member of the human race

bright and early it was, stepping out the hotel the heat hits you instantly, i never really got used to it, every so often i would day dream of inventing an internal air conditioning system for the human body, that was efficient, cheap and had no side affects like drying out the lungs or bursting the heart or shrivelling the brain to a size of a peanut.

i had plenty time for such ideas as we travelled sooooo much.

we had to leave so early in the morning so as to make use of as much time as possible, we had about a 4 hour drive ahead of us to an area called bhogra.

half way there we stopped for breakfast at a restaurant that used to be owned by Japanese residents, i snapped up some pictures of the garden:

after breakfast and my dose of caffeine, we started the journey again and a couple of hours later arrived at the hotel:

multi coloured hotel, we freshened up, prayed and back to the mini bus to visit an old archeological site, (lady wildkat help me out sis i have completely forgotten the name of the place we went to).

it was really hot, the sun was out and every thing looked so green and lush: i love this picture of the palm tree with the random guy actually i took alot of photos of trees, which you all know i love and adore:

whilst walking around i noticed 3 men ploughing a field and planting seeds, one thing i have to say about Bengali's is that they are extremely hard working, from the early hours of the morning till the late hours of the night they are on there feet, obviously apart from the fat cats of the country who are the exception:

i spotted a lady who had scythe in her hand and she was leaning against a palm tree, i stood there for ages trying to take a picture of her with the scythe in her hand but each time the photo came up without it in her hand so i gave up in the end and decided to concentrate on just taking a photo of her:
just opposite the mini bus was a stream and not far off was a man using a water pump, i found them so fascinating, and it looks so cool, when i went to the beach i tried to wash my feet and hands using the water pump but for some reason couldn't muster enough strengh to bring up the water, seriously they have alot of strengh in those muscles:
back at the hotel i managed to snap a picture of a pomegranate tree (ruman) which i simply love, especially served with a little rose water and sugar, mmmm delicious:
and the drive to the next site we spotted a banana field and we so had to stop and take pictures, i was in my element, bananas bananas bananas bananas galore, all those years of calling people bananas, and i white african was at last surrounded by bananas simply brilliant.

all the excitements must have gone to my head because the next thing i know I've fallen flat down lol, right in front of an audience,

oh well these things have to happen, luckily it was very soft soil, actually more muddy than soil so all i ended up having was mud all over me, buts its all good, worth it just to be surrounded by bananas :)

i was very good and didn't pick any and put them in my pocket, now that would be considered stealing, we cant have that happening now can we.

actually there not very big and not sweet more starchy when eaten straight away but when left for some time then it does get sweet, actually when i was there i did taste fried bananas which where simply delicious surprisingly.

i had to pose next to a bunch of bananas, how could i possibly not (no monkey jokes please :).

before getting onto the mini bus i spotted a goat herder, some people just have such picturesque faces, i couldn't help but capture the memory:

we drove to pharapur to visit the largest known monastery in the south of the himalaya which wa built in the 7th century, the place was huge, and it looked like a mountain:
we had 2 little boys following us through out it all, i guess they where either inquisitive as to who we where or they wanted something, so i took a photo of them: notice how there holding hands aaaaaaaaaw, it's very much the norm for the boys over there and the men to hold each others hands, i guess there much more affectionate in there friendship.

i looked across the horizon and noticed how big and clear the clouds where:
and opposite where i wa standing i noticed a man bent down, when i aske dthe tour guide what he was doing, he told me that the man was cutting the grass using a scythe and his hands, can you imagne 10 hectres of land being mowed using bare hands, unbelievable:
so after watching the man cutting grass, and after running after goats we headed back to the hotel, at this point i was beggining to experince stomach cramps and prayed to god that i would have a good nights sleep on my bed and not on the toilet.