Ramada Plaza JHV Varanasi

... river show the water level has 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water.
In water that is safe for bathing the levels should be less than 500! 400 million people live along the basin of the Ganges River. The levels above mean that water borne disease is rampant among many villages that use water from the river."

There are some efforts to improve the situation. They have built a industrial cremation plant along the ...

... tour guide hey! So that is why we were not offering as much as he had expected. Sanjay was cross that he was not getting much and so told us we could go. We took that to mean he didn’t want our tip so we took it with us. Clearly that is not what he expected as he started shouting after us down the street, wanting us to come back and give him his money. Has he not learnt anything about us in the last couple of weeks?! He should know not to ...

... in baskets and asked people for money. Whilst in a shop two kids cornered us in and threatened to let their snakes loose in the store unless we gave baksheesh. I snapped a couple of photos and dropped him a couple of rupees just to be safe but the cobra escaped anyway and a kid had to strangle it around the neck to catch it. Some of the snakes are drugged or have their mouthes sewn shut and some are force fed milk on this day. Say no to crude snake handling.

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India inoursuitcase

... a sliver of crescent shaped light remained. Seconds before the Sun was fully blocked by the lunar disc, a brilliant 'diamond ring' formed in the sky. Moments later, brightness dropped dramatically as totality began. We could hear a roar go up at the ghats as people gasped, cheered and screamed in awe. I had the urge to dance but wanted to snap some pictures too. The city was suddenly clothed in a blue-grey, end-of-the-worldish, ethereal glow of faint light that was ...

... washing themselves, their clothes and dunking their babies and children, sadhus were shampooing their hair, Brahmin priests were giving elaborate blessings to families under giant weaved basket unbrellas and chasing us around trying to put tikka dots on our heads, beggars were collecting donations on trays of rice, people were in various states of dress and un-dress, paan sellers were doing a roaring trade, men were catching a shave or haircut, ladies were lighting ...

... you could easily spend hours there just trapped with your own thoughts and not a care in the world. The arcitecture in Durbar square was impressive, but didnt think it was worth all the hype I had heard beforehand. Our visit to the Kings palace united with two young lads who were keen to chat. They were good fun, they could name almost any capital city in the world, they even knew that south africa had three capitals and could name two of them! Learnt a little about the national ...

... sufficient vocabulary to describe the trip from the airport to the hotel. However, I can try to paint you a visual picture. If you imagine a video game where you are driving a fast car that is honking all the time, and approaching you from the left and right on the screen are other fast cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, moto-cabs, and bicycles, all approaching at warp speed and all honking, while from behind you other cars are honking and passing on both sides ...

... gaps while you cling on for dear life, just trying not to fall out the open sides. They are all decorated lovingly by their drivers, often painted gaudily with love hearts and small altars to various gods. Think, 'tacky, 6yr old girl decorations'.

We arrived at our hotel, after being entertained with stories of the impending election from our friendly driver. Apparently this year had been a good election lead-up as the death toll was still under ...

... while I was lazing in bed being holy and we have met some great little shop keepers and some nice people here too. She always picks up one or two followers with her wherever she goes and tries to give them the "death stare" (Luc's words) which we all know really means, "I'm friendly come follow me down a dark alleyway". I give them the fingers.

Actually I forgot! In Jaipur next to the biggest cannon in the world Luc was getting grumpy in ...

... spooky effect that Akay was infusing the room with. Presently, as I sat transfixed, turning pages in my book that I was pretending to be reading, Akay began to move his hands all over Michelle's head without actually touching it. This went on for some time and she seemed to have fallen asleep before he finally got around to dealing with her back problem. He massaged it for a bit and then stood over her making incantations. Lastly, after almost an hour, he quite dramatically seized ...