Location: Udaipur. Rajasthan, India
29.11-2.12.2009
Day 1
We arrived to Udaipur very early in the morning before sunrise. It took us quite a while to find an accommodation, but in the end we stayed at the hotel we saw first before this extensive search. Arne still didn’t feel well and felt very tired , but his diarrhea disappeared. We were glad to watch some TV and films in our hotel, because most of the budget hotels don’t have TV. Later on I went to take a stroll in the town taking the camera with me and making a couple of pictures. The Lonely Planet said that Udaipur is maybe India’s most romantic city with a romantic lake and few building rising from the romantic Pichola Lake. I wasn’t sure if I would agree with the description from the Lonely Planet. The lake was dirty looking very polluted with local women on its banks shaping and drying the cow’s shit for use as fuel and bricks. But some buildings around were quite pretty. One of 
the buildings rising from the lake was a very posh Lake Palace Hotel where you will pay 1000 Euros for a room. Also the Maharaja’s Palace sitting on the bank of the lake was spectacular. There were a few more nice buildings surrounding the lake, which could be romantic, if the lake wouldn’t be so dirty and polluted. After that I went strolling around a bit more looking inside of souvenir shops and shops with clothing. Arne stayed inside and watched lots of movies.
Day 2
Arne started to be very worried about his health and he was considering to go to a private hospital and get a stool sample test done, but we talked about it and decided to wait for two more days and have it done in Mumbai, where we were intending to go after Udaipur. I went again to take a stroll and I was stopped by an Austrian guy we met a few days ago in Amritsar. We talked for a while and he advised to go to the hospital as soon as possible to get the test done, so Arne doesn’t take wrong antibiotics, which will only weaken his immunity. He was talking from his own experience in India, because he had similar troubles with stomach and antibiotics he took. I went back and told it to Arne and both of us went to the hospital. Although it was a private hospital it still wasn’t as clean and well organized as the hospitals in Europe. Arne first had a consultation with a doctor and he told him to keep taking the antibiotics he was already taking. He didn’t really considered the stool test, but Arne persisted he wants the test being done. When the whole procedure was over, they told us to come in two days to get the result. Arne spent the afternoon browsing on the Internet and chilling out and I was doing my bits and pieces and relaxed. We had our lunch on the roof top of our hotel with a fantastic view over the town with the lake, buildings and surrounding hills.
Day 3
Arne started to feel a bit better today, so he had more motivation to do things. Udaipur was a very artistic town with lots of artistic souvenir shops, we hadn’t seen anywhere else. We were visiting the souvenir shops and bought something for us and the family. We also went to book a ticket to Mumbai at the bus station. From Mumbai we already booked the train to Goa. We had only three weeks before returning to Europe and a difficult decision to make how our trip will carry on. We were tired of rushing and seeing as much as possible, so in the end we went for the more relaxing option, which was going to the beaches of Goa and from there we will see if we feel like doing anything else. The second option was going to Mumbai for a few days and from there to Ellora Caves and from there to Goa. But seeing the journey we had to accomplish we just couldn’t do it even though it would be interesting to see. I started to see the romantic feel of the town by now and I started to like Udaipur very much. The streets were cleaner, than in any other towns of India, which felt nice and there was an artistic feel to this town.
Day 4
We were leaving today, because our plan was to take a bus to Mumbai and from there a train to Goa. But before we left we went to see the City Palace, which was a big complex with different buildings and gardens. We haven’t seen all of it, just gardens around and the palace museum, which was very different from what we ever seen. There were lots of paintings of different motives all inside of the building including portraits of the maharaja, the latest dweller and owner of this palace, who doesn’t live here anymore. We had seen also his bedroom, living room and other rooms of the building which were before part of his residence. The architecture and taste was quite unique with some beautiful mosaics of peacocks and glass mosaic room, which looked very impressive. We finished with strolling around in the gardens and came back to the hotel, packed our stuff and went to the hospital to get the stool result. We had to wait for another hour, because there was something wrong in the result, 
so they send it to a further examination. The test came positive with e. coli bacteria in his stool, which kind of scared us. He prescribed another antibiotics, which is very strong and the only one still in tablet form which could kill the bacteria. If that didn’t help he would have to come for injections. We bought the medication and ran to catch the bus to Mumbai, because we were very late. It took us about 16 hours to come to Mumbai, but the journey was quite pleasant and we slept the most of the time on the bus.
Location: Jaisalmer, Rajastan, India
27-28.11.2009
Day 1
We had a small annoyance in the morning before we left. A guy from the hotel promised us, that we could leave our luggage in the hotel while we were on safari, but today it seemed to be a different story. Today there was a different guy and he didn’t want us leave the luggage in the hotel, most likely because we didn’t book the camel tour through them. In Jaisalmer the hotels are really pushy to sell the tourists camel tours, I think they asked us about three times a day. We were quite upset, because we counted on it. We had a few more misunderstandings with the people working here, so we were pretty fed up with this hotel and the people working here. We left and took the luggage with us. After that we went to have a breakfast and I bought a hat for the safari. Kheta was 30 minutes late and we were worried that he won’t turn up and we had become victims of some kind of scam. Arne talked to some young guy who knew Kheta and told him, that Kheta drinks too much, so it might be possible he won’t show up. But at the end he came and we were relieved. He took us to his house, where we supposed to leave our luggage before going on the safari. When we were approaching 
his house a bunch of children were greeting us and we correctly assumed it was his family. Kheta was 47 and lived in his house with his wife, three daughters and their fifteen children. So all together there were at least 25 people living under one roof. He had six children, but another three didn’t live with him. While we were waiting for Kheta sitting on a wooden bench and sipping tea made by one of his daughters his grandchildren were very curious and were trying to get closer to us. We made pictures of them 
and they really enjoyed posing for us. They were all over saying “hello” all the time, one word in English they probably learnt from their grandpa. They looked quite poor and I could see it on their clothes they were wearing, which were too worn out and very dirty. Also their hair were greasy, dirty and not brushed for a while and their skin was dirty too. The adults looked cleaner than the children. There was this little girl, who was nearly four and looked like two. I asked her mother why is she so small. And she said “She doesn’t like chapatti (Indian bread). From 
chapatti strong.” She showed her biceps to me. It made me laugh a lot. Chapatti is a main food in North India, they eat it all day long. When Kheta was ready, we left his house and got into the bus. We drove about half an hour and got off at the village where he was born. In the distance we saw two people and three camels approaching. The surrounding landscape was dry with few bushes and trees surviving this harsh climate. When they came to us, they got us up on the camels humps. For that the camels had to come down and kneel, so we could get on. After that the camels got up and started walking. The tree 
men were walking and holding the camels on ropes. The third camel didn’t have any passenger. The other two men were Kheta’s relatives; one his brother and another a brother in-law. The experience of being on the camel and seeing the desert from its back was fantastic and very romantic. The sitting itself was a painful experience, with our bums hurting like hell. The landscape turned from dry and rocky to beautiful dunes with few bushes scattered everywhere. After that we passed another area with a dry rocky landscape and came to another dune area, which was even bigger and even more impressive, than the first one. We descended down from the large dunes to a place with a big tree for lunch. The place was very romantic surrounded by white sandy dunes, the big thorny tree in the middle giving us glorious shade and providing food for the camels. The camels have such a tough tongue and mouth that they can actually rip off and eat branches with big sharp thorns. Arne still didn’t feel very well, so he just rested under the tree and watched the camels eating its thorny branches. In the tree 
