Pat versus india

Today was our last day at school. We had a sportsday with standard UK sportsday events; tug of war, three legged race, relay race, throw the cricket ball as far as you can; and a few we threw in fireball, duck duck goose and BRITISH BULL DOG. Some of the kids got a bit injured in B’ bulldog so we stopped playing that one. We also learnt a new indian game using some rolled up pants and a pile of stones called Phittu or GaramPittu (hot sack). It was fun and all the kids were over the moon to receive all the crisps and pop and biscuits we bought for them.

suppin on mi chai sat in't sun in't india

I took my laptop in for the last day, heres a few pictures of the kids being amazed at the effects on photo booth

usha's teeth

indu monster

sahil and diksha

the cook trying to sneak in a photo

Sahil indu and sourav

Abishek and his awful gob

Rapscalions

Sourav, indu bendy head and abishek

We actually did quite a lot of work at Sukeri school. Our group fixed their fences, dug a huge trench for a new path behind the school, cleared thorns, mixed cement and strengthened the roof on their toilets, built new steps for the entrance, planted and watered lemon trees and made thorny protectors for them and made a bin!

Sukeri school 17/12/09

India has a made a big impression on me, Im not sure how it will change me back at home but its definitely inspired me to travel more (at some point). Its made me realise that I don’t miss home as much as I thought I would, and made me realise that maybe the way we live, the culture in Britain has good and bad points. I’ve made some good indian friends that Im pretty sure Ill never see again.

Our children, but also our work mates.

Alka Ji our supervisor is amazing, she is intelligent and wise and well mannered. She has translated MANY conversations with the villagers, got us invited to wedding parties and taken us on trips. She will be sorely missed. There are many others too.

Happi our driver, who is always happy and caught a serial killer a few years ago.

Rakesh; who is a politician’s son, Im sure he will go onto big things, he is selfless and wants to start an NGO when he is older. I’d happily come back to India to work for him.

Al the other staff are amazing and lovely people who all go beyond the call of duty here and don’t really get much in return.

Im going to miss the views, the countryside and the fresh air.

this is the view up hill from our house

You take rest?

This is me red faced and slightly drunk DJing in Excite, a club on our last weekend

The indians like it filthy, hard and loud! yay!

The morning after the night before, I was still asleep when Imran took this photo of Mcleod Ganj, our favourite weekend destination

The mountains outside our house

night time sky looks nice as well

Another morning shot from mceod ganj. This is what we saw whilst eating breakfast. roof top restaurants WOOP

Our local park. You wont find any drunk old men, or drunk chavs or bongs or cigarette butts.

And theres nothing really left to say. Its been an amazing trip, life changing you could say, and now Ive got to get a bus and a train and a bus and a plane and a car all the way home for christmas. We’re staying in Delhi for a night and theres an overnight train plus its free booze on the plane, so there will be more stories but ill save them for the camp fire. Its going to be a long thousands of miles trip home. See you all on the other side.

THE END. suckers. get on platform2! what else are you doing that wont be there when you get back

THE END of the blog

This week we read ‘were going on a bear hunt’ to our kids . . . . and then we went ona  bear hunt. We went to a zoooooo! It was amazing! its such a nice zoo. The bus ride was a RAMMED full trip of jolity and excitement. One of my friends got pee’d on by a goat and the smelly bus conductor fell on me. Everybody sits on everybodies knees and I am FAR too tall for indian busses.

crowded indian busses

When we got there the kids ran around in an expected run around exited kiddy fashion. There were owls and deer and lions and leopards and porcupine and peacocks and warthogs and BEARS!

DEER FEEDING. we picked straw from the ground

twit twoo

My favourite was the lion. They were being cleaned out, we thought we would miss them. . . .  BUT THEN! an indian bloke beckoned us into a cordened off part of the zoo. We came face to face witha  HUGE male lion. All the animals looked healthy and had nice big enclosures, Its not what I expected from a zoo in the third world to be honest.

