It was a bit of a relief to get away from the cold weather, but it’s a double edged sword as we went from the chilly north to the hot sweaty weather of Mumbai. At night in the train I was so cold I just paced back and force reading a book occasionally shadow boxing to warm up…
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Leaving Varanasi
So, we had made varanasi our own over the course of  our stay, learned to fly kites, learned about Japanese food, saw a few bodies roasting in a manner not to be seen except by the fella at the crematorium and had a whole lot of fun. Time to move on….
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New Year
New Year in Varanasi has been a sobering affair. Christmas was a succession of warm days followed by cool nights that allowed for deep untroubled sleep, but new year was met by a cold weather front that left Varanasi draped in cold, damp air that left many people wandering about draped in blankets. Any locals unlucky enough to be sleeping rough were in danger of their lives as they are often not healthy enough to cope with such a cold snap, spirits seemed dampened too as rooms are unheated and places where people often frequent are outside.
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Varanasi
I read today that Varanasi is the world’s oldest inhabited city with an unbroken lineage back to 800BC, and there is evidence of early Aryan settlements as far back as 4000 years ago. I can certainly believe it, the small alleys and dirt roads that snake around the back of the ghats look timeless, every nook and cranny seems to have grown as slowly as a snails shell, encrusted with time.
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Mahindra College, Pune to Varanasi.
I woke to a sunrise that calmed the clamorous valley of the previous night. I walked up the arcing stairs of the YHA to the roof and was met with a far warmer world. The laborers on the neighboring building site were huddled around warming morning fires, Pune had become solid after the little pinpricks of light had joined together.
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Bombay to Pune YHA
Arriving in Pune was a little harsh, from the Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here melody of Indian train travel, to having Johnny Rotten singing in your face. I’d think it a privilege if Johnny would do that, but I’d have to be in the right mood and when I arrived in Bombay I wasn’t, so I muttered my way to an overpriced hotel and battened down the hatches until I felt cheerful enough to make the journey to see my daughter at her college near Pune.
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Pokhara to Kathmandu to Bombay
God knows how I made it out of bed on the morning of my flight to Kathmandu, but the same goes for the morning of my flight to India; my autopilot seems to work fine and I arrive at the airport in good time, if not really in any kind of fit state for flying.
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Pilot
So after our wee Maoist intrusion we carried on with the last days of our course. These melted into nights our with new friends in local eateries, good local food, then we went to a Thai restaurant next to Maia Devi, next I discovered the Japanese restaurant in Pokhara and didn’t leave there for the last 5 nights of my stay.
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