several chirpy birds were hiding from the sun. I took a walk around in the dunes. There were at least five types of bushes and dry flowers growing in the sand dunes and some trees. The landscape was just amazing and together with camels it made it even better. When Arne felt a bit better and he took a little stroll as well. We made lots of pictures and then it was time for lunch. The lunch was fantastic and we had the best chapatti ever. After the lunch we got on the camels again and went through some more dry rocky landscape, where we stopped to get water from a big water tank. We had seen some gazelles, peacocks, birds of pray, vultures and one fox on the way. There were big trees with branches eaten up on the bottom and looking like a gardener cut them in a straight line. But this straight line was made by camels, not the gardeners. Although desserts supports only few plants, I was told that some trees and bushes have fruits and vegetables , that people can eat. The sun was coming down slowly and we came to another dune area, 
where we ascended on the top of the range of dunes with stunning views over the land around with endless desert and its plants. It felt like in those adventure movies crossing the Sahara desert on camels and we were the main heroes. Here some kind of cactuses were growing and also few more different plants, which made the landscape looking frosty with white flowered bushes . We drove the camels for another half hour and stopped at the place we supposed to spend the night. We gathered lots of old and dry wood to make a fire and Kheta and his two relatives started to prepare the dinner. The place was very nice on the top of a dune with lots of bushes and cactuses and a view from where you could see the desert . We spent the time talking with our guides while they were 
preparing the dinner. Their family was from the warrior caste, but none of them was in the army. They said, that in order to be in the army you have to be able to read and write and they couldn’t. So I was wondering what was the point to caste yourself, if you can’t do what you supposed to do? Kheta’s brother in law was only 31 and had six children and another four had died. He had grey hair and looked much older than his age. They all were very skinny, not looking very well fed. I can understand it if every single day you eat a few chapattis with tea for breakfast, a few chapattis with some vegetable or lentil curry with tea for lunch and a few chapattis
with tea for dinner. How can you have any nutrients just from bread and a little bit of vegetables? They even consider potatoes as vegetables, not carbohydrates. Kheta has another twelve siblings and Kheta’s brother, who was there with us was only 22 and wasn’t married yet. They still didn’t find a suitable wife for him. You know an arranged marriage is still strong in the villages. He can’t even refuse a girl if he doesn’t like her, he has to obey his parents. Sad! Vegetable pakoras (some kind of fried snack) were ready and the sun disappeared in the dark. We made another fire and started to eat them while they were preparing more dinner. We weren’t hungry, so we told them we don’t want to eat dinner and pakoras are just enough for us to satisfy our tummies. When they finished eating dinner, they moved to our fire and started to sing and play on kitchen instruments (water bottle, cooking pan and a plate). Arne joined in with a water bottle. The singing was very nice and we really enjoyed the evening. Then it was time to sleep. They put home made mattresses on the sand and gave us home made duvets. We were worried we might get cold, because it was winter where days are warm, but nights quite chilly. But the home made blankets were very warm and we slept in the dunes and under the stars surprisingly well. During the night the starry sky was amazing, we never had seen so many stars.
Day 2
The night sleeping in the desert was fantastic. I woke up a couple of times to see stars and the moon moving by the hours until I woke up seeing the sun. It didn’t bother me, I still could fall asleep again. Arne still didn’t feel well, he was too tired to do anything. We decided to leave earlier and come back to Jaisalmer, so he doesn’t have to suffer. We had a breakfast in the dunes and after that I went to take a little stroll and make some more pictures of the desert. I left the dunes and went down where more plants and trees were growing. A herd of goats was feeding on the bushes and a shepherd was guarding them. I made a couple of pictures and returned back to the camp, where everything was ready for leaving. We got on the camels and went slowly back. At a certain point my camel got crazy and started to jump. I got quite a nasty whiplash and my neck was hurting. I don’t know what was going on with my camel this day, but she repeated it three more times. I didn’t feel safe on her back anymore. I was afraid I could fall anytime, so I paid more attention to hold on to 
the camel. The way back was first through the frosty looking landscape with cactuses and white bushes, then dry rocky and dusty desert with trees and bushes and at the end dry landscape with a minimum of plants. We still saw a gazelle, which apparently is used to live in the desert and doesn’t have to drink for several days. Camels can stay without drinking water for only three days, at least that is what they told us. But we believe them, because they own the camels, so they know them very well. When we were approaching the village we saw women gathering around a well coming here to fetch the water and bringing it to their houses. In the village we stopped 
for twenty minutes and straight away lots of curious children were coming to see us and asking us money. They were around us until we left and some of them were still following us behind the village. We finally left the village and walked to the main road to catch the bus, where Kheta’s relatives went back to the village and he jumped in the bus with us. When we arrived to Jaisalmer we bought a ticket to Udaipur and came back to his house. We bought some sweets to his grandchildren and gave him a tip. He still wanted us to write something in his feedback book, so he can show it next time to the other tourists. We agreed to meet at the German Bakery later on. We bought him a Coke because his wife already relieved him of all his money to feed the massive family. It must be very hard to have to support so many people. After the whole story about the safari was written 
in his diary, we had to hurry up to catch the bus. The bus was very uncomfortable and we both couldn’t fell asleep. We decided to pay extra money and took a sleeper. Indian long distance busses actually have seats and above them beds, where you can comfortably sleep. But they normally cost double price of the seat. What an invention isn’t it? So we went up and fell asleep, but not for long, because in five hours we were already in Udaipur.
Location: Jaisalmer, Rajastan, India
24-26.11.2009
Day 1
Jailsamer was founded in 1156 and its strategic position on the camel-train routes between India and Central Asia brought it great wealth. The merchants built magnificent houses and mansions carved from wood and sandstone. Jaisalmer is situated in the Thar Desert, only about 90 km from Pakistan. Nowadays it is an important military base and a touristic attraction with its Sandstone Fort and camel treks to the desert.
Arne still didn’t feel very well today and his temperature continued. I didn’t feel very well either, but not as bad as Arne. He also wasn’t happy with the hotel, so I went looking for another one. I walked through the whole city, but there was no better hotel for the price we wanted. I also strolled around checking restaurants, the shops and the fort. Jaisalmer was quite a clean city compared to the towns and cities we have been to, although very touristy. There were lots of souvenir shops selling arts, leather goods, clothes and other souvenirs. Arne still had a fever in the evening and he started to be worried about his health. We decided to go and see a doctor. We walked to the government hospital, where another three people were waiting. The building looked awful. It was dirty with paint and plaster falling from the walls. The main doctor room was an open space with minimal 
equipment for doctors. He had a stethoscope and the thing to check the blood pressure, for the rest there was nothing ,just a dirty simple room. Well, we never seen a worse hospital than this one. The doctor prescribed Arne some antibiotics , but Arne wanted to be sure he doesn’t have malaria. We went to a small shop where they were doing tests for malaria and Arne had his thumb pricked by a needle. We waited for 30 minutes for the result, which was negative. After that we went to the pharmacy and picked up the medication.
