Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

We’ve done quite a bit of moving about over the past week so haven’t had much time for blog-writing, but now, with a very full and contented stomach (following my 6 course Shangri-La dinner - only 2 of which were dessert courses), a couple of good night sleeps and a few good showers down, I feel fully rejuvenated and ready to write again!

It’s been over a week now since we left Palampur and the people we had spent the first four weeks of our travels with.  Rich and I were both very sad to say goodbye as we had had so much fun together - the hours before bed every night at out house, ‘Silver Oaks’, were some of my favourite times so far as we would all just sit and talk about everything from our lives and our travels to the way the sun, earth and moon move, Disney films and our bowel movements!!!

Those of us who were leaving (including those of us who were doing the 4 week programme and those who had already been there for 8 weeks as they’d arrived in July) piled into 2 jeeps for the 4 hour journey back to the train station.  The rain was pouring as we pulled out of camp - I like to think it was the tears Palampur was shedding because we were leaving, but the clouds had cleared by the time we had moved down the road (obviously the town wanted to remind us of it’s beauty before we left) to reveal the peaks of the mountains which provided a stunning backdrop to a vivid rainbow.  It was a beautiful picture postcard and a fitting final memory of the area.

We arrived at the station at 10p.m. and the train wasn’t due until midnight as we had to sit and wait for a couple of hours.  I only got about an hour’s sleep on the train so wasn’t really in the mood for the 3 hour wait we then had at a very crowded Delhi station for our next train (London in rush hour isn’t a patch on the discomfort of Delhi in the midday heat!)  We were especially infuriated by the wait when we found out that the train we were already on goes on through to Agra and the company we were travelling with make you get off the train to wait three hours because it saves them money.  This fact was made even worse when we found out that, in spite of their claims that they book all tickets 90 days in advance, in reality they book last minute and seats are only reserved in case of cancellations in the air-conditioned class.  As there weren’t 16 cancellations (funnily enough), we all had to travel in ’sleeper class’ - the Air Con in this class is the open windows!  If it rains, which it did, you try to close the windows, which only close half way, and then you just get wet! There weren’t enough seats to go round so many of us spent the journey sharing a top bunk, sitting with our necks stooped so we weren’t hitting our heads against the ceiling. None of us would have had an issue with this way of travelling if it was what we had paid for, but the costs the company charge for this sector of the trip would undoubtedly cover First Class rail travel and still leave money over for investment in the volunteer projects (- someone is making  hefty profit out of other people’s good will - the company appear to be putting very little money into developing the projects; most of the good work being done on the projects is because the volunteers are dedicated and want to help).

We were, therefore, pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel the company had booked for us in Agra was fairly decent.  We got our first proper hot shower for nearly 4 weeks and we were even provided with towels!  We got an early night as we decided to try to beat the crowds by going to the Taj Mahal at the crack of dawn. Unfortunately the Taj Mahal opens at 6a.m. all year round; this means that, in the winter months, it is possible to see the sun rise over this magnificent building, however, in summer,  it is already daylight by the time you can get through the gates. Still, it was worth the 5.30 start as we were able to see it before too many people flocked in.  The exterior certainly lives up to its reputation.  As the sky turned bluer, as the sun rose higher, the white marble of the building appeared to glow more and more luminous; one corner of it even glittered where the sun rays fell directly onto it.  The inside was fairly unremarkable, as was our guide - another money-saving ploy from our tour company perhaps?!

The return journey to Delhi was even more stressful than the outward one - the train got delayed by half and hour every half hour for 4 hours.  Then, when it did finally arrive, it sat in the station for another hour!  We finally arrived back at our hotel at 1.30a.m.  The travel agent tell you to book your return/onward flights for the Monday night or Tuesday - 2 of the girls who were with us had opted for the Monday night:  they had to pay for a jeep back from Agra as it became apparent that there was no way they were going to catch their flights if they waited for the train.  We were also a bit surprised at the locals’ reaction to us while we were waiting at the station, given that his must be the tourist capital of India; a group began to gather around us, just to stare at us, so we decided to entertain them with a rendition of Happy Birthday for Sam -this was clearly a grave error as the crowd quickly grew to the point where we could not see daylight through them!  There must have been upwards of 100 people around us:  and there they stayed until their train came along!  We looked to our guide for help and he shrugged at us, told us he felt really uncomfortable and moved away from us - he would occasionally look back and laugh!

And so, we eventually returned to Delhi.  We spent a couple of days looking around - we decided to use public transport and used the Metro, which has been developed in the past couple of years so is very modern.  Quite a contrast to Old Delhi,the site of the Red Fort.  We walked through the hectic, hot streets of Old Delhi, astounded once again at the number of people and the amount of traffic we had to content with - you think we’d be used to it by now!  The Fort itself provided little sanctuary as I was constantly stared at - perhaps those inside were tourists from outside of Delhi, unaccustomed to seeing white women; my personal space was constantly compromised in this city - the Indians push and shove as a matter of course and have no sense of boundaries!  The Fort was large and had some impressive features but after the Taj Mahal and the Amber Fort, it had a lot to live up to, and didn’t succeed!

