Vietnam – The place of smiles.

We were both happy to be moving on from the Indian sub-continent to South East Asia and Vietnam. We had spent almost four months in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and to be honest we didn't want to see another curry for a long, long time. We were up for about 30 hours straight due to the flight being at 1 am and a 3 hour stop-over in Singapore and were dreading the visa, which we had arranged over the internet, either not being valid or taking a long time. As we waited

patiently for the very communist uniformed immigration officers to sort through our forms and stamp our passports we were pleasantly surprised when all was completed within 30 minutes. We proceeded through the doors of the airport, made ourselves instant millionaires at the ATM(1,000,000 Vietnamese dong = £30) and hopped on a mini-bus to the centre of Hanoi.

What we were greeted with when we arrived was a sea of faces flying past on motorbikes and full of smiles. Everywhere we turned someone was smiling at us, saying hello or just having a wee giggle at our look of sheer terror at the potential crossing of the road!!! This turned out to be a universal constant throughout all the Vietnamese people we met and it seemed to reverberate through their whole personality. We went on a 2 day trek in the northern highlands near Sapa and our guide, a lovely lady called Sho, would talk as if her whole body was smiling. We would walk over the crest of a hill and she would shout 'Yes!!!' with arms spread out in starjump formation. We would all rush up to see what caused such a reaction and when nothing was evident we asked what it was, her reply 'a breeze'.

We both came here not knowing what to expect. Our limited knowledge of Vietnam and it's history was sourced from the guide book we were carrying and my (John's) watching of Vietnam war movies.

So it was a surprise to be in a very modern city with wifi in most cafe's and hotels, shiny new cars and scooters filling the roads and iPhones and iPads galore. We understand now that Vietnamese people are fiercely proud of their country, often talking of their traditions and particular customs. It is also one of the most open economies in the region and, something which I did not believe at first, is the second largest exporter of coffee behind Brazil??? I consider myself a bit of a coffee connoisseur and I have not once seen Vietnamese coffee for sale, it also is one of the largest exporters of pepper and various other things so the Vietnamese people really do have a lot to smile about. During our travels we visited the War Remnants Museum in Saigon and were struck by two things. One was the very blatant propaganda

approach by the Government, painting the Vietnamese as victims on all accounts with no mention of the atrocities that were committed against the POW's that have become infamous in our society through countless films and documentaries. The second was the viewpoint of the Vietnamese people. We saw a huge photographic display from photographers on both sides which, again very biased, showed some awful scenes and stories that were committed against the Vietnamese people. It makes you think about when we say that we are whiter than white how sometimes we have been stained red by the past. When you remember that a lot of people within Vietnam were affected by the war in the 60's and 70's you could completely understand if they would be resistant to us as westerners, yet we are received with a smile.

As we traveled south through Vietnam we knew we had definitely hit the tourist trail. We had been very much the minority in the sub-continent, quite often being the only white people on the bus. We were now traveling on tourist buses, although with some locals, we definitely were not the minority. This brought with it a few difficulties like being charged large amounts for water, food or just about anything. This left a bad taste in the mouth at times but to be

honest we could almost guarantee that within the same day something would happen to make us smile, and it quite often was the locals that made it happen. We were sitting waiting for breakfast one morning and had both ordered scrambled eggs on a baguette. We were enjoying some lovely iced coffee, well we were enjoying it for quite a while, when a guy drove up in a scooter, whipped a bag of fresh baguettes off the handle and sprinted past us with a big grin and a very cheerful 'hello!' Our eggs arrived promptly afterwards, we both turned to each other and said 'at least we know they are fresh'.

It has been the lasting impression we have had of Vietnam. Having traveled the length of the country and spoken to many locals we have found that even if they meet some awful tourists who treat them with such disrespect or rudeness they still have the ability to smile, something which we westerners really struggle to do. We were sitting in a cafe in Hanoi one day and two Spanish girls lent over the counter and with quite stern voices pointed and ordered the girl behind the counter to give them what they wanted. They also sent back a coffee to be re-heated by shoving it across the counter and shouting at the same girl. It was the first time I saw a Vietnamese person seem disheartened and not smiling. It made me very angry and told Louise what happened. When we were leaving she went over to the counter next to the Spaniards and said, with a slightly raised voice, said 'Thank you very much for the lovely food.' The girl behind the counter just burst into the most wonderful smile and gave us a cheerful wave as we left filling us with a sense of happiness. This is just one of the reasons we will remember Vietnam as the place that smiled.

