Travel Blog Posts
September 4th 2007
Friday we set off on our road trip to Amritsar. As the Vengaboys sing “Whoa, we’re going to Amritsar!!” Mohan was driving us so Vengaboys were a regular occurrence on our banging sound system, not to mention the super cool “Everybody on Dancefloor 4” (which you’ll all be glad to know I’ve bought so you will be subjected to it at some stage! It’s so bad it’s good!!) as we cruised along the open highway. Well cruised really isn’t the word… at times the road was like a quarry. I felt like I’d signed up for an ultimate off roading experience. There were lots of traffic calming measures - HUGE piles of boulders placed in the middle of the already narrow road every so often but at times it was relatively flat allowing us to actually ... read more
August 29th 2007
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
August 24th 2007
Work has been well... interesting!! Still only 1 computer at computer class so not much work being done. Think the girls like that though... they use class as a chance to get together, gossip and listen to music lol. Afternoon work has on the whole been ok but was made even more special when we were invited to visit Anu's, (one of my girls) house for tea which was a great but slightly odd experience. We trundled up to her house which was in a small courtyard full of little, almost bungalow like houses. Not being too sure which one was hers we hung around talking very loudly in the hope that she was hear us. The houses didn't have doors that we could have knocked on... just curtains and I didn't really wanna walk right ... read more
NEWSFLASH - 2 found seriously ill!!!
Published: August 23rd 2007Asia » India » Himachal Pradesh » Kangra ValleyAugust 22nd 2007
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
What I Would Give For A Mangle...
Published: August 23rd 2007Asia » India » Himachal Pradesh » Kangra Valley
August 17th 2007
So the latest trauma I’ve had to deal with is washing clothes. I’d never before realized just how much work it is to hand-wash clothes and I have a new found respect for washing machines. It is possible to have clothes “dry-cleaned” however the process takes about a week, and your whites come back greyer than grey (or whatever other colour they’ve washed your gear with). Not to mention that rather fusty smell that arrives back with them. So I’ve stuck to getting down on my hand and knees and scrubbing for about 3 hours a day in order to get my clothes somewhat remotely close to clean. It’s just disgusting the amount of dirt comes out of them and I’ve sustained numerous injuries. My hands are red raw from wringing out the Clyde from my ... read more
August 14th 2007
So Friday was our last ever day teaching computer class with Rich and Neil… it turned out to be a rather droll affair as half the class didn’t turn up. (For some reason Friday is the day they skive!!) Neil rather amusingly managed to step in a big warm, slimy cow pat much to the amusement of everyone! Rather him than me. We set off for our trek on Friday after lunch after saying our final farewell to Amy. It was really sad actually as we’d spent practically every hour of everyday for the past month together but hey, things change. We'd all been really looking forward to the trek... more so just getting away from camp but for the past few weeks we have hunted high and low in Palampur for marshmallows so we could, ... read more
August 10th 2007
It's been awhile since my last post - I have been waaaaaaaaaay too lazy of late to actually bother to type an entry. It's not as if I don't have the time, I do but anyways here it is... That I last left off on our weekend in McLeod Ganj. The bus trip home was entertaining to say the least. They always are in India. The bus was jam packed with people, luggage etc and we were very lucky to actually have seats. I was squished in against the window which didn't seem like a good idea due to my previous injuries in that seat but it turned out to be the best seat as for most of the journey Keri had a rather portly Indian woman sitting in her lap which made me laugh. The ... read more
Scottish-isms = everyone slags Ali!!!!
Published: August 6th 2007Asia » India » Himachal Pradesh » Mcleod Ganj
August 6th 2007
Namaste My Hindi is very slowly but surely improving!!!! Though most of the time the kids in my class laugh at me as I don't pronounce the words write!! It's surprisingly difficult!! But hey... they seem to enjoy laughing at me... no idea why!! Probably because I run around like a looney most of the time. The girl I teach with, Mags, finds it hilarious how enthusiatic I get at times but as I spend alot of time lazing around I have lots of energy!! So lots has gone on since my last update... we left Manali and manageds to get home safely. We survived the utterly grotty hotel (which we ended up having to pay more than we thought for. Wasn't amused... it was only 30p more but still, if you'd had to sleep in ... read more
July 28th 2007
So this weekend we decided to get out of the hub that is Palampur and head north to a place called Manali!! Manali is a really cool hippie/tourist town in the north of the state - there are soooooooooo many indian tourists who come here on holiday/honeymoon aswell as the usual trekkers, backpackers and crusty old stoners!! So we hired a car and driver to take us the 160km from Palampur to Manali. What a drive... we were in this teeny tiny little car and somehow we managed to avoid the potholes that were often much bigger (and deeper) than the car. Well most of the time... on occaision as we chugged through the water my feet got slightly wet :s It was very bumpy and torrential rain for most of the journey as we wound ... read more
July 26th 2007
howdi doodle dudes... So here I am enjoying life here in India. It's very relaxing despite the incessant horns honking, general noise, people, dogs and cows everywhere lol! I've settled in nicely to the camp, my roommates are all very nice. It feels like I've been there for ages!! Normal routine is up at 8am, work for a few hours then lunch at 1pm a quick afternoon snooze, some more work then dinner and in bed by 10pm. Love it! I'm getting lots of sleep (just the way I like it ;) ) and reading lots of books! I've just finished one called the alchemist - its really good!!! We even have a tv so sometimes catch the bbc news in the morning if I can be bothered getting up in time!! But I did enjoy ... read more
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