Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

As Lins wrote yesterday we have arrived in Malaysia and its proper traveling from now on!! None of this hand held by tour companies or luxury. Currently staying in a fantastic little hostel in the Chow Kit area of Kula Lumpar. Its a fantastic place, really clean and air con all for three quid a night! Outside the front door is a night market that sells all sorts of Hawker foods and junk so tonights dinner will be from there.

Kula Lumpar can be compared as Singapore evil twin, in some areas its alot like it, posh hotels, towering sky scrapers and great transport but there is a element to it that, while not threatening just gives a rougher feel. Its still a really friendly place and a place ive wanted to visit for a while.

After arriving early afternoon last night we did not really do much yesterday apart from head to the Golden Triangle to grab a bit to eat and have a little bit of a wander looking in shops that I couldn’t afford to shop in e.g Prada, Gucci e.t.c!! We were back at the hostel early and have been trying to work out where to head next. Think were going to go head to tarma Negra rainforest, it looks amazing and will be a great stop off on the way to the Perinthian islands.

Today we got up at half seven and after tucking into the free breakfast, headed to the Pertronas towers to get our free tickets. Being a bit of a construction geek its been an ambition of mine for a long time to see these. Formerly the worlds tallest building they are a masterpiece of modern construction. We arrived shortly after nine and collected our tickets for 12.30.

With time to kill we caught the tube to the National Mosque (Malaysia is very much a Muslim country) and wandered the area around Negaral Square. This as it turns out was just a large piece of grass and uninspiring but was where independence was declared so means alot to the Malaysians. We have quickly noticed that the Malysians love flying their flag and its drapped from everywhere.

Few more hours of wandering saw us visit Chinatown and the Largest Hindi temple in Malaysia with its large ornate entrance with carvings of various deities. It was, as we have come to expect very colourful and bright with a familar smell of incense and very calm.

In contrast as we walked by a Chinese temple and were called in to view inside. It was chaos with no sense of order, people were crawling around and waving incense and lighting fantastic smelling prayer coils and offering food to various gods. Intresting how diffrent religions can vary so much in doing what is essentially the same!

Finally after a quick lunch we headed to the Petronas Towers. Standing at 452m tall, they were constructed on 27,000 m3 of concrete and contain 37,000 tonnes of steel. Until 2004 they were the largest man made construction and they are amazing. Clad in Stainless steel and curtain walling they gleam against the skyline. The towers were constucted my rival firms and it was a Japanese/Korean race to finish first. They were finshed in apporximatly 2 and a half years which is some going considering the size of the project. As part of the tour we visited the sky bridge that spans the 42 floor which is only approximately a third of the way up which gave great views of not only the city but the workmanship that went into the exterior cladding. It really did live up to my estimations.

Now just back at the hostel, ive uploaded a few photos from today. Enjoying the fact im now back in civilization and unlike India internet cafes are everywhere. looking forward to posting more frequent updates.  Stay happy all and come on the city

Excuse the title - it’s the Malaysian Tourist Board’s effort! Just thought i’d use it to announce our arrival in Malaysia following our coach journey from Singapore today - on Frisday we spent a bit of time finding the cheapest coach we could to carry us for the 6 hour journey - we feel like we can deal with any mode of transport for that length of time now following our regular lengthy journeys in the boot of a jeep in India on what can hardly be considered to be roads, or even dirt tracks for that matter; boulder tracks would be a better description. Anyway, I digress! So we found a coach for S$27 each - that’s 9 quid - which we thought was pretty reasonable considering the length of the journey. It became even more reasonable when we boarded the coach and made ourselves comfy in what were, essentially lazyboy chairs - they leant right back, had a leg rest, a foot rest and arm rests. You even got a bottle of water! The first couple of hours were filled with a showing of Rush Hour 2 - which was more entertaining than I expected it to be - and 2 immigration stops - then, with one further stop for lunch, we arrived in KL.

