vallory_grant's Journal

ALEXANDRIA!
so we spent our last couple of days in dahab...mostly hanging out and snorkeling one of the days. the snorkeling was just ok. there were some pretty cool fish and a lot of coral but nothing that really blew my mind. we were told that our snorkeling equipment was included in our price but when we got there the guy said we had to buy food from him too and according to him it "wasnt free". in general he was pretty rude, only to us, so we got up and left, much to his dismay. we found another place to get snorkeling stuff so we just stayed there. we went to two different spots and ronnie said he saw a shark so i didnt want to go back in and snorkel anymore. we left the next day bound for alexandria. we took a bus for nine hours all the way back to cairo. then we had to get on a train to alexandria which took three hours. the whole trip took about fourteen hours total. everything went smoothly although it took a long time. we didnt get much to eat so the hunger was the worst part. so far alexandria is ok. none of the rooms have air conditioning but the upside to that is that alexandria is a lot cooler than everywhere else in egypt. we checked out of the place we stayed last night and found a better place with our own private bathroom and a television but still no ac. accommodation is more expensive here because rich egyptians come to alexandria in the summer to escape the heat in cairo. it seems to be a lot dirtier here than any where else weve been so far. as a whole egypt is a pretty clean country, surprisingly. so we walked around a little bit today and attempted to go to a fort here and found out it was closed. we went to an aquarium instead which ended up looking a lot like a pet store and was pretty depressing because all the fish and sea creatures lived in small ass, uncleaned cages. tomorrow i want to see the catacombs because im pretty sure that is the coolest thing to see here. in a couple days we are headed back to cairo and the home!

JORDAN!
not much to update other than our trip to jordan went rather smoothly. we were picked up promptly at five am and driven in a private air conditioned car with reclining seats. two days in a row of seeing the sun rise. ah. we were taken to a ferry which took only an hour to get over to jordan. we ended up on a polish tour (how does this happen?) where we were two of only six english speaking people. again, we had our own english guide around petra which ended up being nice because everything is a little more personal. our guide was a nice guy who reprimanded some stupid tourists for throwing rocks at the monument. its amazing how little people care about where they are and the amazing things surrounding them. really? you cant wait until youre NOT in a thousands of years old ancient temple before you smoke your cigarette? shortsightedness is pretty overwhelming. other than that petra was pretty cool. its basically an ancient city with a lot of things to see. the most popular one being the "treasury" which is a huge stone temple carved dirctly into the sandstone mountainside. google it or something cause i cant really describe it much better than that. after petra we were given a lunch buffet at a hotel and then driven back to the ferry. we got back to dahab at around 10 30 that night, exhausted and sore. needless to say, we did nothing the next day. XD

BIBLE TIME!
so we are still in dahab...by choice. they say that once you get here you dont want to leave, which is very true. its a very nice place to just relax and not get hasseled every second of the day. sure, there are still some beggars and some annoying people but it is a far cry from luxor or cairo. our hotel is nice and clean and we have good air conditioning. there is a little restaurant attached to our hotel that has good chocolate banana pancakes in the morning. the guy who works there likes us and gives us free drinks. we told him he was a hard worker (he works seven days a week from 8 am to midnight) and ever since that hes been stoked on us. there are a lot of restaurants here but they pretty much all have the same food and there is furious competition among them so as a result the biggest hassels come from them. we did find a good thai place thats a little pricier but has a variety if vegan things to choose from. our server was an eight year old austrailian girl and ronnie and i were both sondering what she was doing in egypt and why she was working at a thai place. later we saw her scuba diving with her dad. weird. today (well yesterday) was the only day that we did something other than read, eat, swim and smoke sheesha. i told myself that on this trip i was not, under any circumstances, going to climb anything...AT ALL. ronnie wanted to climb mount sinai but i thought it sounded miserable and didnt want to go. he decided he didnt really want to do it either and we just decided to bag it. i wanted to go to st katherines monastery so we decided to book a trip there through our hotel. our hotel said that pretty much ALL the trips to the monastery included the climb of mount sinai. it wasnt that much so we decided to do it. it was an overnight trip, not like you go there, sleep and then climb, like you go there and climb overnight and see the sunrise. we left at 11 pm and drove for two hours to the mountain. the climb was relatively easy and only took a couple of hours. it was pitch black though so i had to use my ipod light for a flashlight. the most difficult part of the climb was 750 steps up to the very top. for those less informed, mount sinai is where god supposedly gave moses the ten commandments. there were a TON of tourists going up the mountain and once we were at the top we had to wait around for almost two hours for the sun to come up. it was decidedly unimpressive really but nevertheless an experience. seeing the amazing stars walking to the top was far more amazing than the actual view itself. after, we walked back down to st katherines monastery. the monastery houses what is supposedly a "descendant" of the burning bush. people were freaking out over the bush and taking a lot of pictures of it. one old white lady even broke off a piece and put it in her bible. i think some need to water the bush. other than that (ooooo a bush) the rest of the monastery was pretty much nothing. after, we got in a hot, non air conditioned bus and arrived at our hotel with little to no sleep, at noon the next day. glad i did it. glad its over. ronnie and i are taking a day trip to jordan (its another country) tomorrow to go see petra. petra is one of the seven modern wonders of the world. im excited a) to go to another country and b) to knock out and unexpected wonder. it cost us $200 but im really looking forward to it. anothet five am departure tomorrow. wish me luck. :/

