Despite its fiery reputation, most of the food I have eaten so far in India has not been particularly spicy. My first experience of real Indian cuisine was of the Rajasthani food cooked by Mukta and Bunti at Durag Niwas guest house in Jodhpur. What a treat! Meals were generally made up of some sort of gently spiced vegetable curry along with rice and chapatti. One of my favourite meals was made with curried milk curd along with some sort of bean/berry type thi...

Nepal is a much poorer country than India and this is reflected in the state of the roads. My first experience of Nepali roads was returning to Kathmandu by bus after 3 weeks in the Everest region. The first leg, between Shivalaya and Jiri, is rough, to say the least. A similar road in New Zealand would certainly be considered suitable for 4WD vehicles only. We felt like a human milk shake as the bus lurched along the rough track. I couldn't help thinking of all ...

Struggling to the top of Kongma La I could barely manage 20 granny steps without needing to sit down for a rest. At a height of 5500m above sea level the air pressure (and therefore the available oxygen) here is greatly reduced. Even packing up camp earlier that morning had been an effort. Little tasks such as rolling up the tent seemed monumental. Sleep that night had been fitful with barely enough oxygen. Kieran had been breathing sporadically - apparently...

After the chaos of Jodphur it was nice to spend a few days in sleepy Sitrawa. After a three hour bus ride to Bawkan, I was taken the final 3km by a jeep that dropped me off at the Sambhali school itself. What a cute wee school! The rooms are brightly painted and open onto a central courtyard. The lower level is for the peacock class, which is the more advanced kids, although Florian (the volunteer in Sitrawa) explained that there had also been a family living i...

Sambhali Trust was started 5 years ago with the intention of helping women and girls from poor families or lower castes learn to read and write. Often in Indian families, if there is not enough money to send all the children to school, then only the boys will be sent, while the girls will stay at home to help their mother with the housework. At Sambhali, as well as learning to read and write in Hindi, the girls learn basic English and Maths. In the afternoons th...