Me: ohhh I like you...

Lady: --I like you too..

Me: Lets hold hands....

Lady: --yes yes lets hold hands....

Me: you have nice fingers...

Lady:--thank you....

Me: lets kiss...

Lady: --lets go with the flow....

Me: where's my kiss...

Lady: --No no not now... .

Me: When??

Lady: --Lets wait.. there are complications....

Me: Ok ok... i shall wait.

Lady: --****Chuckles*****

Me: Smiles.... One more beer please!! Needs to be cold... and a breezer for the lady.. Repeat please!!

Lady: --Smiles...

Me: Your gorgeous and im overwhelmed by the way you are.... Im all over you...

Lady: --****Blush Blush****

Me: Come to me soon, I'll be waiting...

Lady: --***Smiles**** holds hand tighter!!!

Me: Drinks happen..... she goes home..... we meet again and I have to leave the city.... Will be back soon... :)

Lady: --Sad that you have to go....

Me: I'll come and see you soon!!!!

****The End****

We left Pokhra and now wanted to head to gangtok but diwali was coming soon and because of strikes in UP and Bihar we had to take a diversion. So we decided on going to Khakarvita but realized its a 24 hour journey because of the flooded kosi. The dam's broken and we can't make it. A local advised us to take a bus to Bindubari which we did and ended up at Kosi and the broken dam. This was rather dangerous, a flooded river, 15kg+ of backpacks, 2 sleeping bags and a leaking boat. 50 Nepalese to cross the new Kosi route by boat with devastation all around and a 50 people on the boat. wooow... I dont know how to swim.. hehehe... :) We'll lets take the risk i say because we have no other go. Cross the river and then we realize we have to cover another 8 kilo meters of devastation on foot. Rescue camps, rehabilitation centers everywhere, sand instead of fields, gushing water currents and bridges made with thin bamboo strips and no railing on the sides. Well Rathan was scared to do this but yet again we had no choice. That walk was rather difficult.. It was like a river flowing in a desert with nothing or nobody around. I knew for a fact if one of us were to collapse we would die for sure as there was no one around to help.. Well will post pictures of the place later, however we managed to cross and tan ourselves. Finally boarded a bus to Ittahari. We didn't get a seat nor place to stand so we sat on the top, lemme be precise, we slept on the top. hahaha.. Not in a position to realize what we are doing or even thinking about. We reached Ittahari and then took a cab filled with 9 people to Pashupatinagar.

We reached Pashupatinagar and ate some chowmen and buff meet at a known persons restaurant here at the border. Too tired to do much we still managed to get another taxi and with a few guys we met who were from Bhutan and Tibet, we started of to Darjeeling. 3 Hours later we reached this place and Rathan’s health had already started deteriorating. We reached Darjeeling after travelling for more than 24 hours. Now it was time to rest but my mind was still working and I needed a drink. Rathan fell asleep in the hotel room and Manorama and I went for a stroll with the camera clicking pictures. Landed up in a place called Glenrys or something like that. An underground pub where smoking is still allowed. :D Had a couple of rums and my bill was like 140 INR... quite cheap for a place like this I thought. They let me connect my ipod and play tunes of my choice. Well the funniest part now... The owner of the place happens to have studied in the same city I live in... We became good friends and went out for a coffee the next day.... A much sorted, down to earth person who gave me quite a lot of complimentary alcohol. haha...

To be continued....

Now walked down the streets of thamel and a nice place filled with backpackers and hippies. Seemed like everything was legal out there.... Streets filled with meat shops, wild bores everywhere. Lots of cheap clothing and junk Jewelry, bags and trek equipment. We had something called as trekkers breakfast which comprises of 4 toasts and 2 scrambled eggs, butter and jam and started window shopping. Well window shopping didn't really go that well cause we ended up blowing quite a lot of money buying things of the streets. :(

late in the evening we walked to tantra bar opposite to Nepa music in Thamel. Quite a reasonable place with some loud and good music. Wicked sound system played a nice set and met a lot of locals and Indians whom i happened to know. Sarjeel joined us as well and moved in with us.

Drunk and tired that night we snored and slept like we were dead. Though I must say Thamel is not for families to go to. Live bands, Strip bars, Shower bars every 20 meters. Though wanted to but refrained myself going to these places, didn't really want to be surrounded by pimps yet again. hahaha...

Next day we went back to Tantra and booked our tickets for the festival. Paid 7000 INR for the two of us though we weren't supposed to pay. I couldn't find my source anywhere. He was already at the festival. Beautiful decor, music and location. Deep in the Himalayas towards the border of China. A river flowing next to us and a beach like location. The picture below will give you an idea of the place. We camped there in tents for 3 days and then got back to Thamel. Bumped into a few Bombay boys who hung out with us. Now we were staying right next to Tantra at the students guest house.

In the next two days all we did was drink, eat, walk on the streets and then finally left to Lubi hills which was freaking cold. I didn't want to get out of the sleeping bag during the night. Early morning was crazy.... Never anticipated but the sunrise seems to have brought the entire Annapoorna range into picture. White, the snow covering these gigantic mountains was one view. Far in the distanc ewas kanchanjunga and Mt. Everest. These mountains are so huge they almost look alien.