Day 2
Arne stayed in bed for the morning. In the afternoon he took a little stroll with me, because he wanted to stay in a different hotel. We weren’t lucky to find anything better, than we already had. We also went to take a look in the fort, which was a maze of little streets, houses and souvenir shops. There were some more buildings like the Maharaja’s Palace and Jain Temples, but we didn’t bother to go in. We just strolled around and relaxed. In the late afternoon a guy stopped Arne and offered him a camel safari tour. We first had a dinner and then went with him to a little tea shop, where he had explained us everything about the safari. There were lots of tourist agencies offering the safaris, but because Arne didn’t feel very well we didn’t look around. We told to the guy, that we are not sure if we go, because Arne didn’t feel well. We agreed to come the next day at 2:30pm and confirm if we go or not. The rest of the day Arne spent complaining about the hotel we stayed.
Day 3
We had our breakfast at a German Bakery, where I took a delicious apple pie. After that we went to the camel safari guy, who’s name was Kheta and confirmed we want to go to the safari with him. It was quite difficult to give him money, because he didn’t have an agency so we didn’t know if we could trust him. He gave us to read the feedback from his previous customers, so that kind of convinced us to trust him. We gave him the full amount in the hope he will turn up the next day at 9am. After that we went to look for hats. Arne bought a camel leather hat, which was very pretty I didn’t find anything. We ate at a local restaurant having Thali (dish with little bits and pieces; chapatti, rice, lentils, curry…) On the streets there was 
a little celebration, because of the result of a local election. People were dancing, playing on drums, shouting and celebrating. After that we went to book a flight ticket back to Europe. We had a bit of a problem with the booking, but in the end we sorted it out. When we finished we had a little fight with a man who ran the internet cafe. The first thing, which made us very angry was that he told us that 1 hour internet was 30 rupees and at the end he asked for 40 rupees. The second thing was the time we spent there. When we came we wrote down the the time we came and he claimed we were here longer. It really made us upset. Arne made arrangement with our hotel, so we could leave our bags in the hotel while we are on the safari and then came back to the hotel and spend there one more night before leaving Jaisalmer. He also paid the the hotel 
accommodation, which they claimed to be five nights. I was sure it wasn’t five nights, but four. We went up and I asked them if they can show me the book, where I wrote down passport information and date we arrived. They couldn’t find it and claimed they sent it to somewhere for checking. I wasn’t happy with that, so we came back and counted the nights and came to four nights. They were very drunk, because their party lost, so they had been drinking the whole evening, but in the end we sorted it out and they gave us our money back.
Location: Jodhpur, Rajastan, Inida
20-23.11.2009
Day 1
We arrived to Jaipur, a city in Rajastan, which is in the north-west of India, early in the morning. Because of an outbreak of Swine Flu in this area, we decided to use this city as a transfer to another town. We took a bus to Jodhpur, which took approximately eight and half hours and drove through an extremely dry and dusty landscape. There was an interesting area we passed with smooth rocky hills and cute little villages and cute little houses made from clay. We arrived to Jodhpur after the sunset, where auto-rickshaw driver drove us to a hotel, which he recommended to us. We really liked the hotel, it had maybe the nicest room we have had since coming to India. After we settled down with our bags, we went to eat to nearby Vishnu Guesthouse Restaurant. From the roof-top of the restaurant we had a romantic view over a nearby fort and roofs of other buildings were people were sitting, and having their family stories going on. When we came back I was very tired and didn’t feel very well. I woke up later in the night feeling strange. The rest of the night I spent between the bed and toilet having diarrhea and vomiting. It was awful!
Day 2
The next day I didn’t feel better, nor worse. I was too weak to do anything and visits to the toilet continued. Arne took his day off today too just relaxing, looking for medication for me and reading a book. In the afternoon he went to the Internet Cafe and saw a dead cow in front of it with flesh rotting away, flies flying in and out and maggots feeding on it. You know just laying dead in the middle of the street on the pavement in front of the shop. Is anyone surprised? I doubt. Arne asked a guy from the shop what is going to happen to the cow. The guy said that the council will remove it, but it sometimes takes a few days. Ha! So that what happened today, apart from it nothing.
Day 3
Today I started to feel a bit better, but not perfect. I wanted to make the most of the time in the town, before we leave tomorrow. We had a breakfast in our hotel and took a stroll around the fort. The whole town was yet again dirty with sewerage running along the roads and animals walking on the streets. Men were wearing turbans, but not the same once as Sikhs in Punjab, because people here are mostly Hindi. Most of the women were hiding their faces behind colorful veils, which we didn’t understand why, because their are not Muslim. We went up the fort and didn’t feel like to go in, because for the passed weeks we had seen many buildings. But is supposed to be a captivating fort with a palace inside and several different buildings. Instead we walked around it and its old city walls. The day was hot and dry and walking slow. From the top we had seen the city of Jodhpur also called the Blue City, because of its blue houses. The stroll was very pleasant and on the way we were observing people and the town in their daily life. After that we returned to the hotel, where this time Arne started to feel not very well. Now I was running around looking for medication, fruits and looking after him. During the night he also had diarrhea and had lots of winds.
Day 4
We took a bus to Jailsamer in the late morning. We drove through the dry rocky desert of Rajastan, the Thar Desert. We saw sand dunes scattered at different locations and between them was a dry rocky and dusty landscape with one type of cactus and different trees and bushes we haven’t seen before. We also saw wild animals running through the desert including deer, gazelles and peacocks. We arrived to Jailsamer in the afternoon. Arne still didn’t feel well and he even felt worse. He had a fever of 39 degrees, so he stayed in bed.
Location: Amritsar, Punjab, India
18-19.11.2009
Day 1
The morning was very cold in Amritsar today and we were still frozen from the train. We arrived early in the morning and took a rickshaw to the area close to the Golden Temple. We met a French girl, who advised us to go inside of the complex, where we could stay for free and eat for free, but if we wanted we could leave a donation instead. It sounded interesting, nobody from India had given us anything since we came here. But when we came there they had some free beds only in the dormitories, which we didn’t want to take. We went to look for something else and found a disgusting room, which we said we won’t mind only for one night. The next time we probably won’t take anything like that even for one night.
Amritsar is the capital of Punjab state, northwest of India. Punjab is bordering with Pakistan, which is 30km away from Amritsar. Most of the population is Sikh, you know the ones with big turbans, long beards and moustaches. Under the big turbans they all have long hair, which is a crucial symbol of Sikhism. They believe in one God, like Christians or Muslims, but they also believe in reincarnation like Hindus and Buddhists. They don’t have any caste system, because they believe in equality. The original site of the Golden Temple Complex for the city was granted by the Mughal emperor Akbar and later on destroyed by another Mughal, Ahmad Shah Durani in 1761. It was rebuilt in 1764 and 1802 was roofed with gilded copper plates by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and became known as the Golden Temple, which is Sikhism’s holiest shrine and place for the holiest Sikhist’s pilgrimage.
