Rajasthan

From Mum:

Namaste everyone from Ranthambhor National Park, home of many interesting animals, and of course the Indian tiger – who is proving to be quite elusive at this time! Since I last blogged we have been to Jodhpur (the blue city), and Jaipur (the pink city). We have seen many palaces, forts and an observatory. They are all magnificent in their own way, and each has its own fascinating history. Our guides have been great and very informative. Rajasthan is the state of Maharajahs and the history is linked to the silk road, battles between kings for territory and wealth (includes Afghanistan, Kashmir etc)rather than British colonialism, hence the Palaces and forts. Some of the places we have seen are 15th century, and there is a direct line of descendants to today.

Traveling by car is very interesting, the roads are much better than up in the hills, the cars go faster, but there are more accidents and for the first time we are seeing road kill – (camels, dogs etc). Still the same crazy road rules! We are driving through rural India, very poor and from what we can see, life is very hard for women here ( our driver Raj confirms this)Men seem to sit around doing nothing! Apparently Rajasthan’s a very traditional state, so women’s rights have not progressed very far. Have been in 2 out of 3 safaris in the National park and haven’t spotted any tigers yet. This morning we saw fresh tracks from a male and female and some dung,  but couldn’t find the tiger! The guides were very frustrated as the animals were close. Hopefully we will have better luck this afternoon! On a subject close to my heart the food continues to be pretty good, not always compatible with my tummy, but that is a very minor problem. The only real dodgy food was at Kolkata airport of all places!

Varanasi and Udaipur

From my mum:

Hi every one from the beautiful city of Udaipur. Wow! We are staying in a hotel which is right on one of the 3 lakes (feels like Venice). It is an original building and absolutely amazing. Since Kolkata we have been to Varanasi and which is like the spiritual capital of India, most of the activity is centered around the Ganges river. We saw the sunrise in a boat on the river, also the morning worship services (Hindu). There are lots of landings along the river called ghats which are used for different purposes. They are used for bathing (separate for women and men), worship,  and cremations. There are ghats on all  rivers and lakes for these purposes all over India. The worship services are called aartis. Later that evening we hopped on a boat again and  saw an evening aarti and also viewed the cremation ghats. The bodies are cremated within 24 hours of death on big pyres of wood attended by the men of the families. If you are a woman who died in childbirth, or a child under 10, or a cow (sacred animal), your body is wrapped and weighted and you are put to rest in the middle of the river. The ceremonies were very interesting, we also visited a couple of temples (Hindu, and Bhuddist) which were amazing. There are 7 main religions in India- Hindu, Bhuddist, Christian, Jain, Muslim and Sikh. There was a large Muslim community in Varanasi.   I really liked the temples and religious ceremony in Varanasi, but did not like the way everyone has their hand out for tips, commissions, begging and also the pressure to buy. Very hard to say no without resorting to being quite blunt and rude. Traffic is crazy and you have to walk really fast all the time.

Udaipur is famous for its palaces and lakes and heritage buildings. In contrast to the bigger cities, the people are so polite, traffic still crazy at times but mostly like NZ,  and if you don’t want to buy anything it is ok- no one hassles you. Today we visited the Royal  Palaces, one is a museum, 2 are hotels, and one is still used by the Royal Family who are in residence currently.

Tomorrow we are going to Jaipur via Jodhpur. From here on in we are traveling by car until we get to Delhi to leave. Our driver Raj has come from Delhi especially! After 8 flights in a couple of weeks that is fine by us! The road here are much better than up in the hills of Darjeeling, so we will be able to cover more than 20 ks in a couple of hours.

India is amazing and each area is special for a reason. Kolkata has it’s colonial architecture, Varanasi the Ganges and the spiritual stuff and Rajasthan where we are now, its amazing history, artisan workers, Palaces, and buildings.

Takdah to Kolkata

An update on the beginning of the end of my time in India, written by my mum who joined me in Takdah on the 30th of November. This was written on the 9th of December in Kolkata.

