Varanasi under water

We spent a couple of nights in Varanasi, attracted by stories of early morning boat rides past ghats where pilgrims come to bathe.  Unfortunately, when we arrived Varanasi was under water…the ghats (which are 50 step high bathing places) were underwater, with only a couple of steps showing and hardly anyone bathing.  All boat rides…

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Diary of a nightmare technology week aka this is why we’re whining…

Wednesday: arrive in Kolkata. Everything is great…until that evening, when working on the computer, we suddenly experience for the first time the “rainbow screen of death”, where the screen fills with rainbow static and then the whole computer dies and cannot be restarted.  Use the phone to find the Toshiba service centre. Thursday: Reuben visits…

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Finding freedom in Kolkata

Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) is an overnight train ride from Delhi.  We travelled 3-AC on the train, meaning that the bunks are stacked three high…and the ladder to get down is not so easy to use! I managed to fall on Reuben, knock my Kindle off into another guy and basically look totally uncoordinated…

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Exploring Delhi

We spent ten days in Delhi, relaxing and working and doing a bit of sightseeing. We were really fortunate to be able to house sit for our friends Steve and Leslie while they were in Thailand – we so appreciated the opportunity to not stay in a hotel and just rest, relax and get some…

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A little dramatic interlude

We interrupt our regular posts to present a movie made by some friends of ours, featuring Reuben.  The whole movie was written, directed and produced by the 3 guys you see in it – check out “The Creep-o of Scary Ville”!    

Nainital

We decided to go check out Nainital, another hill station. In amongst the fog and rain we had two fun days here.  Nainital is a crater lake surrounded by hills – it is beautiful and very relaxing.           We visited the Nainital zoo and saw tiger, bears and leopards, before heading…

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A birthday in Mussoorie

Mussoorie is one of the hill stations of India – a place where the British used to come to escape the heat of the plains.  Nowdays Mussoorie is still a holiday location – and it is still wonderful to come up out of the heat! We went here overnight on our honeymoon – it was…

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Rishikesh

Rishikesh was made famous by the Beatles, who stayed there when they visited India. The ashram that they stayed at is no longer active, but it is still a really interesting place to visit. It’s about an hour’s bus ride from Haridwar. When we arrived there were relief workers everywhere – tragically, that week there…

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Haridwar

Haridwar is one of the 5 holiest cities in India.  It is located close to where the Ganga (Ganges) leaves the Himalayas, and is also the city where Reuben worked for an IT company for several years when he lived in India. Visiting Haridwar for Reuben is like visiting his second home! We spent a…

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A quick trip to Pune

We took a bus to Pune, which is normally a three hour express bus ride from Mumbai – except we managed to get on the wrong slow bus. Six frustrating hours later we finally made it for a late lunch with Reuben’s friends Shobit and Preeti.  We had a lovely overnight visit with them and…

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