McLeod Ganj to Manali

Wednesday 8^th May 2013

We pulled into McLeod Ganj (home of the Dali Lama and the Tibetan government in exile) early this morning where two out of three of our band of merry women were struck down with the Delhi belly by the time we had finished breakfast  a third party was also struck down which was sad times. After driving about for a while we found a guest house we were happy with that was close to the main square we checked in and then went to explore whilst the others retired to bed. Daisy and I walked all over town looking at the markets and eating momos before going back to check on the sickies, they were in much the same state and so we left them to it and went to find a cold drink we sat on a rooftop and were swarmed by wasps, as we sat we thought of options for the day first off we tried to go fishing but the lake was a two and a half hour drive away so that was a no go next we wanted to hire a scooter and whizz about but they only had kick-start ones so we left that as well, next we tried to visit the astrologer but it was closed on Wednesday so at a loss of what to do we found a café with some Wi-Fi and sat there and ate cake. We met a girl who was on our bus and we all decided to take a walk to Bhagsu and to the waterfall the walk was really pleasant in the sunshine in the mountains. We could see the snow tipped peaks way up high the walk was fairly easy although very steep and by the top we were all overheating and dreaming of swimming in the waterfall, the water however was freezing it was pure melted snow so was enough to dip your big toe whilst basking on a rock in the sun. We sat up there people watching and day dreaming for a while before heading back down with the plan of getting a drink. We go back into town and found a stall that did dreads so I thought what the hell and sat there for the next three or four hours having my hair pulled into a million knots. The girls had gone to get a drink and brought some back and had a music lesson whilst the guys finished my hair after which we were starving so after a check up on the sickies we headed for some food. We ended up at this little café that was having an open mic night and watched all the travellers and the many Tibetan owners get up and sing and dance which was a laugh, then we attempted to walk Larka home to her hotel which was extremely difficult as she didn’t remember what it was called or where it was, eventually after walking up and down these ridiculous steps about 14 times and getting beautiful legs we found it and headed back to our place where we had to wake up the staff to let us in, the only boy about spoke no English and so I couldn’t get a mattress to sleep on so spent an amazing night sleeping on the wooden floor.

Thursday 9^th May 2013                                                                             

We woke up this morning hoping that the girls would be better but unfortunately it was not the case and at day two they actually seemed to be worse. We had some breakfast and then headed to a café that had Wi-Fi and cake and I spent the morning doing some writing. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at the pharmacy for more drugs and advice for the invalids. Once we had checked on them we headed once again to the astrologer but he was closed for lunch (I took this as a sign not to go and see him) we decided instead to go and get a feed at a rooftop café and ended up whiling away the afternoon with some other travellers. We went back to check on the sickies and got sucked in watching some crap TV for a while before we went out for some food after eating we went to watch a movie at the Tibetan education centre  accompanied by delicious Tibetan pizza. It was a documentary film called “murder in the snow” and was about a group of Tibetan refugees escaping into Nepal through the Nangpa pass in 2006 when the Chinese border police opened fire on them, it happened right next to the Mount Cho Oyu basecamp in which there were several western mountaineers who captured the atrocity on film. It was a hard watch and didn’t leave us in the mood for much but we walked down to another café having an open mic night and had some desert whilst we watched the music we cut the night short around 10.30pm to make sure I got a mattress to sleep on although we did need to wake up the hotel manager as there was only the no English speaking boy kicking about and I didn’t want to sleep on the floor again.

Friday 10^th May 2013

Some of the team had recovered a little today and so joined us for some sightseeing we started off in the    complex which is the house of the Tibetan government in exile as well as the home to the Dali Lama and the temple. We walked all through the complex and had a look inside the beautifully decorated temple which had loads of sweets and chocolates as tributes. We spun the prayer wheels and people watched in the courtyard for a while before heading into the museum which to me was the most interesting part it told the story of the Chinese invasion as well as many personal stories from refugees and many Tibetan views on the attempted eradication of the culture by the Chinese there was also a display about self-immolation which was quite hard to read especially as it came full with graphic pictures. After the museum we headed across town to the Tibetan education centre where we took part in a conversation class, it was mostly Tibetan monks but was open to anyone wanting to practice English so there were people there from all over the world. We were put into groups where we (as the English speakers) were the teachers, three questions were written on the board and the students discussed their answers as a group with us the teachers helping with any words they didn’t understand, they then wrote their answers and we checked their sentence structure grammar and spelling after the hour was up they then presented a question each to the class to practice their speaking in front of a group. It was such a good experience and all the students were so grateful for us volunteering our time. I defiantly would have gone back but they didn’t hold classes over the weekend and by Monday we were gone. After the class I decided to try a yoga class the other girls opted out as they weren’t feeling up to it but it was a great class running for 90mins with just three other pupils. After yoga feeling Zen but sweaty I headed for the shower and then we headed for dinner after which we went to the wine shop and brought a cheap bottle of vodka we took it into a café and had some cheeky café mixes on the rooftop before heading into a hilarious club we didn’t stay long as we were being swarmed on the dance floor which was quite intense the power went out soon after and there was an immense lightning storm which we watched by candle light.

