Whoops
Hey agaian everyone, sorry i have been useless again at keeping everyone up to date.
since i last posted i ahve done central america and the inka trail and seen machu picchu. the tour throguh central america was amazing, had a really good time. made 5 norwegian friends and will hopefully go and visit them sometime next year if i have enough money too… lol. i did rapelling (down canyons) white water rafting and zip lining and also did another dive in honduras as i figured i cant do the dive certification and then not sue it. and i actually really enjoyed it.
i finished the inka trail yesturday and it was pretty hard. i thought i would be the one trailing behind at the back but most of the time i was somewhere in the middle or towards the front whcih was good. the second sday thoguh we had to get to the highest point called dead womans pass and that was hard. i hurt my kness on the way up which made the way down again even harder. one of the ladies had to be carried down by the porters coz the altitude was getting to her. the porters are amazing. they run the whole thing pretty much, up and down. but yer, i ended up being the second of the group to reach the highest point yay. i was proud of that. and then when we finally reached machu picchua it was such a relief, but i felt so tired i couldnt be bothered to look found really. however, i forced myself to as otherwise the walk would have been for nothing.
tomorrow i am off to the jungle and am really not sure what to expect. it is just me and a sweedish couple going apparently which should be interesting. but then i figured, if there is just the 3 then who i gonna get rid of the creepy crawlies from my room. need mark back to do that i think…
and then on friday i am flying to sao paulo brazil to then get a bus to rio…supposedly for some sun before i return home. but at the moment it is raining. so i dunno what to do. i guess i will have to stick it out in rio with the rain, maybe go to the falls at iguacu. but if i change flight home then there would not be much point in me going to brazil. and if i change flight to another destination i will then be wasting money on one of the flights. and if i stay i will be wasting money on accommodation or more excusrions. so im not sure what the plan is yet. but please keep fingers crossed for the sun coz that would make things so much simpler for me and i would be much happier returnign home slightly browner.
well now im gonna go check out some churches in cusco. hopefully get a ahcne to update again soon. let me know any idea about rio etc. all welcome. lol. help me!!
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Antigua
Right, so the bus to Antigua showed up and turned out to be a private taxi….mega score. i was guessing it was gonna be one of the so called “chicken busses” so was glad that it wasnt though. and it only cost $10…that makes a trip from Guatemala city to Antigua cheaper than the trip from the airpoirt to my first hostel both in Guatemala city…ridic…but then i was ripped off the first time. i was taken straight to my hostel in Antigua as well….jungle party hostel. this was recomended to me by charlee and esme and it is an ok place, im sure i will survive, but at the moment im not liking it too much and cant wait to start the tour.
im in a mixed dorm with a guy on the bunk above me, and 2 girls….i dont know about anyone else, but nobody has really talked yet. also…when the guy gets up on the bunk above me the whole bed moves, properly. it sways cozits well old.
i braved havng a shower…realised how many spiders there are in this place too. but then i do have to remind myself of how little i am paying to stay here. i forced myself to have some food as well, again, ate at the hostel, but i didnt eat much, still not got the appetite back. may order free breakfats in the morning.
i kinda just wanna go to bed but its only about 9pm here so everyone will think im a freak. but i dont have much else to do. thank god this internet is free. otherwise i would just be wollowing even more lol. and its really hard to mingle here coz everyone already seems to have their own friends. and i know i should, but at the moment i dont have the confidence to just start talking to big groups of people…its ok if there is only 1 person, but whole groups. nah. and in the cafe area they are all watching a film which makes it even harder. meh.
at the moment i just want tomorrow morning to come and then i just want that day to go…i want the tour. i really hope i will be able to meet up with the ukranians coz tghey will make saturday go quicker at least.