Hi from Kolkata. Haven’t been able to do this before as the internet connections up in Takdah and Darjeeling are not very good. We are really enjoying our time here, it is a beautiful country, and the people are lovely. We have had a few adventures such as the 3 hour jeep ride to get to Takdah from Bagdogra airport. Luckily we had hired a private jeep so we were not sharing with 4-5 others. The roads through the various towns are wide, but once you leave the plains and head up into the hills (we would call them mountains) they are very narrow and broken and have sheer drops to the side. They are also very busy. The drivers here are very good and there definitely is a system but I couldn’t tell you what it is. It seems chaotic and very noisy, but it is not aggressive in any way.

Takdah, as are all hill towns,  is built on the side of the hills. It is about 1800 metres above sea level. We really were up in the clouds. Most days were very misty and cold. The guesthouse was very nice, but the bathroom took a bit of getting used to. Had to turn the boiler on for a shower, and the massive black spider that took up residence was interesting. He was very fast to so took some catching. The owners were very hospitable and the food incredible. We ate locally grown organic and typical meals. So delicious.  The school where Gabrielle was , was amazing, the children great and pleased to see us. We were distinguished guests at the prize giving, and I presented some of the awards. We went to the local markets, walked to the tea gardens, visited the orchid house, went on another jeep ride to a orange orchard and organic medicinal garden. Apart from Gabrielle and Hattie (the other volunteer) we were the only Europeans there. We went to Darjeeling for a couple of days. Stayed at a  back packers guest house, clean but basic. Darjeeling is 2125 metres above sea level. We saw the Himalayan mountain range, absolutely stunning. In Takdah and here it was very cold.  Did tea tastings, went on the toy train to Ghoom (even colder our breath was frosty), went to the zoo and of course the markets. Food tasty and very cheap. Now we are in Kolkata moving onto Varanasi today. Will do another blog when we get there. So much to talk about I cannot do justice to it. A country of contradictions.

Nepal (and other stuff)

It’s been a very long time since I last posted, mostly due to a series of unfortunate events which started with a thirteen hour bus ride and ended with my Indian phone (aka my source of internet) being pickpocketed in the horribly hot town of Siliguri.

Before that, however, the other volunteers and I headed to Nepal for a ten day holiday- a welcome break and a change of scenery. It began with 3 hours in a jeep to Siliguri, where we had to board yet another jeep to the Nepal boarder. Half an hour and multiple visa checkings later, we crossed over into the country and booked our bus to Kathmandu.

The bus journey was very very long (sixteen hours!) and mostly uneventful, save the addition of a goat to the passengers in the early hours of the morning. I had intended to sleep but hadn’t quite managed it, and so arrived in Kathmandu very tired and slightly grumpy, made worse by the fact that no one seemed to have heard of the hostel we were meant to be staying in.

Things started looking up when we finally made it to the Alobar 1000, which turned out to be a fantastic hostel complete with a rooftop bar. The first day was spent shopping and exploring the touristy Thamel area, and the night spent drinking cocktails and eating good food. The next day we decided to take a bus to Bhaktapur City, an old fortress city with a plethora of beautiful ancient statues and buildings. The one downside was that on this particular day a festival was being held which involved the slaughtering of goats on the street. The beauty of the city was somewhat marred by the puddles of blood on the street.

That evening we visited the main square of Kathmandu, which also had many beautiful buildings and it’s fair share of headless goats. Then it was off to bed, with a bus journey to Chitwan National Park the next morning.

Our two days in Chitwan were sweltering and full of wildlife encounters. We saw crocodiles while rafting down the river, a sloth bear on our jungle walk, and rhinos taking a bath a mere two or three metres away from us. We went elephant riding (which, with four people to an elephant, felt a bit cruel) and saw a cultural show put on by the local people. The two days passed very quickly, and then it was onwards to Pokhara for five days of trekking, extreme sports and lazing around.

