27th August 09

Our Very Last Day In Bodhgaya

I'm starting to miss it already, and we don't leave until 9 this evening. I had to promise Arvind and the computer class this morning that I'll be back one day, and I hope to hold true to that. Although next time I come to India, I'd quite like to come during the winter..

Omelettes for breakfast, before we headed off for our final trip to the market. I'll now be coming back to the UK with much more than I left with, and that's after abandoning quite a lot of my clothes here. It's going to take us all a while to get used to UK prices, and not haggling for things when we return. Apart from the people, the market will be something I miss the most, I think.

More packing to do now, then we'll be leaving for Delhi on the train later tonight, after a final dinner at Gyan Vikas.

A very short while ago, we had an enormous deluge of rain, so naturally I had to run outside in it for a while. It was heavenly. I hope the weather in Delhi is a lot cooler tomorrow than it was the first few days we spent there!

- Amy

26th August 09

One Day Left, and Party At Nick's

Breakfast... Hard boiled eggs and toast. Always a good start to the day.

Pam and I then spent the rest of the morning interrogating the cooks, and managed - with Rakesh's help in translating - to write down the recipes of most of the meals we've had at Gyan Vikas. Keep checking back for news of the Genuine Indian Cookbook we'll be putting together next month!

The afternoon was scheduled for a trip to the market, but this had to be canceled due to lack of transport. But there's still Thursday. It was soon time to get ready for the party at Nick's house, to say goodbye to us, and thank you to all of the staff who have worked so hard to put up with us over the past two weeks. Most of us wore our sarees or tunics, and of course everyone looked stunning.

The view of the temple in Bodhgaya from the roof of Nick's house is fantastic, although we didn't get to watch the sun set, as rain started to set in as we arrived. A great evening ensued, of (for most people) drinking, dancing, and lots of food. And we all returned to Gyan Vikas feeling fairly exhausted.

Just tomorrow left, for a day of packing and shopping...

- Amy

25th August 09

The Childrens' Mele

Hundreds of children, and their teachers, friends and family, from schools far and wide gathered at Gyan Vikas on Tuesday morning, all eager to watch or participate in the festival that had been arranged by PFI just for them. We took our place as 'honoured guests' seated on the stage, fully dressed up in our sarees (a note on those later).

After the official opening and lighting of the candle, the children's performances began, with song and dance routines, or short dramas from the top class of every school in the area. The highlight for me was the amazing freestyle dancing by kids from Rescue Junction, though needless to say, all of the performances were brilliant.

Then the press turned up, and our performance - which had been planned as the grand finale - was moved forward to before lunch, so it could be filmed for state TV... It didn't go too badly, and at least the audience was still laughing at the end!

Lunch was provided for about 400 by the miracle chefs who had been at work since 4 in the morning - most of us had got up at 6 to help, but were turned away. For ease of distribution, lunch was in small boxes, which contained several puri, a bag of curry and a sweet (the orange 'fish egg' sweets, which I love, but have had a mixed reaction from some of the group).

The afternoon continued with more performances from the children and associates of schools, and rounded off with a (slightly scary) magician.

It all finished at about 3, at which time we were all very much relieved to be able to leap out of our sarees and collapse in the shade, under fans.

You'd think sarees - as they are generally worn all day, every day by Indian woman as they carry out their household chores, or shopping, or cleaning, or even farming and building - would be designed to be cool, lightweight, suitable for the high temperatures and humidity. Oh no. Much to our surprise, the petticoat and blouse you wear underneath the actual saree material is thick, heavy and stifling. Movement is restricted - at least for us in our brand new ones it was - perhaps after a few washes they'd be a bit looser. But they did nothing to keep us cool, and by mid afternoon on one of the hottest, brightest days we've had so far, most of us were very uncomfortable.

