Sept 26th:
Agra
Almost as fucked as Delhi...but in a slightly different way. Delhi is just screwed overall. Agra is screwed from a tourist sense. If you hate people haggling you, calling out "American", Australian, or any other English speaking country for that matter; if you hate people asking you if you need a guide; if you hate people asking you to look in their shop, or rickshaw drivers dropping you off at a shop and describing it as a tourist market; if you hate people yelling "hello!" to you because that's the only english word they know, then you will hate Agra. It has been one of the toughest days of my India journey. Nothing bad of note happened, it was just taxing and trying. I finally turned into a foriegn tourist monster....I started snapping at anyone who approached or made contact with me. I scowled and yelled "leave me alone," I had contests with kids to see how much of their speil I could ignore, I elbowed and glared at people in line behind me as to say "step back mothter fucker....there is a line." In the end, I don't think anyone noticed. Being rude, pushy, selfish, and crowded is part of Indian life. They don't understand what a line is and that cutting 1 person in front of a 200 person line doesn't actually accomplish anything. They have no patience...I lost my patience today. I was telling kids to shut up and leave me alone, I was cursing and asking for a refund for my $16 Taj Majhal ticket as they closed the gate in front of me and made me walk 1/4 mile to the next gate. I stressed as I barely made the last line of people into the walls of the majhal. I was going to hate India if I didn't make it as I had already booked my train for the evening. I made it in spite of all the people who cut in line. I made it in spite of the fact that they closed the S. entrance with no warning and virtually squished a tourist couple between the 12 foot doors. I made it in spite of the fact that I had spent the previous 2 hours on the internet when I could havce easily made it in line earlier....i was waiting for it to die down a bit but instead it grew to about twice as long. It took about an hour to get inside. Nonetheless, I was impressed with what awaited. I had been told by a fellow traveler that it was not worth going to as it was something to buy a postcard of. I disagree. It was everything it was supposed to be...big, symmetrical, majestic, holy, etc. I rather enjoyed it in spite of the $15 entrace fee (only $0.20 for Indians....the racisism abound). They also searched my backpack as I entered. This was more thorough than any airport security I've ever been in. They went through every little pocket in my bag and managed to find 3 condoms. Instead of just letting it go, the guard had to hold them up and ask if they were allowed to teh other guard (both with machine guns). They had a bit of a laugh of course. Little did they know that he condoms were several years old (from lack of sex, not from lack of protected sex). A few indian locals in the line behind me took note and did a little bit of pointing and laughing once we got inside. Nothing like a good old embarrassing moment at one of the most famous sights in the world. I took the requisite pictures in front of the monument and even took a few with Indians. I was finally at teh point of being pissed that they were taking pictures of me (a white person) but I had a new found sense of relief after making it into the entrance gates. I walked around the lower part once, then up the stairs and into the middle of the thing....dark and haunted house like; quite. I reckon it could use some music playing like Sheik Zayad's tomb in Abu Dhabi. Regardless, I could appreciate why it was as famous as it was...it rivals teh pyramids in general terms (though several thousand years newer). In the end, I was glad I paid the money and saw the famous site (in spite of being a tourist).
After, I got a cycle rickshaw. I actually feel bad for these guys...they work harder than the auto rickshaw drivers, go slower, and get paid less....they are really only good for short drives. Unfortunately I didn't realize my drive was about 7 km. I headed for a bar recommended by the guidebook. I had 2 Fosters and some Paneer Tikka and Nan (I'm addicted to Indian food). I got a decent buzz and bought a little bottle of whiskey just in case I felt like continuing it as I headed towards the train. Along the way, I may good use of my remaining euro coins performing magic tricks for the begger kids. After a bit, though, they were getting hit in the head by their "master" and directed to go knock on the windows of cars that were at teh stop lights. This is basically like the kids in Slumdog Millionare. I didn't realize it, but I was getting them in trouble by taking up too much of their time....meanwhile I thought I was helping them and entertaining them at the same time. Pretty soon it was clear they were after anything shiny they could get their hands on. If it wasn't worth anything in India (which euro cents weren't mind you) then they weren't doing their job and subsequently got hit in the head by the guy in front of the liqour store. I quickly moved on to another area and took the first rickshaw to the train station.
I live in a train. I arrived on a bus this morning after 12 hours, spent 16 hours touristing, and am hopping on an 8 hour train tonight. I don't need a shower because, well, its India. I found a charger to recharge my camera, phone, computer, and ipod.....all of which are completely dead. I look forward to the train now (I was scared of them before). mY clostrophobia has gone away as I have been drinking and I'm looking forward to getting the hell out of Agra.
