while the sun was setting and the icy winds began to rush by us faster and faster. as we careened down what was passing for the nepali highway in this part of town. i turn my head to dev my passenger behind me and yell: 'hey dev, how far till we get to our destination for the night?'. he replies yelling back to be heard over the blaring horns all around us: 'umm, two jungles'.

so anyway, my nepali visa finished for the year. 150 days completed. i am now in kolkuta again with my friend David (who i met when i was staying at the orphanage here in may). he has nicely shacked me up with his parents and here i intend to stay for the next 6 weeks or so. That is, before i head back upto nepal in feb ish to begin my studies for the year.

so david is a pastor guy here. he is very awesome. i have been visiting around with him and getting a feel for the work going on here and what the needs are. we have come up with an awesome action plan for the next stage of the ministry he is doing and i will be building a website over my time here to help make this whole situation more visible. I have become concerned about the scandalous wealth imbalance in the body of Christ (which you cannot avoid noticing if you come to the developing world) and I have been working on a thing regarding this. I am also happy to use the word scandalous as it is a rarely used word, and rightly I guess, scandals are not good things. anyway, it is all actually quite exciting but i wont reveal much yet, though i know it is next to impossible to be excited about something you dont know anything about yet, though trust me, this one will be oh so good, hopefully noone will come away unscathed.

ummm in awesome achievement news, i have now been to 4 out of the 7 (or 8, i forget) of nepals borders, sadly the last ones are going to be a little harder to cross as they are in the far far west.

Recently david assigned me some homework, which is reading the history of Serampore. There is plenty of info around the house here, since his thesis was on William Carey, so there is no shortage of study materials . Next week we are going to go visit and tour around all the things Mr.Carey started and did whilst were are on some other work in the area. Fun tiems.

Currently reading: Nothing

Just finished: Simply Christian - Tom Wright, The mind on fire - Pascal and An Introduction to Indian Church history.

thanks to whoever gave me the books.

ps: another travel rule i forgot to add:

10 - A few things come to mind as examples, but since i cant quite seem to find the common best course of action, i will make this rule one step removed, there it is: some things you can only learn the hard way. (though on the bright side, your disaster stories will always be the funnyist and most interesting.)

11 - When purchasing items. If it can be opened, open it and check. Sometimes things are not as new or unused as they seem. Being in a box or container implies nothing. Make sure your products are full.

pps: here is mee eating some food last month, boy was I hungry:

"who will you pray too when you are standing in flames? you cant pray to Jesus he wont know your name" .Tourniquet

so today i have roughly 2 weeks of visa in nepal left. What to do? Well, we will get to that in a few minutes. First some news and stories.

So i went to a bank to open an account. Walking in past the (security) guy causally holding the 12 inch gorkha nife. I learnt some funny things about banks here. First they won't give you foreign currency... they only give to locals... a little annoying. Second, they have no such thing as 'withdrawal forms'. You have to write a cheque to yourself. This led to a confusing situation since I told them 'of course I dont need a cheque book, no one uses them these days'... turns out nepal made a system to keep them in use. You also do not require any id for withdrawing and anyone can get your statement by just asking.

We installed our first illegal bike modifications last week. A lovely under the seat set of speakers and accompanying mp3 player. This will add another edge of awesome to those long trips to the village.

Orphanage news in short: With the arrival of winter we have started 6am runs with the kids. All my coffee recently tastes spicy since I bought beans and we only have one mortar (which we grind everything on.. including the chillies). All the kids got caned recently with my big bamboo cane. We fixed the table tennis table, painted it green and I think all my lice have finally gone.

Ok so I ran out of time to write this, anyway here it is in brief: a few days ago I got accepted into a uni here and will begin studying nepali in a one year course starting in feb. This means I get the cheap study visa!

We are off now on a trip down to the border to pick the girls up from India. Exciting. I hope it goes well.

Some lessons learnt from India. In chronological order:

1. Listen for the Lord at all times. Also: wait on Him. A great way to not do everything the hard way.
   
   1. Give thanks at all times, it truly could be way worse
   2. Bless all food and drink you consume.
2. Almost never go with the first option.
   
