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Greetings from the banks of the Ganges. Toni and I are in Mr Chatterjee's home town, Serampore , just along the river from Kolkata. Last week I was telling you about our last day in Nepal, getting a Tika blessing and then travelling to Varanasi on Buddha Air. If you missed it, you can catch up here . Varanasi is very wet, crazy, busy, noisy as hell, holy cows everywhere, but despite all that, it's surprisingly clean and tidy! I was pleasantly surprised. Plus, we found the people open and friendly and didn't at all get hassled or swamped by beggers. We went looking for Varanasi silk, real silk.. Because it's something special if you can get it. These days, polyester has been improved so much that it's hard to tell the difference (at least when it is new) and the traders in most touristy areas of India will sell you the fake silk because of the huge profit they can make. However, there is something special about the real Varanasi silk. It has that Billionaire v...

Greetings from Varanasi, India Happy October - can you believe it is October??!! It's also Dashain (Nepal's main holiday - like Christmas) and in India Durga Puja - actually the world's biggest (under the radar) celebration. Buddha air services has only one international flight.   And we took it, it goes to Varanasi.   From one holy city to another. Last week I was telling you about Dashain - the Nepali Christmas - and flying kites. And our trip to Bhaktapur, a nearby city which is surprisingly nice, but hides a secret the Gen Z are angry about. I made a YouTube video about it see below.. or check last week's news here . The Tika blessing Our last day in Nepal was a major holiday and a special day in the Dashain festival.. We were lucky and honoured to be invited to the family home of one of our suppliers - the Lokta paper guy . Like Christmas they have lots of traditions.. including flying kites on the roof, and the Tika blessing ceremony. This is tradition...