The End

So I have reached the end of my gap year.

I feel like I´m dragging the part of me that has grown in India to its death.

During my last few hours in Delhi I couldn´t really believe this place and the fact that I was not going to be a part of it any more. But the world is a big place and you can´t live everywhere.

To remind myself of this year...

It started off with monks, in a monastery, in rural paradise Puruwala,

got to know the Tibetans, taught their kids, really miss their kids now.

went to Nepal, had a mental time in the hills.

had a Christmas and new year away from home, in Daramsala and Goa.

Headed off to the desert to teach at BRCM public school. Got my teacher skills stretched to the limit.

Had a bit of fun with horses and Hindi songs. 

Hopped over to Sri Lanka. Did a bit of lonely travel. Saw some of the stuff I´d never thought I would.

Back to the Indian kids and their shananagins.

A little jaunt in Rajasthan and a cricket match.

Went off on a big U shape route of the country.

Goa, Kerala, Madras, Varanasi, Nainital, Rihikesh. Lots and lots of stuff went along with it.

So it´s complete now and I´m coming back home.

I have been away a long time.

 

 

Being a Long Term Resident in a Delhi Guest House

I´m a few stays short of being a familiar face at the Tibetan settlement but it wasn´t the first time I´ve been hanging around there. What better way to round things off than to spend the best part of a week hanging around Delhi.

Delhi is confusing. And tiring. A bit like India.

So I am fully aware I will be off soon and it is making me quite nervous. Not that I don´t want to go home but right now there are about a billion cars all horning away in unison, six beggars mumbling to me, the streets are packed, women are walking around in Saaris, the rickshaw driver doesn´t understand me, people are bumping into men carrying sacks of rice on their heads, the rickshaw is weaving about between trucks- strafing three lanes of traffic, and in Britain its... not like that, which will be funny.  

The Taj Mahal

It was really beautiful.

The light caught it in amazing ways.

I'm really sorry I can't think of anything more to say about it that you haven't heard already.
It's the worlds most amazing building, everyone knows about it.

It was incredible though. Imagine building that for your wife.

Indian clothes shopping

Indians have got it going on fasionwise.

I'm not impartial to a good western suit but some of the stuff they get married in just blows anything we wear out of the water in terms of colourfulness and sparklyness.

Rishikesh the second time

We had to go back down the hill because of expensive on-season hotels in Ninetails, so we decided to surprise the girls who were in Rishikesh. Rishikesh was one of the first places I ever went travelling.

India is the only place you would spend eight hours on a bus to surprise someone.

We arrived, and evaded the girls using cleverly cut newspapers. We got caught soon.
Rishikesh, despite cockroach problems is the perfect place to relax in an ashram or a cafe with an Isreli or two.

We went white water rafting this time. At one point the man stood up, swore, and began to panic, before guiding us onto a wave the size of a room. The squealing Albanian lass didn't help the matter. But the Ganga river was lovely and cool. Mmmm.

On the way out of Rishikesh, on the "deluxe" bus that I had paid Rs. 200 for, the conductor made all the foreigners wait a few metres away while he got all the Indian locals and their bags safely on the bus, then charged all the foreigners Rs. 20 "baggage charge" which he pocketed. He proceeded to cram 6 people onto the back seat designed for 5.

Saying goodbye to Rishikesh, with my bag and things, I was watching the shadow of a tree waving oabout on the water, and I suddenly became quite nervous about going home.

Troubling.

Ninetails (Nainital)

We decided to escape to the hills, and in a way that is what we have done, in that we are in the hills and it is lovely and cool, but in a way we haven't really escaped because half of India seems to have "escaped" here too.
It's not such a problem really, because the place is still really beautiful. It surrounds a lake right up in the hills. I had another early morning run up a hill; a big one this time, and it in fact left me feeling quite dizzy and sick due to altitude and lack of breakfast. But the lake was really stunning from above with no boats on it. You could see the patches where the gas springs bubbled up from the bottom.

Just like we in the UK enjoy going to hot places for holidays, Indian tourists enjoy going to the hills for holidays, so places like Ninetails, Mussoorie and Shimla are always all done up with fairground rides and amusements. Me and Felix have been putting them to good use, frequenting the games arcade and visiting the coolest pool hall in the world.
I also found the most classic public library and I don't know why they don't make them like that anymore.

Unfortunately Megan and Felix were robbed of the chance to go really high up, but we decided to go exploring in search of a nice looking building we saw on the hillside. We found one of them, which we found out was the court house, and was an amazing colonial British stone and wood building. I love exploring. It's better than doing other things.

The Deccan Chargers won the IPL

I have always found cricket engulfingly boring, but I actually got quite into the IPL.

As you may know, it was held in South Africa this year to avoid clashes with the elections.

The IPL (Indian Premier League) is like cricket that has been pumped with stimulants. 8 teams (I think) represent the major Indian cities. The best players from around the world are auctioned for by super rich owners, a lot of whom are Bollywood stars. The man of the match wins a motorbike. The advertising companies go nuts.

Instead of saying "six" when the ball crosses the boundary, the comentators have to say "AFL maximum," after an Indian insurance company. So replays of all the sixes sound like:

"And it's gone out for another AFL maximum"

"And that is a classic AFL maximum"

"And that is the 37th AFL maximum of the tournament."

It's quite funny listening to the commentators trying harder and harder to find new ways of using AFL maximum in a sentence as the match goes on.

It is twenty-twenty cricket so there are loads of boundaries and loads of wickets, which is why I can watch it.

Cricket purists do not approve of the IPL, but cricket purists can stuff themselves because India LOVES cricket and India, especially the kids, love the big names; and the IPL, for the few weeks it is on, is brilliant.