PENINSULA TIME!
so we spent our last couple of days in aswan. our three thirty wake up time ended up being 2:45 and once we got the wakeup call they either called us our knocked on our door every five minutes until we came downstairs. they were all pissed that we werent in the lobby by 3:15 even though they told us 3:30. so far everyone and everything in egypt has been remarkably punctual, save the airlines, which one would think would operate in a timely manner. so we took the bus for three-ish hours to abu simbel which turned out to be rather unimpressive despite the hype and the six hour drive surrounding it. it was pretty cool from the outside but pretty much the same old shit on the inside. either way, im glad that we did it in a day trip and through our hotel. relatively painless despite the early wakeup and long drive. yesterday we took a train to luxor in order to catch our flight today from the luxor airport. we got on our flight and transferred in cairo and ended up in sharm el sheikh. we decided not to stay in sharm el sheikh mostly because it is a resort town and caters mostly to uperclass resort and hotel folks. not back packer friendly so we took a bus to dahab where we are now. getting to the bus station in sharm el sheikh was like pulling teeth and we spent a good hour and a half haggling with stupid taxi drivers who were trying to charge us ridiculous prices to go a short distance. eventually we got in a private car with a white girl who spoke fluent arabic (thank god) and got a decent price to the bus station. the bus to dahab only took an hour and went through some beautiful rock formations along the way. they looked like giant desert mountains. once we got to the bus station we took a crazy taxi to downtown dehab, almost crashing into another car and a camel in only about a mile span. so far dehab seems pretty relaxed and unlike any where else weve been in egypt. there are tourists but not that many because it is the off season. we are right on the red sea and you can see saudi arabia and jordan from the shore. pretty amazing. the beach is pretty rocky but the water is warm and it is a big snorkeling/scuba diving destination. the best part is there are NO temples to see which pretty much means that lounging around and snorkeling are the only things to do here, which i am perfectly fine with. we will most likely stay here for five or so days and just CHILL! hooray!

OFF THE BOAT AND IN ASWAN
i havent really updated that much lately, mostly because we were a'cruisin down the nile and there wasnt any internet access and partly because updating takes time and brain power that my lazy ass isnt willing to use at the moment. i know the longer i wait though the more ill forget so ill just start where we left off. we got on the boat easily enough. despite the fact that we were sure the "five star super deluxe" cruise ship was going to be a crappy little sail boat it turned out that it was extremely nice and comfortable. it was a proper cruise complete with little towel animals, buffets and overpriced alcohol. the only downside to it was that the entire cruise was filled with italian people and no one spoke very good english (including the staff) because everyone spoke fluent italian. as a result we were excluded from a lot of shit and we had to have a special tour guide just for us. let it be said that european tourists are just as ridiculous as american tourists. we stopped off at two temples along the way and stayed for only maybe an hour in each place before getting back on the boat. it was definitely nice to just chill out and not have to think about what we had to do because it was all planned out for us. we also got hasseled a lot less which was a welcome change to the hundreds of people who follow us daily offering felucca rides, "papyrus" bookmarks and weed. so basically our time on the cruise consisted of swimming and relaxing on the upper deck watching the nile go by. at night the air was nice and warm and both nights be drank a bottle of wine and hung out for a couple of hours. at one point we went under a bridge that was so low we were advised not to stand up while we were going under if we wanted to keep our heads. it was all pretty cool. we arrived in aswan yesterday and found a decent hotel to stay in. while i do miss the boat and its cushy atmosphere it is nice to be truly traveling again. we walked around a little bit yesterday and tried some egyptian pizza that was pretty good. we found a little restaurant that served cheap beer and has a sweet cat that sits on the chair next to you while you eat or drink. she has three little kittens and the owner let me name them. sancho, carlos, and maria. i dont know where the spanish influenced names came from, maybe the alky? there was a man at the restaurant who came there every night and fed the cats chicken in exchange for whisky. the owner said that he spent all his money on chicken for local cats. he gave us some of his whisky and we hung out for a while until we HAD to go back to the room. XD it was a fun night but not a fun morning! we bought a plane ticket from luxor to the peninsula yesterday that will leave on sunday. saturday we are taking the train to luxor so we can catch our flight the next day. tomorrow we are taking a day trip to abu simbel which is four hours south of us. our mini bus leaves at 330 in the morning and we get back to aswan by one in the afternoon. :/ one of the earlier wake up times for this trip. well thats all for now...i will update again soon!

