Blogs from Shillong, Meghalaya, India, Asia - page 2

Thanks to all for your comments and for reading. Enjoying mental health issues at the moment, so staying in my head more, and not putting it out there. Probably not the best thing for me, I realize. Have fun at xmas if that means something to you. I'll be back in Benares so that may help. Might write then. I saw an official road sign saying" Don't gossip, let him drive" What a strange place.... read more

Amazingly I have spent almost a week in Delhi without either: - Killing half the population - Finding cheaper accomodation - Bitten my arm off in a fit of boredom - Tried desperately to leave I have, in fact, quite enjoyed my time here. After traveling for more than 2 months its nice to just camp down somewhere and have the same pillow for a few nights in a row. Also there have been important football games and other reasons to stay indoors and just watch tv in the evenings. Hanging out with Paroma and Raj has also been great fun. I am seeing them again tonight. Tomorrow I finally DO leave Delhi. I decided to splurge on return flights to Guwahati in Assam over in the small teardrop of India that sits between Bangladesh and ... read more

Look at my photos from Providence at face value and you will see only bright smiles and happiness. Laughing children playing and learning in a mismatch of clothing and various states of dishevel (but they all seem to have shoes). A school facility that offers shelter, running water and even electricity. The classrooms have colourful tables and chairs, murals, blackboards, pencils, chalk. Food served at lunchtime, children playing marbles. But scratch the surface and discover some shocking truths - a smile can be deceiving. My volunteer experience in India is without question the best experience I’ve ever had in my life. Life-changing you might say. This blog is of epic proportion because I never want to forget the experience. The blog lag is because I wanted to ensure my words did the experience justice. Admittance to ... read more

I've covered a few miles since my last entry! The last time I wrote I was Bhubaneswar, Orissa. I left Orissa on Monday morning at 6am on the train to Kolkata. We booked tickets through an agent but didn't really check the tickets properly before travelling. They had me down as male. The conductor came round and wasn't accepting the ticket. I had my first proper taste of the Indian way of sorting things out...Swarup asked to talk to the guy outside so they disappeared between compartments. The conductor accepted a 50Rs bribe instead of paying for a new ticket which would have been 400Rs. Later another conductor came round and was not so corrupt and we ended up having to pay again! The train was ok but we weren't in the AC compartment which we ... read more

First off, Happy Spring! Second, apologies for not writing sooner. It’s been a crazy month since the last time I wrote. So, as you can imagine, it’s hard to even begin to write about my experiences. I will try to keep it short, if that is even possible. So it begins: After Kerala, I headed to Maharastra to see Pink Floyd in Mumbai and quickly fled the city after the concert on a midnight train to…. Jalgaon- not quite Georgia. However, I ended up on the wrong overnight train (not sure how that happened) with a second class general passenger ticket… To give you an idea of how it works- this class of ticket has no reservations, they just squeeze as many people as possible like packed sardines, bodies everywhere and it’s not a pleasant ... read more