Not working on work days... (a post written before the event started and I got crazily busy again!)

There have been a lot of days recently on which I've been 'on', but haven't really done any work. A couple of these days were for good reasons, and will be explained in detail in a moment; other days have been because it's been slow here for too long, so I've finished up a lot of projects, and got all my event prep done way ahead of schedule, which has left me with really not a lot of work that I can do, especially when sitting on reception for hours! But that's how I found the time to write my epic Delhi/Agra post, so I guess I can't complain. After January, we all needed some down-time, but it's now been 3 weeks, and although a new event starts next week and then we're pretty much busy for the rest of the season, it doesn't really feel like we're ramping up yet. It's the nature of the work here, and I'm used to it, but find it frustrating at times never-the-less.

I had 2 days in a row at the beginning of this week [6 & 7 Feb] which counted as work days, but did not involve any sitting at a computer doing boring work things. The first was my 'Day as a Tare' - or, as Olivia put it, 'Bring your SV to work day'; the second was the annual picnic for local staff...

Tare for a day. This was a challenge we (all staff) were set, so that we could experience and understand what our Tare (community programme participants) do each day. I was more than willing to take up the challenge; I love discovering new things and seeing how others work, and also their work is similar to that which I did in Manali, so it was exciting to be able to see them enjoying the same kind of work, atmosphere and challenges that I did. I chose to visit Door Step School with Amy (American, 33, married) and Bec (Australian, 21, not married), because I'd not been to this partner before, it sounded like their aims were something I could get behind, and Amy and Bec had been very enthusiastic about their work. So I checked with them that they were happy for me to come, arranged the day, and got ready.

Monday 6th February was the day. I dressed in my purple punjabi suit so that I'd (almost) match Amy and Bec, prepared my tiffin (lunchbox) straight after breakfast, and was ready to go. We got in a rickshaw, and Bec commented that the journey was one of her favourite parts of the day. I thought this was strange; surely spending the day working with children was better than half an hour in a rickshaw?! I realised what she meant, though, as we journeyed further away from Sangam - every day they get the chance to see India; to see people going about their business, to watch the progression of building or roadworks etc. We often don't go outside the gates for days at a time, and I realised that I miss being a part of life outside the walls!

When we arrived, Amy and Bec lead me up a half-built road to the school. We walked up some stairs, left our shoes just inside the door, and went into the staff room. I was introduced to the ladies there, and then Bec gave me a quick tour of the classrooms they work in every day. They were basic, but clean and tidy, with some books at the back, a blackboard, and paintings and posters on the wall. Door Step School is supplementary to other schools; their aim is to encourage children in their education and to keep them in school. As a result, the classes at Door Step take place before and after the children go to regular school, and so depending on exams etc, the classes that Amy and Bec teach always have slightly different children in them. They've made really cool name badges for each child, and I was impressed by how quickly they'd learnt all the names - they'd really only worked there for about 10days at this point.

Amy opened the session with songs - the banana song, and the crazy moose. Argh! My brownies LOVE crazy moose, and I have to sing it all the time. Amy's version is different to mine, but she'd also slowed it down so that the kids could follow. I don't know how she puts up with doing it all the time! She clearly has more patience than I do. The children clearly loved it and had started to learn it anyway. We then played a game - the one where one person leads actions that everyone follows and a detective has to work out who the leader is - before settling down for the lessons' activity.

The plan for today was to make jigsaw puzzles. The girls had printed out blank puzzles, and the aim was for the children to write their names - in either English or Marathi - on the puzzle, colour it in , cut it up, and then put it back together. The first class was amazingly organised. I hadn't wanted to take my camera out in case I distracted them from their work, but Amy and Bec assured me that the children were very good with cameras, and so I was able to document the session. We helped each child to write their name - copying from their name tags often - and some wrote it again as a reflection, copying Amy's example. They then spent a lot of time carefully colouring in their puzzles, before sharing scissors and cutting up the pieces. They'd coloured both sides, which made putting them back together surprisingly difficult - I failed to finish one that I was helping a small boy with - but they all seemed to enjoy the activity, and it was really really great to see how Amy and Bec have developed ways of working together, and how they interact with their 'students'.

 We had a few minutes to relax after the class finished, and then walked up the road to one of Door Step School's creches. This was a tiny tin hut - smaller than my bedroom at Sangam - which hosted a teacher and 12-15 small children. This session, like the previous, began with the banana song, and then we launched into the activity - colouring! Previously, they'd made paperchains with these children, and now they were colouring in small flowers to decorate the chains. The three of us sat cutting out flowers, while the children happily sat and coloured with the crayons Amy and Bec provided. After a while, a couple of them decided that it'd be more fun to collect up all the crayons, but this was fine too. Apparently, I got lucky and they were better behaved than usual - including Rajkumar, who is one of those boys whose name you constantly hear as he is reprimanded! I particularly enjoyed the relationship Bec had developed with a tiny boy called Maruti. He'd looked bewildered by bananas, but cracked a smile when she pulled a face at him, and then spent the session trying to impress her, steal her scissors, pull her nose. It was very sweet. When all the flowers had been coloured, we played another guessing game - someone would hide a flower in their hands, but we'd all pretend we had it, and the detective would have to find it. They all found it very amusing, and it was great to see that in just a few sessions, they'd learnt the game, and also learnt how to be sneaky! It was clear that the work Bec and Amy are doing there fits into the ethos of development of children that Door Step has, and it was great to know that our programme is working as it is designed to!