LUXOR!
so i realize i havent updated in a while. you were probably concerned but im back now so yall can rest easy. the internet in cairo was decent enough at our hotel but the kid that worked there literally stood over my shoulder
the whole time i was using the computer,and even went as far as to point shit out on my screen,so needless to say that was offputting and annoying and
i tried to keep internet usage minimal. we are in luxor now and arrived the day before yesterday. ronnie is feeling better and is eating like normal now. we got here by plane which cost us 50 usd and only took an hour. the airline was nice (better than delta) although the plane took off a little bit late and ronnie was convinced it was gonna crash. we took a cab from the airport to our hostel and got in a fight with the cab driver because he tried to charge us 80 ep when he CLEARLY said it was 8 plus a 20 pound parking ticket. our hotel manager had to translate and we ended up coming out on top. you just cant fuck with america. HA! so we definitely made a lasting first impression. regardless, the owner of our hostel is nice and seems to be a genuinely good guy although you never really know in a country where everyones main objective is to take your money. if ive learned anything at all its :TRUST NO ONE. our hostel is clean and nice and so far the only downside is that the internet is SLOW AS FUCK. luckily we found the "spiderman internet cafe" (wtf) where young arab men come to play war video games. oh if my dad could see me now! haha. luxor is relaxed and quiet (relatively) and seems like a nice place to chill on the nile. yesterday we had a driver take us to the west bank of the nile (were staying on the east) where all the temples and tombs are. im starting to have a temple overload although most of the things weve seen have been pretty incredible. it all just starts to meld together after a while. i absolutely hate myself for not bringing a student ID card because EVERYWHERE you go gives a %50 discount for students. ronnie brought his and it works in some places but not others. either way it could have saved me a little money. never have i been to a country that has such an emphasis on rewarding you for being a student. even train and bus tickets are discounted. fuck. anyway, after being incredibly hot, drinking a lot of water and seeing a lot of temples we went swimming in a rooftop pool of a hotel nearby. it was SO nice to cool off in the water regardless of the obese irish children cramping our style. i guess when youre in 105 desert weather though your standards go slightly down. we found a tasty indian restaurant that weve been eating at non stop. egyptian food is decidedly nasty and any other kind of food is very welcome. we even found an "irish pub" that had wall to wall guinness shit (even a guinness tap)and served ABSOLUTELY NO IRISH BEER! thats right: guinness tap, no guinness. WTF? its been interesting. luxor is much hotter than cairo but far less polluted. by the end of our stay in cairo the pollution was taking its toll and we were ready to get the fuck out. this has been a nice change for sure. anyway, thats all for now. i will update again soon. we are in luxor for another couple of days and then we are taking a CRUISE to aswan! we bought our tickets today and i am looking forward to it! BIG TIME!

pyramids and food poisoning...
so we saw the pyramids yesterday and ronnie got horrible food poisoning and has been incapacitated all day today. but lets start at the beginning. the day before yesterday we went walking around and saw islamic cairo, which is basically the older part of town with mosques and a lot of crumbling old buildings. it was really hot and i got a lot of stares but it was ok. we took a cab back later which went over pretty well, meaning we didnt get horribly ripped off. later we went out to eat and get some beers and while we were walking an american guy stopped us and asked us for directions and started talking to us about traveling in egypt or whatever. then out of no where an egyptian guy joined in the conversation. they were talking to us about buying a fake student ID or something and we figured out pretty quickly that it was a scam and walked away. they tried to follow us but we werent having it and they just went away. it was just weird because ive been approached by scammers a lot in my travels and it has NEVER been a foreign person. let alone an american trying to fuck over other americans! wtf? so we went back to the hotel room and were kind of weirded out and our hotel guy said that another american person was coming with us on our pyramid tour the next day. we kind of panicked because we thought it may have been the american guy. so we went to bed nervous that we would have to deal with some bullshit the nest day but when we woke up and went to meet our driver it ended up being an american kid named ken who turned out to be pretty cool. the pyramids are about 45 minutes away from cairo and our driver drove us around all day for 60 egyptian pounds each (about 10 usd). first he drove us to the step pyramid which is further away from the main pyramids and a lot less touristy. apparently they found more artifacts there then in the other ones and they had a nice museum to go along with it. then we drove to a place near the pyramids in giza where we got free falafels and drinks. we rented camels from the people there and had a guide take us on a tour through the desert. let me just say that our camels were fucking NASTY! they had sores all over them and they were just gross basically. the tour wasnt a legit tour but we got to go through the desert and see an amazing view of the pyramids that other tourists dont get to see. the pyramids were huge and totally exceeded my expectations. pretty incredible. it was exhausting though and my legs and butt totally hurt today. we saw the sphynx too but it wasnt really that great. not compared to the pyramids anyway. apparently they have a light show at the phynx that is supposed to be really corny and lame. i wanted to see it. haha. once we got back to the hotel we took showers because we were all dandy from nearly getting blown away in a sand storm. we relaxed a little and went out to eat and get beers with the kid from our tour. once we got back, we went to bed. it wasnt till six am that ronnie started getting sick and throwing up. we are pretty sure it was food poisoning from the food we got in giza but we arent sure. we were supposed to make a trip to the oasis tomorrow but it doesnt look like well be able to because he isnt feeling well. hes been relaxing all day today and drinking sprite and water and seems to be able to keep stuff down now. not fun at all. anyway, we bought plane tickets to luxor for wednesday so were gonna hang out until then. its been very eventful thus far!

