Northeast India

After Jaisalmer, Jodpur and a 26hr journey to Varanasi, we headed on a 14 hr journey up to Siliguri. We then caught a cramped 2 1/2 hr jeep with 14 people squashed inside, to Sikkim's engineering University. This was not something that was planned in advance but we met a student, Amand, on the train who was on his way back there and we didn't have a busy schedule. Met some guys who studied there but were forced to move on quite quickly to Gangtok, because some of Amand's 'enemies' on campus were threatening to report him to the campus authorities for having unauthorised guests in the Boy's house. While we were there we discovered that an boy caught in the Girl's House would suffer a severe penalty in the form of a 35,000 rs. fine... which we thought was about right.

The University was nestled on the bank of a winding river that was surrounded by gaint woody mountains. We then spent 40 minutes getting to Gangtok (the capital of Sikkim) via a very windy road that zig-zagged up and down the steep contours of the landscape. We arrived there late and found a nice hostel in the centre.

The people in Gangtok are very diferent from there southern counterparts, according to Henry they are more similar to the Nepalese. When you smile at someone in passing they even smile back, and are friendly and interesting. They also look more like the Tibetans than Indians, and live in a much cleaner and wealthier state than any other I've seen. We attempted a trek from Pelling (a 5 1/2 hr jeep ride from Gangtok) but after one day were forced to return in order that we could get Henry to a hospital as his eyelids and tongue, to name but a few body parts were rapidly swelling up. He survived, and both he and I spent several days in bed as we were both suffering from a severe case of Delhi Belly.

We leave for Darjeeling tomorrow and then intend to head down to Kolkatta to get our visas for Bangladesh.

Jaisalmer

We're in Jaisalmer at the moment and have just completed a 3 day Camel trek in the Thar Desert, which was pretty amazing. Unfortunately we were sleeping under the stars and there was a fairly violent storm on the second night which meant that we woke up the next morning cold, damp and caked in wet sand. Saw practically no one but a couple of villagers and some stray goats (that we caught and milked for Chi) for at least two days which was a relief from everyday India.

We had a good time in Jaipur over Holi and mostly avoided being mugged by gangs, the4 Elephat festival ws alot better and included Elephant polo (which is better than it sounds) and And elephant vs 16 tourists tug of war, which left a spray of tourists with dilated pupils strew over the field.

Then we caught a night bus to Ajmer, which was overbooked so that Henry and I had to sit next to the driver and didn't get alot of sleep. Then to Pushkar for a few days, which was similar to how I imagine Glastonbury to be, Jaislamer, and then Jodhpur, which is nearly entirely a bright blue tinge (which obviously wards off mosquitoes), and is full of street people (people who do nothing but sit talking at the side of the street) and tauts who hassle us constantly.

Travelling

Started travelling yesterday. My last week or so in Delhi, were much of the same and began to become everyday life so not very interesting to talk about. Had a small party for the boys at te second chance centre before we left which was fun except that we had no idea that we were giving it until a short while before it began. Govind (who runs the centre) had told all of the kds that we were taking them out for dinner. So we thought we'd better do something and so we went and bought 3 kilos of indian sweets.

We got on the train the next morning after waiting as long as we could outside the train station for a mop of dirty blond hair that would signify Henry's arrival. Unfortunately he was about 4hrs outside Delhi at that time and we were waiting in vain. Finally a couple of minutes before the train left the station I gave up hope and navigated the luggage, animals, puddles (not, unfortunately, water) and crush of people with increasing panic and just made it onto platform 6 as the train revved up.

The train journey was alright but not what I was looking for in terms of a good look at Indian countryside. All I saw were crumbling factories and multi-coloured heaps of rubbish.
We are a bit worried about tomorrow as we will be in Jaipur during the festival of Holi, which involves a large amount of permanent paint and an excuse to gang mob tourists, and as three pale foreigners we merely represent a blank canvas to the swarms of indians that intend to have a truly 'colourful' day off work.