plans changed, still in the holy city

---

Nameste,

Stumbled across an internet cafe (I use the term loosely it is a little cupboard off the street with 3 incredibly dusty computers) and thought while I was sending emails home I might as well post another blog.

After purchasing a train ticket to Calcutta I found out there is a Mother Teresa Mission right here is Varanasi so have decided to stay on here instead. Went back to the railway station and after a 3 hour wait (India teaches you patience) cancelled my ticket. Worth it as I had a hilarous conversatio with a couple of aging German hippies. I have found a little guest house just behind the ghats, literally a 30 second walk to the Ganges, and a extremley plesant 2 minute walk along the ghats to the Mother Teresa Mission. All is good. I did my first volunteering day today. Starts at around 7am, but all the work is done by midday at the latest. Today consisted of laundry duties and then kitchen duties. Washing clothes in India is very labour intensive exercise indeed. As I write this I can feel the mornings labour in my shoulders and arms. Doing laundry consists of lots of slapping of wet soapy clothes on large stone slabs, then rinsing in large tin pots. I went upstairs to hang it out on large lines strung up on the top of the building. The view was a million dollars, looking straight across the Ganges and the ghats. Then it was time to go to the kitchen. I sat on the stone floor with a group of Indian women, led by the tiny but formidable Alva, who showed me how to roll the dough into golf ball sized balls ready to be rolled out into Chapati's. After an hour of that it was peeling vegetables. I am still unsure exactly what these vegetables were, but I am sure to see them again tomorrow. It was a very interesting and satisfying morning. I encourage any one reading this blog who is planning a trip to India, to spend at least a couple of mornings giving a little bit of time to the Mission house.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the narrow, cobbled streets of old Varanasi. It is impossible to get lost, all you have to do is head for a ghat to orientate yourself again. I bought some fishing pants ($3), some beads (30 cents), and a few pressies for some of you lucky people. I then ate some gorgous chickpea patties from a little street stall, they were 5 rupees for 2 which is about 15 cents. Everything is so cheap compared to Australia, it is like being in financial Disneyland.

I then spent a leisurly hour stolling along the ghats. As long as you can cope with the many enquires if you would like a boat ride madam, it is a really nice way to end a Varanasi day.

I think I will hang in Varanasi for a few days yet and then train it south and get out of dodge and the cities and hit the beach and the backwaters of Kerala. As far as I can determine at this early juncture, I am going to catch a train to Mumbi (27 hours) and then when I get there I can jump on one to Goa (12 hours) later that day, and from Goa make my way to Kerala. I am flying out of Mumbi in December, so have no desire to stop over there at this point. I have to get a copy of 'Trains at a Glance' which is the Indian train bible (50 rupees at a good book shop near you), but had no sucess in finding one today. There is a Belgium guy staying at the place I am at, so I might be able to borrow his is I ask nicely and see if there is a more intersting way to get to Goa.

Okay my friends, speak to you when I am in the south, unless something interesting happes in the interim, which in India is highly probable!

---