AGRA


We reached Agra in the evening and relaxed at the hotel. I had talked to quite a few people on the bus but everyone was fatigued with the heat and the 24 hours or so of travelling. A group of young kids were gathered outside the hotel trying persistently to sell us things- they don’t take no for an answer. People were staring at us and someone even threw a rock but no-one was hurt.

JAIPUR

ARRIVING IN DELHI - The flight was uneventful - 8 hours of broken sleep, one film and two surprisingly tasty meals. As soon as I stepped out of the relatively frosty air-conditioned cabin the heat hit me like when you open the oven door. I was glad I was not wearing my glasses or they would have steamed up.

The flight tunnel could have been anywhere in the world but there is just something about the atmosphere, the smells, the air, the sounds that confirms you have arrived in Asia.

It never really hit me that I was going to be spending ten weeks in a foreign country with 45 people I didn’t know, and even as we come to the end of our first long day it still hasn’t.

ARRIVING IN HIMACHAL


After the first few days of culture shock, acclimatisation and long journeys it was such a relief to finally arrive at Chatti Bank station in the Punjab.