I'm famous!!!

I was in the local paper! A photograph of me and Christoh playing football with the kids at school appeared in the local hindi paper with an article about the school! Unfortunately i look like a stick man... i must have been taken from an odd angle.... :) In fact both me and christoph look more badly in need of free food than the kids....

Well, I went to the wedding celebration last night. In fact it was day 6 of 7 days of celebrations! The older boys tried to convince me that I had to also come today for the grand finale, but I manged to make about 200 excuses why i couldn't be there...
Most of the kids from school were there, as they are all related in one way or another. They were so excited to see us there and I was soon buried under a pile of children trying to hit me/hug me/harrass me. The young men were equally exhuberant in their efforts to entertain me/be entertained by me. They kep insisting i sit by them while they enquired about the price of my camera/watch/sandals etc. I have now learnt that to avoid embarressment it's best to say everything was a gift, however on this occasion I decided to just say what i though was a small amount compared to the real price. I said my camera cost $100 (it cost $1000), but once we had converted it into rupees they still all stared in disbelief that one item could cost so much..... Next time i'll say it was a gift i think....

Of course we were made to dance to the sound of strange western pop music blaring out of one blown speaker. I've been practising my indian dance moves which always go down a treat with the indians! :)

The place where they lived was hard to make out as it was dark. I know that i cycled over at least 100m of trash just before we arrived, and the main party was being held on the dusty sand near to a tent. Crazy place to live, but they all seemed very happy, which is more than can be said for a lot of ppl i meet in England.

I'm starting to get a bit worried about travelling to SE Asia. Apparantly 98% of flights to Bangkok have been cancelled because of this SARS virus, and also after the anti-war demonstrations in Indonesia i dont know whether being an englishman there is such a good idea..... I'm considering staying in India an extra month, but that means delaying seeing my girlfriend.... :( Also, I really want to see nepal....

I hope everyone is well wherever you are. Hope no one in sinagpore has this SARS thing! Dont leave home without your surgical mask!

ok, I'm gonna go and read the news.... seeya!

Billy.