We stayed in a place called Lakeside, which is the touristy area of Pokhara. As the name suggests, it surrounds a beautiful green lake. We stayed in a hotel a little out of the way called Mountain View Hotel. The people there were lovely and helped us book everything from our paragliding to our bus tickets home.

We decided to go on a two day trek. We left the hotel with our guides and headed up an extremely steep hill for about an hour. It was about fifteen minutes in that I remembered that I hate trekking. Once we got to the top of the hill, however, we were greeted with beautiful views of the Annapurna ranges. We stayed the night in a little hill village called Dhampus, and headed back down the next day. We were told we’d be trekking for 3-4 hours each day but it ended up being more like 3 hours walking in total.

On the way back to Lakeside we stopped and went Bungee Jumping. It was absolutely incredible and incredibly scary, made worse by the two hour wait to jump. Worth every penny.

Following that, we spent a few days lazing, shopping and eating. We took a boat out onto Fewa Lake and walked up a very big hill to the famous Peace Stupa.

And finally, on the Friday we went paragliding in the morning, followed by a long and sleepless thirteen hour bus ride back to the border. It was with a bit of sadness that we left Nepal. It’s an amazing country and I definitely want to return.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, barring the theft of my phone. We arrived back in Takdah safely and settled down for a week of teaching before the Diwali holidays that start tomorrow. During this week we managed to become extras in a Bengali movie being filmed at our host family’s homestay- I’m famous!

Now we’re looking forward to a week of relaxing time to give our bodies and our bank balances a rest.

This and That

It’s been a busy few weeks. Classes have been suspended in favour of practice for the upcoming school concert- a mix of dances, songs and our English play. We’ve been into Darjeeling for three weekends in a row to get bits and pieces such as fabric, bangles, and other miscellaneous things for the concert, and in the process we finally discovered the markets at the Chork Bazaar. Rows and rows of colourful stalls selling everything from cardigans to Salwar Kameez fabric to plastic toys and games. The key to buying things here is haggling, a skill which we have not quite figured out yet. Everything is still reasonably priced though, far more so than if you were to buy the same item in one of the shops around Chowrasta.

The play for the concert is Robin Hood, and the kids have done a great job learning their lines. However they always deliver their lines too fast and forget to use gestures, so we repeat each scene until everything is perfect. The kids get annoyed at having to practice over and over but there’s been a definite improvement and it’ll all be worth it on the night. Hattie and I are also dancing in the opening dance for the concert. It is a very slow and simple dance (thankfully), and we will be wearing tailor made kurtas as part of our outfit on the night. I think the concert is going to be a success. It’s been a long process but all the kids and the teachers are working hard to make sure it’s the best it can be.

Straight after the concert is the beginning of the Dushehara holidays. We will be staying in Takdah for a couple of days and then heading to Nepal which is very exciting. We’re planning on staying in Kathmandu for two nights before heading to Chitwan National Park for another 2 nights, followed by trekking in Pokhara. I’m especially excited to see Everest, provided the rain clears up by then.

Today is one of our boarders, Biswar’s, birthday so we brought back a big bag of lollies from Darjeeling to share with the kids. There is a power cut right now that has apparently lasted since this morning, so we spent a fun evening dancing and doing shadow puppets by candlelight. Everything is pitch black and I nearly broke my neck walking down the stairs, but we have candles in our room now so at least we can see a bit. We were going to watch the Hobbit with the kids tonight but that will have to wait until another day when we have power again! It’s also raining very hard which has put a dampener (haha, get it) on my plans to do some washing tomorrow. It’s times like these where I really wish we had a dryer. Not that I’d be able to use it anyway, given the power cut.

Until next time.

