Day 17 wraps up

Hey, a quick update on day 17 (our last one in Varanasi). It is 6.30pm and we are still at the hotel. The train is running late by five hours. There was real doubt about us catching it at all for a while there. Sandy is not keeping us very well informed, so a lot of the info is trickling from the other group members. At one stage the train was delayed until 12am, at another point it was cancelled. I asked Sandy what was going on and he told me that the entire group probably won't be on the same train. He will travel with the larger group, and a person from the hotel will go with the smaller group on the other train. Then the phone rang - turns out we will all be on the same train! But some will be going second and some third... I have a feeling Vince and I, along with Steve and Christie will end up in third, but we'll see.

Today, after getting off the net, Vince and I went with a few others by taxi to look at the shops. The taxi drivers work on commission here, so even though one of the girls had a specific shop in mind we ended up somewhere different. The girls were happy though, and they were the ones buying. The place was amazing. More like a museum. It was huge, they gave offered us drinks and everyone got their own personal salesman. Mine did a very good job, but Vince and I have planned to buy our stuff in Deli so we don't have to lug it all around. There were some absolutely beautiful silk rugs, but I couldn't justify the 900 US dollar price tag! Beautiful though. I'd like to get a small silk rug for the wall... I am putting together a list of what I want though. So far today I added: Marble elephant (prob from Agra tomorrow, as it's Taj Mahal!), crushed gem drawing, Russian doll thing, and I can't remember the rest. Mum, K, woomera, any requests for pressies make them now!

After the silk place we were taken to a gem/necklace/crafts shop (not sure if this was the group's idea or the drivers!). I bought a few pendant-type things, but nothing speccy. They were selling the same small silk art that I had bought earlier today. Mine I bought for 100r each, there it was 150r each, so it was a slightly pricey shop. Still nice. On the way to the shop we saw a McDonalds... So while the two girls who were keen on shopping looked around, Vince and I, along with Steve 2 and Cathrine went to the Maccas. It was cool. It was in a mall, along with Pizza Hut, Corn King, and Orange something-or-other. We had to pass through a metal detector to get into the mall and get a pat down, plus bag search. There were all up about 20 shops on two floors - a very tiny mall! We weren't allowed to take photos in the mall (I was taking a piccy of the Macca's Indian menu). Vince said he thinks it's because it is a terrorist target, seeing as it's aimed at Westerners, and so no photos. lucky I snapped it before I was told to put the camera away. The menu was all chicken or Paneer (which we think is a sort of vegetable mush - VERY yummy anyway). No beef though! Vince and I both ordered Chicken Maharaja Mac meals. The chips tasted the same as the chips at home. Bliss. We've ordered fries before (well, Vince has, I am not big on them) but it's always sliced potato pan fried. Still nice. It's funny, actually. Almost every meal here is huge, they give you waaay too much. Unless you order fries! Then you only get a very small handful. Unlike at home where the proportion of fries to real food is higher.

Anyway, we enjoyed the Maccas and headed back to the hotel. paid the Taxi drivers too much in my opinion, but that's cause one of the other girls set the rate early. Those guys made out well on that ride, esp when you include their commission for the amount the girls spent!

Hopefully the train ride is un-eventful and flea-free (did I mention that one of our number had to go to the doc today to get a tick removed from his back-side?). Be writing from Agra soon!