Got a bit carried away in my previous post about India, although we are in Nepal now. If this country were a snack it would be a Kit-Kat; the perfect break for the undefinable hot curry India is. But it's a lot more than that!
The country is very different from what I expected, I discovered I didn't have a clue about Nepal. I imagined it to be cold, arid, with very traditional and religious Buddhist people. But it turns out to be really hot, humid, tropical green and of course there's also the Himalaya. (First time I've seen moutains over 8000 meters. At a distance they look just like other mountains, but every kilometer you get closer... impressive!! I'll need to come back for Nepal alone, to do some trekking.) The people here are a very rich and wonderful mix of different countries, cultures and religions (mainly hindu and buddhist). Lots of Tibetan refugees, Indians also. And in general, people seem more beautiful and definitely more modern (occidental) than in India.
Nepal seems to be richer than India, probably because here there is a better of middle class, something India lacks of; there's a massive gap between the extensive lower class and the smaller but so much richer high class.
Also amazing in Nepal: the richness in cuisine: it's easy to find Indian, Italian, Mexican, German restaurants etc. in the same street. And then there's also Nepalese cuisine of course. To be honest, the change was more than welcome! Although I like Indian food, it's the only thing there seems to be, and ordering a pizza in Nepal is a safer bet in Nepal than in India.
Less crazy shit over here though. Or... the other day when I wrote I was expecting flying elephants?? Well over here I saw a colony of flying foxes (Pteropus vampyrus) in the king's palace back garden. I guess it's the last of his worries to have huge vampires there, with all the Maoist opposition trying to break down his front gate and bring the entire palace down. This week there were supposed to be meetings between the 7 party (!!) government coalition and the maoist. But the government cancelled... It seems that Nepalese royalty is about to get cancelled itself soon...
To be continued!

In Europe children are taught to never talk to strangers, especially when they offer sweets. Over here they seem to be encouraged to talk to strangers, especially if they're white (or japanese) and demand them sweets, chocolate and money. Safety vs. opportunity.

Although more children wander the streets on their own than we're used to, safety of children is a big issue here. As far as I know an issue for foreign NGO workers, not as much for Indian government or even Indian people. Child abduction (or selling), abuse and exploitation are widespread, but nobody seems to care. Powerful rich people don't want this practise to change as they are the ones to (ab)use the children in their households. Other people don't have the power to make changes.

I've read about this in an interview with a Belgian nun who's working in India for over 40 years with these children, and has been nominated for the Nobel prize for her efforts. Although the efforts are now being made by people who used to be exploited but were liberated by her organisation. Good thing.

The other day a young Indian guy with a French girlfriend told us this joke. An American, a Japanese and an Indian sit in an airplane. The American starts throwing dollars out of the window. The others ask why, and responds: doesn't matter, we have enough of them in the states. The Japanese wants to do better, throwing out his mobile phone for the same reason. The indian, he throws out this Indian boy sitting next to him... This tasteless joke was told by a educated young indian, who has traveled Europe, who speaks Hindi, English, French and could speak some German too. If this is a joke to him, what about the others then? Bad thing. Sad... alarming!

After the tsunami hit Indian coasts, many children who survived were taken away and sold to be workers in New Delhi households. The worse is that a natural disaster is not even needed to abduct children, it's a common and everyday practice. Many are left back on the streets again after a few years, without money, home, family, dignity and possibilies. If they survive of course. Considering all this, where does safety fit? Does it make the begging children in the street more understandable? Maybe. But more acceptable certainly not. Solution? Don't know... people like the nun's work? Yes, but...
So what can we do? I guess in the first place continue providing safety and opportunities to our children because we can. In the second place to others too, supporting Nobel nuns and her rescued children who continue her work every day throughout India??

ok so when they tell you India is a country of extremes, you just think 'for sure it is' without actually knowing what it means. And when they tell you being in India that everything is possible in India, you just think that what they mean is evrything is possible if you have the money to pay for it. The latter seems to be true most of the times. Except for when it isn't possible. That's how simple logics can be, even in India.

But it turns out that it is to be interpreted quite litterally. I mean, when I saw this pink chicken in the streets of Varanasi, pink as in pink flamingo, that's when I knew that this country truly is one of extremes and without impossibilities. Everything is possible here, yes. The day after I saw a pair (or is it one?) of siamese twin dogs grown together by their asses. And you know what? It didn't even surprise me. Eva told me she saw the fenomenon before, that they weren't siamese twins. It turns out that sometimes when dogs are in the act of reproduction something goes wrong and they get stuck. I never heard of this and honestly, right now, it's just easier for me to believe they were siamese dogs.

