Time for some fancy dress fun...

So what’s a girl to do when it’s 47°c outside in the day and 32°c at night – organise a fancy dress party! Inspired by our recent trip to Varanasi there was only one possible theme – backpackers...

As with most things in life, it’s all in the preparation. As most people from home know me I take fancy dress very seriously. So the weekend before the party it was off to Paharganj, the backpacker’s district in Delhi, for some serious shopping. Pharganj is the kind of place that all backpackers end up as soon as they arrive in India as it’s got everything you need to give you the full taste of the Indian ‘experience’. Dirty streets, cheap shops selling tie dye outfits, hippy beads and the Om symbol printed on absolutely everything. Within minutes I had found a suitably inspirational orange tie dye dress to go with my pink baggy trousers and accessories worthy of any Gap year student.

We’d given our guests some party guidelines and there were extra points for baggy traveller’s pants, dreadlocks, bongos and excessive boasting about where they’d been and the impact they’d made volunteering at that ashram for a day. In true volunteer style everyone made huge efforts. To begin with, everyone had taken on a new name to match their backpacker persona. I had gone for Skylar to reinforce my trustafarian roots and we were lucky enough to have the presence of Moses, Amethyst, Rainbow and Quinn to name a few of our esteemed guests.

The venue was our roof terrace which occasionally gets a bit of breeze. The night was seriously hot and we provided suitable lounge seating in the form of a day bed pimped up with lots of ethnic cushions. We served beer, gin and tonics and watermelon to keep everyone cool. The star attraction of the night was another volunteer, who excelled in embracing his inner backpacker. Having turned up in ‘civilian’ clothing much to my distress, he informed me that he had bought with him his fire poi with him. For those who were not present on the Ibiza/Goan/Thai full moon backpacker party scene c.1994 fire poi are quite literally balls of petrol soaked fire on a chain that are swung around to form, well, pretty patterns. It takes quite a lot of guts to do it, bring your own petrol to the party and perform in the enclosed space that is our roof terrace.

The poi was lit and the spinning began. Everyone stepped back as the heat and petrol fumes hit them. Then suddenly our poi performer set himself on fire. Luckily we managed to stop the flames creeping up the back of his shirt before any serious damage was done and he carried on his performance to rapturous applause. It’s great to see some of the VSO skills of flexibility and adaptability in both work and play..!

Highlights: having some crazy fun in the crazy heat - it’s too hot to even think at the moment but it was great that everyone made such an effort for our party, treat time – discovering the perfect pedicure for only Rs180 (£2.40), stealth AC – having an excuse to hit the shopping mall and hiding out at the cinema to absorb some frosty magic, adapting – rose water lassis and ice cream have become part of my daily diet, when in Rome...!