And another thing - we spent the last couple of weeks wondering how Indian woman manage to keep their sarees so perfectly aligned on their shoulder. We'd been pinning ours, and hoping for the best. But then Sangita came in to dress us all properly before we went out for the Mele, and... repinned them, the correct way. So the Indian women cheat after all - mystery solved.

After spending the rest of the afternoon recovering, dinner was another brilliant Chinese; noodles, veg and potatoes in sauce.

- Amy

24th August 09

Final Day of Placements

A different breakfast this morning was savory potato pancakes with ketchup - definitely something I want to try making at home.

At our daily meeting with Nick, we learned that the MCC are enforcing a Bandh - a strike - today and tomorrow, because some of their number were arrested by the Indian Police - because they had killed policemen. But they're powerful enough that they are able to stop traffic and keep businesses and schools closed within their area. The effects don't quite reach Gaya and Bodhgaya, Piani village is in the thick of it, and consequently those of us who were scheduled to spend our final placement at Piani School were unable to go.

Instead, I went to Rescue Junction and took part in the wall painting there instead. Unfortunately the combination of heat, standing up and paint fumes left me feeling less than perfect, and once we were back I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping.

This meant I missed the visit by the Henna lady (not that I wanted any Henna myself, but I did want to see how it was done) - Most other people though, now have lavishly decorated hands and/or feet.

After another wonderful dinner of vegetable and egg fried rice, and potato dumplings in curry sauce, we got back to rehearsing for tomorrow. Our final rehearsal - in full dress, sarees etc, is planned for 8:30am tomorrow, although there's a good chance a lot of us will be up before that - between 5 and 7am - to help with preparing the food and sweets for the children.

So it's time for an early night!

- Amy

23rd August 09

A Lazy Day, and Preparation for Tuesday

After a breakfast of banana pancakes, honey and cornflakes we gathered together to begin planning our presentation for the Childrens Mele that is taking place at Gyan Vikas on Tuesday. We were given a fifteen minute slot by Nick, and for a while we thought we'd struggle to fill this time. But after a lot of brainstorming, between us we came up with 'The Ten Days of India', our own rendition of the Xmas song, which we plan to accompany with various silly actions.
Later on we choreographed and practiced this, as well as a short but hopefully entertaining performance of 'PFI's Got Talent'. We plan to round off our performance with a rendition of London's Burning, in rounds (thanks to Vere's choir expertise).

There will be about 400 attending the Mele, from many of PFI's schools, and the top class from each school will be honouring us with a performance of their own. I don't doubt that we'll pale in comparison to them, but if nothing else, the children should laugh at us.

We're hoping the video doesn't make it back to the UK.

To keep things consistant: Lunch was fruit and samosas; dinner was curried eggs - some people were dubious, but I enjoyed them a lot, and plain rice.

I must dash now to watch the games of charades, before bed.

- Amy

22nd August 09

Another Busy Day

Because schools finish at 11am on Saturday, we all had to get up a lot earlier for our placements today. Consequently, there was no breakfast but tea or coffee, and promise of a large and early lunch.

At 8, I headed to Piani village school along with Jane and Matt. Piani is about an hours drive away from Gyan Vikas, and is actually in the next state, Jharkhand. It used to be in Bihar, until ten years ago when the state split in two (leaving Bihar left without any of the rich industries contained within one half of it). The change as we crossed the state border was immediately noticeable - on Bihar's side, the road was rough, full of potholes and generally badly maintained but as soon as we passed under the arch that divided the states the road was smooth.

Piani school, adjoined to the sewing centre also set up by PFI, has recently had an extension that was formally opened by Errica, Jane and Nick earlier in the week (photos of this at peoplefirstindia.net). There are three classrooms now, I think, all filled with eager smiling faces looking to learn as much as possible.
We were there to paint the classrooms, with the happy participation of some of the children.

Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about an hour and twenty minutes, as we were hurried back to Gyan Vikas for Vere's surprise birthday party. We were the last to return from our placement, and had kept everyone waiting, but fortunately Sam and Errica had done a fantastic job of keeping Vere downstairs and completely oblivious of the preparations that had been going on on the roof.
But there were surprises even for us who'd been planning it - Nick and the staff had produced an enormous banner, as well as a fantastic chocolate and (pineapple-flavoured?) cream cake.
Lunch was plentiful, as promised, consisting of another version of their fantastic vegetable and herb mash, yellow split-pea dahl, potato and vegetable curry, green sauce (chickpea, with a hint of mint?), popadoms and roti. All delicious. As usual.

At 2, the staff kindly drove us to the market, and we had a fantastic two hours of shopping and bartering. We were recognised by one drinks vendor, who had seen our pictures in today's paper; his English was good, and he told us that he knew of PFI, had worked in Scotland for some time and was currently working for another trust similar to PFI. He also gave us a few rupees discount on the drinks we bought.
Everyone spent plenty on souvenirs and presents today, though we still have plans to go back tomorrow for more.

Dinner this evening was chop suey and spring rolls - I can confirm that India does Chinese better than China does. Or at least, far better than Chinese restaurants in the UK do... I had three helpings this evening, and considered going back for a fourth, but they took the food away..

A final note - if anyone has any comments to make on the blog, or messages for me or anyone else here at all, if you're receiving these blog posts by email, just press reply and your message will come back to me. (If you're reading this on the website, you can send comments to india@rhiaro.co.uk)

- Amy

22nd August 09

A Quick Note About the Wildlife

Giant ants (and normal sized ones), giant grasshoppers, fist-sized beetles (who are a bit stupid and are more often found writhing on their backs than not), mosquitoes, endless houseflies and giant hornets are now a normal part of our every day life, but there are a few other creatures with whom we have become particular friends (or not, in some peoples' cases).

From day one, Errica, Pam and Jane played host to Gary the Gecko, who had taken up residence on their bedroom windowsill, as well as Simon the Mouse. Among other places, Simon has been caught in Errica's luggage, as well as Vicky's pants.

(She wasn't wearing them at the time).

Next door to Errica, Pam and Jane - Hayley, Sam, Vicky and Carrie have another mouse called Simone, distinguisable from Simon by the different coloured ears.

Meanwhile downstairs, a few days ago Jackson the Gecko was spotted in my room, and he darts between us and the boys' room apparently unsure where to take up permanent residence. And still more recently, we gained our own fieldmouse, named Michael - sometimes known as Mick or Mickey. This very afternoon I caught Mick in my suitcase, having had a small feast on my (previously unopened) Ryvita crackers. I have to say... He's adorable.

On a larger scale, an enormous climing rat has been spotted on the first floor, so we'll be on the lookout for him in future.

For a few days, Vicky has claimed to have seen a cat which until yesterday no-one else has witness, and the staff swore blind that there are no cats here. We assumed Vicky was hallucinating, until this mysterious was witnessed by a few other members of our party as well.

While I'm on the subject, I'll mention that the fields surrounding Gyan Vikas are usually filled with herds of cows, sheep or both. There are usually small black goats around too, and always one or two stray dogs - a number which increases to dozens as you get closer to the town itself.

- Amy

21st August 09

The Most Strenuous Day So Far

Fried eggs for breakfast! How happy we all were.

This 'light' breakfast was because we were expecting a fairly large, early lunch around midday due to the arrival of some children from the Womens' Remand Home. These children, four small boys (youngest was about 18 months, the oldest five or six) were born in the Remand Home; three of them had been out only once before and for the youngest this was his first time outside the prison walls. The fact that PFI has been trusted with these children for six hours is a revolutionary step for the prison system - consequently, the press arrived with them, and there were lots of photos and interviews taking place.

The children themselves were over the moon to be here. They loved the attention of the cameras, and showed not an ounce of fear. We had a fantastic (as usual) lunch of vegetable rice, puri, cheese (somebody remind me what it's called) curry and it was made extra special for the children by the option of chicken in curry sauce as well.