Teacher’s Day

The 5th of September is known in India as Teacher’s Day, to celebrate the birthday of a renowned scholar and teacher, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. What it meant for us was that we spent the day being thoroughly spoiled!
We woke up early and when we headed to breakfast, our usual roti was accompanied by what looked like pieces of dried meat (which actually turned out to be sweets made almost entirely from brown sugar). After breakfast it was time to put on our borrowed saris, a process that took several minutes and all five or six of the other teachers helping. I have to admit that I’m glad we don’t wear saris every day- while they are beautiful, the process of putting them on is a bit of a nuisance and I don’t think I’d ever get used to baring my waist to the world. Throughout the day I managed to muck up the intricate folds at least twice, much to the amusement (and probably the exasperation) of my fellow teachers who always stepped in to fix them for me.

The day started with some of the students running up to us and giving us small gifts, with the rest hurrying to shake our hands and wish us a happy Teacher’s Day. I definitely won’t need to buy any more pens during my stay here, after being given about 4 or 5 in the space of a few minutes. As it was a special day all the kids were wearing mufti. They all looked so cute in their best dresses and jeans. There were also no classes so instead the students danced for us, sung songs, and hosted games. It turns out that Miss Hattie and I can give the other teachers a run for their money when it comes to musical statues- we were both declared the winners along with Miss Rachana, who had won the musical chairs as well. At lunch time we sat around the ping pong table with the staff and ate our specially prepared meal of spiced potato, cucumber and a sort of chewy cheese, which was very fancy compared to our normal lunch of rice and dahl. Overall it was a fun day, but very tiring. One of the boarders, Abhi, bet me ten rupees that there would be cake. There was, and so I am currently in debt to a twelve year old.

Later that night there was a power outage which ended up lasting all night and most of today, meaning that I’ve only just now been able to write this post. Pictures are coming soon! 

One month!

I will be a quarter of the way through my placement this time tomorrow. What a month it’s been! A hectic few days in Delhi followed by the start of my adventure here in Darjeeling- completely the opposite to Delhi in that here, life goes slower. Not to say that it’s never hectic here, either!

The past week saw us back to our teaching duties after a week and a bit of exams, and the added duty of organising a play for the school concert at the end of September. We have chosen our actors, handed out scripts, and begun practising for what is going to be a massive event for the school. Thankfully Hattie has theatre training and knows how to make our play a success! The boys have been learning a dance that’s looking very impressive so far, but we now permanently have Enrique Iglesias stuck in our heads. Classes are back as usual, though the school day is crammed in before lunch, leaving the afternoons to practice for the concert.

It’s funny thinking that I only have three months left with this school and these kids. Sometimes three months feels like the longest time in the world, but other times it feels like the days are slipping through my fingers. The past few days have been clear and sunny, and we have finally been treated to the entire view from our balcony. This place is really feeling like home now.

India is such a strange place. A strange but exciting place. I am always taken by surprise by small details that differ from home- for instance, I recently found out that the milk we drink in our tea comes not from cows, but from buffalos- and by rather larger details that I never thought to expect. I never cease to be amazed by things that the people here are completely used to. The other night all the dogs in the area barked loudly through most of the night, and it turned out there was a leopard prowling the outskirts of the village.
We have learnt to expect anything- or better yet, to have no expectations whatsoever.

Well, one month down and three to go. Let’s see what India has in store for me next.

Darjeeling

This weekend we decided to give Darjeeling a proper go. We set off on the long bus ride Friday afternoon, with the intention of finding a place to stay and then heading to the Foreign Registration Office again to finish up our registration (finally!) Not too hard, right? Wrong!
It turns out that the Aliment Hotel (and many other popular budget places to stay such as Andy’s Guesthouse) aren’t really in Darjeeling, but above it. Most of the afternoon was spent walking up steep hills and then back down again, hunting for these elusive places. Finally, thanks to a kindly lady whose directions were actually correct, we puffed our way back up the very same hill we’d already climbed, only to find that the Aliment was further up than we’d realised. Much further up. Both of us were knackered by this point and just happy to finally find the place!

