#26 India - week 4

---

Hello hello and Happy Diwali!
Its hard to say what all has happened these last 10 days. For starters there was Halloween where I was a three holed sheet of paper and Laura was a hippy. We started at the Hard Rock Cafe in Delhi, which by the way offers beef burgers made of waterbuffalo, then proceded with our South Delhi friends to a fairly posh rooftop club near Saket somewhere. We also played some flash at a friends house in preparation for Diwali. Flash is a card game with 3 cards similar to poker. Basically a triplett of cards is the best hand (A-A-A, then K-K-K, then Q-Q-Q being the best). Next up is a sequence of the same suit, then a sequence of any suit, then 3 cards in any order of the same suite, then a pair of something, then the highest single card. It is a fun game.

It is hard to say what exactly Diwali is.. There are dozens of interpretations for it and Wikipedia gives about 10 different things that were rumoured to have happened on this special day. It is sometimes called the festival of lights, so it is similar to Hannukah in this way. Also gifts are exchanged so it is similar to Christmas or Hannukah in this way. Also for a week there are various family things to do so its sort of like that Dec24th-Jan2nd period in the states. It is like Independence day in that there are crackers going off continuously.. some so loud they remind one of dynamite! On the floor there is a rice or flower drawing thing welcoming Lakshmi the goddess of prosperity into the home. Also candles are placed everywhere so she wont be lost.

In personal news, we "shifted" aka moved from our flat we rented a room in for the month of October to a hotel in Pahar Ganj section. Our South Delhi friends got us Indian clothes so we will wear them to tonights festivities, as of yet to be determined, naturally.

NEXT UP: We head to Nepal via train and bus on Tuesday. Also joining us is a Delhi friend called Deepak. We will do the 75 mile Everest Base Camp trek. More on this to follow.

---