Blogs from Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia

Hello from the pair of us! We are really sorry we promised to send regular updates but haven't managed to do that so far. It's not that we couldn't find a cyber cafe, India is full of call centres and electronic cafe's begging for your 30.00 rupees, but in all honesty, we just couldn't be bovered!!!. It's just too hot and besides we've been so very busy traveling. By the time you arrive somewhere new, you're exhausted because traveling in India is complicated and exhausting. Well who wants to spend all their time in an internet cafe when there's an amazing India to explore out there. Everyday (according to Elly, we are presently fighting about this point cos we are saddos) I say to Elly, "shouldn't we get on with our travel blog and at least ... read more

Weekend on my own On the weekend between the old group leaving and the new volunteers’ arrival nobody was up to much really but I couldn’t bear the thought of staying in the house. I decided to take a bus and see where I ended up with a vague aim of heading towards a ruined temple which according to Lonely Planet resembles Angor Wat. The first bus took me to Dharamsala bus station where I then headed out to a tiny place called Gaggal where there was a wedding going on. Here the final bus didn’t seem to be making any move towards leaving, and I got slightly concerned about getting the bus back with enough time to make all the connections back to Palampur. Instead, I took the bus back towards Palampur but got off ... read more

Since my last blog the previous volunteers has left and the new group arrived. At Malainta we have two new guys - Scottish Chris in Day-care and English gentleman Patrick down at the school. In fact, as is the way of the world , I mentioned to Patrick he reminded me of Freddie, who it turned out he’d met in Paris and spent some time with. We’ve had a good time introducing them to India, taking them on walks which resulted in a ‘dip’ in the river and a ‘function’ which turned out to be the guy’s mother-in-law’s funeral... Over the weekend a group of us went to McLeod Ganj. I managed to persuade a fair number of people to take the bus with me instead of a taxi, but sadly for team India all but ... read more

A consistent theme of India seems to be contradictions and the idea that a different perception can entirely change the way something is viewed. Visiting the Jalianwala Bagh and then watching ‘Rang de Basanti’, a film which showed how media presentation can entirely alter perspectives and the struggle against government corruption, placing the concept in a modern perspective... The question - acts of terrorism or liberation? - is really brought to the forefront. I’d been listening to the song angles by Dans le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, a song exploring a similar idea about different perceptions, and there always being another side to things. There’s the obvious juxtaposition of modern ideas and age-old traditions that the Indian culture is built around. Ancient religion that’s still very much alive and also Western aspirations, modern technology and emmerging ... read more

We're close enough to Tashijong -- in Palampur. There are traffic lights here. Exciting :D Spent a few days in Kangra during the week because of more puja. Amazing temples (saw the final resting places of Sati's left breast and tongue) and the Kangra fort (beautiful and PEACEFUL, and there were BRIGHT YELLOW flowers :DDD) Teaching again, taught 'kookaburra sits in the old gum tree'. :3... read more

I'm in Yol! o: o: o: Jo, Daisy, Tenzin and I just had a picnic on some rocks next to a river. Thought you all should know. Teaching so far has consisted of a test to determine classes, and nothing else. We start properly tomorrow. 7:30-8:30 for first lot 1-2 second 2-3 senior nuns 3:30-4:30 last lot 6:30-7:30ish Tibetan grammar teacher, if he ever shows up. The computer I'm at is under the table. I'm confused too. Temperature gets warmer (yay!) There's a woman in a green salwar kameez with a bundle of grassy stuff on her head keeps walking through the nunnery, followed by a black lamb with a patch of white on its head.... read more

Arrived at placement. EVERYONE was a leetle homesick first night at placement, everyone but Jo and I on their lonesomes, but we all bumped into each other today by complete accident. Yay. The nunnery is BEAUTIFUL. The nuns are lovely too. Yesterday we saw some Tibetan opera and had a look at the temple where the Dalai Lama does his teachings. Some quotes: "Everything is possible in India!" random guy on a stall. "If you followed all the rules, you'd probably die" Rekha. Trying to find a post office STILL. Photo uploading didn't work, alas. Going to try and get a few things (like a rug or something :P) to make my concrete room a bit more homey. 3... read more

to make sure that Ali is well and truly woken up in a spectacularly loud and rude fashion at 7.45 am. EVERY SINGLE MORNING THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Has no one told Indian guys that the Vengaboys are and always will be crap? And so 1990's teenybopper material??!!!!!! At least this morning they had a change of tunes... Backstreet Boys were a slight improvement but still made for a very grumpy Ali this morning!! Our weekend turned out to be very different than we had initialy planned. Although this time it was completely under our control for once. We had organised a taxi to take us to Rewalshar Lake closeby. Meant to be very beautiful and descirbed as a "slice of tibet". But when we found out that the taxi ride there was gonna cost us like 700 ... read more

So we had a great weekend last weekend... we decided to go to McLeod Ganj (again!!) rather than stay in Palampur. We left Saturday after lunch, after waiting for the new volunteers to arrive (they all seem nice and waaaay more mellow than the group I came with which is brill!) and had another interesting bus journey there. For most of the way I was sat on one side, beside old lady who chitter chattered Hindi in my ear for most of the way. She couldn't speak a word of English and she spoke so fast that my pitiful Hindi knowledge wasn't suffice for decent communication, though with the odd word we managed to have a "conversation". If you can call it that. On the other side was a young schoolboy who was very polite. He ... read more