Day 52- 58

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Day 52

Left the hotel about 9 after saying goodbye to Chris who is leaving us for a few days and joining us again in Ko Samui. Very long drive up the mountains and then down again on some of the narrowest roads you have seen quite a few people were panicking but to be honest I though it was pretty cool and the views were amazing! (and these people who were scared have obviously never been in a car with a miss becky plant, then they'll know road fear!) Eventually arrived at the town of Hetauda, quiet meal in the hotel then bed!

Day 53

Left the hotel early for another long drive to the town of Siliguri in India. Basically a long hot drive on shit roads on a tiny cramped bus, not helped by the split fuel pipe which needed repairing! Eventually made it to the border and after various forms to fill out to leave nepal and then more forms to re enter india and bus swapping and power cuts we made it to the hotel 13 hours after we left Hetauda. Lets just say everyone was a tired, hungry and not too happy especially after hotel wasn't the nicest and the food wasn't what people expected. Not the best day so early to bed! (on the plus side our new indian bus is massive and comfortable and loads of seats after the deserters had left!)

Day 54

Back on the bus for another long day's drive pretty much a repeat of the previous few days. Arrived quite late but everyone slightly less miserable, can't remember the name of the town either! Grabbed a few beers from the next door restaurant (the seediest looking place in the world and clearly not used to having white people in it and especially girls in vest tops who drink beer!) took them back to our hotel and drank them with our dinner. Shower then bed!

Day 55

A shorter drive to the city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta!) Everyone a lot happier today helped by the proper bus break in an actual service station with proper toilets, cold drinks and ice cream as apose to a bush by the road/stinking long drop, warm water and packets of crisps all day! Got to the hotel about 2 and was surprised to find it was actually quite a nice one with a soft mattress instead of the planks with a bit of foam on that we'd been used to the last 10 days! So whilst others explored I stayed in to take advantage of this and had a nap and a shower and sorted my things out. At 6pm we headed for a sound and light show and after some major confusion with our local rep (the most useless guide in the world!) eventually made it to the victoria memorial for the show on the history of kolkata. One of the strangest 45 mins of my life! It started with a catchy (soon to grow irritating) song about calcutta with a slideshow of pictures of the city from the 70s/80s and the fact it was called calcutta proves that this show had not been updated in a very long time! The lights were pretty and some of the stuff was interesting but it basically focused on the building of calcutta and the infulential people all spoken/acted by a man with a wooden voice and clearly no drama training! The show ended with the indian independance from britain in the 1940s by saying that 1.5million indians died from starvation and a slidehow of famous people from calcutta none of whom anyone knew! that was it! Not quite the upbeat and informative ending i'd hoped for and god knows what happened in the last 70 years! anyway was still knackered so a veggie subway for tea then bed!

Day 56

Left for the airport at 7.15 for our flight to Bangkok. Made it there ridculously early and hung around for a while before getting checked in and through security. After immigration and more security (where they searched my hand luggage and the inspector man was much amused by my ipod and decided to have a listen! After panicking on what to play him decided to put it on shuffle, and a Jam song came on, he wasn't impressed and asked where the indian music was!) anyways made it through to the shittest departure lounge in the world! basically a big room with lots of chairs, 2 gates and 2 shops one selling various types of tea leaves and the other a stall selling water and overpriced mars bars! So me and anna settled down and did a crossword to avoid boredom regretted this quite quickly when we realised we didn't know any of the answers and decided to make them up depending what fitted! Eventually made it onto the plane and left at 11.45 arriving in Bangkok earlier than expected. Through immigration, collected our luggage and basically no hanging around met our local thai guide Pat, got our bus and drove to our hotel. Another really nice place right next to a Canal and fairly near Kao San Road which is the big touristy road with loads of bars, restaurants, talls etc (bit like a Thai malia!) So us young ones wandered out in search of food and cocktails and it didn't take long to find! Really nice Pad Thai vegetable noodles and mojitos for me followed by a wander through the streets found a really cool bar made from an old bus just parked on the road with a few tables and chairs so had a drink there before more wandering then bed!

Day 57

After a very nice hotel breakfast we got a taxi to the weekend market, a huge place selling everything you could possibly want! I settled for a pair of sunglasses and a dress though could have bought so much more! After a few hours there we headed back to the hotel to dump our puirchases and get some lunch. More noodles for me! After eating we were sat chatting when a familiar face popped up, Cheryl who left the trip about a week ago to do her own thing was staying just up the road and had arrived that morning. So that was really nice to see her and catch up! Back to the hotel for another nap (very hot and humid here and therefore knackering!) In the evening we headed out to the river, there is a local festival going on and this was the last night) so there were lit up boats and fireworks and candles floating down the river as well as people setting off the paper peace lanterns which filled the sky. It was beautiful to watch and i'm really glad I saw it (Ulverstons lantern procession needs to take note!) Went to a veggie restaurant for tea where we filled up on starters and struggled with the mains but i did have a very nice banana shake! Back to the hotel to chill out and then bed!

Day 58

Basically chilled out this morn and catched up on blog, emails etc on nats laptop whilst she is on a 5 hour bike ride (yes, she is mental!) We're off to the palace later and maybe a bit more shopping before a show tonight yet to decide whether we do a caberet, ladyboy show or ping pong...I'll keep you posted!


Laters!

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