Varanasi
From Darjeeling, Kristyna, Stacey and I got up early to take the three hour jeep ride down the mountain to the train station. They were feeling sick to their stomach so a bumpy jeep ride was not great for them. The jeep stopped so many times we only had 20 minutes to get to the station once we got down to Siliguri. What we did not know was that they had dropped us off across the street from the station we needed to go to and that the train was late. Our helpful fellow Indian passengers put us in a rickshaw to go to the next station farther on. We finally had to stop and ask someone. That guy told us the train was late but not how late so we were still worried we wouldn't make it.
When we finally arrived in a panic we learned the train was three hours late. It hadn't even left the origin station. We would end up waiting nine hours for the train. There was no food at this station and only street food in sight, which we won't eat. This is probably why they thought we should go to the other station- It was bigger and had real food. We found a posh (3-star) hotel pretty close by where we could get some food.
When we finally got on the train at 8:30 pm I saw a mouse. Which freaked us all out and we kept seeing it moving around the car. We did finally manage to sleep some after we all moved to upper bunks, much to the dismay of the train ticket collected, and arrived at Patna in the morning. This was as far as I was meant to go, but they were buying a ticket on to Varanasi.
However, just talking to the information center for a few minutes, I realized the things I wanted to do would take a lot longer than the two days I had allotted for them. I became overwhelmed by the prospect of tackling them and so I decided to go on to Varanasi with Krystina and Stacey.
This was probably a good move. I didn't really want to go to Varanasi, but the thought of going to those other places alone was not any more appealing. So, when given the option I took it.
Varanasi was another 5 hours on the train. I sat next to a really nice fellow who was en route to Hyderabad from Patna to work. Ashish Anand was a database administrator and he was kind enough to let me try some of his food. I had puri and lady fingers (okra) And something that seemed like baby cucumber, which he called it bitter gourd.
We arrived in Varanasi around five, just before dark, and I bought a ticket at the train station to go on to Agra in two days time. The girls had waitlisted tickets for the following day, but that was the first ticket I could get so I figured it was better than no ticket. Then we went to look for a hotel that Kristina had found online. No person in the prepaid taxi stand. This is already not an auspicious start. The smell of burning sage is thickest I've noticed anywhere.
We arrive at the guesthouse, it's full dark now, and its in a sketchy neighborhood and the room that he shows us is the worst I've seen yet. Just one large stinky room with three beds and the courtyard is filled with garbage. We decide to go on to a hotel we saw nearby that looked fancy. It is better, a two star hotel. And fancier prices. But not too bad when you split it three ways. We are all more comfortable, and it's totally worth it. Sometimes paying 13-26 US per night instead of 3 dollars can make all the difference.
It's too late to go to the evening ceremony on the ghats so we just have room service and crash. Varanasi will have to wait for tomorrow. It's been 36 hours since we left Darjeeling, but it feels 36 days away.