Sri Lanka

We have just had a wonderful three weeks in the wonderful country of Sri Lanka (that's Ceylon for all you oldies who struggle with the country's name change!).

This is a beautiful country with a bit of everything, from the ancient cities and the hill country to the lazy beaches of the south and east. And we have done it all!

We spent our first few days in Sri Lanka cycling around the ancient remains of Anuradhapurna and Polonnaruwa with perfect blue skies, sunshine and the magical experience of an ancient treasure round every corner.

(Mind you our cycling skills are nothing like the locals!)

Larry has a chat with Buddha.

We have climbed Sigiriya rock for sunset and the famous Adam's Peak for sunrise (on a full moon day!).

We thoroughly enjoyed traveling 3rd class in the train through the hill country from Nuwara Eliya to Ella through endless tee plantations worked by the Plantation Tamils brought from India to Sri Lanka by the British and spent some time in Kandy, home to the tooth relic of the Buddha. After two weeks of constant moving with only one or two nights in any one place we were pleased to reach Mirissa beach on the south coast where we stopped for a week and did nothing!

Highlights here have included the incredibly shy friendliness of the local people including a comical moment when we briefly became an exhibit in Colombo National Museum to a group of school children who were definitely showing more interest in us than in their own history (we were surrounded and shyly asked “where you from” - cue mass giggling). Rickshaw drivers take top place for getting your attention in the hopes that you will need their services! It's quite funny when we are just walking along and an auto rickshaw glides up beside us and moves along at walking pace, then the monologue begins “you need taxi, good price, tour 100 rupees, can I help you?.....etc.”. Then there are all the randoms who, as they cycle/drive past, shout “hello! welcome to Sri Lanka!”.

After a brief stop off in the Dutch colonial town of Galle we are now in Colombo, we have exhausted the city sights and are wasting away a day or two in a good coffee shop with good food and free wifi and look forward to our next flight which will take us to Vietnam.

Indian Security at its Best...?

Well, after almost 3 months (minus our two weeks in Nepal), it had finally come to the time for us to exit India. What an eventful time we had there! A rollercoaster experience you could say....love India, hate India, love the people, find them frustrating, relaxing, STRESSFUL! India brings out all the emotions!

You will know from our early blogs that we had a “special” visa which required us to register at the foreign registry office (FRO) and we have already shared how that experience went in Delhi! On re-entering India from Nepal we were required again to report to the FRO and we dutifully did so in Darjeeling. It was a rather comical experience when we did and a government official, sitting in front of a backdrop of centuries worth of ancient ledgers told us that it was better for us to report to the FRO in Kolkota instead ... which i think meant “if I register you here that will mean I have to actually work out what to do with your passport and it would really be much easier for me if you just went somewhere else”. After experiencing the FRO in a big city already we were VERY keen to avoid that again and definitely preferred sorting out our registration in a small quiet FRO with no queues (like the one in Darjeeling funny enough!). After gently affirming that we definitely wanted to register in Darjeeling the official asked us what the Indian Special Permission stamp in our passport meant – ehh isn't that your specialty sir?! Anyway, eventually he registered us (filling in th paperwork using his typewriter) and told us that we needed to report to the FRO in every place we visited from now until exiting India, we said 'no problem', walked out, looked at each other and said “no way!”. So we didn't and hoped it wouldn't cause us any problems when exiting India...we were fairly confident that we would be ok, since our registration was lodged in one of those ledgers which once full seemed to exist solely to gather dust....

On reaching the airport to leave India we faced TWELVE security checks between entering the terminal and entering the plane! Needless to say, as we went through each check (having our seat number scored off a sheet...move to next check...official writes seat number down on page...move to next check....official looks at ticket...move to next check....official ticks seat number off on list...move to next check etc etc...) no mention was made at all about the FRO and we breathed a wee sigh of relief – imagine if we had actually gone and spent the best part of a day in EVERY place we had gone to after Darjeeling registering at the FRO's we'd have been raging!