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Off to Antigua…no not the island
Hey, just a quick post before i leave Guatemala city to go to Antigua. Im getting the bus (eeeek) and apparently it will take 40mins. but then that is central american minutes so maybe an hour…? i will let you know.
am feeling a little happier today coz just spoke to boy on msn yay. cheered me up a bit. staying in the hostel tonight….4 bed mixed dorm. $9 a night which isnt too bad. but i guess im gonna have to be in a social mood. lol. we will see.
im hoping they have some better food there though as i am not eating much and need some good food to get me back in the swing of things. been forcing myself to eat and its just making me feel worse.
so yer….antigua….not as in the island in the caribbean….id be lucky to get a bus to there for $10. its a small town close to guatemala city surrounded by 2/3 volcanoes (cant remember how many). me and mark were talking to a lady in mexico on the beach and when i told her i was going there she started telling me about the volcanoes as she used to work there as a missionary. anyways, apparently one of the volcanoes has small eruptions every now and again…scary stuff. interesting though for a geog student lol.
right, well i will probs update you later on hoe the new hostel is and room mates etc. good/bad news lol.
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MEH…
ok, so im in Guatemala now after leaving Mark at the airport in Cancun yesterday. silly STA changed his flight so turned out we couldnt book in together at the same time and he had to wait at the airport for ages after i had flown to check in for his flight. saying bye was really hard seen as i have been with him 24/7 for the last 2 weeks. was horrible. and now its making me feel like i really dont wanna be travelling alone anymore. it sucks. not many people at the hostel i am staying at at the moment either so nobody to talk to really. only the tv in my room. if it didnt have tv i think i would have gone crazy by now.
so have had a bad tummy again for the past few days, dont know why, and didnt take anything because i didnt want to make it worse like the doc in bangkok told me. this morning was pretty bad though and i checked on travel doc online and it said i should go doc, so i took myself there today. at first we couldnt get me an appointment (the kind lady who speak really good english in the hostel was trying to book me in) so instead i had to go down to the hospital and go to emergency. there i was seen straight away which was good coz had the taxi wait. couldnt produce stool so asked for blood test ( again, fogettung to ask what blood type lol, whoooops). oh yer but before that they tried to extract a sample…..THE funniest thing in the world. i did laugh. the whole time. lol. but no luck, so yer blood test. she took loads as well. it kinda hurt.
cant back fine though….looks like i have some paranoia from the last time i got sick. but she gave me some kid of drink thing whcih will look after my intestines apparently. i hope they work though coz i dont like having the shits lol. fingers crossed.
tomorrow i leave for antigua, guatemala. i am taking a “shuttle”….i think that is code word for chicken bus, which is costing $10 which isnt too bad. need to find an atm to get some money out though. and there i am staying in a hostel in dorms so hopefully i will meet more people and it wont be so bad as wont be so alone.
right well i guess i had better go and find an atm before it gets dark and then do not much all night again. it sucks so bad. makes it worse. ah well.
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Last dive
Not much has happened over the last few days. Mark went diving pretty much every day after we finished the course, sept not today. I was persuaded to go with him yesterday so that we could have some pictures of us diving together, so we bought a camera that works underwater. i did this so that i can show the rents underwater (seen as they cant do it now – so they better appreciate lol).
we went with Katana – a really cool mexican guy who is hilarious. at first he was telling me it was too windy to dive and i believed him…..but he was joking. the waves were pretty massive though so i was kinda worried. we got kitted up and off we went. i really wanted to see some turtles so he took usto the places where they are most often seen. we didnt see any though, gutted.
the dive was good, except the currents were strong so i didnt enjoy the dive very much. mark was left with the camera and coz i was always battling against the current i was too stressy to take many/any (:s) pictures of him. i feel really bad now though coz if anything there will be about 1 pic of him and loads of me. whoops. we saw a baracuda, i held a spider crab (it was a baby), a starfish, saw a mega big crab and Katana found us an eel under a rock. so we did see quite a bit. not sure how the pics will come out though. especially as the camera, of course, was an old one that you wind on and had to look through the viewfinder to take a pic, which is quite hard when you have a mask on lol.
after abut 30mins it was time to surface. i could tell that Katana wasnt sure of the way back to the boat, we just had to surface where we were. the current had taken us about 200/300metres from our boat. it was ok though, Katana simply signalled to the boatman that we needed picking up and over he came.
after that we were both completely zonked, so we just crashed in the room until about 8.30. both of us are pretty broke now too. not sure what we will do today as low on cash. probably just the beach again, top up that tan.
will update again soon, oh and i have some pics to put up…YAY! so you can actually see whats been going on. i will have to be selective though.