After the creche session, it was lunchtime. We headed back to the staff room, grabbed our tiffins, and sat on grassmats on the floor, with newspaper as a tablemat. The ladies all share food that they bring, and Bec and Amy make sure to bring extra vegetable with them to share as well. They'd not brought dal with them, which is problematic for eating rice with your hands, and the ladies laughed at them good-humouredly. The conversation - apparently inevitably - turned to marriage; the teachers thought Bec should be thinking about marriage, and couldn't understand that Amy had come all the way to India without her husband, and without having to ask his permission! We think they were speculating about me as well, but they didn't ask outright. We had quite a long conversation about marriage rings and other symbols - complicated by the fact that Amy doesn't wear her ring here, and that she'd somehow ended up with kumkum in her parting today as married Indian ladies do! It was fun and relaxed and friendly, even though the ladies didn't have all that much English. I enjoyed it.

The Tare had another class after lunch, and as it's usually different children, they plan to run the same activities, as this makes their planning easier. The afternoon class is made up of older children, and Amy had been telling me how they're usually very well behaved, and often sing or hum quietly to themselves as they work. Not today! Bec was feeling ill, so took advantage of the fact that I was there, and went home early. This left me and Amy to run the session. I'm not sure I was really much help to be honest, hindered by not knowing names and personalities, but I tried. A girl called Poonam arrived, and the atmosphere in the room changed. She owned the room. Although only 12, one could easily have believed she was about 15, and she was clearly in charge. Apparently she doesn't always come, but she instantly changed the dynamic. It was really interesting to see. In this lesson, we only let them colour one side, and as they were older anyway, the putting back-together of the puzzles was much more successful. At the end of the lesson, we were just left with Poonam and her posse - they were lovely at this point, not having to prove their superiority to the younger kids, and we chatted with them a bit and did - to my disguised disgust - Crazy Moose.

 That was it. My day as a Tare was over. I'd really enjoyed it. Really not sure I was that helpful to Bec and Amy, but I definitely enjoyed seeing how they work and how much they enjoy their work as well. Amy and I stopped off at a shop to buy drinks and biscuits, and we munched happily and chatted about the impact of the work etc. on the way home. It was a really great day, and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to go.


The day after was Staff Picnic Day. This is an annual event, and is our chance as representatives of the whole season's volunteers and interns to say thank you to all the local staff for their hard work. It usually happens nearer the end of the season, but because we have a seminar that only finishes 3 days before my last work day, we had to bring it forward. We bought snacks and drinks from the sweet shop, and then all piled onto a bus, with all the local staff, ready for an adventure. The only person missing was Jen, who had to stay behind to be 'security' and let the Tare in when they returned home from site.
On the bus, we blasted out bollywood music, and Shoba, one of the ladies who's only a couple of years from retirement, had us all up and dancing in the aisle!
Our first stop was a giant statue of Ganesh. It's huge. From what Mina told me, I gather that it's made of cement, and was built by a cement company. Lots of people trudge up the steps to the top of the hill to see it, and so we did the same.

We continued on after this to our main destination - Karla Caves. More caves! The main attraction is actually a temple that was built at the top; once we'd trudged up many, many steep steps, we went into the temple, though we weren't really understanding of why it was quite so significant. All the local staff seemed to enjoy going, though, so it was worth it. We also had a look in a couple of caves; this wasn't nearly as large as the complexes that I visited on my trips away, but were still nice to see.

When everyone had explored to their satisfaction, we headed back down the hill. Stopping at the bottom to buy ices or cold drinks, we jumped back on the bus, and on the way home stopped at a roadside restaurant to eat lunch. It was pretty good food, but nothing special. Again, the local staff enjoyed it - I guess for the ladies it made a nice change to eat out and not have to cook for 50odd people! The funniest thing was that a lot of us ordered 'sweet lime soda'; expecting a concoction of lime juice, sugar, and soda water. What we received was something that was the juice of a Sweet Lime, mixed with soda. Which didn't taste that good at all. Apparently, we should've ordered a 'fresh lime soda - sweet'! Lesson Learnt.

When we returned to Sangam, we gathered together in the entrance for a group photo, and then we (SVs and Interns) had a present for each of the local staff. At Christa's brilliant suggestion, we'd been out and bought some pretty chai cups, and then painted their names on them, so that they couldn't argue over cups, which apparently happens sometimes! Steph and Bron made really cool boxes for them, and then the names of all SVs and Interns were signed on them. We think they were a success, although Mina (typically!) seemed more interested in the box! (she likes to re-use things and make things!)

Another really lovely and successful day, and a good way of 'working'!

TTFN





 

Holidays - part 2

Time for a story about my second adventure, that happened after only 3 days back at work to recover from Aurangabad.

This was it. The big one. The one Jessica and I had dreamed and schemed and plotted about for weeks, if not months. The one that had involved some complex working out of dates and times (we chose the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of Feb as our requested days off to make it easier with thinking in terms of 'day 1, day 2' etc!), and the one that had cost us more than a month's stipend in travel fares. It was finally here.

