Next on my agenda was the Kumb Mela in Ujian. A long time ago, the gods had a dispute over some nectar and dropped some of it on 4 places in India. Of course, these places became very holy and every few years, there is a big gathering of people taking a dip. In fact, it's the largest gathering in the world. 2 years ago 80 million (!!!) people came to Allahabad. Not at the same time, of course, but you can imagine the chaos.

Many sadhu's camp here. I don't know if you know what a sadhu is - in the western world they would be considered as unemployed dope-smokers - the Indians consider them holy men who can give them blessings (by putting ash on their heads and in their mouths) - and I consider them as people who want to smoke all my hashish.

I also met a "hanging baba" (a sadhu hanging in a kind of swing who hasn't sat or laid down for 4 years - God knows why), who wanted a gift from me (500 rupees). Another one wanted to change his camera for my digital one, and another went off with half of my friend’s hashish. They are interesting people and thought to be non-materialistic (except for when it comes to rupees, hashish and cameras I guess). I smoked some chillums with them, with the police standing just behind us and doing nothing about it. That was kind of surreal.

The nagababa's are especially interesting; they walk around naked and do a kind of yoga only men can do: penis-yoga. They role their dick around a stick and then turn the stick around like the propeller of a helicopter (don't try this at home kids), or hang I don't know how many kilo's off it. The trick is they have torn a muscle in their dick, which doesn’t allow them to get an erection (being celibate, they don't need to anyway - only when they decide to give up their celibate lifestyle they will have a problem), but it lets them do this Superman stuff with their dicks. So they are interesting, but when you're around some of them, you’d better watch your stuff.

I also stayed at the rainbow camp. Being there, I had the feeling I was in a Hair musical (except for the fact I don't have any). Before eating, we would all stand in a circle, holding hands and singing songs - Western people singing songs about Shiva. This went a bit too far, if you ask me. And being a hippie is okay with me, but where was the free love?  I mean they let me stand in a circle holding hands (my right hand in the left hand of an Indian who doesn't use toilet paper, but indeed you guessed right (left actually) - and then I'm supposed to eat with that same right hand - thank God I'm left-handed) but when it came to the free love they stopped being hippies, these pseudo hippie Hindu characters.

So I left the camp and went to Ohm Kereshawar, an island in the shape of the Ohm symbol (if you have a lot of imagination, which many Indians have - why else would you touch the back of a cow believing this is good for your karma?), which was like a mini Varanasi without the cow-dung.
There was a fair and they had some cool attractions, like a mini train riding in mini circles, and also "the wheel of death", do you know this cylinder-shaped construction in which they defy the laws of gravity with a motorbike? They did this, but also with a car, which looked awesome. I also went on a Ferris wheel, which goes about 3 times the speed as a normal one and of which after every ride its bolts were checked and tightened. I didn't know if it was a good plan to go on it, but I survived.

From Ohm Kereshawar I went to Pachmarhi, a former hill-station of the British. At 1000 metres, this plateau is slightly less hot than the surrounding plains, and the views are superb. Many cliffs, canyons and hills, all covered by masses of green. One day I was walking next to a canyon, following a path. I had to climb up a bit on some rocks and suddenly I had a 360-degree view of this sea of green, with me standing on top of one of the waves.

I will surely go back to this place but for now, I'm eager to go to Thailand and rest on the beach, recovering from 4 months travelling in India. If you don't hear anything from me for a while, I will not be dead, just doing nothing.

bye

Kurt

Greetings from.....

.... Amsterdam :-(

Yes, all good things come to an end. After wandering (and wondering) around for almost 11 months, the money ran out and my camera broke down (water + electronics = AAAARRGHHH!!!!). So no other choice than to go back and start working again (it sounds almost surreal to me). So now I dedicate my life again to the selling of cheese (for half a year - after that I hope I can escape again from Holland).

India is a great country to travel around - many things happening there, but after a few months I needed a holiday from the hassling and the goodname asking. So I went to Thailand. In Bangkok, I accidentally deleted the pictures of the last few weeks in India. This really freaked me out. It was also here that I found out that my camera isn't waterproof.

Thai woman are beautiful, but when they start talking… Let's just say Thai isn't the sexiest language in the world (unlike Turkish; when I heard a Turkish woman talk – it was almost like singing - so sweet and soft). Even guys talk with a high pitch voice, sometimes in a nagging way. It's hard to keep a serious face when you hear people talking like that.
Sometimes (actually a lot of times) you see a really beautiful Thai girl walk around with some kind of Western geek. You think something is wrong with this picture. Next thing you think: "Hey I'm also a Western geek, why don't I walk around with a beautiful Thai girl?" Well I guess I'm not geeky enough. Or maybe they could sense I'm a broke bum.

I didn't see much in Thailand. My camera was broken anyway. But I went to some islands to relax and dive. I did the diving on Ko Tao; that was pretty cool, although the visibility wasn't optimal because of the weather. But it's truly another world out there - fish in the most extraordinary colours swimming above and around colourful coral. You should see for yourself. From Ko Tao I went to Ko Phang Nang, the party island. The music was, in general, really shit (a lot of R&B).

On the full-moon party, I got robbed by a lady-boy. I lay passed out (like every night) on the beach. Suddenly I woke up because I felt somebody fumbling around near my groin. "Aahh, that's nice" was my first reaction. My second reaction, which came a bit too late was: "Fuck, my money". These lady-boys, by the way, are kind of scary. They are quite aggressive and I heard the story of one rubbin’ his genitals in some guys face who had passed out. How sick can you be?

I also got threatened by a waiter. The asshole wanted to charge us (3 vegetarians) for noodles with pork, which we obviously had not ordered, not even by accident. Of course, I didn't agree with him and I made this clear to him. His reaction was to slap me in the face (I didn't see that one coming) with the palm of his hand (he was a kind of sissy), and grabbed a pair of scissors and started waving it at me. After I realised what had happened I threw some beer in his face, but realising that Thai people can go blind with rage (the state he was in right now), I decided to leave the establishment. So if you ever go to Ko Pang Nang: don't go to Bottle beach, it kind of sucks.

On my last day in Bangkok, I went to the ATM machine and all I could dispense was about 10 euros, so it really was time to go home.

I have really good memories of this trip. I visited interesting, beautiful places, inhabited by the most wonderful and strange creatures (some of them not human). I will always remember the hospitality of some of the people I met in Romania, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. So many things were overwhelming. For now it's work, work, work again. But I hope to be able to go to Eritrea in January. Let me know what you're up to, I'm curious.

bye

Kurt