When we finally reached our gate we were told to sit down. Explaining we wanted to do some shopping the airline official said “ok you give me boarding pass then shopping” eh....ok?! Twelve security checks then you're told to hand your boarding pass over to an airline official who then simply has to trust you when you come back to retrieve your ticket from the handful of about 50 tickets and say “that's mine there”!

A very Indian exit!

John expands his skirt collection...

Inspired by the fashionable “lungi” sported by many of the men in the south of India John went in search of a piece of the...cloth for his own collection. On finding a lungi fashion store (see photo) he gladly made a selection to add to his ever growing collection of skirts...honestly, Scots!

Larry's guide to the sout' of India.

I don't know where those two have gone but I thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to.

After Mumbai we headed to these really kewl place called Ajanta with all these caves carved out of the rock. They were over two thousand years old and still in amaaazin' condition, all with carvings of someone called budah. There were hoondreds and hoondreds of carvings of him on the walls, ceilings and entrances so I thought I'd get me picture taken with him.

Not quite sure what it was all about but all the people visiting seemed to be finding it difficult to answer some questions because they were all saying 'ummmmm, ummmmm' while they walked around.

Anyhoo, after Ajanta we got on another train and although I was left in John's rucksack I heard lots of laughter and the like but all I got from Louise was something about goats and pepsi. We eventually arrived in Goa for a week at the beach and for Louise's birthday, those two seemed to do nothing but swim and sit with a cold drink in their hands.

All I got from them at the end of the week was 'Goa was brilliant, Goa was fantastic, narnanarnanar (that's Louise) we wish we were still in Goa.'

After this we headed to Kerela and the really chilled backwaters. Again all these two seemed to do is sit back and drink cold drinks while we drifted round the calm canals.

The food was brilliant and there was even enough after John was finished for me to have some! I tried to have a go at steering the boat but Louise told me I didn't know anything about boats, what does she know? She's from Belfast and they built the Titanic and we all know what happened to that!!

After I dragged them off the boat we headed even further sout', in fact until you couldn't go any more sout', to the very tip at a place called Kanukamari. Jeepers it was windy, I'm Irish so you don't have to tell me how to hold on to me hat, but I had to hold on to Louise so I wasn't blown all the way to Africa!

It was quite foony as all the Indians just jumped straight in the water with their clothes on, even ladies in their Sari's.

After that we headed to Fort Cochin before we flew to Sri Lanka, John and Louise both seemed to like it as they could get to everything quickly and they weren't getting run over too often by the traffic. They also had these massive fishing nets on the shore which take four people to work which were really kewl.

Well, that's all from me now until these eejits let me back on.

Byeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

From Russia with Love

We had no idea when we boarded the train for a 22 hour journey from Jalgoan to Goa that we were going to have one of the most hilarious experiences of our traveling so far. It all began so, normally...traveling in what is called 3AC, which means in an air conditioned carriage with 8 sleeping berths in each section. We found our seats and locked our baggage to the metal handle underneath, settled down and hoped that no one else would be traveling in our berth other than the woman who was already there when we arrived. But it is India, so of course loads of people sat in our berth opposite or beside us for short sections of the journey, some of them maybe “white people” spotting, some just in search of more space than their booked berth gave. We read, listened to music and giggled inwardly at the Russian woman sharing our berth who kept reading the same bit of her newspaper and bursting into uncontrolled laughter.

After a while a timid Indian who is in the army and was traveling home to see his family joined us and soon after that a confident Indian man who works with goats and biochemistry joined us too. It was the man with goats who got us all talking as he began to share his food. It was interesting conversation, finding out things like Bollywood films are really big in Russia and that every Russian girl dreams of an Indian man?!!!

When the goat man had shared his food, and after kindly advising us never to take food from strangers on the train (as though he wasn't a stranger) the Russian declared that she had something to share too and whipped a bottle of vodka from her suitcase! (Talk about stereotypes!)

“All we need are five glasses and orange juice.” she stated, “get me five glasses!” she demanded of the poor timid Indian and after her third demand for glasses he scuttled off in search of something. The timid Indian duly returned with five 'Indian Railways' paper chai/tea cups and before long we had acquired some pepsi to mix it with too.

