Goodbye India :(

The last post. I cannot believe it! It’s a cliché but it feels like only yesterday James and I were planning our trip and packing our bags. We have had the most amazing time but alas it’s time to come home. The last few weeks have consisted of some painful Indian bugs in the stomach, bladder and eyes. But you know it wouldn’t have been a complete trip without them!

Since I last wrote we have spent a lot of time.. no I’ll rephrase that, all of our time on the beach in Goa. We were planning to travel around a bit more but the bugs got the better of us. We have been eating, sleeping and swimming and that’s about it! Oh and Canoeing, this became a favorite past time of ours.

We are now in Delhi and just as we arrived a very exciting thing happened (for us anyway). We were waiting to get our luggage and a familiar looking guy was standing beside us. It was Mark Thomas (the comedian/campaigner)! We got chatting to him (after doing the whole embarrassing, urm… excuse me... are you Mark Thomas? Ah we’ve read your book and seen you perform… we really like you..) he was telling us how he’s writing a book on Coca Cola… dishing the dirt basically… Very interesting.

Anyway like I said were in a hot and sweaty Delhi now, It brings back memories of being in Kolkata. After spending 2 blissful weeks in Goa it also reminds me what a harsh country this place can be, especially to the poor and lower castes.

We leave tomorrow and our last day consists of us freaking out every now and then.. We are trying to calm our nerves with a kingfisher and game of Yatzee. It’s not really working!

I cannot wait to see every one and catch up with you all… I hoped you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing!

So thats all Folk's... for now

From the North to the South

Hello! We have been traveling around like mad I haven’t had chance to write. SO much has been happening. We left Jaipur to spend 3 and a half nights in the Thar desert. This was fantastic, an absolutely magical experience. Our guides went by the names of Del boy and Rodney. They were legends. Our camels were called Raj and… oh dear I forget James’… Anyway they were also great although let off an awful smell a little too often.

We saw only goat herders for the whole 4 days, just what we needed after crazy Kolkata. We walked for 3 hours in the morning then cooked on a camp fire and ate. Then had about a 2 hour sleep under a tree whilst the hottest part of the day passed, then we walked (well the camels did, we bobbed) for 2 more hours to where we would camp for the night. It was so much fun. Then to top it off James asked me to marry him on a sand dune at sun set…. How very romantic! I said yeees so we’re weeell excited!!

After Jaisalmer and the desert we traveled to Udaipur, another town in Rajasthan, this is famous for it’s lakes and palace in the water. It was here that the Bond film ‘Octopussy’ was filmed.. We watched It in a bar there… what a classy film. I never realised Bond was such a perv! Ah well, I shall add it to the huge list of things I have learnt on this trip!

After Udaipur we trained it back to Jaipur in order to head down to Kerala. So now we are in the south. We spent a few days on Fort Kochi where they have the most amazing Chinese fishing nets. You see them all the time on photos but to see them in action was fascinating.

We went to see a classical performance with the ‘Bamboo flute’ in the local bamboo theatre. This was beautiful. I got talking to the flute player and he agreed to give me a lesson the next day, wahoo! I was so excited as I bought a bamboo flute in Kolkata and haven’t been able to make it work.. So I went along the next day, he proved to me the flute did work. This also proved how terrible I was! (I used to have flute lessons so to not be able to make a sound was pretty upsetting). He gave me a south Indian flute and told me to learn on that. It was ace to play/practice with such a fantastic flute player. So now here I am wondering round India with a bamboo flute on my back, getting it out at every opportunity! I really do look the part! I’m thinking is perhaps time to come home..

Also at this theatre we saw an 18th century Keralan play. There were 3 actors and the all had the most amazing make up. Part of the performance was watching them do their make up. This theatre really was a good find.

We have now moved on from Fort Kochi and we are in a place called Alleppy. We are going on a boat around the backwaters tomorrow, then we are heading to a beach as time is ticking away and after hearing about the weather at home, I want to make the most of the sun.