After this we were all driven to the Sambodhi Retreat, a hotel in Gaya. There we met a group of perhaps twenty boys and teenagers from one of PFI's hostels - these lads were members of the charity's CAPS scheme, which funds acedemically gifted individuals through as much education and training as they choose to complete - to university and beyond if necessary. Naturally it is a very competitive scheme which requires a number of tests and interviews to secure a place.

The hotel's swimming pool was open air, and the cold water under the glorious sunshine was heaven. Disorganised games of English vs. Indian volleyball quickly ensued; teams and participation fluctuated, but I think everyone took part at some point, whether willingly or not. (Where being hit in the back of the head by the ball counts as taking part).
The hotel served drinks too, the big hit being 'Pink Lady' - strawberry ice crem with orange juice and a hint of ginger. Unusual, but apparently outstanding.
We were in the pool for a little over an hour before we returned to Gyan Vikas.

Dinner in the evening was potato curry and a green vegetable mixture - ocre? I need someone to confirm what that was..

And that's all for now..

- Amy

20th August 09

Another Morning with the Computer Class

I kept my promise today to teach Arvind and some of the other young men in the computer class the basics of Flash. Explaining some of the concepts... Exactly how the Timeline works, what the Library is for, and the differences between objects and symbols for example... Was challenging to say the least, with the language barrier. But we definitely made progress, with some walking stick men, and morphing shapes, and I hopefully left them with enough basic principles to allow them to be able to continue to teach themselves.

Breakfast this morning was banana pancakes and honey again, and cornflakes; fruit for lunch, and dinner was noodles, spicy veg sauce and vegballs. It may have been the best meal yet, but I think I've thought that about all of them so far...

After dinner, the sarees and tunics we ordered when we were in Bodhgaya arrived. They're a challenge to get on, and a tight fit, but only a couple of people have had to send them back for adjustments. And the materials are absolutely gorgeous - we're all going to look stunning for the Childrens Mele on Tuesday, and Nick's party at the end of our stay here.

We got a decent amount of rain in the evening - a relief for the farmers, as they've still yet to have a proper monsoon, and time is running out. I think this year is the driest it has been in years.

Tomorrow we're looking forward to a swimming trip with children from one of PFI's hostels, as well as a group of young children who were born - and therefore lived all thier lives - in the womens' remand home in Bodhgaya. It's perhaps the first or second time they will have seen outside the prison walls, so it's sure to be quite an experience for them.

- Amy

19th August 09

The Health Team, Mango Juice and Cricket

Breakfast this morning was a delicious smelling omelette, as well as sandwiches with mayonnaisey sandwich spread on. Unfortunately I couldn't eat much, as a bad (hot - the power went off often, so no electric fans) night's sleep left me feeling a bit rubbish, and my stomach wasn't entirely behaving itself.

My placement today was spent with the Health Team, with whom we travelled to the village of Tarma. The Team consists of Sangita the project manager, as well as two qualified nurses and two community health workers. They gathered the women and children of the village into a group, and started by discussing various health issues with them all. Then the majority of the women and children were weighed, and diagnosed if necessary, and drugs (paid for by PFI) were supplied to those who needed them.
The work they do in the villages is invaluble - without these weekly visits, the villagers have no access to medical facilities.

Later that afternoon, about half of the group headed to Bodhgaya market to do some shopping, and came back with jewellery, incense, and even bought me some mango juice :D

In the evening, some fantastically competitive games of cricket and football were played on the field with many of the staff from Gyan Vikas.

Dinner was fantastic Mexican rice and fruit salad again... But... Different. We think it was a mayonnaise like sauce, rather than cream. But, why not?

