Everyone in India seems to drive with one hand consistently on the horn and the other up their nose, the horn is used instead of a wing mirror so you can imagine the noise! The rules for driving seems to be that there are none, whole families pile onto a motor bike, round about are alike crossroads darting in which ever way they chose to go. Just about the only thing that stops traffic is the cow, or should I say the sacred cow.
Although, considering it is regarded as holy enough not to become steak it is still treated poorly.

The equivalent of a taxi here is a tuk tuk - a tin that rattles on wheels; which goes about 20mph but still acting like it owns the roads!

Fortunately enough we managed to get a taxi to Dharamsala, equally as dangerous driving about 40mph around the mountains, with our own personal radio the twins (Bet and Keylie) singing Taylor Swift in tune of course! The taxi dumped us in the centre of Dharamsala, completely lost but at the same time at home as we were surrounded by hundreds of western brands; so looking for a hostel was the last thing on my mind!

We eventually found a hostel with the company of a helper; wanting money of course. One of the main things I've learnt since being here is that no-one does anything out of sheer sincerity.

In the hostel there were travellers from Leeds, which was nice to hear a familiar voice. After freshening up we headed to Jimmy's Italian for some grub, after four weeks of being deprived of my favourite foods I had to make the most of it. I had lasagne (not as good as the Mas) pizza, salad, cheesy garlic bread and banoffee pie on the terrace - greedy but well deserved.

With a full stomach we traipsed around still being pestered by beggars and sales men but now also surrounded by other travellers and monks. The narrow shops and stalls were crammed with so many staff, we couldn't get to the stock, each member of staff has allocated jobs its supposedly organised mess.

Unlike Jaipur, Agra and Delhi, Dharamsala felt nothing like India. It had less chaos, cows and commuters. The town itself was relaxing and pretty; supposedly a spiritual place of exiled Tibetan Buddhism, extremely busy with travellers and monks. The walls of the town were covered in posters advertising language courses, and requesting volunteers which makes a difference as the local advertisements in Palampur are job advertisements specifying whether they want married or single women.

After a long day of bartering western brands which I could just get back home in Boots, instead of unique Indian materials and jewellery, we headed back to the hotel, if you can call it that.

Back to a familiar Sunday morning, in need of coke and a fry uu. Much to my surprise this is what we got with HP sauce too! The whole weekend cost the equivalent of 15 pounds; which is not even a night out back home!

Arriving back at the house we were greeted by a Platform2 rep which was nice and she had also brought a letter from Stu, a volunteer who had to go home due to a injury. Whilst Frank read the letter the mood in the room dropped, everyone was so gutted that night to loose such a big member of the group - it felt like ten people had left.

Waking up to no electricity and water is becoming the norm, and then off to breaky with chewy toast and tea with floaty milk, at first it was hard to adjust but now I'd be disappointed with soft Warburtons and a strong PG brew.

The journey to work can be traumatic but at the same time beautiful; with the cliff edge less than one foot away, the bus door open, no seat belt and Abu and Satchin sat on your lap! In the Day Care Centre the ability of the kids ranges, whilst one of them is just walking another is ready to be sent to school.

At lunch we do a bit of sunbathing and I had a catch up with my friend from back home, which was good but made me miss everyone and FOOD! Women's empowerment is developing, I have been teaching Kieran lately. Whilst her literature is good her language lacks mainly due to confidence. And then back to the house for our routine sunbathing session on the balcony overlooking the mountains.

On any other day at the Day Care Centre we have about 4 children but on the day I'm alone, we had a full class ( a new child and Mr Monster). Surprisingly the day went ok with the help of teacher's pets Tamana and Akshit; friendliness generally seems to start young in Indians. In women's empowerment we helped them type up the work they had been doing, developing the computer and literature skills.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the day care, where we found cockroaches and scorpions amongst the kids toys, we also saw another side to the school whilst the teacher or volunteers weren’t there - sheer chaos!

Invasion of the pox! Chicken pox have been spreading around the house, and with a house of 42 it wont be long before we are all infected!

Off to Manali for the weekend will keep you updated, I hope all is well at home! Half way there now ahhhhhhh!