After we left our bags in the hotel we went to eat in the complex. First we had to leave our shoes outside in the shelves, then we both had to cover our heads, me with a shawl and Arne put a cap on. We entered a courtyard were volunteers were making lots of noise washing a huge amount of metal food plates. This area was a kitchen and a dining place, where every day 60-80 000 meals were prepared for pilgrims for free. We got a steel plate with five compartments, one bowl and a spoon in front of the entrance to a building. Inside of the building was a huge hall and people sitting on lined carpets and eating their meals. We sat too and waited what is going to happen. Men with buckets came spooning different kinds of food onto our plate. There was dhal (lentils), vegetable curry, some other spinach dish, chapatti and some sweet dessert on our plates. You could eat until full, asking more if you wanted. At the beginning there were only a few people 
eating, but the building had started to fill up until it was full. I reckon there were at least three hundred people inside all sitting on the floor carpet and eating. We gave our empty dishes to volunteers for washing and walked towards the Golden Temple. On the way there we had to pass a strip of water to wash our feet before entering. Arne had to put a scarf on and looked like an elf. The whole inner complex was just amazing, a jaw dropping picture. In front of us was a square with the sacred pool Amrit Sarovar (Pool of Nectar), where people were bathing probably washing off 
their sins. In the middle of this sacred pool stood the Golden Temple reached by a bridge. The pool was surrounded by a complex of white buildings and people strolling around taking the pilgrimage. The guards were wearing white clothes, turbans, swords or spears looking like maharaja’s guards. A loud chanting and singing was coming from the speakers and everything looked like from the fairytale story “Thousand and one night.” It was truly the most fairytale resembling place in the world to me. Everything was there; the right music, the right people, the right buildings the right atmosphere and the right feeling. We walked around passing men with turbans and women with saris and then waited for ten minutes on the bridge to enter the Golden Temple. The temple’s architecture is a blend of Islamic and Hindu styles, but with unique distinctions. The golden dome gilded with 750 kg of gold represents an inverted lotus flower, a symbol of Sikh devotees’ aim to live a pure life. When we walked in there were two men playing on unknown instruments to us and singing and chanting. Other men were standing and sitting around all of them chanting too 
and were separated from the crowd by a red rope making a border between us and them. They keep continuously (24/7) chanting from the Sikhs holy book and that’s what you could here also outside through the speakers. The incense were burning and people were praying. We gave them a donation and received some sugary sweets wrapped in a large orange cloth. On the second floor of the temple a priest was sitting behind the hugest book we ever seen reading from it. People were sitting around praying, chanting and listening to the chants of the priests. We came down, walked on the other side of the pond, came back to the entrance and took our shoes from the shelves. I really like the Golden Temple, it was my one of my top highlights.
In the afternoon we had another plan and it was to take a look at the India-Pakistani border, where a ceremony is held every afternoon. We arranged a car, which brought us there and back together with another four people. We arrived to the border around four o’clock, where we were searched at least five times in case we had any weapons. When we finally got through all this rubbish we came to a big tribune already filled with lots of people. Young girls were shortening their waiting with Bollywood dancing right in front of tribune. And then it started!!! Soldiers lined into one line were shouting something into a microphone and people from the tribune were loudly shouting back. Then two by two the soldiers approached the Indian-Pakistani gate grotesquely marching their way looking like mad and aggressive peacocks or cockerels stamping their feet and throwing their legs and arms in 
every possible direction. I didn’t understand what it was all about, it was mad and stupid and Indian’s seemed to be proud of that. On the other side of the gate at the Pakistani side it was quieter, with much less audience. We could still hear their shouting though. When the gate opened the guards from both countries met in the middle stamping, marching and throwing their limbs and heads like mad. The whole ceremony looked quite aggressive, but I guess that’s the way it should be. People were shouting and screaming, like they were in some trance or something I didn’t understand this ceremony at all. In the evening we went eat for free again together with another hundred people around us.
Day 2
We left Amritsar today at 2:20 pm and took a 17 hour train to Jaipur in Rajastan, which was maybe only three hours from Delhi. The train journey was smooth; Arne was reading a book and I was reading the Lonely Planet. Late in the night it started to be very cold on the train, so it was not very pleasant afterwards.
Location: Rishikesh, Uttarakand, India
14-17.11.2009
Day 1
We arrived by bus to Haridwar, a place very similar to Varanasi. The Ganges is flowing through the town and there are also religious ceremonies going on and people were bathing in the river.
From there we took the bus to Rishikesh, which was about thirty kilometers away. Rishikesh is well known as ”the Yoga Capital of the World.” It all had started with Beatles coming here and ending up at the ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the late 60’ s, where they were practicing yoga and meditation. Since then many people started to come to learn yoga, meditation and other spiritual things. The place is full of hippies and New Age people, probably looking for enlightenment. You can learn Indian music, Ayurvedic massage and medicine and have done your personal horoscope or palm reading.
We had a breakfast at the restaurant at the bus station and took a shared auto rickshaw, which supposed to drop us at the place, where we were planning to stay. But at a 
certain point, when there were no people left except us he stopped and asked us for a hundred rupees to drive us there. We showed him our middle finger and got off. I noticed I didn’t see Arne’s day pack. We both panicked and Arne ran after the rickshaw. Right after I saw the pack laying on the pavement far apart from the rest of the bags. Arne was already gone, so I couldn’t tell him. It was a very hot and sunny day. Arne returned and was cheated by another auto rickshaw guy, who he paid hundred rupees and he didn’t bring us anywhere. I got very upset that morning and I made a pretty long quarrel about it and I just couldn’t get over it for quite a while. Everything was irritating me; the dirt and rubbish, cows and shit I sometimes stepped in, because they were everywhere and also the people. It was always the same story, the people were interesting in you just because they wanted get money out of you. And that happened so many times, we 
can’t even count. Arne was upset about it too, but less irritated about the other things. We knew that the shared taxi cost 8 rupees, but nobody wanted to take us there for that kind of money. They asked for thirty instead, just because we have got white skin. How racist!!! We stopped many of them and in the end we walked all the way there maybe 4-5 km with heavy backpacks up the hill in the heat- just out of principle. It was a long walk and we were very tired when we came to the area we were planning to stay. It took us another hour to find an accommodation, which had a nice common terrace overlooking the Ganges and the surrounding hills. Of course we were very tired today, because of travelling, so we were just relaxing and didn’t do much today.
Day 2-4
Because of our high-speed travelling over the past two weeks, we were too knackered to do anything. We just didn’t feel like to to anything. We didn’t take yoga or meditation lessons, we didn’t go to see anything. All we did was reading books, laying in the bed, strolling around the Ganges, getting food. We also went to The Festival of Indian Music and saw only one band we didn’t really like, so we left. Maybe the next time. The fourth day passed and we had to take a bus to Roorkie and from there an overnight train to Amritsar, which was another 500 km away and had the famous Golden Temple. The train journey took 10 hours, which was quite a long journey. I don’t think that Roorkies have seen many white people, everyone was staring at us all the time. We felt very uncomfortable. It is nice to have a bit of attention, but too much is too much. The night on the train was very cold and we had to put some extra clothes on to keep warm.
Location: Fatehpur Sirkri, Uttar Pradesh, India
We had a good night sleep in a very nice room. We had our breakfast and went to see what we came here for- the fort. The town used to be the capital of the Mughal empire between 1571 and 1585. It is also a World Heritage Site and a very charming and atmospheric place especially around the fort. The rest of the town is as any other Indian towns very dirty with lots of rubbish piling everywhere, cows and goats shitting on the streets and crossing your way, an open sewer running on the street and people full of despair.