EGYPT!
well, we made it to egypt...finally. the flight was really long and delta airlines SUCKS! our flight from new york was delayed until 1145 when it was supposed to leave at 10 so we had like a six hour layover. the movies were all lame and the food wasnt that good but i ended up sleeping most of the time. once we got into cairo someone from our hotel came and picked us up at the airport. there are little kitties at the hotel! so cute.i thought there might be a lot of cats in egypt and im glad i was right! we even saw little kittens eating a chicken bone on the street! adorable. once we got to our hotel we settled in and then went out to get food at a place that was unknowingly in the lonely planet. there were a lot of tourists there. i got spaghetti! HA! we also sampled some of their countries beer: STELLA. pretty tasty! we walked around a little bit and got a hookah on the street. we picked probably the most ghetto one in town because it just happened to be the first one we saw. later on we saw significantly less ghetto ones that we can try another day. needless to say, it was an experience. they gave us a coke without us asking for it and then tried to charge us even though we didnt drink it. they must figure that all americans like coke. the hookah itself was pretty good although i dont think it was flavored. our hotel is decent. the guy who runs it is nice and not overly pushy. tomorrow i think we are going to the egyptian history mueseum and then taking the bus to the pyramids! cant wait! :D

everyone is retarded...
for the better part of the day i was followed by some guy for probably a mile or so. it was really obvious and at the end i kind of just gave up and let him follow me. i must have a honing device on me or something because every time i thought i lost him he would pop up again. whatever, i lost him now. ive been followed so much its ridiculous. it isnt scary or anything and no one has any bad intentions but its just annoying. its only because im a single female too. if i were i guy or even with ANOTHER girl i wouldnt get followed. ive resorted to being out right mean at this point. what about the fact that im walking alone makes you think that you can just join me in whatever im doing? i tried ignoring them but then they just think that you cant hear them and go "MA AM, MA AM" all loud in your face. so now i just say "dont follow me" right off the bat and they just go away. its only taken me until now to figure it out.
since ive been in bombay a lot of people have given me shit for my virgin tattoo because its on my lower leg. certain countries have weird things about the feet. like in thailand if you step on money its a really big deal because its like youre stepping on the king. so i think they see it like im stepping on jesus or something. haha. one guy was like "im telling you, its not good". haha. multiple people have told me i should have gotten it on my arm instead. one spanish lady who got offended was like "maybe she can aid you in your step". haha. i was like "it doesnt matter cause im not religious anyway". everyone is confused.
the good news is that i changed hotel rooms! i found a really nice place with a good owner who is going to get me a cab at one in the morning to the airport. when i went searching for hotels i came across the one im at now and i asked how much the rooms were and he said 650 per night (i was paying 500 at the other place). i said i would take the room and the owner was like "are you by yourself?" and when i said yes he said he would give it to me for 550. so he brought the price down without me even having to bargain which is absolutely unheard of. AND it has a tv. its still a shared bathroom but its clean and spacious so i dont mind.
tomorrow is my last full day here. ive really enjoyed bombay. for the most part ive been fairly unmotivated to do anything which i was expecting anyway. i did a pretty good job of covering the ENTIRE country in two months. i saw everything i wanted to see and did everything that i wanted to do. all in all its been a good trip. india has been unlike any other place that ive been to. sometimes its frustrating but for the most part it has a strange draw to it that makes you have some kind of affinity for it. i am happy to go home though. this will more than likely be my last entry so thanks for reading. until next time.