Thank you everyone for the gorgeous messages to both James and I about the engagement, we’re glad you’re all excited too! Amy xxx

Varanasi and Jaipur

Were on the road.... it's great! The first few days were weird as we wondered around not quite knowing what to do with ourselves, still having thoughts for the hospice and other bits of work... but we took it easy, ate a lot and drank much chai and now we are well and truly in doing sod all traveler mode! (it's a hard life i know)

Our first stop was Varanasi. The holiest place in India. It was interesting. A great deal smaller than Kolkata which was nice, we went on a boat on the holy Ganges at sun rise, it was very beautiful. There was mist covering it and it definitely felt holy. There were people bathing, swimming, washing clothes and drinking the water all side by side (next to a sewage pump.) it was crazy to see. After hearing the horror stories of how polluted the water was i am pleased to say i didn't fall in, even though our boat was a little unstable!

We wondered around the bazars (markets) and i fell in love with everything i saw (for a shock!) i had a skirt made out of a sari and a dress made. I was in my element and James was happy as every shop we went in, he was given chai.

Then we headed on a night train, (which turned out to be a night and half a day train) to Jaipur, Rajasthan. It is gorgeous here. It's a little hotter and has a Middle Eastern feel to it. I love it.

Jaipur is named the pink city as a lot of the buildings are a beautiful shade of... pink. There is so much detail on all of the buildings. I have become obsessed with photographing the patterns and details of the buildings. (and I'm wanting to recreate them in our house at home... when we get one!)

It is so relaxed here, the LP says its 'Rajasthan's most polluted and pushy city'. To James and i who have just spent 3 months in Kolkata, it's a town, no it's better than that, it's a village!

So were heading onto Jaisalmer tonight to ride camels in the desert, then making a B line for the beaches. I hope everyone at home is well and happy. Quite often our conversation out here turns to coming home. It feels very strange but kind of exciting. I just hope we bring the weather home with us... BUT this is still 5ish weeks off and we have got a lot more land to cover here in India, so for now Namaste xx

Goodbye Kolkata :(

Woah. It’s been an age since i last wrote. So much has been happening. We only have a few days left in Kolkata before we hit the road and i feel so sad. Both James and I feel settled and just like in Uganda, we feel we could stay longer.

We are wrapping up our work for the hospice but there is still so much more we want to do. We have realised that 3 months is just enough time to get settled in a place. I feel like i know how to handle Kolkata now and that i could really get stuck in to some long term work.... But (don’t worry mum) were not going to stay. We weighed up staying for a few more weeks and cut down our time traveling but we realised that would be silly. What more can we do in a few weeks. Plus I have wanted to travel India for as long as I can remember and here we are on the verge of it. It will be silly to pass it up. So we head off on Tuesday to Varanasi, the holiest place in India. That’s pretty exciting!

But to fill you in on the last few weeks... We have had lots of new volunteers to keep us company. It’s been ace to be around motivated people. We spent last week end at the Sundarbans. This is where ‘The Jungle Book’ was based. Unfortunately we did not bump into Balloo (much to my disappointment) in fact we spent 2 nights in a tiger reserve and didn’t see any tigers. We weren’t really expecting to though as there are approximately only 100 left. So sad.

Still an interesting fact... the tigers are man eating tigers and each day when the men in the local villages head off to work, the woman do not put on the ‘marriage gear’ until the men return. They see them selves as widows as they are not sure there husbands will return.

We spent 2 nights on a boat with a bunch of middle class Bengali's. It was great fun and interesting to see what the Bengali's do for entertainment. At night we were split into two groups (males and females) and had a ‘sing off’! We had a microphone and had to sing a song beginning with the last letter of the song the men’s group had just sung. It was hilarious. James got up and sang ‘lady in red’ and I rocked out to ‘rockin robin’. In fact I sang a few songs, there was no stopping me. I’m not a great singer but I definitely/hopefully was not as bad as some of the others there!