So we made our way up the hill where we first visited Jama Masijd – a beautiful mosque, which contains elements Indian and Persian design. We were warned about people trying to be our guides and advised 
not to take one. Lots of local people were sitting on stairs socializing or selling some souvenirs. We entered the mosque at Victory Gate and found ourselves in a big enclosed courtyard. At the opposite side there was a white building within the courtyard with the tomb of some Sufi saint, who had predicted the birth of an heir to the Mughal throne. There were many more tombs and four long corridors around this square courtyard.On the left side of the main gate was the mosque. The whole complex was very nice and felt very ancient. We were constantly disrupted by guys trying to convince us we needed a guide and them being just right person for us and by the souvenir sellers pushing us to buy something. Just outside of this mosque fields were covered by a thick layer of rubbish greeting us –”Welcome to India the land of the rubbish. “It was pretty sad to see the World Heritage Site surrounded by fields of garbage and nobody cares.
After that we went to see the main part of the fort, which we had to pay to get in. The fort was a big complex of courtyards, gardens, buildings, towers and walls all of them built from a red stone. The emperor, Akbar, had actually three favourite wives, one of whom was Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. His favorite one was said to be the Hindu one and we could see it, because he built for each of them palaces, where they lived. The house he built for the Hindu wife, was the most beautiful one and set around an enormous courtyard with traditional Indian columns, Islamic cupolas and turquoise-blue Persian roof tiles. This one 
was also the largest of the three. His least favorite was probably the Christian one, because her house was converted from a kitchen and was very, but very basic and also very tiny. The Muslim wife had a mid sized house with nice carvings around. There must had been lots of jealously and hatred among them three, one more favorite than the other. After that we entered another courtyard with an ornamental pool with a platform where singers and musicians were performing for Akbar, who was watching from a pavilion in his private quarter. These days it is only something looking like a maze. Just behind it 
there was his bedroom with an enormous bed looking like for four people, maybe for his three wives? On the grounds of the same courtyard there was a Hall of Public Audiences, where the emperor was orchestrating public executions carried out by his war elephants trampling criminals to death and also many other interesting buildings like the emperor’s treasury or a building where the emperor was debating with his ministers. There were many more scattered buildings around and many more courtyards. Before we left the complex we walked through the big complex of the royal stables. They must have had also camels and elephants over there, because individual compartments for animals were bigger than for horses. From there we strolled around the ruins and went down the main road, through piles of bricks and boys with goats.
We returned to the guesthouse and decided we don’t want to stay here another day, so we left and took a bus to Agra. There we waited for five hours to get an overnight bus to Rishikesh in Uttarakand, which was at least 500 kilometers north of Fatehpur Sikri, if not more. There we were planning to chill out and take a few days of yoga classes. My reclining seat in the bus was broken, which was fantastic, because it was nearly like a bed, which was a big advantage .
Location: Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
11-12.11.2009
Day 1
India is very easy to travel by train, but you have to book it at least four days in advance. We found a very good on-line booking website called www.cleartrip.com which takes the hassle out of Indian train travel (no more travel agents or booking at train stations). But because we didn’t plan anything we had a bit of problem today. Indian trains have got a few classes starting from a passenger carriage, which you can’t book on-line and you don’t get a seat. You can hop in to any train going to a city or town you want to go. The only problem is, that the carriages are mostly completely packed with people with their hands and legs sticking out from the carriages. The passenger carriages are super-cheap, compared to the other classes. Then you have got sleeper class, which we normally take and is quite cheap to, but still triple the price compared to the passenger carriage. After that you have got a seat carriage with a booked seat, sleeper 3 berth AC and sleeper 2 berth AC (air-conditioned). 
The last one would cost at least ten times as much as the passenger carriage. But to get to the point, we had to take the passenger carriage today because we were late with the booking. The first journey didn’t really bother me, because the train was starting in Khajuraho, which meant it won’t be full and we can easily find a seat. It was the second train from Jhansi to Agra, which I was scared of. We took a rickshaw at 11Am to the train station of Khajuraho. The station was very empty at first but later on started filling up. We still managed to find the seats, which was great. As usual the train left with one and a half hour delay. The journey was too long and exhausting. It supposed to take us four hours, but took eight hours instead. Wait wait, that is not all. The distance was only 100km. Yes, yes only 100 km in eight long hours. Amazing!!! The train was dirty full of peanut shells on the floor and other rubbish. People were getting in the train and selling foods and drinks (peanuts too). People were staring at us, as we were some movie stars. It was quite annoying. At a certain point there was a man, a very annoying man sitting next to us. He was staring at me all the time from about half a meter distance and talking in Hindi, which we obviously didn’t understand. At the end he was so obnoxious we couldn’t bare him anymore, so Arne kicked him, because we told him at least twenty times, that we don’t want to talk to him and he should stop bothering us. Of course all the people in the carriage were staring like cows at us. When we got off the train to have a cigarette break people were even turning back to take a look.
We finally arrived to Jhansi, which had quite a decent train station. We had a little dinner at a nearby restaurant and ran to catch the other passenger train to Agra. The first train terminating at Amritsar was completely full with people and bags and arms and legs sticking out. It was crazy, I couldn’t see us arriving to Agra tonight. Many people even didn’t fit inside, so they were waiting for another train and so we did. Except the people there were at least three cows at the station just on a platform between the two trains eating cardboard and one of them with her head in the rubbish bin just next to a snack stall. “Where are you travelling Mrs. Cow?” “ Moo I need to go to Delhi to buy some tasty and juicy clovers and after that I would like to see the Taj Mahal.” But anyway we had to take the next train, which was the same story as the previous one. There was a stampede of people with huge sacks on their heads trying to squeeze in the passenger carriage, all at the same time while the train was already full. We were very tired, because it was already 9:30 pm and we had another three hours to travel to Agra in a passenger carriage, which we couldn’t even fit in. We found some place in a sleeper carriage just next to the toilets together with another four men and several Sadhus. Despite we were next to the toilets the journey wasn’t that bad. Arne managed to talk to one of the Sadhus (holy men), who was very sweet and was giving free lessons of yoga and meditation near Rishikesh in Utarrakand, where we were planning to go later on. In the end we all got on very well and it was a very pleasant train experience for us. We arrived in Agra around 1am in the morning and took a rickshaw to a guesthouse we found in the Lonely Planet, which was just a minute away from Taj Mahal.
Day 2
We were planning to wake up at six in the morning today, but because we didn’t hear our alarm going off, we overslept. We first had breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel with a good view of the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. The death left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair is said to have turned grey virtually overnight. He started to built the Taj Mahal the same year and finished 1653. Not long after Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb and imprisoned in Agra Fort where he could only gaze at his creation of Taj Mahal through a window for the rest of his days. In total around 20,000 people were working on the building, which is made of beautiful white marble. It became a World Heritage Site in 1983.
It was cold and rainy day today, which we didn’t expect. It was maybe 18 degrees Celsius and it looked like a bad summer in England. We managed to enter the gates of Taj Mahal around nine in the morning. We paid a ridiculous 750 rupees fee a person, which is about 11 Euros. We thought it to be a very steep price, especially because the entrance for Indians is only 20 rupees. What a rip off. It seems Indian politicians and rulers found a nice new milking cow in tourist attractions and you can be sure that all the profits go in someone’s pocket and not to improving the cities. We also had to pay for the camcorder and we could only film from a distance, which was only two minutes of filming. I was very upset about it, very upset. First we passed a red gate and came to a square with another red gate in front of us. Behind the second gate we could see the Taj Mahal in the distance with the water and fountains in front. There were lots of tourists taking pictures and hanging around. Then we walked along the water and saw a mosque on the left side of Taj Mahal, which had beautiful detailed work and made from red stone. Then we took a look at some other buildings on the right side of Taj Mahal again made of the red stone very similar to the mosque on the other site.
