The Apartment

We first arrived in the apartment in the early hours of Friday (17th July) morning. First impressions were mixed. We're living in a place called Greater Kailesh 1 and it is quite a wealthy area. As we walked towards our building, bent over with all our luggage on our backs, we could see lots of lovely houses. There were security men, or drivers, standing outside many of them. After climbing a set of narrow, marble stairs, we finally made it to our front door and into the apartment. The living room is lovely.

You step into a big room with three couches around a coffee table; a desk in the corner, with a very old-fashioned computer on it. Then there is a bit of an arch that leads into the eating area. A big glass-topped table is surrounded by about six chairs. With the stairs to the left, the dining table is almost under the stairs. To the right, opposite the table, is a small kitchen. There are three bedrooms on the first floor and one upstairs. Upstairs there's also a roof terrace area, to which we haven't found the keys yet.

I'm sharing a bedroom with Fiona and Mags. We have two beds and one mattress on the floor. Mags kindly offered to take the mattress for the time-being but this'll be reviewed if it turns out to be too uncomfortable.

Each of the bedrooms has an en suite, which is great. Unfortunately there were two problems with the bathrooms when we first arrived: they were disgustingly dirty and there was no water! After a full day's traveling, a lot of people had trouble coping with the filth, not to mind the toilets that wouldn't flush and the hands that couldn't be washed (never was hand sanitizer more appreciated).

Most of that stuff has been sorted out by now though. Evie contacted the estate agent and the next morning we realised that the water is hooked up to the electricity. When the electricity goes, the water goes, but usually the electricity doesn't go for long, so it's not a problem, there's usually enough water to get through it. However, when the electricity goes, you have to flick a switch to get the water back on, which is something we didn't realise before. I'm not quite sure how it all works, all I know is we've had water ever since. And the one time we didn't, we just had to run into the hall, press a button and it came back!

As for the filth, Fiona and I got incredibly excited when we found a shop that sold rubber gloves, toilet brushes and buckets! We bought bleach and sponges and a new shower mat and curtain. Although Fiona and I started the job, Mags went at it for real yesterday and it's sparkling now (or as close to sparkling as you can get in India). Let's just say we don't wear flip flops in the shower anymore!