lots of fun
I had a good last couple of days in kolcata after major stress of two days with zero money frantically trying to phone my dad and then when i got the money i got really ill and had it all stolen. Majorly sucky. But then i spent the rest of my time once i got new money sent out to me visiting the botanics and the victoria memorial which is like information overload because it has everything you could think of from kolcata's past. Loads of old paintings and drawings and photographs and weapons and clothes and furniture and journal extracts and everything. And it is all in this amazing cathedral like building of white stone with huge gardens around it. Really pretty.
I also met a couple of cool people. An irish girl called Lynn, english girl called selina and an english guy called ed. We all went to see the new fantastic four movie which was better than i expected but i didn't need much to enjoy it as it stars jessica alba. All four of us went to see the house of an eccentric old man called the marble palace on my last day. It's full of loads of old victorian art. The whole house is a work of art aswell because every floor is a multi-coloured pattern of stonework. After a while it got a bit monotonous and gaudy but it was good to see. It was also in a totally different part of Kolcata that i'd never seen which was good.
I'm now in amritsar after about 40 hours on a train from kolcata. I arrived yesterday and spent most of the morning and afternoon just around the marble palace. It's the most holy site for the sikh faith and it is literally a temple covered in gold. It is about the size of a two storey town house and is surrounded by a pool of holy water where the sikhs all come to bathe. It is a really happy positive place and there's no begging or people hassling you. Lots of people just hang out under the arches around the side of the pool and sleep or just chill.
I met a guy when i was wondering around who invited me to his village. So we got on a bus and played sardines for 2 hours. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening meeting his entire extended family, playing guitar, riding around on the back of a motorcycle and diving off a bridge into a fairly manky river. May be the reason my stomach isn't feeling too good now. It was really worth it though. The sun going down over the rice paddies looked amazing reflected on the water. The sun went perfectly red aswell in the heat haze but i don't know how to capture that with my camera. It's fairly well burned into my memory but i can't show any of you.
Selina caught me up in amritsar and so we're probably going to head into kashmir together tomorrow. Amritsar is really nice and a very easy place to stay. Especially because they have free dormotories here for travellers and pilgrims as long as you don't stay more than 3 nights. They also have a langar which is the sikh communal kitchen. If you help out with the washing up you eat for free. I think you can eat for free anyway but you just feel better if you help with the washing up. It's all done on an industrial scale and they probably feed a couple of thousand people at each sitting. There's just a really good vibe here. I'm happy.
I also met a couple of cool people. An irish girl called Lynn, english girl called selina and an english guy called ed. We all went to see the new fantastic four movie which was better than i expected but i didn't need much to enjoy it as it stars jessica alba. All four of us went to see the house of an eccentric old man called the marble palace on my last day. It's full of loads of old victorian art. The whole house is a work of art aswell because every floor is a multi-coloured pattern of stonework. After a while it got a bit monotonous and gaudy but it was good to see. It was also in a totally different part of Kolcata that i'd never seen which was good.
I'm now in amritsar after about 40 hours on a train from kolcata. I arrived yesterday and spent most of the morning and afternoon just around the marble palace. It's the most holy site for the sikh faith and it is literally a temple covered in gold. It is about the size of a two storey town house and is surrounded by a pool of holy water where the sikhs all come to bathe. It is a really happy positive place and there's no begging or people hassling you. Lots of people just hang out under the arches around the side of the pool and sleep or just chill.
I met a guy when i was wondering around who invited me to his village. So we got on a bus and played sardines for 2 hours. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening meeting his entire extended family, playing guitar, riding around on the back of a motorcycle and diving off a bridge into a fairly manky river. May be the reason my stomach isn't feeling too good now. It was really worth it though. The sun going down over the rice paddies looked amazing reflected on the water. The sun went perfectly red aswell in the heat haze but i don't know how to capture that with my camera. It's fairly well burned into my memory but i can't show any of you.
Selina caught me up in amritsar and so we're probably going to head into kashmir together tomorrow. Amritsar is really nice and a very easy place to stay. Especially because they have free dormotories here for travellers and pilgrims as long as you don't stay more than 3 nights. They also have a langar which is the sikh communal kitchen. If you help out with the washing up you eat for free. I think you can eat for free anyway but you just feel better if you help with the washing up. It's all done on an industrial scale and they probably feed a couple of thousand people at each sitting. There's just a really good vibe here. I'm happy.