An evening in the town center in Upasala on an unusually rainy day, not quiet what we were looking forward to. It literally dampens the spirits but for humble stories of perseverance and hope. The Amnesty volunteers were out in the rain doling out bus tickets and inviting people on board for Chai. Among the very few visitors was Cycle Rikshaw driver Carl Wachtmeister, an ex-military guy, Carl is now homeless and makes a living by taxiing people around in his 'Cykeltaxi'. Carl says he is a believer and an ardent supporter of the free Tibet campaign. He has heard about Bhopal but the bus was his first hand insight into the magnitude of the disaster.

Carl has a Facebook page with over 10,000 fans who are all his supporters helping him raise money. Inspired by the resilience of the Bhopal survivors Carl says "all I have to offer is my solidarity for the survivors, I am going to let my Facebook supporters know about Bhopal and urge them to take action."

At a community meeting following a successful action outside Dow's Grangemouth plant in Scotland, we were joined by some very interesting communitry activists including Mary Sharkey from Livingston. Ms. Sharkey was instrumental in opposing Union Carbide's plant in Livingston, Scotland in December 1984. She drove to Grangemouth to participate in the demonstration outside the Dow plant.

She recalls how she started a petition on the 5th of December, just 2 days after the disaster and managed to get huge support from the local community who had heard about the disaster in Bhopal. Sharkey was a local councilor in 1984 and she says "I started the campaign mainly because I felt so strongly about Bhopal, what happened there was just horrible and I did not want Carbide in my backyard." Sharkey however attributes the success of the campaign to the fear that Bhopal had created among the residents of Livingston. As for her, she's still got the "fire in her belly" and is all game to take on Dow in Grangemouth. Mary will organize a peaceful demonstration outside the plot where Carbide's proposed factory would have come up in 1984. "This is in memory of the Bhopal victims and to of course to commemorate the first ever defeat of Union Carbide after the disaster", she says.

Very early in the morning, in complete darkness, we assembled near Dow Chemical's Norrköping plant for a demonstration and die-in. Sleeping bags were rolled out and covered with white sheets, banners with 'Clean up now, Dow' hung on the fence to the plant and around 10 Amnesty volunteers were out to action.

This of course attracted media attention and Dharmesh was interviewed by news teams from two national Swedish channels who also visited and filmed inside the bus. There weren't that many workers coming by so when the police appeared the activists turned to them and informed them about the disaster and the struggle for justice. As they left they wished us the best of luck in our fight!

It was cold, grey and raining when the bus rolled onto the square outside Kulturhuset but the spirit of the bus soon livened up the place! Supporters from Amnesty International were there in full force and the bus was soon packed with people. When on board, it was quite amazing to see people who were really in a rush stop, contemplate the photo exhibition, sit down and watch films and talk to Dharmesh.

A tray of cups with the word 'compensation?' and filled with piping hot and delicious chai tea (made for the first time by Liz!) was circling around warming the freezing cold Stockholmers who were at times queing outside to get onto the bus.

On the 16th it ,they bus made its way out to the Stockholm International Fair, where the largest event about Human Rights in the Nordic countries, the Human Rights Days, was in full swing.

In a packed conference hall Sathuy and Safreen told the story of disaster, betrayal and injustice in Bhopal and then went on to discuss issues of corporate accountability in general and Bhopal in particular together with Amnesty International's Lise Bergh and Jonas Ebbesson, Professor of Environmental Law at Stockholm University.

Through windy, narrow roads, hard rain and complete darkness Liz Becky managed to commander the bus to the first Swedish destination - a stately home on an island in the Swedish archipelago where AI youth groups were meeting to plan their activities to campaign for justice and dignity in Bhopal.

When Sathyu and Safreen spoke to the teenagers, many who really heard about the disaster for the first time they sat in complete silence and awe, very moved and at the same time filled with rage at the levels of injustice from the accountable actors.

When the bus had rolled on to its next destination, the youths started planning their events for the coming weeks. With Sathyu and Safreens testimonies to fuel their thinking words like 'die-in', masks, brooms, wind machines blowing flour, B'eau pal circled around in the air.

Soon after we had crossed from the wilderness of North Eastern Germany into the wilderness of Denmark, I heard a low level shriek and the bus slowed down to make for the hard shoulder. 'The wipers have stopped.' said Becky.

I slipped out of my bunk and put my all weather boots back on, a jumper, scarf, cagoule, high visibility jacket and head torch, and made for the door.

I could hear the motor trying to shift them, so hoped that this would be easy - it hadn't stopped raining since we left The Hague 12 hours earlier and we would be stranded on this bleak, uninhabited road until we either fixed them or until it stopped raining. With relief I see that Becky is on the phone to the World's best 24- hour International breakdown advisory service - yes, you guessed it, Hodge.