Our Russian friend began to set the “glasses” out pour in the vodka...”bas bas!” both the Indians shouted, which I assume means something like “no”or “stop”. The goat man explained he had never had a drink before in his life, so didn't want too much or his wife would know! The timid Indian was obviously relishing this moment, finding it hilarious that the goat man was so nervous. “Cheers” we all said as we shared in the goat mans first drink of his life. Goat man was so nervous that we'd get a fine for drinking on the train that he kept telling the Russian to hide the bottle behind her while he fixed the “privacy curtains” closed and said “shhh” to all the belly laughing going on. We laughed away a good number of hours together and when our glasses were empty the Russian reopened the vodka and began to pour “Russian hospitality never allows a glass to be empty” she stated. As she said this a look of panic passed across the goat mans face and he tried to discreetly slide his glass down his far side, it was comical!

When it came to bedtime the Russian was true to form and abandoning all cordiality abruptly stated “I want to go to bed now” meaning, 'you are all going to have to lie down and turn the lights out because I now want to sleep'. Not that we minded, our stop was a four something AM, but it was perhaps a little rude after so many hours of sharing food, drinks and conversation.

I am sure this has not seemed that funny to you at all, but I had to share it. For us it was just a quality experience, and very funny. Amazing how a few strong personalities and a bottle of vodka can transform a 22 hour train journey!

Two travellers, a Russian vet, goat man and timid Indian army guy :o)

Larry's latest update!

We'll be jeepers it's been a while I tell ya! Those Heywood's hardly ever let me have a turn on the computer but here I am now typing away and I've got so much te tell yous about what I've been up te!

After that wonderful place of tea plantations that was baltic, like Ireland...Darjeeling, I went to a place called Kolkata. It's actually Calcutta, I mean what eejit decided to change the name and then gave it the same name wit a different spelling? Anyway, maybeee they had extra money in the budget that year and fancied changing all the signs in the place or something, mind you I wouldn't know what having extra money in the budgets like, being from Ireland and all that but hey ho!

Kolkata was a nice place, it had lots of buildings like in England, big grand ones...mind you loads of them were totally run down and even rotting away because apparently there's this here law to do with social housing which has been around forever, well actually since the partition of India from Bangladesh when the dominant communist party tackled land ownership issues with

strict rent controls. Anyway this law means that some tennants even today only have to pay 1 rupee a month rent, which is like 1.5p!! So the landlords just never fix the buildings and someday they will just be beyond repair. I got to go see where Mother Theresa's Mission is and saw the room where she worked and slept which was reeeely cool. Her room was small, but not as small as the one i have to live in at the front of John's rucksack! Every aspect of life was really lived on the streets here, where people wash, sleep, eat, type documents, tailor clothes, play cricket, mend shoes and shop.

After Kolkata we took a big long train overnight to Varanasi. It was quite dirty with loads of rubbish but it was cool to get to go on a boat down the ganges river as the sun rose. There

were all these people swimming in it and washing in it and loads of people washing clothes too, the Heywood's wouldn't even let me dip me toes in the water but I saw I sign for a swimming club

on the banks of the ganges so I don't know what they were so uptight about. There were some fires on the banks of the river, apparently these were bodies! Something to do with reaching Nirvana if you die here, but I never liked that band anyway so I don't think i'll head here for me cremation.

I was taken to Jaipur next, it was shopping heaven and full of palaces! Then on to Mumbai. Mumbai was sweltering! I nearly drowned in me own sweat cause those there Heywood's didn't tink to take me out of the rucksack pocket for ages! I was delighted when they did take me out because the buildings were amazing! Left from India's colonial days the university, massive Victoria Terminus the gateway to India and the Prince of Wales Museum, to name just a few, make quite an impression. Then I tought they'd taken me to a war zone, there were things flying past me head from all directions and people with bats....they Heywood's said it was just some game,

“cricket” i tink they called it, but I don't know, there were literally tousands of people on this wee patch of grass! John and Louise sneaked me into a Bollywood film without getting me a ticket...I couldn't understand a single word but those two obviously found it hilarious cause they were laughing all the way trough...I couldn't really enjoy it cause I was recovering from a practical heart attack after tinking we were being gunned down at the start of the film, but it was just all the chairs folding up as everyone in the cinema stood up abruptly to sing the national anthem before the film came on! My favorite place in Mumbai though had to be the masala market...it was a mad place. Loads of wemen come to get their year's supply of spice! They choose all the spices they want at the right quantities and then they wait while the shop heats them, cools them and them pounds them into powder. This woman I spoke to...once she got over the fact leprechauns really can talk, told me she had been waiting eight hours for her spice mix to be ready!! Mad!