That evening we attempted to check-in to our flight only to find that Singapore Air had changed the date of it from Wednesday to Friday.  We made a frantic phone call to the travel agent as my dad had arranged to stay on in Singapore for a couple of extra days especially to see us so we didn’t want to wait for the Friday flight as he would have left by then, and our original flight was restored.  So on the Wednesday we hired a tuk-tuk for a few hours to take us to the various sites of the City including the Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi memorial museums, and before we knew it, it was time to say our farewells to India.

We arrived in Singapore first thing on Thursday morning and, true to form, our bags were waiting for us on the conveyor belt by the time we’d got through customs and we were at my brother’s house within an hour of landing!  The contrast between here and India could not be greater - it was more of a culture shock coming from India to here than it was going from England to India!  Far more tower blocks have gone up in the last 3 years and there are even more shopping centres - in fact, it is now impossible to get anywhere in this country without walking through one!  We couldn’t help indulging a little and both bought some new shoes and I am having a skirt and jacket made ready for my return to work next year - it doesn’t work out much more expensive to get stuff tailor made here than it does to buy stuff off the shelves in the high street at home so I’m using the same tailor I used 3 years ago so I guess I can refer to him as ‘my tailor’ now to sound like I’ve really got money and regularly get clothes made!

Having spent too much in the first 2 days, we are now economising and will spend some time here just hanging around in my brother’s lovely apartment.  I also have to thank him for a couple of lovely meals - he’s making sure I eat properly by buying me dinners - thanks Dan and Dahlia!  Which brings me back to the delicious dinner I’ve indulged in today!  After 4 weeks of rice I was able to eat virtually anything you could dream of and to have as much of it as I wanted!  The hotels here compete over their Sunday buffet brunch and they all lay on a spectacular spread.  We went o the Shangri-la and there was so much choice I decided to go for a little of as many dishes as possible, though I did have to have seconds of prawns as they were so good!  I limited my dessert courses to 2 this year - though the first was a chocolate brownie filled crepe with chocolate ice cream, mashmallows and strawberries dipped in the chocolate fountain so I’m not sure if that counts as 3-in-1!  And it doesn’t stop when you’re full!  Each guest is given a box to fill with sweets to take away - Dahlia and I asked for a couple of extra boxes too - so I’m off now to tuck into the 6 boxes of sweets sitting in the fridge!

xxxxxxxxxx

Hi All

 Rapture Solutions have fixed the error with the passwords (Cheers Stu). Please follow the instructions below

Sorry to all those folk having problems logging in, there is indeed a problem with email. I’ve fixed it now though so if you click on the “Lost your password?” link, a new password will be emailed to you and you can then change it again when you log in.

Can i just add their very reasonable and will do a sterling job of any computing needs!!

Just uploading more photos while im in internet class so check back later.

Stay happy all

Rich

Namaste all

Before i write an update, if anyone has registered and have not recived a password can you please email either Lins or me and ill get technical support (Shep) onto it!! Think there is a problem somewhere

Anyway, had a great weekend this weekend. After anther week of volunteering (which is still fantastic) we all set off on Friday for Mcleod Ganj, home of the exciled tibetten goverment and the Dhali Llama. Since Chinas brutal occuption of tibet in the 50s this place has become the home of Tibettens as well as its goverment and feels nothing like india. Its only 30km away from where we are staying but still takes 2hrs (unfinshed roads and big big hills!).

The town is split into two halfs, daramasala at the bottom of the mountain and mcleod ganj a little way up. Daramasla is largly forgetable and is  a bustling indian market but up the hill couldnt be further away. Permanently shrouded in mist (or so it seems, moonson season at the moment), Mcleod is so diffrent, tibetten monks wander the streets (in rebook classics and talking on mobiles! Very sureal) and its packed with tourist of either the religious or normal kind!

Arriving at around 11 we discovered that IDEX had not booked our hotel, que waiting around and frantic searchs from the guides and finally we all found accomodation.

It has become apparent in the last week that the Indian company idex are more concerned with money making than anything else which is a shame as the camp and the voulenteers are all keen to work and head office enforces its stupid rules on them.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Mcleod. After first stopping for a pizza in a great Nepalise run restaraunt. We sat on the roof to eat and watched flocks of giant eagles swooping in the air currents around the mountains and above our head. At one point we counted 14 of the huge birds. Truely impresive site.

It also quickly became apparent from our lofty perch that the fog in Mcleod has a mind of its own and acts like a living creature. One moment its clear as a bell and next the fog comes sprawling across the mountains engulfing anything in its path. This would be the same for the next three days.