'We have to remove the front panel on the outside,' says Becky, 'the one that caused the Police to pull us over.' (Some stories will never be forgotten back at the yard). In a perfect example of how we compliment each other, Becky knew how to remove the panel, and I soon found the stray part and reattached it. Hodge told us how to secure it, and so we triumphantly replaced the panel and came back in from the rain.

I settled back into my warm bed and had just started dozing like a contented Cheshire cat, when the bus went back into a crawl and headed for the hard shoulder once more. Reach for the jumper, scarf, cagoule and all weather boots, high-vis jacket and head torch, to brave the rain. Rather less jubilant, we silently repeat the same operation, each knowing our role.

Why did it fall off again? I needed to see behind the arm, so this called for a mirror. We chuckled as we diagnosed the problem with my Christian Dior compact case - can you imagine the retorts and cackles any observing man may have made? (Sathyu was asleep in case you wonder!) 'It's a call for the gaffer tape.' I said. 'Conqueror of all evils.' One could be excused for thinking our bus is held together with it, having been the solution to so many problems.

And then the loud yelp, this time from me. The back of my head was whiplashed with a wall of water from a passing car. I saw the remnants splash across Becky's face, and we clung to the front grill of the bus laughing in disbelief. The glamour moment had gone; we were now in need of a shower and still 600km away from our destination.

And so the show goes on - another problem overcome, another lesson in bus maintenance under our belt. Imagine our amusement when this morning we stopped to change the gas bottle and a Swedish guy came over and asked if we had a 'bloke on board'. 'Why?' I quizzed. 'Because I need some starter cables.' he claimed.

'This is our bus,' protested Becky 'and we do the maintenance around here'.

Smiling uniformed faces (!!!) greeted us at the unassuming entrance of the dutch parliament. We had to go through metal detectors but were not frisked and were stopped just long enough to have 'bezoeker' (visitor) stickers on our jackets. An mep from the socialist party, one from the labour party and a dutch mp from the labour party were there to greet us and indicate that the meeting should begin immediately because another one (on much related matters) was scheduled right after. Safreen spoke briefly and well. Sathyu pointed out the complete absence of 'humanitarian response' to the worst disaster in world history in Bhopal by the united nations in the last 25 years. He talked about the meeting that rashida bee, champa devi and sathyu had (maude has photos) with under secretary general jose antonio ocampo at the un office and nyc and pointed out that not only were the promises of following up on different issues (with the unep on contamination, with unesco regarding poisoned children etc) not kept, mr ocampo's office chose not to respond to reminders from Bhopal. The meps agreed that that the un would have behaved very differently had it been an act of god that destroyed the city. Given their keenness to know what they could do to help there are good reasons to hope that they would write to dow execs asking them to be legally accountable, to the Indian government to set up the empowered commission and make efforts so that the europian parliament assists in the assessment of contamination of soil and groundwater around the abandoned factory in Bhopal.

The other meeting which we chose to observe was among the meps with one mr pachaud (assistant to un special representative on business and human rights) and five ngo representatives from cordaid, miza (action aid), and the csr platform. responding to concerns raised by the meps (the ngo representatives were surprisingly quiet all through) on the conduct of shell in ken saro wiwa land mr pachaud said 'shell is one of the good companies'. With regard to government's role on protecting people from corporate abuse of human rights he chose to praise the Chinese government. It appeared that mr pachaud is half not as good as his boss john ruggie in hiding his allegiances to criminal corporations that found legal structures restrictive to the business of business.

It was a rainy and cold morning in Rome. Our Bus was parked outside the Indian embassy and we could see people inside the embassy peeping outside to get a look at our Bus. There were alteast 30 Amnesty International & Greenpeace volunteers and a lot of media interviewing the Bhopal crew. Amnesty International had tried hard to get an appointment with the Indian Ambassador to Italy. At first the Indian embassy did not even respond to the Amnesty International's letter because it was in Italian. Once the Amnesty International staff called the embassy staff for an appointment, the person handling calls at the embassy curtly said that the Indian ambassador had a hospital appointment and hung up the phone. It is not uncommon to see representatives of the Indian government being insensitive towards Bhopal survivors.

Within minutes, the traffic had stopped and there were atleast 10 people staging a die-in action outside the embassy to remind the Indian government that people are still continuing to die because of their apathy and indifference. Italian police did not let the protest continue for more than 3 minutes but those 3 minutes were enough of a reminder to Indian government. After the action, Sathyu, Safreen and Amnesty International staff handed in 10,000 petitions signed by people in Italy addressed to the Prime Minister of India, urging him to meet the demands of Bhopalis.

For the rest of the afternoon the Bus was parked at the Piazza Republica where there was a lot of interest from local people. The Bus was full during our 6 hour stop. In the evening there was another big event waiting for us at the gallery of Love & Dissent. This is a great exhibition organized by Alessandro Marongiu, an Italian photographer who has been to Bhopal several times to document the ongoing disaster. Lots of people came to the photo exhibition and both Sathyu and Sanjay talked about the situation in Bhopal, moving several people in the crowd to tears.

