Home > GapBlogs > Laura Owler
Hi! I'm Laura. I'm currently on a gap year between A Levels and uni. I will be studying at Nottingham University and am hoping that my gap year will give me lots of valuable experience for my career, as well as teaching me about independence and a completely different culture. My main interests are sports (I am part of the local triathlon club) and art.I have spent the first part of my gap year working to earn the money to go. I have been working as a special needs carer and as a nursery nurse. I will be travelling to India. I will spend about 3 months as a medical volunteer in a community hospital in Delhi. I March I will have 2 weeks travelling around Rajastan on the Holi Journey, which takes place around the Holi Festival of Colour. Then I will going to Nepal where I will be doing the trek to Everest Base Camp. After Nepal I will be spending a week in Kerala. Finally, I will be heading to Palampur to spend 2 months volunteering in the hospital there.
Posted By Laura Owler on 22 Jan 2014
Straight after the shopping it was a quick auto journey to the literature festival. This was amazing! It was very Indian but also very multicultural. In one afternoon we saw so much but I also wish we'd known about it sooner so we could have planned to stay longer. Although, with Catherine only (haha) spending 6 weeks here, she (and all of us) want to make the most of volunteering.We passed a little stall on the way to get lunch.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 21 Jan 2014
Shopping in Jaipur was extremely fun but also extremely stressful. We were taken on a factory tour where we were showed the dying and printing processes. Then we were taken to the store room. There were piles of amazing fabrics everywhere. But we were not stupid. We knew it was designed this way to be money grabbing.There were the most beautiful wall hangings/rugs which were so Indian; they were so colourful and had embroidered elephants on.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 20 Jan 2014
Had the most incredible morning in Jaipur. Jaipur is the most cultural and colourful place I have ever visited. It really lived up to my expectations of India as a whole.We had the hotel auto driver to take us everywhere all day. Another valuable lesson was learnt later - he demanded a huge amount even though he had already got commission from the shopping and from the hotel.First we went to the pink city (old city). It was really beautiful, especially ajmeri gate.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 19 Jan 2014
If you ever come to India I would definitely recommend taking a train, despite the difficultly getting a ticket (see my survival guide blog).Both train journeys were pretty intense. For the first train journey I was completely alone due to the fun of getting tickets. But then 2 European ladies sat with me, along with an Indian lady. Then for the The miles of slums were completely shocking and depressing. But, as many people have said, at least they are (mostly) in communities.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 19 Jan 2014
So booking the hotel in Jaipur was another eventful experience. After being approached by some Russian Hari Krishnas in M Block Market. It goes without saying that they were getting some very strange looks from everyone - locals and tourists.So I got to the hotel, checked in and went up to our room. When I got there the others told me they had got some very provocative looks from the younger guys working in the hotel. They had also made flirtatious comments over the phone.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 16 Jan 2014
The hospital is amazing! As a volunteer I am doing a mixture of helping out and shadowing. I was going to blog about it when i had seen all the departments. There are loads though and I have seen and done lots already!One of my favourite things to do is take the bus/ambulance into the slums. This takes a doctor, pharmacist and administrator out to give medical care to the poorest people. They pay 10 rupees (10p) for everything and those that can't even afford that get help for free.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 15 Jan 2014
1. Do not listen to the guys that say the tourist office has moved!As you can probably guess we learnt this the hard way. A "helpful" guy came up to us said the tourist office had moved and sent us off in an auto. We drove around in circles and then started heading out of town. We all had doubts from the beginning but it definitely didn't feel right when we started heading away from everywhere and was only charging us 30 rupees (30p)! So when we were stopped at traffic lights we threw the money at him and started walking back towards buildings!2.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 13 Jan 2014
So I have been in Delhi for 2 weeks now and it has gone unbelievably quickly! Delhi is the busiest city I have ever been to and just walking or driving around you see a lot of very different and interesting things. For example: monkeys in the middle of the road stealing bananas from a food stall, a man sleeping on top of a moving truck and people and animals living on huge piles of rubbish.I have visited the Muslim area to hear the sunset singing at Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Daragh and had chai tea with a Muslim family.
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Posted By Laura Owler on 23 Dec 2013
I'm leaving for India in 5 days!! Have been planning it and looking forward to it for the entire last year whilst struggling through my A Levels.
Have said most of my goodbyes and have got most of my preparation done. I packed yesterday which was one of the most stressfull parts. The third rucksack I tried managed to just about fit everything in!!
At the moment I am feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement but I know it will
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