Hi all

A Safety note:

To save gas, in Kalimpong anyways, people travelling downhill would put their vehicles in neutral, or in some cases, like motorbikes, turn off their engines and coast to save gas. This put them into what I called stealth mode. At least once I had an "Oh crap, I nearly got run over by that jeep in stealth mode" situation.

On Tuesday we made our way back to Bagdora from Kalimpong
to catch our flight to Kolkotta. Kolkotta was fairly different than Delhi. One difference was it had less people hassleing you to by stuff. It also seemed more cosmopolitan.

Wednesday, February 20th. Today we did a day tour of Kolkotta. Saw way too many things to remember for one day. Of course we saw another Buddist temple. At the Victoria memorial I was asked yet again to be in some other peoples' pictures. This also happened when I was touring the Mosques in Delhi the week before. At first I thought it might be some pick pocket scam, but it happened a couple of times in the Mosque. These were all local Indian tourists asking for me to be in their pictures.

Next day we got up and left for Varnassi. When we got our
ride from the airport the streets were all deserted. It was the weirdest thing to see in India. All that was on the road were bikes and kids playing. It was polling day for the election. Not only was there no traffic, all shops were closed. Needless to say it was fairly boring that evening. We even had to wait until 5pm until the bar opened after the polls closed to get a beer. That night there was a wedding at the back of the hotel. It was pretty cool to watch. We only saw the procession and the party around the pool at the back of the hotel.

The next morning we got up at 5am to do a sunrise boat ride on the Ganga in Varanassi. Varanassi is suppose to be the oldest city in India. It is also it's holiest city. It's where everyone hopes to get cremated (sp) when they die. Afterwards their ashes are put into the river. For those who can not afford the price of wood, sometimes relatives will simply take your body down to the river and throw it
in. Our guide got a boat for us and soon we were out in the river with a bunch of other tourists. Our rower was a small seven year old kid. It was pretty gross seeing people swim in the same river where we just passed the bloated body of a giant oxen entangled near some moored boats. Some people were even collecting water into jugs. Ick.

After the boat tour we did some more sight seeing. At the Kali temple we stayed to see a baby goat get sacrificed. It was a must see thing for Phil, I told him he could see the same at a slaughter house. Later the goat was butchered and given to the poor.

The next morning we got up and caught our flight to Kathmandu.

That story about people thinking I'm somebody famous gets pretty funny as the trip wears on. At the Victoria memorial it was really bugging Phil so he asked them. They said "american model" whatever that means. All that could come to Phil's mind was Fabio. But that was not the end
of it. Here at the hotel in Kathmandu when I was getting the hotel key from the guy behind the desk he asked me if I was a famous football player. Funny stuff.

Martin