Sept 27-31
Khujaraho
I arrived at 7:30am; no hotel booked, so I entertained the masses of local recruiting tourists....fetching a foreigner means exponential profit from what I gather by their persistence. I opt for a person who advertises $3 rooms and had a laminated brochure to back up his claims. The rest of the people only have buisiness cards. I hop into an autorickshaw and am wisked away. Of course the rickshaw driver does his best to well me on taking me on a tour around the temples, waterfalls, etc but I decline and say that I will call him if I change my mind. We arrive at a centrally located guest house hotel place not unlike that I have been staying in elsewhere in India. One of the managers was at the train station and accompanied me back to the hotel in the rickshaw. He sits down with me for breakfast and orients me to the city and sights. He gets me a bike to rent for 30 rupees (60 cents) for the day. He arranges my ongoing train ticket to Varanasi for the following evening.
I hit the internet for a few hours...in spite of having slept on the 2nd class train I was awake enough to check my fantasy football results and waivers. After that I was ready for a good cycling around sex temples. The temples in Kujaraho are those of the Kama Sutra. They have erotic carvings over all sides. People engaged in group sex, sex with animals, oral sex, normal sex, random positions that don't quite seem possible, etc. There are dozens of temples and are all about 1000 years old. The area is well kept and there is one active temple that is seperated from the others (which I would visit for a weekly ritual at a later time).
I made my way by bike from the Western group of temples over to the Eastern group about 2 km away. I liked these better as they were in the middle of a cow pasture (with a small fence surrounding) instead of behind a large $5 entry fee gate/fence. I could appreciate them more as temples and less as tourist attractions. In spite of the location, there were still one armed kids selling various souvineers. The kids always ask for American money...I managed to find a penny and gave it to one kid who then got mad because I told him it was only worth 2 rupees....I proceeded to criticize him and he then thanked me after realizing in spite of its value it was still a gift on my part. I pulled out the rest of my foriegn coin currency (that which I was not saving to give to my mom's class). I came up with a quarter and about 60 euro cents. I did the exchange rates for the kids and came up with about $1 in coins they had never seen before. I could have told them it was $10 and they would have believed me. At any rate, I got a deck of cards and a Kama Sutra book in exchange for the coins that were otherwise useless to me. We parted ways both satisfied that we had made good deals.
I continued to pedal down to the South temples and stopped at a group of kids who had caught a snake while fishing with a bamboo pole. Unforunately the snake was still alive as the boy that caught it was pulling it around and showing it off. It was not a cobra but was rather a non poisoness snake that was simply stuck on a hook and string. None the less I didn't get to close. I had been seeking out a cobra over since I had been in India. It was one of my missions. Afterwards, I befriended a couple of younger Indian boys as I tend to do. They were brothers...one about 10 yo and the other about 7 or so. The older boy had a bike and we proceeded to race as they guided me to the southern most temple about 2km away. At some point I took the younger brother on my "back seat" to even up the race and eventually me being out of shape and hauling a 70lb kid around got the best of me and I lost the race. We rode through a small village where the older boy pointed out his home as we drove by (stone walls, no doors, dirt floor). We eventually made it to the last of the temples. We parked our bikes outside and because we were fairly remote, I opted not to lock my bike. The boys came in with me at first, but then left and hung around outside. They encouraged me to go into the temple and take a look. I was questioning their motives as I was worried they would steal my rented bike. I kept one eye on them and eventually walked out to invite them to come help me take pictures as a way of securing my bike. As it turns out, the temple people don't like the local kids screwing around with the tourists so they were just hanging around outside. After a few photos, we set off to race again. I told them I was out of money (which I was) and as such they didn't need to follow me back to the hotel (about 3-4km away) and instead should just go home. They didn't listen so we made the ride back to town as a group (me toting the younger kid on my bike while the older boy rode alongside). I stopped to point out the flags of diffferent countries to try and teach them something, but the language barrier was a bit difficult. Eventually we made it back to the hotel. They asked for money and I re-explained that I was tapped out. I didn't feel bad about it this time as I was tired of people hounding me for money. They seemed dissapointed and even mad at me for denying them payment for their presence. If I had a few rupees I would have parted ways with them, but since I didn't, I just parted ways...thats that.