After lunch we visited the Dahli Llamas residence, an impressive modern building with Buddist temples (lins views differ somewhat!)  and what we assume would be spectacular views had it not been for the fog following us!

The Tibetten museum was the next call. Here the plight of the Tibetten people is told and the occupation by China. I fasinating insite into what appears to be brutal oppresion of the the Tibettens. Many people bought Free Tibet t shirts (many staright away without visiting the museam) but i disagreed with this for  couple of reasons 1) I do not want to trivialise such a plight into a fashion statement and 2) because i wish to read the point of view of China on the situtaion before i fully make up my mind. However intial impressions are that the occupation is unjust and brutal and why nothing was done is probably only down to other countries fear of China.

After the museam we got caught in a massive rain storm, Mcleod is well into monsoon season and when it rains your soaked in seconds. This happens a few times a day and is not a pleasent experience it has to be said! The damp penatrates everywhere, on retiring to the room which i shared with Sam (another volunteer from Watford) we realised that the beds were soaked as well as everyhting in the room. Rubbish!

The next morning was the start of a 2 day trek to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Mcle0d. We rose over a kilometre over 6 hrs untill we reached the top at approximatly 2900m.

 The way up was steep and rocky which made the trek hard work. Poor Lins suffered more than most due to the cold she had picked up. She puffed so many times on her ventalin in think she floated the last 20 mins! In all it took aound six hours to get to the top. The route on the way up was made more perilous by people trying to move livestock and the fog which advanced and retreated at will, taunting us with a glimpse of a view and then cruely snatching it away again.

On finally reaching the top ,waiting for us were basic cabins and a kitchen room where our Tibetten guides cooked us up some great food. It was a suprise after lunch when Kasper looked round and saw behing the mist and cloud another mountain of about 4500m. This had the traditional look of the Himalyas about it with craggy peaks and blue rock. Strange to think that Everest is miles away in Nepal but we were still in the same range in India. Makes you feel a very small part of the earth.

Everyone was shattered after the long climb so we all layed around and chatted and relaxed while dinner was prepared. Worked on my sun tan, think im working my way through the dulux colour chart of white, gradually gettin darker. May be slightly tanned by the time i get back!

Atul, our guide from camp then decided that we should have a bonfire so, off all the men went into the nearby woods to procure wood. Proper hunter gatherer stuff as me and Martin walked back into camp with a large log on our shoulders! I was not convinced it would burn but then the guide threw petrol on it and that did the trick (at one with nature and all that)

We all decided to rise early and see the sunset over the mountains. At the time it was impressive but the pictures make it look more so, loving the new camera (thanks Viv and Larry!!).

The way down was alot easier as you can imagine, i reached our first stop going up in an hour and a half as slow walking hurts my knees since the marathon, especially down hill!

back in Mcleod Ganj we discovered the Dali llarma was undertaking a tal. After umming and arring we decided we could justify missing work (shame but we are here to volunteer) and we set off back.

Time is up now so i better sign off. Cound not upload photos today as computer was playing up so going to try tommorrow in internet class. Hope it works then as some are spectacular

Aacha ji all

This may well be my last entry from India - I still have a week left here, but we leave what has been our home and workplace for the past 3 weeks on Saturday; we will take an overnight train to Delhi.  From there, we’ll be heading to Agra for a day to see the Taj Mahal and then we’ll have a couple of days back in Delhi to see the sights there before we head off to Singapore - if we manage to find an internet cafe in Delhi, I’m sure we’ll write from there, but you never can tell with India!

 As I have a bit more time today than I did on Sunday (though not much more as work beckons in just over an hour) I can say a bit more about the weekend - hopefully Rich will be successful in uploading the photos of Mcleod Gan and the views from the top of the mountain we climbed as I think they can tell the story of the weekend so much better than I possibly could!  Still, I’ll have a go!

 When we arrived in Mcleod, the project company had forgotten to book us any accommodation, and it isn’t as if there were just one or two of us to find a room for; there were 18 of us altogether!  So very typical of India and the organisation of Idex (the project company)!  “Indian time” has become one of the volunteers’ most used, but possibly least favourite expressions.  It is coupled beautifully with “It’s all part of the cultural experience!”

Once they’d found accommodation for us in 3 separate hotels in the town we went to find somewhere werving Western delights for lunch!  We found them at ‘Carpe Diem’ - not only did it serve pizzas; it had a wood fire oven!  As much as I’ve grown quite used to having rice a least twice a day: everyday; I do take every opportunity available to have alternatives so that I can continue to cope with the paddi field growing in my belly!

