It needs no introduction...

But I'll give it one anyway...

THE TAJ MAHAL

I thought I would do a post today seeing as its a rather poignant day for me today, which I only really realised after speaking to a few people online earlier. Today is my last day in India. Tomorrow afternoon I will be flying onto Nepal and leaving behind the country I've called home for the last three months. 

I also thought that my trip to the Taj Mahal deserved a little space of its own being that it was such an awesome, tick off the list, once in a lifetime day...and of course it is one of the seven wonders of the world.

My trip started on Wednesday at 3:30am. I have to admit I wasn't really caring about the seven wonders of the world at this time and rather than be excited I kept nodding off in the car on the way there. Agra, where the Taj Mahal is situated, is about three hours by road. When I wasn't in the land of nod it was pretty cool to see rural India and I started to feel pretty excited going somewhere so spectacular so early.

I'd expected a dramatic drive up to the Taj and to be astounded by the view. However the guide told me that you have to walk the last 600 metres, this is due to pollution. Since the Taj is made entirely out of marble, if pollution got too close to it then it would go black. It was probably a good idea that I got the chance to walk off the last of my sleepyness too.

It was strange seeing something that I've seen so many times on television documentaries and in books in real life. My first reaction was it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, television definitely has a way of making things look bigger. I had a bit of a laugh to myself when I remembered that I felt this way when I saw the Disney Princess Castle in Florida. I also thought wrongly that it was a palace, when actually it was a tomb built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took twenty two years and a hell of a lot of rupees to build so she was one lucky lady I think. Plus the fact that it really is absolutely beautiful. 

I went for a walk around it by myself and took in the fact that I was stood at 7am at one of the most beautiful sights in the world, that people come from all over the world to see. It really was an incredible experience that I'll never forget and a really nice way to round off my trip to India. If anyone has the chance to go then please make sure you do. Also, Agra is the city of love so make sure you take someone special. That is the only bit I would change about my day.

I went to see how the Taj was made and bought a little pendant charm, which I'm going to make into a bag charm to remind me of my day. I also went to see Agra Fort, which is where the emperor and his wife lived and had amazing views of the Taj Mahal.

As I said, its my last day in India. I've had such a fantastic time and have still got so much to look forward to that I'm not feeling sad at the moment. I just have happy thoughts of all my wonderful experiences I've had here that have changed and will shape the course of my life and all the fantastic people that have made this experience so unforgetable. To mention names, thank you to Jenny, Leonie, Suneethi & Celix and Pauline for providing the support of a family and for looking after me so well for the last three months. Also to Sarah, Amanda, Lauren, Rachel, Judi and Frances for being such great friends and sharing this experience with me. 

Goodbye India, it has been AMAZING!

Onto the next part of my adventure in Nepal tomorrow. Very much looking forward to seeing my fellow Holly tomorrow. 

Thinking of everyone always.

Love from

Holly

xxx

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

The title is from a Hindi film we went to see with Jenny a couple of weeks a go. It roughly translates as 'Live life each day'. I thought this was very fitting so I decided to use it as my title for this post.

Its been an absolutely amazing final two weeks with i-to-i and Goa. It doesn't seem like two weeks ago that I was sitting up till 4am with Rachel before waving her off to the airport. Once she'd gone I was completely on my own for the first time in a month. The stillness of Calangute at 4am made it seem even more lonely. However, the quietness was short lived as at 5am a brass band started...or at least I'm pretty sure it was a brass band. It was the feast of St Alex that day and so I presumed the first church service must have started then. I know St Alex is kind of a big deal around Calangute, but really? A brass band at 5am?!

I was quite looking forward to a day on my own on the Sunday, I've always appreciated time on my own and have found that its always been something I've needed (must be an only child thing). However I found, after my lazy morning and whiling away a few hours in the internet cafe I got a bit lonely. Although I started to crave company, I was a bit nervous about meeting my new room mate Frances.As I think I've mentioned before I've been so lucky that all five people I'd worked with so far had been amazing and I thought karma would have it that I'd be dealt a duff person for my final fortnight. Luck struck again and the lovely Frances arrived. I couldn't have wished for a nicer person to round of my volunteering experience with. Here is my final two weeks...

On the Tuesday we met up with Jenny, our co-ordinator and the two girls Amanda and Zoe, who are working at the Seva Trust project in Merces to go and see a film (see blog title, its a bit of a mouth full). I've probably been to the cinema more times in the last three months here than I have in a year at home. Its good to have a bit of normality from time to time though...the food is also much cheaper than you're average popcorn and coke combo too.

I really felt 100% into the swing of the projects in the last couple of weeks and started to realise how much I was going to miss them. On one of the days last week, I turned up to school to be told that Sister Antoinette was unwell and therefore I'd have to take the class on my own. I got that horrible feeling of 'what am I supposed to do' in my stomach, especially thinking back to how mental the kids went when Judi was left on her own. I managed to look like an idiot when I started the nursery rhymes and only one of them joined in with me (thank you Pooja) but somehow I managed to get some alphabet work done in their books AND get them all to say their ABCS and sing nursery rhymes altogether at the end. I strangely enjoyed being on my own and was pleased to find out that I could do it.