The reason it'd cost us so much was that, in order to make this possible in the 3 days we had, we needed to fly up to Delhi. So, on the 31st January, when work was over and dinner had been munched, we did some last minute packing, and then headed out of the Sangam gates. We walked up to the local set of shops - Vishrantwadi - so that we could stop at a cashpoint and stock up on funds, and then grabbed a rickshaw to the airport.

Pune airport is conveniently only about 20minutes from Sangam, so it's very easy to get there, and this means you don't need to go too much in advance. We arrived about an hour before boarding time, checked in, and then wandered around the tiny section of the airport before security. We bought a couple of slices of pizza and a bar of Dairy Milk which we discovered was British-made and therefore expensive, but considered it a special treat! Having munched on our pizza, we decided we'd better head through security. All was fine, until we discovered that my rucksack had been set on a separate table, not with the ones to return to passengers. We pointed to it enquiringly, and a security woman brought it over and asked me to open it. Panic! Now, you must note that we'd decided not to check any bags into the hold - we were only going to be away for a couple of days so didn't need much, plus it was just easier that way. So, everything had been carefully packed and slotted together into tiny spaces in my bag. Including all my spare camera batteries, and chargers for my phone, batteries and mp3 player. It was these things, along with my little tripod, that the security woman removed from my bag and placed in a separate tray, before sending the tray and bag back through the scanner. This passed the test, and I was allowed to gather my things (which got thrown into Jessica's shoulderbag rather than re-packed) and carry on towards the plane. As we were moving up the escalator debating this episode, we realised that in the scanner, all those random little bits of metal probably looked highly suspicious! Oops.

We sat and chatted in the departure lounge for ages, carefully watching the screens and listening to the announcements. When our flight was finally listed as 'boarding', we got up and marched to the doors. To discover that all the other names on the list had ticks next to them. We were the last passengers! Obviously all the Indian passengers knew something we didn't about the airport system. We were still on board earlier than the scheduled departure time, though, so all was ok. Jessica sleeps on planes. She can sleep sitting up. I can't do that unless I'm really really really knackered. So the flight was pretty boring, although I did enjoy being able to look out of the window. We didn't seem to get all that high, and I could see the lights of cities below. At one point, I could see lights below and stars above; it was strange yet beautiful.

We'd arranged for the hotel to send a driver, and he was there with a sign that said 'Philippa Hunt' and a smile on his face. He marched off at a ridiculous pace to the car, and we followed as best we could. His English was limited to being able to ask us where we were from, whether we were sisters or friends, and how long we'd be in Delhi. We answered these questions and then stared in silence out of the window as we drove through many different suburbs of the city. We turned away from what was clearly the centre - and felt vaguely familiar to me - and down some grubby streets. At one point, a load of street dogs started barking and chasing the car. We pulled up next to a tiny, smelly alley, and the driver explained that the hotel was 'at the back' and led us down the path. He tapped on the door, and we were warmly welcomed into the Smyle Inn!

It was lovely. There is no other word. It cost us less than £10 for the night, and was decidedly luxurious for this money. There was a huge bed that would've comfortably slept 4/5 people, and a modern bathroom, that had some hot water. The only problem was that the blankets provided weren't really thick enough, but at 1am neither of us was lucid enough to think of asking for more. We wandered up to the rooftop the next morning for the included breakfast, to discover that it was omelette, bread, cornflakes, banana, and tea or coffee. Perfect. And cornflakes for Jessica which always make her happy! We checked out straight after breakfast, keen to make the most of our time, and asked directions to the nearest Metro station.

I hadn't really noted that Delhi even had a metro system, until Alex's visit (which I just realised I didn't blog about - it was great, maybe I'll add it to a blog soon!) when she said how great it was. We'd done some careful research and printing and labelling of maps before-hand, so knew which stations were nearest the sites we most wanted to see. It cost 100 rupees for a day of travel on the metro. We got cards like oyster cards. Each station had security scanners which was frustrating, but not a problem What was a problem was my initial inability to remember which direction we wanted to head in, so even though we understood the metro/map system, we started out going the wrong way! We only went 1 stop before realising though, so not a disaster. The metro is very strange, in that it is not at all like anything else I've experienced in India. It's clean, and it's efficient. There is a ladies only carriage on each train, and even at rush hour when it's packed, this carriage is pretty friendly. Jessica and I had a lot of fun comparing the system to both the London underground, and the New York subway. At some platforms, the floor was painted with where the doors would be, and people actually lined up to get on the train! It was a very good system.

Our first destination was the Lotus Temple. I never made it there on my previous visits to Delhi, so this was exciting and new. It was a bit of a walk from the metro station, and not clear where we should go, so we wandered in an adjacent park for a bit, before deciding we should go the other way. We knew we were on the right track because we ended up behind, and then amongst, a school group. There seemed to be hundreds of tiny children in white socks and red bobble hats, excitedly skipping and chattering as they made their way to the temple. We had to have our bags checked when we entered, and halfway up remove our shoes. Again, it was all very well organised; apparently by volunteers. When we reached the entrance of the temple, we were asked to line up, and then someone explained, first in Hindi, then in English, about the principles of the baha'i religion, and that the temple was for all people to meditate. We were encouraged to enter and sit in silence to respect others, which we did. The benches were marble and cold on one's bottom, but the building was stunningly beautiful. It's huge, and white, and different from anything else. Jessica commented on how cool is was that there was no real focal point - no altar or deity - just a microphone for when services happened. It was definitely a peaceful place where one could easily sit and think all day, if one was so inclined. On exiting the temple, we sat on the steps by the pools of water at the bottom for a while, before deciding that we should probably move on to our next destination.

