Swimming in the river after river-rafting. Was fun at first, freezing afterwards when we realized we won't dry and we have no clothes to change with.
But Simi looked happy anyway.
Then we visited a tea-plantation. You kind of have to if you spend a week in Darjeeling. We got our lesson in tea-producing and picking before we we're invited to try a cup by ourselves.
We felt akward posing for the Teacooking-lady. " You want picture picture!? Smile!, why this tea special!? 1)organic 2) HAPPY!"
It's true. We do!
Buddhist-monestary-Buddha with the (seems to be) comprenhensive blue hair-do.
From Bodhgaya we escaped the "real" India's heat for the cooler climate of the mountains.
Between Kurseong and Darjeeling we took the small steam toy-train. The driver must have misunderstood something about when to use the whistle or he just really liked the sound of it.
We had plans about going for a few days to Sikkim while beeing in the neighbourhood but decided
that we are aloud to be a little bit lazy the last week(s) toghether. So for six days in Darjeeling we admired the view, tried a (not so exiting but pleasant) river rafting trip, visisted a teaplantation (and had our by far fanciest and most expensive cup of tea ever). We visited the Tibetan refugee self-help center, a buddhist monestary and ate big quantities of tibetan bread.
We realized we're now able to put last in front of almost everything.
We said Hi to the usual wonderful messy India a last time after a last jeep-ride down the hill.
A last train-journey later we find ourselves in our last city; Kolkata.
We left our bags in our last hotelroom and are on our way to do some of the last gift-shopping.
...finally Prince Siddhartha came to a place that is now called Bodhgaya, where he sat under a tree and meditated. He had spent 6 years in a cave nearby, without eating, without drinking. But under this tree his search would come to an end. He attained enlightenment and became a Buddha.
Today this tree is called Bodhi tree, and it grows next to a temple. It is not exactly the same tree Buddha used to meditate beneath, but it grew from a cutting of the original one.
And we were following Buddha, sitting under the same tree, smelling the same air in the cool and dark cave. Viewing the (almost) same views. Without getting enlightened, though.
Tonight is a big night.
India is playing in the worldcup finals agains Sri Lanka.
We don't understand the rules of this game, but we have been told that India lost two wickets. Loosing wickets seems to be something bad because all cricketfans seem to be rather sad at the moment.
Anyway, hoping to be able to participate in the celebrations afterwards, we're cheering for India
So..
Ehm...GO INDIA! Don't loose more wickets (?) woho!
And finally we say hello to the holiest of rivers: The Ganges. People swim here, wash their clothes, cows cool their bodies in here, dead people are burned by its riversides and the ashes thrown into Ganga afterwards. I special cases (e.g. dead pregnant women) the bodies are just thrown into the water, tied to some stones so that they won't float.
And everything is just a part of everyday life. People sit on the ghats (stairs that lead down to the river), talk, spit, smoke, eat, work, have chai... while they watch the dead bodies being carried, the fires being lit, and the cremation. Bodies wrapped in withe cloths. We sit here and talk about leggings. The cloth is burned away and we can see a woman's toes. How absurd. This is Varanasi. One of the holiest cities in India, where Life meets Death. Where the circle ends - to die here ends the circle of reincarnation.
And we are, somehow, tired. Also our circle, our almost circle through India, our journey, is about to end. We have chai. We watch fires. We talk about leggings. About the future. About the past. And now. We stroll around the streets. This is India again, after our short visit to the mountains. We plan the last steps. Read and write. Reflect. Try not to think of the heat. Of the "grown-up", "serious" parts of our lifes, that are about to start. Soon, but not yet.
Shimla, the cosy capital of Himachal Pradesh gave us Christmas-feeling.
We arrived by bus to Mc Leod Ganj 5 o'clock a.m. Best time to arrive, no?
A tibetan mother together with her daughter arriving with the same bus as we did asked us if we have anywhere to stay. Since we didn't these wonderful people must have felt sorry for us and invited us to their tiny home where we were fed with loads of chai and chapathi with peanutbutter. Life works in mysterious ways sometimes.
Trekking up toTriund, made us realize we're not in the best shape of our lifes. (Damn you Indian-cookies!) On the other hand we realized we are a splendid duo also when it comes to performing the Moulin Rouge-medley.(and the other song is called "come what may", not "come want me" as Nina thaught) The view, the green grass and the hot chai waiting on top made it worth the effort though. As we tried to express in the very pictureless post from Shimla : we really like it here and some parts of us feel like just hang around forever, taking artsclassess, meditate and chit-chat with Tibetan refugees. Tomorrow evening we have a train (or actually bus&train) to Varanasi so we guess that's not gonna be the case. Goodbye mountains, we'll miss you.
places we stayed in: 30 (out of wich 23 were hotels, 4 were couchsurfers, 1 were our friends and 2 the farms we stayed at) overnight-trains : 4 most expensive hotel: 450/person/night cheapest hotel: 50/person/night
We wanted to post some pictures but our computers says no!
Wich is a shame beacause we're in the mountains and the only thing we're doing is walking around sighing,
and telling each other how beautiful it is here.
We were missing forests, here they have a lot. In the distance you can see snowy mountain and there's
plenty old charming wooden-houses. (oh no, now this sounds really boring, it's not!)
Well well.
You guys have to use your imagination for now.
We'll have some dinner.
Nina : Hello, I was just calling to ask what movies you are showing this afternoon?
Cinemaguy: Men not allowed!
Nina: That's ok we're three women.
Cinemaguy:, No no, Men not allowed!
Nina: yeah...ok. But what movies do you show?
Cinemaguy (annoyed): MEN-NOT-ALLOWED
Nina (confused) : yes yes. I understand. But WHAT MOVIE?
Cinemaguy hangs up
First we we're considering if Nina has a very masculine voice talking on the phone but we realized
later arriving at the cinema that the movie really was called like that: Men not allowed.