Saturday 11^th May 2013

Today was a day of eating we started off with breakfast and soon after decided to go and eat cake. We signed up for some more yoga and then headed into the café we hadn’t been there long when the rain started it was a huge thunder and lightning storm and the sky got so dark it was like it was night already although it was only 12pm. The storm knocked out the power which didn’t come back on until about 10.30pm that night but luckily where we were was one of the few places with a generator because of the rain we decided to hold out there until the rain stopped so ordered huge slices of spinach quiche and salad and then ate cake . Eventually feeling stir crazy we headed back to the hotel at a run to get rain coats and then headed back into town to try and book a jeep to Manali as the sickies weren’t feeling up to riding ten hours on a bus. We found one for the same price each as our bus from Delhi so wasn’t bad. after that was booked we organised a cake to take with us to Manali for Claire’s birthday, by the time we had done our chores and looked at a few market stalls it was time to head to yoga, Alex came with me for her first ever yoga experience. In the evening we had a big romantic dinner by candle light in a local Indian restaurant. Because the power was still out we headed into a café and had a cup of tea by candle light and listened to some music. We headed back to the hotel just as the power came back on which was good as we didn’t have and candles.

Sunday 12^th May 2013

This morning we got up early to get our jeep to Manali we wanted to have breakfast in our local but it wasn’t open until 8.30am much to our disappointment, we eventually packed all our stuff into the car and headed onto the road. The drive was really beautiful up and down through the mountain valleys we stopped a few times for photos and to stretch our legs and at lunchtime stopped in this burnt out looking shack with clay ovens in the front where we had a meal of dhal and rice. We arrived into Manali at about 4pm and got the driver to take us straight to old Manali where we found a cheap guest house we checked in and put on some warmer clothes before taking a walk through the town later on we went for a meal at a new café that served falafel and hummus much to mine and Ayla's delight, we concluded the meal with a desert called sweet Jesus which was chocolate filled fried dumplings in some sort of creamy sauce which I think was mostly condensed milk. Feeling stuffed and freezing cold we trudged back up the hill in the rain to crawl into warm beds and have craft time to make Claire birthday cards.

Monday 13^th May 2013

HAPPY BRTHDAY CLAIRE! We woke up early this morning hoping to post our birthday cards under Claire’s door but she was already up when we opened our door the sun was out in full force and the skies were clear and blue. We gave Claire our cards and wished her a happy birthday before getting ourselves set for the day we had a birthday breakfast and then me and Alex visited a few travel agencies to compare prices to paraglide. We found a place we were happy with and booked a taxi to pick us up in 45mins we hung about waiting in nervous anticipation at 11.30am we jumped into the flat bed back of a 4x4 to drive 30mins up the mountain to the base the drive was really pretty and as the jeep had good suspension we didn’t get thrown about to much in the back. At the adventure playground we were faced with three options to get to our jump point we could take the rope way (which in winter is the ski lift), get a mountain pony or walk. Ayla and I wanted to walk but the many touts tried to dissuade us telling us how steep it was and that we would never make it, that it would take hours etc. we stuck to our guns though and whilst Alex headed up the mountain on a horse we followed behind on foot, we struggled to keep up with the guide dragging the horse along and had to stop for a few photo opportunities. We reached our jump point after about 30mins and headed over there was no ground crew and seemingly no organisation as there were people who had been waiting over two hours but they wanted us to jump straight away, luckily that was when Claire and Daisy arrived by horse as the ropeway was closed. Claire wanted to go first and so was put straight into a harness and within minutes was flying. We then had to sit about for a while which gave us enough time to become even more panicked about jumping especially after seeing two people have bad take offs.  Eventually it was my turn I was strapped in to the most unsafe looking harness the chest harness was done up with a plastic buckle and I wasn’t at all attached to the parachute just to the pilot and only by two carbineers however I threw caution to the wind and started to run off the side of the mountain as always I followed instruction to a tee and my legs were still running as we flew out. As soon as we were actually in the air all I felt was calm it was amazing to be so high up floating above the  ground  I clicked off some pictures without actually looking so was glad when I looked at them afterwards and there are quite a few really  cool shots. My flight lasted the longest at about 10mins which I think was mostly down to the fact that we keep getting caught in wind gusts at one point we were so much higher than everyone else and then suddenly we were so low the trees were just a metre or so under my feet. The ride was incredible but somewhat terrifying due to the fact that my pilot knew no English other the “shhiiit!” and “fuuuck!” not ideal when you are floating above the earth in a flimsy harness with nothing but a nylon sheet keeping you in the air! Once I landed (which was very bumpy and as usual extremely ungraceful) I found Claire and we sat and waited for the others they took about half an hour but then came down in quick succession (Alex almost landed on top of the Xorbes and Daisy pretty much took out a bunch of tourists) we regrouped and took some group photos before heading back to Manali in another jeep, the car had no suspension so by the time we arrived we all felt a bit car sick but that didn’t put us off lunch and soon we were in a local café munching down (and bizarrely drawing pictures with crayons provided by the restaurant as if we were five) after eating we all had a bit of an adrenaline come down and so headed to the hotel to chill out for a few hours, in the late afternoon we surprised Claire with a cake we had smuggled all the way form McLeod Ganj. It was a hugely delicious carrot cake which only got a tiny bit squashed in transit. After that we headed to New Manali by rickshaw to check out the handmade woollen shawls and blankets we wondered about the main road and eventually headed back to Old Manali unsuccessful in our shopping attempts. Back closer to home proved a success and Claire and daisy got themselves a blanket each which they wore to Claire’s birthday dinner. We ended the day with some birthday cocktails and a spot of dancing in a local café.