The Lotus Temple:

Geoffrey demonstrating the pools we sat by:

We decided to try and get a rickshaw, because using the metro would mean going all the way back up to the centre on one line, only to go all the way down another, parallel line. We figured a rickshaw could just go straight across. In theory, we were right. In practise, we were wrong. We hit traffic. We sat in virtually stationary noisy, dirty traffic for half an hour. Successfully communicated to the driver to drop us at the next metro station he could crawl to, and got out of the rickshaw. We could still see the temple and were only 1 metro stop further on. Lesson learnt - stick to the metro!

We only lost about 40minutes, which wasn't bad really in the grand scheme of things as we'd been so organised in the morning. So we hopped on the metro, changed lines, and went all the way down to Qutab Minar. This is the site of one of the tallest stone-built towers in the world, and also a large iron pillar, which was all I could remember from my previous visit. I'm still kind of in the dark about what it represented, but maybe I'll wikipedia it in a bit! Anyway, it was very beautiful and we took lots of photographs; we were also amused because the little children in red were also there! They'd obviously crawled through the traffic in their school bus, and arrived about the same time we did!

The Tower (MINARet)

The Iron Pillar:

The plan now was to make our way back up the yellow line - which I'd been equating to the central line in London without really thinking about it - it had all the main attractions on it. It was nearing lunctime, so we headed for Dilli Haat; a handicrafts market/permanent exhibition, that also by some weird coincidence, was where Bert - a friend of Jen's who'd stayed at Sangam for a while - was hanging out. We'd sent him a text suggesting to meet there earlier, but he'd not realised it was from us, so it really was very strange that he and his new friends just happened to also be having lunch there. Jessica and I gorged ourselves on momos (yay!) and rice and paneer, before taking a brief wander around the stalls. We both bought a couple of things, but luckily for our purses (and our timing), not all the stalls were open; something to do with the 1st of the month bringing season changes?!

We now headed right up to the top of the metro map; into Old Delhi. The final thing on Jessica's 'must see' list was Lal Quila - the red fort. We got a friendly cycle-rickshaw man to take us there from the metro station, at which point I was confused, as I had been convinced that I'd already been to the fort, but it didn't look like I remembered! On entering, I realised that I hadn't been there at all; I'd visited the mosque which was also red but not nearly so big or impressive. It was a really beautiful place to walk around - it'd have made a lovely picnic spot - but it took us a lot longer than we'd originally predicted (because it was based on my faulty memory).

Red Fort walls (they're huge!):

Inside the Red Fort:

'A Good Place to Picnic':

 
This wasn't a problem, as we felt that we'd achieved a lot, but it meant having to explain to our cycle rickshaw driver (cyclist?!) that we now needed to go to the train station. Here begins the only really frustrating part of the day:

The cycle-rickshaw guy asked if we wanted to go to the mosque; it was part of the tour that we'd initially agreed to. We said no very vehemently, but all too soon, I saw it looming up ahead of us. We got off the rickshaw and paid him his 200rupees, because we now needed an autorickshaw to get us to the station. He insisted that we had to pay him an extra 50rupee tip, so we did, and then dashed across the road to the only tuktuk in sight. He agreed to take us to the station, and in our hurry, we didn't agree a price. Big mistake. And one that we'd never make at home in Pune. Anyway, he had to check 2 or 3 times WHICH station we wanted to go to; resulting in my pulling out the map we'd photocopied from the lonely planet and showing him EXACTLY where we wanted to go. Satisfied we were on the right track, we then had to deal with more Delhi traffic. We drove past  the station up a hill, guessing that we'd turn back on ourselves and go down the adjacent road. This was sort of correct - the driver stopped, and told us to walk. It was probably 500metres or so, but it was also about 3 minutes until our train was scheduled to leave. The driver was also insisting on a price of 300rupees because he was now stuck in the traffic, and this was an extortionate amount of money. He knew we were foreigners in a hurry and would get his money though, so I angrily thrust it at him, and we half jogged, half ran into the station, up the steps and down onto the next platform, and then onto the train. Which started moving just as we found our seats and started negotiating with the people already sitting in them. So that was fun!

The train journey was pretty boring really. We met a strange Russian girl who didn't seem very prepared (she asked about our hotel/ rickshaw plans once we got to Agra, and also then asked some foreigners in the next compartment), read our books, and played boxes, to the amusement of a man opposite who watched with interest and occasionally pointed out a possible move to Jessica, who lost. It was dark so there wasn't much to be seen out of the windows, and time passed quite slowly.