The lion had MASSIVE eyes and stared straight into mine. Its roar and rumbling growl was the most humbling sound I’ve heard.  we were literally a couple of foot away from this lion. It obviousley felt intimidated, It didnt close its mouth and kept roaring and clawing the cage. It was amazing. We left it alone after our few minutes of fun. Ill check cameras but I havent seen a good photo of it yet. I dont think anybody dared take one.

the rest of the dat we played with the kids on the zoo park. Our executive Alka pushed some kids on the swings and the teacher on the see saw. It was a nice sunny  hot fun day. YAYA

sourav on the swing.

the school teacher had to even out the weight, the see saws were a bit naff

Our supervisor Alka on a swing!

our school and all the volunteers + alka

The next day we made animal masks with the kids.

Rohit and Abishek in masks

Indu and usha

Neha (my favourite mask) and Prince.

Oh and look at this massive wasp, it’s abdomen was as big as my thumb

waspy waspy. one of the girls is prope scared of wasps and screams and runs out of the room when one is about. Me and Frank got this one with a cup and a bit of paper. . . . mum 😉

This week has been pleasant! we made more tandoori. We made some steps.

proof that i actually do work

In the afternoon on monday we went into our community after a boy that regularly misses school. A few days before at a wedding we saw a really fat water buffalo. Turns out it wasn’t just really fat. It was pregnant, well now its given birth. Heres a pic, It was so cute and shy, as soon as we started stroking it, it warmed to us. It had piercing bright blue eyes.

baby waterbuffalo

We walked for about 20 mins from our school and came to a little valley, really pretty. We found the boy, his sister, his mother and his grandmother herding their cattle and goats. We chatted with them for a while and I played with the boy, his name is Sahil. He’s a problem child, misbehaves all the time and growls at us westerners. He can’t learn, he does remember things like the other kids. In the UK he’d probably get put in a  special school. In india he just gets ignored or beaten. I rolled his hoop for a while ad he rolled it back. It was a larf.

playing hoopy hoop

awwww sahil and his family

The valley was really pretty. Its so strange being here for this long. It all seems really normal now. Then just for a moment it struck me again and i was reminded that i’m sat in a pasture with an indian family in the himalayas. WOW.

The structure just out of shot to the left in the background of this photo is where the ashes from the dead bodies of all the surrounding villages go. The stream you can see goes a long way straight, so we could see all the way down, and the family can see their animals. We also saw a baby goat today. Its a day old. It still had its umbilical cord attached.

baby goat

The little girl holding the goat is mentally disabled. Some of the girls are worried about her because the school cook doesn’t understand her disability and beats her when she wets herself.

billy goats gruff. shes not called billy. shes called shamu. Like shamu the whale.

This week was goooood

Its past halfway and the facat that Im going to have to go home is sinking in.

We were supposed to go to the orphanage for mentally disabled kids, but that fell through, we were supposed to take our school kids to the zoo, but that also fell through.

Sukeri, The school where I work everyday

We did go to a wedding though, that was fun! it was a quick stop eat and go home jobby. I love Himachal wedding food, men come around and scoop rice onto your plate and then sauce in short intervals. Its a race against time to scoop up the food from the palm leaf plate into your mouth as fast as you can.

That evening a local group came and tried to sell us meditation classes, none of us accepted their offer but they were lovely attractive people who were very enthusiastic. They taught me to meditate. I might read a book on meditation.

As the weekend came I got the recipe for tandoori chicken from a guy who works here. He used to be a chef. He travelled all over thailand and china and japan and used to hunt pigeons. He told us the proper way to maridande meat is with our hands. On friday night we took a trip to the local town Palampur. After asking around and buying half KGs of vegetables we found a small backalley leading to a meat market.

The meat market was some blokes sat around sitting in their little shop fronts, we asked for two chickens from one, the boss sat as his desk and his butcher a few feet behind him pulled two chickens out of a chest fridge. He asks “you want  the skin?” we say no, in a swift slice and using a towel to grasp the skin he rips it all off. You want the head? the legs? blood splatters on the white tiles behind him as he cleavers them from the torso. Some dogs had big fight behind us and some other men are squatting around a fire near us. Live chickens in cages line the street. After quartering whats left the butchers take our money and we leave. In the jeep taxi on the way back we share a ride with 15 other people in a car thats made for 9. This is the indian way.