Exhausted, I went up to the hotel balcony and had a sprite and water. I relaxed for a bit and started chatting with Rag, the hotel manager again. I told him about my day and except for not finding a cobra it was good. He gave me my train ticket which he has previously arranged and asked if I was hungry. I took a quick shower and we went to a local place (and I mean local....the guy sold only 2 dishes and they were both in large pots made earlier that evening). I'm still semi worried about catching a case of India diarrhea but at this point I haven't had any problems and in fact probably have healthier poos than I have had in a long time. So...I don't hesitate to enjoy home cooked chicken, Dal, Chapati, rice, cucumber, etc. All for a mere $2. After we go to the little food/drink/tobacco stand and order up some black market vodka. I thought this was bootleg, but it turns out its just poured into a water bottle to avoid looking suspicious. Together Raj and I drank about a liter of local vodka (which didn't seem to be as strong as normal vodka as we were both conscious at the end of it). We hung out on the rooftop and listened to music. He had never heard the Beatles so I played a bit. He didn't seem overly impressed so I went with a little Bob Marley which the whole world seems to know (along with M. Jackson). I was a little blown away by the fact that the Beatles had not taken India by storm given that they were a Commonwealth nation but I guess that's just the culturral barrier.
Raj had made a suggesstion that we go for a road trip instead of me heading for Varanassi by train the next night. I was open to the idea as it didn't significantly alter my plans otherwise. I figured it might have been drunk talk but it didn't hurt to play make believe.
Sept.
I woke up and I think used the internet or something, but didn't actually get out of my room/bed until like 2 in the afternoon when Raj knocked on my door. He mentioned that he wouldn't be able to go on to road trip for another day due to work and that I had the option of going by train to Varanassi that night as originally planned or staying another day and going with him on the road trip (which promised to be fun) as suggested the night before. I opted to stick around and go to for the road trip as it seemed like something a bit different. He mentioned that he was unable to drive but could acquire a car from his uncle. As such, I would have to drive. I was actually looking forward to it...driving on the left side of the road; driving a stick with my left hand, avoiding car/trucks/bikes/people on one lane roads off the beaten track in India....
He offered to entertain me and show me a nice sunset spot that evening as well as take me to the local temple to see the Monday night prayer ritual. We had a few drinks and watched the sun set from the rooftop of the hotel. We wondered down to the active kama sutra temple and followed several others up the steps and into a candle lit room where soon enough chanting and bell ringing began. I was feeling quite the outsider as everyone was dressed in sarees and had painted dots on their foreheads. I had on my usual Boston RedSox hat and LA Dodgers Tshirt (ironic in itself). The circular room with domed ceiling was humid and a bit clostrophobic. As the ritual began, more people showed up and stood in front of me as I was sort of a wallflower. After about 10-15 minutes the chanting/ritual thing was over and everyone kissed the giant stone in the middle of the room and threw flowers and stuff on it. I tried to think of something analagous to this experience in the Christian religion and I guess the closest would be lighting candles during Christmas eve and singing Amazing Grace. The experience immediately takes my mind back to when I was 18 and taking a world religion's course. It was then that I learned of the similarities of religions and the vast differences with which they accomplish the same goals (explain the unexplainable, serve as a super parent, provide comfort in a time of grief, etc). I felt like a traveler instead of a tourist as down the street you could pay like $6 to watch a dance or something. I was definitely the only white person taking part in this ritual...by the end I had a red dot on my forehead (I'm still not sure what this means but I always oblige by letting them put it on me).
The rest of the night, we proceeded to wonder down the main strip and try to chat up white girls (Raj had an affinity for them and I was the ticket to meeting them you see). I stopped to talk to a NZ girl for a few minutes before we headed to a rooftop resturaunt and found a British guy traveling arounde and 2 French girls who were working in Varanassi. I got their phone number as I was planning on heading there in a few days (though originally I was planning on being on the exact train they were on later that evening).
We wondered back towards the hotel and had another chat with a British couple. Kujaraho is a sort of 1 night stopping place between Agra and Varanassi. Raj claimed to have relative success meeting tourist girls from various contries and was thus his motive for trolling around at this hour.
We headed home and I crashed.