   1. Especially if it is in a main area [tourist market] Infact, don't ever buy from there there is a way way cheaper to get the exact copy one block away.
3. Do not wear white. You can't even keep it clean in the west, what are you thinking.
4. Rules concerning trains
   1. Book at least one day in advance, normally it is best to just goto the train station. Cleartrip.com is ok if you can get a seat tho normally you need to book a good few days in advance as the stations reserve lots of tickets and thus waitlists are longer online.
   2. Which berth to get. (Always assuming you only travel SL) Going upper for sleeper give you way more privacy and means you get to sleep whenever you want. The only down side is you have to sacrifice some space if you want to keep your luggage in hand. The bottom sleeper is more social, but you have to wait till night to sleep, as people will all share and sit there. The middle is just crap.
   3. Night trains are best. Also stick to traveling only about 12 hours max. Else the following night traveling pro's and con's merge.
      • Pros - way way less hassle from people (trannys etc), get a 'free' night accommodation, you dont have to worry about getting up on time to make it to the station. You also don't waste a day traveling and don't have to look for a hotel at dusk.
      • Cons - Less good views, though you normally get some. (This is normally not a big deal as might you will sleep in the day anyway) Have to carry around luggage most of the day if you can't store it at your hotel after checkout. (Though you normally can find someplace thats ok with this)
5. Always check things before you walk away
   1. Do not just pretend to count your change, do it properly. Also add up menu items yourself. You will save lots of money in the long run. Also it is kind of expected.
   2. Make sure to check the seal on your water as soon as it is handed to you.
   3. Do not touch the bottle with your lips. Most things sit around in a shop before they are sold and everything has been transported in a dusty truck for days. This means that most things will be covered in some form of rat, cow or miscellaneous urine. Let alone other crasy things.
   • Some interesting water advice, Water is quite dependent on your weather and location conditions, make sure you always asses them. If it is very hot, but you know you are in water buying proximity, wait till you get thirsty, then you can enjoy lots of delicious cold cold water all at once. 
   • Side note: If you are in a house with a fridge, go right now and put a bottle of water in there, once chilled, pour yourself a big cup and drink at your pleasure. Perhaps you will never know how amazing that is, but try, or if you do, remember. Do this now for my sake. This is truly an overlooked luxury of life.
6. Mosquitoes, if you have a room with an external door or window, it is best to never air or vent your room. Also keep your bathroom door shut if there is a window too. Restricting insect access is of the highest priority. This of course is also quite weather (season), location and window mesh (tho this normally sucks) dependent. Either way make sure to keep repellent close to your bed.
7. If you do not know where you are going, it is really hard going anywhere. You end up at night at lonely abandoned places. An end goal is essential. Although this rule is not always true, I will say it perhaps is my prefrence now. It could be seen as opposite the spirit of adventure, but I disagree. (Thus have finally included in it my rule list)
8. Always settle a price before hand. You lose all bargaining power after you have received goods or services (but are still yet to pay). They simply will not barter. You also lose some of the most powerful techniques, such as the walk out and the feign interest.
9. Be careful of the '1rs scam'. this is where something at first sounds reasonable but then quickly and most dangerously escalates in price without an easily discernible warning or notice. To spot this scam is simple really, basically check if the service price sounds reasonable. If so, well there you have it, the 1rs scam in sight. For example, a 10rs head and neck massage is a common offer on the bank of the Ganges, though this will quickly lead to shoulders, lower back, arms etc etc, it is very hard to know when one stops and the other begins... then all of a sudden... bam! '500rs please, you just had the full treatment'.
   • Scams, dont fall for them, they make life expensive.
   • Note: this scam is an exploitation of the rule 8 principal. As you receive a service (albeit unknowingly) without first a settled price.
   • Side Note: I did have my first ass massage during a similar, tho less expensive, experience.