The next day we lie in, till 9. We go back to the town and walk around for an hour or so. Nobody knows where to buy coal! ARGH! I buy some wire (we’ll need that later!) We finally get told about a shop and everybody keeps pointing up the street saying 100 meters. We walk 100 meters and ask somebody else who tells us he lives just down the street about 100 meters or so. You get the jist. We buy a bag thats far too big to carry. Its the only size he sells. We wait for a taxi with a  roof rack, theres no room inside so my friends walk and I ride in the front seat on somebodies knee with 4 or 5 other people. At my stop nobody helps me get the coal from the roof, i struggle and get black soot all over my face, all the people in the cab laugh. I finally get it down and say hi to my friend Deepu in the cd shop. Then I lug the bag up the hill, I finally decide to carry it on my head. I feel like a proper indian boyo. Everybody sees me walking up the hill towards the house and they laugh. Its pretty funny, i’m black as the night by the time i get there.

The chef is over the moon that I got charcoal. I find an old ladder by the bins and one of the old men who works here sits with me in the sun and we tie the wire around the ladder to make a big long grill. He is muslim and today is Ede a big islamic festival. One of our volunteers killed 9 chickens today so that all the islamic people can eat meat, they have to kill it to make it Halal meat. That night we grilled and stewed our hearts content, It really was the tastiest chicken I have EVER eaten. Ill be sure to repeat the recipe for anybody at home so just ask.

LOOK AT ALL THAT CHICKEN!

Tabib is islamic and hadn't eaten meat for two years, imran (second from left) killed chickens to make them Halal so that Tabib could eat our tandoori chicken this Ede.

ITS EDE!

Meanwhile some of the volunteers had been painting a school for a big politician visit. The locals were testing the PA and one of my mates; gorden walked up to the mic to copy the locals “1 2 mic test” when he did, all the politician’s assistants surrounded him and forced him to make a thank you speech. He wasn’t prepared but apparently he did a pretty good job. He was laughing all the way through but hes going to be in all the indian newspapers tomorrow and on indian TV.

It makes me laugh what some people from the UK must imagine when you talk about india. It makes me laugh because India is not much different to the UK at all. Theres the obvious things that aren’t the same but every time I look at an Indian now I imagine the English equivalent. An old man that says hello. A beggar in the street. Little children playing. Everybody all over the world thinks the same. They act the same, have the same problems and the same things make them happy.

We went to kangra last weekend, it was raining really heavily. there were storms all weekend, lightning too, thats why I’ve not posted for so long. Our internet got knocked out in the storm. we were supposed to be going to see this old fort thats worth a look but we couldn’t be bothered with the weather

We checked out a few hotels and decided on the Grover. Mr Grover met us and made small talk. He tried to impress me by his knowledge of the british cricket team. I know nothing about cricket. Most indian men are small, mr Grover liked that we were tall.

We walked down the high street in Kangra, decided there was nothing there and bought some booze. I went halves with my friend Olly on some Old monk rum. Not as strong as navy rum back home, and with a fruity kick. Not bad for 80 rupees.(just over a quid) Our friends bought magic moments vodka which reminded me of the song from the quality street advert. I sung the men at the stand a verse which made them howl with laughter. Making indian people laugh is easy ha ha

We walked a little further and saw a MASSIVE indian wedding. Some people stopped us and tried to tell us about what they did for a living. A couple of people beckoned us into the wedding but we didn’t  dare take them up on the offer. It looked really glamorous, everybody was wearing nice clothes and there were big lights and loads of cameras everywhere. Not going into that wedding is one of my biggest regrets.

The next day we set off for cloud, a more interesting town, and ate loads of food in jimmies italian kitchen. It rained all day so we ate and drank all day so we didn’t have to go outside. We managed to find a hotel that all 6 of us got in one room which was cool.

We had hot showers and went to a little club called excite and met loads of westerners. It was a nice coincidence that we had all met up here. There were a couple of swedish lads just bumming across asia, they had some crazy stories. Three australians that liked really good music and were teaching in a nunnery. There was a german couple and the guy was part of the german national ski team and a load of english and scots all doing volunteer work.

The club closed and we found ourselves back at our hotel room, everybody else couldn’t get into their rooms because there was a power cut so none of the doorbells worked. We had to squeeze 12 people into our already crammed room.  After finishing off the rum from the night before back at our room me and a scottish lad called Gorden went looking for a night cap. A policeman stopped us with his truncheon and on the way back to the hotel he collared us 3 times. We didn’t need to be told again and got inside.

the next morning I had a hot shower which was AMAZING and we went back to jimmy’s for breakfast.

