day 28

it was rainy today so we didnt go into school. So all ive done today really is sleep, read, lisetn to music, watch a film and eat. That is lieterally all ive done, as u can tell its been a boring day! we should be in school tomorrow, as the weather is clear again now.

day 27

We went to GGanj, as its meant to be a holy place, and after a 1km trek, we found its just like a dirty old swimming pool which has fish in (some alive, some dead). It wasnt worth the trek. As we couldnt think of anything else to do, we went back home, so were back home for dinnertime. The bus wasnt too croweed wither which was good. I got a few bits and pieces from town, like bread, cereal, nutella and peanut butter.

day 26

We went to kangra today and stayed there overnight. It took 1.5-2 hours to get there on the bus. About 10-15 mins after getting thre, it proper monsooned rained it down. all the roads turned into rivers and we were all drenched. we stopped off at the nearest cafe, which took us a while to find and stayed thre until the rain had stopped, like an hour later. We were so wet we had to take out coat, shoes and socks off at the door. After that all we wanted to do was get dry, so we tried looking for a hotel. When hotel owners see white wet people, the prices go up. We went in a few places and all were charging extortionate prices to stay, and in the end we had to settle for a room that was 200rupees altogether (there were 3 of us) this is relatievly cheap so we were happy. The room was disgusting though. The paint was mouldy and peeling off, the bed linen was stained, the sheets and pillows were satined, the 'Indian' bathroom was just a hole in the ground and it stunk, and it didnt have a tap. But beggars cant be choosers! We left our things there and went off for an explore of the town. there is a 1000 year old fort nearby which we wanted to visit. The hotel owner told us to pay 30-40 rupees each for a taxi/tuktuk...and every driver we saw was saying 100-200 each, so in the end we risked getting a bus to a place where we thought it was near. Luckily on the bus, a woman tapped me on the shoulder asking if we were going to the fort, and to get off at such a stop, which was good, as we wouldnt have known. She also got off at the stop and gave us directions which was also helpful as there were no signs. On the way there, there was suddenly the sound of gunfire. we were all like what on earth is going on, as no-one semed scared on the streets. It was like being in Afghanistan! but then after about 5mins of solid shooting, we approachde some men playing paintball in the street. Why in the middle of the main road, in the daytime, i do not know. By the time we got to them, all remained were colourful men. At least it wasnt real gunfire! The fort was really nice, and there was a museum there which had lost of old bits of stone. That too ws a rip off as an Indian citizen would have got in for 5 rupees, but a tourist had to pay 100. I got some nice picturs. Luckily the day was a lot warmer and brighter then. Afer that we went to the market and the temple in the town which was good, it was really busy. We then found a decent ish looking restaurant for tea, and i had mushroom chowmein which was quite nice. After that it was dark, so we had to get back to the hotel. It wasnt great! I wore my mac over my pjs as i didnt want any part of my skin touching the bed. I must have slept about 2 hours. i kept being woken up by the sound of traffic, tv, people talking, and in the morning, someone heaving. Also the fan and the electricity had stopped working, so in the morning we knocked 20 rupees off our bill for the inconvenience.

day 25

Today was a hlf day, and spent the 3 morning hours at school teaching the alphabet, the time, and numbers 1-20. It was mainly useless. 1 boy understood more than the erst, as he knew the numbers 1-20, the alphabet and started getting to understand the time. the other 2 kids however it was like banging my head against a brick wall. Its not really their fault, as they are only about 5 years old so wont really understand English, but they didnt understand anything. they know the alphabet by the song, but if you ask them to point out a certain letter, they have no idea what it is. And when pointing at a number over 10, they will just guess and say a numbe below 10. we have a lot of work to do! the kids aer separated into 2 classes which we etach, I have the younger class. in the older class (a year older) 1 boy got really upset and was crying, and we think its because his afmily are very poor, theyre only recently got a house, and the government give the family money, but the father is an alcoholic and spends all their money on alcohol. he is 1 of 7 kids as well, so i think everything is hard for him at the moment. in the afternoon it was meeting time and I was apointed minute taker. It wasnt that fun. I also had my palm read by our project executive, who said that im going to marry someone whos intelligent, have 1 kid, and die early! I dont want to die early! and on that note, thats about it for my day! Weekend tomorrow (yey!) possibly going to Kangra, which ahs the oldest fort in India. But its not definite yet.