About work... I have set up the blog site for our Hospice. It is www.friendsofarunima.blogspot.com but we are hoping to get a website set up as I’ve been doing a bit of emailing around and we will hopefully we have some help on board! James has been writing up all our research information from the hospice and has report info coming out of his ears. However we had a day off today to go on a cooking course. It was great fun. We learnt how to make chapattis, chana masala (chickpea curry) aloo dum (potato and tomatoes) and some aubergine dish. It was great as the cooks were showing us what spices go well together. Were looking forward to trying them out when were home. We also bought a book called ‘the Calcutta Kitchen’ so when were back we’d love some ginuepigs to try our recipes out on! (Don’t all message me at once will you :)

So our last few days here will consist of saying goodbye to our friends we’ve made, visiting some last sights and finishing off our work. Its all very emotional but I’m sure when were packed and traveling we’ll be very happy we decided not to stay longer! Speak soon Amy xxx

Flagellation and a Trip to the Sea Side

Hey Ho,

I hope everyone is fine and dandy. James and i are well. We have just spent a long weekend out of Kolkata.. bliss!

It was much needed after a crazy week. There was a Muslim festival on celebrating/mourning the death of the profit Ali. Someone had told us to go along as "it will be bright and colourful". So we went... there weren't that many people at the beginning, just groups of kids playing the drums and dancing. Another volunteer brought a small drum and joined in. It was all good but were attracted a lot of attention as we were the only non Indians there. Everyone wanted to talk to us or have a picture. Without realising it turned dark and the crowds were out in force. There must have been thousands of people there. Many people had Gurkha hunting knives and were swinging them around, then a bunch of young lads pushed past us knocking us flying, suddenly the place was mental and we were stuck in the middle of it.

The police dragged us to the side (there were 5 of us) and told us not to move until the end. I've never been so pleased to see the kolkata police until then! As we watched the festivities a white flag was marching towards where we were. The flag was covered in red dots. It turns out this is the festival where some people flagellate themselves. The red dots were blood and they were heading our way. I was petrified! There was around 15 men all slicing themselves with razors. It was madness. Blood was flying everywhere. Luckily we were just out of spraying distance.

Although i would never repeat the experience it was fascinating. What was also amazing was the kindness of the people there. They could tell we were uneasy about it all and they were all looking after us. This was another display of how amazing people can be in Kolkata.

After all that excitement we had a calm week. I got a cold that turned into sinusitis. I had traffic light snot that would not shift so i ended up taking antibiotics. Nothing clears on its own in this city! We went to see Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' at the theatre. This was ace; it was Shakespeare done Bollywood style! They broke out into song at least 3 times. Awesome.

Now we're in Puri waiting for out train to take us back to Kolkata. Puri is India's version of Skeggness! It's very small and a little grubby but it is great to get away. It is also a pilgrimage site for Hindus.

There is an amazing Temple called the Sun Temple. It's fascinating as it's covered in pornographic carvings. Our guide told us it was to try and bring people back to Hinduism after they had converted to Buddhism in the 1300's. It was quite funny (and a little embarrassing) as our guide insisted on describing what the carvings were of.. exactly. After the 30Th time of him saying "she is lick and he is suck" i couldn't stop laughing whilst James tried to stay straight faced and interested! If anyone ever comes here. Please get a guide, it will make your day!

We only have 3 weeks left to work and in that time we feel we have so much to do. We are setting up a 'Friends of Arunima Hospice' blog site at the moment. I will post the address as soon as it'd done. Please do check it out when i do because it is a fantastic organisation that needs publicity.

We miss everyone lots so keep in touch. Much love Amy xxx

Taxi drivers, groping men... and chocolate cake

I cannot believe its the 13th already. This year is flying by! James and i realised the other day we have only 12 weeks left..nooo!