BOMBAY!
after a fifteen hour bus ride from goa i finally made it to bombay. so far the city is really nice. the architecture is old colonial style buildings, but like most of the buildings in india they are falling down and decrepit. all of the hotels here are EXPENSIVE...like three times what im used to paying. all i wanted to do was stay in a nice hotel with a television and a hot water shower and clean sheets, but no, i can in no way afford it. instead im staying in a shit hole with a shared bathroom that smells like piss. ive only paid for two nights though so im going to try and find a better place for my last couple nights here. i might end up having to splurge a little. :/
SO here is the biggest disappointment of the day: ive been reading this book called shantaram. the author is this austrailian guy who escaped from prison and fled to bombay where he lived in the slums and worked on the black market and went on to fight a war in afghanistan etc etc. so the whole time im thinking "what a bad ass" right? well today i went into this bar that he talks about in the book and he just happened to be there signing books and what not. why am i so disappointed you may ask? HE HAS A BLEACH BLOND PONY TAIL BRAID! ewww. even before i knew who he was i was like "whos that douche bag"? and then he rode away on a harley, making him twice the douche bag.:/ theres nothing more disappointing than finding out that someone you thought was cool is actually the total opposite. i have some problems with his writing and sometimes he irritates me but all in all its a pretty good book. worth a read if you dont know what he looks like.
anyway, i dont have much more to report. this old muslim guy have me his number for no reason. he was like "call me if you need anything" and i was like "uh ok?" i didnt even talk to him. he might have been trying to sell me drugs. who knows anymore.

GOA...
so i finally made it to goa. i took the plane here. the plane made two stops in two other locations before finally getting here. it took about three hours. it was a good airline called kingfisher (also a beer company) and they gave me a lot of food on the flight which was nice.
yesterday i took the half day back water tour in kochi. it was nice except the boat went REALLY slow. i saw a water snake and that was pretty cool to. afterwards i took the ferry to one of the neighboring islands called fort cochin. not much there but i did go to JEW TOWN! nothing particularly jewy there except the synogauge (sp?) which was closed. i did a little bit of shopping and bought some presents.
i only just got to goa. so far its pretty nice. my guesthouse is right on the beach. its not the nicest place in the world but it will do for the next three nights. tomorrow im going to procure my train ticket to bombay where i will stay for the remainder of my trip. im looking forward to it, both bombay AND the end of my trip. ha. in the high season goa is a major party town with raves and beach parties and the like. so far it seems pretty dead here which is fine with me. it cost me a lot to get here from the airport but luckily i got to share a cab part way with a french couple. in all ive probably spent around thirty usd on taxis today. all the places that ive needed to go ive had to take a cab. no buses etc. so that sucked. im planning on not doing anything while im here. i want to just relax and focus on the remainder of my time. luckily goa is pretty good for relaxing. not much else to report because not much else has happened.

kochi...
i am now on the southern west side of india. it rains a lot here. i arrived yesterday by train. i had to take a bus from pudicherry to a tranfer town called coimbatore. the bus sucked because it took nine hours and arrived at 630 in the morning. im convinced that there is no comfortable way to sleep on a bus no matter what. the seats reclined really far and they were comfortable to an extent but still, sleeping is almost impossible. they play terrible hindi music ALL NIGHT which, next to the sound of animals being killed, is the most impossible thing to fall asleep to. they also turn on ALL the lights everytime they make a stop, which is every one to two hours. once i got to the transfer town i went to the train station praying that i could get on the train (i was wait listed remember?). luckily i did but my train was delayed by half and hour (big surprise). there was virtually NO ONE on my train so im not entirely sure why i got waitliseted. i had the cabin all to myself and i got to lie down and sleep for five hours. they gave me a sheet and a pillow and everything. by the time i got to kochi i was at least semi rested. yesterday i didnt do anything. i checked into my hotel and then walked around and used the internet and such. the place that i am is made up of three islands. im staying on the main one and have yet to go to the others. today i was planning on taking the ferry to one but i ended up dealing with my plane ticket fiasco. looking at the map it appears that taking a train to goa (my next stop) would only take about 10 hours...tops. turns out a train ride is close to FORTY EIGHT hours and doesnt even take you directly to goa. if i spend two full days on a train to goa then there isnt really any point in me even GOING to goa because i wouldnt have anytime there. the only other option would be to go straight to mumbai which would take even LONGER than forty eight hours if i took the train. so i opted to fly to goa. i called the cheapest airline i could find and found a PERFECT flight to goa that leaves on saturday. unfortunately my credit card was "blocked". im still not sure why. ive used it occasionally for flights and havent had a problem so far. after many fruitless efforts of calling my mom and my credit card company i opted to go down to the airline office and have them try my card in person. no luck. i ended up going to the atm and taking money out of my savings account. two hundred dollars later i have my ticket to goa. at least i wont have to miss goa because ive been looking forward to it. today was the first time on this whole trip that ive been genuinely distressed and pissed off. you always gotta have one of those days i guess. on top of all that i have a rash on my right arm. it didnt itch until i noticed it. the lonely planet says that its probably a heat rash which wouldnt surprise me. i bought some anti fungal cream in hopes that it will go away. im not that worried about it though. enough about rashes. since i wasted the whole day hating life and my credit card company im gonna go on a tour of the backwaters tomorrow. kerala (the state im in) is known for their backwaters. after the tour im gonna check out the other islands. one island has a place called "jew town" (mel and jason, ill buy you a shirt) so i definitely have to check that out.