I still haven't received our pictures yet. Rathan has been too busy and converting more than 1000 images from raw to other formats is kinda time consuming. But yes once i have them will upload them to flckr.

We left to Pokhra immediately after we went back to Thamel. Pokhra is one place we should have spent more time at. We met few very beautiful people and hung out mostly at this open air lounge kinda place called busy bee. A very nice place with locals performing live and playing metal. We stayed in Pokhra with a family who rented out their rooms for 80 INR a day. Hired cycles and went to the Tibetian refugee camp and also shanti falls was that the name?? Not too sure. Here Rathan seems to have lost his puma's. He loved those shades and was kinda low the rest of the day. While he was going through agony, I was busy socializing and meeting people. I happened to bump into Amy and Katie whom we went out for a drink with. Very interesting people who had a complete misconception about Indians before they met us because of their surprising encounters with men in Varanasi. Well these women teach english in South Korea and they sold me the idea of moving to Korea and teaching English. I really wouldn't mind working 6 months in a year and travel the rest of the year. Well Pokhra was done and now we needed to head.

i became quite aggressive last night.. seemed like i was in an alternate reality bumping into acrimonious people refreshing faint memories of a remorse filled past.....

Back home after quite a long vacation. I left home on 8th of October with just a back pack. It so happened that I missed my train, the stupid 24 hour clock. Grrrr... So i took a flight to Delhi and landed at 12:30 Am. On a friends suggestion we headed straight to Paharganj which is the closest place to the railway station. Delhi took me by surprise as had never seen such crazy and weird things ever. When paying the taxi after getting off at Paharganj, the driver tell me "Stay away from pimps." Now to our surprise the moment the taxi left we were surrounded by a 100 pimps and agents trying to hook us up with something or the other. Fortunately the tired look on my face and my shabby long hair worked too our advantage. One look and most of them walked away. Rathan and I were extremely tired for we kept running around the city before we boarded the flight. We rented a room at a hotel called oxford somewhere on the back street for 400 INR a day. A dark and shady road which gave me the spooks. The people at the hotel were quite wierd as well. We were asked to show different ID cards. They wouldn't accept my PAN card but the drivers liscence would work. We posed together in front of the camera and smiled. lol. this was funny.

We went to the room and realized there was not a single window to it. A crampy little washroom. We had to survive just the night.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and left to the railway station. Here again to our surprise, surrounded by agents who were trying to sell us first class tickets to gorakhpur. it was 11 Am and we had been walking under the sun for 3 hours now without any luck. Diwali was approaching soon and we werent able to get tickets anywhere. We stopped at a restaurant and had our brunch. The cook there turned out to be from Gorakhpur and thats where we had to head. He directed us to a person who helped us get our tickets for a train which would leave at 7 in the evening.

We started commuting by local buses as didnt really wanna get cheated at the beginning of our trip itself. Delhi hat was one of the nice places we visited and then settled and the sports bar owned by zee tv for drinks until later.

The train journey to Gorakhpur was amazing. Probably the best I ever had and to Rathan the first Indian train journey and probably his last. lol. We were probably the only non Bihari's on the train along with a couple from the UK. Busy chattering away with the Brits and I realize something is wrong. Our fellow travellers had a misconception we were talking about them! hahahah.... Explanations were given and justifications for no reason.

Now the best part of the journey... I wake up the next day to find the seat in the washroom broken. Someone has removed the seat and kept it aside making the toilet an indian style drainage. hahahah.... can u beat that?

The train got delayed by a couple of hours. On the way quite a few cities fell, Lucknow, Patna?? not sure, Ghaziabad and many more. The 4 of us got of at the train in Gorakhpur and headed to a travel agent. After a furious argument with him, we got a cab to take us to Sanoli border for 900 INR. The moment we got into the cab, Rathan and I started drinking and by the time we reached the border, we were pissed drunk. Well yes Rum it was. Sanoli was hot and we crossed the border by foot. The couple with us had to get a visa done at the immigration office and in the meanwhile i was playing a fool with the immigration people and clicking their pictures. Guess the liked me, they didn't even check Ratan and my ID cards and let us cross the border without any identification. hahaha... We crossed the border and sat at some tibetian indian fast food joint which served some nice beer as well. We had all the time in the world as it was barely 2 in the afternoon and our bus to Kathmandu was at 8 in the evening. Laura and Charlie decided they need to get drunk as well, so we all started drinking yet again. The worst part about drinking and travelling is you can't really piss when u want to. :(

All of us fell asleep and woke up to see the sunrise at 4:30 in the morning as we entered Kathmandu. Well the Himalayas are gigantic, the look like bloody Aliens or something. We got off the bus and I could already feel the fresh air i was breathing. Found a hotel to stay for 350 NPR a day which works out to 220 INR. A nice double bedroom. Laurie and Charlie took the room next to us.

too be updated....