We'd arranged with the hotel in Agra to be met at the station as well. This time, it was a rickshaw driver. He smiled and shook both our hands, led us to his rickshaw, and then demonstrated excellent English as he explained the reason his rickshaw wouldn't start up was that it had got too cold! It ran eventually though, and he drove us, chatting and laughing all the way, through the winding streets of Agra, past a Muslim wedding procession complete with bridge in a carriage and trumpets and fairy lights, and safely to the hotel which was another familiar site to me. I was relieved about this, as I'd only guessed at the name of the hotel I used last time, based on options in the Lonely Planet! Our rickshaw driver - who we later discovered was called Manish - showed us a map of the city, warned us about the hawkers that were everywhere in the area, encouraged us to get up early to see the Taj (as we'd planned) then come back for a shower and breakfast, before touring for the day. His English was encouraging and he was obviously used by the hotel a lot, so we agreed to engage his services. Having checked in, we dumped our stuff and proceeded to the restaurant for some much-needed grub. It was really tasty. Then we did some organising (which made our room look like a pigsty, but it was the first time we'd really had the chance to throw things around without being in a rush) and fell into bed - this time under a lovely, thick quilt (or perhaps what Jessica would call a comforter - I learnt what one of those is this week!).

We woke up at 5:30 am, shivering and tired, and wondering why on earth we'd thought it'd be a good idea to wear saris as they take longer to put on than normal clothes. This wonderment continued when we realised that we'd both forgotten to bring safety pins - which are essential in holding the puloo in place. Drat. We'd both told ourselves to remember them, and had failed. Luckily, however, I had decided to take a LOT of harigrips (bobby pins) with me, and so we worked out a way to use these instead! Properly dressed, we threw warm jumpers over the top, and headed for the Taj. The gate was only a couple of minutes away, and we joined the queue of foreigners lining up for tickets, collecting their shoe covers, and then lining up to enter the Taj complex. It was cold, but not freezing as we'd thought it might have been which was good.


We decided to go ahead and take the obligatory beautiful photos of us in our saris before loads and loads of people got in the way, so headed to the raised platform by the pools, and took photos of each other, before asking a friendly french couple to take some shots of the 2 of us together. They laughed at us shivering without our jumpers on, but obliged, and then we took some shots for them, too. We continued on our explorations, taking photographs, and generally being ignored by people, although a few of the Indians looked quite amused that we were in saris. One woman asked to have her photo taken with us, but that was all. Much better than in some places. We were there until the sun came up and lit the mausoleum, and then we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. Jessica's cornflakes never turned up which was a little disappointing, but otherwise it was good. We had hot chocolates to warm our icy hands :)

Touristy shot with saris:

Friendly French couple who took the above photograph:

Saris and Shoe covers - classy!:

Jessica and some other tourists getting the 'reflection shot':

We had some time to wash our hair (we just about managed to get hot water in the bucket) and re-pack everything, walk back towards a different gate of the taj to find an atm, and then pay our bill. Manish appeared and we hopped in his rickshaw, ready for what the day would bring. He first drove us to the fort, and when he pulled over, we quizzed him on the plan for the day and how much it would cost us - having learnt from the previous night. He looked genuinely hurt that we'd asked and insisted that at the end of the day, we should pay 'what we felt was right in our hearts'. He also gave us just enough information about the fort for us to not need to consider hiring a guide, and to find our way around it easily. We marched off excitedly while he parked up on the side of the road, happy for us to spend 'hours' there if we so desired.

Jess and I are pretty quick tourists though; we'd practised well in our rushed day in Delhi. We were probably at the fort for 45minutes or so. We enjoyed the sights over the river towards the Taj Mahal, we marvelled at the architecture, we argued with a woman who wanted 'baksheesh' for 'guarding' our shoes when we went in the mosque. It was great. Then we returned to Manish, and he took us to the 'Baby Taj'. Similar story - lots of wandering, lots of photography. We also stopped for what we felt was a much needed and deserved Dairy Milk break; sitting on the edge of the old gutters in the floor. Geoffrey popped his head out to be photographed, and we just sat and chilled for a bit because it was a lovely day, a lovely location, and nice to feel like we actually had time to relax for a few minutes, and not have to rush off to the next thing straight away.

Jessica's new angle at the fort:

Taj Mahal across the river:

Fort walls (not quite as impressive as Red Fort, but pretty cool):

Baby Taj:

Geoffrey with detail of Baby Taj:

Jessica enjoying the sunshine:

The next stop was Mehtab Bagh - the gardens opposite the Taj Mahal across the river. It's very orderly, and the lines of trees reminded me of going to pick-your-own apple orchards with the grandparents at home. We amused ourselves taking touristy photos of Jess with the Taj in the background, and then decided we'd have another break - this one involving the kitkats that Steph had kindly supplied us with before we left. It was definitely lunchtime by this point, and so Manish asked us what kind of food we'd like to eat. We told him we'd eat anything if it was reasonably priced; he asked us if we'd like a garden restaurant. Intrigued, we nodded our heads and allowed him to take us to his restaurant of choice.

Jessica 'stroking' the Taj (thanks to my wonky photography, it looks like she's pushing it over):

Geoffrey's Break:

The restaurant was hidden down a little alley, behind the shops on the main street. It looked like it was family-run out of their own kitchen, and it was lovely. A big, open garden space with tables and chairs, and also an inside bit, apparently with internet access. Manish said that in the warm weather, it's very popular at night because you can dine under the stars! He sat and chatted with us until the food came, then tactfully disappeared while we ate. It was really yummy, but there was so much of it that we didn't really feel we'd made a dent. This has been the one difficulty with ordering food when we go out - we usually ask for a similar menu, but portion sizes vary hugely!