day 24

at school today we are teaching 4 kids, about 5-7 years old. they really dont understand English, some cant even write in Hindi, so its really difficult to teach them anything. it was like 3 hours spent trying to get blood from a stone. So the next 6 weeks are sure to be fun...In the afternoon we made some 'steps'. they wanted us to dig a hole from a hillside and replace it sith bricks. they didnt seem to understand that bricks without concrete or something to hold them together, will wash away with monsoon rains. after about 30mins of trying to tell them that this really will be a disaster and them tryign to convince us it will work, we just gave in and did it. so by tomorrow comes it is likely the bricks, and maybe a child or two will be at the bottom of the hill. We went to a Chinese/Indian restaurant for tea instead of eating out, and it was the nicest food ever! i had butter chicken curry and chips. There was enough food to feed the 5000, and cost the equivalent of about 2 pounds 50. that really made my day! nice food = happy Lauren.

day 23

At about 8.45 this morning it erally monsoon rained it down, and by 9.15 it hadnt shown any sign of stopping, so all school was cancelled for us, as we may have sli[pped down a mountian or something I'm guessing. Instead we had to do lesson plans and then write an evaluation sheet thing in groups. I watched Mean Girls twice. I also have leant the book 1984 off someone. after reading that, then going back into the normality of people here practically controlling your life, it made me realise how similar my life is to that which is scary! ive also had my eyebrows threaded. that doesnt mean sewn on, its a bit like tweezering, but with thread, so now i have bright red eyebrows. Also, its my turn on the internet day today, and about time too!

day 22

I had a bad stomach toda (its an omen!) so didnt go to school. Instead I stayed in and watched DVDs and read. Later on I went out to town and bought some food so i can eat something other than what they are feeding me, which was the reason i was ill in the first place. that is literally all that happened!

day 21

they haev stopped serving us toast at berakfast, and also stopped butter. they haev a 'quota' of how much bread a month they can give us, and we have used it all. the erason of taht is when u see toast, u get excited as it isnt chappati/rice/potato/lentil/chickpeas. so now for breakfast we have bread type things which looks more like a potato cake, but isnt, and today we had 'porridge'. this is definately not porridge. it looks like couscous, but tastes like eating pellets, its not nice. but i put jam with mine so it was edible. berakfast was the only meal i looked forward to, and now i despise all food! at the school today it was meant to be our first day teaching, but instead we sat there for 3 hours diong nothing while teachers chatted amongst themselves, and kids worked in silence elsewhere. tomorrow we are meant to be teaching properly, but its disappointing as we cant teach the kids we want to, the ones we taught the prev 2 weeks, as they are in teh older class (about age 9-14), and we haev to teach the reception/y1/y2 age classes who dont understand a word of English, so it will be very difficult! in teh afternoon we moevd rocks from 1 end of the playground to another. In films, where prisoners are shackled and berak rocks for no reason ni the boiling sun...it felt just like that. apparently we were moving it to the corner to clear it for sports day. but the playground is made from rocks, and is uneven everywhere, so there is no point. I ahd my horoscope erad to me by the project executive, and she said that someone loves me, and i will be ill with stomach problems on 28th august. i dont want to be ill! also I wont be allowed on the internet as ofetn as a new rota system is in lpace which means I can go on roughly once every 3 days...bad news all around! at least it was sunny today, and someone out there loves me!

day 20

had a pretty lazy day today. we had some bread type thing with scrabled egg for breakfast which was alright, amde a change. we then went into town and i went to the drycleaners and did some shopping, and had lunch uot. then a few of us went for a walk down to the riverbed by the house which was good, despite some locals trying to sell drugs to the boy with us. he actually told us to go away because we were female. it was a privelege and a disgrace at the same time! we also have a cannabis plant (apparently) next to our house. that may explain why the past few night we haev had a hippy playing the guitar to children outside our window! start school properly tomorrow, which will be interesting im sure.

day 19

we went to an angora farm today, i thought it would be fields with little bunnies hopping around, but it was a battery farm style prison for rabbits which were too big for their cages and it stunk of rabbit wee...it really wasnt worth the visit, so i have no idea why it was on the suggestion list of places to visit! then we went to Bajinath, where there is a 1500 year old temple, that was quite good. we got some food out there, i had a chili and garlic noodle dish, it was nice, but really spicy. on the way back to Palampur, we stopped off at a tea factory on the outskirts of the town. it was a bit boring, but it passed the time! the house is erlatively quiet tonight as a few people are staying out places over night, so il prob have a erlatievly quiet night, maybe watch a DVD, who knows! xx

