PMSINDIA

It is a gloomy day today. We had to leave the awesome pad this morning and move into the tourist hotel far away from the hiltonesque Johnsones lodge. We haven't really done anything except stay in the lounge watching movies all day. We sat and watched three in one go. I know. In India and we watched American films! Mind you, try going on www.johnsonslodge.com and check the flat out. Its fantastic. There is no snow like in the pictures but I am the one flying the helicopter. We did go for a walk to the national park in Manali where we saw lots of trees which are huge. After that we walked all the way down to a place called 'cafe on the rock' where loads of lizards live. One lizard was about 2 foot ... read more

Hardly anything to report to day I am afraid. We have been very boring. We sat in the new flat and just smiled. Smiled like the cats that had got the cream!!!!! Everybody has been excited about moving into the luxury pad today. we were up and packed by 10am as we headed for the Beckham's holiday flat and unloaded the dirty washing. We have been learning about living independently so all you parents can happily know that they CAN wash up, they CAN tidy their rooms, they CAN cook and they CAN was their own clothes. How fantastic! You can all put your feet up after this trip as they are independent. I tell you what that was lucky, I almost said that we took away children and bought home adults. Oh that reminds me, ... read more

Hello all, Nothing much to report here i am afraid. We changed hotels today as the group decided to stay in a rubbish hotel for a bit and then save up for a real nice one for a few days. Its a lovely place that we will stay in eventually as they have already booked it. This afternoon we took a bus ride to Naggar castle which is 10 minutes away. Oops silly me i was using Indian time i meant A BLOOMIN' ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!! well 2 hours. I have to say probably not the kind of castle that i would want to fend off intruders. instead of the robust materials and design of a normal castle they had decided to use carved wood and it was about 10 foot tall. I assume the whole idea was ... read more

Well, crickey sums it up! There has been quite a lot going on in the last few days. Let me start with saying that the whole team is absolutely fine. The project phase of the exped went excellently. The school looked brilliant in the end with lovely new yellow walls new blackboards, a murriiel (sorry) murol (hang on) murreeal (sorry again) picture (ah thats better) on the outside of the class of their town called Jispa. We also painted the outside of the buiding and bought them paint to protect the new roof and help it tie in with the other school house. We then added floral curtains and picture rails....nah jkust kidding. the Lawrence Llewellyn- Bowen came out in me there. Unfortunately as we were at 3200 meters the effects of altitude started to kick ... read more

If you thought that Mersea was a desolate location you should see this place (kidding i live there). We Had a fantastic journey on an air conditioned bus for 10 hours up to our location of Jispa where we set up camp at the school. It is set at 3200 meters so the acclimatisation effects started to kick in. Just walking up a hill leaves you breathless and gasping for air, 10 seconds after you have stopped and you are fine. Weird. The project started the day after we arrived. We are renovating one of the schools buildings by laying plaster, painting the walls and doors and window frames. Its a relatively large school for its nine pupils. Things have not started off well. On day one we had to see how much paint etc we ... read more

You will be glad to know that no one has been evicted (please note previous big brother reference and realise that we are not getting throw out of any hotels!) All is well in Manali. Today the group broke into two teams. One team changed all the team funds into rupees and sourced the food for our trek. A job that i would hate to be responsible for but the challengers loved it. They have to work out how much food they will need for 25 of our group, a guide and the horsemen for 21 days and for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So after 256 pot noodles were loaded on the bus....kidding they haven't come back yet but i have all the confidence in the world. The other group decided to put their fitness to ... read more

This is a quick email to see that everyone can reply. Please excuse any typing errors as some of the keys have been replaced by lego bricks and old teeth. We arrived safe and sound into Delhi at 11am. Most of the challengers got a good 1-2 hours sleep Had a nice 8 hour wait for our connecting bus to Manali. We left our ruck sacks in the bus depot and we had various groups waiting with the bags at various times. The heat hits you the second you walk off of the plane and its humid so the sweat continues relentlessly. The second thing that you notice is the smell. In places it is mouth watering with the scents of spice markets and cooking. The next its sewers in poor sanitary areas..We left for Manali ... read more