Sept:
The next morning I was a bit off on sleep so again I didn't get out of bed until the afternoon. Raj woke me up to inform me that public transportation was not allowed due to a political situation...i.e all businesses were shut down, no cars or buses were allowed on the roads the following day (the day we were supposed to leave on our road trip). The land where one of the Hindu gods (Ram) was supposedly born had been claimed by the Hindus as well as the Muslims, as well as another local religious sect to build temples on. The decision was the result of about 60 years of debate and had potential to cause national fighting between muslims and Hindus. As a result, the states were on lockdown. What this meant to me was that I was stuck in Khukaraho for another day (but hopefully we were to leave the next night instead). I skyped the day away and then met up with Raj for some "hunting" as he calls it when we try to meet girls. We met 2 american girls who were teaching english in Thailand....they gave me advice on where to go and we had a chat about India travel as they had just begun a few days ago. They were still quite put off by the touts, beggers, merchants, etc. They were especially targeted due to their blonde hair. I said goodbye as they had a train heading westward that was leaving soon. Raj and I went to get a few beers from the beer shop. You can't drink them in the streets so we went and sat over by a "lake" which is really more like a swamp full of plastic. He has a much lower tolerance than me (even though I haven't' drank much in the past month or so). After drinking the beers, he set the bottles up at the edge of the swamp and for the next 10 minutes we tried to hit them with rocks but were fully unsuccessfull. We went to get another pair of beers and headed to the next lake to sit and watch the sunset. He mentioned that he knew an Indian girl that liked white guys so I told him to get ahold of her as I wanted to meet and Indian girl. He made a few calls and about an hour later we were at her little house in the local village. We went there and had a chat with the girl (Rani) as the non english speaking brother, mother, and nephew hung out. We had Chai and eventually invited Rani back to the Hotel (Raj had a scheme in place to leave me and Rani alone). Raj took her brother out with his friends for some drinks so Rani and I could get to know each other. This consisted of talking on the rooftop for 30-45 minutes. She is a Yogi instructor and gives lessons to tourists at a local hotel. She is 19.
So, after some casual converstaion, the brother and Raj's friends show back up to the hotel but Raj is missing. We all ate dinner (on me...I fed 4 people and myself for like $8). Eventually Raj showed up completely wasted and was vomiting over the balcony. I took the opportunity to draw a large penis on his forehead. I said goodbye to Rani and her brother.
When Rani got home, she called me and we talked as we went to bed. It turns out the 30 minute conversation we had was rather moving to her. She mentioned that she was very happy to have met me and that if I wanted to marry that she would have me. Hang on, wait a minute, what the fuck! I somehow managed to become the love interest and focus of a local, 19yo, yogi instructing, village girl. I thought it was cute then went to sleep.
Next day...OK, now we are on the decision day so we couldn't be on the road until after 4pm; the state boarder wasn't open until 10pm. As a result, we were unable to leave again. This is like day 3 in Khujaraho BTW. Since I didn't want to waste another day and since I had a new girlfriend, me and Raj organized a picnic and local road trip to the tiger reserve/waterfall. We went to Rani's and she made us breakfast. As we were in her house I heard a flute playing. I remembered that I hadn't seen a cobra yet so I asked when i was going to get to see one.....sure enough the flute playing was in fact a snake charmer. About 10 yards away was a real local snake charmer with a fresh cobra (captured 4 days prior) and a crazy shaped flute. Several people gathered around and I was in the front. He opened the basket and a crazy big 4 foot cobra immediately struck out at teh charmer (who easily dodged it). The cobra sat up with full neck flare as the charmer started to play teh flute. I have never seen something as crazy as this. When a kid ran by it was strike at him. They tried to get me to sit next to it but I refused. The mere presence of the snake scared the shit out of me. I sat about 3 feet away and had them take a picture. They offered to wrap it around my neck for a picture but I declined as this one was not quite broken in yet. Raj said that they remove either the fangs or the poison glands but that either way it was not poisonous any more. Regardless, I stood back and admired it as I took several pictures. Raj mentioned that one guy he met bought cobra venom and would put a drop on every joint he smoked so that he would get high or get crazier or whatever....appearantly they will sell it to you.
After that we had organized to go on a picnic (even though we had just eaten a large breakfast cooked by Rani and her mother). Me, Raj, and Rani's brother (Shiva) rode a motorcycle (yes 3 on one seat) to the field behind their house and dirty pond where people were bathing. We sat down for about 60 seconds in the middle of this crappy field near the pond and looked around. We decided this was a bad idea and Raj said "fuck this picnic, lets go to the waterfall". I was happy because it wasn't the nicest field and I was newly introduced to cobras which I was starting to picture behind every bush.