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Qualified Open Water Diver
yay, i did it…after overcoming some hard bits. was a struggle but i did it.
i think i said somehitng about not having to do the treading water or the swimming but the next day he made us do it…part of the course. i had to swim 200m in the sea which i thought would be fine but i almost killed myself. it was so hard. after 100m i was so out of breath it was ridiculous…i held on to the boat we had to swim to for abit. i thought our instructor might make me do it again but he didnt, it was cool. and then we had to tread water for 10mins which i thought would be mage hard but it was way easier.
then we did some more dives…i saw some fish like in finding nemo…made me smile. and i sorted out my bouyancy which was good. had a good dive after that.
then the last day…he told me i would have to take my mask off in deep water (12m) so i wouldnt be able to go up even if i felt i needed to coz could be well dangerous with pressure etc. i had worried about this all night but me and mark had come upo with a way which i could do it while holding my nose the qwhole time so hopefully i wouldnt snort any water. so that mornign we asked our dude if i could try in shallow first which he said was cool and i did the plan. it worked so i was waaaay happier about doing it. we then went for one dive to 12m and then came back and did the exam. was all good, 100%. and so he took us to a cenote (likecaves) to finish our dives and the course. there i would have to do the mask taking off. i wasnt as worried as i had done it in the shallow water but still didnt want to be too confident.
once at the cenote, in we went. there were loads of locals around and they just stood there watching us at first which was abit offputting. felt like we were the animals at the local zoo….whats he gonna make them do next lol. anyways, we decended and i did the mask thing and was fine. i was so happy after that. and qualified 
mark has the dive bug now, me not so much. he went diving today while i was just lazing on the beach in the sun. i think i will go diving again while we are here. but im still not too crazy about it. glad i did it though. am now slightly more confudent in the water generally.
it is nice to not have to read the book every night though. all we would do is dive all day, go back, eat, shower and read the book, and then fall asleep reading the book and then wake up and dive. i am happy just playing cards every night. and im guessing thats what we will do tonight as well right well better go shower. update again soon.
oh wait, forget to say about the spider last night. we got back and i was going to go in the shower while mark was on the net. however, before showering i was wondering around the room for about 10mins trying to kill all the ants which our food had attracted. whoops. and then i found a small spider near my bag on the wall. it kinda hid in the corner of the room so i left it figuring i could get mark to get it when he got back. mark then came back and i told him about the ants and he moved his hoodie on the back of one of the chair and a massive ass spider came running from behind it. i completely freaked coz it was MASSIVE…..and so i jumped onto the bed. proper girly reaction. i would not have been able to sleep with the spider still in the roomso asked mark to remove it. i didnt want him to kill it coz it was so big it would be messy but there was no way to just get it out of the room so he had to kill it. at first he tried getting it with his shoe but itwas so fast that he didnt get it. then it stopped and he had another chance and yay it was gone. thank god. i was pretty freaked that i had been in the room with it without knwoing it was there. eiw eiw eiw.
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I dont know how Charlee and Esme did it!
Today and for the next 2 days i will be scuba diving. today was the first day so we had to read a book last night – well 1 chapter of the book, which took hours. i was so tired this morning when we got up for a 9am start ar the dive shop. we then watched a couple of hours of dvds teling us even more stuff and repeating the stuff from the book. and then we were off to the beach to do our first dive. i was shitting myself coz the book had said we would have to do a swim and tread water to make sure we were up for the dive. but all we were asked was can we swim and have we ever snorkelled? the answer to both yes, we continued. sorted.
