AGS India Immersion Programme 2017/18

Today, we went home. Well, sort of. For two hours and 12 minutes (trust me, we savoured every moment), we were lucky enough to be hosted by the outstanding people of the New Zealand High Commission. At just over halfway in the trip, it seemed an appropriate moment to transport ourselves back into the land of the long white cloud (the irony of this name is not lost on this writer, given the smog currently hovering over Delhi). Following this was a fantastic afternoon as well, with some equally impressive people. However, before I get into the finer details, I must report that we are sickness-free no more. George Skinner has been hit with a spot of Delhi belly, but less than 24 hours in is already massively on the up. Digression aside, here is how our day of contrast played out: Wednesday 20 December 7:30am - after a late night last night, not much of a sleep in was allowed as we had a coach to meet at 9am sharp. The group headed up the road to Cafe Festa again ...

On our last day in Varanasi, our enthusiastic tour guide from the hotel, Mr Tripathi, took us to see 'the best silk factory in all of India' (which funnily enough was just down the road), where he assured us we would not only find the best qualities but also very very good price. Despite coming from humble beginnings, arriving in the city many years back with only 30, or 10, no 5 rupee to his name, Mr Tripathi is now, as he put it himself, known by 20,000, no, 30,000 people. AND he does not know them. And for those wondering, this was all down to his personal happiness, good ambition, strength and good karma. Despite being warned a few times not to trust Mr Tripathi on the way by some locals (we found out he apparently takes about 40-60% commission when he brings tourists into shops), we were there shortly. After a brief demonstration on how the silk was woven, we were then quickly escorted to the shop upstairs, where way more staff than where necessary began to unravel pil...