Final days in India

---

Varanasi was our next stop. We had a relatively painless overnight train where I slept for around 6-7 hours with just a couple of wake-ups so that was remarkably better than last time! there were still cockroaches and Lauren swore she saw a mouse but I just concentrated on closing my mouth and on the odds that the cockroaches would probably end up in someone else's mouth this time!

Varanasi is surprisingly a lot nicer than we had expected. I suppose our heads had been filled with horror stories about floating dead bodies on the Ganges that we had convinced ourselves the town would have the worst stench in the whole world and that the people here would belong to the half-dead. Therefore when it turns out to be quite a peaceful town and the Ganges are actually really clean we can't help but love it! We went on an entertaining cycle rickshaw ride down the gnats to the main Gnat in the middle of the town and got flung everywhere, much like a roller coaster and I ended up cutting my arm on the side of it we were going so fast - thanks to the poor guy who had to pull us! I was also headbutted by a bull on my arm and I swear I was nowhere near it, but it was really painful! sob sob. We spent most of the rest of the day relaxing in the most Westernised cafe I've seen in India called Open Hand Cafe, had air-con and leather couches galore and Wi-Fi. and a coffee machine too. great stuff and we promptly sold out and enjoyed cappuccinos and free internet for a bit! We went out in the evening onto the Ganges in a big rowing boat and went to the public blessing ceremony that happens each evening to bless the river. To be honest it was a bit boring after 5 minutes but it was cool to see all the boats lining up on the river to watch the ceremony. We lit some puja candles on top of leaves and watched them float down the river.

Another overnight train to Kolkata (22 hours....) but NO COCKROACHES!!! just gawping men - which is quite the norm now I tell you. Again I was expecting Kolkata to be mayhem but it was quite a modern city. We visited the house where Mother Theresa spent most of her life teaching and helping the needy of Kolkata. It was very moving and there were many tributes to her life there. They did have some odd things in the museum though for example Mother Theresa's sari pin and part of a respiratory tube that was placed in her throat to help her breathe. some things you just don't need to see! but I guess it was because she didn't have many belongings and they needed to fill out a museum. It was very humbling to visit the orphanage but it made things harder when we had to turn down beggars waiting outside for our rupees. We left our group here in Kolkata and me and Suzie headed out to our own well-researched hostel! oh dear Hotel Galaxy was far from astronomical and both of us had the worse night's sleep ever and nightmares probably inspired by a gargling toilet (I had a dream about snakes stuck in the drains!) and the loudest room-vibrating fans ever. on the plus side this accommodation was DIRT cheap so what did we expect! We went to the highly recommended Blue Sky Cafe nearby and ate ourselves silly on the cheapest breakfast ever - must have been about 60p all in! yum! (we then went to McD's and to the cinema to see 'he's not that into you' but I won't dwell on these cop-out experiences.....)

Off to Nepal from Kolkata, I definitely enjoyed the 3 weeks we've spent in India - it's certainly been interesting! Everyone we have met here has been really friendly and everyone tries hard to make you feel welcome though sometimes it feels if you ask someone for directions the whole town seems to want to get involved and suddenly you're surrounded by all these men arguing over how best to help you! The roads are certainly notable too and the number of times I've had to catch my breathe as our rickshaw has squeezed between two lorries are uncountable but I lived to tell the tale! The food has been hit and miss, on the whole the continental food we have tried has been horrendous - when I wasn't feeling too good I ordered Cheesy Mash thinking you can't go wrong with Cheese and Mashed Potato but in India you certainly can when it looks more like watery rice pudding.. yuk! The Indian curries aren't like anything I've tasted at home and I'm sad to say that I prefer England curries and naan but they have been alright really and you can't complain when they are under a 1 pound! We'll be back in Delhi for one night next week for our flight to Beijing but until then it's off to Nepal!

---

Comments

[emily]

omg
wow fiona-you have written a blog! i gave up checking this ages ago but am stuck in the library (pretending to) work and what a nice surprise!! glad everything is going well-miss you lots, write more often please!!! xxxxx