but then came the diving – i found it hard and very scary. we went in the shallow water at the beach first. thr currents were strong and the visibility poor due to the sand. we had to take our mouth piece out and put it abck in again, refind our mouth pieces, let water into ouyr masks and get it out and then fill the whole mask and get it out. i was worried about this as the salt water really hurt my eyes when we went snorkelling but luckily the process of getting it out is actually easier than it sounds and after a mini stress in my head when i completely filled it to begine with i can now do it ok…touch wood. we then had to regulate our bouyancy in the water to make ourselves neutrally bouyant….one of the most important aspects and one which i have not yet mastered. we soon found out that i had not mastered it when we went for our first 12metre dive. i was less scared than before and it wasnt till we got to the dive site, right in the middle of the sea when i started to worry again. neither me nor mark were sea sick on the way but when the boat dropped anchor i started to feel and and we feeling quite dizzy. we sat on the sides and fell backwards into the water. sounds crazy and i cannot imagine doing this in my head – lookign at me doing it that is if you see what i mean…
anyways so then we were to swim to the front of the boat to the line which dropped to the anchor and descend holding the line. however, i had difficulty even getting to the fron of the boat. i had changed masks from when we first dived as it had hurt my nose – too tight. so i had another mask which turned out to be too loose and in the choppy water it was filling quickly. this and the big waves out there was enough to stress me out and i forget all the calm thing i was supposed to be doing. i tried my best to swim to the rope but did so with difficulty ending up way too close to the boat. i tried explaining to the main guy (not too sure of his name right now, something mexican) that mask was too loose but i was getting so out of breath and had to take my mouth piece out to talk that the waves were just going right over my head and got water down my throat. this stressed me out more so by now i was just floundering. out of breath and knackered i wanted so much to just get back on the boat, i didnt want to dive. suddenly i was by the side of the boat and katana (the boat guy – well cool) was telling me to take my mask off and to breath slowly and deeply. i wasnt quite sure what to do with the mouthpiece but eventually decided that for it to be in my mouth would be best (lol). at last i swapped masks with the one on the boat and the guys were helping me to calm down. all i could see were the massive waves coming at me and so breathing clamly was hard. i kept breathing so heavily that the air supply was making strange noises but after a couple of mins i was fine again, thank god. then it was time to dive :s
back to the rope, we began to descend. easier than swimming to the rope. always swallowing to equalise. and blowing through my nose to equalise my mask. we found mark on the way down who was trying to equalise his ears. his “buddy” had left him though – the trainee instructor. so when my guy – the main instructor, saw this, he got a right bollocking under water. even though there was no noise to this telling off even i could tell the wrath due to the very harsh hand movements. was quite funny. but leaving a buddy is the worst thing to do.
after reaching the bottom we were off. this was the easier bit and i had clamed down now for sure. we swam around for probably about 10-15mins, maybe more. saw many pretty fish, was well cool. i just kept singing in my head “under the sea, la la la la la, under the sea…”, so that made me chuckle to myself and calmed me down more. but i definitely had trouble with the neutral bouyancy thing. at one point i just couldnt float – turns out i had too many weights on and so was being pulled down too much. and then i thinki got abit too carried away with stearing clear of the reef so i didnt cut myself and i just was floating up and up….woops. i was enjoying myself more now i was “inot it” but still couldnt wait to get back to the boat and for the day to finish.
i think im glad i have done it, but i dont think i have enjoyed it as mcuh as i hoped i would have. this is why i am so shocked that charlee and esme did it without complains or any stories and loved it. and it seems bad that now i am still worried about tomorrow with the same feeling i used to have for swimming lessons, which i hated when i was younger. and i just cant wait for the next 2 days and next….6 dives? to be over. im worried that the same thing will happen when i exit the boat tomorrow. if it does i will probably be completely put off…so fingers crossed the sea will be calmer or i will get used to it more. maybe it was just the madsk problem and with the mask fine i will be ok? hope so.
i will let you know tomorrow. charlee and ez, you def are the dive queens.
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Enough with the moaning…
Ok, so i am taking on Angie and Marks comments on how much i moan and will not moan so much anymore. all is fine, i am not working and have sun so all is good.
so we didnt get much sleep last night – Mark had a rougher night than me though. he grumbled about having water dripping on his bed (lush room) and he is being bitten waaaaaaaay more than i am. in fact he has 6 bites to my none. the rain was so loud on the roof though as it is corrugated steel – worse than my room mum. and the tree added to it – i think things were falling onto our roof from it. i had a pretty bad dream as well and got so freaked out by it that i had to wake mark up and tell him. but we caught up on the sleep on the beach today. am well and truely tanning it up again. fingers crossed that by the time i get home i will be between wood brown and golden (according to marks tanning scale – tar being top of that).
didnt eat out tonight but had processed cheese sandwiches after going to the shop. i was getting myself some kiwis while mark had wondered off somewhere an as i was picking them up i dropped one, managing to catch it between my legs. some random mexican dude saw and then started speaking to me in spanish. he commented something about catching the kiwi and then asked my name (all in spanish). we then had a very short convo in spanish (asked my name and i told him i was english) until mark came back over when the man made a very random and quick retreat after shaking hands with the both of us. he didnt even say bye. was so funny.
