by Sean (Guest Contributor)
While a lot of my friends were looking for “gay-friendly” places to go to spend their X’mas and New Year holidays, I decided that I wanted to stay away from the obvious. There are after all a lot more interesting places near Hong Kong (where I live now) other than resorts in Thailand, more resorts in Bali or the Asia’s gay Mecca for New Year’s eve countdown – Taipei.
Most importantly, I wanted to end 2010 by seeing and experiencing some new things which might hopefully bring some new inspirations for 2011. Eventually, I came to the decision to split my last two weeks of 2010 between spending time with my parents and my partner; and between Kyushu (Japan) and Varanasi (India). The choice to visit two contrasting regions in two weeks came out from wanting to go somewhere less stressful with my parents; on the other hand, somewhere more challenging with my partner (and a straight couple).
And as it turned out, it was one of the most memorable 2 weeks I have ever had.
Hand-pulled rickshaw, immortalized as a symbol of Kolkata in books such as Dominique Lapierre’s City of Joy.