killing time...
ugh. im not in a particularly "bad" mood. im just bored out of my mind and its making me irritable. im still in puducherry. i had high hopes for this city and its kind of a let down. its fine and everything...just boring as hell. note to self: the lower your expectations are the better the chance of being pleasantly surprised. see: kolkata. i woke up early this morning to catch a bus to a transfer town called coimbatore. it was supposed to take nine hours. my plan was to catch the bus during the day, spend the night there and get on a train in the morning. i got to the bus station and found out that the bus doesnt leave until 945 tonight. as if i wasnt bored enough yesterday, now i have ALL DAY to kill until i have to get on the bus. i dont have a hotel room to retire to so ive been reading most of the day. im about 500 pages in a thousand page book that i bought in KOLKATA. thats how bored ive been. my bus gets into town at 630 in the morning and then i have to take a train at 840 to kerala where the back waters are. i bought my ticket at the train station here and i am third on the waiting list. if i dont get on the train theres a good chance that i will lose my mind. i refuse to be bored all day again. i know there is nothing in coimbatore so my fingers are crossed that all works out. from kerala im going to goa and from goa im going to mumbai and then HOME! i realized that ive spent more time in india than i have in any other country. i also realized that ive been to 22 countries. is india my favorite? not so much. it has been the perfect amount of time here though considering that the country is so big. the one major disappointment is that i didnt get to make it to sri lanka given my lack of time. if i did end up going i wouldnt be able to spend much time there and inevitably it would be a waste of money. it isnt very accessible as i understand. ive been on the internet for almost two hours now. myspace is blocked in ALL of puducherry and pictures dont load. hence this long stupid post. i cant even be properly bored here. by the way, as a side note...what is it about french people that makes them think that EVERYONE speaks french?

puducherry, pondicherry, whatever...
everywhere i go has two names. why? i dont know. anyway, the town im in now is all the way in the south of india. my flight took two hours. i had to take a flight to a big city called chennai and from there took a four hour bus to puducherry. its nice and quiet here and there are hardly anyone on the streets. you can cross the street without fear for your life which is also a major plus. its anold french colonial town and the architecture really reflects that. you can walk almost anywhere here and the streets are set up in a "grid" pattern so its really easy to get around. the main attraction is the beach here although you cant swim in it because the shore is all rocky. i walked along the beach today and there are a lot of people selling balloons and souveniers and stuff. there are little girls who are about seven years old who tight rope walk on the beach with a little pot of flowers on their heads. their parents play music to go along with the little show. the spectacle draws a fine line between cruel and amusing. other than that there isnt a whole lot to do here. the place im staying in is nice and dirt cheap. its in the ashram section which means that you cant drink of smoke at the hotel and you have to be in by 1030 at night. unfortunately its booked tomorrow night so im switching to another guesthouse that sells a lot of alcohol. basically the complete opposite. thatsjust the way it worked out, i swear i didnt plan it that way! haha. after debating with myself as to where to go next i decided on going to kerala which is on the south west side. its where all the back waters are and is supposed to be pretty nice and relaxing. from there and i can take the train to goa and then mumbai which is where i fly out of. im staying here tomorrow and then taking a bus to a city near-ish to kerala. im only gone for about fourteen more days! eep.

kolkata...
so ive been in kolkata for a couple of days now. they changed the spelling from "calcutta" to kolkata for some reason. i dont really see the point but i like the old spelling better. im staying here a day longer than i planned. tomorrow im taking a flight all the way down to the south in chennai. its the longest area that i have to cover so it was either take a flight or a 32 hour train. i dont really want to stay in chennai so as soon as i get there im taking a four hour bus to another city in the south. so far i actually really like kolkata. i thought that it was gonna be especially dirty and poverty stricken but its actually pretty nice. 15 million people live here making it one of the most populated cities in the world. im not hanging out in the slums or anything but i dont find it to be any worse than the rest of india. there are a lot of rickshaws here with people pulling the carts manually rather than on bicycles. i think thats morally wrong and weird so i dont ride on them. its not necessary anyway. apparently the city is trying to put a ban on them or something. today im gonna go walk to china town and kind of see the sights. it just started raining though so i might have to wait. anyway, there isnt too much to update so im gonna head out.