The restaurant:

After lunch, it was shopping time! We were in the handicrafts area, and Manish took us to a variety. We were aware that he'd be getting commission if we bought things, but didn't mind at all, and every place he took us to took the time to really explain the processes to us and chat with us, before trying to sell us things. First up was marble. We got to see how the stones are hand-ground to fit, the hardness of the glue they use, and to learn a bit about the history. We explored the shop - which was filled with beautiful things - and each bought a couple of magnets, as they were lovely and we figured they'd probably stand a fair chance of surviving in our bags on the journey home. Next was a fabric shop; Jessica fell in love with a bedspread and we spent a long time debating whether it was worth the money... it came home with us. Then there was a jewellery shop where we got to see all the pretty Agra/India specific stones - like the star ruby; of which I bought Izi a set of earrings during my last trip for her 18th birthday. Very expensive stuff, but very pretty.

Finally, we went to a carpet factory. This was really interesting - the manager who showed us around let us see every stage, from the men in the office painstakingly drawing and painting designs onto squared paper, to the actual weaving process, through washing, trimming and finishing. We were offered (and accepted) chai, and then sat back as beautiful carpets of differing sizes and designs were rolled out in front of us. It really was quite a show; at one point he sounded like he was recording a tv commercial. We explained that we were students and didn't really have anywhere to put a carpet right now, so he showed us 'student sized' carpets, which were square wall hangings. They were lovely, but also made of silk, so the price was not so student friendly. We got the impression, though, that the manager hadn't really expected us to buy his big expensive rugs, and was just enjoying showing us, so we didn't feel too guilty.

 Carpet design:

Weaving:

When we left, we had about 30minutes to spare before we needed to be at the train station. We asked Manish to find us an internet cafe so we could check if we had confirmed seat numbers, and happily, discovered that we did. He then took us back to the garden restaurant for chai - which he either got for free or treated us to, before taking us to the station. At the restaurant, he chatted to us about his family, the importance of work, and then philosophised about love, true love, marriage, divorce etc. It was really interesting, but pretty random! He also asked us to write in his book, and brought out a notebook that was filled with messages of thanks - in many languages - from previous tourists he'd taken on tours. We wrote a message in both English and French as he like collecting the languages, and then got back in the rickshaw for the last stretch of the journey.

Manish (the best rickshaw driver in Agra):

When we arrived at the station, we had to pay Manish. We'd been debating about this a lot, because whilst it was lovely of him to say that we could pay whatever, my experience of this statement in India was that it actually meant 'pay whatever, as long as it's equal to or more than what I want', and even if he really didn't mind what we paid, we didn't want to short-change him, as he'd been a truly excellent driver and guide. We'd both come up with the figure of 1,500; and we took that as a 'sign from our hearts' - plus I had a vague recollection of paying 1000 for a day's rickshaw the last time I was here. So this was what we did. As we got out of the rickshaw, he shook both our hands, and I passed over the money. He didn't even look at it, but just put it in his pocket. Which proved to me that he was as honest as we'd considered him to be. He walked us in to the station, checked which platform we needed, shook our hands once more and said goodbye.

The first thing we did was check the chart to confirm that our names were on it. We took a photo as we'd forgotten to print a new ticket with the updated information on it (previously our tickets had been waitlisted, then RAC 'Reserved Against Cancellation', so our seat numbers weren't on our copy). Then we headed for the toilets, so that we could put all our clothes on! We were expecting the night-time train ride to be a wee bit nippy, and so resolved to add a couple of tshirts under what we were currently wearing. This was tricky, because the toilets were Indian and not at all clean, so there was a lot of balancing on shoes and hanging jumpers off shoulders while we dressed. But we managed. Now feeling quite warm, we wandered along the station to buy some crisps and drinks for the journey, before picking a spot to plonk ourselves, and plonking!

Charted!:

The train that came in wasn't labelled with the name we'd expected it to be, but all the signs said it was our train, so we started to walk towards our carriage - Sleeper 1, right at the back of the train - and found a conductor half-way down who confirmed that it was indeed our train. We clambered on to discover 4 men sitting on our berth - yes, just one between us - but they moved when we indicated that it was our number.
We decided to try and sleep pretty early on. We'd seen the sunset, and were knackered. The next few hours were spent with one or both of us dropping off intermittently, then waking up, re-shaping the jigsaw puzzle of knees and elbow and bags, and falling back to sleep. It wasn't comfortable, or particularly warm, but we did get some sleep.

I should probably mention that we'd deliberately decided to fly up and get the train back down, because we decided a 22hour overnight train was something we just had to do. I think in the night we both had moments where we regretted that decision, but overall I'm glad we did it. The train woke up at around 730, and we stopped for quite a long time at one station so people could hop off and get something to eat; a lot of people were using the sink right by our berth to brush their teeth etc. As the day warmed up, we both ventured to the toilet to remove all the layers we'd put on the night before, and then settled down to enjoy the rest of the trip. There was a large group of men in the berths next to and above us; we're not sure whether they knew each other before the journey or not as they seemed to be a pretty diverse bunch, but they were happy and chatting and sharing lots of food, and I got the distinct impression that they were quite amused by the two white girls who didn't have warm blankets in the night. But they didn't bother us at all.

