So, one month in and it feels like a blur-India is full on, in a good way, and I\'ve bearly scratched the surface. Having origianlly planed to head off to Thailand in the beggining of Jan. i have extended it to early feb but still think i need more time. I could still be here in a years time if it wern\'t for the appeal of all the other countries places people to see. After bombay, a little excursion to Aurangabad for a spot of sightseeing and a couple of nights in Pune led me to Goa, land of sandy beaches delicious sea food and and hard trance. the latter prompting me to purchase a small set of speakers and found the Goan hiphop Appreciation Sociaty: membership-one. Who cares, thers only so much repetative techo I can stand before breakfast. On the plus side, the people are all lovely, very laid back and you can live on 5 pounds a day. i had planned to stay four or five days but ended up lasting two weeks, its not that hard to do nothing but chill all day. As for the famous beach parties, they appear to be a thing of the past-the one I was able to find the motivation to attend was shut down by the police within 15 minutes, as no one was willing to fork out the $300 backshee to let to fun continue. The Indians love their underhand payments and a little green can get you just about anywhere or anything. undertered, I will be returning for new years eve. So-on to Hampi, a 20 square mile boulder field (trust me, its more fun than it sounds) scattered with temple ruins from the past thousnad years. The town, exploding in size to meet the demands of tourists, has more rickshaws hotels banana sellers then is really necassery which is a bit a hassle, but also gives greart scope for haggling, which goes someway to explain why have of israel as set up camp there. i am amassed, everywhere i go, there are massive herds of our jewish brothers and sisiters, fresh from milatery service and ready for some true \"Shanti,Shanti\". no other nation is represented like they are, and a small part of me wishes i had paid more attention when i dabbled in hebrew lessons all those years ago. As for the place, if you\'ve seen one aciant temple, you\'ve seen them all. not really, they are stunning, but when your giude turns out to be some 15 year old kid who can only explain the presence of boulders the size of houses, everywhere, as work of the gods, you get a little tired of the tour. the scenery is spectacular, however, worth the 14 hour sleeper bus ride. scrape the word sleeper. indian roads are aweful, the drivers worse. The buses are striped down and fitted with small short bunks down each side. fortunatly i insisted on a single, as my previous trip landed me in the same birth as an overwieght loin-cloth clade sadhu who, by powers unknown, was able to sleep soundly in our tiny enclosure. his snore thundering through the night, and each bump in the road (of which there where many) cause a little more of his cosiderable body mass to evelope my motionless frame. with little in the way of options, I chose to make the most of it and cuddled up for wamth. from Hampi to Bangalore, High tech captial of india (still suffers frequant power cuts, like the rest of the country) to visit the lovely Anna-lou, who has made a home here for the last 10 months. this was a double blessing, one for allowing me a couple of days of normality in a home, with cooking and TV and dishes and everything. And also giving me the excuse I had been looking for to shake of a very odd travel companion who happened to be going everywhere i was going and doing the same things. we met in Goa and, although he seemed nice enough at first, his lack of personality, manners and abilty to settle on anything until he had compared every other option (you guessed it, Israeli) started to wear thin. Usually it would be easy to say \" oh, you\'re going that way, see you later\", but I didn\'t have the heart to being going to the same town and still say sorry buddy but I don\'t want to be friends with you. But I have lernt, sometimes you must be crul to be kind, if only to your self. But i digress. bangalore was lovely, also giving the oppertunity to celebrate the christmas-decorating the flat, a christmas party with mulled wine and mince pies and a visit to church for carol singing india style. It was hard to keep a straight face at times but silent night by candle light made me pine for just a little snow, but that an wait till next year. Arrived in Mysorethis afternoon, and with no plans i finally decided to succumb to the requests of a friendly indian who wants to show me his brothers shop and hopped on the back of 2- stroke scooter for a free tour of the city. Not an hour goes by in India without such an offer, but I chose to take it this time. first stop, A supposed traditional indian doctor, who gave me a crash coarse in natural oilsand there properties, with perticular emphises on the Aphrodisiacs \"this one, in only half hour, will make you strong like wild tiger\" . After issiting that I was in no need of such assitance, nor was I interested in south indian oil massage he resorted to offering me hash and opium. again, i politely declined and my motorcycle friend agreed to take me back to my hotel, but first, lets visit my other brothers shop. On arrival, i informed the kind shop keeper that his silks and sculptures where beautiful, but i had no intention of buying anything. still the hard sell followed, and when that failed out came the wife. indian women are great sales people, but still my wallet remained firmly in my pocket. by this time my driver had detached the brake cable on the bike and insited that he had to take it to a machanic. Although he was just grumpy that i hadn\'t earned him any comission. Not that bothered, his bike was useless and his cornering worse and i was happy for to oppertunity to streach my legs. so, now we\'re up to date. I hope that all is well with everyone, and should i not get the oppertunity, i will wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy, happy new year. Ciao for now teva