darjeeling...
so im back in india! i took a flight from nepal which only took 45 minutes. they give you cotton balls to put in your ears cuz the plane is really noisy. it was really small (twin prop!) and you could sit wherever you want like on ryan air. once i got to the airport (which was in the middle of nowhere) i had to take a taxi to the border between nepal and india. i paid way to much to get there but they were the only taxi at the airport. the "baggage claim" was a wooden bench that they dumped everyones luggage on. so yeah, it was pretty shitty. once i got to the border i checked in at nepal immigration and then had to take a rickshaw accross the border to the indian immigration post. the guy working immigration in india was really mean and hated everyone who came through. if you got one thing wrong on your immigration card he got upset and told you you were wasting his time. he kept saying "im only one man". everyone was laughing at him though because he was so serious and anxious. he kept shooing people away if they stood in front of his desk and sighing really loud. it was hard not to laugh. everyone who came through was an indian or nepali national though except me. i took comfort in knowing he didnt hate me because i was foreign. after the indian checkpost i had to take a bus to a transfer point called siliguri. that took an hour. then i had to take a jeep to darjeeling which took another three hours. all in all it was a long journey but the flight really took a lot of time off so that was nice. taking a bus all the way would have been total hell. the drive up to darjeeling was beautiful. its all the way up in the mountains and has beautiful views of the himilayas. had it not been the off season im sure it would have been even more amazing. once i got to darjeeling i found a hotel that i paid way to much for (like 10 usd OH MY GOD!) and the people that worked there were total assholes. they werent willing to help me at all so i made sure to check out of there this morning and went to the hotel next door. i am now staying in a hotel for roughly the same price but theyre a lot nicer and i have a balcony and a western toilet. so thats good. today i had to go change money and book my ticket to kolkata (formerly "calcutta"). both of which i accomplished even though its sunday. tomorrow im taking a joy ride on the "toy train" (call it the darjeeling limited if you want) which runs along the himilayas. its a tiny train (hence the name) that runs on little tiny rails. should be a good opportunity to see some of the scenery. so far darjeeling has been pretty nice. its significantly cleaner than the rest of india and theres less shit everywhere. the air is cleaner and there arent any mosquitos because we are so high up. i drank some darjeeling tea today and walked around a little. i tried to find a restaurant recommended in the lonely planet but some old professor guy told me that there was a riot a couple weeks ago and they broke all the windows. so i didnt eat there. dont worry everything has calmed down now. there arent any tourists around which is a nice change from the tourist ghetto of khatmandu. tomorrow should be relaxing and nice. im gonna buy some presents tomorrow. anyone want some tea?

khatmandu...
im not really in the typin mood but i made it to khatmandu. the bus ride was fine. it took six hours. the guesthouse im staying at was supposed to come pick me up but the bus dropped us off at some remote location because there were tires burning in the streets. there are a lot of protests going on right now. so i had to find the guesthouse myself which wasnt all bad. my shoulders are sore from carrying a backpack through my trek so that was the only downside. khatmandu is really the only city in nepal and theyre still learning how to do the whole "city thing". its an extremely poor country but theyre trying. upon arriving in nepal they got their first president. they seem to be fine with the president but unhappy with the vice president for some reason. hence all the protesting and burning tires. so now they have a president and a prime minister (like india) and the king is dethroned or something. everyone in the royal family has been assassinated except for the king. weird. today i saw my first bollywood movie. in nepal haha. it was three hours long and had an intermission and everything. it was really funny. theres random singing and dancing throughout the entire film. horribly cheesy songs and scantily clad foreigners. the whole movie was in hindi (no subtitles) but occasionally they would cut in with english. the story line was easy to follow anyway. well thats about it for now. if something great happens ill let you know.