My brother and Dahlia had told me that KL would be much like Singapore but, on first inspection, I haven’t really found this to be the case. There are certainly similarities; we wandered through one of the shopping areas this evening that is definitely reminiscent of Singapore but, on the whole, this city does not seem as upmarket, built up or as crowded as Singapore and the Islamic influence is very strong here - in Singapore, there were areas obviously catering to the Islamic population during Ramadan, but here the call to prayer can be heard in all areas and, as dusk fell this evening, Rich and I were sat in a fairly Western restaurant which was showing Britney’s recent MTV performance on the TV while were eating our starter and, as we tucked into our main course, the time came for Muslims to break their fast and the TV switched to showing the words of an Islamic prayer. We had wandered around the street stools just before dusk and they were bustling with people buying their tasty morcels with which to break their fasts - something we didn’t manage to find the time to do in Singapore - the smells were delicious and really wetting our appetite! We were almost tempted to just buy BBQ grilled chicken for dinner from one seller but we realised we needed something more substantial after the chicken and rice we had for lunch, which was pretty early in the day. (Thanks to Dahlia for introducing us to the Hainanese chicken and rice last week - I think it may form part of our stable diet in Asia!)

I know we’ve now moved on to Malaysia, but I just want to mention the Changi prison museum we visited yesterday in Singapore - my granddad was captured as a prisoner of war in Singapore during the Second World War and this museum is a memorial to those who served, fought, survived and died in the area. It began to give me an understanding of what granddad’s life must have been like for those few years he was in captivity - and it was truly horrendous. He died when I was 9, but I remember him well and it was always evident that the war had had a very adverse affect on him. Yesterday I learned what conditions were like for granddad and the thousands of others who were living under Japanese rule or as their hostages. They were objects of torture and forced labour and were kept and herded around like animals. There was one picture of a group of men who were made to build the Burmha/Thai railway (The Bridge over the River Kwai), of which my granddad was one, and it wasn’t until I read the caption that I realised that these men were actually alive - on first glance I thought that the picture was of 3 skeletons. A truly harrowing experience and one that, as I wrote on my note of remembrance, I hope I never have to fully comprehend.

I don’t have much more to add really - I didn’t write another entry about Singapore as I can’t really say anything Rich hasn’t already said as we mostly did just eat and socialise! I’ll just add a quick thanks to Danny and his friends and colleagues for their generous hospitality while we were there though - I can’t imagine how high some of the drinks bills must have been but nobody would accept any money from us to pay our share. So, thanks! And a special thanks to Dan and Dahlia for putting up with us in their house and for buying us lots of delicious food!

Hello everyone, thought i`d type a quick update while Linds, Danny and Dahlia are all asleep. Very heavy session last night, one of Danny and Dahlias friends was 36 so we all went out for “a few quiet drinks” which turned into alot so were all hungover to hell

For the past eight days Lins and I have been relaxing in the luxurious island of Singapore. We visited here three years ago so we have seen the sights before so its a great opportunity to relax and catch up with Linds brother and his girlfriend.

Lins and I have tried our best this week to put back on the weight we lost in India by gorging on the culinary delights here. The food is fantastic. After spending a month in India desperate for a steak the first day we were treated to a slap up French meal were i ate a huge piece of steak.

Danny and Dahlia treated us to brunch last weekend which was fantastic. Brunch here is an experience that id recommend to anyone. The hotels charge a set fee and cook all sorts of amazing food from seafood to curry in a buffet all you can eat style. The food is truly fantastic and you can eat as much as you like. Linds was slipping this time, last time we went she managed five puddings but this time she only managed two!! Its a great way to try foods that you usually wouldn’t, i got stuck into the seafood and tried lobster, crayfish and some great sushi. For all the guys in India , alot of beef has been consumed so im happy again!

Apart from eating we have mainly been catching up on sleep, swimming (getting in practice ready for diving in Malaysia!) and visiting a few art galleries and treating ourselves to a couple of massages each. We also discovered the greatest bakery in the world called Bread talk, they do a loaf called “crouching tiger hidden bacon” which has bacon and cheese rolled into it, amazing!!

One day last week we went to the botanical gardens via bread talk and had a picnic. Really nice area of Singapore and can not be more different from the noise and bustle of the rest of the island.