Another early morning for Sathyu who needed to leave before dawn for a radio interview in Rome. 3 of us from Bhopal and 4 of us from Italy drove in an Amnesty International car heading towards Rome, while Liz and Becky drove the Bus to Rome. We reached Rome in the afternoon and were greeted by Amnesty International staff at their office. In the evening there was a huge event at Rome University with 7 panelists. Sathyu represented the Bhopal campaign on the panel and talked about need for exemplary punishment for corporate criminals and on precautionary principles.

We all woke up early to visit a middle school in Milan. We were greeted by 120 students who were between the ages of 13 and 15. A typical school where students were highly active and talkative and their teachers were trying hard to keep them quiet. We were all introduced by the teacher who leads the human rights program in their school in conjunction with Amnesty International Italy. Sathyu spoke about the current situation in Bhopal and how people are still continuing to fight for justice and for a life with dignity. Rachna spoke about how children have been impacted due to the disaster and how children of the world have come together to help children in Bhopal. Safreen spoke about her experience as a second-generation survivor and an activist and role of the children's organization. Sanjay introduced himself with all the three Italian words he was familiar with (Si, Ciao, Gratzi). There was a big laughter in the room. He spoke about his personal experience. We could hear sighs around the room when we showed the slideshow on the aftermath of the disaster and of children who are being born of birth defects. The students listened to us with their full attention for more than an hour and that could not be said for most of us. After listening to us they came in batches and visited the Bus. In the Bus there was Alberto who showed them more pictures and explained them more about the disaster. It was great 3 hours. After the school event, the Bus left for Florence and we went to the next event, which was a photo exhibition at a local cafe.

Early morning we assembled near Dow Chemical's local administrative office for an unannounced educational action. Aio our friend from Zurich, who had never taken part in any 'action', was among the keenest participants. The wall built around the office helped us provide with a cover for over 15 volunteers to get into hazmat suits without attracting the attention of people passing by and possibly alerting the Dow officials before the fun began. We gathered our buckets and mops and large banners, and in no time we were in front of the Dow office building.

The volunteers in their bid to shame Dow into cleaning up their toxic waste in Bhopal started off with the mops and their water buckets in right earnest attracting much attention from the few pedestrians (and many cars) passing by. The big banners that we were holding up at a distance from the mopping up operation were extremely effective and with the additional advantage of encouraging cars getting in to the Dow building to slow down so that Amnesty International members could tell them what we were all about.

It was cold and raining on our 1st day in Italy when we arrived Parma but, the warmth of locals was palpable. Friends from Amnesty International were there in full force. Incense, who had translated Indra Sinha's book, 'Animal's People' in to Italian was there, accompanied by Indra and his wife Vicky were able to make it all the way from their village in south of France. The Amnesty International team successfully negotiated with the police for a space where the Bus could be parked in the central piazza. It was quite amazing that despite the rain a good number of people got in to the Bus and saw the photo exhibition. We also met two musicians (not counting Vincenzo who plays in a jazz band) one of whom is composing music especially for the 25th Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Disaster.

What a whirlwind journey this is! From the start I have been talking about 'take off' and 'landing', and referring to 'the boat' many a time! In my days as an air hostess we had to make sure that everything was stowed before take off, and it's not so different aboard the bus. We regularly hear a crash wallop on a bumpy street or sharp bend. 'Taking off' and 'landing' almost seems like the work of a pilot - we have a checklist of things to switch on and off, a list of procedures to follow, and notes to take: mileage at the outset; mileage when we fill up (did we tell you the fuel gauge is a wooden broom handle?!!)

And if that's not glamorous enough, we have also been compared to rock stars!!! We often confuse what happened where, or where we were just 4 days ago.

But down to business: the media interest is gathering pace and we really feel that momentum is gathering - more people are reading and talking about the plight of the Bhopalis. The anniversary is not far off and events are being planed all around the world.

So its 'chocks on' for a few days - we are in The Hague for 4 nights so our feet have really touched the ground. Sathyu and Safreen are meeting with Members of the European Parliament in Brussels today, and I am meeting Martine, our third driver for the next long leg to Stockholm.

Wait, what about Italy I hear? What a fabulous week we had. I think that deserves a separate entry...

Marie Piper, who looked after the drivers, Becky and Liz; Alena, Amnesty intern who joined us to Munich; Verena from Amnesty, and Bianca and Michael, who hosted the Bhopalis.

A great mechanic who helped us fix the door, welded the lock on the door, and removed the broken valve from the tyre...
And of course the invaluable Marie Piper, our host who devoted every minute of our stay in Berlin to helping us out. Thank you both so much.