The aim was to write every week or so but needless to say that hasn't happened so sorry if you've been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what i've been up to!! :D

This month has been so busy and one of the best ever!! The month started with work of course and for our first cutural day of the month we did embroidery with Kirti, who is also our yoga teacher. It was super fun and we learnt some really pretty stitches... I've almost finished mine now, lots of flowers and very colourful. For a while at yoga Kirti was always asking "have you finished it yet?" hopefully we will before it's time to leave; which Jen the world centre manager kindly reminded me we only had 20 days left!!! and i was like no Jen we have a third of our time left. After careful consideration this is the way that our time left feels the longest- I told her this and she just laughed! But this is no laughing matter I litterally have no idea how I will leave this place. Sangam is my second home and as for leaving Deep Griha, well I get teary just thinking about it!!

Anyhoo so back to the start of the month... We had some really interesting sessions for a WAGGGS environment consultation- the results of which will be taken to Rio20- a UN conference next year. We were talking about the best and worst situations for the planet and what we would like to happen e.t.c. and it was so interesting. If I had been doing this without visiting India and Sangam my ideas would be very different- to a certain extent I would have thought that the questions were silly as everyone would want the same thing. I couldn't have been more wrong. My eyes have now been opened and I realise that country to country dreams are so different, for instance we were asked what the best case scenario was for education- I said something along the lines of free education for all. A girl I was sitting next to me wrote 'free books'. It really thought provoking and I'm glad I got to be part of those sessions.

Moving through the week, work was a lot of fun. The beauty class how now given us a whole range of treats! Pedicures, head massages, manicures, make up sessions! The pedicure was so funny, it was really tickley and we laughed so much. My toes are now a awesome pink colour to match my unifrom. :D In return we have taught english and sang songs with them- it's great and always a laugh. Next week we are planning to teach them how to make recycled wallets from jucie cartoons so that should be good. I have already made them with the tailoring class we work with and them went really well and the girls loved them.

One of the funniest activities we have done is cooking with the kitchen ladies. Everything at Sangam is scrath cooked and fresh- even down to the pasta we sometimes have, and it tastes INCREDIBLE!!!! So to get the chance to learn how to make some of the foods was very exciting. We made dal, cumin rice, cocnut chutney, noodle rice puddingy stuff and of course chapatis. I have never been cooking and laughed so much before! The kitchen ladies were crying with laughter at the state of some of the Chapatis... It's fair to say they weren't all round. But that was minor compared to what happened when it came to cooking the chapatis... So (sorry Nadia for mentioning this again!) but it was Nadia's turn to cook her chapati so she went to the pan and took hold of the metal spatular; at this point I should mention that there were about 20 of us in the kitchen and it's big but not that big!! So yeah Nadia was holding the spatular and her chapati was cooking away and she turned to Shoba to ask her something but ended up knocking her elbow and burning it with the spatular!!!!! Shoba claimed it didn't hurt but the whole situation was so funny we all were laughing and Aruna (who is the house manager and in charge of food- incredible women, love her to pieces and only a little bit scary!) was like " forget Shoba, don't burn the chapatti!!!!!" so of course it had burnt and at the point the kitchen ladies picked it up and laughed so so hard because of course you can't burn chapattis and the whole situation was so fuuny the chai boiled over! hahahaha- it still makes me laugh now. After making all the food we dressed up in our saris and made a meal if it. The food was great and it was a very entertaining night. :D

Another week flew by, unfortuently this one was not the best due to the fact that I was ill and had to have a day off work! Nevermind i'm much better now. As I was well again in time for the Tare adventure up North. Unfortuently not all the Tare could come for various reasons but 8 of us flew up to Delhi on the 15th for a 6 day adventure.

Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Desert, Camels, Shopping, Taj Mahal, Trains, Planes and amazing company! The perfect ingredients for a holiday. The flight to Delhi was great- on India time of course but no matter spirts were high. Half way through our time at Sangam it was the right time for a holiday. Turns out Air India is super fancey and we got food included and could watch movied! Time for a bit of Hello Dolly!! :D We arrived late in Delhi and met our driver at the airport. It was really cheap and cost effective to hire a driver for the days we were in Agra so we all got our own personal itenirary and began the 5 hourish drive to Agra, try as I might I could not stay awake so Elly and I made the back seats into a bed and slept until we got to the hotel. I do believe there was a chai stop on the way but I was only semi awake at the time. So we arrived at the hotel in the early hours and crashed! One room was next to the kitchen and the other somewhere upstairs. It was very basic, clean and pleasant enough. I have no complaints for the price we paid and the food was incredible! The beds were so comfy and after a great nights sleep and a breakfast of fried egg and toast- with proper butter!!! You have no idea how good it was after over a month without it full stop- the butter here tastes really strange! Anyways it was then time to board our bus again and visit one of the Wonders of the World... The Taj Mahal! So as you can imagine spirts were high! We arrived, well in a car park 1km away as vehicles couldn't go the rest of the way. In true tourist style we decided to get a horse and cart up to the gate. It was so fun although I felt sorry for this one small horse having to drag the eight of us and the driver along the road!

We arrived at the gate and after having all our snacks for the day confiskated and having to go and leave them in some shop we were finally inside the Taj Mahal complex. At first you walk into a courtyard full of lush green grass and red marbleish buildings- the gateway. I caught my first glimpse of the very top of the Taj and I'm not going to lie but my first words as I remember were "well it's a bit grubby looking!" Bec wasn't to impresed :D But in my defence I could only see half of the top dome and once I walked through the gateway and saw the whole thing I was kind of lost for words. It was just perfect- I know that sounds super cheesy but it really was. Almost like you couldn't take a bad photo because they all looked fantastic! There were loads of tourists there but still to the Indian tourists we were almost as fascinating as the Taj! We had some many pictures with randoms- it was quite fun and a good laugh! After taking several hundred pictures at the gate we walked through the gardens to the marble tomb itself. The marble was sparkling in the sunlight and as we took off our shoes or put on our shoe covers. We walked up the marble steps so we were level with the enterance to the tomb and qued up with everyone else to go inside. We went though as part of a big long line and it was really fuuny because we were 'hurried' through and as we weved around the central chamber we looked at the intricate detail which made up to coffin and inside. It was pretty dark inside so hard to really appreciate the marble details so I have to say it was a little disapointing compared to the outside- but it more than makes up for it so I geuss that's ok! :P

We decided that it would be fun to take some jumping photos (once outside again) so we did and it was fun- added to because so many people came up and started to take pics of us too a security man came up and started blowing his whistle and banging a stick. Honestly I thought he was going to tell us off for messing around but no- he was moving all the 'paparasie' on!! Helarious it was! :D :D

So after the Taj we got back on the bus and went for lunch, they had toasties which sounded great and 4 of the 8 of us ordered them, turs out there was onlt on toastie maker and it took quite a while for them to all be very but if weren't so hungry it would have been quite funny! After lunch we went to the Red Fort. It was spectacular! Huge- 2.5km all the way round and every courtyard was full of beautiful details. The views of the Taj were awesome and the marble sections were beautiful. You could sit at the top and look down into the grassy courtyards below, it would have made for a great game of hide and seek! We watched the sun set in one of the yards and it sparkled across the marble, casting shaddows across the marble arches.

We had a shopping stop on the way back and back at the hotel we decided to go roundabout shopping. By this I mean we walked up to this huge roundabout up the road and there were loads of stalls around the edge and Nadia, Bec and I went shoe shopping after some great haggling on Bec's part- she walked away to look at another stall (she wasn't buying any shoes) we got a great deal! The shoes were all so pretty it was hard to come away with only one pair. It was really fun apart from the bit where we almost got hit by a coach! Not our fault though we were shopping away and it over estimated the turn or something. Anyhoo we were fine. This evening was also the first time I gave into 'beggers/people selling junk that you really don't want' There was this super cute 7 year old selling keyrings and I really didn't want one but he kept going like FINE just 10 rupees, FINE 5 rupees for 2. It was sad that he was so desperate that he was practically giving them away. Back at the hotel I felt a little bad that I didn't give him anything but at the same time once you start it's a slippery slope and I still have 5 months of travelling and I don't want to have no monet left for Barcelona because I gave it away to every poor person I saw!

