Cleanliness

Zach(Australia), Nadine(France) and I... after going to the Shiva and Durga temple (Durga has tons of personalities, Uma, Parvati, Durga, Kali are all the same woman in different temperments) we got soaked as we walked up the marble stairs to the temple... so all we could do is laugh, we definitely couldn't run :-) The temple was gorgeous on the inside, and I would have loved to take pictures of how one culture turns a space into a place of holiness using very simple methods, but I couldn't... no cameras (or bags) allowed in.

Gonzalo from Argentina

So yesterday was the first day of monsoon...
Luckily it was only a precursor (so far) and not the full onslaught.

But it made me realise something... my standards of hygine are drastically reduced.
I'm fine with living with rats, showering in my toilet, eating in places that wouldn't even get a chuckle from an US health inspector, and walking barefoot in (effectively sewer) water up to the knees...

Me in the street water... its actually not past my knees, I'm just on my knees, it's about mid shin high right here... The internet shopkeeper who took this photo for me wanted to play with the foreigner, and being good sport I got on my knees, though he wanted me to recline like I was on a beach... all the natives got a good laugh over this and the subsequent throwing of the shopkeeper into the water ;-)

The shopkeeper