- Amy

18th August 09

Computing at Gyan Vikas

After a breakfast of potato and veg curry, and puri, Sam and I left the group early to join the computer class at half past 9, that takes place here in the Gyan Vikas Centre. There is no internet connection in the main computer room, but all computers are running XP and while they're hardly going to be top of the range, seem to be fairly up to date in most respects, and were't any slower than you'd expect. They seemed to start up a lot faster than I'm used to as well - which is handy, because the lesson was disrupted several times by power cuts, resulting in more disruption than was ideal. There were perhaps three or four young men per computer, and between them they were teaching themselves basic MS Word skills. I helped where I could, and Sam took on a big group of lads and gave them a good lesson in Excel. A bit later I started talking to the man who seemed to be in charge of the teaching (I think his name is Arvind... I'll correct this later if necessary!) He knows some HTML and XML, and despite the language barrier his English was good enough that I taught him and the others who were watching a little HTML he wanted to know, as well as introducing the basics of CSS. It wasn't long before I was having a lot of fun! Later, conversation turned to Flash, when Arvind produced a disc and started to install Flash 8. He has a friend who is a Flash designer, but doesn't know how to use it himself. It was time for me to go by this point, but I've promised to go back on Thursday and give him and whoever else wants it, a crash course in Flash animation. (To those who know what I'm talking about... Flash 8 isn't that different to CS3, right??) Lunch was fruit again, and dinner this evening was a fantastic pasta, vegetable and tomato sauce concotion, followed by fruit salad and cream. The weather is still ridiculously hot, but it's been getting a bit breezier, so hopefully we're in for another storm sometime soon. - Amy

17th August 09

Painting at Rescue Junction

My first placement on Monday, took place at Rescue Junction in Gaya, along with Anna and Carrie. While the children were still in class, we started to repaint the TV and Games Room with a white undercoat. We were joined a bit later by a few of the older boys, who took up paintbrushes like they'd been at it all their lives and made short work of another two coats of white paint. A little while later, more children joined us, and we broke out the coloured paints. It wasn't long before my camera was repossessed as well, so I have tons of photos taken by the children themselves - they love the technology, and were very quick to figure out what all the buttons did for themselves. Paying for cameras for RJ and some of the schools would be a brilliant idea. Despite wearing clothes which I was hoping to improve with some paint splatters, I failed to get a drop on me (although plenty on my arms and head..) The whole experience was great fun. The children are so lively and happy, and eager to take part, and some of them have some great artistic skill. I hope to go back there later on in the week and see them all again. Breakfast on Monday morning was scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes on toast. Cornflakes and milk were available too! We're being treated like royalty! Lunch was light, a selection of fruit, and dinner consisted of an unspicy dahl, plain rice (I've never been a huge rice fan, but that was the best I've ever tasted!), vegetable curry and popadoms. Miles better than you'd get in an Indian restaurant in the UK... Before dinner, we were entertained by some of the staff who had spontaneously produced instruments and were playing us some traditional (I assume) Indian music. This was great fun, and when they were done insisted that we show them some of our music.. We did the hokie kokie. We didn't look too silly, though we did have to reassure them that it wasn't the national song... - Amy

18th August 09

Things I Now Appreciate More*...

- British wasps. They're so small and gentle-looking - British insects in general. So unobtrusive, you'd hardly know they were there - British heatwaves. Delightfully cool. - Geckos. Anything that eats insects gets a thumbs up at the moment - Air conditioning and electric fans. I owe them my life - British tapwater. Maybe I'm just fussy, but I'm really starting to dislike mineral water - Broadband. Well, I always appreciated that. But its been hammered home. 'How fast Gmail is' comes under this as well. They deserve awards - Cold showers. Why did I ever consider those unpleasant?! - Geckos in the shower. See previously - Toilets that you can sit on. Although I am getting the hang of this crouching thing, its impossible to go when the room is full of giant grasshoppers. (The ants and beetles are several times bigger here, too) *Aside from all the obvious, loving home, roof over head, running water, food etc. This is just for fun, don't take me too seriously..