Work has really stepped up a gear and is very challenging. We are now spending most of our time at Arunima Hospice. We are working on patients case studies. The hospice want to know what the patients think of the place and what can be done to improve it. It's going really well. The patients are really opening up. They all recognise us now and take time to come and have a conversation each day. Whether it's broken English (difficult) broken Bengali (very difficult) or just smiles and hand gestures! Either way it's really nice.

We are also setting up a training programme on HIV in the local English speaking schools. This is great as it means we can build on what we did in Uganda. Then aside from that, James is still helping the government with their research and excel stuff ( i don't really know a great deal about that) and I'm still helping at the injecting drug users project and school. Although as i thought not a lot has happened with the bead making work. It's a real shame but i keep trying to push it but no one really takes too much of an interest.

Kolkata... i still have a love hate relationship with this place. We can have a great day then something will happen that just drives us mad. We jumped in a taxi the other day and instead of taking us 5 mins down the road like we asked.. we ended up over the other side of the city. It is so annoying as everyone seems to want to rip us off.. or run us over.. or something!


I'm still finding it difficult to put up with the pervy groping men. It's horrendous and i don't know how the women put up with it. I have taken to making a bit of a scene when the men get too friendly. This works a treat as it shames them and they scuttle off like the grubby pervs they are! I will add here though - not all the men are like this. Just a select (quite large select) few.

However... The thing i have found with Kolkata is that it's a city that has no barriers. It accepts everyone, this is why there are such extremes. It's a real insight into humanity and is good to be part of it for a while. I am slowly beginning to realise how lucky we are to be spending some time here and experiencing it (even with the crazy taxi drivers and groping men!). I have never been to a place that accepts everyone and i can't imagine there are many more places in the world like this!

It's some volunteers' birthdays today so were off to eat chocolate cake.. mmmmmm

lots of love Amy xxx

Sikkim, Darjeeling and 2008!

Hello 2008.. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and grand New Year!

James and I are very well. We spent Christmas up in Sikkim at the base of the Himalayas. It was amazing. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life! (Some pictures are on facebook).

We arrived late in the dark after a very long train journey and just as long jeep journey. As it was dark we had no idea we’d arrived into another world! We woke up the next day, stepped out of our room only to be greeted by Kachenjunga. The 3rd biggest mountain in the world. There were Tibetan prayer flags everywhere. The place was magical… but freezing! We were not used to this at all. So we spent 4 days wondering around monasteries and relaxing. Christmas day was strange; we woke up in our freezing cold, non heated room. We did have a 6 inch Christmas tree and some chocolate coins from my mum.. I mean Santa. We ate wontons and soup and plum cake with some other travelers we’d met. This was really nice but we missed our families and of course the Christmas dinner. I’m still craving stuffing and gravy!

There was a Christmas festival in Sikkim so we went along, James was rocking out to Nepali rock after a go on the local brew. EVERYONE stared, and then joined in!

We then headed to Darjeeling on Boxing day. This again was beautiful but for different reasons. We could still see the Himalayas in the background which was again beautiful. We spent most of our time drinking tea. One day we spent the day tea tasting. We had 17 different types (not full cups of course). It was ACE! I don’t think the shop owner was too happy that we didn’t buy the most expensive though. I think he thought he was on to a winner with us!

We also stumbled upon a hotel that looked like it had been pulled straight out of old England. There was a roaring fire and a huge Christmas tree. We had high tea there everyday!…

One sad thing about Darjeeling was the Zoo. The animals were in tiny cages and were pacing up and down. They looked like they were slowly going mad. We didn’t like it at all and have decided not to go to another Zoo… Especially in India.

Then we have spent New Year back in Kolkata. We headed to Park Street. The ‘happening’ place for New Year. It was fun but a little too overcrowded. The West Bengali men were getting far too excited at the amount of women in skirts. It was all a bit gross really. We had food but headed back to our guest house to see the New Year in with the other volunteers.

Today we have been back to work and we’re off to see a Bollywood film tonight. A perfect start to the New Year I think!

I hope everyone had there own holiday fun. Love Amy xxxx