The Aliment Hotel is a pretty decent place as budget hotels go. The only disappointment was that the prices seem to have doubled since the last publication of the Lonely Planet guidebook, but for a double room for two nights we are paying 800 rupees (16NZD) each. Not too bad in the great scheme of things. The staff here are very friendly and speak very good English. The rooms are clean and comfortable, and there’s hot water for showers which is super exciting! There’s also a restaurant which was a relief as by this point we were exhausted and couldn’t bear the thought of going back down the hill for dinner. The meals are nice and reasonably priced, and we had a nice chat with the man who runs the place and a couple of tourists staying here also.

This morning we had a lie in and then headed to Sonam’s Kitchen for breakfast. We’d heard many good things about this cute little restaurant and they all turned out to be true. Though quite small, the food was excellent and there was real brewed coffee! I had French toast with banana, honey, and nuts and it was honestly divine. Definitely will be going back there at some point (probably tomorrow morning). The rest of the morning was spent running errands such as printing off some resources for our classes next week mixed in with a little bit shopping. We had lunch at Hasty Tasty, which I’d read a lot about online and in my guidebook. I had a cheese dosa, which was yummy but very very rich. I only ate half. We also got some onion pakora to share but at this point we were both stuffed so we only ate a few before deciding to head back to hotel the afternoon.
Later today we will be meeting the other volunteer and hopefully getting a nice cold beer at Joey’s Pub, if it’s open!

I’m definitely feeling better about Darjeeling now that we’ve had a chance to explore without the stress of spending hours the Foreign Registration Office. I have to say that walking around even for just a few hours is really draining though! There are just so many people and cars and bikes everywhere, it’s pretty hectic. It’s really nice to be able to retreat back to the hotel for a nanna nap and some quiet time before heading out to experience it all over again.

2 Weeks Down

It’s been a fortnight (well, 17 days) since we touched down in Delhi and began our adventures here. We’ve now been at Tiny Angels for two weeks, and it’s already feeling like home. It’s been easy to adjust to our new way of life thanks to the kindness of our hosts and the fun times we have with the boarders.
There are some aspects, however, that I’m still not used to, such as the teeming wildlife, the constant rain, and the endless cups of sweet milky tea (not that I’m complaining about that!) The bugs here are MASSIVE and have instilled in me a girly squeamishness I didn’t know I had. Only last night one of the boarders, Biswar, presented me with a humongous black beetle as I was coming down for dinner. Needless to say I ran as fast as I could in the other direction.

Everything has settled down into a routine, which is nice after the terrible time we had trying to register at the Foreign Registration Office over the previous weekend. This was a process that spanned multiple days and meant many bumpy trips to Darjeeling, which is an hour and a half each way for Hattie and I. There were huge amounts of paperwork that we weren’t even aware we needed and an online form that took a good hour to complete. The whole thing was an enormous hassle and seemed so pointless considering we’d already obtained our visas and been granted access to the country. The only upside to these visits to Darjeeling were a particularly cheesy pizza for lunch one day and a little bit of shopping for new clothes. I got two pairs of leggings and two kurtas for just 700 rupees, $14NZD.

We are just now starting to learn the art of hand washing our clothes. Because of the constant rain and humidity clothes will often take up to a week to dry- I just today learned the hard way not to leave essential washing until the last minute if you want to have clothes to wear. I’m hoping for a sunny spell to give our clothes a chance at drying, but I’m not too optimistic.

The village of Takdah itself is lovely. There are heaps of small shops selling everything from shoes to chocolate to plastic buckets. The chocolate here is definitely not as good as at home. I miss Whittakers coconut chocolate! We have a particular shop that we go to for snacks, and I always ending up getting potato chips and Oreos as well as this yummy noodle snack I can’t get enough of. This combined with the rich meals we get at the school means that I probably need to sort out an exercise regime sooner or later!

Our second week of teaching only ended up being two days due to the Foreign Registration and India’s independence day on Friday. This week the kids all have exams so we don’t have any classes until next week. We’re going to use this time to do some long term lesson planning and to work on the play that we’re doing for the school concert coming up in September. We’ve decided on Robin Hood.