From an update point of view its been a boring week but been nice after the chaos of India just to stop. On Monday we head to Malaysia to KL to start our tour of South East Asia

Right, im sure i haven’t eaten for ten minutes so im off to fix that. Roll on obesity!

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!

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Hi all, sorry its been so long since we updated but we were terribly busy relaxing and living in luxury in Singapore, home of shopping and wealthy people and a very western life style.

We left india on Wednesday night (just, thanks Singapore air for changing our flight day and not telling us!) and im sad to say  goodbye. Read a comment about India on a travel website before we departed i agree totally with the phrase “India, fascinating but frustrating” On one hand it drives you mad the other, its a vibrant, colourful, interesting society that id recommend to anyone with a bit of patience and the ability to slum it!

In the week before last I have attended a dance workshop (showed them a few moves of my own, sure they were impressed) and left the volunteering projects (more dancing and partying! - video will no doubt appear on facebook - cheers mags!). Ill miss the work and just as everything was coming together had to leave. Both lins and myself are now wishing we stayed on for another few weeks but such is life, can not do everything

We left camp a week ago today and it was really sad to go, having spent the month with everyone it was sad to say goodbye, though there are loads of people we have met that i am sure we will meet again at a later date. Before we left everyone sang a version of “leaving on a jet plane” which was very funny and touching. Had a good party the night before where we sampled a few more of the local beers. There not good,8.5% and taste horrible, there is real stigma attached to drinking in India, especially with women but with alcohol that tastes like that I do not think they need to worry.  The twins (Sophie and Agnes) were on fine form and we were treated to scenes from pirates of the carribien and disney classics! Very funny.

After a four hour trip to the station, in the dark (really scary) we got on yet another Indian train. We all collapsed into our beds in Air Con class and slept. Arriving in Dehli at around 10, it was a shock. Having got used to the quiet peaceful life in Palumpur and the cool temperatures we were back to 36 degrees and chaos. It was at this point we realized that Idex had made us change trains to them money and change classes for the trip to Agra. Que, four hours waiting in the hot dusty station before piling onto sleeper class.

This is how the middle class in India travel, it makes you realise how luxurious the air con class is. People cram in and we found ourselves sitting anywhere. I have a lot of gripes about Idex, the Indian volunteer organsiation but ill save them for an email complaint, is a disgrace some of the things they do but im not letting it ruin a fantastic experince. experience.

Agra is again dusty and hot and we got there at around 5. Dropping the bags off at the hotel we had dinner and caught an early night. At five thirty in the morning we met in reception in the hotel and recreated the Italian Job in tuk tuks as we hurtled to see the Taj Mahal, the iconic image of India.

Words can not really describe it and I do not think photos do it justice. Costing over 2 billion gold coins and taking 22 years to complete its breathtaking and well worth a visit. Im not suprised this has been voted one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

There were lots of people already at the Taj Mahal when we got there and the guide we had was shockingly bad. I think he must have started that morning and just skim read a pamphlet on the place!.

Other charecters we met were “miserable German Girl” (in Katie style nicknames) who tried to help herself to our groups complimentary water and tried to have a go at me because i moved for ten people and steped into her photo. Wont repeat what i said to her but she looked shocked and walked off! “Bad shirt guy” who wore a shirt that russ would have refused to wear and was offensive to the eye at seven oclock in the morning! The piece du resistance was “lady with nipples” who thought that the correct attire for a conservative country is a tiny thin white t shirt and no bra. She may as well walked around topless for all it covered. How these people get through life is a wonder to everyone in the group.

After a three hour visit is was back to catch a train.Or so we thought, we were due to arrive at 6pm and got into the room at 1.30 am. The remaining two days were spent site seeing and shopping around Dehli  before we flew out to Singapore.

Ive updated the photos on the website, more to be added today, we have copied them all across at the moment and will delete the poor ones soon.

Going to leave the blog there now as lunch is nearly ready. Hope everyone is well and you all enjoying whatever your doing. Bye for now

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