Entries about class

As a good few of the group were under the weather, and as the weather itself was terrible, Dushyant cancelled our stay in luxury tents and instead booked us into a luxury hotel with a giant swimming pool and what seemed like never ending delicious buffets.

To get to this HELLHOLE ( ) we got a train to Jansi which was most pleasant, and then tuk tuks for about 45 minutes to the hotel. Along the way a humoungous windstorm whipped up and nearly blew the tuk tuk off the road (just as he was overtaking other cars of course). The wind hurled leaves, dust and rubbish into our faces! It was quite scary and pretty funny at the same time. It also seemed like everyone else was going in the opposite direction to us! :D hmmmmmmm

Our next hotel was fierce fancy, except that our room stunk! I think it was to do with the A/C but every time we returned to our rooms, the smell of sewerage was gross! I scared Kat with a tale I read on the internet about how some guy was nearly poisoned in his sleep by the stench in his hotel room. :D

Luckily we both didn't die and I ventured out with the rest of the gang to another cookery class later in the evening.
We went to a lovely lady's house and she showed us how to make Summer Chai, crispy poppadoms (forgotten already), and the most delicious aubergine curry I've ever tasted. All the food was nom.

After this nomfest, a few of us waddled out to investigate the non-stop trance fest tha was going on outside our hotel. We snuck through the grounds of our fancy hotel, only to see a large chessboard of a dancefloor out in the middle of the grass! There were huge speakers set up on the 'board' adn the cheesy music was thumping out, deafening about 20 young Indians who were dancin and prancin and drinkin their heads off. AWESSOMME

They invited us on to the dancefloor and on we went, bustin white-people dance moves wherever we landed. We seemed like realllly krap dancers in comparison to these wild, booty-shakin', hair-flippin, bust-wigglin dancers! And that was just the men! ; )
Anywho we had a great auld boogie and laugh at this awesome Indian Work Party! (WORK PARTY??) and stayed ravin for a good while until we had to retreat to protect our eardrums. : )

The next day we visited another temple/fort/palace with lots of nice paintings of all the various incarnations of Shiva..

IN the afternoon we frolicked in the pool and later Dushyant brought us to a Hindu ceremony where we got to make a wish by twirling an incense stick clockwise three times! if only that worked! Hinduism seems bonkers to me - monkey gods and elephant gods and what not. It's all very interesting, but I can't help but think it's a bit mad. Possibly the maddest out of all the religions? Maybe I'm too close minded. Maybe there was indeed a young boy who's head was chopped off by his dad and replaced with the head of an elephant! Why the hell not!! science schmience..

Later we got a jeep to the train station and hopped on a night train to Varanasi. My 8th and last ever night train in India. Thanks be to Ganesh! This night train however was quite pleasant and enjoyable and we gals had some right auld girly chats on the way to our last stop in India - Varanasi. 8)

So obviously the next morning, it's difficult to get Bren out of the bed. Myself and Craig were knockin on his door for 15 minutes, til we realised his door was unlocked. We peeped in and he was passed out on the bed. Obviously he was delighted to see the two of us at the end of his bed at 5.45am! :D He got his shit together quickly and the three of us headed to the meeting point for The Last Resort. We piled onto the bus and met 2 Canadian dudes, both volunteering in Nepal, both from the same place in Canada but didn't know each other before the trip! Anywho, they were rambling aloud and we joined in the convo. They were Noam and Spencer. Noam, small, dark and funny - 24 going on 50 with a great selection of odd words and phrases...e.g ''abrasions''... ''very well then'' :D Spencer was the opposite - tall, fair, blonde and with a great booming voice. Both great lads, fun and funny. We also had 2 German boys on the bus but they didn't chat to us, and 1 Ruskie - Alex - a Russian dude from Chicago.