Anyway, the battery on the computer here is low and the Heywood's will go mad if they goto use it and find the battery dead so I'm off! I'll stick some pictures in soon so you can see the places I told you about!

Byeeeee!

Larry

Worship

It's been intriguing, as we have spent time in Nepal and India, to observe the worship which is such a part of everyday life. Shines, mostly Hindu, some buddist, adorn almost every corner, alleyway, shop, cafe and home you pass. They are not mere ornaments, or old relics left from days gone by. They are such an integral part of the daily ritual of life. From the water (and food etc) offerings known as “puja” that shop keepers make as they sprinkle the pavement in

front of their shops to the woman on the way to the market who, on autopilot, slips down a side alley to a large square and approaches the shine there ringing the bell and walking around the shrine clockwise, spinning the prayer wheels as she goes. We have watched, in the big temples, streams of people purchase plates of food and flowers on the road leading to the temple then wind their way to the god of wealth, mahalaxmi, to offer their recently purchased plate.

Offering such a plate, which costs 55 indian rupees (about 75p) is, according to the man I spoke to, certain to mean the god will answer your request. The temples are about the only place we've seen Indian's actually queue! They queue for ages to make their offerings to the gods, getting just a few seconds at the shine to push their offerings forward.

Everyone seems to be making a spiritual pilgrimage, and every event or circumstance is seen as a result of the planets, or the stars. We met a family, a man, his children and his mother, on a train journey who were on a journey to a temple far from home. They were going to pray to the god there for the mans marriage. He told us that, because of where the planets were when he was born he was destined to have problems in marriage. He went bald young and so it was difficult to have him married off, but his mother prayed to this god and he got married. Now his wife lives somewhere different from him because she has an allergic reaction when she is near him so instead of spending their wedding anniversary together he is off to the temple with his mum to pray.

Of course the shrines contain images of the gods, over 3,000,000 in Hinduism...rather hard to keep track of and quite a number to have to appease! Some have huge statues of the “deity”.

For us, as people who know, love and follow Jesus, it has brought the scriptures very much alive. Suddenly the many passages, both in the old and new testaments, which deal with idol

worship are so explicitly clear and relevant. It seems to us almost as though Paul, the apostle in the Bible, could have been standing at our side at times speaking into the very situations we were witnessing. Just like in the times of the new testament we could see that “they...exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Romans 1:23 and that “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.” Romans 1:25.

Our impressions are that most of the people we have met or observed are enslaved to their religion, having to make sacrifices to so many gods in the desperate hope their prayers will be answered. We have appreciated in a new way our freedom in Christ, and I understand even better now how amazing it is that the gift of life God gives us is absolutely free!

Of course, we are not trying to say that what we have seen here in terms of worship is exclusive to the east. In the west we are the same, enslaved often to our material possessions. It's just been so explicitly clear here to see and so embedded in the culture and in each individual's life.

We thank God, as I write this on Good Friday, for what he sacrificed so that we could know Him. We thank God for the cross. We thank God that we know “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” Romans 8:28, that we don't have to appease God, we just need to believe in Him and trust him. What a good God we have :o)

Postcards, photo.......hashish?

If you know us very well, or even a little bit, you will understand that we are not the most likely targets for drug dealers. We certainly don't go looking for them and aren't your typical stoned looking marijuana smoking hippy. So we are a little perplexed as to why, especially me (John), are offered on a relatively regular basis drugs and supposed pleasures of varying content. I know some of you will be shouting at the screen about how naïve we must be and that they target me because its usually guys who are looking for said toxin. Let us assure you we are aware of this and isn't the purpose of the blog entry. No the purpose is to divulge the inventiveness and resourcefulness of the Indian (and Nepali) people who are partaking in this particular career.