After lunch, we headed to see the Dalai Lama’s residence and teaching area (which I think I’ve already mentioned) - it was a fairly unspectacular block of concrete and seemed somewhat lacking in spirituality; that said, we were shrouded in mist and, had the clouds cleared, they would have revealed the mountains which would satnd over the buildings like giants and possibly add to the spiritual feel.  I did gain a sense of what the place could be when I came down the stairs of the complex to the sight and sound of two Tibetan, Buddhist monks playing the long horns.  The sound was haunting and, with the monks enshrouded in the mist, it was possible to imagine the potential for this to be a place with some mysterious and magical significance.

We also visited the Tibetan museum which tells of the plight of the Tibetan refugees in India and the situation for those remaining in Tibet under Chinese occupation.  There were some fairly horrendous stories of oppression of the Tibetan culture and the methods the Chinese are employing to enforce their power over the Tibetan people - I know I’v only received a subjective viewpoint from those who claim to have suffered at the hands of their oppressors, but when you see pictures of  five year old child having to walk miles at 5700 metres across snow-covered mountains and hear of nuns who were tortured with electric shock devices inserted into their private parts to force them to denounce their faith, it’s difficult not to feel very sympathetic to their cause.

I think pathetic fallacy cmae into play at his point as, while we were in the museum, the rains began and they hung around for quite some time so we hung around in cafes and bookshops until they disappeared.

Apparently Mcleod isn’t too safe at night, which seems kind of unusual when you consider this appears to be the spiritual home of Buddhism, so we all headed back to the hotel early.

The trek, as I mentioned, proved to be something of a struggle for me as I was unwell and my lungs just couldn’t function but, as the trek was one of the main reasons we’d decided to book this project rather than any other, I knew I had to make it to the top!  The weather held out for us, with just an hour’s rain in the evening, but during this time we simply all crowded into a hut and sang by candlelight.  It all added to the experience!  Once the rains cleared, the songs moved to the campfire which had been started after the men had been sent to hunt and gather wood for their women earlier in the day, and with the help of a lot of petrol! 

We got up early (5a.m.) for sunrise, which was not as spectacular as we’d hoped as the mountain it rose behind was simply too high, though the pictures hopefully show some of the pinks and oranges and sliver lined clouds we got to see.

After a hearty porridge, we begn our descent and, having been almost last to reach the top, I was the first to get back down!  And then the heavens opened: again!

On Monday we had work, as usual, then yesterday was another festival day so we had a day off, but the project organisers arranged a dance workshop and a cooking class for us, and I treated myself to another massage!  Just the sort of day we needed to recover from the weekend’s activities!

I need to get back to work now so I’ll either be in touch from Delhi or Singapore. xx

Hi all - I’ve got a few minutes to kill before get transported back to Palampur from Mcleod Ganj so thought I’d write a quickupdate. Mcleod is home to the Dalai Lama - he will, in fact, be here tomorrow talking on some Buddhist texts and a number of the other volunteers are staying on for an extra day to hear him speak but I feel obligated to retuen to go to work tomorrow as I only have one week of volunteering left (many of the other volunteers are here for 8 weeks instead of the 4 that we are here so they can afford to take an extra day off). The work is challenging - particularly in thespecial needs school I’m working at in the mornings - I have spent the past 2 weeks teaching a 24 year old the meaning of the numbers 1-4. I hope he will at least reach 5 before I leave. In the afternoons I’ve been teaching additional classes for children in the local village to help them complete homework and develop their maths and English skills - this I am relly enjoying as the children are enthusiastic and vary greatly in age and ability - though they are all delighful and seem to adore Katherina (the volunteer I work with) and I - though a couple of the boys are starting to get a bit cheeky now they’ve sussed me out!

We came to Mcleod Ganj to go trekking for the weekend - we spent Friday looking round the town, which is unlike much of India as it ihas a very large population of Tibetan refugees and therefore many Tibetan influences and cultural traditions prevail here. We saw the Dalai Lama’s residence and Tibetan temple.

Yesterday we trekked up to 2900 metres to the top of a mountain called the Indo Pass -as I had a stinking cold, was wheezing from asthma and I was at altitude, I’m surprised I made it, but I did and it was well worth it for theviews of the surrounding mountains and the towns so far down below. We spent the night in a hut, had to go to the toilet au naturel, and were surrounded by stray dogs, cows, sheep and goats. It was great! I didn’t struggle nearly so much on the way down the mountain - the cold has cleared, so am now fighting fit!

Have to go or the taxi will go without me!

xx

We have now been in India for 15 days and I feel the only way to sum up what life here is really like is, not by telling you what I’ve been up to, but by writing my own cultural guide to India!

Transport
This comes first because a) there’s so much to say about it; b) I’ve spent so much on it and in it and c) it’s bloody frightening!