Anyways back at the hotel we went for dinner and it was awesome. I had a break from Indian food- I got almost 3 days without it! Not that I don't like it, it was just nice to have a break, so instead I had spicey tomato pasta and then pancakes- super tasty!!

The next day it was time to head back to Delhi. We set off and all was fine. A few hours later something went 'bang' no more than 5 minutes later we pulled into a service station type place. It appeared that nothing was wrong and after a break we continued our journey, it soon became clear that something was wrong. So naturally the thing to do would be to pull out a wetwipe and tie it around some part of the engine and hope that it would hold! This was even more amusing when you could see the drivers faces and the engine was sort of inside the bus. They lifted off this panel and there it was. Posibly the fuel injection thingey had broken because we spent the next 3 hours or so driving at a max of 40km/hr but most of it was at 35km/hr- under the max speed for a rickshaw!!! So funny getting over taken by ricks, lorries, bikes and horses!! It did however mean we got to enjoy the scenery and wave to everyone in the villages we passed. Coming to the outskirts of Delhi the drivers droped us off at a 'shopping' mall and told us they were collecting a new bus and would pick us up in 1/2 hr. So we went into the mall and it was empty! All the shop owners stared over the railings on each floor when we walked in. So no shopping for us, we did however buy pizza hut and eat it outside at the enterance to the mall waiting for more like an hour for the bus. To pass the time we did some Irish dancing curtosy of Nadia and waved at the school kids driving pass in ricks.

Eventually we continued our journey and had to go under a really low level bridge. The expression on the drivers' faces said everything! eeeeek, scratches and scrapping all along the roof- even had a nice piece of plaster type stuff fall onto my lap! We then had to pass under the pole that tests if your too tall to go under the bridge which bizzarlly was on the wrong side of the one way system bridge! Anyhoo after another huge thud we passed through... 'dum dum dum another bus bits the dust!!' We finally made it to Delhi by 5pm after leaving Agra at 9.30am ish!! We decided that as there was no time to do sight seeing we went shopping- very touristy but alot of fun too. I got some lovely bangles and had spaghetti for tea at this crazy cafe where there were more waiters then customers and they spent more time listening to their ipods than working it seemed but still it was fun. Back at the hotel where sleeping on the pull out bed on the floor was more comfy than the beds provided, I waited with excitment for MY DAD TO BE ON BBC RADIO TWO!!!!!!!!!!! And when the bussiness section came on and the presenter was like now we are talking to Tony Callaghan I was so excited! Couldn't belive my Dad was actually live on the radio and I was listening to him on the other side of the world!! Congrats Dad it was awesome! Everyone was super excited and I hear sales are going great so it obviouslty did it's job! :D

An early start today and off to the train station we went, no more friendly helpful bus drivers for us. It was time for our first Indian train experience. Today we were travelling 3AC- posh compared to the days that lay ahead. We got to the station and found are seats and off we went. It was so exciting and the views were so... Indian! I can't say beautiful because until we got out of the city they weren't. Enough rubbish to sink a battle ship and numerous men, women and children bathing and using the side of the train track as a toliet!! Nevertheless the views were super interesting and as we got further and further from the city the skys got more and more blue.

Out in the desert we left civilisation behind for several hours which was cool. We also enjoyed the chai walas and food walas that walked up and down the train. I had rice biryani for lunch and it was awesome! Unlike most train food it was also pretty cheap! 60R (about 80p) for a box of rice. Our train arrived in Jaipur mid afternoon and whilst we waited for the luggage office to open to dump our stuff we made plans for the rest of the day. We had until midnight to wait for our next train...

This blog entry is getting super duper long so to read more of my desert adventures tune in next time... read the next blog!! :D :D