India
Hey Family, This time when coming to India I knew what to expect so I was actually looking forward to the trip , reuniting with my foreign counterparts for a month of travel and hockey. As thought the first week would be quiet laborious doing double training most days. This seems unnecessary but when the tournament starts you donât really get a chance to train at all so we need all players up to speed and ready for the tournaments start. If you have ever been to India you will know that for anything to happen it must pass through a hierarchy system it takes ages for anything to get done. And even `players in the other franchises experienced this, all of which had overnight delays in either India or Singapore. Unlike them our trip to India was pretty seamless, long but seamless. No delays and 24h hours total travel we arrived to Bhubaneswar. We anxiously asked the driver what hotel he was taking us , when he responded âMayfairâ we sighed with relief, because this is by far the superior of any accommodation in town . But not until we had unpacked our bags and started to relax we where informed we had to move to a far less comfortable hotel . Lucky enough this was just a temporary shift for 2 days and we moved back to the resort that is the Mayfair . The daily ritual involves eating , training , eating , coffee , pool , training , eating in that exact order. Repeat this for the last 5 days and that is exactly what we have been doing . So when you have asked me what we have been up to, I didnât exactly have anything exciting to tell you . Sunday was our day off , and I wanted to get out of the hotel so I bugged a few of the other boys to come to see a few temples for a few hours . Unlike last year these temples where extremely unsatisfying and small. Needless to say our tuktuk driver in true Indian style âtukâ us to the wrong temple twice. The first temple he drove us to was a Hindu temple so we couldnât even get in (why the fuck would we want to go there ) . A few locals could speak some small English , mainly through watching cricket so he helped us get to our desired location . Missing home and the beach but enjoying my time here so far , plenty of dhal, rice & rotti for lunch and dinner a fair change from the large portion of vegetables and meat I eat at home . Excited for the tournament to start tomorrow and the travelling certainly will be interesting. Over & Out Aran