16th August 09

The Monsoon Season is over, huh?

Apparently not. When we awoke after a few more hours sleep on Friday morning, we were relieved by the heavy rain. Such a pleasant change from the sweltering heat of Delhi. The weather here in Bodhgaya for the past three days has been hot and humid enough, but the occasional few hours of cooling rain have provided fantastic reliefs. The lack of recent updates is due to a storm a couple of nights ago that knocked out the power for a while. That, and various other computer problems. The storm was immense. Sheets of purple-blue lightning, followed by the loudest cracks of thunder any of us had ever heard. The main downside was that no electricity meant no ceiling fans, so that was a pretty sweltering night. So the past few days, Friday to Sunday, have been our 'orientation' days. We have spent most of our time in the Gyan Vikas Centre, having lessons in basic Hindi (always fun!) with Naresh, learning about culture and caste issues and more about the history and problems of Bihar with Nick, battling with insects, suffocating inside mosquito nets and enjoying some fantastic food! Breakfasts thus far have included cauliflower and potato curry with roti (bread), scrambled egg, fried tomatoes, toast and fruit, and the outstanding banana pancakes with honey. We have had a couple of light lunchs consisting of just fruit - pomegranate, papaya, bananas and apples. As well as vegetable patties and bread, which, being English, we quickly adapted into patty sandwiches, plus ketchup or green chili sauce - delicious. And dinners have been variations of potato and cauliflower dishes, nothing too spicy so far. A vegetable and potato mash was excellent, accompanied by rice dahl and other spicy sauces. Last night, we very much enjoyed stir friend veg and noodles, with spicy not-meatballs. (Everything is vegetarian by the way - eating the meat is apparently unwise). Saturday the 15th was Indian Independance Day. Before breakfast, we watched a quick flag raising ceremony and tried some of the traditional sweets as well. Also on Saturday, we were driven into Bodhgaya to look round the town and do some shopping... We spent hours in a clothier, and almost all of us ordered a saree or tunic and trousers (or both...) - we were measured, and the clothes are made to order - looking forward very much to recieving those in a couple of days. A custom made saree, including a blouse, underskirt and making fee, will set you back around... five or six pounds, at the most. Pause for mouths dropping open. The material for the tunic and trousers (more commonly seen than sarees, around Delhi at least) seemed in general to be a little more expensive, but still well under ten pounds. And the cloth and patterns are fantastic. After that, we looked around a temple in Bodhgaya - which, if you weren't already aware, is the centre for Buddhist worship in India. In the world, actually. We walked beneath the tree where Buddha first gained enlightenment. Naturally, crowds and crowds of other people were doing the same, it was pretty busy. Also on the temple grounds was a lake containing the most enormous catfish I have ever seen. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember exactly what it was Buddha did there, but I'll get back to you on that one. I think it had something to do with a storm. From there we went on to see an 80 foot statue of Buddha, which I think was donated by Japan, and was surrounded by enormous statues of his first five disciples. (I'm not convinced Buddha himself would entirely approve of all this materialism, but who am I to judge). Sunday, we visited Rescue Junction in Gaya. This is a building that was set up by PFI several years earlier, to provide shelter, food and education for poor, lost or orphaned children, aimed specifically at those living on the railway in Gaya. The children are free to come, go and stay as they please - the only rules being that if they want a meal or a bed there, they have to sit through a couple of hours of lessons each day - which very few of them need any encouragement to do. Around 1000 children pass through RJ every year, and costs around 34,000 pounds per year to run (you can donate at www.peoplefirstindia.net). Every missing child who has passed through RJ has been reunited with their parents, thanks to the fanastic work of the staff there, and every child with no family to return to find a new one in the staff and volunteers of the charity, and with the education provided and training that PFI pay for for them, are facing much brighter futures than they could otherwise have hoped for. Monday sees the start of our placements, which take place painting murals at a school in Piani and the Rescue Junction, travelling around with the Health Team, teaching in one of the charity-run schools and taking part in song and dance activities with the children. We also hope to visit one of the womens sewing centres run by the charity, and I personally hope to help with one of the computer training classes that take place here in the Gyan Vikas Centre. - Amy

