Namaste!

So, Intro; I am using this blog because I am currently in India, traveling for three weeks, before I am doing a field course/internship in Udaipur, in the state or province of Rajasthan, east in India. We are five people from my class doing this course, and I will be meeting up with them in less than two weeks. The course itself is a bit of a mystery to us still, but we will be working with an NGO called Seva Mandir, that has been working in the area for more than 40 years, and have more than 70,000 households working with them. So, obviously we are all very very exited. The course ends on the 18th of December, and after that I am going to travel for some weeks, go visit Lisa in Canada, and then learn Spanish in various countries in Central America before starting my exchange semester at EARTH University in Costa Rica in May. I will be home in the end of August next year.



So, The last week has been very good, I had a good flight and sat next to two very nice Sikhs going from England to shop and visit the Golden Temple north in the country, they would never themselves stay more than about three weeks though, "too hot" "too dirty" "too much people"
When I landed I met a nice Californian movie maker/editor named Dave, and we shared a cab into the center of tourist Kolkata, where we found a really nice place teeming with volunteers from the first center of Mother Teresa. However, before I got to know them, I had to fix a little problem. I left a plastic bag with books, clothes, phone and ipod inside the cab. This was fixed by about fifteen Indian men who all ment they knew the guy, called a bit around and told me to wait one hour. I did, while thinking my stuff was pretty much lost, but then a guy came knocking, and said we should go to the airport again, to pick up my stuff. I was not completely sure that it was there, when I asked, he said yes, but then he asked if I had left it in the front or in the back, so yeah, I was not particularly confident. However, when I got there, I was guided to our previous driver, who had my bag "ofcourse!" and my belief in the phrase so often heard here "No problem in India" was founded.

I spent some lazy days in Kolkata with some great people, Mac, Carrieann and Julie, who had all been there for some time. Because it rained, and I was adjusting to the hot and humid climate (still am) I did not do much besides walk around, and visit the Khaligat, a temple made in honour of Kali; My first temple here was a great experience, guided by Mac, we got to look Kali in her three eyes, throw flowers on the fire and make a prayer.

I left Kolkata after 4 days, taking an overnight train to Varanasi, one of the oldest cities in the world, being a religious center from around 600 b.c. On the train I was bought chai, had a small girl over me was puking, and met two teachers, a good trip. In Varanasi I met a Brit named Nick, and during the last 4 days, (got here on sat morning) we have walked in the old city and gotten completely lost, walking in to the burning ghats without knowing it when we were discussing if we wanted to see people burning or not. There we got a tour and the history and information there is to know from a nice scam artist, (I work for the poor, we need lots of wood to burn, whatever you can give sir, not enough sir, everything is good sir, not good sir, etc) but it was worth it. We have also been on a boat ride on the Ganges, and seen pretty much everything that floats in it, been to a magic show, had palm readings, (I will live to be 87, travel much, lucky number 7, day wednesday, colour red, and I will have two kids, boys, and i have a heart as wide as the pacific) I have also gotten up at six every morning to go to yoga, which I will try somewhere else as well, this was a bit shit if you ask me.

Varanasi is a great city, teeming with religious everything, and especially now because of a Vishnu festival. The old city is beautiful, the ghats (stairs down to Ganges, where people prey, eat, hang, wash themselves and clothes, etc) are really interesting and I have met many nice tourists here. However, there is a certain amount of "need hasj, come to my shop, need something", and just normal scams in general you can take. Because of the amount of tourists here, you get a bit tired.Today I went to see the place where Buddha gave his first sermon, which was good, the autorickshaw back and forth though was way more fun than seeing the actual place, interesting as it was. On the way in i got properly angry and nearly screamed at a guy for suddenly wanting to change our previously agreed deal, he was a proper prick, so I left him and threw what I though he deserved on him. However, this was still twice the "Indian price", and on the way back I had a good haggle with a nice man, and we where up to nine people in this one little rickshaw, this is a record I intend to break during my stay here.

Tomorrow, I am going to the cinemas to see a Bollywood flick, before taking an overnight to Agra, I am taking the train with a Spaniard that we met the other day, and hopefully well go together to see the Taj Mahal, before I am leaving for some hectic days, seeing Sikandra (a formerly huge city, now ruins), Akhbars tomb (a great emperor, who worked hard to join the different faiths in his country) and Keoladeo National Park, apparently the best bird watching park in Asia (or so says "The rough guide to India")

Then Its Jaipur (the pink city), where I will celebrate my birthday, and then for some quiet days in Pushkar, before ending up in Udaipur next saturday. If somebody had heard any of my previous plans; I discarded them as being way too hopeful.


The pictures come in different orders and all that, guess whats whats and ill be posting again in a week or so.