When we landed in Delhi we stayed in Parhar Ganj, which for those of you have not been to Delhi, is the backpacking centre of the city. It's dusty, dirty and unfortunately can be quite dangerous with a history of drug dealing and prostitutes etc... We were aware of this and were not surprised to have people hiding in shady corners stealthily approaching you and hushing the words 'something to smoke my friend, you have good time?' We found this quite hilarious considering they were barking up the completely wrong tree and with the frequency it happened. It could be quite irritating though as they sometimes where very Indian about it and walk right across you, causing you to walk right round them. What was interesting though, and started to become quite a regular pattern across India and Nepal, was that you would be walking down the street, a rickshaw driver would shout 'Hello, Rickshaw?' and after you just past them a low, deep whisper would pass across your little ear bones 'Hashish?' It was not limited to rickshaw drivers but street sellers, tour guides and even photographers at major landmarks? One particularly hilarious moment was when we were walking along the main road in Pokhara, Nepal back to our hotel when a man started the usual 'something to smoke etc....' We smiled politely and walked past as he started running through his list of concoctions 'Acid, E....' and then completely out of the blue shouted at the top of his voice 'anything............SEX!!!' This of course was too much to handle and we just burst out laughing in the middle of the street. After this we thought we had seen and heard it all, however we were proved wrong as we stood and looked at the Gateway to India in Mumbai. A man selling postcards and offering pictures in front of it approached us and inquired if we would like to purchase a book of 20 postcards? We said 'no thank you' and turned to look out to sea, he then appeared next to me and opened up one of the books to show me some dried flowers along with the phrase 'something special my friend?' We just turned and laughed at him because the situation was just so hilarious. We look forward to what new and inventive ways we shall be offered drugs, not for the contents of the offer themselves but merely as pure entertainment.

Again some more photos, this time from Jaipur and Mumbai.

An Indian railway tale.....

After our 'Escape from Delhi' (see an Indian weekend) experience Louise and I were understandably nervous about our next train journey to Kolkata. We had negotiated the entire width of Nepal (about 800km/500miles) by bus and the shared jeeps up and down from Darjeeling were a really enjoyable experience, apart from me having to avoid the drivers hand as he groped for the gearstick. So as we walked into the train station checking and re-checking our ticket with the announcements being relayed over the tannoy system we were pleased to hear our train being announced, albeit on a different platform from the information board, would be arriving shortly. We dashed over the bridge to the new platform and onto the train, squeezing through with our backpacks to our seats. We sat down to compose ourselves and were then asked the following question 'Breakfast? Dinner? You want?' We should explain our only experience of Indian trains at this point was the tourist train to Agra where you are given a bottle of water, fed tea and coffee and even a meal. We therefore presumed that this would be the case for all trains and answered 'yes' to the railway staff member in front of us. What was presented before us was cold, not included and a bloody rip-off!!!! Anyway, we learned our lesson and over the course of the past 10 days we have caught 4 trains, traveled 3500km and been prepared for every one.

The Indian railway is immense to say the least, the engineering involved is just simply mind boggling. It covers most areas of the country, which isn't that small by the way, and is very well used by the local population. Louise and I have had to make use of the foreign tourist quota quite a few times to ensure we get a ticket for our desired destination. The booking
system is quite complicated until you get used to it. You have to fill out a booking form which you collect from the ticket window, fill it out, re-join the queue, handover the form, see if there is any availability, if no availability re-fill the form, check again, if successful hand over your passports, pay your money (in cash of course) and get your ticket. I think the average time it has taken us to book a ticket is about 40 mins to an hour, and that includes the trying to book the 10km Darjeeling toy train ride specifically aimed at tourists.

We have to admit our guard is up quite a lot when people start talking to us, we are very reluctant to give out too much info and sometimes we end conversations prematurely to avoid questions we don't want to answer. We have discovered though that there is a great difference from those who are trying to deceive you and those who are genuinely interested in you.

The trains are a great place to meet people because you are in them for so long. Our journey times range from 7 hours to 18 and you are there with up to 72 other people. We met a lovely man who was traveling with his mother and young son the other day. His first questions were the same as all the others 'What country are you from' 'Where are you going' but then they diverse into 'what do you think of India' 'What is your country like' and just want to know about you and your life. The conversations we are having now with people are all about what we think of India, how can it be improved and, believe it or not, the frustrations they have with their own country! The Indians are a very proud people and usually wanting to do something for their country, they are just not sure how to go about it.

