Aaaaaaahhhh.... peace at last!

We have left the mania of Delhi behind us, following a rather traumatic bus journey that took us on a tour of all the bus driver's friends' houses before arriving at a town about half an hour away from where we were supposed to be... excellent, 5am, dropped in some random carpark in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!! A bit helpless so we accept the first offer of a room that comes our way, the guy seemed genuine and was grinning like a 5 year old at Christmas when we arrived at his sweet little guest house in the hills. Turns out we are in a place called Laxman Jhula, near Rishikesh, and we are really glad that fate took us here cos it's bloody gooooorgeous!!!!!

After a few hours rest out of the midday heat we began a little stroll down to the River Ganges. Oooo it is lovely here, a long and slightly wobbly foot bridge takes you accross the river (with monkeys and motorbikes in our path) and we are seeing the foothills of the Himalyas for the first time, breathtaking views with dramatic mist hanging over the mountain peaks, and lush forest all around. And nice clean air!

A bit of the history stuff: This area is famous for yoga and meditation and ayuvedic medicine (a mixture of homeopathy, spiritual healing and yoga and massage therapies). There are many famous and rather grand temples here, Ashrams (yoga school type thingys), apparently the Beatles came here to become enlightened by Yogi Gupta - the big daddy of yoga... he was like the bestestest in the whole wide world...

Having become seriously enlightend (if not a bit dizzy) after walking round and round, up 10 storeys of Yogi Bear's temple and ringing 50,000 bells on the way up we decided to fill our bellies in a beautiful roof-top restaurant where we ate the bestestest food yet... Katie's belly is beginning to recover and anyway, she is eating regardless cos she was getting rather hungry!! Frequent toilet stops are easier here as the toilets are cleaner and it is easier to find one in which you are not accompanied by a hoard of unidentifyable insects and objects lurking in and around the hole... Hmmmmm.

Next morning (Saturday 22nd)... we heard the disturbing noise of the alarm clock (it's bin a while... especially for katie!) 8.00 start, how uncivilised! Oh well, a trip rafting on the Ganges beckoned, so it was not hard to get out of bed! We piled in the boat with another group of white pasty Anglo Saxons and cruised down the tame but rather enjoyable rapids, mostly we were told to jump in and float...mmm so cold and refreshing, lots of Ganges water in my belly now... not sure if I am blessed or cursed by this!!??

Tomorrow we are off the Manali to begin our trek in the mountains proper! So you won't hear from us for a couple of weeks... I'm sure you will cope!

Loads of love to you all,

Katie and Seb

Recent losses: Lonely Planet of India in bus (sorry mum I will buy you a new (used) one!); Camera USB cable - maybe in darkest hidden depths of rucksack or river?? therefore no personal fotos from us...for the moment!!

General Health Status: both rocking a healthy lifestyle with beard (Katie has not quite cultivated hers yet, but I'm sure it won't be long) and hippy outfits increasing, slowly (moderate or poor (sorry slipped into a Radio 4 shipping forecast for a moment there: VIKING NORTH UTSIRE SOUTHERLY BACKING EASTERLY 5 TO 7, DECREASING 3 OR 4. SHOWERS. GOOD)

Book recommendations: We are both reading fantastic books about India if anyone is interested, they are really embelishing our trip and will give you all some idea of what life is like out here: A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry; Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts

We've just come back from Varanasi on the sleeper train, which was a really interesting city. We unfortunately got roped into a tour of the temples with our hostel guide, who was determined to convert us to hinduism, all the way round, instead of just letting us observe and just be in the temples. He insisted in very upside-down and back-to-front English on telling us about all the 10000 gods of hinduism and their various reincarnations, then he tried to convince us to go and see this guru guy who would read our stars and tell us about our past, present and future lives... blah blah blah! He finished this tour with a little trip to the famous silk weaving part of town, where small children were slaving away at the looms making the silk. Of course we then got taken to his mates shop and were shown their entire stock of silk. Before we could say we weren't interested he'd layed out about 400 different cloths and tried to persuade us that we would never have another oportunity to buy "this quality silk at this quality price"... we politley declined 500 times and were finally allowed to leave the shop!! He was extrememly disgruntled that we hadn't caved into his sales patter.

At sunset we took a boat trip on the River Ganges which was really very moving, as we rode past the Burning Ghats where they were cremating the dead. The eeriest thing was when there was a loud bang like a firework, indicating the explosion of the dead body's skull. Brrr.

Unfortunately, our inspiring tour guide was there again, talking rubbish at us and telling us that in order to preserve our good Karma we had to give money to the local watchman to buy wood for the poor people to be able to burn their bodies. Made us feel really bad, but we felt that if we give money to anyone it will not be when we are forced by him. We then watched a Puja which is a ritual to the gods, with dramitic fire dance and lots of drums and chanting.

The next day we had another boat trip at sunrise (thank god our tour guide had decided we weren't worth bothering with and he stayed in bed!) This time we saw all the locals have their daily bath in the Ganges (which by the way is absolutley brown and full of raw sewage and dead bodies) but that didn't seem to deter them from cleaning their teeth and rinsing their mouths out in the filthy water... they must have stomachs of steel! Unlike me(katie), by the way, as the Delhi belly has just caught up with me!

We spent the afternoon walking about in the stifling heat and settled in a shady spot by the river talking to the local street children and trying to swap a few words of English with Hindi, our phrase book provided much hilarity and drew quite a large crowd as we stumbled out phrases such as "Do you think it will rain?" and "Where is the hospital?" in very poorly pronounced Hindi.
Anyway, we're back in Delhi now after our second sleeper train experience, which by the way was very comfortable and not at all unpleasant way to spend the night. This evening we're off to Haridwar, another very holy city in the foothills of the himalyas, near the source of the Ganges... supposed to be very peaceful and spiritual, looking forward to that.