After that we finally made our way to Taj Mahal main building. It stands on a marble platform with an ornamental garden and the Yamuna river at the back. There are four 40 meters white minarets surrounding the building. The central Taj structure is made of semi translucent white marble, carved with flowers and inlaid with thousands of semiprecious stones in beautiful patterns. Below the main dome is the Cenotaph of Mumatz Mahal , a fake tomb surrounded by an exquisite perforated marble screen inlaid with 43 different types of semiprecious stones. Beside it is the Cenotaph of Shah Jahan. The tombs of Mumtaz and Shah are in a locked basement room below the main chamber. The main Taj was truly amazing and very well restored, looking like a new building and not touched by the time. We had to put shoe covers on our shoes like in a hospital to enter it. The building has a surreal quality to it when you see it, like it is from a different reality.
After that we just strolled in a little park in front of the Taj Mahal and looked at stripy squirrels eating seeds. We spent around two hours to see the whole site and made our way back to the hotel. I thought the Taj Mahal was nice, but it 
wouldn’t be in my top list. Arne thought it was definitely worth seeing it though and thought it to be deservedly one of the world wonders. But anyhow, it was the famous Taj Mahal and we had to see it and tick it. Yes, we had seen the famous Taj Mahal. In Agra there were other interesting sites to see like Agra Fort and Mosque and many others. We didn’t see any of it, because they charged ridiculously steep prices to see them, so we left it to save our scrawny budget. From there we took a rickshaw to the bus station, from where we took a bus to Fatehpur Sikri, which was 26 km away from Agra.
Fatehpur Sirkri is a very dirty town with lots of rubbish laying around and an old fort dated from 16 century. Not that not every town in India isn’t dirty, but some are even more dirty. First we were brought to a hotel far away from the centre, which Arne didn’t like, so we came back and looked for something else. We saw lots of hotels and guesthouses before we chose one. Prices of meals in restaurants here were very expensive. Sometimes triple price of what you would normally pay. We certainly didn’t like it, because we are travelling on a shoestring. It took us lots of time to find a restaurant, which had kind of reasonable prices. It was still very expensive, but the meal was one of the nicest we had in India. But those places like Fatehpur Sikri, Agra and Khajuraho are normally full with day trippers coming from Delhi to see the sites around. They are here for two or three weeks and they pay lots of money, because they are on holiday and they don’t have any idea what everything costs in India. We are backpackers and we know the prices, so we look at it differently. I mean it is not very expensive at all when compared to Europe, but very expensive compared to the rest of India.
Location: Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India
10-11.11.2009
Day 1
We arrived to Satna train station at 5am, where we took a taxi to the main bus station. We had to wait for another two hours for the bus to leave. As any bus station in India this one was very dirty and shabby with people staring at you, like you just have landed from Mars. Indian people are very staring, which can make you very uncomfortable. They actually can stand in front of your face staring with open mouth at you for even a few minutes. You don’t want to be really rude, but sometimes you just feel to tell them “piss off “. I try to look elsewhere, otherwise I will probably get rude to them. But anyway at the bus station there was only one place open with food. It was some food stall where we normally wouldn’t eat, because India is a very dirty place and you never know if you are not going to end up in the hospital with serious stomach problems. But because we were very hungry we had some vegetable rice and masala tea over there. It was a super-cheap place and we ended up paying for our breakfast 14 rupees for the both of us, which is about 20 Euro cents. We didn’t know you can get even cheaper than what we already pay. On the way bus bus Arne tried more of those super-cheap places munching his way to Khajuraho. This province wasn’t as poor as Bihar and the houses looked neater and a bit more civilized. On the bus there was a guy who told us he knew about a good place to stay in Khajuraho. We agreed we will take a look at this place. When we got off the bus twenty hungry vultures attacked us with rickshaws rides and hotel offers. It was truly insane. They were shouting in our faces, waving with hotel 
leaflets, pulling our bags and had fights with each other. That was a real war zone over here. I had at least five leaflets of hotels in Khajuraho in my hands and Arne was smoking and hiding in a shop just behind the guy from the shop laughing. We didn’t know what to do it was just too much. We told them if they won’t stop we will walk away. I felt like my head was one big mad house full of screaming voices. At the end I made a decision to take a rickshaw and head to Yogi Ashram 1,5km from the town. The guy we promised on the bus to take a look at his guesthouse was literally running after the rickshaw and begging to take a look at his guesthouse with the words “please, please, please you promised to take a look. ..please, please …” He was so desperate. We felt bad about that, but what he will do when he would be in our shoes? It is just too much, twenty desperate locals attacking two tourists. We understand their despair, but you can’t please everyone!!! Yogi Ashram was too far from the town and it wasn’t anything special. We decided to go back to the town and look for a guesthouse over there. We asked the rickshaw driver about some cheap and decent guesthouse and he drove us to Chandela Hotel, which we liked and stayed. It was only eleven in the morning when we arrived to the hotel. We were too tired, so we fell 
asleep and woke up at four. After that we went to look for some restaurant to have dinner. All the restaurants were too pricey, it was ridiculous. They charge here triple prices compared to the rest of India. But we had to eat and we found some small eatery-restaurant with a local woman cooking and preparing dinner on the floor. We hoped we won’t get sick. On the way back to the hotel people were bothering us and pulling us to shops, selling tours and Kama sutra souvenirs. This place is crazy and you have got constantly people running after you asking you questions, selling you some souvenirs, pulling you to shops and kids begging for money and pens. It is very tiring just to walk on the street, we wished we would be invisible. In the evening just before sunset thousands of squeaking parrots were making their way home, which happened to be a few large trees just in front of our hotel. That was quite a surprise to us, because we thought we were already lucky to see a few parrots in Central America. But seeing thousands of parrots from the balcony of your hotel must be something very special. The evening we spent watching the TV and sipping rum with coke.
Day 2
Today we were planning to go to the temples of Khajuraho with the Kama Sutra carvings dating from the 10th century AD. These temples are a UNESCO World Heritage. The legend is telling that Kharujaho was founded by Chardravarman, the son of the moon Chandra, who descended on a beautiful maiden as she bathed in a stream. The Chandela dynasty built the temples, many of which rose up from a lake (as the story goes). Originally there were 85 temples, but only 25 remained. They were forgotten until a British officer TS Burnt discovered them in 1838. The temples are situated at three locations in the town- Western Group, and outside the town Eastern and Southern Group. The only ones you have to pay to get to is the Western Group and it cost around 250 rupees, which is just under four Euros.
The Western Group was just two minutes away from our hotel. It was a very hot day today. We got security checked and walked through a metal detector first. After that we visited the first temple of the Western Group which was Varaha, dedicated to Vishnu’s boar incarnation. There was a big statue of a boar in a small temple with people, gods and animal carvings. Next to that were the two shrines Lakshmi carved with elephants, camels, people, couples in love and couples and group sex poses of Kama Sutra. The carvings were immaculately preserved with very beautiful and fine work. Inside of the temple were carvings of naked women and men mostly standing next to each other looking in love.