Tuesday 14^th May 2013

Today was a quiet one we had wanted to do a hike up to the waterfall but we all slept late and when we got up the weather wasn’t great. We spent a large part of the day eating moving from breakfast to a café to lunch we did do a bit of research into Rajasthan and sorted out our buss tickets back to Delhi so that was positive. In the afternoon we walked the few kilometres to New Manali through a section of forest on the way back we stopped to look at the state birds kept in the aviary’s there to our surprise we stumbled across a cage containing a baby bear, turns out she had been attacked by something and had a broken jaw some hikers had found her and brought her to the centre as she was only a month or so old the man looking after her said she was sad because she missed her mum but that he would get her into good health and she would be released into a national Forrest where she would be protected. The aviaries themselves had defiantly seen better days there were two containing different pheasants and then one with an blind eagle who only had one eye overall it wasn’t a nice place to linger and so we kept on our way back to New Manali.  Back at the hotel we chilled out for a while before crossing the road for diner we were lured in by the sign advertising banoffe pie so were disappointed when they didn’t actually have any. It was a freezing cold night so we were pleased the hotel was having a bonfire we chilled out there until the wood ran out and we headed to bed.

 Wednesday 15^th May 2013

Another day without much substance we spent most of the day killing time before our afternoon departure back to Delhi. Thankfully the sun had come out and so we soaked it up in an outdoor café before having to head off. The owner of the hotel drove us all to the bus station where we were on different buses we barely said goodbye to Claire and daisy in the mad rush of finding our bus. Once on board it became pretty clear our driver was a lunatic he drove wildly overtaking on corners and generally sitting perilously close to the edge. It seemed we were on a bus of Indian tourists a lot of whom began to feel carsick and soon enough I was sitting directly beside across the aisle from and I  front of people hurling into little plastic bags thankfully there was a movie playing to take my mind off the grimness of the situation somewhat. It was a Bollywood film with plenty of singing and dancing and a pretty ridiculous storyline. None the less I enjoyed it and it passed several hours. We topped for dinner and when we got back on the bus the lights were off and it was time for sleep.  It’s hard to sleep when the driver is quite homicidal and even harder to after he crashed into a car straight on going around a corner the worst part being that he didn’t even stop to check if the people were ok he just continued to drive with a completely cracked windscreen a smashed side window and no right hand side lights or mirror. We protested that we should stop but no one backed us up despite grumbling to themselves about how bad the driver was. (later on our journey we spoke to a policeman investigating a hit and run apparently it is very commonplace in India for vehicles to flee the scene) we had an uneasy night’s sleep and woke up to the chaos that is Delhi

Varanasi to Agra to Delhi to McLeod Ganj

Saturday 4^th May 2013

We should have arrived into Agra at 5.50am this morning so we were all up and ready to get off the train but it seems the train was running late and after sitting just outside a station for ages we were finally moving again on our let we got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal in the hazy dusty distance it was huge and even from a distance out of a train window it was impressive.  Finally we pulled into Agra Fort and jumped in a couple of Autos that took us to our hotel as we had been recommended a hotel we had booked in advance. We arrived at hotel Sheela (boasting toilet paper in the bathrooms!) but as we were early we couldn’t yet check in, the hotel was so pretty with lush green gardens and loads of little courtyards that led off to the rooms. We sat and had breakfast and read the papers in the outside seating of the restaurant and felt spoilt was like a Sunday morning breakfast in our garden at home. After eating our rooms were ready and so we checked in and showered after which we felt a bit more human, although we were still hungry and so went and had second breakfast at a local café. In the afternoon we went to the Bazar which was pretty hectic. Ayla and I got yelled at by a fat beggar woman who threatened us with a stick when we didn’t give her any money which was rather bizarre. Agra is a pretty town but is extremely hot and dusty and the touts are completely unrelenting. On the way back to the hotel we tried to book our train tickets to Delhi but there was none available our only option is to rock up at the station tomorrow and buy general class and cram in. in the evening we walked to the south gate of the Taj hoping to buy tickets for the morning but it was closed so we walked back out to the main street and ate dinner at a cute little rooftop restaurant that had views of the Taj.

