I can't think of a title

The bus ride from Chennai was trying, but nowhere near the hell of the bus leaving Goa. I arrived in bangalore early in the morning, and woke up to a street lined with healthy green trees. I wasn't sure I was in India, until we turned the corner and there were cows and other sorts of livestock roaming the streets. Bangalore is one of the IT capitals in India being ultra modern and classic India without the feeling of hopelessness I had in Mumbai. Bangalore could pass for any "western" city with all the positives and negatives.

After not being able to find a place within my budget, I booked a train to Hospet later that night. I bummed around Bangalore and saw the Fantastic Four movie. It was crap. Don't go to see it. I bargained with three rickshaw drivers before I found a resonable offer and got back to the train station. The train was my first air conditioned train. I wanted a regular sleeper, but would have been wait listed so I decided to just pay the extra money. I expected something grand. My bedding was damp and little cockroaches were running around in the coach. Bollocks.

The next morning I talked to the big white guy who was in the berth behind mine. Both Mark and his wife Lucy are of British descent, and both live in Hong Kong. Lucy was born there and Mark has lived there for eleven years. You can see the gears grind to a halt when people ask us where we are from.

Mark suggested I should take an autorickshaw with them to Hampi and split the cost. We've now been hanging out for over a week. I ran into them at a perfect time because I was sick of making decisions and being hassled. Mark is good at making things happen and because he's 6'3" and according to him, funny looking, people don't even look at me. They can't even see me sometimes.

Hampi was amazing, but raining most of the time we were there. I can see myself going back and spending a month wandering around. We got a place across the river from the bazaar. There were at most five other travelers on that side of the river, so it was nice and peaceful. The countless boulders and green rice paddies were what we woke up to everyday. Although the mosquitoes were killers at night because of all the stagnant water from the paddies. I had to trade my Tevas in for shoes at night and the only exposed part of my body was my head. The mosquitoes were biting Mark through his pants! We were eaten alive.

Mark, Lucy and I enjoyed the slow pace of life in Hampi for five days before making the long haul trip to Varanasi. We spent three nights on two different trains to get here. I'm slowly reaclimating to the heat and the pollution. Tomorrow I'm heading to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and they are going to Kolkatta. I'm trying to sort out when I'm heading to Nepal, Bangkok, and Vietnam. The dates on all the flights are open. The only thing I have to do is meet the folks in Vietnam on October 15.