Varanasi

So we arrived in Varanasi and checked into our fantastic hotel, (suriya). It had a pool and a courtyard with tables. Our room had a bath. We did not use it but it was nice to have a shower without soaking the whole room.

We arrived in Varanasi in late afternoon and we were very tired so we just chilled and ate in the hotels lovely restaurant. We planned to get up the next day and do the whole dawn Ganga boat ride thing but we did not.
We just chilled in the morning and headed to the Ghats in the afternoon. We could not get dropped directly to the main Ghat and we ended up getting lost and ending up by Assi Ghat the furthest one from our original plan. We engaged the services of a boat man and ended up cruising on the delightfully dirty Ganges.
We cruised passed the two Ghats where bodies are burned on the edge of the river, palaces, normal Ghats, and many other boats and such. Apparently there are 365 Ghats.
We watched the ceremony of light and I light a candle and floated it on the river as is tradition. Unfortunately my hand accidentally touched the water. I shudder again at the thought. My right hand is now my Ganga hand.
Terry still will not touch it, in case he catches Ganga hand. The river is so filthy you can actually see fecal matter in it; I am worried my hand will fall off.
The ceremony was cool and watching life on the Ganges River was amazing. We passed by the two burning Ghats the bigger one operates 24 hours a day. When we passed there were 11 cremations going on. The family has to pay depending on the type and how much wood is used. Women are not allowed at the burning Ghats as they are not considered strong enough to behave with dignity and also to prevent women jumping on the funeral pyre, as was once traditional.
The next morning we did the dawn boat journey and watched as people washed in the Ganges. The boatman this time was about 10 years old. I cannot tell you how shocking it was to watch people going through their morning ablutions in such filthy water. Absolutely filthy. I mean there was a constant flow of effluent floating past us.
For many people they wash in the Ganga as they have no choice, for others they wash there because of the religious significance. The men often just wear underpants during their bathing but the women have to wash fully dressed.
I am not quite sure how that works.
We then left Varanasi and headed to Agra.

Darjeeling - TheQueen of the Hills.

Darjeeling my darling. We loved it. We got to NJP and after managing to get past the significant number of rickshaw touts and get to the jeep stand and start our 3 hour, windy James bond road, (but with significant potholes), journey to Darjeeling, the queen of the hills.

Firstly the lonely planet guide map is useless as there are no contours so the roads really make no sense. Because of this, and sheer exhaustion, we got a taxi to our hotel which had magnificent views of the Himalayas.
When I write this we have been to two other parts of India so I feel confident when I say that Darjeeling is different from other parts of India.
Firstly I was not hassled, there was still spitting but way less visible other bodily functions and it has way more of a mix of people and a way less strict dress code. However it is quite cold so one ends up wearing loads of clothes anyway.
When we arrived I needed to go to the doctor for my monthly blood test. I met with the lovely Dr. Das. I had to wait until the next morning to get the blood test as the Lab Technician said that I had to have the test fasting. We were staying in a lovely hotel ran by a Tibetan crowd called Dekeling. The following day I had the results within 3 hours and all was well. It cost a total of 400 rupees which is about 6.50. Dr Das told us about another Cork Woman called Edith Wilkins who was running a children’s home and he told us to visit her and gave us her number. We were not sure whether to call or not.

We spent our first few days wandering about and hanging about with a girl we met while queuing (for 2hrs) to buy train tickets called Sabina. We had a few beverages and lots of cake in Glenarys, a café we would return to for nearly every breakfast and quiet a few dinners and beers over the 2 weeks in the hill station. We saw the market and wandered about the streets absorbing the atmosphere.
We went to watch the sunrise at Tiger Hill. This involved getting up at 3.30 and catching a share jeep up the windy road to tiger hill. We could see the Jeep stand from our window so Terry was watching to see what time the crowd would arrive so we would not have to hang about in the cold too long. Typical stupid tourists we did not realize that the massive crowd of Indians on the road were not just Jeep drivers, touts and workers but also tourists. We got down to the jeep stand and managed to pile into a mini-minivan with an Indian family who were going to tiger hill. The mini-minivan seemed to be run on LPG or something but the smell of gas made me feel pretty unwell and eventually i had to get sick.

The sunrise was good and it was especially good as all of the Indian tourists started waving and clapping when the sun came up. The view of the sunrise glowing off the Himalayas was worth it, as well as being able to see the summit of Everest. On the way back down we stopped at Ghoom Buddhist temple and the war memorial garden at the Batista Loop.

We went back to bed at 7am when we got back to our hotel.
We did the joyride on the toy train which took about 3 hours to-do what I think was a 12 km round trip. The train is a world heritage site and set up a small museum which was interesting. You can get the train own to the main line at NJP where we arrived first, but it takes over 9 hours.

