India Reviews
Mrs Sally Lort-Phillips, March 2012
The three areas visited were enhanced by being superbly guided, ensuring we experienced the colour, skills, people and culture on action packed days as well as being nurtured at every turn.
Anita Johnstone, March 2012
This is I think my 5th trip with Steppes and I keep coming back. Service and advice is impeccable, you listen and plan accordingly and it feels very personal.
Laura Watts, February 2012
My first trip to India has opened up a can of opportunities. I now want to go back to the south and explore Kerala and to the north to see the Punjab. I had forgotten why travelling to foreign countries is important for ones world view. I learnt so much about India and the partition and the Mughal history in just 12 days.
Clodagh and Charles Law, July 2011
The holiday in Ladakh was one of our best ever. We fell completely in love with the area and the people. We thought the Shakti organisation was quite superb and just loved the houses. We were looked after beautifully by the staff and very spoilt throughout. We had the most wonderful guide - Pujan - who really made the trip for us. It was just one wonderful experience after another. The highlight of the trip was Likir - the wild roses were a sight to behold. We visited a wonderful local school where I ended up giving an English lesson to the top class. They loved it and we are now in the process of getting some books sent out to them (having liaised with the headmaster) via our guide Pujan.
Thank you for organising it all so well - no hitches and no complaints.
Comments from members of Maxine Reltons Sketchbook Trips
Kate May, February 2012
''This for me marked the difference between travelling and tasting the real spirit of the country. It was packed full of new experiences, emotional challenges and visual riches. It is impossible to choose a highlight - there were so many.''
Pamela Corney, February 2012
''I can't recommend Maxine's trip highly enough. She was skilled as an artist, teacher, leader and communicator.''
Jane Clark, November 2010
"My husband and I joined this amazing trip. From the moment we arrived it was a picture in the painting. Gentle people, colour, hope and future. Maxine was a fantastic guide and art teacher. Her humour and knowledge made the trip for us.
This is a journey that will make you think, make you look and will help you understand the country that is India. The ancient temples, elephants, festivals running alongside the modern world of education, which is the passport to a life outside poverty, are fascinating. SCAD helps generations of families and communities, from gypsies to people who have suffered the devastation of leprosy. They have built villages and provided education. This is a trip of a lifetime."
Patricia Rowan, November 2009
"India is a welcoming, vivid country, with all the colourful tapestry of its past still laid out as an unlikely springboard for a very different future. Visiting Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and especially SCAD, was an unforgettable experience, made all the more striking by seeing it through the artist's eye."
Jennifer Beales, November 2009
"I had been to India before; once to work for a hospital and write a book on eye care for village health workers, and then to visit old friends and to spend time on the beach. Maxine's trip was a reminder of how vibrant and wonderful India is; the people especially are full of life and fun even in the most difficult of situations. They seem to embody the feeling of hope when there is small reason to hope and in doing so convey to us in the West that some of our values are not the most important ones.
With Maxine, we visited some of the poorer villages and communities (very like the people I had been working with before) through our Tamil hosts, SCAD (Social Change and Development). They offered hospitality and also the chance to draw and paint their lives. Documenting this kind of difference from what we are used to is a very important way of spreading information and goodwill from one country and culture to another. SCAD was an amazingly inspiring place and brought back memories of my time with Dr. Venkataswamy and the Aravind Eye Hospital.
I have to add that we all had a wonderful time and were looked after in just the way one could wish for. The trip was varied and full of new experiences from village life to relaxing
on a rice boat down the waterways of Kerala."
Geraldine Lander, November 2009
"Going on the trip with Maxine will take you into several different realities every day. We went off the beaten track and saw the soul of the people - so many differences in ethnicity and caste, unforgettable scenery and spontaneous miracles as when a herd of goats came into the Vishnu temple in Cheranmahdevi to shelter from the rain and provided a tableau for the artists to sketch.
South India holds so much more than is in the Guide books and Maxine's research has found so much that is hidden. The stay in SCAD - the centre for Social Change and Development - brings the benefit of finance to this charity which has done so much for the excluded poor - the gypsies and the disabled children who have a school and a home here. This centre was founded 27 years ago by a ex -Catholic priest (who is also a Dalit) who felt moved to devote his life to this work. Founded in a scrub land, it has attracted funding from several sources and it now also contains colleges of technical education for both men and women.
Your stay here will show you what the human spirit can achieve. Lovely hospitality! Great food and a peaceful resting place between the visits to the surrounding temples where you will feel you have gone back 1,000 years on occasion! An unmissable and humbling experience as the people everywhere are all so welcoming and friendly."
Reviews from the Hooghly River Cruise Charter
James and Hilary Arnold-Baker, February 2012
Dear Alex,
Thank you very much for organising such a splendid trip on Sukapha. The diversion to the Hugli made no difference at all to our enjoyment of the trip, which was completely absorbing on every day of the voyage.
The boat was most comfortable, and the crew are just darlings – they really do think of everything, and are utterly charming.
On return we got your kind welcome back note – and voucher for a further Steppes adventure. I hope we will be able to use it soon. In fact I have an idea about the Brahmaputra, and I’ll give you a call in the next month or so to discuss.
Kind regards,
James