Goodbye Nepal... hello India!

Back to a computer again! But, can't post pictures from here...
We were in Chitwan National Park for the last couple days on a jungle safari. I feel the need to rant a bit here because we did not have good luck on the safari animal viewing. The day we arrived was day 2 for a group of 52 high school students from Hong Kong, and they weren't exactly very quiet, even on elephant safari (yes, we rode an elephant!). Then, we were looking forward to the next day when they would be gone, and we then realized that the 50-70 year old German group (26 of them) were almost just as loud! Especially in the evening after a few beers... I'm sure the animals were 10+ kilometers away after that racket. We did see some deer, monkey's, wild boar, peacock, owl, stork, but NO rhinoceros! So, not very pleased about that since they say that you are "almost guaranteed" to see a rhino from elephant back. We do not have luck with wildlife still it seems... Honestly though, I didn't think the lodge did enough to remind people to be quiet in order to have the best opportunity to see wildlife. I now understand why the Brits and Aussies always rant about the German tourists... they are quite obnoxious actually. At one point I said to the guide "excuse me, but is it better if we are all quiet to have the best opportunity to see wildlife?" and he said "yes, quiet is best", and 10 minutes later on our walk they were back to yapping again! Unbelievably rude.
Anyway, we left there this morning (and by the way the jeep has to ford a river to get out of the jungle so it's an interesting ride!) then our driver picked us up outside the park for the 4+ hour ride back to Kathmandu ... then a quick stop at Fedex before the airport.
(ATTN: MOM - having trouble logging into e-mail, we mailed a box Fedex to you with a few things, including our hiking boots and other clothing and it should arrive in 2-4 business days.)
Flight to Varanasi was interesting. The Indians don't like the Nepali's, and vice versa... so, after going through security screening, bag search, x-ray etc... and the plane over 1 hour late, we then had to have bags searched AGAIN, ON the RUNWAY as we were boarding the plane! It was ridiculous. They confiscated our batteries, and we were suprised to see them again after other luggage came through.
Varanasi is interesting so far. After meeting our guide / representative sent by World Expeditions, then 30 minutes drive through the crazy streets (bikes, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, trucks, pedestrians and cows all fighting to pass each other), we then had to put our luggage on a rickshaw because the center of the city is not open to cars, then the rickshaw driver wouldn't go any further and we had to walk with our bags a couple blocks (thank goodness they roll and we mailed home the hiking stuff!).
Tomorrow is 5:30 am boat ride on the Ganges to view the ghats, one major one is right outside our hotel. The river is filthy with garbage, and that's from what we can see tonight. I'm sure tomorrow we will find more filth. Lonley planet guide says it's pretty much an open sewer and has bacteria levels 1 million times acceptable levels! Hindu's come here to BATHE in this river! Yikes! I hope my clothing don't even get splashed a single drop!