Sunday 5^th May 2013

We were awake super early today to watch the sun rise over the Taj. We got dressed in our Saris and headed into the crisp Agra morning. At this time of day the air felt clean and fresh before the many people cars, cows and dogs kicked up the dust on the road. We walked to the west gate which opened the earliest and luckily for us as it was off season we didn’t have to wait long for tickets. We passed through the security gates and walked into the main courtyard where the sun was glowing orange through the trees we followed the crowds and headed in taking our first glimpse of the entire building. It was breath taking and awe inspiring glowing a pinkish tinge in the morning light. We stopped and took loads of photos then walked a bit closer and took more photos before repeating the process one more time. By now we were right by the doors and so we slipped on our cotton overshoes and headed inside. In its heyday the inside of the Taj Mahal must have been a sight to see but after being looted the white marble with its millions of empty recesses looked bare in the half light, the only colour that remains are some small semi-precious inlaid stones  creating a flower pattern around the room.  We walked out the back door which faces the river and took some more photos from a different angle. After which we walked back to the front centre and Alex recreated the famous Princess Di photos (albeit with a few more people) we met an English guy who is travelling through India and Bangladesh performing as a clown in children’s hospitals. He took some photos for us and we returned the favour it was his daughter’s birthday and so he made a balloon swan to hold up (we named her Helen and she lasted a few hours before ending up as a torture victim to a child in the train station) after we had taken in this beautiful building for long enough we headed back to the hotel to check out and get some breakfast. In the afternoon we headed to the train station and got on a general class train to Delhi the ride was only three and a half hours but we were crammed in with so many people we did sit in the ladies carriage but it seemed to be full of men who refused to move even for pregnant women or those with kids unless they were really barrelled out. In Delhi we pulled into the wrong station so had to get Rickshaws across the city we passed India Gate (Delhi’s version of the Arc de Triomphe) Delhi is a nice as far as big cities go but its touts are much more aggressive and in your face within minutes we were sworn at and called racists for not taking a hotel recommendation. Eventually after scouting a few places we checked into a hotel. We headed out and had a meal at an Indian place that had been recommended to us before having a drink at a rooftop bar, after being up early we were shattered and so headed to bed early.

Monday 6^th May 2013

We headed out for food late this morning and by the time we had eaten it was lunch time. We then wondered through the markets and ended up in Delhi’s answer to Harrods before doing a circle and ending back up where we started. We then headed down some side streets to find some street food and picked up some syrupy doughnut balls that had just been cooked. We walked down to a main road and got a glimpse of how hectic Delhi can be. We headed back to our area and bumped into Daisy and Claire. We all headed for a drink in a rooftop bar overlooking the hustle and bustle of the street below. Later on Ayla and I were led astray by an astrologer he obviously had a gift and so we followed him but he suddenly switched when we didn’t want to give him a large sum of money he was carrying on like a child where we (for once) kept our cool and explained cost was relative why was he asking for a payment in pounds when he lived in Rupees after a few minutes we walked out with our money his parting words “you’re an unhappy person and you’ll never find happiness so fuck you” my parting words (said with the biggest smile) “ I hope you find happiness because you’re a fucking angry horrible man” we walked out trying unsuccessfully to find the others and when we couldn’t, we decided to head back to the hotel and meet them there. A drunken man appeared and would not leave us alone he was harmless but wouldn’t leave and we didn’t want him to follow us to the hotel so we asked some guys at the henna stand to get him to leave, before we knew it there was a crowd around us all wanting us to call the police which we didn’t want to do so two guys walked us back and we thought that was the end of it until about five minutes later when the hotel manager banged on the door the guy had followed us and tried to get into the hotel so the police had been called. We went downstairs and the entire street was teeming with people out for this guy’s blood we pointed him out and the police carted him away without even asking us or listening to us about what had happened. We went and got some momos and headed to a local café that was screening a movie on its rooftop only the film stopped halfway so we left and feeling like a treat went to find another rooftop for a munch.

Tuesday 7^th May 2013

We went to breakfast this morning and deliberated the pros and cons of forking out for a bus to McLeod Ganj we decided to go for it as we didn’t have much choice if we wanted to visit and so after eating went and got tickets for that night. We then split up and Claire and Daisy went to visit the charity they had raised for whilst rickshaw running whilst the rest of us visited the Ghandi  Smitri which is where Ghandi spent his last few days and was assassinated. We went on the metro which was fun in itself it’s much nicer than the tube and is cleaner had AC and air conditioning. The lines were fairly simple to navigate so we got there without much trouble. Once there we needed to walk along wide tree lined avenues to get to the museum it was free entry and had more information than anyone could ever take in with all the details from Ghandi’s, life, philosophy, political views etc. documented in articles and quotes. We had to miss some of the museum in order to get back for our bus. The metro trip was short and before long we were back at the hotel packing up our bags and heading for the bus. We had to wait ages before we got on then had to change buses after 30mins on board first we were told to sit where we liked then were told we had to sit right at the back the last seats didn’t recline and didn’t have footrests so I refused to sit there on the grounds that tickets were so expensive after much arguing and being threatened with being offloaded we had seats but there was no AC and with the absence of openable windows we were soon sitting in a moving sauna. The driver drove like a maniac and I was glad for the darkness so I couldn’t see how bad the roads were. Sometime in the night the AC kicked in and we were soon sitting in a fridge, but at least we could recline.

