India Adventure - Easter 2015

Six learners and two members of staff underwent a 15 day 'Adventure in India'. This is their diary of events.

We flew from Manchester to Delhi, arriving very early in the morning, India being 5 and 1/2 hours ahead of the UK. We spent the remainder of that day and the next looking round Old Dehli and the Red Fort. A 5 hour train journey took us to Haridwar and a local bus to Rishikesh (the largest Yoga centre in the world). Here we watched a Hindu ceremony on the banks of the River Ganges. The following day was exhilarating as we went white water rafting 26 Km down the River Ganges, taking the opportunity to swim in the river. Having organised a minibus to take us to Ramnagar to take part in three safari trips in the Corbett Tiger Safari Park, on one of these excursions we were lucky enough to encounter a wild herd of elephants at their watering hole. We missed seeing a tiger by seconds but did manage to take a photo of its footprint.

We travelled back to Delhi for the night, before hiring another private minibus to take us around the Golden Triangle. We headed for Jaipur, The Pink City. At the fort we rode elephants up to the main entrance, looked around the fort and learnt some of the history of India and the effects of the English influence in India over the years. We made a quick visit to the Water Palace and moved onto the City Palace. Leaving Jaipur we headed to Agra and a sunrise view of the Taj Mahal. Leaving Agra, we headed back to Dehli to complete our stay in the Old Tibetan Camp area.

The size of India is astounding as it took 6-8 hours to travel between cities. We ate in local restaurants and tasted a variety of different meals. We were all surprised by the Chinese influence on the menus (at least half).

The opportunity to walk round markets and shops touched all our senses – smells (unique to India, especially in Delhi sounds (vehicle horns), sights (colourful) and taste (quote – “It tastes like India”).

The students learnt how lucky they are to live in the UK, how to adapt when travel arrangements don’t go as planned, how to work as a team - so everyone gets full enjoyment from the experience; how to be flexible; how to plan ahead whilst in a foreign country and realising that things don’t work the same as at home and how to spend a budget wisely. Each individual has returned having learnt something about themselves and others in the group. This experience will always be special and form part of our individual futures.