Hotel Clarks Avadh Lucknow

... lane as in one lane for all directions. It was dark most of the way. The driver drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn. Manuel put on his dark glasses in the night so he couldn't see what was going on. This was quite an ezpperience. We stopped at truly ' the middle of nowhere for the driver to have a break and some dinner. The roadside place would not use electricity to ...

... in excrement.

The right hand toilet was western. Similar to the trainspotting toilet. This negated the need to strip off and was my favored dropping off point. That is until I misjudged my stance (no sitting on the thing, no way, just semi squatting at a 45 degree angle and holding on the sink tight for dear life) and shat everywhere. Had a vain attempt at a clear up operation. But it was beyond hope. I ...

... for us!!

...we enjoyed all the activity on our way out of Nepal in the counerfeit section of Nepal ganj but of course spent 20 mins in the police office while he checked everything out...very very slowly!! as they do!! yes, we def know we are back in India now!!! We then said our fond farewells to Suresh at Rudiah Bazaar.... ahhh ....sad... knowing we wont be at the wedding ... and that was it... a taxi for 6 or 7 hours for next to ...

... that I saw was a group of children come charging after the bus, screaming and waving and calling their friends to come and join them. They were all there to greet us when the bus stopped, all shouting 'hello' and 'photo, photo'. Such beautiful faces with black, shiny eyes and big wide smiles, filled with tiny pearly white teeth. Their complexions were enviable and their hair was sleek and in really good condition. Their clothes were tatty but ...

... morning we woke up really early, 5.45am to be exact, to get a bus to Bhairawa. After more reading from the bible (lonley planet nepal..im starting to become very religious) we knew that there was no tourist buses to the indian border despite what anyone said...even though we were told ours was a tourist bus, we knew we were up for something a little more demanding. when we got to the bus station we were swarmed by bread and bakery sellers, our inital reaction ...

Hi Everyone!! I know it's been quite a long time since my last blog post...I apologize and can only offer the excuse that I've been swamped with work, who would have thought? So, to try to make up for being such a slacker on my blog entries, I've uploaded a short video that I created to show the other AJWS fellows a little about my ...

... We spent almost 2 hours listening to the yogi tell us about his yoga practice and telling him what we wanted to learn. He said repeatedly that yoga was not about the postures, but about finding your "inner self" and doing deep meditation, and that the yoga in the U.S. that places so much emphasis on movement and postures isn't really true yoga. When we began to talk about logistics of taking yoga lessons with him, he was adamant that we'd need to take at least ...

llegamos por la manana tempranito y despues de luchar con los autorickshwas tomamos uno que nos queria vender la moto otra vez, y le dijimos muchas veces que se callara y que nos llevara donde queriamos no al hotel del primo o de quien fuera. Al final estuvimos con el dos horas de reloj buscando hotel porque habia muchos hoteles pero todos llenos o realmente eran penosos. ASi que al final nos fuimos al baba hotel cerca de la estacion de autobuses y de trenes. Que malilla ...

... and arrived home safely. Later that day, Sharon and I decided to check out an area in downtown Lucknow called Hazratganj and aimed to visit this foreigner-friendly bookstore that a friend who'd been to Lucknow before had told me about. At around 4pm, we hailed an auto rickshaw and asked him to take us to Ram Advani Books on M.G. Road in Hazratganj (the neighborhood). Of course, we didn't expect him to know the bookstore, but we thought that maybe he could take us ...

... it, but no other furniture. The kitchen, however, was well-stocked with a two-burner stove and two boxes of pots, pans and dishes loaned from my NGO. Most Indian kitchens don't have ovens, and all cooking is done on small counter-top stoves that hook up to a gas canister that must be replaced every so often. I'll have to get used to the process for turning the stove on and off, but my landlady showed me how to do it and it seems pretty easy. Before leaving, JK ...