Varanasi brought out my creative side, unfortunately there are no recordings of these one-off gems. They include the rap inspired by the relentless black bogies you get from walking round a dusty city all day 'in the city, you dont get no pity' also a hillbilly style song named 'Sittin' on the steps of the ganges' describing all the wonders you can see from just sitting there. Alicia loves my songs.
Puja guesthouse was great thought the waitors were very talkative so there was no chance of a peaceful meal if you ate here. We entertained Sambo, who's name means shiva, with stories of pancake day 'Pancake day hahahah' and easter, where we paint eggs and roll them down a hill 'paint eggs and roll down hill, why? hahahhah' and he was very intrigued by our tales of think black beer (Guinness) 'you only drink small amount yes?' 'No, whole pints, it is very popular' 'hahahaha'. He told us about a recent kite festival...i want to come back for this!
i was told before coming, that 'Varanasi is wonderful', it is. It is crazy but all the better for it, the streets or galleys (a labyrinth of thin, bustling allies leading to the ghats), are full of stalls, colour, fabric, bangles, pilgrims, cows, dogs, and crap (literally). It is impossible to take everything in and also reasonably worrying when you try to find your way home for the first time and you cant find a painted wall with an arrow in the vague direction of your guesthouse! After wondering for a while my mapping skills kicked in and I can plot my way through the streets well enough for us to get from a to b.
We found a little gem of a restaurant on our first day here; Phulwari restarant is fabulous, the best mint and lemon drink I have had so far. Mint and lemon is the most refreshing thing in the world and apart from lassi, and chai has become my drink of choice.
My notes for varanasi and onwards are somewhat sparse and disordered, much like my brain, they will come in less ordered blog form, to be sorted when i arrive home and acquire a need to procrastinate on my laptop again.
On our first day we wondered, taking in the city. We also went and bought ourselves some clothes as we were running low on clean ones...need to do some washing. I would love an orange or yellow sari but have not really got the space to bring it home, or the energy to barter it to a reasonable price and I would most likely be incapable of wearing it with any grace, they are incredibly beautiful though and feel European women failed massively when developing their fashions, all the clothes i see in England are lacking in the vibrancy of fabrics that you see here.
I miss my dog and my little brother now...he would love the camels more than i do.
Top tip: if you are melting from excessive sunshine the best thing to do is find and ATM. Go inside, pretend to press buttons...the arctic inspired air conditioning will chill you in a couple of minutes, magic. My only question is how do they manage to keep the electrics for these tiny rooms going and have such top noch aircon when nowhere else can manage it?? i would gladly sleep in an ATM room.
P.S. I am getting very bad at blogging, sorry mum. To much chilling is happening and it doesnt help when you get half way through and the internet guy switches of the power...looking at my now blank screen he says very slowly 'Ooooh Wow, had you been writing long?' ...only thing to do is laugh and leave 'No Problem'.
Puja guesthouse was great thought the waitors were very talkative so there was no chance of a peaceful meal if you ate here. We entertained Sambo, who's name means shiva, with stories of pancake day 'Pancake day hahahah' and easter, where we paint eggs and roll them down a hill 'paint eggs and roll down hill, why? hahahhah' and he was very intrigued by our tales of think black beer (Guinness) 'you only drink small amount yes?' 'No, whole pints, it is very popular' 'hahahaha'. He told us about a recent kite festival...i want to come back for this!
i was told before coming, that 'Varanasi is wonderful', it is. It is crazy but all the better for it, the streets or galleys (a labyrinth of thin, bustling allies leading to the ghats), are full of stalls, colour, fabric, bangles, pilgrims, cows, dogs, and crap (literally). It is impossible to take everything in and also reasonably worrying when you try to find your way home for the first time and you cant find a painted wall with an arrow in the vague direction of your guesthouse! After wondering for a while my mapping skills kicked in and I can plot my way through the streets well enough for us to get from a to b.
We found a little gem of a restaurant on our first day here; Phulwari restarant is fabulous, the best mint and lemon drink I have had so far. Mint and lemon is the most refreshing thing in the world and apart from lassi, and chai has become my drink of choice.
My notes for varanasi and onwards are somewhat sparse and disordered, much like my brain, they will come in less ordered blog form, to be sorted when i arrive home and acquire a need to procrastinate on my laptop again.
On our first day we wondered, taking in the city. We also went and bought ourselves some clothes as we were running low on clean ones...need to do some washing. I would love an orange or yellow sari but have not really got the space to bring it home, or the energy to barter it to a reasonable price and I would most likely be incapable of wearing it with any grace, they are incredibly beautiful though and feel European women failed massively when developing their fashions, all the clothes i see in England are lacking in the vibrancy of fabrics that you see here.
I miss my dog and my little brother now...he would love the camels more than i do.
Top tip: if you are melting from excessive sunshine the best thing to do is find and ATM. Go inside, pretend to press buttons...the arctic inspired air conditioning will chill you in a couple of minutes, magic. My only question is how do they manage to keep the electrics for these tiny rooms going and have such top noch aircon when nowhere else can manage it?? i would gladly sleep in an ATM room.
P.S. I am getting very bad at blogging, sorry mum. To much chilling is happening and it doesnt help when you get half way through and the internet guy switches of the power...looking at my now blank screen he says very slowly 'Ooooh Wow, had you been writing long?' ...only thing to do is laugh and leave 'No Problem'.
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