Trains:
Make sure you sit in the seat allotted to you by name. If someone else has booked the seat for you, it may not be in your name, so you simply have to pretend to be someone else of approximately the same age and sex. If someone else has booked the seat for you, you also risk having to change seats halfway through the journey as the ticket inspector may have someone of a different name sitting in your seat at a different time!

Driving:
Drive as fast as you can for as long as you can. Get up as close as you can to the person in front of you then slam on your brakes. Use your hornas much as you possibly can! Beep at the person walking at the sid eof the road; beep at the two cows wandering onto the road; beep at the motorbike carrying 4 people, the tuk-tuk carrying 9 people, the jeep carrying 15, the truck carrying 27 and the bus carrying 99. Beep as you approach cars, beep as you want to overtake cars. Just beep beep beep! If whatever it is that you are approaching chooses not to move when you beep then continue to drive at it and swerve to miss it at the last second!

The Indians, like the British, drive on the left. Apparently! In reality, the Indians take up whichever part of the road will get them there the quickest; every corner is taken on the racing line - including those 500 metres up on top of a cliff edge!

The golden rules are:
1 - fit as many people as possible into/onto the vehicle - I have spent a number of journeys sat on the dashboard of the bus with my back against the windscreen - and it seems perfectly normal!
2 - Do not fit safety belts or wear crash helmets
3 - Drive as fast as you can to your destination and beep at anything that gets in your way.
4 - Sit back and enjoy the ride!

Communications

As you can probably tell by the fac tthat this is only my second entry to the website, communications here are not great!  I believe I mentioned there were 2 internet cafes in this town - I went to one of them today and it has closed down!  So here I am, writing from the only internet cafe in the town!  This is not the only problem with ther internet here! 

The connection speed is simply slow - nothing else to it - to open my hotmail account on the computer at the camp, takes in excess of 5 minutes - you can imagine how long it would take to upload a blog entry!

Power cuts are frequent so you can spend ages writing an email or document to simply lose it all as you are plunged into darkness!  “Save it as you go along” I hear you say!  Well, that, again, takes significantly longer than it would elsewhere - my lack of knowledge of computers leaves me baffled as to why this is the case, but it is!

The Post Office:

It’s open from 9-4.30, excpet on Sundays.  Quite reasonable, you may think!  Well, packages have to be sent by 2pm, and in order for you to fully understand why this can be difficult, I need to explain the process for sending a package:  The package must be in a box - boxes are not available from the post office, nor do any of the shops seem to have any - on average you need to ask at least 10 people before you can aqcuire a box.  Next, you need to buy white fabric andc wrap the box in it.  This mues then be taken to the tailor who will sew the fabric to fit the box and seal the parcel with wax.  Then you take the parcel to the post office where you have to write your name and sender’s address and the recipient’s name and address.  This then needs to be stamped and sent.  Total time taken last week for Ktherina and I to prepare and send her sister’s birthday present to Denmark:  One and a half hours!

If you want to send a letter you must get in one queue to get an envelope, take it outside, write the recipient’s address on it, get in another queue, get a stamp, take the stamp outside to use the glue to stick it to the envelope, get in another queue, and send!  (This I observed while waiting for the parcel to be sent!)

Animals

There are plenty of them:  Everywhere!  The streets are over-run with dogs, monkeys and cows.  Cows here are sacred so people tend to take particular care not to hurt them - they just wander the streets, wander into people’s gardens etc., as do the dogs.  There are a few dogs living in our neighbourhood who wag their tails when we arrive home at night.  As soon as we turn the lights out to go to sleep, the dog choir very kindly sing us a lullaby, barking and howling into the early hours, then starting again a few hours later in case we’ve forgotten they’re there!

The monkeys mostly keep themselves to themselves, though they have been known to steal some washing from the line belonging to the girls staying in the apartment downstairs.

Spiritualism

There are temples everywhere.  Hinduism is a religion tolerant of all other religions, believing there is one god that goes by many names.  Equally, Sikhism, the second biggest religion in India, is tolerant and the Sikhs can pray anywhere, therefore, the temples are well used by all and religion here is fairly harmonious.  Some of us were invited into a Hindu Temple last week (some of the girls could not go in as they did not have anything with them to cover their heads with) and were given the Tikaa (the red dot between the eyes), holy water to drink and holy rice to eat.  It was a real honour, even if I am not religious.

Spiritualism is at the epicentre of life for all here; regardless of their religious beliefs, everyone will celebrate the festivals (today is Raaki - the festival of brothers and sisters).

Yoga: 

In India, yoga is treated as a science; a way of life.  It does not necessarily partenr with religion, though it is part of some religions.  The yogic belief is that the self is what is important and that we are all human and all part of the human and natural world.  We need to be happy and at one with our self in order to achieve enlightenment - I’ve been practising yoga in England for a while now and have found it relaxing, stretching and strengthening, but rearely enlightening, however, here, the whole approach to it is different and most of us have rarely known relaxation like that which we felt after last night’s yoga workshop - I think I need a new yoga class at home!