Geoffrey on the train:

We read, we chatted, we watched for station names out of the window to try and work out where we were. We bought chai and soup and biryani, we ate the last of the kitkats and we took photographs out of the window. We listened to music - sometimes on Jessica's ipod, sometimes it was the Justin Bieber someone was blasting out of their phone. We had a conversation with a guy who was hanging out of the door and looking in our window, and we avoided the gaze of the man in the red vest who'd spent every waking minute staring in our direction. It was great fun.

When we finally got into Pune (and were feeling proud of ourselves for recognising it), the train stopped. For 20minutes. To refuel. It was so frustrating. We were home, but we weren't. A couple of men hopped off the train and walked, and we debated doing the same, but considering we didn't actually know how far away the station was, we thought that would be a silly plan. When the train got moving, it was only a couple of minutes before we pulled into the platform. We weaved through the throng of people trying to get on the train (making us doubly glad we were off it), argued about prices with a couple of rickshaw drivers, and then headed for home.

It was great how much like home the streets of Pune felt. The busy traffic didn't seem busy at all compared to Delhi, the dirt was less than in Agra. And we recognised the types of people, the number plates had the right prefixes, the bridges and temples we passed were familiar. We were home.

The trip was truly, truly awesome. I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to do it, and did it. I'm glad that Jessica and I get on so well and had a super time together. I'm glad that I saw and did some different things, and enjoyed things I'd done before in a different way. It was knackering, but worth it. We slept well that night, after a yummy dinner of tacos, and then returned to the world of work.

TTFN

Holidays - Part 1

Two holidays in a week. Unheard of. And unexpected. And wonderful. And requiring a 2-part update, because otherwise this one will just be toooo long!

An Introduction:
This happy occurence was partly accident, and partly design. Jessica and I decided long ago that we'd love to take a trip together; probably to see the Taj Mahal, because it's a must-see if you come to India, and although I've seen it before, the prospect of travelling with someone rather than on my own was great! Therefore, we requested - as a special treat for all our (preempted) hard work during the crazy month in which we were both gwenning during back-to-back events - 3 days off together. A privilege which Jen very kindly granted.

And then, amazingly, we discovered that at the end of January, 3 SVs and both interns all had the same 2 days off. So of course we planned a trip. And to round it all off, Emily had to re-arrange her days off so she could run the environment consultation, so then all we young volunteering folk were off together. Wonderful.


Part 1:
The first trip was a 2-day cave temple extravaganza. We hired Mina's 7person car (Emily's boyfriend Phil taking the 7th seat) and a driver, and set off after work on a 4+ hour drive to Aurangabad. We'd booked a hotel online which cost us each about 15GBP (no pound sign on this computer - argh!) for 2 nights. It was basic, but nice. Waking up about as early as we do for work, we ordered room service breakfast as it was the only option. A mixture of omelette, dosa (indian pancake-type things), toast and tea/coffee was ordered, and promptly wolfed down before we met our driver for our first day's excitement.

A 2 and a half hour drive brought us to Ajanta and the set of Buddhist caves there. These caves were unlike anything I've ever seen before. Phil stated that someone had written that they should more properly be called 'rock-carved cathedrals' than 'cave temples', and I could see how that thought would come about. Built into the side of a mountain

 and painstakingly carved out and painted, the 30 caves were all similar, yet all different. Columns, giant images of Buddha, spherical centre-pieces and beautiful carvings and paintings were everywhere.

 It was a hot day and we wandered between the caves without shoes on, as we soon realised that it was too much effort to put them back on after exploring one temple, only to have to take them off again a couple of metres further on. Occasionally stopping for a break of biscuits or twix/es/i (how does one pluralise twix?!), we spent almost 3 hours making our way around all of the caves, taking photographs of the sites and each other

 as we climbed over and tucked ourselves into stairs and crevices and doorways. It was a truly incredible experience.

There was one restaurant on site, and by the time we'd finished, we were starving, despite the numerous snack stops. We ordered what pretty much became standard for the trip - a mixture of rice, noodles, a couple of curry dishes and lots of bread, with sweet lime soda for most of us, a coke for Steph and a pineapple juice for Jessica, and sat impatiently waiting for the food to arrive. Unfortunately, it took a long time to arrive, when it did arrive it was cold, and then we had to wait another 5 minutes for our plates to arrive so we could actually tuck in. And the lime sodas were weirdly not fizzy and decidedly fluffy tasting. Disappointing. We did our best, but it wasn't the greatest end to that part of the day, and we were all a bit flat as we got back on the bus which would return us to the carpark and our waiting driver.

The day wasn't over yet. We wanted to go and see 'Bibi-Ka-Maqbara'; also known as the 'Poor Man's Taj'. It is a much tinier (and cheaper) version of the Taj Mahal, but still a pretty sight, and we timed it perfectly to be there at sunset, so got some good photographs. I have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed, having seen the 'real thing', but it was nice to imagine how impressed Jessica would be in a few days when she, too, got to see the bigger, grander version!