We get an autorickshaw and Rani, Shiva, and I sit in the back as Raj and Avrid (driver) sat in the front. Shiva proceeded to sit in the middle of the back as he was being the older brother and not wanting me to put the moves on Rani. As a result it was a little ackward. It was even wierder that he didn't speak English. He also had a big semi open wound on his right cheek from when he was in a motorcyle accident about 10 days prior (appearantly he was drunk and ran into a truck or something). We drove about 30km (going 20km/hr) out to a tiger reserve. The guide book mentions that there are only about 4-5 tigers left in the whole park so the likelihood is that there are no tigers to be seen. The attraction here is a nice waterfall with jumping monkeys, a little cave temple under the waterfall, and various fauna/flora such as bats, giant bee hives, and crocodiles (though I didn't see them). We hung out here for an hour or so and headed out. Since we were off the main rode, I hopped into the front of the Rickshaw and asked if I could drive...Avrid let me drive the 1/2km back to the main entrance of the park. Nice. I figured out the hand clutch and hand accelorator without crashing.
We headed back to the hotel and stopped at the "Treehouse" which is a lodge/retreat overlooking whatever river was in the area. Its a nice lodge with trails and private guest houses as well as a super cool border collie/australian shephard type dog. I took the opportunity to invite Rani for a walk. For about 5-10 minutes we were alone and she asked about how/when we were going to see each other again and if I would invite her to America. She wanted me to stay in Khujaraho (even though I had already been there 2 days longer than I had planned). She was making plans for our life even though we had met the night before. Shortly, a local teenage boy employee walked up the trail we were on and then proceeded to give us a tour of some of the guest houses (it wasn't tourist season yet so they were all empty). So much for being alone with me new "fiance". We walked back to teh main lodge and headed out back to town. We dropped Rani and her brother off and made our way back to the hotel.
After a bit, Rani called and wanted to see me again as I was supposed to be leaving that night. I informed her we decided to stay until the morning (the road trip would not be worth it in the middle of the night as we would be missing out on the very sights we were setting out to see). She took the opportunity to come back to the hotel and visit again (of course with brother Shiva close by her side). We hung out ackwardly with Shiva always around and Raj eventually joined us. I showed her some pictures of my trip. She appearantly never heard of or was aware of Egyptian pyramids. Amazing...its OK though, she is a good cook so we'll forgive that (jk). I'm not sure what happened but she got a bit mad and she left with Shiva to go home....There was a lot of Hindu speaking so I have no idea what actually happened but I think Raj basically told her to have sex with me or something. She got mad and left. I called her the next morning and she said that she had cried for an hour (as well as her mother) but that she was happy I now that I had called in the morning (confirming that I was not just trying to bang her or something). Somehow, this had even further magnified the idea that I was Ok with marrying her. In any event, I told her I was leaving the next morning and it was nice to hang out with her, etc.
Oct 1st:
Raj sorted out my train tickets for me and after taking care of a few things in the morning we took off around noon. We ended up hiring a car and driver for about $20 a day...which is a lot in India, but its the only way we could get to the places we were trying to go. The idea was to see some things that we might not otherwise see and take a bit of a road trip in the process. We immediately stopped at teh beer store and picked up three 750mls "strong" beers as the label says. We proceeded to drink the beers over the first hour or so of the trip. We stopped for a few pictures at picturesque places along the mountain roads. We stopped at this Hindu temple whose diety statue has diamonds for eyes. Not as impressive as it sounds but cool idea I guess.
We made it to the Kilgran Temples way the hell up this mountain in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive through true villages where people don't have electricity, etc (not that it really matters because the power goes out like 5x per day here). Nice views, nobody around except for a few workers making steps out of stones and morter by hand....definitely not a place in the guide book. Funny thing is that one guy was giving another guy a haircut...it was just a weird thing to see on top of this mountain in the middle of nowhere. We spent an hour or so messing around, hiking the walls of the fort, throwing rocks off the top, etc. There were a few cool temple dogs there that enjoyed my attention. We drove around to the other side and there was this temple carved out of the rock hillside that you had to hike down a bunch of stairs to get to. There was a Hindu guy there sitting and just chanting away from teh Hindu bible (whatever that is called). Pretty amazing view and lots of carvings in the wall. As impressive as a lot of the egyptian stuff but on a little bit smaller scale and only 1000 years old. Creepy as fuck, especially when I was high. So there were 3 mountain hindu people wearing loin cloths, Raj, and me. What do we do? Get high. We smoked some Indian Ghanga that was probably grown by these guys and probably why the one guy was off on his own chanting away from the bible. The actual temple was inside this cave but surrounded by pillars on the outside. I wondered in the cave by myself and it was very dark...immediately reminded me of Empire Strikes Back. I looked over to the right and there was this mummy like figure dressed in yellow cloth hanging out in the shadows. The whole experience was surreal to say the least. Oh yeah, it was also sunset. As soon as the sun went down, we headed back to the car and set off for Chitrakutt (our actual destination).