We introduced the concept of 'hangman' to the girls at the orphanage to help them with spelling. It was great as they thought they were getting let off their homework time early with a game, when actually it was just a fun way to do spelling. It still amazes me just how good some of their spelling is, especially Gracy and Shabana, considering English isn't their first language. Could I spell strawberry when I was eight mum? Even though it took longer for some of them to understand how it worked (and that you couldn't make up words), it still helped the ones that struggle as the fact it was a game distracted from the fact that it was their sticking point when it came to learning...we all have one.

Some of the girls do have parents, who for one reason or another can't look after them at home but occasionally do visit. No matter how they've been treated or whats happened to them, they all love their parents and want nothing more than to be with them. We're always told excitedly several times an afternoon if one of them has their parents coming to see them. They're all so happy all the time, its so awful when they actually are upset. Poor Rutika cried for her mum all afternoon one day last week after she was dropped back. To see one of them in such distress is heartbreaking and I wanted to cry along with her. Her and her little sister Shrutika are now going home to their parents to live with them permenantly so theres a lovely happy ending to that story.

Frances and I decided to rebel against the 'no personal presents' rule and buy them each a little something of their own. I had a little paper left over from posting my sari home so we wrapped them each up a set of colouring pens, a pencil sharper (both of which they're always squabbling over), some sweets and some bangles. We also gave them a postcard of Goa each with a message since they'd loved looking at the ones Frances bought the other day. Upon being presented with a present, most children would eagerly tear open the package. When we gave them each their present, they smiled and looked pleased at having something of their own...but took the best part of an hour to open them. The only reason I can think of as to why is that is, is that they don't get presents so they probably just didn't know what to do with them. When we did manage to persuade them to open them, it was lovely  to watch them unpack and repack them so carefully. I'm going to miss them all so much!

We made sure we made the most of the last couple of weekends and managed to pack quite a lot in. We had a really nice evening in Panaji (which I was sure was an impossible thing before) and for the first time in ages I actually fancied a curry, so we went for one and got a free calender starring ourselves (don't ask). By far and away the highlight of the two weekends was last weekend's trip to Ponda Spice Plantation. I thought it would be pretty good anyway and it was the one thing I hadn't done before but it was amazing. The tour was really interesting, the lunch was gorgeous AND they had elephant rides! An elephant ride was definitely up there on my 'Things to do whilst I'm in India' list but we were previously told that they didn't do them out of season. So it was a nice unexpected surprise and one of those moments that I truly appriciated where I am.

I can't believe my three months volunteering has been and gone. It was a surreal feeling leaving on Sunday knowing I'd done what I'd come here to do and it was time to move on. For some reason I felt really nervous from the night before, all the way through to the airport. I think my brain was starting to acknowledge that I now truly was on my own and didn't have the support of a host family anymore.

I've been in Delhi for two days now and its been a bit of a mixed bag. I've been going through various stages of fear and excitment for the next stages of my trip and I definitely slumped back into fear when I arrived. I had a chilled out evening on the first evening and it dawned on me that I really was by myself. I missed sharing a room and being able to have a chat and a giggle with Rachel or Frances before going to sleep. I cheered up a bit when I'd booked a couple of tours the next day and headed out to explore a bit of the city, but my mood dramatically went down by the time I'd got back to my hotel.

I'd been warned that as a female traveller on my own, I'd be targeted more and would recieve a lot more hassle than I would if I was a bloke. I've been here three months now so I'm more than familiar with how things work in this country. I hadn't anticipated quite how much hassle I would get though and couldn't walk down the street without random blokes shouting things at me (note to self: save your vest tops for Thailand). I've found that its 50/50 for people wanting to help you/rip you off in India. I trusted a man who said he would show me the tourist office so I could get a map but instead I was taken to a random place down an alley that definitely wasn't the official tourist office, definitely didn't have maps but definitely did try to sell me a load of stuff that I didn't want. The guys seemed ok at first but I gradually got a bad feeling about the whole thing so decided to make a move before I found out whether I was right or not. I went back to the hotel feeling quite deflated and annoyed at myself.

Today was a much better day though. As I previously mentioned I'd booked a tour of the city, so I had a very nice man who drove me round all the sights of Delhi. I saw a mosque (where I had to wear a hideous orange sack type garment as I wasn't appropriately covered up), The Red Fort, Rajghat Park, Indira Ghandi Museam (one of my favourite parts of the day), The Lotus Flower Temple, India Gate and the Qutab Minar, which is a ruin of a mosque ( not sure why I've become a fan of ruins all of a sudden). I'm also not sure where the monsoon season has disapeered to as its suddenly shot up to Indian summer style tempretures.

I'm majorly excited about tomorrow as I'm going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Its a 3:30am start so I will get to see the sun rising over the Taj. Its going to be an incredible experience and I can't wait!

I think I've just had the heeby jeebies as I didn't realise how alone I would feel after being with someone 24/7 for the last three months. I'm also ready to see my friends now and I'm so excited to go to Nepal on Saturday to see Holly and Thailand in a week and a halfs time with my H-Towners. I've also booked a tour of Vietnam to round off my asian trip, I'll have to post the link to it sometime as it looks so incredible. I can't believe I'll get to do all the stuff.

For now though, its time to enjoy my last week in India my trip to the Taj tomorrow.

Lots of love to the UK as always and big excitement for seeing everyone that I'm

going to see in the next couple of weeks.

Love from

Holly

xxx

P.S For those who are interested, I will be back on British soil on the 19th September!