 After this, we decided to rely on the good old Lonely Planet guide, which Bron had thoughtfully brought with her, to find a restaurant for dinner. This was done in the hope that it'd be a definite improvement on lunch; we didn't want to risk just choosing some random place, but wanted a recommendation. We chose a hotel restaurant which was described as having 'epic fruit juices' which made Jess and Steph in particular very happy. It was a good choice. The restaurant was open air, clean and friendly. The food was tasty, plentiful, and hot. The lime sodas were fizzy. It was heaven! We spent a lovely time there reviving, chatting, laughing, making plans for the next day, and then decided that when we got back to the hotel, we'd pop across the road for a mysterious chocolate drink named a 'cad-b', which Christa had introduced Em and Bron to back in Pune, and they'd been going on about ever since! Then we all returned to the hotel, and after a bit of a chat all fell into bed ready for what the next day would bring.

The Lonely Planet states that, if you only have one day for cave temple exploration, you should pick Ellora over Ajanta. Having enjoyed and been so impressed by the caves at Ajanta, we were therefore intrigued by the prospect of Ellora being even more amazing. Ellora is a lot closer to Aurangabad than Ajanta, and so we were there before the hottest part of the day began, which was nice. And we were not disappointed in our expectations. Right at the centre of the complex is the Kailasa Temple. It's huge and impressive and words cannot describe it. I'm not even sure that photographs do it justice.

 Apparently, it was carved out of the rock from the top down - meaning no scaffolding was ever needed.... I can't picture or imagine this. It's incredible. We spent a long, long time in this one 'cave' before deciding that we probably should check out the others as well.

We went up the numbers (Kailasa is 16) so that we could see the hindu and jain temples; the lower numbers were Buddhist ones and we figured we'd leave them until last incase we ran out of time, as all the Ajanta caves had been buddhist in design. The temples here were a bit more spaced out than at Ajanta, and so we wandered freely at our own pace between them, investigating inside some, content to just rest outside others.

We made 'friends' with a lot of Indian tourists who were keen to take our photographs; Em started to collect photos of them in return! As we reached the last 5 caves; the Jain temples which were a half mile walk further up the hill; we decided that perhaps we were infact a little caved-out, and wouldn't bother walking all the way back to see the first 15 caves. So we called our driver to pick us up, and requested that he find us somewhere for lunch before continuing our journey. He stopped at a hotel just down the road, which by happy coincidence was also in the LP, and so we happily settled there and had some good food. A large group of older japanese tourists was also there, and they had a buffet laid out, with a guide explaining all the food to them. It was amusing, because I realised that must be what we seem like to all the Indian diners when we take large groups out to a restaurant and do lots of explanations and mass orders.

Feeling refreshed once again, it was back in the car to another amazing destination - Daulatabad fort. We'd driven past this on the way to the caves, and stared up at the seemingly tiny building on top of a huge hill in wonder. The plan had always been to stop here, and the guide book warned us that it took about an hour to climb, but that seemed like an impossible achievement as we gazed upwards.

There was a car park next to the entrance, so we weaved our way around stalls and hawkers, and made our way to the ticket booth and the entrance. There was a long, wide path sloping slightly upwards, with a tall orange tower and lots of steps visible in the distance.

 We made our way up, not stopping to take many photos, but rather with the focus on reaching the top and, as Em put it, "we can absorb the culture on the way back down"! The fort was designed to be a real stronghold - totally impenetrable. There were gates and tunnels and a moat with a rickety bridge (not my favourite part). The most interesting bit was a pitch-black tunnel (apparently inhabited by bats, although they don't bother me so I didn't really notice) that twisted and turned and had uneven steps. We made our way carefully through with the help of my headtorch and Em's flashlight, and survived. I have a feeling that there are actually a lot more connected tunnels designed to confuse and trap the enemy, but these have been blocked off so that tourists are safe! It was really interesting.

Having managed this, we were confronted with even more steps, and lots of monkeys too. The monkeys generally weren't a problem, but at one point, a few started on some... 'monkey business' shall we say, right next to where we'd stopped for a breather, and there were a couple of tense seconds as we worked our way past them! Reaching the top was wonderful. It gave a real sense of achievement to be able to sit in windows of the building at the top, and look out over the desert and mountains of the Deccan Plateau.

 I can see why one mad king marched all of Delhi down there - because of the security - but I can also see why they ran out of water and had to march back!

We had one more stop to make before heading back to Pune; a handweaving factory. We were shown how people weave saris and scarves by hand, making such beautiful, intricate patterns.

 But it takes months to make one sari, and so of course they have huge pricetags. We had a lot of fun looking at all the different colours and patterns, though,

 and did buy some of the lower-priced scarves as presents for people at home, in general. I also fell in love with a black and white skirt that might now be my new favourite, and Jess bought a similar one!

Phew! Holiday one. In a very short summary. It was a really awesome trip. We took ipod speakers and sang random songs at the top of our voices, ate loads of snacks, talked and laughed and saw amazing sites, and got a lot of exercise in the process! It was a really, really awesome weekend, and I'm very glad that we all miraculously had the same days off so that we were able to do it :)

TTFN