After that we walked further through the very clean and maintained park and came to a complex of temples. They looked very beautiful already from the distance. First we saw Lakshamana Temple. It took 20 years to finish it. Except the carvings I already mentioned there were carvings of battalions of soldiers. There were also some horse-men orgy and other animal orgies. The temple was dedicated to Vishnu. Next to it was Kandariya-Mahadev Temple representing the highpoint of Chandelan architecture. They say this temple has the most representations of female beauty and sexual aerobics. Apparently there are 872 acrobatic statues, but I hardly had seen ten. Arne saw some handstand gymnastic positions, but I missed that. I thought I looked carefully, but never mind. Next to that was Mahedeva temple with a statue of sardula (mythical beast, part lion and even another animal and part human) stroking a 1m high lion. Next to that was Devi 
Jagadamba temple dedicated to Vishnu, later to Parvati and than to Kali. There were carvings of mythical creatures and people. The whole complex was truly impressive and seeing these old ancient temples centuries later was just incredible. I could imagine how grandiose it had been then. The whole complex of these few temples was built on one common courtyard with two statues of lions. There were a few more temples in the Western group with the same motives, very similar to the other ones, and equally impressive. There were two big statues of elephants guarding the entrance to one of the temples. Yellow monkeys with black faces were invading one of the temples jumping and sitting on the temple and watching the tourists.
After that we went to have coffee in a restaurant, where we could sit on a small platform in the crown of a tree and having a stunning view over the whole Western Group. It was like a child’s dream having a cozy and safe place in the crown of a tree.
From there we decided to walk to the Eastern Group, which was twenty minutes walking. On the way there we had lots of people coming and hassling us about buying things and kids asking about money and pens. Two young boys maybe ten years old leeched on us being very chatty. We knew they will ask for money later on, but somehow we didn’t bother anymore. We first walked through the old village of Khajuraho mainly consisting of farmers. Of course they bothered us to buy some odd souvenirs made from metal, which we 
didn’t need. It was very difficult to convince them, that we don’t need them. Then we saw some worse preserved temples, than the ones in the Western Group, but they were still very impressive. There were just behind the village surrounded by rice fields, cows and goats. The boy showed me a tree, which was good for treating malaria and fed me with another thousand bits of information I couldn’t process. He didn’t stop talking since forty minutes ago and it made me quite tired. When both me and Arne had enough of listening (Arne was listening for forty minutes to the other boy) we said we want to be alone. We gave them some money and continued by ourselves. The last group of temples was very nice again with two big statues of elephants, little temples with Kama Sutra carvings and a white complex of walls and temples looking like from a different era. We had some more people running and trying to sell us some metal nonsense. On the way back we walked through the village again, where people were making pots and plates from clay on the streets. Children were running around and playing and asking us for pens. We came back quite tired from walking in this heat. 
We watched the parrots again from the balcony of our room in the evening. The temples were really worth seeing, but the overload of locals asking for money, buying things and bothering us all the time was just too much. When we sat on the balcony we could see tourists passing and locals walking next to them with books, cards of Kama Sutra and other different souvenirs. We would really recommend everyone to go to see these gorgeous temples. It is something you will never forget and will remember for the rest of your life, if you can handle people constantly hassling you with no time left for yourself outside the complexes.
Location: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
5-8.11.2009
Day 1
So we got in the train and everything went completely smooth. We got in, fell asleep and woke up in Varanasi without any disturbance. The Lonely Planet warned about the touts bringing you to a guesthouse for a commission. We had quite a lot of work to do to find one, who kind of gave up the game about the commission. He still tried, but we were stronger. He took us to the Pandhey Ghat , where we wanted to find a guesthouse. The place was a maze of little streets with small shops, restaurants, guesthouses and cows wandering around and shitting on the streets. We saw several of the guesthouses, but in the end we decided for Visnu Guesthouse with a large clean room far away from the hassle. 
The front of the guesthouse was a different story- a big square full of shit and seven cows lying in it. Between these two worlds was a high solid wall trying to separate it. It worked for us, maybe because of the clean large room too nice for Indian standards. We were also very tired today as usual after we travel overnight. We took a warm shower (not the Indian standard) and went to eat something for breakfast. We met the 
Belgian couple we met in Siliguri a few days ago, so we ate together. We agreed to meet for dinner and went back to the guesthouse , were Arne fell asleep. It was time to meet them, but Arne was still asleep. I went down to the place we agreed to meet and waited for their arrival for 45 minutes. The Ganges river is a very calming place with large river banks, people walking around and boats floating on it. Whilst I was waiting , two Indian men from Kerala (South India) a
approached me to chat. They were on a pilgrimage passing by to visit several holy places. They were very nice and it was nice to talk to them. Some more people approached me only to sell me something- postcards, candles, boat trips… When the Belgians finally arrived, Arne still wasn’t here. He came later and all of us walked to the main Dasaswamedh Ghat, where apparently something was going on. As the sun came down people were starting to take boat trips on the Ganges. They also were buying little floating candles with flowers and put them on the Ganges. Hundreds of lit candles were floating downstream making the Ganges a very special river. Next to the main 
Ghat – Chausatti Ghat something was ready to start. People were preparing some event in front of the Ganges, just before the stairs descending to the river. We sat down and waited. Five young guys in white-orange cultural dresses were sitting in a row in front of us on platforms. When the music and singing started, they started to move. First they were dancing with a big shell and tried to blow on it. Then 
they started to dance with incense sticks and then chalice with a thick smoke of incense coming out of it. It was a very beautiful sight to watch. People taking the boat trips slowly started to come closer on the water to see this event. Later on the place in front was full of boats and people inside watching this show. Still candles were floating on the water making this evening even more special. After that the guys were dancing with a little fire, looking like princes from the far east. Here I realized, how deep roots the Hindu religion and culture has. Their movements, their faces, music, singing and seeing those Indian people watching transformed the whole world in front of us. I wasn’t in the real world, I was somewhere else. At the place where people live their lives very close to the nature, animals, earth and their Gods. They live in a completely different world from ours. It was magical. The five princes 
then took a burning chalice with flowers aside of it dancing with this big fire and throwing petals of flowers on their healthy and shiny black hair. I could imagine how it looked like a few hundred years ago with a big reaching realm of India and palaces, maharajas, poetry, singing and dancing. It must have been the most beautiful thing on earth. After that they took an artifact resembling the burning Christmas Tree and they danced with for a while. Those five princes started to dance with something like a broom, then with peacock’s feathers and finished their 
dance with the shell again. The audience was huge on the boats and also on the stairs. It was a really magical performance. Next to Chausatti Ghat, was the main Ghat where they performed the same dance but half an hour later. We didn’t watch this one anymore. But there were more people watching, begging and strolling. Few Sadhus (holy men) were walking around like creatures from a different world. White haired people were begging on the stairs hoping for some money. The cows and goats were watching too together with the people. The whole place was a big old picture from a different century. It was a pity, we didn’t have the camcorder with us. It would be incredible. We stayed there until the other show was finished and then went to the restaurant where we met with these two Belgians in the morning. We had dinner together and afterwards everyone went their own way.
