"splattering of liquid feceas all up the wall"

i have decided to be a bit laxy in the writing of this blog, due to my travell buddy tom has already said it for me by email i thought Ctrl+p would do the job :D

email written by tom white:

So far my trip to India has been an interesting experience. From takingOur plane from Heathrow, as we were slightly late to check-in, unfortunately They had to upgrade us to business Class that was a real shame NOT. Having sat In the Sofa sized seat and with enough leg room that couldn't even reach the DVD screen in front of me from even before take-off the stewardess' kept plying Me with red wine, and me being I thought it would be rude to say no. The 7 and a half hour flight was so good I missed all of the good films on the DVD player in front of me. We landed at Muscat (Oman) in the middle of the night Yet the temperature was still 49C. We then got onto our connecting flight to Kolkata in West Bengal, unfortunately we sat o the tarmac for over an Hour and Were soon wishing we were in Business class again. We landed in Kolkata early in the morning after about 14 hours of flying and Probably more waiting in Muscat, wll it felt like it. My first impression of India is one of those memories that really sticks in your Mind. It was the Airports sewer, which they described as a "Toilet". First I had To work out how to navigate the biggest puddle of piss I have ever seen. After Realizing I had left my wading bots at home, I had to go. When I got to the Toilet I was nicely surprised to see a pile of shit the size you see on a farm. Having nearly overcoming the fumes, James and I met a Brazilian called Vanessa And a Jap called Hero. We thought to save money we would share a cab with them. Instead we got into a bumper car with a taxi sign on it. Wow, the traffic system Is crazy, the idea is might is right, thus all the buses have danger and good Luck painted on the back. After a fun but nearly fatal taxi trip we were not Surprised by the quality of the hotels. In the hall ways, there for some unknown reason have a rather good splattering of liquid feceas all up the wall and the rooms were not much better. In the end we based our reasoning on which had the lowest amount of crap piled in the corner. James, feeling inquisitive decided to Test the strength of the building by putting up a wash line with suction cups on The end in the bathroom. However we did not consider the less then 5 star nature of the hotel and subsequently pulled about 6 tiles from the wall. With me knowing alot about the law we decided to hide the evidence by breaking the tiles and gently slotting them into the cistern of the toilet. Bear in mind that it cost one pound fifty for one night so it was only a budget "hotel". Calcutta itself is really nice and dirt cheap. A drink of freshly squeezed limes cost about 10p and to think we haggled for that. we went to one of the finest restaurants in Cacutta with waterfalls and streams (not of piss; surpisingly) inside for about 6 pounds. It is bloody busy with a population of around 13 million and it is proabably half the size of london so you can imagine the conditions. After one night in gust house paradiso we thought we had better hit the road, or in India, the railway. We got on a train to Varanasi (the place where there are many steps or Ghats by the river Ganges) and have bought some cheap silk garments. We considered a dip but upon consulting our guide book it states that where everyone loves to bathe also happens to be a sewer, actually about 30 sewers. The normal fecal coliform level to bathe safely should be about 500. Here, india doing what it does best is of a level of 1.5 million colliforms, so me and james thought our life was better off then having a dip. Our plan is to get another train up to Agra where the Taj Mahal is and then north into the foot hills of the himalayas. Sorry for the speeling but i am in a rush as mr patel wants his money for the Computer.

See ya soon.
Tom

since then me and tom have travel north up 2 a place called agra- getting the train here was a bit of a nightmare as the people who sell the tickets are bureacrats- your have to collect the train number and time after consulting a man at one desk, the apply for the ticket (by filling out a form)....which wasnt sucsesful first time, the they put you in any class they want and you can go and pay for your ticket....a hot night last night....we got here though so its all good.

saw the taj mahal today (photos online).....its very very humid, and i have been sweating profuesly...i think i may have lost one tshirt -leaving me with just the two at the moment (o well)...great food and its all dirt cheap...travel is dirt cheap to which is also nice....cows are everywhere, there is a fair bit of crap everywhere and lots of people trying to relive us of our hard earned student dosh.

Of to dehli tomorrow, at 6am!!!....thats gonna be painfull....the other day we were going to see that ghats at 5am-people swiming the ganges (aka. the public sewer)...however over slept, then decided to leave.....cant wait to get up north - cooler, mountains less traffic and noise...the like :D

cya soon

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