We have learned a lot on the trains of India, not just about avoiding getting scammed, but more about the Indian people. They are a nation of sharers, something which we learned back in the slums of Delhi. We have sat and watched as complete strangers share their food with each other, chat to each other as if they are long lost friends and even spreading this kindness to us and introducing them. We were invited to a random shop somewhere in Mumbai, even given us a mobile number when the mobile owner doesn't speak English?!? It's this type of random unawareness mixed in with the generosity that helps you really warm to the people and we are really starting to enjoy India.

These photos are a random collection from our travels in Kolkata and Varanasi so far hope you enjoy.

Kathmandu to Darjeeling, Dal Bhat and a very long bus journey.

Well we managed to make it to Kathmandu, we splashed out and spent an extra 90p each and took a tourist bus from Pokhara which was literally worth every penny, about a metre of legroom, allocated seats and only two stops for breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately we were dumped unceremoniously in a random part of Kathmandu, and we along with a random Swede remonstrated with the bus staff who, after admiring my caribina on my rucksack, told us this was the last stop and the bus wasn't going any further. Funnily enough there were plenty of taxi's and hotel touts in the area who were very 'helpful'. We ended up, with the random Swede, in a taxi with a tout who appeared to be drunk and driven approximately 500 yards to Thamel where we would reside for the following 4 nights. We were a bit disappointed in this as we had been very impressed with Nepal in the lack of advantage taking there was during our time here. That said we weren't too fussed as we had braced ourselves for a bit of an assault when we reached Kathmandu and were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't anything like Delhi in terms of chaos, dust, noise etc... We have commented regularly that Delhi was a very good training ground in terms of traffic, touts and hassle.

Anyway Kathmandu was fine and we enjoyed walking the streets of Thamel, picking up a few traveling souvenirs. Bartering though is much harder there as they are so nice, it almost feels like you are robbing their children's inheritance by asking it for 50 rupees less! We also went to Patan which is just outside Kathmandu and enjoyed walking it's relatively quiet streets and it's excellent museum. We did witness some kind of dance scene being filmed on one of the

temples in Durbar Square which could have been a tv advert, a bollywood film or an international advert for visit Nepal. We watched as the directors assistant chased people off the temple, pushed back the thronging crowds and shout instructions to all the dancers.

When the time came we were ready to leave Nepal and we psyched ourselves up for the 17 hour bus journey to the Eastern border at Karkabhitta for our onward journey to Darjeeling in India. We made it to the bus station with about 250 rupees (about £2) in our pocket and sat down to wait for our bus which was due to leave at 3pm. At 2.40 a bus pulled up and we inquired if it was going to Karkabhitta, yes it was, was this the same bus on our ticket? No. To cut a long story short 3 hours, 6 buses and many broken conversations with many nepali passengers (and bus station staff) later we were shown to our seats on our long awaited journey to the east.

At this point I would like to describe what the journey was like but I'm going to save that pleasure for my psychotherapist when we return to the UK as it would probably give me nightmares. Steep Himalayan roads, mentally unstable bus drivers and various amounts of fitful sleeps is all I (John) can manage right now.

So we arrived at Darjeeling approximately 24 hours later to find what can only be described as city on a hill, a very steep one at that. The Lonely Planet travel guide we have with us describes it as a quintessential hill town, we found it to be a bit of concrete overload with some pretty spectacular views when the clouds clear. All in all it has been nice to have a bit of time to plan our further travel through India. We went on the Steam toy train and visited

the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute which was founded by Tenzing Norgay who climbed Everest with Sir Edmund Hilary. It was very humbling to read of the attempts of everest, to see the woolen jumpers and tweed jackets the first attempts were made in. However we almost had to contact the police when Larry went missing during our visit to the happy valley tea plantation. All was well though, we found him among the tea bushes looking a little giddy from tea overload. Later having gone a bit cold turkey he muttered something about 'Can't beat a tea bag in a mug!' We had a good stern chat with him about having too much of a good thing and he's still in a huff.

We head soon to the heat of the Indian south with many more stories and travels to entertain (hopefully) There will be photo's to follow, internet is quite slow in the mountains.