thats about all for today. i think we have made the decision after counting money that we may do both the snorkelling and the scuba 4 day course. if we do do the 4 day course though i dont think i will bother with the snorkelling. i will ask how good i have to be at swimming first though coz i am not that great as some of you will know. mark said that we may have to be able to tread water for 10mins as part of the certification and i will no way be able to do that. but then….it is mexico and i would have paid many doller to get it so maybe they will just turn a blind eye to that aspect lol.
hope all is well back home with everyone. hope it doesnt rain here again tonight, im tired. night xxx
Starting again…
Ok, so from my last tour i only got half way through posting about India yer after that I visited Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam… and must more things happened. too much to write and thats why i just never got round to it. i was trying to tell too much in one go. not enough hours in the day to do that. so this time i am going to keep the posts brief and aim to do one post at least, every time i come online. it will be the first thing i do….well will it…but i will try and keep up slightly more than i did last time to keep you guys in the know.
at the moment i am in mexico, tulum, with mark. the flying was fine - 2 flights in total, 2 days. we flew from heathrow termianal 5 (and dont worry we did recieve our luggage at the other end) to la. omg, the worst airport ever – almost as bad as delhi. after disembarking we had to wait for approx. 1.5hrs in the que for passport control because their computers were down. stupid people. then we waited another hr ish for the shuttle which was supposed to take us to our hostel. or not. it did not come and we had to call the hostel, another chore and eventually got there (it being only about a mile or 2 down the road) 3 hours after our flight landed. knackered, we slept, and got up again at 3am to be back at the airport. we then flew on to cancun. lovely airport, good flight.
at this airport after claiming baggage we had to find our way to our hostel. when we had booked this the agent had told us that tulum, where our hostel was located, was 2just down the beach from cancun2 and that the hostel itself was like “little huts right on the beach”. we soon found out that this was not the case. to get to the hostel we would either have to take 2 busses – $8 each. or a shuttle $40 ish each or a taxi $150approx for us both….this was because tulum is 80 MILES DOWN THE COAST FROM CANCUN!!!!!!!!! yer sure, just down the beach. i had the impression we could walk to it. error. so we ended up taking the shuttle.
on getting there we got to our room…which has a tree in it!!!!! growing through the roof. anyways, it is not a wooden hut on the beach as expected either, but a shack with v thin walls and concrete floor and a small toilet place in one corner. hmmm. i felt kinda bad coz mark is on his holiday and it really isnt the kinda room you would want to stay in if you are on holiday. appraently he is ok with it though but doesnt stop me from feeling bad still.
the next day after a good sleep we figured we would try and find the beach. so we set off down the road which we thought it was – which went on forever. we walked along this long stretch of road that never seemed to en before reaching the beach after 30mins!!!! yer right on the beach….you just have to walk a couple of miles first. and mum – the pedometer on my phone told me that that day i walked 20500ish steps. double the daily amount 
it was a lovely beach however. and i had a chance to practise some of my broken spanish. we were at a bar by the beach and i needed the loo. tried asking in english first but the guy had no clue and thought i was talking about mesa (table in english). so i was spurting off loads of different ways to say tolet in english…bathroom, restroom etc….and then it came to me so i shouted el baño loudly. ahhhhh then he knew what i was on about. and today i learnt the word for bill which had been bugging me.
yesturday we got a taxi to the beach which was only $4 – turns out we should have just got a taxi in the first place. this made it much more enjoyable. we saw the ruins at tulum and the mega busy beach right next to it. mark burnt his feet pretty bad thought so we have remained in the shade today just chilling. been trying to figure out what else we are ghoing to do while we are here. we have a lot of choice and i want to do it all. talked myself out of wanting to do swim with dolphins after i decided it was mean as they shoukd be free in the wild. but we still have the choice of snorkelling in the cenotes (cave things), go skuba diving (which will cost us approx 200 english pound each but is a 4 day course with certification at the end) or a place just up the coast (and when i say just up the coast i mean just up the coast not 80 miles) to a place called xen-ha or something where you can see turtles and stuff. but that would also be expensive and would only be a day trip. so many things to do and so little money to do it with. it sucks.
