Monday, I arrived back to a smoggy, busy Bangalore very early in the morning. It was quite a difference from the calm relaxing Hampi. I got back to Dr Victors house ( if you missed earlier blog, he is the man who is running the VSFP volunteer organisation which I was staying with) at about 8 am just in time for breakfast which consisted of tea with awfully gone off milk. I gave it away to one of the other braver volunteers as I really couldn't risk getting any ill-er. My plan for the day was to spend the whole morning until 16:30 ?!?!? preparing a lesson to teach children. It only took me about 30 mins to prepare the lesson the rest of the day was spent waiting for Dr. Victor to arrive back. But ... read more

I traveled by night train to Hospet and then took tuk-tuk/rickshaw to Hampi. I wasn't sick during the night as i hadn't eaten anything for the last two days which was good as the train loo's are really dirty. When I got off the train I was asked/hassled by about 20 people for a rickshaw ride to Hampi but I wanted to take the bus as it was about 10Rs instead of 150Rs. I arrived at about 9am in Hampi so I wen to internet cafe before looking for a hotel to kill some time. I checked into the Shanti Guest House which was about 20m from the main temple and only 150Rs (1.70pounds) per night, room was lovely with my own private bathroom - much needed. In the Shanti Guest house all rooms were centered ... read more

So Day 1 of the volunteering. In the morning we were given breakfast cooked by the very kind granny and then taken to Dr.Victors posh college where he worked. We sat around waiting for instructions for about 2hours then were invited into one of his classes to interact with the ridiculously wealthy uni-students where i was asked if i was married by everyone i spoke to.We then went back to the house for some plain rice and bean curry ( the most bland curry i have had in india so far). Dr Victor was still at the college so we had to wait for him to get back. At 1630 he finally turned up, i was fuming angry as i still hadn't done a minutes volunteering and was paying almost 1000rs a day ( hostel 100rs ... read more

Sat was spent relaxing and cleaning my clothes. We for a lovely lunch see attached picture and for a kingfisher or two. ... read more

We went on an early morning trek into the tea plantations at 630am. It was very cloudy, we climbed right to the top of the mountain and had breakfast there after a 3 hour trek. I was sooo hungry the guy/guide took ages to get the food out of his bag...first we had a tea which was yummy from the TATA tea company. We then finally got some much needed food (sweet toast and eggs). On the way down/back we went to a flower garden where this young girl (about 20) started taking picture of us. It was a bit odd, guess we look like weirdos to her. We then went to the TATA/KDHP tea shop and bought lots and lots of tea, too much for me to carry so i had to give it all ... read more