Received phone call from John at Midnight on Thursday night and turns out he had sent me an e-mail which I had not checked confirming he had added me to the room at his hotel...... Hyatt Regency of all places at 200pounds a night and I had missed e-mail so was in a 3pound a night place feeling ill. Doh! Arranged to meet John at Hyatt in morning for breakfast and could not wait to get there and have some 'Proper' breakfast (non spicy western breakfast was being craved). Got to hotel in morning and pulled up in a Rickshaw to a place that had all these flash cars and people in suits everywhere, in stolls me looking like I have slpet on streets for month with a backpack slung over my shoulder and a sleeping bag under my arm!!! haha. Met John and was really good to see a face from home. Went and had a breakfast which consisted of Cornflakes with ice cold milk, and a proper english fry up, oh boy I didn't realise baked beans could taste soo good. Johns colleague Herman (the German) also met us for breakfast then they both headed off to work in Delhi and I had the run of the hotel. I went and used the Spa facilities and had a steam room, sauna and jacuzzi, this was just what was needed after my night and day of sickness. Then headed back up to room and had the nicest shower I think I can remember taking. Loaded the complimentry shower gel and shampoo into my bag together with a toilet roll (yes cheap skate, but I have a budget you know!!). John and Herman returned to hotel about 6pm and we headed across to their friends place (Nils & Vals) for a BBQ as it was Nils birthday that weekend.

Arrived at house and this place was awesome, set over 4 floors they had maids, a driver the works. The road is where all embassy workers in Delhi etc live, very plush. Had a fantastic weekend and was made to feel really welcome by them. was thouroughly fed for my duration there and was not allowed to go hungry. Both of them are fantastic cooks. Spent both Fri night and Sat having a good few beers and chilling out on roof top chatting. This side of things is what i have missed (drinking) as very few places in India where you can have social drinks like back home. Whilst there they insisted on me doing some washing so was able to get my clothes clean again, and they even smelt fresh....... Look liked I had just arrived in India again. When I left Val had cooked me a load of chicken tikka and rice to take with me as she was worried I would be eating rubbish on the streets....... These guys were so hospitable and they didn't even know me, fantastic couple and I had an awesome weekend with everyone, so cheers John for letting me know you were going to be out here! Day before I had to head back to Main Bazaar we went to a massive indoor market and this place had vegetable stalls, spice stalls, meat and fish stalls the absoulute works. There were chickens plucked and ready to be purchased and as soon as one was bought they fished into the cage on the floor in front of stall pulled out a live chicken and proceeded to slaughter and prepare that one for purchase. People on the floor battering fish on the concrete totally insane place and yet very interesting.

On Monday I headed back to Pahar Gank and back to reality with a bump as I checked into a room whcih was like a prison cell with an outside shared (dirty) bathroom. Now trust me when I say dirty I mean dirty, to shower in that thing I would first have to wade through the excrement pile, luvly jubly.

Booked ticket to Varanasi for following day and jumped on train at 8:30pm. On trip there I was in a berth with a yank who I got chatting to called Dino and since we were both staying in Varanasi for couple days decided to hang out whilst there.

Arrived in Varanasi and my first impressions of place were s*** hole. I hated it, dirty, busy, loads of hassle, now this is much like Delhi is described but I liked Delhi and this place failed to appeal to me. Holy City I think they meant HOLE CITY. Went and booked into a hotel and then decided to take a tour in a rickshaw. Crap tour nothing to see, took us to see a little temple which was quite interesting as had a map of India in it carved out of marble. Then went to view university which this bloke kept banging on about?? Its a Uni son, get over it. Then again there were some cute little Indian girls strolling the campus so maybe he had his reasons for banging on about it......... Then were taken to the usual stop of a silk shop, NO I DONT WANT TO BUY YOUR GOODS NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE PRICE IS!!!! Asked to end tour early as was bored and got taken to the Ganages River so I could have a swim. No only joking about that last bit, went and did a boat trip for couple hours and got to see bodies being burnt at the holy crematorium at one of the Ghats. The river gets filled with floating burning candles as well as these are launched from boats and the shores alike. As sun set I experienced my first dose of mosquitos in India and we were surrounded. sitting there in shorts and t-shirts we were like sitting ducks. Got bitten to pieces and all other boats were laughing at me and the yank in a boat swinging our arms all about like a couple of crazed guys. Had a bit of an altercation with tout as we had originally agreed to 2 hours then convinced to go for 3 by tout as we would not see sunset otherwise. As it happened this was seen within 2 hours so we came in and told him we would pay the 2 hour fee previously agreed. He got annoyed and insisted on us paying for 3 hours and started to call people and putting the phone to our ears people were ranting down it. No chance sunshine and we had chucked him the money and were out of there walking fast paced and dodging down alleyways. Now although this seemed good at time it resulted in us getting totally lost and nobody knew the guest house we were staying in nor did we have a card for it....Big Mistake. After 3 hours or so stopped for some food and then eventually someone knew it and pointed us in direction, phew.

The following morning Dino left to head up to Darjeeling, but my train was not until later at 5pm, so I just went for a wander along the ghats and this was much nicer then the previous day. No hassle and very peaceful. There were people swimming, washing, clotes being washed and 10 or so buffalo being washed all within about 20 metres of each other........Nice action. Very hygenic no wander all these people are so skinny its not cos they dont eat much its because they must all continuously have some kind of worm in them you get from dirty water!!!

Glad when 5pm came around and could not wait to get out of here and head to Calcutta. Got a crazy rickshaw to the train station with the loudest stereo system in the world within it. This guy was the pimp daddy of autorickshaw drivers, what a legend. Chicken winging it down the street in his rickshaw, saying to himslef 'check me out'!!!

Train was an hour late, but happy to wait at station as at least this was one step closer from getting out of this dive. Roll on Calcutta, Eden Gardens cricket ground awaits me!!!