General health up date:
Katie: Delhi Belly - poo very much like water infact!!!!
Seb: stomach of steel, he strong like bull: no problems to report, beard growing at super speed...

gooooooooood morning Dehli!!!!

Finally after a 8 hour flight with good food and a confy chair...we've arrived in the big City. Stepping through the doors out of the lovely air-conditioned airport, into the furnace of Delhi. Thousands of people, loud, cows chilling on the road, smell of spice and food, sweat, poo.....boooooooom an explosion of senses.

After finding a hotel and sleeping in a small puddle of our own sweat a bit, we went out to find some food and discover the city. We randomly strolled through the city (new delhi), which is really difficult to do when you don't know your way around cos EVERYONE wants to give you a lift or tell you where you should go. We are being stared at alot, and it surprised us how few tourists there are. Loads of young men practising their english with us.. hello sir, hello sir, hello sir, hello sir (no differentiation between sexes by the way - infact I think most of the ladies think Katie is a man cos she is wearing brown trousers, which for some reason they are finding hilarious... note to self ... get some brightly coloured hippy gear before we leave) ... can become quite tedious after a while! Anyway, we managed to do one of the tourist sites called the Red fort, basically a massive load of marble buildings surrounded by a big red wall (from some important Emperor dude who had far too much money). Inside we were asked for pictures and posed for the curious Indians. It was like being in the zoo... very odd, but I guess we do the same, a bit.

The best bit, a rickshaw drive through the markets at night.......It was amazing. The city comes alive at night, as it is too bloody hot during the day. We gun it through the packed streets, which by now are pitch black as the sun went down really fast. It is loud, people are screaming their offers, selling everything that we really need to add to our already excruciatingly heavy rucksacks...(I should have listened to all the advice from our friends - "you don't need all that crap!") anyone for a wind up helicopter toys, leather whips, snake charmer, flutes, dresses, pipes, food, spices?.... The smell of spices, poo and animals surrounds us, our rickshaw driver/tour guide points out every mosque, temple, church and building of religious significance...we are in awe, our jaws are dropped and we can only stare at this phenomenal scene.

We got chucked off our rickshaw, cos I think the poor bloke was completely knackereed, and walked the rest of the way home, through the rats and cats and dogs and goats and cows and all their related effluent... (katie did actually tread on a rat, it was fat and furry and not very nice on my flip-flopped foot!).

So now we're just chilling in this air-conditioned internet cafe, we've just killed about 2 litres of water each in the last two hours, eaten a selection of yummy Indian dishes and now I must go and buy some brightly coloured hippy clothing in order to feel like a proper traveller!

Loads of love to everyone, until the next exciting enstallment....
Katie and Seb

Stool status: Firm. (no problems to report)

...one more day to go and so many things to tell you!

We are off tomorrow, we are off tomorrow!!!!

Finally , we are embarking on our journey across the World. Actually we've already started, by visiting Austria, Germany and Switzerland last week..at least it felt so as we slept in a different place every day, took trains and buses and ate supermarket food on the streets....

My good friend Paul from UNI got married in this lovely little town of Mattsee, which is about 20 min West of Salzburg, Austria. It was a beautiful wedding, in a caslte overseeing this little lake, with plenty of sunshine and good temperatures. In respect of the English tradtions, the boys were wearing "top hat and tails" or "Penguin suits"; the girls their beautiful dresses.

The funny thing was that I was put in charge of translating the wedding, which in accordance to the registrar of the town hall, was nothing out of the ordinary. Paul and Birgit were happy for me to do it, and so i went along and did the whole thing. Although it was a bit weird to ask one of your best friend:


Do you, Paul L., want to sincerely and truly take Brigit D. as your wife, so answer me with the words, I do.

, I am glad that I could do them and the guests that favor.


The party afterwards in the castle was amazing as well. The band, an Austrian band with amazing singers, lit up the dancefloor with good tunes and sing along tracks. By then the wine tasted like ribena and the teeth became blacker and more stained by the hour. In that time I must have taken about 400 pictures of every single guest, inluding the set up of my friend John, who we forced to kiss a "less than average" , tatooed, 6 fingered farmerrs girl. Jazz was in top form himself and was immitaing some predator and rambo scenes, to the entertainment of our little group.



The next day we went off to see my friend Andreas in Munich, who I have not seen in donkeys years. Munich, oh I love it so much. Katie was abolutely in awe with all the amazing architecture, the people, culture, gardens, etc....
Andy took us to the English garden, which revealed the anticipated nudes and the splendid chill out zones and beergardens. He also showed us the SURFING spot on the Eisbach, which is a small river running at high speeds through the park. 5 or 6 surfers were lining up to hit the waves with long and short boards, multiple tricks and no fear of the freezing cold water temperatures.
We actually managed to jump in ourselves and let us drag a few hundred miles. ( in summer college students actually let themselves drag for miles and return in their bathing gear via tube).

The last stop on our journey was HOME SWEET HOME, Friendrichshafen, were we where greated with Mum ands Dad's hugs, kisses and their splenid cusine. Mum was off, so she was able to take us to Austria and Switzerland for a bit of trekking. It was great , because we could get used to our gear and it was also nice to get a bit of a tan before the heat of India and China will burn us into bits.

For the last two days, back in Inkpen, we are preparing our stuff:. We are saying goodbye to the last people, inluding katie's kids at school. Are downloading every song for our ipod as we need to be prepared for our long journeys in the trains. Finish all the paperwork, eat all the good things that we won't get for a while and start packing the big rucksack which will be our home for the next 12 months.

we will keep you posted......

india_map

india_map
Originally uploaded by ktdunn.

An India map for you to look at and for us to find the way.