After swimming in the ganges, everyone is full of energy to enjoy themselves in the roller skating arena

Beyond the pink towers is where the bodies are being burned - no photography allowed!

Healing dip


People swim right next to the sewage..


Indians getting ready to swim in the holy river



Mad traffic, and we are in the middle of it: Bicycle rickshaws in Lucknow....



That´s why nobody is ever quite on the streets!

Taj Mahal


Local Barber


Boy playing with a feather



Poverty in the shade of the Taj Mahal

Ornaments at Agra Fort







There´s a party on in Agra Fort, and the Oz Bus is invited! (from Aladdin...)






The Taj Mahal



Women ironing


Henna

Holy Cow!


Happy taxi rides in Delhi
Coctails and Pizza


What´s the attraction, the Red Fort?






The Golden Temple, Amritsar




India

It´s hard to resume the India trip and only have good words for it. After such an intensive time, thanks to our tourguide Amjad, in Pakistan, it was not very easy for us to start new. The everyday struggle to stop for the toilet and make the drivers understand that we had to stop NOW, people stopping to take fotos of us at every occasion (now I actually understand how it must feel if us westerners get off the bus and take lots of fotos of the locals..like monkeys in a cage), eat crisps and nuts for lunch and letting the belly grow, holding your nose because it smells everywhere, explaining to them that 2m-tall boys actually need seperate beds and do not like to share a queen size bed, and so forth.

We saw some really nice places too: The Golden Temple in Amritsar - higlight for many people was also the first TukTuk-ride - and of course the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. The towns itself were very dirty and in bad shape. You would not expect that of a place like Agra, having the Taj Mahal there and all. Delhi was a disappointment for me, as I missed out on going to the Big Bazaar, shopping heaven. Maybe good for my wallet, but I would have loved to see it. We did see another Red Fort (I think that was about number 4 on that trip), and went to a bar where the beer cost us about 10€ - unbelievable in a place where probably half of the population is sleeping on the streets..

We had some happy times in Lucknow, riding bicycle-rikshaws to a restaurant to celebrate Jasons birthday. The drivers looked quite tired, so we simply took over.

Varanasi was tough, very busy, masses of people, cows, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, blablabla on the streets. You were not allowed to hang your hands out of the TukTuk, it would get ripped off by some other transport coming super-close to you...
We went on a boatride on the Ganges and saw people washing, swimming, drinking, and burning all in one spot. None of us was interested in doing the same, and Health and safety would probably not recommend it for any Westerner at all...

I suppose I can say that it was good to see India, to get a little bit of an idea of what everybody is talking about, but I have to admit that it was not my favourite leg of the journey. Everybody, including me, was very much looking forward to entering Nepal, to see the Mt. Everest, and finally get some exercise, move our tired bones that were squeezed on the bus for so long, loads of good things to come, hooray!