Maruti Guest House Varanasi

... on the floor. Two girls came and asked what was going on, and I suggested they take a look for themselves, but since they were not European, but Japanese, I also thought it would be polite to let them know that there is a naked wild man holding his penis tied to a rock in there, to which they walked away, blushing...

The man did the usual crowd-pleasing routine, playing with his exposed part wrapping and unwrapping, massaging it until finally with a one second jerk and lift, he ...

... in his eyes and insisting we weren’t going anywhere... he got up, in his tighty whiteys, had a pee and a **** in front of us before again saying we would have to come back. So it was time for some cash... a whole US$2. We weren’t giving him anymore. He took it, stamped our passports and we crossed the border and arrived in Nepal close to midnight. Tough day – but totally worth it to make it to Nepal. Highs: Fascinating sights in Agra & Varanasi. Lows: No tiger to be seen for us.

... side but we soon learned and got a taste for it.

We all went on to have some food together and a beer fuelled evening, our first since leaving the UK.. was great fun and for the next 4 nights we pretty much did the same one night it was just me and adam and Chandra and after 4 bottles of Rukshy and some raw green chillies which paralysed my throat we were truly drunk.. but suprisingly no hangover the next day..

When we met up with Tom and his friends we ...

... concept we had.
Saturday 10th October. We lay tossing most of the night and at 5am were again awake but just too weary from lack of sleep to get up so as happened yesterday grabbed our best sleep from 5.30 to 9am. Guiltily we admitted that nearly10 months on the road has taken its toll on our energy and eagerness to bound out and explore. We have not explored as much of Varanasi as expected and resigned ourselves to this today as being a symptom of travelling so ...

... which are three wheelers and take you like taxis. It smells very bad compared to Europe with people always spitting, peeing and even pooing in the gutter.

People seem to be much friendly than in Europe even though they have not got anything. The street itself is winning in mine and dads toilet competition. We even saw one next to a food stall where people were buying food! Yesterday Mum & I saw 6 ceramic urinals just attached to a wall ...

It was a welcome return to humid temperatures in Delhi. After the pleasant cool of the Ladakhi wonderland that lies, oh only a short 34hr bus ride over the Himalayas, Delhi actually felt a little like coming home. McLeod Ganj, Manali and Ladakh didn't really feel like India. They were relatively civil, tidy and hassle free, not to mention surrounded by stunning 'non-India' terrain and features. Leh is basically a small Tibet (or so peoples say), embroided with Buddhist shrines ...

... too. There's alot of pimp my camera going on in these parts and it's very difficult to know if you are getting the real deal or not.

Whilst waiting for the camera doctor i sat and watched a street side renegade dentist. The guy was basically sitting in a gutter with his utensils and tools laid out all around him including torturous looking metal mouth openers and heavy duty pliers for yanking teeth out. He also had a little food cooker burner for lighting a fire ...

... masala, paratha, naan, roti and curry all jumped off the menu at me and i was back in vegetarian Indian food paradise. Many travellers get ill here so we've decided to go with busy, straight restaurants and unfortunately we're off the street food until it's deemed safe again. Varanasi only has 8 hours of electricity a day, provided at irregular times so i am weary of most food.

The next day i watched the sun rise over the Ganges then we took another walk south ...