Well, despite all that, Sid Vicious was still completely useless.

January 20 It Just Wah Wah Wah.
Our final night in Nepal. Yes. The last night in India was awful. Gorakhpur is such a hole. The room was scum, mosquito's everywhere putting their malaria into me, and rats scurrying round my feet as I choked down the last Thali. We had met a Brazilian couple on the train and they proposed getting a taxi from Sonauli to Kath together. Lonely Planet 2007 edition says Rs 850. No, it isn't. We were pleasantly (un)surprised to be told Rs 7000. Devastating for all involved. The taxi driver didn't seem to understand we genuinely couldn't afford it. Got a private mini bus for cheaper than the public bus thanks to our bargaining savvyness. But it was terrible. On that note, this 'holiday' involved a grand total of 102 bus and 30 train hours. Outstanding. Kath was full of excitement. The rubbish collectors have been asking for higher pay, the Maoist government responded with murder and leg removal. So there is no rubbish collection. I wouldn't have thought it would be too noticeable, I mean, there's trash everywhere anyway, but it so completely is. Big piles of rotting garbage all over. Also, turns out the explosion we saw and heard at the post office just down from the micro bus stand was in fact a bomb. And there's been others at the airport. King's loyalists apparently. Joy. Niru was about twenty metres from the post office one and us perhaps 200, only very small but still... I'm sick, again. And because it's the middle of winter and Nepal relies on hydroelectricity and it doesn't rain in winter and India demands a significant percentage of Nepal's produced electricity anyway, Kath has four hours of electricity a day. Pretty much, we want to go home. EXCEPT. Tony contacted Niru to let him know our plane had been delayed for a day in case we didn't know. Seeing as we had already checked and it said nothing, we didn't know. And a day late made my getting to best man duties on time a big ask, plus I needed that day to get NZ and America organised. No fun. We went to the Singapore Airlines office to find out what was happening. No, it's not postponed (thank god), it was cancelled a week ago (oh shit). Had to leave a day early (yes, please) go via Delhi (with it's lack of transit?! shambles) and wait 17 hours (actually really easy) at the majestic, flawless and ultra clean Singapore Airport to make our original connecting to Sydney. Done. Next.

Currently in Christchurch. The greatest city in all the world.

Nepal. You need to sort out your shit. And if you keep charging tourists bullshit excessive fees and what not, they will stop coming. You have a beautiful country though. And generally beautiful people. Stop letting Indians in. And your younger generations know about the rest of the world, so you may have some explaining to do. But I might see you in ten years.

India. You are filthy and difficult and severely overpopulated and are hardly 'developing' as far as I can see. You make me fear for the future of this planet. Your people are rude, arrogant, slimey, stare too much, gross, and all around hopeless, with poor dental hygiene. I'm sure I sound racist, and that might be a slight generalisation, but that doesn't make it untrue. But I'll be back, you are interesting and a fun challenge, if nothing else.