day 18

5 kids at school today, and we had planned a reading day...and as we were very overstaffed, me and 2 others spent the morning doing community surveys. It was a right trek up a moutnain to the houses! and also one house had a skinned dog hanging outside the front door. I have no idea why, but it was horrid. I suggested it was used for meat, but who knows! the afternoon was made of boring meetings. I also got my letter from Tom :-), thanks Tom it was really nice!!! Thats about it for excitement today! A few of us are possibly going to a rabbit angora farm tomorow...not my idea but it will pass the time. Might go to a local zoo on Sunday. Local means its around an hour away. But who knows what will happen! xx

day 17

there were 4 kisd at school again today, we set them a test which ended up lasting the whole day, which was good for us as we didnt really have too much to do. Int eh afternoon I did a community survey with some of the otehrs which means interviewing locals about things like income etc. for the government to use the data in some sort of way. Tea aws rubbish tonight, there was some nice rice which had veg in, but all we had to accompany it was cabbage, tomato and chabbati. luckily enough, its 1 lads birthday, so we aer having a party for him which involves party food so i will have my fill of junk food there :-) no other news really to tell today! xx

day 16

there were only 4 kids at school today, which was a big difference to the 15 ish of yesterday. Me and Duane had planned todays lessons, we learnt vowels and consonants, and then played countdown...i felt so much like Carol. After break we tried playing play your cards right, but a efw didnt understand the concept of higher or lower so we spent the rest of the day trying to teach them that. In the afternoon we had the english/ computer classes, which the kids and a few teenage/20s girls turned up to. the kids werent the problem , it was a 23 year old, she well annoyed me! as tehre were about 20 kdis adn 1 laptop, we haev to separate them so they all wriet a bit av\bout themselves and type it up. she snatched the paper of a 7 year old to type it so she could get on the laptop, she pushed her way in on that, tehn hijacked others' goes, and then erfused to elarn anymore english with us, and had the cheek to complain that she was angry she didnt get on teh laptop! we had 1 hour, 15 ppl wanting to go on, adn she actually did go on! she also is really disruptive and starts Hindi conversations while we are trying to teach. If she doesnt start behaving Im going to haev to have words. Its something when a person older than you is acting worse than the little kids! hopefully by next week all the kisd will have returned to school full time so the overcrowding wont be a problem. but if she starts playing up I'll have to get her removed! went to Palampur after school and posted some postcards...which will arrive probably after I'm back, but the thoughts there. We got something to eat as well, I had a chicken sandwich, the 1st meat in over 2 weeks! it was good. then for tea we had onion bhajis in a masala sauce with rice, a nice meal! probably going to spend the night playing blackjack, Ive taught a few people how to play so we now haev our own little card school! xx

day 15

we arrived at school and saw there was a mouse running round the classroom. we wer all scared so didt start lessons till it had run ut of the room. then once getting in we saw there was a massive spider above the blackboard which spent the next 3 hours running across the walls. it was not a good animal day for me! there were a lot of kids at school today, 15. so many that they were having to share tables and seats with each other. today there were 2 deaf children in total, must be something in the water! we did maths, they understood adding, but nothing else despite trying my hardest to explain. division is something that needs words not actions! the kids decided to join us for dinner, and then half came to the afternoon class again...as if we dont see them enough in the day! it was really raining, monsoon style, and when that happens the electricity doesnt work, so we couldnt teach them PC skills so erad them a story. It was actually so wet, that on the walk to the bus taking us home, i saw a crab...yes a crab! and i am sure it was a crab, Ive had people telling me it must have been a scorpion, but it was definitely a crab. carbs in the himalayas?! mental. by the time not only did i resemble a drowned rat, all the colours of my clothes had leaked onto my skin, so i had a blue body and pink legs...not very appealing. I spent the afternoon sorting out a lesson plan for tomorrow. Tea was well nice today, we had littel doughnut type things for dessert, it made my day!