Massage: 

It’s good and it’s cheap - what more can I say?!  These guys know their stuff - I had a massage from an Ayurvedic Therapist in Manali at the weekend; it included a full body massage and reflexology for an hour at the grand price of just 300 rupees (that’s less than 4 pounds).  He suggested I have reflexology everyday for week or two at home as I would benefit from it - and he couldn’t understand why I was laughing - the cost would be astronomical!  Massage really is a science here, working to increase the body’s healing powers.  It felt great!

Unfortunately, time, once again, has got the better of me - I need to get back to camp for the next yoga workshop which, as you’ve probably gathered, I thoroughly enjoyed and don’t want to miss to sit in front of a computer stooping my neck!    So, I’ll just leave you with the reassurance, in case I’ve caused any doubt, that I am absolutely loving India - in spite of, and because of, all its eccentricities and crazy baffling ways, all of which we just put down to being “part of the cultural experience.”  xxx

Namaste everyone, today is the Hindi Festival of Rahki so we have the day off. Its a brother sister festival and is all about protection of your family. You get given wrist ribons, the red tikka on your forehead and sweets. Spent the time after lunch playing cricket ith the camp staff and now wandered into town to update the blog, also uploading a sample of photos so check out the link on the bottom right of the page.

The past weekend has been spent in Manali. Its 180 km from Palumpur and is the main tourist destination of Himichal Pradesh. It takes six very long hours in a jeep to get there. Never complain about english roads because trust me, we dont have to put up with kamakazie bus drivers, mud slides and cows with a death wish. On the way back we saw the sad site of someone who tried to take on a corner and lost. A drop of 300ft with a trailer behind him, he was not walking away.

 Anyway more cheerfully we arived in Manali and it was a really nice place. Very picture postcard with and old and a new town surrounded by forests and mountains.

 Checking into the hotel I glanced up and noticed that the second floor had yet to be built but you get used to thigs like that!

 First night we walked up to the Hanaman temple which was nset in a woodland glade. Would have been quite peacefull and spiritual in 1600 but now there are snake charmers and women with huge rabbits!

After a good look round we headed to Johnsons bar which im ashamed to admit does western food. After two weeks of curry i was craving chicken and bacon and pasta, and that is exactly what I had!! After lunch many people retired to their room but four of us (Selina, Karlijn and Mel and myself) fancied another beer. We wandered and found a place that was still open, inside we found a kicking club which shocked us as it as silent outside. Two hours later i rolled home (was not in Lins good books!) 

 Next morning Lins and Katrina had massages booked. Kasper, Ida and myself decided to walk round the Tibetten area. the Dahli Larma lives aout 30km from where we are in exile so there is a big tibetten influence in the area. The buddist temple we looked in was amazing with a Two storey statue of buddha and other gods. Thousands of bright colours and prayer flags were scatterd around the area. After the temple we wandered the streets and were invited into a Buddist school by a trainee monk. Here we learnt about the brutal occupation of Tibet by China and also got into an impromtue game of cricket with the child trainee monks. it ended when another serious looking monk stuck his head out the window and shouted!!

Old Manali is up a steep hill so after the Tibbeten area we made our way up the hill (note to self, do more exercise!) and waited for the others in a cafe. After and amazing tibetten lunch with tonnes of food for less than a pound each we split up again. The girls wanted to take advantage of the famous Manali shopping and kasper and myself were keen to explore. Heading off into the nature reserve we slipped through a fence and spent the next 2hrs wandering, scrambling over rocks nd exploring. Discoveries included a massive tree with no branches, an egg shaped rock (kasper wanted to take this home and had the idea of putting it into Idas backpack! but it was too heavy) and also the point where two rivers merged. One river was brown and the other a dark icey blue and the power and the colours where they came together were amazing

After two hours we exited the park and walked to Veshist up in the hills outside Manali. When you see a sign saying 2km it does not seem much, when the 2km are at 45 degrees its a killer.

On the way we wander up some intresting looking steps and found a small temple surrounded by Marajuna bushes but unfortunatly with a guard dog. Now you would think with the surroundings this dog would be chilled out but it was far from it. Que hasty retreat (Kasper - what do we do - Richard  -Get a *&^&^^ move on!)

 Once we finally reached Veshist it was a fantastic little village and gave us great dusk views across the Kulu valley. By this time the walking had beat us so we jumped in a tuk tuk. Imagine the worlds longest roller coaster with no seat belt and you have an idea.

 Well thats enough for now, the torrential rain has stopped so im off to have a suit made for when i get back. Long time off i know but a score for a taylor made suit, you can not go wrong! Saying that I did have a pair of trousers made which have now been christened by everyone “Richs gay trousers”

 Aacha Ji for now!

