Pune 2023 - Day One

On Saturday 1st around 3 o’clock I left my home in Hull and drove the one hour and a half drive to Leeds Beckett university Headingley campus. We all met around 5pm ready to travel down to Manchester Airport. I was part of the group that traveled down to Dubai then had a connecting flight to Mumbai. The taxi down to the airport was around one hour from uni to Manchester Terminal 1. After waiting in the check in queue I checked in and weighed my case, made sure I had my visa, boarding pass and passport. We then went straight through security with no problems and had more than enough time to browse through duty free. We all then chilled in the bar and had a pint before our flight. Once we got our gate number we headed down to the gate, went through one more security check and finally boarded the Airbus A380-300. This was a six and a half hour flight where I slept most of it however some of the group took this time to do skin care routine or even complete university essays. On this flight we had the option of chicken biryani or beef meatballs and mash, then for our breakfast you could have either a cheese turnover or an apple and blackberry strudel.

Once we landed in Dubai we had around two hours to explore the airport and even try the McDonald’s. The next leg of our journey was the flight to Mumbai which took around two and a half hours. The food choivce on this flight was a breakfast of either a paneer omelette or another veggie option. The inflight entertainment was a range of new release films and TV shows for everyone’s taste. There were also cameras around the plane to watch the scenery and landscape. Once we got to Mumbai we met up with the rest of the group and after some slight issues going through immigration we finally made it to the coach. The coach to the hotel was definitely an eye opener as it was the first time most of us had seen the poverty and slums of India and this was a lot to take in. The coach ride lasted around five hours but we stopped off at a service station. Once we finally made it to the hotel after around nineteen hours of travelling, we got assigned our rooms filled out some final forms then got freshened up and headed down to dinner. The food was authentic Indian food which gave us our first taste of the local cuisine and it did not disappoint. After dinner we all had a quick chat about the day and the food and what our plans for the week was, then in true university student fashion got together to create a presentation which should have been done weeks prior to our arrival!