day 14

jam on toast for breakfast (standard) with a frit pancake, which consistde of 1 slice of a banana on it...not really fruit! we went to the school and had a big class today of 12 kids. We did an activity where each kid wrote a letter of the alphabet on the board. 1 boy stood up to do it and did and said nothing, so we assumed he didnt understand English, so the man with us translated it for him...still no response. After 10mins we discovered the boy was deaf and dumb...which someone erally should have told us about! I sat with him during the excercise and tried my best at signing to him with my little knowledfge of sign language. It was challenging but rewarding.Then we played ball games and did some maths. In the afternoon placement it was the English and PC lessons for the teenage girls, but instead half the class turned up as well as their older sisters so we taught them the basics of Word and some conversational English. We had chips for tea, the firt time yet! It was literally the talk of teh town. They were ok, but curied still :-(. but it did beat potato

day 13

i woke up at 7am, and at 7:30, some Indian people tried getting into our room with a key, it was a bit scary as the door wasnt that strong! luckily they soon realised it wasnt their room and left. we got up at 945 and went for berakfast at the place we had the meal the night before. this time, the food was rubbish, and i never even got served! everyone had finished by the time they gave me food which wasnt even what i wanted, then tried charging us more for the bill. i wasnt impressed at all. As qwe spent about 2hours getting breakfast, we didnt have enough time to do everything we wanted to do, so did a bit more shopping. We got the bus back and stopped off at Palampur and did a bit more shopping, then got the taxi back to camp. I picked up my clothes from the tailor round the corner which was good as i had run out of clean clothes! I did some washing when i got back, but the water ran out so im not sure how clean my clothes really are. I also have to beware of monkeys stealing it from the balcony!

day 12

had an onion pancake sort of thing for berakfast...not erally breakfast food, so i had a banana instead. we left around 9am to go to Mcleod Ganj which is a 2 hour ride away, and where the Dalai Lama lives. Because it was India's independance day, it was a 'dry day' emaning they didnt serve alcohol :-(. it was really busy as its a major celebration and the bus had to drop us of 2km outside the town because of the traffic jams. On the way there we visited one of the oldest churches in northern India. Once we got there, one of our group met up wioth an old frind who was travelling, and took us to the motel place where they wre staying, and we all got rooms there for about 3 pounds per double room, so 1.50 each! It was basic but clean and quite spacious. The place was about a 3min walk from the centre dwn lots of muddy steps. I shared a room with a girl called Sophia. we unpacked then explored the town a bit, we went to a Tibetan monasrty and did some shopping. Then we went for some food, I had a tuna pizza which wasnt amazing, bt vetter than what we would have back at camp.In the evening we went to a music 'concert' where a man played the drums and a woman sang, and a man was on the sitar.It was ok but lasted aaages. After that we found a nice little Italian restaurant which charged us about 1 pound for a nice pasta meal, it was really nice. on the way back though, the 4 of us were followed by a scary man shouting things at us so we stopped by 2 other white gils who were next to a shop...who incidentally stopped there because they were being harassed by him as well. so we all walked back together, they were in the place next to ours.

day 11

hi again! today i we went to the school today, and when we got there we were told its a religious festival where children go to other family members...meaning only 1 boy turned up for school. As this meant we couldnt really teach, we all went to the daycare centre, where we sang nursery rhymes and played with about 4 kids. 1 more of our kids turned up there so we did some reading with them. It was a half day for us, with afternoon being meetings, and on our way back home, the minibus hit and killed a dog. everyone was histerical apart from me! i didnt even know we hit anything until i saw it behind us. Its not like dogs never get hit by cars, and espacially if its running in front of vehicles what does it expect! one girl said "he didnt brake hard enough, he wouldnt have ran over it if it was a cow" (cows being holy animals)...but of course he wouldnt, u cant possibly run over a cow without it flying through ur windsheild and killing everyone inside. back at home we had a sinner of chappatis, some spiacnch and potato things and rice...same old. im really bored of the food. its not even like the indian stuff at home which i would gladly eat! i went to teh shop and bought some dairy milk to make up from the average, boring, monotonous food. then we had some meetings, the first was a discussion about how the school placements are going, the second was about what we are going to do next week at school, so we made a timetable etc. Thats about all I have to tell u for today! possibly going to Dharamsala tomorrow, where the Dalai Lama lives. But thats just a thought atm, need tp find out about buses and times etc first. if not i think i will stay at camp or go to Palampur which is a 10min drive away. ttfn xx

day 10

had a massive berakfast today of 2 egg on toats, 2 jam on toasts, and some apple....just incase dinner was horrid and i didnt want to eat. but dinner ended up being onion bhajis in a sort of bolognese sauce with spaghetti which was great! so i really did overeat today! we taught th kids maths today which was more challenging than English. There was 1 more girl in the class today, who i think was about 4. its really hard trying to cater to children between 4-12. we brought in a load of sports equipment like balls and badminton set which they loved. we saw the cutest little puppy ever! it was tiny and white...it was so cute i took some pics...and i dont really like dogs! and the dog was called Tommy! for tea we had same old indian food. Potatoey things with chappati adn more random veg related things. the sim card man came to collect our documents to get sim (its crazy what u need to do to get a sim!) passport photocopy, visa photocopy and 2 passport pics...why, i do not know. then a few of us went to the tailors to get our clothes made...only costs about 4 pounds which is good! a efw of us were going to watch a film tonight...to find the DVD player is broken :-( looks like itl be another game of cards tonight then! tomorrow i have a half day at school, then meetings about school related stuff in the afternoon. not entirely sure what, but will find out 2mrw!

