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Cam's Great Escapade
Namaste friends! wow im finally here in india and i dont quite know where to begin describing it.
We (me and imo) got into Kolkata after a quick but v early flight from Bangkok, so sad to see it go for the last time, it was beginning to feel very homely. The first thing we noted was that nothing is nowhere near as bad as the many horror stories we have been told. Okay i know ive onyl been here two days and we have plenty of time left for muggings, robbings, drugging, swindlings, ect but I think the whole thing is blown out of proportion a little bit, or maybe im just too used to asia. Kolkota is a crazy place, it reminded me a little of Victorian London, it does actually look very engllish because we built loads of grand victorian buildings here but it looks like after we left nothing much else was added or taken away, and kind of like a bomb hit it. All the cars where from the 50s and we almsot got run over a couple of times by the yellow beatle-esque taxis that are everywhere. It took us a while o find a good room, they all seemed like dodgy back streets flop houses and one was full of earwigs so in the end we had to go for a mid-range one to ease ourselves into it slightly. it was actually lovely, we had a telly to watch bollywood films and it smelt like lemons. So anyway the whole place seemed very dirty and run down but absoloutly fascinating, its like the very essence of Asia with none of the dilution you find in the other countries ive been to which makes it pretty extreme but so interesting. also the food is fantastic, i had the most delicious curry of my life from this normal run of the mill cafe, i think if its all like this im going to get really fat.
we didnt stay too long in kolkata, it didnt really seem like a sighseeing sort of place and got an overnight train to varanasi. again another indian myth was burst, noone tried to rob us, there wasnt a cockroach in sight and it was actually a pretty fun experience. people come past at every station offering you all kind of food and chai tea which is like a really sweet and milky almost cinamony tea served in expresso shots, pretty sickly but addictive. we were just settling down to sleep when we heard shouting and banging on the platform and people started hammering on the sides of the train shouting something like 'bomb bomb.' we were pretty scared, then the train was flooded with people waring orange robes and carrying sticks covered in tinsel and started making beds on the floor and singing songs all night. we didnt get much sleep and spent a while trying to guess what the hll was going on but noone else on the carraige seemed to bat an eyelid so we assumed it was pretty normal.
well anyway we got to varanasi at 9 pretty suddenly and i fell off my bed and accidently kicked an old man in the face, it was pretty embarresing. all the orange people came off the train with us and we worked out from our taxi driver that there is a festival of shiva going on in varanasi at the moment which means the streets are full of celebrations and snake charmers. varanasi is wonderful, its the city along the ganges where people come to swim and burn dead realatives from one of the many ghats anong the river side. past the river is a maze of little alleyways too small for cars and crammed full of little shops selling silky scarves, bangles, sweets and choc a block with cows, goats, dogs, cats, even frogs. everything is so wonderfuly old, nothing has been changed for about a billion years. the women wear beautiful saris and i really want to get one because even in my demure knee length skirt and t shirt im beginning to feel pretty naked. i love india so much, its pretty overwhelming but never boring. today we got a guided tour from some boys who showed us the burning ghats that are seperated by caste, i was surprised that castes where still so important in india. we saw lots of temples including one with karma sutra engravings which me and imogen tee heed at. we bought a few silky scarves mixed with some cheap cotton stuff but still looked like the real deal. apart from that weve been mainly wandering and sitting on our amazing rooftop restaurant in the hotel which look sover the whole city and you can watch the women making bread and the monkeys everywhere.
tomorrow we are going on a boat tour of all the gahts and more wandering, its a total maze though and very easy to get lost varanasi seems to be the india that i imagined in my head but never realised actually existed, like noggin the nog (those of you who have seen it will understand.)
anyway hope you are all well, ill see you soon, lots of love from camilla x x x x x
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