We got to Chitrakutt around 8:30, ate dinner just outside of town and made our way to one of only 3 hotels that white toursits are allowed to stay at. It was a good choice of place as it overlooked the river. This is one of the Holy rivers where they bathe in the water, etc. The place was fairly empty due to the political situation going on. There wasn't much to see that late at night, so we went and found some black market whiskey and sat up on the balcony drinking whiskey and "Thums up" (that's the actual spelling of the cola brand). Chatted a bit, watched an episode of Always Sunny on my laptop (was introducing him to it). A British guy showed up so we had a bit of a chat about India travels and he was off to bed. The rooms were lacking and relatively expensive. $5 instead of $3 like most places. Bug everywhere and no actual shower, just a pipe that had water coming out of it. The toilet tank leaked so there was a constant layer of water on the floor of the bathroom and an appropriate number of little bugs wondering around and sometimes drowning in it. I discoverd this while wearing socks. There were windows, but no screens, so basically we had to leave the lights off so the bugs wouldn't discover us. The bed appeared Ok on first sight, but after removing the cover it was disgusting. There were actually 2 doubles put together with thin (sleeping pad?) "mattresses". They were green/brown and had holes in them. There was only the one bed cover so we split the beds apart and I let Raj have it. I put my towel down and used my sleeping bag liner to provide a 2nd layer of protection.
In the morning, we woke up and hired a row boat to take us down the river which is sort of the thing to do. I will say that since we are off the tourist grid there were no people grabbing you to pull you into their shops and hassling you. Actually got some good priced small souvineres for a change. The boat ride was relaxed as we watched people bathe along the ghats (steps leading to the river). Oh, there was also a little white rabit on the boat. I asked if it signified anything as several of the boats had them....the reply was that they were for decoration.
We ended up at yet another temple...this time it was made entirely of mirrored mosasic tile...the glass temple I believe it was called. Pretty cool for about 5 minutes, then back down to the boat. I was getting good at taking my shoes on and off quickly from all the temples, boats, etc.
After returning, we got back into the car and drove to the cave temple. This is a temple inside of a cave that has been carved out by an undergroud river. To get to the temple, you have to take off your shoes, role up your pants, and wade through teh knee deep water for about 1-200 feet. The place is covered with hundreds of bats hanging from the ceiling. Its a pretty crazy experience....definitely a little claustrophobic. As with most temples, they are somewhat unrewarding when you actually reach the little statue at the end. Of course there are people there waiting to take a donation. I think this was the best temple experirence so far.
On the side of the road in the middle of nowhere was a giant 10 foot tall rat statue and another 15foot long crocodile statue. I made them stop so I could take pictures with them.
Eventually we made it to the train station in the next town (Satna) and as soon as we arrived, the driver ran the car into a 2 foot high concrete barrier that he couldn't see. About 20 indian guys immediately surrounded the car to survey the damage and give their opinion as to how to best fix it. The wheel well was rubbing against the tire and they couldn't get it to stop, so they had to head to a shop. Raj and I said goodbye...strangely he asked for some money. I asked for what and he said "for me". I was kind of shocked as I thought he was showing me around as a friend and not as a tour guide...but in any even I gave him $10 and left with mixed feelings about having done so. A little while later he called from the mechanic and said he didn't have enough money on him to fix the car and thus make it home. He asked for another $30 but I declined and he seemed a bit put off by that. I'm still not sure what to think, I could have afforded it, but the car company should also be able to help them out. It just doesn't work the same as in America where you call AAA or use a company credit card, etc. You have to have cash to get anything done. I was just tired of shelling out cash over the previous 2 days to pay for the gas, hotel, alcohol, and many of the meals. It was all a good experience, but I still can't tell if it was a road trip with a friend or if I was halfway duped into spending money to take a private tour instead of using the trains (which would have been immensely cheaper). In the end I spent $100 in 2 days which is still less than Europe. The only down side is that because of all the pre trip set backs, I now had to pick between going to Darjeeling and going to Varanasi. Darjeeling would be hiking around the himalayas whereas Varanasi has burning corpses...I went with the corpses. But first, a stop over in Bohdgaya to see where Bhuddism began.
diamond eyed statues
hindu hillside temple, ghanga, guy reading book, empire strikes back cave, leaf and food they gave.