day 9

Namaste (hello). today was the 1st day of school. there started off with 2 boys and a girl, but incerased to 2 moer boys later on in teh day. we played educational games like heads shoulders knees and toes...and they already knew the words! the kisd wer aged 5-12, but all seemed a lot younger in looks. we thought they ere really clever, they all have a good knowledge of english...but then later found out theyre not as good as we thought as theyre memorising things rather than knowing it...like they looked at a painted rainbow and went thru the colours 1 by one and got it right...but if u pick a colour theyre not suer what it is. we played basketball with them which was fun but tiring! we had our tiffin (lunchbox, no Anabel dad!) for dinner its like a biscuit barrel with tins of food in. its not great food, but its food all the same. tehn a girl had a leech on her ankle! it was horrid. in the afternoon me and a lad callde Duane were teaching 2 teenagers english...1 was good, the other relly wasnt. i ended up teaching duane the alphabet too which was funny, i felt so knowledgaeble lol. we have to wear indian Salwar Kameezes to work...and i make MC Hammer look like he's wearing drainpipes with how baggy they are! went to the market after work and bought some clothes, so need to get a tailor now! u cant buy ready made clothse which is weird lol. I apologise for the appalling spelling, but the keyboards here are rubbish, and im too lazy to change errors lol. tomorrow we're teaching and building steps...fun. we have to wear our proper clothes too dont get overalls or sumthing, so il look a right state. thats pretty much it for today, off to play blackjack with a few of the girls. i always win :-). xx

day 8

went to the school for the first time today. its about a 10min drive up the mountain which involevs crosing bridges and a waterfall. right in the clouds! the school itself is tiny, 2 classrooms which are small, where all the kids get taught, no matter about age or ability. we just had a look round as t\its teh kids' summer hols so no1 to etach. tomorrow starting 'bridge' classes for the underachievers, so theyre caught up on their education before school begins. we then went to have hindi lessons off the teachers which basically meant we asked them waht we \wanted to know and they told us, but india is a vary varied contry, with places incomprihensible to others in terms of language. one teacher was a local, the other from Rajasthan which is far away. so one was telling us one, one something else. so i still have no idea whats right. they then told us there was a wedding in the village and would we like to go...free food..yes please! so we walked up the mountain some moer and came to a function room. the bride and groom werent there but the guests were all eating food off leaves on the floor. we were escorted into a VIP room coz we were guests! we feldt special..we had chairs to sit on! then after about 10mins we were escorted outside where we sat down to eat. we ate off leaevs which were like stapled with bamboo (random wbut thast what it looked like) and we had a pile of rice, with dif curries..was very nice! then went back and got a sim card...dont remember m,y number tho so will try and contact sum1 with it! then went to a market but bought nothing coz we had ot enugh time. then we had a chinese (ish) for eta, with garlic berad...so glad it wasnt curry! we havent even had a poppadom yet, and the curries arent like back hmoe. all these carbs arent good for me! thts all for now! xx

day 7

had an inside day today. chose which school we were all going to, im giong to Thala school which is 4km away, getting there by an organised bus. saw some monkeys today, they had baby monkeys too which were cute! today for the first time the clouds cleared from teh mountains and the views are amazing! il try and upload them at some time. its the best view ive ever seen! did my washing today with a bucket and some vanish soap...only for a monsoon rain to come and wet it all again! tomorrow we are meant to be visiting the schools to see what its like. we haev ben told we haev a deaf child in the class so will have to try and learn some sign language. not too much to etll today, hope to get on in the next few days though! xx

day 5

hi everyone! i manaegd to survive the 16 hour train journey and 5 hour bus journey. was tiring tho! and a man was thinking of robbing my bags thinking i was asleep...i wasnt. the views here are gorgeous! misty but can see the mountaisn we are right next to them. sharing a room with 3 other girls, 2 bunkbeds per room and en suite. foods ok too. went to the nearest town of Palampur whicvh cost the equivalent of 7p each way! just had a wander and came back. thats all to tell really, il try and be online again soon xx