Darjeeling to Varanasi

Saturday 27^th April 2013

We had hoped to get on the night train to Varanasi but as we couldn't book on line (due to not having an Indian bank card) the chances were slim, none the less we headed for a last meal at the bakery before heading to the share jeep stop to get a jeep down to Siliguri. The drive was a tad stressful as the mist had rolled in off the mountains reducing visibility to just a few metres ahead of us which isn’t ideal when you are driving down narrow windy mountain passes. As we got lower the visibility did improve so it came as a bit of a surprise when suddenly we came to an abrupt crunching stop. Our two left hand wheels had fallen off the road into the drainage ditch luckily it was on the mountain side of the road. It must have happened before because before we could say a word the driver was out of the truck and off down the road he came back with a handful of rocks and we built up piles of stones in front of each wheel, he then recruited another truck driver to pull us free. Although the under carriage had dragged along the ground there didn’t seem to be any damage and we were soon back on the road glad to be close to the bottom. The driver took us straight to New Jalpaiguri which is the train station in Siliguri. We set about trying to find out if we could get on the train that night and were shocked to see that the station looked so different during the day there were loads of families seemingly living outside the station and we were soon swarmed with begging children who clung onto our clothes, bags and limbs we got into the reservation office and lined up for an age to be told we were 49^th on the waiting list and that there was no way we would get on a train that night he told us to come back at 11.30am the next day so we piled into an auto rickshaw and headed to a cheap hotel in Siliguri. It was only about 4.30pm but we were all hungry so we went and had a thali for dinner followed by ice-cream crisps and chocolate bars. Back at the hotel we chilled out with some Israeli backpackers who were motorcycling across India later on we headed out to look at the markets before calling it quits for the night.

Sunday 28^th April 2013

We got up and had breakfast on the way back to the station where we queued up for well over an hour to be told there were no more waiting list tickets we were shepherded into the back room and told that they could get two of us on the rain to Varanasi that day but not five that we would be waiting weeks for a space to become available. Our only option was to get a train to Patna and from there pick up a connecting train the rest of the way. After a short amount of deliberating we booked the tickets the train left at 2.30pm that day but would take 15 hours to reach our destination. We killed time by having lunch and then went to find our platform. All five of us were in the same berth meaning we only had to share with a couple of other people but as it goes in India the three other seats contained about 15 people. We all lost ourselves reading for most of the afternoon before having a watery dhal and rice meal for dinner. About 9pm we set up the bunks and tried to kip immediately after turning off the light an Indian man who was climbing up to the top bunk hit his head on the fan blood went  everywhere and for the next few hours he sat stunned on the end of Aylas bed whilst she slept. Ayla and I got the worst deal as we were sleeping on the lowest bunks we had many people sleeping at the end during the course of the night although I think we still slept in relative luxury when compared with the Indian travellers who seemed to cram two to three people per bed.

Monday 29^th April 2013

We pulled into Patna at 4am and got off the train to be greeted with bodies sleeping in every available space we made our way to the reservation hall where even more people were sprawled out all laying on thin ground sheets it resembled some bizarre refugee camp. We got tickets on the super-fast express which seemed to us to be a regular train as there was no train number time or platform on the tickets it took us a while and a lot of walking back and forth before we finally found our train. We didn’t have any reservations and so had to travel in general class which on this train was just one carriage. The whole thing was full so we dropped our bags in the corridor and say on them as the journey went along we slowly all moved to seats but were disheartened when after three hours we still weren’t there yet three hours had been the time we were told it would take to get there. When he train reached the station before Varanasi we were excited to be getting there but sadly for us the train decided to sit there for an age in the already blistering sun. We reached Varanasi and all piled into one rickshaw with all our bags seemingly it was how many tourists can you put in a rickshaw? We were taken straight to a bakery where we had a huge cooked breakfast and pancakes we ended up staying at a guest house that was affiliated to the bakery and was within walking distance. At the hotel we chilled out for a lot of the afternoon catching up on emails and sorting out all our stinky clothes. Late afternoon we headed out to find the river which we walked along from the first sight of the Ganges I was absolutely in love with Varanasi and was kicking myself for not bringing my camera out with me. We went to a rooftop restaurant that had been recommended to us we were the only customers and sat on the floor on cushions around low tables we had freshly cooked homemade pasta which was phenomenal. After eating we decided to get a rickshaw back only the driver clearly didn’t know where we wanted to go and so we drove in never ending aimless circles around the cities hectic streets. The highlight of our night drive was seeing in Indian wedding in full swing dancing their way along the main road we wanted to jump out and join them but hesitated a the chance was gone as we whizzed by. Back at the hotel the fan did nothing more than push the hot air around our room hour after hour until morning.