We have a lot of spare time right now and I’m burning through the books I brought with me. I’m going to have to take up some sort of hobby sooner or later.
That’s it from me for a while, will keep this blog updated if something interesting happens over the next week or so.

Teaching and Takdah

It’s currently Saturday and Hattie and I are chilling in our room trying to sort out the internet. After days of sim card issues- me locking myself out of my phone with a series of wrong sim codes and Hattie having to get her sim cut to iPhone size twice- we finally have it sorted. Well, sort of. Hattie’s sim card works like a charm and I’m stealing her 3G until I can figure out how to reverse the permanent sim lock on my own phone. Oops.

Tiny Angels school is a lovely place. We began our teaching duties on Wednesday, which we treated mostly as a practice for the coming days. On Thursday and Friday we were a little more organised, with actual lesson plans for each of our classes. In the mornings we have Lower Kindergarten, kids aged 2-4, and then Class 3, kids aged 8-9 (I think!). Class 3 are very fun, very enthusiastic and eager to learn. Then we have a free period and morning tea, during which one of the kitchen staff always brings us a cup of tea and a smile. After interval we have Upper Kindergarten (ages 5-6) followed by my favourite class, Class 5. There are only four students in class 5 but often there is no teacher for class 6, who are taught in the same room, so we include them in our lessons. They are very sweet and very shy, and we are working on bringing them out of their shells with more confidence for reading and writing in English. Class 5 is ages 12 – 13. After this comes lunch, where we are served rice with an assortment of accompaniments, such as curries and vegetables.

After lunch we teach Class 2, who are about 6-7 and a bit of a handful. They share a room with Class 4, who are our last class for the day, ages 10-11. Like Class 5 they are very sweet and shy, and are a pleasure to teach. However Class 2 doesn’t have a teacher for this spell so we are inundated with notes and drawings torn out of their workbook. They all say things like “I love miss” or “miss is good teacher”, which is sweet but very annoying when we’re trying to give our attention to class 4. We have a pile of these notes in our room, we’re not quite sure what to do with them. After this we have another free period, meaning our day is done.

After school we usually wander down to the village where we buy some snacks for afternoon tea- dinner isn’t usually until 8:30 or so.
I am addicted to these noodle snack things that cost 5 rupees. They’re probably not very good for me but they’re cheap and they hit the spot.

The weather has gone from rainy to sunny to misty to rainy again in the space of a few days. I’ve done two lots of hand washing but only one managed to dry in the brief sunshine we got yesterday and the day before. The rest is currently hanging over the balcony getting thoroughly soaked by the rain. At least my clothes will be extra clean.

We are headed to Darjeeling tomorrow for orientation, and we’ll be coming back Monday after filling in some registration forms. We’re hoping wherever we stay there has good WiFi so that we can begin planning classes for the coming weeks. We’ve decided to study renewable energy with Class 5 and to do lessons on the different types (solar, wind, water), but it’s hard researching these things ourselves without a working internet connection. Next week is a three day week for us, as we’re taking Monday off for orientation and next Friday is Independence Day here and is a holiday.

One of the best bits about this placement is the warm showers! I also love breakfast each morning, which normally had breads instead of rice. My favourite is Channa (chickpeas) with poori, a delicious fried bread similar in shape and consistency to a roti. Other days we’ve had thin pancakes with jam, which is a nice reminder of home. There is also a dog here called Speed who is very cute and sleeps outside our door at night. It’s not so cute when she barks in the middle of the night though!

I really like it here in Takdah, especially the very laid back, no hurry atmosphere. After classes I have plenty of time to read, watch movies and go for walks in addition to lesson planning. The views from our room are beautiful when they’re not blocked by thick mist. Photos to come, eventually.

That’s about it from me this time around. The next blog entry will probably be in a week or so unless anything particularly exciting happens in the meantime!