Hotel Highlands Pachmarhi

... out the fare of Rs200 (less than £3.00) on a display board rather than try to overcharge us for the 12 mile journey. He then took us to two non-descript hotels before we asked him to take us to the Betwa Retreat. Our faces dropped as we approached the hotel as we just knew we couldn’t afford to stay there. Fortunately the price included breakfast and we were able to negotiate a discount so that the Swiss tent accommodation was ...

Greetings one last time from Bhopal, the city where you may remember, in 1983 there was a gas leak that affected 25,000 people of which 3000 died. It came from a battery making plant which was subsequently cleared away completely. Some of those who were affected are still being treated for their ailments 26 years later.

We are excited by the way the Indian men are taking ownership of the Emmaus ministry. This kind of thing happens after two or three trips ...

... She did this each night until he understood and was saved! After her children were grown, at the age of 50, she decided to start training for field and track events. Her specialty is the long jump, the discus throw and the 400 meter run (I believe). Since then she has been competing in local, national and international (when she can afford the fare) events for people over 50 winning over 350 medals, 200 of them gold. She uses this as a means of witnessing ...

... to be up wind from a garbage fire. I noticed that suddenly the voices got louder and that I needed to be careful where I walked. Then I realized...we were walking through an outdoor public toilet! With agile steps we made it and on the way back crossed to the other side of the street. When I had Jim's wedding band engraved "Whither thou goest I will go" I had no idea where that would lead me!

... like people not siting in their allocated seat, screaming children and half the cinema empty whilst everyone was crammed into the cheap seats at the back! Great fun!

Tonight we're off on a night train to a town which is along the Ganges to experience some of river life! Not looking forward so much to the train ride with dodgy toilets and triple bunks but its all part of the fun of travelling here...and anything has to be better than a 14 hour coach joruney instead!

... to tell all your "friends" at the same time as the menu, which served fresh food and drink because they went to the shop each time you ordered.
Overall Orcha was a great little village to acclimatise back into the Speaking world again...next step the Kama Sutra temples- but a 5 hour general class, 27people sitting in the space for 6, train to get there-
Smile and Feel Smile and Feel Anicha Anicha!!!

While in this small village we stayed at the Ganpati Guest house. It was a clean budget option near the palaces. We then visited the Raj Mahal and Jehangir Mahal structures.These were homes to the Maharaja Man Singh and his decedents. They were the Bundela Rajas and ruled from the 16th century until 1783. These palaces were built along the banks of the Betwa River in Central India.

There are many organizations that require volunteers for international locations. One of the best places is Volunteer Match at http://volunteerabroadfree ...

... train station for 2 hours but the train was running late and no-one else seemed concerned, no announcements were made, everyone just lolled around sitting in family groups on the platform for hours! Finally making it back to Bhopal, I went to the computerised reservation centre to try and get a ticket for later in the week. Everything was written in Hindi, so I joined a queue, after filling in the form, and was pushed into the ladies queue (which was largely made up of ...

... associate professor of sociology - with excellent English. One was married recently - through an arranged marriage - the other was desperately trying to stay single (wants to follow in Mother Theresa's steps and give herself to helping other people). Struggling to sometimes understand their accents (and their Hinglish which they spoke to each other - many well-educated people speak a mix of the two languages at the same time, interchanging every few words - sounds hilarious), we talked ...