Well we have arrived......sooo tired though. Actually going to bed now at 4pm....just can't stay awake any longer. Left Brisbane bound for Bangkok, boarded another plane an hour later and flew to Mumbai arriving at 00:10am (India time)all in all around 26 hours since we left home. Cleared immigration & customs then transferred by bus to the Mumbai domestic terminal where we waited until 5:30am for our flight to a Vadodara or Baroda (whichever you wish to call it). The domestic terminal didn't start operations until 4am so due to the lack of seats, sat on the refreshingly cold granite slab garden borders and watched people arrive and the police wandering around with their machine guns over their shoulders until such time as things started moving and we could go through yet another security check point to our boarding gate.
Descending into Vadodara was such a surreal feeling....it was just dawning with an orange glow on the horizon from the unrisen sun. We descended upon the city which is to be our home for the next few years viewing it for the first time ever with our own eyes.
After checking into our hotel, we showered and had a nanny nap for an hour before our orientation tour began at 11am. Our relocation case worker met us in the lobby at 11am and after some formal introductory info, we loaded into our chauffeur driven car and did a drive around the city to show us the main sites. We visited supermarkets and she showed me how to enter the store. After being scanned and frisked by security, they put your handbag inside another zip-able bag and cable tie it so you cannot shop lift... This is then removed when you reach the register so you may pay. She then took us out to lunch at a local Indian food haunt.....great food.
We then began looking at available houses to rent. Absolutely amazing huge properties with security. Felt a bit overwhelmed so decided to call it a day and after a good nights sleep, we'll be back into the property search tomorrow.
We will have a car & a driver supplied. He will take Bruce to work & back home each day (the factory is about half an hour out of Vadodara). In between Bruce's working hours, the driver will be there for my convenience. And question you may well ask? - will we drive? After our visit to India in 2011 and after yesterday's drive around the answer is unequivocally 'No'.....if you're not avoiding those above much loved moo cows, or an auto rickshaw which has come out of thin air right in front of your bonnet, it's the motorist who decides to just drive on the wrong side of the road just because he feels like it and is coming straight toward your car at 60km an hour. It's chaos but it seems to not be a problem to those who drive but for me i think I'd be a basket case if I attempted it.