Day 2
The next day we didn’t do that much. I bought some hippie clothes and Arne was looking for a day pack, because his old one had a broken zip. Arne was trying to upload our blog, but because the power here is cut off very frequently we couldn’t do it . We met some girls booking a train ticket online, but when the payment was processing the power went off. They were very upset, because they didn’t know if their payment was finished. That sucks! We went to take a look at a local market, which was very 
busy full of kitschy stuff. The streets were full of cows and their pooh and of course full of dirt. In the evening we met the Belgians and went to take a look at the main Dasaswamedh Ghat again to see if anything was happening today. They were performing the same ceremony, as yesterday, so we weren’t interested anymore. Just after the main Ghat there was a big event with some holy man talking and people singing and clapping their hands. We passed this holy event and went to see the main burning Ghat- Manikarnika Ghat. There were tons of different types of wood stacked up and bodies of dead people burning in the fires of maybe 10 funeral pyres. We watched this crazy place first from a distance 
and later on we came just above the burning bodies maybe 5 meters away. We saw people being brought on wooden bamboo stretchers wrapped in a big piece of textile. Apparently the married women are wrapped in red saris, married men in any colours, old men and women in white together with children. They don’t burn pregnant women, holy men, children, people bitten by snakes and people with leprosy. Those ones are released and submerged in the river, so if you walk along the Ganges you can sometimes see the floating bodies which emerge to the surface. We haven’t seen any, but the Belgians were so lucky to see it. Before the people are burnt they are first washed and massaged in fragrant oils. After that they wrap them and bring for a dip in the Ganges to wash their sins. Then they make a boat ride on the Ganges with their relatives. After they are ready for the burning experience. In a small temple above is burning a fire of Shiva, which they have kept constantly burning for centuries. They don’t use any fuel for burning just wood and this holy Shiva’s fire. They also use five kinds of woods for 
burning. The whole cost of cremation is around 2000 rupees, which is around 30 Euros. Poor people, who can’t afford this fancy funeral can be burnt in electric cremating ovens, which cost only 50 rupees, which is less than 1 Euro. We saw burning people with limbs sticking out from the fire and heads burning out. It was crazy to watch. A guy whose job was burning the bodies told us that hips of the women and chests of the men always remain the last in the fire. When those parts of the body remain, they take them from the fire place and wash them again in the Ganges. After that those parts are burnt to ashes. The ash is then scattered over the Ganges and the ceremony is finished. The people who burn the bodies are untouchables, the lowest caste of Indian 
society. Not far away from the burning Marnikarnika Ghat was a place where people come to die. Untouchables are looking after them until the time of their death arrive. They were bringing more and more dead bodies and setting more and more fires. The whole place was very smoky and gloomy. Taking pictures or recording was forbidden over here, so we didn’t make any video or pictures at the burning Ghat.
After that we went to eat in the guesthouse where the Belgians were staying. The guesthouse was just behind the main burning Ghat with a 
roof top restaurant overlooking the Ganges and smoke from burning bodies ascending to the sky. The food was good and after that we had to go back to our guesthouse, because the gate of the guesthouse was closing at 10 pm. It was already twenty minutes to ten, so we had to go. The electricity in the town was down that time and we didn’t have a torch. We found out that on our lighter there was a small torch we could use, so the problem was solved. The walk back along the bank of the Ganges in the dark only accompanied by a little light from our lighter was quite a spooky experience. Men were peeing everywhere on the stairs and the whole bank stank of urine. A man was 
cleaning the main Ghat with a pressure hose pumping water from the Ganges. We didn’t think it would help. The Ganges contains 1,5 million fecal bacteria per 100 ml and to be safe to swim the water should contain only 500 fecal bacteria per 100 ml. Still we saw people bathing in the Ganges, wash their bodies, teeth, clothes and even drink it. We don’t understand anyone could survive this lethal portion of bacteria, but they do (at least for as long as we were looking). We had missed our guesthouse and it took us quite a while to find it, but some good people on the way helped us.
Day 3
Arne wanted to upload the pictures to Flickr and I wanted to take a stroll around the Ganges to see different Ghats in Varanasi. I went down to the bank of the Ganges and Arne decided to go with me and have a cigarette. We sat on the stairs and watched people washing clothes in the Ganges. There were clothes lying everywhere, on the stairs, washing lines and pavements to dry. Hundreds of pieces of garments were moving on the washing lines with the force of the wind. Arne had changed his mind and decided to take a stroll with me. On the banks of the Ganges 
people were bathing in the river eliminating their sins they gathered during their life time. We saw more clothes washing places and people washing the clothes on stones descending to the river. We also saw water buffaloes swimming in the river cooling down in this hot weather. We came to the end of the main part of Varanasi along the Ganges and sat down in the shade to cool down. An Indian man in his early fifties arrived and started to talk to us. Arne was listening, but I wasn’t in mood to talk or listen to anyone. But Arne later told me that the guy was a supervisor of this area and was trying to keep it under control. He even put the signs with “no peeing on the streets”, to prevent people peeing everywhere around. But he said that the majority of the people here are illiterate anyway, so the signs didn’t help. At least he tried. He also told a couple of stories, one which was about the holy ponds in Varanasi. There are several holy ponds, where people coming to take a dip to get 
healed from diseases or just ‘marriage problems’ (infertility). Every single pond has got its own unique property and heals certain problems. In one of these ponds some king came with leprosy and when he took a dip in the pond he got healed. There is a pond of fertility, where unfertile people not able to have children come with their partners bathing. The guy said everyone gets healed, which we doubt. He also told us that Varanasi was born at the point where rivers Varan and Asi meet. Varanasi is the oldest city of India. And there were more stories, about the prime minister Indira Gandhi, who received a necklace from some holy man 
saying, that when the necklace breaks she will die. When she was murdered some years later, they found her necklace was broken earlier that day. And the stories went on and on. I strolled around and made lots of pictures of people, animals and buildings around. The whole surrounding looked yet again like civilisation 2000 years back with cows, goats and chickens strolling on the stairs together with crazy people bathing and washing the clothes in the Ganges. After that Arne bought a cream for his Himalayan-injured knee and we got back to stroll along the bank 
of the Ganges. We carried on passing the main Ghat arriving to the main burning Ghat. Fire and smoke was filling the place full of crying women, piles of wood, boats, burning bodies and people watching the funerals. We again saw flames of the fire licking and engulfing flesh and bones into their hot and hungry mouths, leaving nothing behind but ash. We again saw heads and limbs burning and new dead bodies arriving ready to be burnt. We sat down and watched at least for half an hour. It was of course a crazy place with an insane atmosphere. We were back many centuries back in a different world with different beliefs. The river, boats, people, ceremonies, buildings, stairs and streets holding the deep history of India, unchangeable even these days. There is no sign of progress, no sign of the modern world. Everything is so old, so stuck in the past.
After that we walked behind the burning Ghat where there were stables for cows, just in the middle of the paved street above the main stairs. We had to walk around the cows to carry on. We walked and saw more people bathing and drinking water from the Ganges and more people washing their clothes. There were some very old and impressive buildings along the river perfect for the camera. After that we made our way back to the guesthouse. In the evening we finally managed to upload our blog and pictures. I carried on writing the latest stories, while Arne was already sleeping.
Day 4
The next day our train to Satna was leaving at 7pm. We still had the whole day to spend in Varanasi. We had breakfast and went to the market to look for a torch and bought some fruits. After that we sat on the rooftop restaurant in our guesthouse. I was updating our blog and Arne read a book. We had a beautiful view on the Ganges with people strolling, bathing and washing. When we had a lunch we met Lou (we did the Goecha-La trek together) and had a five minute chat, because we had to leave and go to the train station to catch the train to Satna. The journey with the train was very easy of course with some delay.
