Welcome to My Travel Blog
(where I usually find myself out of my depth).
I came into teaching in my early forties. I had never been an adventurer but was offered the opportunity to take a group of students to India. I was under-prepared and unsuitable. But I went, and this is my story.
The one I didn’t want to write… The horror.
Our final twenty four hours in Shimla is a time I shall never be able to forget. India had two more tricks to play – the final one being deadly. I think that we all liked Shimla. It was so different from anything we had experienced. The people were different in every way to those…
Remembering Shimla. The edge of the Himalayas.
We had been to the main tourist sites. With the remaining time left it was a chance to reflect on the whole trip and what India had shown us. Unfortunately the darkest hour was still ahead of us. My memories of Shimla are hazy, but I will use the images below to describe our remaining…
The monkey temple, the return of Gandhi and a Hampshire connection.
Shimla holds two records for me. At 2,276 metres above sea level it is the highest altitude of anywhere that I have visited. It is also 880 miles from the coast, the second record. Considering the furthest I have ever lived from the coast is approximately 7 miles, currently I live less than half a…
North to the mountains
We left Delhi behind and travelled through the night to Kalka. Fatigue got the better of me, we had seats booked as the trip was meant to be in daylight, but the eight hour delay meant it was deep into the night. A very long day, having arrived from Agra, visited the slums and then…
A night on a Delhi train platform
Travelling through the slums had left us shell shocked again. We had arrived back in Delhi in the morning, spent all day with the ASHA Deep Foundation and were to meet with the rest of the group at the hotel before moving on again. Being crushed on the metro had just become another of those…
Deeper into the slums…
Agra had presented to us the worst hotel experience of the trip. After Jaipur and Udaipur it had been a disappointment, a combination of factors. We were tired as a group, we had slowed down and were not the perfect tourists at this moment in time. Our schedule meant taking the train back into Delhi…
The Taj Mahal…Basil Brush and machine guns through the smog.
We journeyed across from Udaipur to Agra. I was sad to see the back of Udaipur, it has been a good resting point but I did feel like a tourist now. Our train tickets were in the best class of carriage and seat, this being one of the better connections by rail that I experienced!…
Palaces, lakes, James Bond and an expensive temple.
What are school trips for? What are we trying to achieve? Taking students from the rural wilderness of West Dorset and taking them to the hectic chaos that is India offers one of the greatest extremes possible. To show students the world outside of where they live is the aim, whether it be a local…
Udaipur as a tourist, not looking too closely. Spirits are raised…
With all we had seen and experienced so far on the trip (the slums of Delhi, ill health, the death of our friend back home) I experienced a short moment of total peace and harmony while sitting on my balcony at the Lake Pichola Hotel, Udaipur. It was Friday evening, the smog had cleared a…
Jaipur to Udaipur. Sadness and a time to take control…
Jaipur had been wonderful. We had been insulated by a fine hotel and our tuk-tuk drivers kept us in the tourist places. But we had earned that privilege, if only for a few days. It had been an oasis on this chaotic journey. (Chaotic in my mind, still trying to cope, but relaxed at this…
Images of Empire, goodbye to Jaipur… A dark cloud drifts over…
Our Tuk-tuk drivers weaved across the city and took us to the Albert Hall Museum. In 2012 the front of this grand building seemed tired, it is set in the middle of a large roundabout and like a lot of India that we were to see it was affected by pollution. This is a British…
Relaxing in Jaipur, a day as a tourist. The calm before the next storm…
Maybe my memories of Jaipur are romanticised. We had left the slums of Delhi where we had worked with the charities and seen some of the worst and best of humanity. I had my health problems on the train heading south and was still processing what we had seen and our experiences in the ashram.…
Jaipur – palaces, elephants, colour, history and life.
Jaipur allowed me to catch up with myself. I was fully rested. All the experiences so far were still waiting to be properly processed but my body, and mind, knew it had to relax. Safely inside the walls of the Umaid Bhawan Hotel we could relax and talk without any of the pressures that had…
Onwards to Jaipur… Luxury! And a trouble-free train journey.