Whilst we were eating there was a monkey fight on the roofs around us and they made loads of noise, so much so that even the locals all stopped in the street and watched. We met up with one of the german girls from the night before and went on a walk. We found a huge waterfall! on the way there were beggar boys who had learn’t to play rhythms by holding and tapping two rocks together. Two dogs started to follow us, they met up with more dogs and soon we had an escort of about 8 dogs.

cheeky

Indians hate dogs and throw stones at them, these dogs wouldn’t leave our side, I don’t know why they picked us but it was bizarre! overtime we stopped they stopped and as soon as we set off they followed. We couldn’t lose them but watching them play in the water at the top was nice. They looked so chilled, I wished I could be a stray dog in the himalayas that would be ace.

the mist was all in my face. mmm cool waterfall mist. like a timotei advert

The week was full of excitement! On the drive home I felt a bit ill, and then the next day at school even more ill. A nice lady was showing me how to use a sickle properly, then after ripping through 6 or 7 thorn bushes I had to have a sit down. I took the next two days off and stayed in bed to watch films.

After recovering we went to a wedding! it was a really big wedding, about 300 people were there, there was dancing and a band and a bloke covered in yellow paint that tried to shoot us with a bow and arrow! They say us all down in a long line and gave us banana leaves that were then covered in a load of rice, a chilli and then different stages of sauce, some spicy, one fruity, some with potato some with chilli. It was really tasty, but more like a race than a meal, eat one lot before they pour more on your plate.

if your scared of getting messy with your hands, dont even step on the plane.

definitely more fun than a boring western wedding.

SPOT AL PACINO. . . . . GAZ book these guys for priory they'll play for peanuts . . . . literally

The weekend came round really quickly. Friday night came and we all got really giddy, we drank strong coffee and roamed around the house jumping out on people and hiding under tables.

This weekend we went to mcleod again and ate more good food. We went back to the waterfall but it hadn’t been raining and it wasn’t half as impressive. We ate some tibetan food on a rooftop restaurant, its roof was covered by a greenhouse like structure which made it really nice and warm. I had fired mutton mo mo’s  and honey chicken with rice both of which were delicious. I found music shops that sold cheap hollow body guitars and sitars. I want a sitar but I think they are too expensive. A bloke showed us how to play tibetan flutes and one of my friends bought one.

pied piper

The night was another little party, we had a drink and went to the same club, some of our western friends were there, that was nice. Some tibetan blokes started fighting, I think one glassed another so we left. Afterwards some tibetan people outside the club took us to an afterparty which was cool. It was in a hotel and they were quite secretive about it.  We eventually went back to our hotel.

yes yes yes yYYYEEEEASSSSSS

The next morning I had what quite possibly could be the most beautiful breakfast ever! We sat on the rooftop of jimmies and it was just the right temperature, a few whispy clouds circled the mountain top behind us and about 6 or seven eagles soared above us. Every so often an eagle would dive, or swoop past us giving us a good view of it. I had pasta, whereas everybody else had breakfasty food like pancakes or bacon.

Tensions are running high in the IDEX house. This week we have had the coldest weather yet. It rained for two days straight. The whole house shook and waved like a boat and it was freeeeezing! you could hear the wind, classic howling wind noise. All my extra jumpers and blankets were smokey from camping so I had to wash in the freezing cold water. Our heating system is solar powered, the water is heated in a tank on the roof, this meant that throughout all this stormy weather there was no warm water at all. The snow hit the mountain for the first time so on tuesday morning we woke up to the snowcapped peaks!

The day it was really cold we went to school late, we pulled up in the jeep and it looked like all the rain had stopped so we started our hour long daily trek to the school. The rain didn’t stop though, it showered down and we all got soaked. The rest of the morning was spent rubbing the children’s hands warm and giving them our clothes. One girl, Usha had been sent to school in a short sleeved shirt and skirt. She was literally freezing, so the girls hugged her and gave her their scarfs to wrap her up. The class sits outside, theres not enough room inside for all the children. The next day everybody had turned into hypochondriacs, it was only a half day. The weather was just like normal UK weather. We had all been softened by the indian climate.

The cold has gone now but the snow is still on the mountain. We are all really grateful for the heat now. I hope it never gets cold again! im dreading getting off the plane at heathrow. Im gonna wrap up warm with coats and vodka. It looks best at sunset or sunrise, the long cast shadows and orangey red snow make the mountains look a lot less harsh than they actually are.

