Kiting over Kabul

I'm writing this post 10,000 metres above Kabul, with a Scotch and Soda in my hand at 10.30am London time. Dreadful! However It is 4pm Delhi -time, and our bodies tell us that we are overdue for lunch, so pre-lunch Scotch is fine.

My stomach in particular is screaming at me that it is high time to return home. Indian hospitality has been far too generous, and all of us, without exception, have thoroughly enjoyed the diet to which we have been treated. My clothes still fit, but there seem to be some bits of me which have become more generous than they were on arrival. Unfortunately the foods we have been offered have been really delicious, and I know we're going to find the English diet terribly bland! As for desserts; it's a sugar- heaven in India! Indians really know how to make puddings!!!!!

I have had a smashing time with my companions, Barbara, Nancy, Sue and Trisha. We've got on together really well, and it's been helpful to share our experiences and reflections, as much of what we have seen and heard has been beyond our normal comfort-zones.

What I both love and loathe about India is that everything is in your face, OTT. The sounds, the smells, the colour, the vibrancy, the beauty of its exotic flora and fauna, the noise of the motor-horn, the precise way Indians drive chaotically, recklessly and carefully, that's India. Laundry washed in putrid rivers that comes out sparkingly-clean, slum-dwellers freshly-pressed and dressed for 9 to 5 in the office who look as good and work as well as any, that's India. Children who want to achieve because there is so much competition in a population of 1.4 billion, children from the lowliest places with the highest hopes of a bright future, that's India. People who would give you their right arm, people who would take your right arm, people who would give you their last rupee, people who would extract your last rupee because that's the way those in positions of authority get things done, well. that's India too.

Lots more photos and reflections on return to the UK, which will happen in about seven hours' time