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Really lovely to hear from everyone!!
Its great to read all your messages... and your right Robin... you just couldn't resist!! You'll be glad to know, no creame needed...!
Its good to hear that you're not going to threaten me in shaving your hair off Ross, you know that scares me!! You did make us laugh (and mum cry) with your message, we just crack up each time with think of Oliver asking why we're staying in the Indian!! 'uermm' back to Regan, think I can still understand a little bit of Teen! On the goat front, they're far too cute out here, could bring you a bit of road kill supose!! Actually saying that the cars concentrate more on missing animals & theres loads that wonder the streets, than they do missing people. Somehow everything just flows here in the madness, everything has its place & works well within it. Mum is more content on giving food to the dogs than she is people & even they turn their nose up, shes found that if you put food in a bag they're more likely to eat it because they have to fight to get it... so, anyway!! paneer will have to do... yep I've become a bit of an Indian dish expert & I've converted (guess here would be the best place to learn how to like Indian Food!)
We arrived In Cochin on Saturday... late, because our flight was delayed. The Food down here is fantastic, after three weeks of mum being a strict Veggie, we were finally able to eat some freshly caught fish.
Since I was last on the blog, after tempting fate with how smoothly our tour had run, we had two nightmare train journeys. But in doing so I did have my most enjoyable & probably most favourite visit to a city yet... we did have to endure a 17 hour train journey to get there (should have only taken 8 hours) & a very cold smelly 17 hour train journey back to Delhi to finish the tour.
Varanasi has been my favourite city to date, it was a lot cleaner & people a lot more natural... Varanasi is one of the most holy cities in the Hindu culture, their dedication to their religion is paramont here. We watched as the Pilgrims walked down the Ghats & into their sacred river to bathe in the holy water. Believe you me, there would be noooo way that any of us would go in, especially as it was 6 in the morning, freezing cold & they had nothing to dry themselves... we take so many things for granted!!
Actually the river itself wasn't half as dirty or smelly as I thought it would be, it was just a pure pleasure to float down the ganges, watching these people with little more than just belief sinking into the water.
As I said here, in Varanasi people were more into their Religion than bothering us tourists (and actually there weren't too many of us either... again another reason in which I liked it here so much... it felt more of a hidden treasure)
Children seemed happy going about their way... smaller than Oliver crossing roads with a baby in one arm & a child in the other hand, so crazy to see. They have no excuses but to survive here, they're so resiliant & 'street smart'. It was good to watch them, to see past the dirt & lack of clothes, that really to them they know no different.
We were on the Ganges twice in our stay here, both times we had a candel lit ceremony where we made wishes & submitted our candels to the holy river... bit far out but I enjoyed it!! Cant tell you what I wished for or I'll have to kill you!! In the evening we watched 7 young priests from 7 different states perform their rituals to the Gods, it was nice to sit on the river & watch their dedication... there was traditional Hindu music playing & it really felt like we were experiencing a true part of Indian life.
The train ride from here was our last 17 hour journey & all of us really felt it... because of the fog (which has been the worst they've seen since 1998... typical!) our train was cancelled & our tour guide (rightly VERY stressed) fought to get us on a train, in doing so all our reservations were lost. Instead of being in 2nd class, we were out in the lowest class possible & the group all split. We were sharing our compartment with 4 staring Indians... I had visions of me waking in the night & eyes on me- yuk!!
Thankfully Perry, our guide managed to move two of them & swapped with a couple that was on our trip. That was about as good as it got... down hill from then on, all of us had accumalated a really nasty cold... so lots of snoring, we were right by 4 toilets & the Strench is unbelievable (thankfully, or not my cold was at its worst so I couldn't smell too much!!)
- comments
Robin See, I knew I would guess right & you would have to endure a long train journey in stowage class on HARD wooden seats & finish up with sore "Bums"that was the reference to the cream! Sounds as if you are realy doing the "Real India" & seeing the things that people only see at the films you must feel like a right pair of Slumdog Millyonaires, Philippa you do realise that your life is never going to be the same dont you? I have visions of you sitting cross legged on the floor telling us all how we need to change our lives and chill out more. Power to you girl. Stay safe and listen to your Mum, she is a wise lady and buy some "CREAM". LoL, X R.