The train. An overnight train. I was recovering physically and emotionally and here we were boarding an overnight express train to take us back up towards Delhi again. This was the train we were taking to Jaipur. We had now finished our two ‘charity’ stops. I think we were all emotionally and physically worn out.…
Gandhi and me.
Gandhi and I. We have all heard of the name Gandhi. Or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. I was aware of who he had been and many years before had watched the three-hour long Richard Attenborough film. It was an extraordinary film about an extraordinary man, but here in Sevagram we had the opportunity to visit the…
Reset. A new beginning and ‘Was that a tiger?’
When I woke I was so weak, I had no idea how much time had passed. I was in a basic room where there was a line of beds. My body felt empty, probably because it was, but I did not feel hungry. Moving took all my effort, but there was bright sunlight outside and…
Blash, splosh, splat. Adventures in an Indian train toilet.
The GT Express 12616 will remain as one of the worst 24 hours in my life. The overnight train trip from Delhi to Sewagram. In the retelling of the story the timings of that journey have ranged from 18 hours to 28 hours. I really don’t know. I was dragged off the train in Sewagram…
Reflections and trying to buy train tickets for the Indian rail system!
The bus journey through the slums allowed time for reflection. Looking at individual people – the eye contact – meant even more now. Would they ever have the opportunity to achieve anything in their lives? Is survival winning? I don’t know. We said our goodbyes at the Metro station, but our timetable for coming back…
Into the darkness, the slums of Delhi.
We were met at the station by Jimmy from the Asha Deep Foundation. He was a ‘jolly, larger than life’ man, an instant friend who made you feel welcome. His contagious smile and laugh was comforting .Boarding the old yellow bus we moved away from this area towards the Foundation’s Centre. The roads became narrower,…
Crossing Delhi, the great journey. Seeing the other side.
Tuesday 23rd October 2012 Breakfast in the Metropolis always took an age. We worked out that the cook would prepare one breakfast at a time – we also encountered this at other locations. We had to get out and travel across the city for our day with the Asha Deep Foundation, but we had to…
Wanderings in Delhi.
India Gate. A memorial to those Indians who gave their lives in the first world war and other conflicts of that time. Standing in the heat and bustle of Delhi it is hard to comprehend that men volunteered from their cities, towns and villages and wanted to defend their ‘mother empire’. Men signed up and…
Venturing out in Delhi…
I was feeling better about life and we gathered all the students and we set off, we had a list of places to see. There were twelve students with Gilly and myself. Gilly led and I was happy to follow up and chat with the stragglers. Me being the ultimate straggler. We were approached by…
Understanding the incomprehensible…
The morning – and a full day in Delhi to explore. This is one of the haziest days for exact detail (and I am not claiming that any of these memoirs are chronologically accurate). I had a slightly more positive sense of mind, only slightly. I had not found my role within the group yet.…
First wanderings.
We were led to a small café which Gilly knew was clean at the end of the road. It’s hard to focus when there is a giant white cow eating from a sack of rubbish outside the front door, but this was the new landscape. More rules: no meat, no salad. A strict vegetarian diet…
Delhi… hell…
Here I was in New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport waiting in line to move through passport and visa control. So far, so good. It’s a modern airport and no better or worse than Heathrow or Doha, our starting point and connecting point. A distinguished gentleman motioned for me to move forward. I tried to…
In the beginning…
I was walking towards the staff room when Gilly approached me. “Would you like to come on the India trip?” Just like that, as if it were just like an ordinary school trip to Chesil Beach to measure stones or some museum to study the Romans. The India trip is two years in the planning,…
Reluctant travels in India
School on Monday morning. Rural West Dorset. To be in school at 8.30 in the morning meant it was early afternoon Indian time according to my body. That should not have been a problem, except for the fact we had been travelling for 48 hours if you count starting the journey at Shimla on the…
First.
How does an English teacher, who has never ventured outside of ‘normal’ holiday destinations end up in India? And in charge of students who are more prepared for it than him? Below are my adventures in India as I lead a school trip to work with two charities and then some sight-seeing. But… a lot…
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Reluctant travels in India 