It's not a long way from Delhi to Jaipur, only 253 kilometers. But I didn't take the straightest route. Here's some turns I've taken.

I wake up in the noisy and ill-aired hotelroom to a ringing phone. Milla, a friend from Helsinki who is currently volunteering in Nepal, is also in town and we agree to meet. Before the appointment we move our things to a better-aired hostel, which we found the day before. The owner charges us one hundred extra because "we arrived so early in the morning". We, two novices, don't have the energy to make a hassle, and bitterly agree. The next hostel, Hote...

There's a word in Finnish called "väkisinmaata" ("lay someone by force"). That word would best describe what happened to me on our first day in Varanasi. As we arrive to Dasaswamedh Ghat, the main ghat, I'm offered a haircut, and I refuse. I refuse a shave as well, and the persistent guy reaches out his hand, as for to shake hands. I shake his hand, and he grabs my fingers with both hands and starts crunching them. "What's this?" I ...

As some of you already know, the beginning of my trip was not the easiest. Leaving the Delhi airport, I got the treatment some would call a classic. I shared a taxi towards town with a Danish girl, Marie, and we took a prepaid one as I had been adviced. The trouble started when I let go of the prepaid taxi reciept, less than a minute after recieving it. This guy comes to face us at the airport exit, asking "prepaid taxi?". I nod and hand the reciept to ...