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Published: March 26th 2007
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Varanasi 1
An actual cremation on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. Zoom in for detail if you really want to! India - Delhi, Varanasi, Bodhgaya, Darjeeling Left Delhi for Varanasi, train was delayed by 7 hours - something we have
become acustomed to! Varanasi was cool, nice hotel, did a boat trip along
the Ganges - saw the famous ghats including the 2 cremation ghats and we
actually saw a body being burned right in front of us - pretty morbid! Saw
some other sights along the way - people bathing and even drinking ganges
water and knowing the Ganges is filled with all kinds of sewage and loads of
dead bodies, its pretty interesting to see!!
From Varanasi we headed to Bodhgaya via Gaya and including another 2 very
delayed train journeys. Sleeper trains by the way are very comfy and are
just about big enough for me sleep in which surprised me, given the average
height of the Indians must be no larger than 5ft 7". Bodhgaya is the
Buddhist centre as it contains the Bodhi tree, where Buddha became the
Buddha, very nice place and filled with loads of different Buddhist temples
and even more Monks. Jade and I went hardcore on the street food here, which
was awesome - lunch and dinner for both of us at about 10p and the
Varanasi 2
A Pooja ritual on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi food was
good!
From Bodhgaya we headed to NJP (New Jalpaguiri) (The nearest main train
station to Darjeeling) via Patna - the shittest place in India! Filled with
seedy men (Jades thoughts), criminals and the thickest people in the country
(An Indians thoughts on the place!) where we were made to waste 12 hours
between connecting trains and a further 4 due to obvious train delays.
Arrived in NJP a lot later than we had hoped and instead of heading straight
to Darjeeling, had to stay over night in a crappy hotel where we watched the
Indians get stuffed in the cricket.
We got free breakfast and a free ride up to Darjeeling from our i-to-i
co-ordinator who is really nice and the drive up to Darjeeling through the
Himalayan foothills was pretty awesome albeit not clear enough to see any
mountains. Arrived in a very peaceful, clean and all-together not typically
Indian Darjeeling and met our hosts, the Wangi's who are absolute legends!!!
They run a hostel for local college girls but have a seperate building,
across the street, for males (so I didn't actually get to stay in a hostel
filled with women : ( !!
Bodhgaya 1
The Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya BUT I do have the whole boys hostel to myself and
the place is amazing!!! - its more like a chalet in the alps, wood panelling
walls and floors etc. Its 3 bedrooms, a lounge with TV and en-suite shower,
toilet, so I was pretty chuffed when I got there!!! Neema, our hostess, is
the best cook I have ever known (sorry mom!) she is an absolute legend, we
get 3 cooked meals a day and they are all always amazing! Usually Chinese,
Nepali or Thai food with the odd western breakfast.
Major Wangdi, the host, is just the biggest joker ever and calls himself Tom
Cruise although he only thing he has in common is the height! But he's
always joining us after Dinner and making us laugh with his stories and
comments - apparently if I can't get a job in Oz, he's gonna call up the Oz
president and threaten him with Al Queda as he believes because he's Indian,
people think he might well know Osama! Anyways, absolutely cacked myself
about going into a school and doing some sort of teaching with no experience
but my school is amazing!!! - Its a shell of a
Bodhgaya 2
The Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya building with three half
wooden walls which divide up the classes and basement kicthen. All of the
kids that come are underprivelidged in that school is their leisure time as
any oher time they are usually involved in some kind of child labour and
often only come to the school just to get the free meal thats available to
them. The teachers are all really nice and the kids are so sweet, all overly
well disciplined, I'm called Ryan Sir or even Dada to the nursery kids and
they ask before they do anything including leaving/entering the room and
even sharpening pencils. As they have computer been bought for them but
no-one who knows how to use it, I've become the IT teacher which is awesome
as I get to teach fun stuff! Really enjoying the teaching and I think I'm
doing a half decent job, as I tested the kids at the end of last week and it
turns out they have actually learned something from me - felt good!
On the social side, I've met all the other volunteers (5 of them) and
they're all girls : ) !!!!!! We've been to the cinema and seen a
Bodhgaya 3
Jade and I becoming 'enlightened' beneath the Bodhi tree bollywood -
all in Hindi of course but still very interesting and quite easy to
understand due to extreme dramatics! This weekend just gone we visited the
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and I know have a huge desire to
climb Everest!!!! We also did a 20km course of White water rafting through
the Himalayas - it was unbelievable!!!!!! Great fun and when there were the
calm moments the scenery was spectacular! We travelled back from the rafting
on top of a land rover which was awesome and all the locals loved it as we
cruised through villages!
Got absolutely trashed last night but due to everything being so much
earlier here (Pubs close at 10ish and everyone is asleep by 11, I managed to
get a farely good nights sleep and go to school today with not a too bad a
hangover!
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