So I was going to write about a supermarket experience that surprised me in Nepal, which I thought was a good story.. well, not really a story.. I guess it would be if I told it in person, but in writing form its more of a few sentences. But then, here in Varanasi, it was one-upped. Let me start from the Nepal end of this story, so I was shopping for tea with my buddy Dev and we were just passing through the spices section.. looking at all the different seeds and things, cardamom, cumin... a whole bunch of other random ones, then, what, what is this? pot! they sell pot seeds at the supermarket! I though that was amusing. But then, onto part two, while walking the streets here in Varanasi I find government run weeds shops! Established here to be the official suppliers for the shiva priests, whose deal it is to smoke up all day. Since this is a 'holy' city there is a ton of em. Now I find this difficult to even begin to comment on, so ill leave it there and move on. Ahh how about a short recollection of a funny awesome only in India moment?

So I was just a stones throw from the border (Nepal side), after two quick bus rides down from Tansen (ok actually this is a Nepali story, same same but different eh) and I needed to jump into a jeep to make the last couple km's to the crossing. So I pile onto this tiny, overcrowded, doorless 80's style safari looking thing, managing by the grace of God to get the front seat. That means with my bag on my lap, I could luxuriously hang my legs out the part where the door is ment to be and finally get some stretching time. So yer anyway, it was me, some other guy and the driver in the front, with quite possibly 100 tiny black guys jammed into the back somewhere somehow. So we were off. Good so far right, tho a fairly standard situation. The amusing part was when we stopped 100 meters or so up the road and the driver jumps out and some other dude piles in. 'Oh, a driver change' I naively think to myself. Now I am quite accustomed to the transport overloading which is common here, quite often I take busses where the only space I get is a 6 inch slab of room on the foot rail outside the door and half a hand grip on the inside railing. But when the driver of this jeep slid one foot back in and reached over the passenger in his seat to change gear I could not help but laugh. It is one of those things I should of taken a photo of, but alas, space was scarce and I could not reach my camera. Though it is worth trying to picture this. The driver fully outside the jeep, with his arms and legs sticking around this guy, trying to control the thing as we careen down a muddy path in the scant border town of Sunali. Perhaps invision a cow or two standing round in the background somewhere too. Ahhhh classic. And so with this amusing memory I said good bye to Nepal with a great smile. See you again in September I say.

So anyway, as you guessed from above somewhere, I am now in Varanasi. Quite lovely I must admit. Sunny and rainy and quite hot. Perhaps every hour or so it rains heavly for 3-4 minutes. Then pow, sun again! With a touch of cloud thrown in for good measure. Tho I forgot how suck and kinda funny it is to just lie down to sleep and pow pow, power cut, ah ha! and you thought you were going to sleep?! you cannot repress a giggle as the fan slowly spins down and the sweat instantly begins to build... Ahh how reminiscent of Culcutta. Ah so anyway, I don't really know what I am doing now. Just finishing an awesome lecture series on Habakkuk from Matt Chandler while reading an awesome book, which I will talk about in a minute.
In regards to plans for the next few weeks, well I have a Church contact in Dehli sent by my little brother and one in Leh, so at the moment it looks like in a week or so I am heading that way.

Regarding Varanasi, it has all worked out quite well here so far, came directly to an awesome little cheap lodge in old city. No walking around aimlessly for hours which was a first for me. They also have two zones of power in the building, so when there is load shedding in my room, I can just whip down to the ground floor and the fans there are still going. In Nepal there was one book I really really wanted to read, but each time I went to buy it I never ended up doing so. Particularly because I was also so 'busy' at Compassion, but also the time was never quite practical. Anyway, it was on the top of my 'ill read this guy next' list. And what do I find when I look in the little collection of the 5 or so english books tucked away in the reception here? Thats right, a copy with over 98% of the pages intact. Thankyou Lord. So yes, ill be taking that directly to the rooftop to commence reading, along with a nice cup of chai of course.

Ps. This photo is dedicated to Grg, Dinz and Mck for their lovely pic last week.


Currently reading: Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

For those that requested an update, here is a short one: Took a train. Drank lots of tea in Darjeeling. Travelled in many different vehicles. Had a little Giardia. Played some soccer. Now at Compassion Nepal Orphanage. Doing some work. :)