We took part in an indian cooking class that I helped to organise and I’ve picked up a few tricks and tips. When I get back Ill show the boys what I’ve learnt :). I also know how to make proper chai tea the proper indian way wooop.

Im spending money too fast. I think This weekend I will have to be a little more economical. I still want to buy a few more gifts but its mainly going to be about pigging out on nice food and maybe a little beer. Western temptations are too strong, Im emailing home this week to get some supplies shipped in! Pepperami, Yorkshire mixture and Parkin are all part and parcel. Plus an advent calendar! and I wont be tempted to open more doors like when I was a kid!

One of our guides from Jaipur called Anand came up to the Himachal (Himachal is the province of india we are in) house this week and told me there was a massive disaster in Jaipur just after we left. A Petrol Depot exploded, around 18 people died and 300 injured. All the glass windows in a 10k radius shattered and the fire lasted for 3 weeks.

Im getting really into 24 (the series) whilst I’ve been here. Its actually really good! Im surprised. I’m on episode 6, Jack has just been told he has to lose his phone and he’s got in a car, the terrorists are in charge now! And what will Palmer tell his family!? I have to wait until 9pm to find out! EEEEK

Its about halfway now, So I’ve posted some extra pictures of india, just generally general my impression of this place.

baijnath

a farmerer

photo opportunity as owt

the view at the front of our house

rock hopping

little hindu kids threw stones at this statue for fun

new roads! whey, most of the roads are poo so new roads are good

red lorry green lorry red lorry green lorry

The other day, monkeys got in our room and ransacked the place, tore open all our food, it was pretty funny in retrospect, they ate our bread but left the crusts and one must have found chewing gum and then spat it out ha ha but anyway . . .

camping WOOOO

We set off at 10.30, a group of 11 some of us for the day some of us all night long! We took a taxi  this time, which cut out most of the uphill struggle. A drive up what was definitely the craziest mountain road I have ever encountered. At one point the jeep stalled and rolled back towards a cliff, everybody screamed it was hilarious. The driver was playing disco remixes of punjabi music ha ha. 3 of the indian supervisors came with us to drop us off.

The jeep dropped us at a mining camp and we had to walk for about 4 k along the mountain. When finally got to the tiny temple our indian friends explained to us that this is the home of an indian goddess. The name of the goddess escapes me but ill find out and post in later. Apparently hundreds of years ago people used to live up at this river but now because i is so inaccessible the temple has moved downhill leaving this place pretty much deserted. Two of the indian women had never been to this place before and were excited to be in such a beautiful place. We said goodbye and went upstream.

We got to our big rock, the same place as last time we scaled the mountain. We ate a lunch of casseroled vegetables which wasn’t that bad actually. After a little while we set off for our camp place. Only 6 of us actually camped, we climbed up the river rock hopping for about 30 mins. We found a crazy place, it was a huge rock bigger than my house in the uk. It was by the river and people has obviously stayed there before. There were different levels almost terraced, there was definitely a man made feel to the place. I wondered if perhaps this was some rudimentary village from the time when people used to live up here. we picked out spot. Luckily there was plenty of firewood, probably (somebody else’s) so we didn’t have to do much work.

We had a little explore, saw some otters and then stuck to our camping spot. There was hay on the ground and we just laid our groundsheet down. We cooked dinner and told some standard campfire stories. But then . . .  the STARS CAME OUT. More stars than I have ever seen in my life. You could see twirls of clusters of stars and where normally you would see one or two stars in the uk these were now great swarths of twinkling little lights. This was definitely one of the most memorable moments of the whole trip.

Night night himalayas

We ate dinner, baked potatoes and fried veg, which was actually really tasty. then it was time to take watch. Mine was the middle shift, so I laid for some shut eye but I didn’t get much. It was quite cold, I didn’t really bring enough to keep warm, other people did less complaining. I didn’t think I I had actually got any sleep until somebody woke me up for my watch. 12 till 3 Me and a girl called carina sat around pretty bored and occasionally getting paranoid about little rustling bush noises etc.

get in my belly!

In the morning we ate noodles for breakfast and set off home. We slid down a massive rock and nearly fell in the river but it was fun. Then one of my friends suggested swimming. so we did, it was REEEAALY freezing! we had two goes. I’ve got a video of this but I cant upload it, maybe another day, or find me whe Im back, its pretty funny.