We also went to Observatory hill and had a gander at the site which is sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus, there is a cool temple in a cave. We also decided to find the Tibetan Refugee Centre. After searching for the place for hours we ended up getting very lost and eventually we ran out of road. We had 3 options; scramble up the hill until we came to another path, go back the way we came or go up the path that was behind an not so open gate next to us
So we choose to go through the gate. At first we thought we were in the botanical gardens as all of the trees had labels. We came out into a big garden with a gorgeous house in it and we were still wondering if we were in the botanical gardens except that there was nobody about we headed towards the gate were a multitude of soldiers with rifle, shot guns and state issued machine guns asked us what we were doing at the governor’s house as it was a restricted area. We hastily explained our situation and were thankfully not arrested.

The next day we met a lovely newly wedded couple from Dublin, Ronan and Fiona. Ronans brother the scrum half that is keeping Isaac Boss out of the Ulster team, Fiona’s dad and brother are world (or maybe just Irish I cant remember) handball champions and Ronan’s granny was friends with Edith so I said that I would go with them the next day to go and find the children’s home.

Terry did not go as he was sick – with the lack of cold weather clothes and an early morning freezing session watching the sun, he had developed a pretty poor flu and chest infection.
It turns out that terry and I were very close to the Tibetan Refugee place and the children’s home when we got lost. We arrived during the midst of the moving chaos. The foundation had built and adapted two buildings for the needs of their residential and drop in children. Edith spent years in Calcutta before moving to Darjeeling and setting up the place in Darjeeling and then in Siliguri. Fiona, Ronan and I,(and terry but he did not know it yet), offered to paint some of the rooms to help them get the houses ready a bit faster.
The four of us would spend a little over a week cleaning and painting with Fiona, in particular putting in Trojan work even though she was sick. We were invited to a party in Emma’s house that first night. Emma is from Cork and works for the foundation. She is engaged to the lovely Roshin who put up with my drunken ramblings. Terry did not come to the party as he was sick. The rest of us had a lovely evening with some good food, good company and a good old sing song. I got back to our accommodations at about 1am.everything in Darjeeling closes at 10 so I had to wake the poor doorman up.

The next day the painting began in earnest. 'Supervised' by Omar. Over the week we painted and did the glossing in the prayer room, counseling room, hall, parents are and the music room. Fiona scrubbed clean the carpets, furniture etc. we also pained some metal covers for the second floor windows and a few fire guards.

We were lucky enough to be there during Diwali and experienced the chaos of a few hundred children celebrating their first puja (Indian prayer thingies) in their new home and then being let lose, (while supervised), with a variety of small fireworks and sparklers. It was amazing.
We were at a lock in at the fantastic Joeys pub and did not get home until teen past the 11.

The next night we went for stew at Ediths and had to wake our poor doorman up again. Edith made Terry a separate pork dinner as he told her when drunk that he did not like stew. It was far from that kind of choice he was rared!
We had an absolutely fantastic time in Darjeeling. We enjoyed the painting and the hospitality of the children’s home. Particularly a lovely lady called Shopna who gave us lunch everyday. Edith and Emma were very generous with their time and opened up their homes to us. Poor Fiona and Ronan saw us for abut 12 hours a day. Not sure how they felt about that on their Honeymoon. If you feel like finding out more about the foundation or donating money this is their website, no pressure.
Anywho we decided it was time to head and our next destination was Varanasi and the holy Ganga River. Before we left we had another sightseeing day and we headed to the Zoo, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (a really interesting place that had a museum about the Everest attempts),
the Happy Valley Tea plantation and high tea in a posh gaff. We saw snow leopards, yaks, the tiny tent used I the death zone at nearly 19000 ft and how tea is made for Harrods. Never use the toilet at the tea plantation. It is like every festival toilet ever, in one. Seriously.
We popped up to the home to say bye to everyone and the children presented us with lovely gifts. Ter nearly cried. Well ok he did not but I nearly did

Kolkata - Calcuta

So we got through customs and into the main part of the airport to find there were no ATM’s, so we changed our dollars into rupees and prepaid a taxi to Sudder Street, where our guidebook, hastily read on the plane, advised that most backpackers stayed.

The taxi drive was mad, there appeared to be no lanes and no rules, except to toot your horn as often as possible. We past elegantly decaying buildings, piles of rubbish, food stalls, street markets and loads of women in colourful saris. It all seemed manic.

We wandered into a few guesthouses and they were all pretty much shitholes. We eventually picked one and then went for a walk trying to find the Victoria monument. We got quite lost and still have not seen it. we did, however, find a cinema and we saw that film with Russell Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio, we cannot remember the name of it but it was good.

All I can say is I was in shock. Total and utter shock.

I was aware of the begging and spitting. But nothing had prepared me for India.

Kolkata has some stunning buildings and the people are lovely. However, recycling means something else in Kolkata, mainly throwing everything on the street and the poor people find a use for it

Also, it was quite common for men to veer towards me on the street so they could bang off me. This was quite unsettling. I won’t talk about the snot.