Tuesday 30^th April 2013

I was up early this morning due to the heat and Alex was up not long after me we made our way to breakfast while the others enjoyed the luxury of a sleep in. when we got back the others were just beginning to surface and so when they headed off to breakfast I decided to stay and get some writing done. Three hours later and they still hadn’t returned not that it bothered me as it gave me some time to catch the world up on our rickshaw adventures and as I was sitting in the lobby one of the staff members gave me an astrology reading which was so interesting much of what he said was the same as the last psychic reading that I had in London.  when finally Claire came back it transpired that they were down the street in a music store having some sort of jam session with the locals and another traveller we went to join them and on the way I took my ripped trousers to the tailor who repaired the split crotch for a mere 10 rupees. We sat and listened to the best tabla player in Varanasi until his “energy” ran out. The other guy in the shop then took us to the best lassi shop in town the walk took quite a while as we were constantly being diverted by the police including one instance where the policeman pointed his rifle right in Ayla's face. We were told the police presence was due to a terrorist alert real or a drill depending on who we spoke to but it later turned out that it was because a prime minister (of which country we are unsure) was visiting one of the many temples in Varanasi. Finally we made it to the lassi shop where we were skipped to the front of the queue to order. I had mixed fruits which tasted surprisingly nice a lot like a yoghurt smoothie.  We were close to the Burning Ghat and so as we had our drinks we saw several bodies being taken down to the river for funerals. On the way back to the old town where we were staying we lost our guide and so wondered back through the many twisting roads. The girls all stopped to look in a pharmacy and I stood outside chatting to a shop keeper. He told me it was his dream to move to England and so I asked him why he would want to leave India he replied that it was because Indian men had such a cheap mentality that 95% of them only saw women as sex and that it was never going to change, he showed me his rubbish bin and said that he had asked all the shop keepers to put their rubbish in the bin and that he would remove it yet the streets were still full of rubbish he remarked that if men were too lazy to use a bin then they were too lazy to change their mind sets. The conversation went on for a lot longer and he showed me many pictures of his wife and kids. In the afternoon I chilled out at the hotel while the others went to dinner as I hadn’t drunk enough water that day and had made myself sick with dehydration.

Wednesday 1^st May 2013

Another early start for me this morning. By the time anyone else had surfaced I had already done my laundry and was showered and ready for the day down in the lobby. We went and had a long breakfast and then decided to hang out at the river for a few hours we found the Burning Ghat but as we didn’t really want to intrude on someone’s funeral we back tracked hoping to find another section of the river only we got completely hopelessly lost in the maze of streets we walked around for two hours before ending up back at the Burning Ghat. During our walk we saw the side of India that people try to avoid, all the parts that are uncomfortable and that no one wants to think about let alone talk about. We were confronted with puppies dying in the heat, loads of beggars and street children many who had physical deformities or mental disabilities. We got to the main road and there was a truck with two cows on it there was music playing, incense burning and lots of people about but we just thought that they were worshipping the cows as they are holy we had a double take though as one cow had three eyes its third sitting in the middle of its forehead blinked every time the other eyes did he also had a third horn right in the middle of his head. The other cow had six legs, its four normal ones and then an extra pair coming out of his neck. We patted the three eyed cow for good luck and left feeling sad for their deformities but happy that they were so well treated. If only the people could be treated this way. Back at the river we only sat for a few minutes before retreating into the shade of a café for a light lunch after which we went and did two hours of yoga, I was hoping the class was going to be strenuous but it was quite light yoga and a lot of meditation, the class was really relaxing and I came out feeling Zen but I would have lied to get my sweat on a bit more. Narca-Ayla struck again and Ayla fell asleep in the middle of a relaxation part of the class and I was put to shame by the guy next to me who was wearing jeans but still had far more flexibility than me. In the evening we had a quiet meal followed by more food from the street vendors and an early night to digest our hectic day.

Thursday 2^nd May 2013

As usual I was up early again this morning and was out of the room quickly as I had run out of water in the night and my throat felt like sand. Ayla and Alex slept late this morning and so by the time we joined the others for breakfast it was late morning. When finally we got active we walked along the river taking photos and taking in the sights and smells of the river we stopped under a shade where the plan was to sit and people watch for a while only it turned out to be us that were on show as usual a million young guys (and bizarrely several couples) wanted to take pictures with us. There was a photographer taking pictures of pilgrims swimming in the Ganges and then printing them and selling them on the spot and creepily several guys got pictures of/with us printed. We managed to pick up some followers a young guy who seemed to have fallen in love with Ayla and a small child who was about eight who seemed to appoint himself our body guard for the rest of the day. We walked along the river some more until we met an American guy and his friend who was Indian we sat and talked to them for a while the Indian guys English was really good and so Alex took the opportunity to ask him several questions about Indian culture. The small boy that was following us must have been bored as he kept getting in our faces doing his Hanuman (monkey god) impression; he wasn’t impressed with my monkey impression though. We walked all the way to the Burning Ghat and did see some bodies being put on the fires, I spoke to a young guy who works in a local hospice and he told me that the fires burn 24 hours a day and that they burn between 250-400 people a day he went into a bit too much detail about the process but it was interesting to learn. The poorest people are burnt on the river bank and depending of wealth and social status people are burnt at higher points of the tiers. It is widely believed that being burnt on the fires and having your ashes scattered into the Ganges will give you a free ticket to heaven which is especially important to the Hindus as it ends their cycle of rebirth. We chilled out in the hotel for a while before heading back to the river to watch the Aarti ceremony it’s a nightly celebration of the river Ganges we arrived and were blessed and given candles to float on the river (for a small price of course) we then sat for a while taking in the hectic river side pilgrims come to Varanasi from all over India to see the ceremony and swim in the holy waters so there was people everywhere. After a while we got into a boat and watched the ceremony from the water our boat man then rowed us further along and we lit our candles he then dropped us off at the smaller Burning Ghat we jumped to shore trying to ignore the fact that the water was thick with ash. We walked in the darkness the rest of the way along the river to the Asi Ghat where we got some dinner (which ended with apple pie and ice-cream!) we then tried to find the monkey temple to see some live music but we got lost and it seemed every time we stopped a drunken leery man would appear until we had a crowd following us down the road. We called it quits and got a rickshaw back to the hotel.