Managed to find a  faster  internet connection in town so onwards with the journey so far.

 After a good nights sleep in Dehli we had aour first introduction into what is known as “indian time”. After being told the night before that we would depart at nine we finally started the trip to Jaipur at 12.30. During the wait we got to meet all the other volenteers. Everyone is realy nice and we all get along really well. There are alot of people from Germany and Austria, a few from Denmark and the rest from the UK.

We arrived in Jaipur after five and were taken for a quick introduction at the projects main office and then we were sent to stay with our host familys to experience Indian life and culture and how they live. We stayed with the Yadhav family who were a teacher and a police inspector. He was in charge of the security for the cricket world cup when it was in India. The family were really friendly but compared with the rest of Jaipur, very well off. Its quite a contrast to see one moment, slums and the next be in a lavish house.

Lins and I were ushered to our room and asked if we were married. Being nine oclock by this time and to late to go elsewhere we had to lie and say yes. This lead to some quite akward moments over the next couple of days but we got through it ok. They are coming to London as some point and we said they could stay with us. How we are going to explain the lack of wedding photos I do not know but we will cross that bridge when we come to it!

Over the next few days the father quizzed us on the western life and how it compared with India and the wife fed us fantastic food! They were really nice people and dressed lins and two other girls up in saris and did henna tatoos. I talked cricket and philosophy (well he did, i just nodded and pretended i understood!)

During our time in Jaipur we visited the Amber fort. An amazing castle type structure overlooking jaipur. As we aproached the fort we stopped by the road to take photos. There were sellers waiting for usfor us and also a snake charmer. Not what you want at eight thirty in the morning, a slightly mad looking indian guy proding a black cobra with flute by your ankles!

The fort itself was home to the maharaja of jaipur who had twelve wives and lots of concubines (mistresses lee in case you were wondering!). Thats alot of sex, suprised he had time for anything else like ruling the provence.

 India also celebrated independence day while we were there as well. The crowds in Jaipur were amazing and many were not used to tourists. With my milky white skin stood out alot and we all got loads of stares. Indian citys are very very intense and hard work but such colourful and fascinating places makes it all worth while.

As well as touring we had a number of lectures and lessons ranging from Hindi to the place of women in Indian society. Think india is very much a young nation and is following the west but probably 80 years behind. Poverty is a real problem as well as tradition such as the caste system and dowries but think it is taking positive steps and has good things ahead.

On friday we toook the long journey to Palampur. This consisted of a 14 hr train journey. Indian trains are really nice but packed to the rafters and due to a mixd up in booking tickets Lins name was Amanda Perry for the journey. We have only been here 9 days an already she has been both Lindsey Pratt and Amanda Perry. She will struggle to remember her real name at this rate by the time a year is up!

 After a four hour jeep drive to travel 120km (when they say the roads are bad, they mean missing or fallen off the cliff face) we arrived at the voulenter camp. Palampur is surrounded in mist covered mountains and rocky rivers. In the space of a day we had gone from the hottest state to the wettest. It couldnt be more diffrent from the dusts of Jaipur, green and lush with rain every day, it lacks the frantic crowds and is a more peaceful and traditional way of life. You are treated more as one of the communtiy rather than an outsider. Kids are desperate to speak to you and people are really friendly. If you try and use hindi and take an instrest in the culture and religion you can really feel at home.

Yesterday we visted a temple to the godess Durka and spoke with the presit. We recived holy water and rice and a bindi (red head spot) as well as a blessing and he was happy that we had made the effort to attend. It was intresting to see how spiritual these places feel. May have something to do with the ginat marajuarna bush growning right outside

 Over the past couple of days i have also started the volounter work.  In the mornings I help teach a computer class and in the afternoon i teach english. The girls are all great and range from 17 to 24. So far its really enjoyable.

 This weekend we head to Manhali with other people from the camp. Our plan is to hire mountain bikes and guides and do a bit of touring around. Also rumours of a Italian restaraunt with real pamersan cheese. God send after 11 days of eatting vegtable curry. Really craving meat, keep seeing cows on the street and they slowly turn to juicy steaks before my eyes. The diet out here is 95% vegtable based so if you see in the news, man arrested for bitting cow in India you will know I have snapped.

 Hope everyone is good back home, v photos look cool but wet!.  Hope your all enjoying work!!. Going to try to upload some photos next week as only writen words get a bit tedious.

One final thing, saw the mother of all spiders last night running up the wall outside. There massive and freaky looking, not good!!

Hi all! Sorry it’s taken so long to write the first entry - internet access is not easily accessible here, though we are now in Palampur in the region of Himachal Pradesh, where we will be statying for the next 3 weeks and there are two internet cafes in the town, so from now on, the updates will be a little more regular!

