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Hi everyone, sorry it's been a while but there has been alot of long travel days (along with some badly hungover days!) so I just haven't managed to get the website up to date.
I'm in my last day of the 3 weeks since I got to India which included 5 days in Nepal and how would I describe India? Dirty, colourful, noisy, smelly, friendly and a lot more but it was never boring. We crossed the very colourful and pretty amazing border from Pakistan into India and the first city Amritsar. The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of people on the roads and streets. This is a very packed country.
Highlights in the first week included the Golden Sikh Temple in Amritsar (which is coated in solid gold) and of course the Taj Mahal which does live up to it's reputation as a thing of beauty.
Probably most interestingly we also visited Varenasi which is the main city that the holy river the Ganges flows through and it could well be the dirtiest place I've ever visited. People (and cows) using the streets and river as a toilet, and the river is also used for drinking water, the outlet for multiple sewage works, a place to wash clothes and people. Most incredibly as the river is sacred, bodies are cremated on the river side and then the remains are scattered on the river. If the bodies are not fully burned, it is common to see floating body parts which unfortunatley we didn't see!
In between were some long driving days. We then moved into Nepal which suddenly was alot more laid back and as not half as hectic as India which was a welcome relief. We spent 3 very pleasant days in the capital Kathmandu which seemed a world away from the bustle of India. The undoubted highlight was the flight we took to fly beside Mount Everest. It is the height that most jumbo jets fly at and it actually is higher than all the clouds that surround it.
It was back into India then and on towards Kolkata (the new name for Calcutta). The highlight being Darjeeling which is famous for it tea plantations and because of this is a lot better off than other parts of India and is a pleasant place.
The traffic in India is unbelievable chaotic, the first few days we were amazed when we seen cows roaming freely on motorways, cars driving the wrong way on the motorway but after a few days it became the norm! Just inside Nepal Oz-Bus became Oz minibus as our driver Rocket hit an unlit Rikshaw (a type of 3 wheel taxi) in the middle of the road. Luckily the rickshaw driver was not badly hurt but we still had to bring him to hospital while Rocket (now called 'Rikshaw Rocket') was interviewed by the police. The upshot was the windscreen on the bus was badly cracked and the bus had to remain in Kathmandu for repair.
Kolkata is basically a stop over and it's where Oz-Bus becomes Oz-Plane as we fly to Bangkok from here. It's impossible at the moment to get a bus permit into Burma so the only alternative is to fly. It's a shame but to be honest after 2 weeks in India we are all looking forward to Thailand.
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