That's every reality here, at least once a day you just don't believe what you're seeing. But you have to be fast when you're attacked by this psycho monkey, what happened to me too, yes. One minute you're watching over the Ganges trying to see the dolphins in it, the next second a monkey jumps on you out of nowhere trying to undress you or whatever he wanted to do... As for the dolphins, I didn't see them (the travel guide mentioned it) (I know, hard to believe, dolphins in a river where in 100 ml of it there are as much bacteria as citizens of the city being 1.5 million) (but again, this is India and I expect to see flying elephants soon without being on drugs).

Sooo, the Ganges... holy river. Supposedly there is religious merit not only to bathingin it, but also to having your clothes washed it. When we dropped our clothes at the hostal reception, we didn't think about where they would actually wash it. Ok, we did see the washer men alongside the river, and the drying clothes next to the drying pancake like cow shit they use for cooking purposes. But when thet brought ourclothes back, ironed and all, there was no doubt about it. We are priviliged to wear religiously washed clothes now. We know by the smell. Also color. Previously white clothes are... well... brownish now. Blue clothes... brownish. Brown clothes, no problem. Except for the smell of course. But hey, religious merit to it! But wearing holy Hindu clothes didn't stop some military guys to not allow Eva to enter this Hindu temple. Well, she had to take a test first, and she failed. Question 1: are you married? And she answered incoorectly. Second chance: do you belive in Hindu gods? She said no... but I respect them! Wrong answer. 3: what are you looking for here, and 4: do you reeeeally not believe in a Hindu god?

We're in Nepal now, capital Kathamnadu. An oasis really compared to India. We can walk down the streets without being bothered. No cows everywhere. It's more civilized here, more european like, cleaner, girls wearing modern clothes.
It's great to have a break from India now, we'll be here 10 days or so.
More on Nepal later.

In Varanasi now, holy city of Shiva, city of the holy Ganges where holy (saddhu) people bath.
Holy this, holy that... our eyes only see dirt, we smell the worst smells, we sweat instantly just by blinking twice or so and are surrounded either by the poor or the annoying opportunist business people.
The city is amazing, both positive with all the beatiful rituals, shrines and temples, as negative with all the rest. So far, this has been our experience with almost everything: for every positive thing you can say it is negative too. All of India seems to be the worst or the best. Difficult to explain, it's the experience, one has to surrender to the country and its people. There's no other way.
Like what I wrote in my previous post about how open people are... My opinions on it changes every day. Every social concept seems so complex. In Hindu eyes, all are equal and one should treat the other like that. But then again, some are more equal than others. Also, the back side is that, since we're equal, you're just another like me, and therefore you shouldn't be treated better. But, since we're visitors, we deserve better treatment somehow. But it seems that this is only true when they can get money out of it, or better karma. But preferrably money.
Like this, with everything. Yesterday we passed by one of the burning ghats by boat. That's the place where the dead are burned. People come from all over India to die in Varanasi. Since this is a holy city, to die here means that you end the cycle of incarnations and you free your soul from it's karma. The cycle of suffering in real life ends and you go to 'heaven'. Now, those burning ghats are the holiest of the holiest in Hindu tradition. Meaning no photo's allowed etc. But then again, people sit there easily without taking notice of all the ceremony of burning of people.
At the same time you can see the deepest respect for the holiest as the complete lack of interest for it. Weird. Too much to understand really. I've done some reading on Hinduism, but still don't manage to comprehend fully. So that's why I now just try to enjoy when I'm addressed to as Sir and we watch the other tourists because them we understand better in their differnces to us. It's amazing how many spanish travellers we see. Spanish, Japanese and Israeli tourists are definitly the mayority (of the very few) travellers we meet.
We're changing our travelling route today, decided that we're going to Nepal for a week or so. Look up some cooler air, swap the hindu life for the buddhist.

