Tour day 6

The day started with a walking tour of the surrounding farm area and small village. The people here are not as friendly as Delhi as they are unaccustomed to westerners wandering around their village.

Children were very weary of us and would run off if approached, but they began to think it was a game and would run off laughing.

The gorgeous Charlene and I.

 I tried to talk to the children here but they had only very limited English. In this rural area children do attend school but it is taught in Hindi and they only study English once a week similar to second language lessons in schools in Australia. It will be difficult for these students to learn English as a second language if it is not used at home (which it is not here). A lack of English can also impact on these children from furthering their education later on if they want to, as limited university spots will go to English speaking Indians first.

The village is a cleaner area than Delhi and the little huts are immaculately kept, although there are goats, chickens, cows and even monkeys grazing at the front door. I felt it would be a nicer place to grow up but of course their maybe limitations for future endeavors.

Reporters from the Indian newspaper dainik jagran were waiting in the village to take our photos and ask us about our travels.

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Next on the agenda was a tour through the Indian jungle on open jeeps. The four girl students and Hattan climbed in one which worked out brilliantly as the business owner drove this one and was always in front of the other jeep. This meant we did not have to drive thru the dust of the second jeep and we saw the animals first which then ran away because of our approach.

Lucy, Charlene, Chantal & I on our jeep.

The valley has thick vegetation and trees but as you move higher and further away from the stream the vegetation is sporadic with very rocky outcrops all over. After driving for some time we stopped on the edge of a hill as we had spotted a large group of antelope. Our driver told us to hang on and he took off over the edge of this hill to chase the antelope and make them jump. We were racing through a valley and dodging the rocks, driving over very fragrant minty grass with antelopes leaping next to our jeep. It was such an amazing extrordinary thing, I was trying to take a photo(actually got a great one) and we hit rocks and we all flew into the air, as I wasn't holding on I almost landed on Chantelle but Hattan caught me just in time. Could have been very painful. Our driver stopped for a moment and then took off again, we were all laughing so much it was heaps of fun. The other jeep's driver was not allowed to follow so the other students just had to watch.

Antelopes leaping.

We also spotted a family of Indian bison which is a cross between a cow and a horse, vey strange looking. Then half a dozen monkeys were racing through the Forrest next to us and then they proceeded to jump over a cliff at the end of the road. The view from this cliff was amazing (although still misty as everywhere in India is) and we climbed down the cliff slightly look at some rock paintings that are 5000 years old. No fences or security, we can get as close as we want to these.

Monkeys before they jumped over the edge.

Then it was back on the jeeps to return to the retreat for lunch and to pack. Yes, lunch was great but no dessert, boohoo. Then it was back on the bus to return to Varanassi. 5 hours back to the hotel in Indian traffic, with the driver playing more chicken with trucks. Watched Russel Peter (Indian comedian) on the trip back which is hilarious. You tube him, he's brilliant and so accurate.

Petrol here is "highly inflammable"..haha

Checked into the hotel and Chantal and I hit the showers. We dressed up for dinner and even wore heels. Just needed to feel clean for a little time. Headed to dinner with Charlene, Vu, Hattan, Michael and Chantal. Fantastic meal, awesome mango mojhito. Meal time is such a good laugh.

The hotel is very British looking and looks beautiful from the extior, the rooms are theek-thaak (so so).

Alvida