We decided that night to move to Darjeeling as soon as possible.

So the next day we went to a ticket agent and paid far too much for a night train to NJP station, which is about 3 hours from Darjeeling. Our train was leaving from a station not mentioned in the guidebook, so we were turning up on trust. We spent the afternoon in the Indian Natural History Museum which was pretty cool and then we went to the train station which did exist and hopped onto the long train to NJP.
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Bangkok Airport

We left Ko Tao for Bangkok and while there we picked up a guide to India and a few toiletries. We spent the night off Ko San Rd with a plan to head early to the airport.
We got to Bangkok Airport at about 7.30am and Terry stayed with the bags and I wandered along the counters, quickly realising that most of them were closed as it was a Sunday.
I eventually found an open Jet Airways desk that was able to give us a flight to Kolkata, (Calcutta) for less than 370 Euros. It was, however, leaving in one hour and ten minutes time. We went to the check in desk, where there was a chaos of Indian men who were not only checking in their luggage but also sound systems, women’s shoes, flat screen TV’s and dogs. We then went to the bureau de change but they had no rupees so we changed our few baht into dollars. Then we stopped and picked something take away for breakfast. It was not until we were on the plane that we realized that we were flying first class!
It was really nice, a cold towel on arrival, good food on real crockery and an entertainment system. We could even have had champagne if we wanted. However we decided that it was way too early and that not even the queen would be drinking that early.
The flight was delayed and we arrived about an hour late to Kolkata. But alas the flight was so short and the friendly captain kept giving us reports so we didn’t get to finish our movies. So if anyone knows how Get Smart (Ter) or Indiana Jones 4 (Siobhan) ends leave us a comment.

Ko Tao

So we got the bus from Bangkok to Chumpon and stayed there overnight in a completely overpriced room.
We got a share jeep the next morning to the port. It was the earliest we had been up in Thailand and so we actually got to see the monks receiving alms.
We arrived in Ko Tao at about 10 and we hopped in a share jeep to Sairee town to Sairee beach huts.
Myself and Siobhan Harrison (that’s the 2nd Siobhan we’ve met), who we met on the ferry, walked the beach to price different accommodation options and we ended up staying where we had landed.
When I got back there terry was talking to Scuba instructor Anthony and asking about dives.
We went for a wander about the town and then went to a bar called Choppers for happy hour and food. I was a wee bit hung over the next day.
Much of our time on Ko Tao was spent chilling, wandering about, playing pool and diving.
Terry went on 6 dives and I went on two. Our dive master was Dan. He was very chilled and helped me out after with a lift to the police station.
















On one of terry’s dives they even saw a 2 meter reef shark. Dan was very impressed with himself for seeing the reef shark but also because his high pressure hose broke during the dive and he still had more air than Terry left in his tank!
I was very impressed with myself for actually diving again but also because it involved stepping off the boat, which I had never done before. It took me about ten minutes to step off the first time. Also there were two lads doing their 3rd open water dive at the same time and I was way better at taking my time and not panicking when I equalized.
We decided to rent a scrambler for Ter and a quad for me. We tried to take a trip about the island but ters bike kept cutting out. Eventually he could not start it at all. Eventually a small boy showed up, walked the bike to a workshop and repaired it in about 10 minutes. Ter and I had sent the day arguing as I kept spinning off and so after it was all sorted we went to happy hour in Choppers and met the lovely Inbar and Stas who had just gotten engaged.

We also went to a lady-boy show which was fairly good and I took way too many photos.
The next day Terry was going to the post office for me as I was sick from booze again. He took the quad but was back in 20 minutes telling me he had nearly died, that the wheel had come off the Quad. He went back to the shop to watch the guy take the bike out of the ditch. He arranged to meet the owner at 4pm.
We went back at four and the owner tried to charge us about 800 euros for damage which we had not been at fault for. I saw red and started crying saying terry could have been seriously injured and there was no way I was paying any money. This was a problem as he had my passport!
Dan happened to be passing by and he took me to the police station.
The police man was not too helpful. He told me the shop, Sairee Star Travel was known for this but that he could not help in a civil case.
I went back and said this to terry who was keeping an eye on the quad. I told the shop owner that he could keep the passport, that I would get a new one. Then I went to call the high consul.
Between the jigs and the reels the high consul in Phuket was fantastic but the best she could do was get the man down to 10,000 baht, (about 200 euro).it made us sick to pay it and we had lost two days to sleepless nights and waiting for calls. The next day we left for Bangkok with the plan of spending the night, picking up book about India and going to the airport the next day and hope we can get a flight. Which we did…

We are alive

We are currently in Darjeeling and soon to give a better description of events gone by. But we are busy living the lives of hobo's.

Watch this space.