Update soon. For Eva's impressions in Spanish: imontheroad.blogspot.com

Guys,

doesn't leaving a comment freak you out, having to 'choose an identity' first?? Everything is for sale nowadays. And in the blog it's even for free!
Back in Delhi now, just a few hours though. Have to catch a train to Varanasi tonight. The 2 weeks in Rajasthan have been amazing. Every day was better than the previous one. I think I can say the worst is behind us. The worst being almost losing my flight to Delhi in Heathrow. Luckily there was this nice lady waiting for me after arriving from BCN, who took me to the Delhi terminal by car. Wouldn't have made the 45 minutes distance walking (only had 20 minutes to do it, and didn't want to repeat the Brazilian move in London tube by running my lungs out of my body and making myself suspicious by doing so). That lady saved my trip, but not my luggage... only took two days to recover it, so that was ok in the end as well. And then there was the doctor who saved my ass quite litteraly. Guardian angels seem to pop up always.
So, Rajasthan we enjoyed a lot! The noise, the bazaars, the architecture, and the very very weird Rajasthani people... All very lovely indeed. What we didn't enjoy was the absolute lack of privacy, a concept apparently unknown in this part of the world. I think that isn't not that they never learned it, it's more that we 'unlearned' some kind of open social behaviour. The good thing here is that everyone seems to be able to effortlessly relate to any other person. Our driver seemed to know every Rajastani during our trip, had long conversations without a problem. Once I realized how this worked, it became easier not to see every person who wanted to talk to us (aprox 735 a day) as annoying. It doesn't help asking to be left alone anyway. Or as this frustrated boy said: "Alone, alone... what is this 'alone' thing with foreigners? I don't understand!" He isn't alone. And he just wanted to practise spanish... Amazing how many languages the kids speak in touristy places like Taj Mahal.
Honestly sometimes it's still annoying when people follow you, asking where you're from and then wanting to sell something or just beg for money. Sometimes I just say I'm from Nigeria. Makes no difference to them... "do you have Nigeria coins?" That said, it has only been a few days that I look at people with another mindset, and experienced how open people in general are. An openess different than the European or south american one. For example, the time we spent in this desert village. What do you do in a desert village? Spending time. How? Just... sitting... letting time pass by. We were the guests there, and guests are holy. Are better put: treating your guest as your family or more is good for your karma, it's good for you and good for your guest. What happens: they will the take the tea from someone and give it to you. When you protest saying you don't want the other one being left without tea, he'll say: "No problem, he's my brother, you're my guest." But before you know it, he'll call you his family too, and then you can only hope no other guests arrive and run off with your tea...
The desert on the border with Pakistan is a strange but beautiful place. Strange for example to see an almost every house/hut some anti-aids campagne slogan "use condoms while intercourse" while the only readers seem to be camels. But it's a very needed campagne: 5 out of 1000 Indians are HIV infected, that's 5 million of them in total. It's the other face of poverty which seems to hide under the veil women wear covering their faces, or in the truck driver's cabins. Another freightning statistic: at the currect rate of aids spreading in India, it's estimated that there'll be 12 million infected people by 2010... Also condom sales fell from 500 million in 2004 to 375 million in 2005... More: 1.2 billion Indians now, growth rate of 2% per year... that's 24 million people more every year...
Most people we speak are in their twenties, but seem to be in their 40ies. All are married, having children between only one to five (a 26 year old). One more number, but 'light': 5 is the number of people on one motorbike, or the number of Indians doing the work of one.

later guys, off tho Varanasi

Before I took of to India, people would tell me the country is nothing compared to what we know and are used to. They were right. They also told me I would surrender to Indian food. They were right again. So here is a bit on the culture vs bowel shock.

The thing with food is, you can't avoid it. You have to eat. And I also love to eat. Considering this I've come to the right place. Food here is always good, very good. Now, when I like food, I like to eat a lot of it. This has never been a problem. But here in India you need to take care of what you eat. They advice to wash it, peel it, boil it or forget it. So that's what I did. The problem is that nobody told me that two or three curries a day is really too much, no matter how good it tastes or prepared it is. So this lead after only the third day to spending too much time in the bathroom. Nothing a bit of rice and a cup of tea with fresh waterbuffalo milk couldn't solve I thought. But the day after we decided to call a doctor to give me some antibiotics, and I believe he put some extra drugs in those shots he put in my behind (last time they've done that to me was at least 15 years ago) cause next thign I knew I was good old Koen again and maybe more. Which made me want to taste all the rest of delicious food I didn't taste so far... fingers crossed!
We only spent one day in Delhi and started a 14-day tour trough Rajastahn, with a driver who takes good care of us. We didn't plan to take a driver, but Indians... they know how to sell. We planned to travel by train, low budget. We ended up travelling by car above our budget...
I thought I was prepared for the obligatory bargaining, but I wasn't. I tried though. I almost managed on time to bring down a prive from 2200 to 1800. But then I left the shop paying 2300. Ridiculous really.
Anyway, our driver is really good, the others aren't. Traffic is hell, never seen before. And if it's not the other drivers, it's the animals. I thought it was gonna be only the cows wandering around everywhere. And they are, but they are certainly not alone. All kinds of animals in the craziest places and they are too chilled out. Dogs here don't bark, monkeys make no noise, cows are mute and camels and elefants seem too stoned for anything. And turtles, well...
People outside Delhi and touristy places really like to look at us, making Eva feel a bit uncomfortable. So she decided to buy the traditional Rahajastani sari so she won't draw as many attention to her. But she's looking so nice in it, that she achieved the opposite reaction. Now they all stare, but in a very positive way. They also come and talk to us, women come to help rearranging the sari, people want to take pictures of us... the sari really has an amazing effect! Eva wearing it is perceived like a sign of respect and appreciation to local traditions.

Guys, they're chasing us out of the internet cafe. Have to leave this now without reading again so you'll have to forgive me the spelling mistakes and other bad writing, english not always easy when you want to tell stories.
Impressions on culture, people, places pictures etc. will come next time.

take care!