Hotel De Paris Varanasi

... planted firmly on their car, bus, bike &amp; rickshaw horns..... Judith has taken to wearing earplugs whilst out - it really is THAT noisy.<br><br>The Ghats are fantastic with all kinds of colours and creeds, the Ganges is a beautiful backdrop to this part of India and well worth seeing. <br><br>Would we return? No... Just all a little too much - even for us ......<br><br>We will leave with some very funny memories, which ...

... and me some form of Germophobia. We are washing our hands very, very, regularly. We use Purell hand sanitizer incessantly. We are avoiding hand rails on very seep stairways.. When someone wants to shake my hand, I put my hands together in a prayer like salute and say "Namaste." We are very careful with our food choices and make sure food is steaming hot, avoiding salads, etc. We resist touching our faces. <br><br>We stayed at a nice and clean hotel. Just before ...

... Ramenager Fort on the other side of the Ganges having taking an hour long cycle rickshaw to get to the bank of the river where the pontoon bridge should be. I say should be as it is dismantled each year for the monsoons however our &#8220;pilot&#8221; did not tell us this until we were at the muddy waters edge and he introduced us to a boatman. How convenient. After much negotiation he took us across and we went round the rather shabby but interesting museum at the Fort.

... more enlightened educational approach for her 200 underprivileged students, and her tenacity in reaching out to a community of parents and children who at first viewed her as an outsider left an indelible impression on me today. I've been looking for an outstanding organization to write home about and this is it. If anyone out there is interested in supporting a school, the Asha Deep Vidyashram is a worthy cause in my humble ...

... banana muffins. Everybody was left a little dazed.<br><br>A good day was had by all and the event had given us a high, it was one of the most fascinating events of my life.<br><br>According to NASA , it was the longest eclipse of this century and will not be surpassed until June 13, 2132.<br><br>There's a trance party planned to co-incide with the 2010 total solar eclipse on Easter Island but i'm not sure my cash will stretch that far.<br><br><br><br> <br> <br> <br><br><br>

... grown up masala chai and lemon pancakes which he recommended to us. Rumi, youngest of seven siblings, maker of model ships and train sets was on a holiday in India with his very lovely mum and dad. He told us his mum is a nurse who works at a kid's performing arts and circus camp in California that was founded by the entertainer, peace activist, hippie clown Wavy Gravy of the Merry pranksters and that his dad was a deadhead (a fan of the American rock band Grateful Dead ...

... out on our first evening. I'm not sure what we have taken from this powerful experience, but what I do know is that we as westerners have a very closed, closeted approach to death which I'm not sure is the best way to deal with the whole process. It's something you could debate forever, but I'm not going to start that here.<br>Varanasi has it's bad guys too, it's dark side, but this is something you have to ultimately accept, being that this is one of the poorest ...

... States but on examination from my own doctor he reached the same conclusion as his Indian colleagues. Oh!!. . . . .Just there. . . . . . .I can hear my ego shattering a little more!)<br><br> <br><br> Needless to say, besides the first evening's aarti ceremony missed due to the lateness of arrival into Varanasi, I decided to err on the side of caution, gain some decent rest for a change and lose a day's schedule including, unfortunately, the much ...

Go to this blog to see the photos and read about my time in Varanasi. <br><br>Can't say I wasn't warned. It was so hot in Varanasi that I did not sleep for 4 nights. I couldn't bring myself to pay the huge extra charges for AC. Especially since I had lost my debit/atm card before leaving Rishikesh which really sucked. I had to have my folks wire me some cash. The only way I managed some ...

... to be simply having fun as they lathered themselves with soap and dived off the steps with a splash and a laugh.<br><br>The monsoon had been late to start this year, causing fears of famine, but now it had arrived it was proving difficult to get rid of and many places were flooded. Although we were lucky to experience a break in the rains as we rowed out onto the river the recent downpours had swollen the Ganges immensely and it was now in full spate. It had also deepened sufficiently ...