back in pokhara nepal...
im back! early. but despite what you might think its not my fault! i could have kept going but one of the guys i was with got really sick on the fourth day. yesterday we had to hike for eight hours just to get him down the mountain. half the time we were going uphill and the guide we were with had to take turns carrying him up the hill with his friend. i was just really glad that it wasnt me. i was pretty proud of myself for making it five days with little to no complaining. the hike wasnt really as bad as i thought it was going to be. the second day sucked because we had to hike for eight hours totally uphill but once i got there it was ok. the mountains are beautiful. all the guesthouses were empty because it was monsoon season so we had all the places pretty much to ourselves. it was really cold at times but wasnt ever too bad. i bought a poncho for when it was raining and i also bought an umbrella that i never used. all in all it was a good experience. im glad i did it but im also glad its over. im also pretty relieved that we came back a couple days early. im really sore and exhausted. im also proud to say that ive accomplished a life long goal of having a sherpa! since janelle thought a sherpa was a dog ill elaborate: a sherpa is someone who lives in the himilayas and acts as a guide/porter for people who climb the mountains. our sherpas name was bhinsem and he was a pretty good guide. he hiked the ENTIRE route barefoot and didnt seem to mind walking over all the jagged rocks and having leeches stuck to his feet constantly. he was a crazy mountain man. everyone failed to mention that there would be TONS of leeches everywhere. luckily none of them bit into me but they did to everyone else. whenever there was a leech on my shoe the sherpa would put some tobacco on it and it would go crazy! im really glad that i didnt get sick up there or break an ankle or get seriously hurt or anything. if something bad happens the only thing to do is hike all the way down or in serious cases, get air lifted out by a helicopter which is really expensive. the highest we went was about 9,500 feet. thats pretty damn high and you can feel the air getting thinner as you go up more. like i said, im glad i did it, but im glad its over.
i relaxed all day today. i got out of bed late and got a massage for my aching muscles. im gonna stay here in pokhara for another day and then leave for khatmandu on monday hopefully. im gonna take a nice tourist bus! it takes about ten hours i think. after khatmandu im going back to india. im gonna take a flight to darjeeling (or an airport near there) and hopefully stay there for a coule days. the downside to being in all these mountain towns is that its the totally wrong season to be here. you dont get to see the mountains to well unless its really clear. anyway, im off. ill update more from khatmandu.

FINALLY in nepal...
getting here was such a bitch. i spent ALL DAY yesterday traveling to get here. sucked. i left varanasi at eleven at night and got to ghorapur at eight in the morning. then i had to take a bus for about three hours to the nepal border. it was raining at the border and i dont have an umbrella so all my stuff got really wet. i have a fifteen day visa which i think i might have to extend. so once i got across the border i had to take an overnight bus to pokhara which took about ten hours. i couldnt sleep on the bus because it was packed FULL of people and i sat next to a french guy who talked to his friends the ENTIRE time. really annoying. once i got here though it seems pretty relaxed. tomorrow im going on a seven day trip through the mountains. its like hiking so i dont really know how im gonna handle it but its the only way to really see the mountains and such. we get to stay in guesthouses and stuff though so at least ill have a bed and wont have to camp out. that i could not do. anyway, pokhara seems a lot more easy going than india. the people are less of a hassle too. yesterday i went walking around and saw a snake charmer! like with the cobra in the basket and everything! he had a little flute and a hat just like in cartoons! haha. my guesthouse is right by a lake. its very beautiful here: big mountains, lots of green. after i get done with the trek im going to kathmandu. then i need to figure out a way to darjeeling. i might have to take a flight because its really far and i hate buses now. so for the next seven days i dont think ill be able to use the internet. ill update when i get back. wish me luck. :/

leaving tonight for nepal...
the past couple days in varanasi has been pretty relaxed for the most part. ive been feeling pretty good ie not many stomach problems with food and stuff. im trying to keep it that way. ive been wearing a lot of mosquito repellent and taking my malaria pill which doesnt seem to have any side effects. once i got used to the town here it became a little more easy to navigate. i still cant get back to my guesthouse without asking at least four people but for the most part theyve been pretty helpful. i said goodbye to the girls i was hanging out with today as they left on a plane for goa. i finally bought some stuff! a dress and a t shirt for myself and some little presents for other people. yesterday we went to the "burning ghat" which is where they cremate dead people. we actually got to see the bodies burning and it was pretty crazy. there were like fifteen dead bodies being burned at once. theres a house near the ghat where old people live who are waiting to die. its considered very holy to be burned here because it is right on the ganges river which is considered the holiest river even though its filled with shit and probably has the dirtiest water ever. after the bodies are burned they throw the rib cage of a man and the pelvic bone of a woman into the river because they are the last parts of the body to turn to ash. its considered "completing the cycle of life and death" and is supposed to wash away their sins. its apparently a really big deal to be cremated here and they burn about 87 bodies a day. after that we ended up going on a boat ride along the ghats. im really glad we got to do it seeing as the boat rides are kind of the main attraction here. the water was really calm and we went right as the sun was setting. it was very beautiful. everything in india is so colorful and vibrant despite how dirty and shit covered it is. tonight im taking a train for eight hours to a town close to the border of nepal. when i arrive there in the morning i have to take a bus across the border into nepal. luckily two irish guys from my guesthouse are taking the same train as me so i dont have to go all the way to the train station by myself at 11 oclock. so that should be good. getting to nepal should be kind of a hassle but at least i have low expectations. im sure that i wont sleep much on the train. once i get to the border im not really sure where im going from there. i may go to lumbini or pokhara. lumbini is close to the border and pokhara is not. it all depends on how i feel and how much traveling i feel up for in such i long period of time. i will update once i get to nepal!

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