So, what have I been up to? Well, after a short sleep to catch up on sleep, we ventured out into the Delhi streets and were quickly accosted by a local tuk-tuk driver who was trying to tell us where to go and how he would take us there. We tried to decline, but our attempts were simply met with a constant barrage of ‘You’re confused by what I’m saying. You must not be confused.’ We weren’t bu the clearly was, so we just accpeted in the end. Our sight-seeing largely involved moving from one of his friend’s shops to the next, but for 40 rupees (about 50p) we had a chauffeur for 2 hours! And I did succumb to a top and a bangle!

We got up early the next morning to head for Jaipur, however, we were still waiting for some of the volunteers to arrive so we sat in the hotel lobby for 3 hours and finally left at midday for the 7 hour hourney (which was only 280 km). Rich managaed to sleep for most of it, in spite of the fact that the terrible roads here meant that my chest was bouncing all the way here (note to self: wear sports bra for future bus trips)!

We stayed with our host family in Jaipur: the sheet of paper we received when we got to the project office said our host was a policeman, but it quickly became apparent that that job title understates his role! He is an Inspector who has also acted as a consultant to the U.N. He was clearly a very intelligent man (with 7 post-graduate qualifications to prove it!) and his wife, who has 3 post-grad qualifications of her own, is a teacher who, somehow, also manages to run the family home and cook incredible food. Rich and I and two other girls were staying at the house and the wife obviously enjoyed having girls around as she spent 2 hours on the first night tatooing our hands with hennaand the last night we dressed up in saris for photos with the family.

Our Jaipur stint also included a trip to the incredible Amber Fort, built in 1590 and developed over the next 100 years, the technology was amazing - they had their own early versions of air-conditioning, central heating, disco mirror-balls and loudspeakers!

We also had lessons in Hindi (mine now runs to about 50 words I think; not bad for a few days of learning a new language, though I do say so myself), learnt aboutWomen’s positions in India (not good - thousands of women each year are killed as they do not bring to their husband’s family a sufficiently large dowry, and many are left to die or are killed after birth as they will cost money to support, just to be given to another family when they become ‘useful’) and Hinduism and the caste system (which apparently doen’t exist anymore; there is just a ‘casteist feeling’ that means that the classes are still living separate lives, but from the number of people we’ve seen living at the side of the road, I beg to differ).

Finally then, we took the 14 hour-long train journey to Himachal Pradesh and the 4 hour bus ride (120km) to arrive where we are now. As I have to back at the camp in 10 minutes for lunch, I’ll have to leave it here for today, so I’ll tell you about this place in the next entry. For now, I’ll just say that, for the next three weeks, I’ll wake up in the morning surrounded my mountains and monkeys playing in the trees!

Phir Milenge (see you) xx

Been in India a week today and this is the first time I have managed to get to the internet. Very few places have it so updating this blog will be slow for the first month and probably wont be able to save photos.  Will write a quick message now and try and get some more time in the week. In general were both really enjoying it and I havent been ill yet (bets still on Lee). The food is amazing and nothing like the stodgy curries we get back home. The cost of living is so cheap and i keep finding myself converting to pounds and weing shocked by how little everything is. Think Paul the engineer from site would still think its a rip off!

India, how can you describe it. Probably the best word is intense.

 Really is very few tourists here and you get stared at alot. Also get viewed as a rich westerner so there is alot of harrasment from small children for money and people to buy things but with that said I love the place. People are really friendly and keen to find out about you, England and western life. The whole atomsphere is buzzing. Everywhere is busy and colourful and you often find yourself stopping and double checking what you have just seen!

 Arrived in Dehli what seems an age ago. Instantly greeted buy the chaos that is india. After getting out of the airport we met the guys who would take us to the hotel where we stayed for one night.  What instantly strikes you is how poor the country is. Even in the airport car park people are living in shelters and slums are prolific all through the centre of Dehli.

The traffic is truely shocking, words can not describe the vast amount of cars, bikes, tuk tuks, cows, horses and people on the road. Signs, signals and lanes mean nothing and the basis of indian driving is the horn. Beep as often as you can and you invincible (lot like being in the car with Russ, you never feel safe!) .

 Hotel was really nice but not anything like western hotels. After a few hours sleep and watching the cricket for a bit we ventured out into Dehli and were instantly harrassed by Tuk Tuk drivers and beggers. After five minutes of bargining we went on a tour of nearby conaught place for 40rp (50p!). 

 On the way their saw a huge temple in the shape of Hannam (the monkey god), he is known as the god of luck so we bowed our heads to him to help our survival after about five near misses in the tuk tuk. Our drive had the habit of turning around all the time whilst driving!

 Conaught place was a bit of a tourist trap but nice and after a few hours looking at shops returned to the hotel and passed out.

Off back to camp now for some lunch, will try and write a few updates about the last week on Wednesday. Come on the Sky Blues!