Friday 2^nd May 2013

Today was our last day in Varanasi and the first time that I had slept in I woke up feeling like I had had too much sleep and was still super full from yesterday so much so that I took today to fast. I sat and had fresh mint tea whilst the girls had breakfast and then we made our way to a Sari factory we had hoped to see the women weaving the fabric or something like that but as it was Friday they were all off work. We sat in a room and several guys showed us every piece they had in the workshop they must have thought we were rich tourists as all the saris they showed us were 4000 rupees or more. They were all beautiful though and so we all tried them on. He also showed us some silk duvet covers which were stunning and a few of the girls brought them. We left the shop and went and got some henna. In the afternoon we all split up and Ayla and I hit the market buying some cheap cotton saris. In the evening we headed to the station in a complete rush to catch our night train to Agra. On the train two policemen came and asked us to read a poorly written public notice for foreigners not to eat or drink anything on the train that they didn't purchase themselves as there was a high case of travelers being drugged and having all their bags stolen. We had to sign that we had read the statement which was a bit creepy. But other than that the journey passed uneventfully.

Shillong to Darjeeling

So as you know we finished the run in Shillong it’s a mountain town and the capital of Meghalaya situated somewhere in the north east of India above Bangladesh, it was once one of the wettest places on earth but due to a lot of pollution (and someone said the building of a concrete factory?) the rain patterns have changed, with that said it still rained a lot while we were there and was rather cold especially after the intense heat of the plains. Its lush rolling hills reminded the British of one of their own and so it’s nicknamed “the Scotland of India”

Sunday 21^st April 2013

Our first day in Shillong we opted to do not much other than eat and mooch around the city , we weren’t really in a state to take on the sights and even an offer of a second night on the Shillong mix was enough to send me scurrying to bed.

Monday 22^nd April 2013

We figured since Shillong is listed as an “it” tourist spot we should take in some of the sights, we clearly picked the wrong one,  I’m going to put it down to our laziness in not actually researching the place we decided to go. We booked a taxi and all clambered in for the long drive to the hot springs we were counting on some beautiful thermal pools where we could soak away the last two weeks on the road. Imagine our disappointment then when we arrived, we payed the meagre entry fee and walked down the hill to be confronted with a sign we had the choice of toilets (5 r/s for the latrine 2 r/s for urine which in either case was invalid because they were locked) tourists bathrooms, local bathrooms or swimming pool. We followed each of the signs but still no hot springs we then went off the path in a search for them but alas still no hot springs since it was the only unlocked building we decided to check out what was in the male tourist bathroom, here we found the “hot springs” a pipe a knee height that pumped out a trickle of hot water. Luckily the beautiful scenery made up for the fact that we had just driven 2 hours to see a pipe of hot water. Back in Shillong we decided that the time to say goodbye was upon us so with that in mind we got in another taxi to drive us down to Guwahati. We made it there by about 8pm and bumped into another team of runners who were to become our travel companions for the next wee while.

Tuesday 23^rd April 2013

Today we had our last Indian day with Kurt before he jetted off to continue his travels in the real Scotland. We had an amazing dosa for breakfast before piling in a rickshaw to head up the hill to see a temple despite the fact that we knew better (having driven these babies ourselves) the drivers insisted we were too heavy to go in one Shaw and so split s into two. I’m not sure if it was to prove his point or because he didn’t actually know how to drive but our Rickshaw man stalled about four times and each hill start sent us rolling back about 3m I would say it had something to do with him trying to drive a steep incline in fourth gear. At the top of the hill we took in the view and watched some monkeys before heading into the temple it was a sacred affair and I left after just a few minutes as I felt I was intruding on peoples prayers. Outside there were millions of monkeys and goats eating offerings left to them presumably by the worshipers. We took a seat under a tree and monkey watched for an age before heading down the hill to the river side, on the way we met an Aussie dude named Tim who was living in Guwahati with his sister he walked with us to the river and showed us the markets and various other things along the way. Down by the river the others took a boat across to an island to see another temple whilst I opted to sit on the river bank under a tree and do some writing. Fairly soon I was approached first by a couple who had been together for seven years but were unable to get married as she is Hindu and he is Muslim and her family will disown her if they marry. Next I spoke to some young university students both were girls and wanted to know how I felt as a women travelling in India I told them about the run but I’m not sure they believed me and when they asked what I studied at uni and I said I had never been they quickly lost interest in me. I had a few more conversations along the way until I was approached by five little girls, they were sweet but after an hour of being climbed on, fingers up my nose, pulling my earrings and stroking my hair I was feeling claustrophobic so it was good timing that the others reappeared. That night we all went for a meal and then to have coffee at a real coffee bar which a few of the girls were gagging for as for me of course I had a chocolate brownie covered in ice-cream.