17th August 09

Mosquitoes here are smart

They hang out in the shower. An insane amount of updates, and an explaination as to why I haven't sent any in a while should be on their way shortly, providing this internet holds out, and no-one else needs the computer. - Amy

13th August 09

Final Day in Delhi, and Overnight Train Journey

After a wonderful breakfast on the roof of the hotel - they'd pulled out all the stops for us, providing toast and cereal as well as the traditional Indian food - we checked out of the Grand Godwin at half past 11 and headed to the United Coffee House in Connaught Place for lunch. True to Nick's word, it was a great place to eat, with quite a few people having grilled sandwiches as their final taste of the West for a couple of weeks.

Later that afternoon it was time to say goodbye to the city, and we headed to Dehli station to begin the 11 hour journey by sleeper train. As expected, the station was brimming with people - not only those their to catch trains or work, but those to whom the station was home, including children.

We were split into two different carriages - I experienced B4, 'second class' accomodation. All of us were very pleasantly surprised by the interior of the train! It was clean, fully air conditioned, and the berths were reasonably spacious and even a certain amount of privacy was possible.
We were provided with two meals - both surpassed expectations! Even the toilets were (comparitively) clean and usuable for the whole journey. All in all, we had a very enjoyable train ride! I think most of us managed at least a few hours sleep, despite early morning giggling fits, often at Pam's expense. I had a top bunk, and found it easier to sleep when the train was moving and swaying, than when it slowed or stopped.

We arrived at Gaya station at around half 4 in the morning, hurrying from the train as we were told it would only stay at the platform for 3 minutes. We needn't have worried though, it was delayed there for a little while, for some reason.
We were met by a group of children from the Rescue Junction - it was fanatastically heart-warming to see their enormous smiles as we walked towards them from the platform, and we felt as though they were so happy we were there!
We were driven to the Gayan Vikas Center in Bodhgaya and allocated our dorms before collapsing for another few hours sleep. We were astounded by the progress that has been made on the facilities here, even since I signed up for the trip in the first place! Where we'd been expecting perhaps a hole in the ground and a bucket of water, we have at least two well functioning cold showers, and clean, spacious Indian style toilets. Our rooms themselves surpassed expectations too - most of them are offices that were cleared out for our arrival, and we all have plenty of space, an electricity supply and electric fans to keep the heat to a minimum. It has been much cooler in Gaya so far than it was in Dehli anyway, around 24 degrees Celcius?

Hoping to get another update in later to cover the first full day of our stay here.

- Amy

12th August 09

A Very Warm Welcome

"The bus driver has just gone off with a policeman who has taken his licence because he wants a bribe. We ll just pay the bribe, then be on our way. Welcome to India!"

A fantastic greeting from Nick of PFI when we met him and Sanjay at the airport in Delhi, after a reasonable flight from Heathrow.
They guided us to the Hotel Grand Godwin where we spent a relaxing afternoon in our nice air conditioned rooms.
(Its been even hotter than usual in Delhi - apparently the locals are struggling to cope as well, at temperatures upwards of 40 degrees).

A bit later on we headed (in little rickshaw? things) to Connaught Place, apparently the most touristy part, and browsed a few shops before finding somewhere to eat. A real Indian meal in India!

One thing that has amazed me are the roads - it s a free for all, and the system of constant beeping and honking is apparently what keeps things flowing smoothly.

I will return to my nice air-conditioned room now, for my last night in civilisation. We re looking forward to a breakfast on the roof of the hotel tomorrow morning, before heading out on the 12 hour train journey to Gaya.

Until then!

- Amy

10th August 09

Test

Just a test. Leaving in 15 hours.