It was a nice little refreshing morning swim

Im exhausted now, took us a record 2hrs to get back although we could easily do it in 1.30 without any heavy backpacks (or girls). I just wanna crash, but i think Im gonna go get some food in town.

Going up into the mountains really rinsed me out at the weekend. I feel physically rinsed, mentally rinsed and if humans have souls. Well mine is rinsed.

Im REALLY looking forward to next weekend. Me and et rest of the boys on the trip are gong back to the exact same place. Except this time were going camping. We’re gonna take lots more food (baked potatoes lovely!) some rope for a swing and enough clothes to keep us warm through the cold, cold night.

I was a little nervous about asking our camp executive but after a little chat, he doesn’t seem to think there is much danger in the situation. The main dangers, he said, are;

-BEARS! lots of bears roam the hills so we have to make sure to dispose of food remnants properly by burning them! also, NO TOOTHPASTE. Apparently bears go crazy for the stuff. Its like bear crack. so no toothpaste.

-TIBETAN MINERS! The area is covered in mines and quarries and a lot of the workers live in little slummy camps whilst they work. We’re not going any where these places as a precaution and likewise for the bears we will keep a night watch (2 hrs each in pairs) and a fire burning all night.

_SNAKES AND SPIDERS Watching Ray Mears has taught me that we must clear the area we’re sleeping in properly and build some kind of fence barrier type jobby, even if its just a few brambles and thorns.

this is where we're going camping

Look how blue the water is!

im going to jump in this on saturday

So thats that. let the games begin on camping.

This week we visited the village that our school serves. its a close collection of farmhouses, with cobbled and paved streets. It was a really bright sunny day when we walked through Sukeri and the children we brought were chanting slogans in hindi that we had prepared about hygiene and health. The village doesn’t have road access, its so idyllic. The buildings are painted in wonderful bright colours and there are interesting plants and animals everywhere. Baby goats tied up chilling in the sun and eating leaves and dogs barking to protect their little zones.

The kids lead us into a little courtyard, one of the children we teach lives here. A elderly man is sat cross legged on his porch, he is sat in the shade playing with a kerosene burner. Apparently, before pipes fed gas here this was the indian standard for cooking. The mans wife who was sat on a chair swiftly gives it up for us. We didn’t plan to stay but her hasty hospitality soon gets the better of us. I get offered a chair and take it. His wife takes her position on the porch next to her husband; in the common squatting position that so many indians seem to love.

The house with the balcony to the top left

It quickly hits home that this is one of the nicest looking homes I have ever seen. The cobbled courtyard is covered on 3 sides by joint buildings. There is a cow and a kid (baby goat) meandering about. The view looks down into the valley and over the following tree topped hills right down as far as the mist will let your eye see. The house is painted yellow and orange and the windowsills thick aquamarine blue. the house has a low ceiling wooden balcony with a hammock on it. It is so quiet.

Our indian supervisor Alka translates for us and the old man asks about us. Why are we carrying the slogans? We ask him about farming in Sukeri. He says the biggest problem for him is the lack of development and transport. Theres nowhere for him to keep a car, motorbikes are too dangerous on these narrow hilly rubble filled road and theres only one bus a day up here. He is badly effected by global warming. He knows about the issue because of television and newspapers. Unlike in the UK people have no doubt global warming is real. This is because it directly effects these people. This gentleman explained that usually he has enough produce to sell some and make a small profit but this year he only has enough to feed his family. I thought; what about next year or the year after what will become of his family? He also tells us about bears, they come and eat his crop. They use fire and big drums to scare the bears away but shooting them is illegal. Last year they ravaged over half his crop.

The next day in the afternoon, we were doing digging work, building a path behind the school and we didn’t realise that there was nobody else at the school. After about 30 mins the children were all running WILD! they were literally swinging from the rafters. They were scribbling chalk and rubbing it out immediately on the board and on their face. They were screaming and whipping each other. One of them got a cut hand and we realised we’d have to keep an eye on them. Washed and disinfected the hand and put a plaster on the cut. So the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the kids. giving them leg and a wings, spinning around with them and sharing various “uncle” tricks with them, swapping hands on knees, pulling their noses off etc. Our supervisor was up in the village with another volunteer doing surveys. She was late back so we locked up the school. Our driver drove us closer to the village so the two wouldn’t have to walk so far. Meanwhile the kids had surrounded the jeep and were shaking it. I felt like I was at a safari park, they were reaching inside; stealing peoples glasses, trying to climb in and hiding leaves in our bags. We eventually got home in one piece

Keep your arms inside and the windows closed

he bites

And finally . . .