so yer this internet is free - its on our hotel reception and there is no time limit so its perfect. makes up for there not being much else that is very close. i have been eating meat again – ptch. chicken isnt too bad here, been eating many chicken fajitas and its crazy to say but i actually dont think actual mexican is as nice as old el paso fajitas. you dont get as much sauce or as much flavour and the actual wraps are way more floury which isnt such a nice taste. first time i have eaten meat in a foriegn place for years though.
anyways, leave me a post and let me know whats going down in the world of norwich. il get back next timeim online, fingers crossed.
p.s this post isnt as short as i thought it would be but i had the time so hey. lol. much love xxx
the ‘full on’ end of the tour…alone again
ok everyone, chill your beans, i have been waiting till i have ages on the net and for a good connection before i wrote my next blog because i know its gonna be so long. even in my diary im only up to about day 4 of the tour. error. im trying to catch up but tis hard.
so i think the next bit im up to is the overnight train. well that was so long ago… it was alright actually but the bunks were 3 tiers. not all th beds were together either so me and my friend anna tried very hard to get beds in with the 6 together and succeeded. the 2 aussie ladies had to go into another carriage (not that they really were carriages coz there were no doors..they just kinda came off from the main corridor.\ so it was quite noisy) and they said that all the other men in the carriage just stared at them all night. so glad i didnt get those ones. the next morning we got to allahabad and after breckie, g (the tour guide) dragged us off to see where gandi stayed a few times. it was so boring. me and the 2 uk guys were just looking at one of the rooms and then this indian guiy came in kinda pushed us out of the way and walked straight into the glass in front of us. it was so funny. but i burst out laughing so had to run off. was well bad.
then we had the approx 4 hour drive to where we were gonna catch the boat. it was in a bus that was quite comfy…if you were on a normal road. my bum by the end was in pain…it think i still have a bruised tail bone now.
we reached the boats all needing to pee and as there were no toilets it was take it in turns and go behing the wall in the field. lovely.didnt know what we would do on the boat but was soon to find out.
we boarded the boats in groups of 4…guess who i was with the 3 aussies of course. me, anna, sharon and julie. oh yer it was funny as well; the previous night i realised had been calling sharon sheila coz its such an aussie name – epic fail. but i appologised and she said she hadnt even noticed. it was nice to be sitting on the boat now while pur 2 sailers did all the work. it wasnt very widny so they were having to row – felt kinda bad. not long after we had left the other 2 boats and the kitchen boat jon\ined us and we had lunch. it was amazing to think that a few guys could make such a nice lunch on a small boat.
after a while i needed to pee but luckily a stop was sheduled. ‘pee pee stop’ one of the sailers asked and we agreed. but we could not see where he was gonna stop. on one side was just a beach island in the middle of the river and on the other a tall, steep embankment leading up to fields! he pulled over on the embankment side and let us get off. i was the only one that needed to pee but didnt want to go alone so the others follwed me. people were working in the field and there was no privacy, everyone could see. but there was no other choice. we all just peed where we stood never mind who was looking. it was so funny!
we got back on the boat and continued on our way. the sailer told us that in approx 10 mins we would see dolphins. g had kept this quiet and we were all really excited, ready with our cameras. we couldnt believe than dolphins would be living in the ganges, how random. and we all figured that you guys back home would never believe us either so we had to get a pic. when they finally emerged many shots were taken and many missed. luckily, i was able to get a shot so you will all believe me when i add it when i get home.
but i did not only see dolphins – i saw my first dead body. not very nice. abit shocking. very smelly. we knew that we might see some (cant remember if i mentioned in ealier bog) as i was told that it had happened to someone else. we coudl see something quite large flaoting in the water and could not tell what it was and as we got closer i thought it was a vegetable. then i saw the legs and realised. it must have been a toddler or small child. in india, they cremate most of the people who die except for babies, holy men, pregnant women and leppars. this stunted convo for a while as we were all very shocked.
