and they're going from strength to strength.      We'd highly recommend them if ever you're looking to do tours in Mumbai, Delhi (and I believe they're starting up in Agra).   They're doing great things for the kids living in poverty and their tours are fun and informative.

Sorry, the reason I went off on a tangent is that Krishna asked me whether I preferred Mumbai or Delhi and was very pleased when I said Mumbai (no contest).     Delhi is a much newer city and has the advantage of being planned/built with wider roads and lots of green parks - but it doesn't have the 'personality' of Mumbai (IMHO).

So, we left our 'budget' hotel at 9.30pm and set off for the airport and to experience the 'First Class' experience from Mumbai to Heathrow.    Our flight was at 2.15am this morning.

We weren't impressed with the baggage check-in desk at Mumbai.   Just one desk and it served both First Class and business class and was extremely slow.   It took us around 30 minutes to check our cases and we'd have been faster going through the economy section we reckon. 

But, once that was sorted, the experience picked up.    The lounge serves Business and First class passengers but First Class is segregated by a pretty screen/wall.     Business class get self-service buffet food and First class get silver service a la carte offerings and unlimited drinks.   

David opted for scallops to start followed by rack of lamb and I started with a lamb dish (can't remember what it was called but it was gorgeous) followed by seared duck breast.  We had a few glasses of Moet & Chandon and then retired to comfortable lounge chairs until it was time to head for our gate

Our BA First Class flight to Delhi 3 weeks ago was good and the staff were very slick.    This trip from Mumbai to London was somewhat different.   I was OK, the stewards were very attentive to me but David felt a bit like a second class citizen he said.   I had to ask one of 'my' stewards to get him a coffee at one stage and it was irritating things like bringing him breakfast cereal - but no spoon and then disappearing for 5 minutes so he had nobody to ask.     The seating configuration in the First Class cabin is 1, 2, 1 and we'd opted for 2 seats in the centre - they have a divider panel which can be drawn across for privacy or left open so passengers can see and talk to each other.    David had different crew members on 'his' side of the cabin.

My tv remote control was faulty.   It was the type thats attached to a sort of bungee rope cord that you pull out of the wall.   Its supposed to pull out and then stay out but mine just kept flying back into its cubby hole.    I asked a steward to help and he yanked it hard and the remote broke away from the cord so was totally useless.    He pointed out that I could still use the screen as a touch screen .... but no, I couldn't ....

The decision was made to reset the system so everyone lost their entertainment for 10 minutes .   After the reset I still struggled.     I wanted to watch Red Joan (Judi Dench) but the film kept stalling, running backwards to the beginning, and the sound quality was awful so I gave up and decided to get a couple of hours sleep.   Because its a night flight I hadn't planned to watch more than one film anyway but it would have been a different matter on a daytime flight.   

The seats turned into comfortable flat beds but, unlike the flight out, it wasn't possible to sit upright and simply raise the leg support section.    Its all or nothing - upright seat or flat bed.    It was a much older plane and was showing signs of wear.

Just before landing, David went to the loo and en route had a word with the Cabin Crew Manager and said we would put in a complaint about my faulty entertainment equipment and he hoped she would report it too as the next person to occupy my seat would have the same problems.      10 minutes later the Manager came to talk to me, she'd been aware of the initial problem but thought it had been resolved.  The plane was full so re-seating me wouldn't have been an option.   She was very nice and by way of apology has arranged to transfer 20,000 avios points to my BA account and then she came back with a bottle of champagne for us to take away.     I think the avios points are worth around £200-£250 so that kind of commits us to flying BA again ... but its a nice gesture.