(i’m not religious but. . . . ) a prayer for Isabelle my new niece

Isabelle,

May your lovely parents care for you and your health.

May you live a long prosperous and love filled life.

May you grow old and strong in a safe world.

May you have every opportunity we have had and more.

And may all these things be given unto all the children; in the uk, india and all over the world.

Amen

x

ARRRGGGH

today has been one of the best days of my life! Im so glad I skated some internet time tonight to tell you all!

where to begin . . . .

Last night, after a bit of reading (i’m reading  on the road by Jack Carouack) I was disturbed from my sleep by the sound of scratching and tiny pattering feet. Then to my amazement I saw a small tail sail down the side of my bed, I was amazed at this but somewhat sceptical; you see I’ve been having quite intense dreams of late, I dreamt somebody was hiding on the balcony, and that our ‘indianess’ had bee put to the test with snakes and bats.

After trying to get to sleep for sometime I decided there was definitely a rodent of some sort! I woke everybody up and in my boxers and trainers screamed, threw shoes and got the scraper from the bathroom to beat the living shit out of the rat, that decided it liked my cupboard and even had the cheek to climb on our windowsill and eve managed the top bunks! I swear if its there again tonight Im gonna go sick on that scraper!

Anyways, laid in as the rat caused lack of sleep but today we had decided to go HIKING! We wanted to get to the infamous Bandla waterfall. We didn’t quite manage this. . . .  We started walking up the hill from the house and got to the local temple, we bartered our way to 150 rupees for a driver to take us to the end of the road, as high as we could get. He took us the wrong way though and we ended up in some kind of building site. We didn’t know where we were and the driver didn’t speak any english. He kept laughing too. :S Anyways, we found some bloke in the site who lead us up through some slummy type corrugated iron shacks and up onto a hill. We tipped him for showing us the way and climbed up and up and up.

The climb up was easily one of the biggest physical challenges of my life, I think as we were all boys none of us wanted to stop for rests so for the first 20 mins we powered up this hillside, it was REALLY steep and we were on all fours for most of it. The altitude set in, my legs felt like sacks of acid, I was hauling them up step my step. It got really painful and I was panting for my life. We all stopped. for a long time ha ha ha! after this our pace slowed a lot and we had to take rests every few minutes. we went through little patches of jungle and followed et ridge up for about an hour. We finally reached a road?!?!?!!  So anyway, after thinking we were in the middle of nowhere we followed this road for roughly 30 mins until we came to an old mine. We went down the mine for a bit but it was just a dark tunnel to be honest so we had our photo and walked back out.

Following the road for another 30 mins took us through the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen, looking back down at our house and down the valley. Along steep ravines and cliffs, past people’s shanty houses, proably miners houses. Eventually we ended up at this tiny little temple at the very end of the path, I nearly tripped and fell down the ravine (see pic) and a goat herdsman laughed at me. As we approached the temple there were a family sat with a  hindu priest, there were about 30 kids (baby lambs) and the people looked the real deal. I imagine they don’t leave the mountain often.

We were a bit hesitant about walking up towards this temple and past what was presumably somebodys house, but as soon as we came near the priest he laughed and spoke english to us, he was wearing really traditional robes and had a massive beard but was quite young, probably only about 28. He encouraged us to go up to the temple and told us we were welcome to walk further and explore. . . .so we did.

The little temple looked absolutely crazy, perched on the edge of this cliff at the end of this long windy road with the massive peaks in the distance. Climbing the steps felt like I was some kind of crazy warrior monk on an epic voyage across the himalayas AH HAHAHA sounds silly but Im only saying stuff like that so that my mates (dale) can kinda understand what this place feels like. After the temple all was quiet still. We walked down to an amazing little pool at the bottom of a stream with REALLY deep crystal clear blue water, a woman and her child were washing at the edge and then it flowed off the edge of the cliff down the mountain. She said Namaste hello) and we decided to go up.