day 4

for breakfast we had toast again. the toast is smaller than ours and she does home made butter. We got up at 5.30 as we had an early day going to the amber fort. it was a really nice building, it was built in the 16th century...pics will follow in a few weeks time i imagine. it is the 2nd biggest glass palace in the world. got to ride an elephant up top the fort which was cool, and inside was all marble and precious stones. i thought it was only a matter of time until i saw a traffic accident...and i did. a motorbike and a bike collided, the motorbikes fault...and the driver ran over his bike and continued! i was shocked. In the afternoon went to see a bollwood movie. About 1/5 of the words wer english, so got the jist of it just about. typical love story they break up and end up together again. For tea we had potato curry, pumpkin and veg, and ciabatti. Krisha was telling us that she is going to send her son (age 13) to Australia to become a pilot..and as far as im aware he has no say in this. and he wouldnt even fly planes, just look after his uncles fleet (told u thewy were posh) she also told us more about the new servant - her and her family are homeless and all live in a little tent by a road. the girl doesnt know her own age but id guess 15/16. she only has 1 set of clothes, and one of her cousins went missing 2 years ago never to be seen again. it was a really sad story, but i think its commonplace round here. It really makes u realise how well off we are back home. Random thought, but Ive seen a few dogs here...and all seem to be limping! no idea why! thats all for a while now, got a 16hour train jopurney followed by 4 hour bus up mountain 2mrw. should be next weekend i aim to get on the net, but will have to see. hope all is well bk in England xxxxx

day 3

up at 8am and had toast for breakfast. had a 'shower' as well, which consisted of a bucket of water and a jug...nice! we were all taken to a place where poor women and their children were and they made clothes, and bought a few salwar kameez (indian dresses) from them. The weather here is scorching hot, im, still getting burnt with factor 50 on. for dinner had chappati chick peas and potato. got bit a few times in the night which wasnt good, a few have turned t\into big blisters and are itchy but should go soon. on the way back to the host families house, we were picked up by the brother in law...and just as we were on a 'dual' carriage way (cars make their own lanes and do what they want!) the car broke down! we had to get out and try co\rossing about 6 lanes of traffic! the traffic here is menatl. there are lane markings but no one sticks to them, they just make their own, and they beep to over take so its noisey and also really dangerous! we finally crossed the road and got a tuktuk which is like a cross between a taxi and a rickshaw back to the house which was an experience also! its like how many ppl can they fit into the tinyest vehicle which has no doors! for tea we had spinach, a sicy sauce and chilis, followed by a coconut dessert, it was nice. The lady also arranged for a masseus to come round. I told the masseus, who didnt speak english not to go over my bites, by showing her my bites and shaking my head etc...she rubbed it anyway and they got infected and turned b;listery...should go down in a few days but are a bit sore for the time being :-(. In the evening a family came round, apparently the girl was being interviewed for being a servant there...the family already have 2 servants. I also saw 2 camels grazing in next doors garden...random

day 1

The flight lasted 8 hours, and I sat with 2 guys called Chris and Nat who seem nice. I had a nice dinner on the plane, a roast dinner, but breakfast wasnt so nice it was a bit rubbery. Virgin planes are well posh! TVs in every chair, well good! After the plane we got a 7 hour coach ride to Jaipur with no air con...nwas not comfortable! also found out we werent going to the Taj Mahal so I was very disappointed coz i really wanted to go. When we arrived in Jaipur, we were split into groups of 4 to stay with a host family. I stayed with 3 girls called Jagdeep, Matea and Nayo. The family we stayed with were actual royalty! they owned a castle but were doing it up to turn it into a hotel. Although they are extremely rich, its a double edged sword for the mother of the family called Krishna. She isnt allowed to associate with people below her in class, and not allowed to do things on her own...so she became depressed, so did the host job to make friends and let her have a bit of independance. Her brother apparently has his own castle with 15 horses and hosted the ex president of Israel there! Had potato curry chapattis and sweet dessert. Altogether I like with Krishna the mother, Kunwar the father, Gaj the son, and the parents of the father.

Day before leaving

Just over 24 hours til I go...hope I've packed everything I need, but wouldnt surprise me if I've forgotten something. I'm flying from Manchester to Heathrow, then Heathrow to Delhi, so I really hope my luggage doesn't get lost...10 weeks in the same clothes isn't very nice! I should get to Heathrow about 2-3 hours before we meet up, then its another 3 hours till the flight out, and the flight should last around 8 hours. The next time I write I should be in India, and I hope I have some interesting stories to tell!