flora - @ 20six.co.uk

Americans who travel

“Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages” Dave Barry said that.

Rishikesh

Just back from rishikesh... what a special place. It really is another world there.

Off we go to Heathrow to leave. But first we have a great lunch at a carvery - can't beat a stomach full of British beef for a last meal. Its a bit of a squash getting everything into Diana's car, but the journey is short so we manage. We say our goodbyes and we are now on our own (well, apart from the mound of luggage - really must give it a name, as it will be a central part of our lives for so long - assuming it doesn't decide to take a different flight to us, or get itself stolen). We are flying from terminal 4, which doesn't have much to offer you if you are hanging around for several hours, but we have things to do like getting some foreign currency (bad idea to do it at the airport: worst exchange rates on the planet) and buying even more things to carry around for ages.

After some final, final goodbyes on the phone its 9pm and time to fly. We can both thouroughly recommend flying BA's World Traveller Plus - so much more space, it's almost (but not quite) comfortable. Loads of movies on the plane as well: but for some reason we decided to watch Tomb Raider: oh dear, oh dear - at least it put us to sleep for a few hours tho'.

Finally we land. This is it. We are really away now. Six thousand miles, 8 time zones and a different continent.

Odds and sods I didn't mention above: Trailfinders being very annoying and making us come in and see them to show the credit card that the ticket was booked on. Quantas adding extras to the price of the ticket every five minutes for stupid reasons. Premier Lodge hotel at Gatwick using expensive phonecards for the room phone that are not a multiple of the minute cost so you always waste some (and not having a supply of cards in). Bungee jumping going on outside the pub where we went with Diana and Debbie. Travel insurance companies whose websites don't mention fully the restrictions, so you almost buy a useless policy (mentioning no names, but they have an irritating red telephone in their ads). Columbus Direct travel insurance: patient through all our questions, and e-mailing the policy out straight away. Natwest being sneaky and changing their contents insurance policy so it became useless to us (I know we should, but do you read the full document every time they send it to you?). Nationwide doing contents insurance cheaper and better than Natwest. Jo getting photographed by a Gatso - but fortunately not getting a ticket.

Enough: we've left the UK and it's haphazard approach to customer service behind, and we're on our way to Africa.

Americans who travel

Rishikesh

Off To Africa