Ahmedabad

My second visit to India. About four years ago I went there with my then boss and we stayed for 3 or 4 days and toured round a few companies as were were planning to hire some of their chemists on a contract basis. We now have 12 of said chemists working in the lab of one of these particular companies and so it was about time we visited again, this time with my new boss.

India is a truly amazing place. The number of people is simply mind-boggling. the trafiic and the discorganisation is frightening and yet any bumps seem to be minor. everyone uses their horn all the time and yet there seems to be very little of the road-rage we see in our "developed" country. It's not often you see carts pulled not by horses, but by camels!

There is quite a lot of deprivation. It's odd staying in a luxury hotel and opening the curtains to look down on shacks and tents where poeple live. One morning I enjoyed a few minutes watching a stray dog chasing a goat and her kid about, until the kid ran on the road and nearly perished.

I had to have a typhoid booster before I went and of course I'm on malaria tablets. on the one eveing out we had there were mosquitos around and I have a couple of bites so fingers crossed.

On the plus side ....... it was 28 degrees c when we left. After overnight travel we arrived back at Heathrow at 7 am to -4 degrees centigrade!!!

Late additions: photos show us having dinner in the open-air restaurant, complete with biting mosquitos, in the lab with our welcome flower necklaces and red spots on our foreheads, me doing the dreaded bhangra (??) dancing and another of me preaching to the masses!!!!!!!