Wednesday 24^th April 2013

This morning we headed to the train station praying to Ganesh that we could get on a train to Siliguri we headed into the station and went up to the enquiries counter they sent us to counter 12, there we had to fill in a reservation form and take it out across the car park to another building there we were ushered in and out of some tiny office long story short we had to wait until 11.30am and then take the slip back to counter 12 where we would be issued our seats. We left the station and went and got some breakfast and picked up our bags from the hotel. Back at the station we were issued seats and had just an hour to kill before the train left. We sat on our bags in the middle of the station trying to pretend we didn’t notice we were being stared at like freaks in the circus. About 15mins before the train set off we could board we had tickets for sleeper class but as our section of the journey was only six hours and it was during the day we didn’t need to utilise the beds. I can’t quite work out the system of Indian trains as there always seems to be far more people then seats but when the ticket collector comes round everyone holds a valid ticket. There was a man in my seat so I sat in someone else’s seat and no one ever turfed me out so I stayed there for the entire journey.  Whilst we were sitting on the train a man dressed in a sari with full make-up on he approached everyone and they all handed him 10 rupee notes it was so bizarre that they so loosely handed over cash to a lady boy by steadfastly ignored the beggars. Alex and Ayla were crammed in with about a million people all jammed into the six person berth. I spent the journey writing and dozing whilst listening to music so the time past quite quickly. We arrived in Siliguri not long after 7pm and walked out of the station and straight to a jeep to drive us up to Darjeeling the journey took about two hours and was quite scary in the dark but at least the roads are really good as the driver was going so fast and overtook anything that was in his way. We got to Darjeeling about 10.30pm and went to a hotel that had been recommended to us unfortunately it was full apart from some super deluxe room for a million rupees a night our jeep driver offered to take us to his friends hotel called  “home sweet home” as we drove up the hill we weren’t sure whether it was going to be a hotel or someone’s house, it was a hotel and we checked in. we felt bad as they looked to be shutting up shop for the night but reopened the kitchen for us and made us omelette chapattis before we wrapped up warm and went to bed.

Thursday 25^th April 2013

We had a late start to the day this morning as the majority of our little party was feeling a bit under the weather. When finally we had dragged our arses out it was almost midday and so we headed straight for food, we massively overindulged with a full cooked breakfast followed by pancakes it started off a crazy few days of constant eating. We spent the afternoon wandering about Darjeeling town and sampling the tea in its many tea houses interspersed with snack stops to the many street food vendors. We had a lingering look at a bookshop and got some postcards before stopping off in a bakery, then went and had dinner before heading back to the bakery for cake we then passed out in food comas.

Friday 26^th April 2013

We were up before the sun this morning with the intention of watching it rise unfortunately it was a hugely cloudy morning so there wasn’t much to see although we could see the very tip of Everest peaking its enormous head above the clouds. Although seeing the sun rise would have been amazing the atmosphere certainly wasn’t the hillside was absolutely teeming with tourists there was litter everywhere despite the rubbish bins, it was so bad the hill below the viewing platform resembled a landfill, there was also a horrendous smell coming from the public toilets and the air was polluted with the cries of the many touts and they horrid hacking spit that seems to be an audible treat here. We rode back to the hotel and our driver took some random windy route which left me feeling hugely carsick in the nick of time we arrived and with a few gulps of mountain air I was feeling ok again. Back up in our room we all crawled back into our beds and tried to regain feeling in our numb limbs. When we were ready to face the world again we went to our new favourite breakfast haunt before heading off to see a tea plantation. We went to the Happy Valley Tea Estate which is the plantation that provides the tea for Harrods along with a few other European buyers it’s not available anywhere in Darjeeling or even in India which is a shame. We went on a tour through the factory and then walked back to town through the tea fields. We decided a caffeine fix was needed and so headed to a coffee bar where we sat watching the wrestling on an enormous TV for a while before trekking down to the Tibetan refugee centre and workshop the walk down was a steep windy path that took far longer than anticipated and so we arrived just as they were closing they kept it open long enough for us to have a quick wander through and a chat with some of the beautiful people living there. The walk back up was quite a workout and by the top we were all in need of some food it was our first Indian meal in a few days and it was amazing how much I had missed it.