after about 6 hours of sailing we reached the place where we were gonna camp – it was another beach island in the middle of the river. we all decamped and by now it was cold and beginning to get dark. the sailers got the tents from the boats and errected them for us. of course, they did not shut the door things and so by the time we got into them they were FULL of bugs. lovely. malaria. as at this point i was not taking tablets. but it was fine. some of the guys decided they would rather sleep out in the open than in the tents with so many bigs but they had sleeping bags – i did not. tea was served and it was even more amazing than lunch. we had masala chai which i am now in love with, pasta and chips. and the chips were amazing too. we couldnt get enough. we all sat out for abit before bed, but we all went to bed so early as there was nothing to do and it was dark. we stargazed for abit and i saw a shooting star which i was chuffed about. then bed. i wrapped my head up in a scalf, wore my thermals and pulled my silk liner over my head. i had blankets too of course. oh and the toilet for this stop was another taller tent with a predug hole – luxury.
morning came and we were served yet more chai yay and breakfast. we all jumped back into our boats and off we went. again, the guys were rowing as there was little wind. we all had a go at rowing and got some funny pics.
after 6 hours and yet more dolphins and pee pee stops we came to the end. nobody wanted to leave the voats as they were so comfy and cool. but off we got and climbed a steep hill with our packs to the connection transport to varanassi. this was ‘jeeps’ but they were pretty much just massive cars. our packs were crammed in the back and on the roof. we were all so hot and looking forward to the air con we saw in the roof of the car. the driver got in – and immediately turned the air con off. what the hell. it was midday and 7 of us were crammed into this car. it was not gonna be a nice ride. it took about an hour to reach our hotel but when we did we were all glad of a shower.
that evening, we were taken on a tour of the city so we could know what therw was to do. we walked all along the ghats were cremations take place and saw a few. then g took us to a cotton place. the man explained to us about how it was all made, the processes etc. it was pretty boring but we were all being polite. it was so funny though coz then he asked if he could show us more and then directed the question at burta (the german lady) and she said really bluntly ‘no’. how rude but it was so funny. we would have to get used to this german abruptness.
we wnt for tea – the 2 boys, the aussies and me decided on a place that g suggested, the others came along but then decided against it because they had seen the loo in the place. so they went elsewhere. i had some indian dish as did julie but she sed that her rice was cold and that it meant it had not been reheated properly and i realised mine was cold in some places too so to be on the safe side i ate the dish and the nan, leaving the rice. does anyone know if this is true though?
we sat on the rooftop that night, the aussies having some rum. and soon after we all went to bed.
the next day was free time and as julie is a buddhist we decided we would go the saranarth where the buddha gve his first serman. so we got 2 tuk tuks – 3 in each – again it was the 2 boys and the aussies and me. the tuk tuk ride was about 30mins and hurt my tail even more. they need to sort their roads out.
sarnarth isnt that interesting and the most interesting thing that me andthe guys saw there was an ice cream called ‘gaylord’ icecream. so immature i know but it was funny. julie and sharon also went to the museum but the rest of us couldnt be bothered and it was quite expensive so we waited for them. on return we got our tuk tuks and went back to varanassi in search of lunch. we explained to the drivers where we wanted to go and they said they could not get there driving but would drop us the closest they can. so we ended up being being dropped somewhere and being told the way to go but having no idea where we were or any idea which way the river was (the restaurant was by the river). we wondered the streets going by the way we thought not the way we were told which turned out to be completely the wrong way anways. eventually we got there and the others were already there. the food was ok, but i got so excited when i saw they had choco cake so we all ordered one. it was THE most disguisting choco cake i have ever tasted in ym liiiife. it tasted of vinegar eiw eiw eiw. so most of us left it. eiw.
that night we all went to bed pretty early as we were to get up really early for the drive to lumbini on the boarder with nepal. this would be a 6 hour drive apparently. so at 5 the next morning we all piled into the jeeps again. i was with the usual group and at first, felix, the tallest guy was shoved in the very back with me and sharon. he had no leg room and kept hitting his head so while on the move i climbed through to the seats in front. almost falling in the process. i was happy as i was comfier too and tried to nap. the roads werent the greatest as expected and there was still a fair bit on bumping. the tail bone was not enjoying it. after 2 hours we stopped for breckie. some random village place with a bar/restaurant whcih didnt look the cleanest of places. i had toast and chai but most of us cancelled the chai after we saw the milk. lol. i had to go to the toilet at this place as well. probably the worst i had been to. there were flies everywhere and it stank of pee but i was getting used to this.
(will write more later – will try to keep updating to reach where i am at now)