Walking up this bit was like Paddley Gorge x1000000! jumped from rock to rock and it reminded me of trips with alan and paul when i was ten years younger. Honestly this place is so amazing and peaceful and beautiful and warm and sunny and the water is blue and the air is clean! Behind me was the ravine with the drop down about 700 meters to the river below, and above me is a jungle leading up and up to the peaks above. We clambered across from rock to rock deciding where to stop. We saw a MASSIVE rock ahead of us, as big as my house, we climbed this one and stopped.

We collected wood and had a fire, the cooks had given us some potatoes which we wrapped in foil and baked. It was delicious, potato and butter yum yum yum. I burned my hand but the ice cold water helped, half an hour in that baby  and now I don’t even feel a thing.

The walk down took us 2 and a half hours, we marched down the road, back down the steep hill on all fours (backwards) until we all got shaky knee. then we could see our house in the distance, down below us. We just followed the river all the way home, for about 4 miles rock-hopping all the way. Now I am exhausted. I’ve just bought a bottle of coke as a nice western treat and stuffed my face full of noodles and veg.

Living here is amazing. I definitely know what Im going to do with my weekends from now on. Me and the boys have decided girls couldn’t hack the walk. So were gonna go up next weekend, see if a taxi can take us to the temple. From the temple we ca walk even higher than we have today. I don’t see the point in going to the towns, I’ve been to 3 now and they’re all the same, unless somebody recommends some special place just wanna explore these mountains. ARRRGGGHHHH what are you all doing!!!! apply for platform 2 ! NOW!

This was one of the pools, this one is easily deep enough to dive in, The water is crystal clear and nicely blue

We are men. We make fire. We burn potato. We throw rock in pool and rock make splash.

this is where I nearly fell. It doesn't look that bad here but it was about 500M down here

Us at Sheeva's place, what a lovely chap. Aparently he's the lord of destruction. hmmm

This is where sheeva lives, aint it pretty!

today was LOVELY!

layed in till 9, leaving us just enough time to get some last minute banana pancakes and jam, we set of just before 11 and took the bus to Baijnath, the home of the 1500 year old temple to lord Sheeva!

We jumped no bus down to Palampur (the local town-centre) which cost us 6 rupees and then connected on a bus to Baijnath for 13 rupees. It took us about an hour and when we arrived the bus station was mental! Really busy, loads of people pushing about, busses reversing in, mutton carcasses hanging up, people cooking at the roadside. After a 2 minute walk though we arrived at the temple.

The Temple was modest in size but looked amazing, the carvings all over the walls looked ace to say they had been there since 500 AD. We were a little hesitant about leaving our shoes outside incase they got stolen so we took turns. First I waited. The whole temple grounds were really nicely kept and there were lots of indian people just chilling out on the lawns. It was surrounded by massive trees and monkeys were casing after noisy birds.

When I went into the temple we didn’t want to offend so followed the other hindu people’s every move, touching various steps and our foreheads and giving the bloke playing hindi drums and bells a few rupees for his troubles. We thought we weren’t actually allowed into the central part, but a nice (very old) man showed us the way.

He told us to ring the bell ” ring the bell this is alarm for the gods, yes alarm, ring ring WAKE UP GOD” so we did, walked into the main chamber and there were even more amazing rock carvings and a few blokes sat around sweeping and chanting and such. We gave the priest some incense which he was very grateful for and returned the favour by giving us some stuff to eat which apparently is traditional religious food similar to bread and wine but TBH it was quite similar to rainbow drops ( those multi coloured nothingness rice crispy style things that are slightly sweet).

After the temple we found somewhere to eat which took hours (this is the indian way) our food came in intervals, not all at once as in UK. It was a veritable feast though. (sorry we watched role models last night and i cant stop saying “good more” and  “to sleep perchance to dream”)

We did a bit of shopping and I spent loads again 😦 (by loads I mean about a tenner, which is LOOOAAADS here!) then I haggled the shit out of a taxi back home. You see, the key is to tell them your final price and then walk off . Because all the taxi drivers are used to tourists, they will say their final price and expect you to take it, but we walked off at 350 rupees (which is still a healthy profit for the driver) and went to the busses. The driver then followed us out and we got our taxi! YAY

Gonna watch a scary movie tonight for Halloween. have fun kids x