We stopped the bus at a Last Resort joint and had a yap and a cuppa tea. Then on we went to the put-in point for the rafting. Today's rafting would be class 4 + rapids, so bouncy enough! All of us got to go in the same raft, which was super cool. Bren and Spence, being the big lads, were put in the front of the raft, while myself and Noam were popped in the back. We had an awesome guide named Chris who put us through our paces practising. He'd shout directions and instructions at us and we'd jump to it! Literally!
''Forward! Forward Faster! Back Paddle. Left Side Jump Right! GET DOWN'' etc. He showed us how to hold the oars so we wouldn't lose them and told us what to do if we fell out.
So armed with all these instructions and information, we set off. It was great craic. The first bit of the river wasn't too bumpy, although we still plunged down rapids and paddled furiously over and around giant rocks and got soaked. There was also a bit of floating down certain calmer bits of the river, which enabled us to have a look around and take in the awesome scenery. There was one rapid that we couldn't do as it was too dangerous, so we had to get out and walk for that one.

When we got back into the boat, everything had gone up a notch. It was a much bumpier ride and we were Left-side-jumping and getting-down a lot more often. At one point, the raft got stuck on a giant rock and we all had to jump left to try and jiggle it free, but I kept sliding down between Noam's legs. It was so funny and to be honest a lil scary mary.

Just before we reached the end, we went over a big rapid and bounced all over the place and lost one of our crew. Alex the Ruskie, boinged out of the raft and into the water. There followed a few hairy moments as we tried to get him back into the boat. Once we spotted him in the water, we back paddled furiously to allow our guide to pull him in towards the boat. Alex was a bit bigger than the guide so it took a bit of doing. Chris got him onto the side of the boat and Alex clung onto the rope with most of his body still in the water. Meanwhile, we were moving fast and furiously through big rapids and choppy waters. Chris yelled at us to get down and we ducked for cover, with Alex still clinging on tightly, as the boat bumped its way downriver. Then we got stuck on another rock and we were all jumping left and right like mad trying to get Alex back into the boat! Chris nearly got him in, but with the speed the boat was moving, and Alex's large frame, it was very difficult for Chris to get him right in. Chris just about had Alex in the boat and myself and Noam grabbed Alex too and hauled him in completely. As Alex was being dragged under by the current during the action, his underpants had come down and his big white bottom was mooning the other 2 boats that were rafting behind us. Alex looked terrified but said he was ok. Chris said the currents under the boat were really dragging Alex underneath and it could have been very dangerous for him to go under. Alex seemed more embarrassed about mooning everyone!

A few minutes later, we pulled over and realised we were at the end point. Once we confirmed that Alex was ok, it was then safe to laugh at the few minutes of arse action! It was so funny! But again, it was a bit of a hairy moment! (boom). Alex could have been swept off or under the raft. Bren managed to get a busted lip during the rescue op and I got a paddle in the face. We all paddled high 5 and then got out of the boat to get changed. At this stage now, were are cracking up (boom) over the whole incident. Poor Alex has taken it all in his stride though and was having a good laugh about it as well.

After a delicious lunch of spaghetti, veg and coleslaw, we hopped back on the bus to be brought to our place of rest for the evening - the lovely picturesque tented lodge - The Last Resort. To get there we had to drive for 30 minutes on the worst road in the world and then walk across a giant 160m high bungee bridge that hovered over a ginormous gorge and river below.

Arrgh, it was so high up! Anyway the boss of the last resort, Patrick O'Keefe was with us and he said he actually built that bridge. It was used to transport all the rocks and materials to build The Last Resort Lodge. The lodge was a cool joint with tented accommodation, a lovely big dining hall nestled into some lush surroundings, a nicely stocked bar, a plunge pool, sauna, massage room and hot showers. At the lodge, you could choose to do a bungee jump, the world's highest canyon swing, raft the class 4 rapids, canyon down waterfalls or just chill out for a few days in a hammock.

It was a fab place and we would have liked to have stayed on a bit longer but it was 45 euro a night so I knew I could only afford 1 night before heading back to Hotel Potato!
Anywho I dumped my stuff in my tent and went to the bar area to have a DELICIOUS wine and play solitaire with my deck of cards. Bren soon came along and we played a few games of poker. Then the rest of the lads came along and we all had a few drinks and the craic.

The boss Pat joined us and told us some of his epic tales of how he had been an Olympic horse jumper in the 80's and had a few more interesting projects before finding success with The Last Resort. He also ran a business in Japan with his wife. Great day and great night!