Hannah is currently on VentureCo’s Himalaya Venture in India and Nepal. The 12 week Venture includes a development project in a village in Rajasthan, as well as an expedition, involving camel treks, tiger safaris, deserted beaches, mountain biking, rafting and the Everest Base Camp trek.

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Diary of a Himalayan adventure: Update One Hannah May writes... "Himalaya 22 have finally got to India! We arrived at Delhi airport at 7am and after settling into the hotel we found the energy to go on an adventure in an auto rickshaw to the tourist office to get a map. Not that exciting I hear you say... you clearly have not been driving in India. It was an experience. The only two rules of the road here seem to be; use your horn whenever possible and only give way (grudgingly) to cars that are bigger than you. Our rickshaw driver first tried to convince us that all six of us would fit in one very tiny three wheeled tin can... we would not. We then sat in two rickshaws through the crowded and very interesting streets of the city. You see just about everything here; bikes, cars, whole families on a moped and cows wandering around in the middle of a busy roundabout! All this and several near death experiences for the bargain price of 60p. Anyway, that was quite enough excitement for one day, so we got the metro back to the hotel. On our first full day in Delhi we went to see a few famous landmarks - India Gate, Gandhi's tomb, the Mosque in Old Delhi and then onto biggest Hindu temple in the new part of the city. Some of us then grabbed some cycle rickshaws and were taken on a tour of the backstreets and market's of Old Delhi. After the hustle and bustle of the city it was lovely to escape on the first train out to Rishikesh on Monday morning. Rishikesh is a sacred city for Hindus which sits alongside the Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is tiny, but very busy and yet again full of cows! The first day we went white water rafting and jumped off a big rock. Not strictly in the spirit of the place but fun anyway! However, our dip in the river did have a strange effect on Himalaya 22 and we have all gone a bit hippy. We arose serenely at 6.30am everyday to do an hour and a half of yoga and developed a liking for floaty and interesting clothes! We also got some sitar and tabla (Indian drum) lessons from two very talented brothers as well as seeing the most amazing Hindu ceremony by the side of the Ganges. However, the peace and calm was shattered on Wednesday when we started 'The Day of Death'. To cut a long story short, we did a seven hour hike up a bloody big hill to an ashram. It hurt, we moaned, but the sense of achievement was considerable, especially when Martin told us (with the help of his space age watch) that we had in fact climbed the equivalent of Ben Nevis! We felt it was only fair that after this we were able to indulge ourselves a little by going up to a local restaurant to have cooking lessons and a very big slice of banoffee pie, apple pie and chocolate cake. This momentous day has since been christened 'Pudding Day'. On Tuesday we went to Huyunaman's tomb which is pretty amazing. It was built for one of the old Mughal emperors and I think it is just about the quietest place in the city. However, the highlight of my day (and quite possibly the whole trip) was our trip to the Regal cinema. We went to see Aksar, the Bollywood epic containing 'seduction, suspense, scandal". Nicole and I can now quite safely say it is our favourite film. We didn’t get the finer nuances of the script but rather handily the important lines like "You dirty rotten scoundrel" were said in English. The plot was the most outrageous thing ever committed to celluloid and ended with a covered up murder with a ceremonial sword which was uncovered with the clever use of a secret camera, a bouncy ball and a glass of wine. All this in Hindi with several song and dance numbers. Brilliant! Yesterday, we ventured off to Agra at 4am to see the Taj Mahal. Again, absolutely amazing. Not really how I expected it but brilliant none the less. We sat on the lawn and watched the sun set on it before nearly missing our train due to an impromptu parade by the locals complete with marching brass band. We are now in Diu, a little beach resort in Gujarat relaxing with a few Kingfishers and a BBQ. Life couldn't get much better and we are all making the most of it! Soon we are off to our development project where we will be helping to renovate a village school, so we need all the relaxation we can get! We'll write again to update you as soon as we can!" Click here >> for arriving in India Click here >> for taking part in Hoil and renovating classrooms Click here >> for camel trekking Click here >> for trekking in the mountains Click here >> for elephant riding in Chitwan National Park Click here >> for Everest Base Camp Click here >> for bungy jumping, white-water rafting and home Name: VentureCo Address: The Ironyard, 64-66 The Market Place, Warwick Click here >> for details of this placement Click here >> to see all of VentureCo's placements Click here >> to email VentureCo Tel: 0845 344 7523