Dear All,
To start, it was a very long journey to India, very very very long.
Started at Kathmandu at 6am when we woke and made our way to the Kathmandu bus station. The bus goes from Kathmandu to Sunauli on the India/Nepal border. We boarded at 7.30 onto our colourfully decorated bus, there were coloured lights and fluro coloured tassels across the windscreen. We bumped our way along to Sunauli for 10 hours. There were 10 other foreigners on the bus with our luggage stored on the roof, we jumped off and watched our luggage every time the bus stopped, just to make sure our luggage didn’t go wandering. The road was definitely not highway quality, more winding mountain roads sometimes with attempts at bitumen. Although it was long it was nice watching the country go by.
Arrived at the border by 5.30 pm to a huge queue of trucks and cars crossing the border. Luckily we were walking across. Stopped at the Nepali side to be stamped out, crossed under the “Welcome to India” sign, wandered the road looking for the India customs to find a small concrete hole with two old men stamping passports..and then we were in! It was strange walking across the border at the lack of security compared to airports and ports and then also because although it was a different country it didn’t feel like much had changed. Made our way to the local bus station to catch a bus to Gorakphur where we would meet the train. It all sounded easy when we booked the tickets, catch bus, cross border, catch bus and then catch train. However the local bus created more hassle than it was worth.
Sat on the bus waiting to leave and then a large intimidating man walked onto the bus up to us and asked to see our train tickets. WHY?? Very intimidating and said we couldn’t ride bus unless we had confirmed train tickets. We were promptly told unless he rang ahead and confirmed our tickets (because we bought them in Nepal) and paid him 300 rupees (6 aus dollars) the bus was going nowhere. Dan and I and the other 4 foreigners sat confused as our tickets had nothing about confirmation but when a large man demands money we ended up paying and getting a little scribble on our tickets. He left and then a local came up to us and said he was mafia and we were easy targets. Damn it. Really it wasn’t much money but it was annoying that majority of the bus were locals and they sat there and said nothing while we were hassled. Not the most welcoming of welcomes to India.
Sat on the local bus for 3 hours with only a few stares (I was one of only 2 females on the bus) and watched the small powerless towns go by. Eventually arrived at Gorakphur at 9.30pm. Our train wasn’t till 10.30pm so we waited for it to come up on the board to show us which platform. It got to 10.15pm and it still wasn’t on the board so we asked around and found out the board has been broken for weeks, but our train had been sitting at platform 2 for 20 minutes. By this stage of the day I was getting tired and a little grumpy. Finally boarded the train at 10.30pm. We were in the 2 tier AC class which means we had 2 bunk beds with air conditioning for the 7 hour journey, all for $18 each (:
We were seated or bunked next to an Indian doctor, in a few hours we learnt a lot about hip replacements..must be his speciality. He was amazed that I, as a female, wasn’t a housewife and that dan and I were out spending our money instead of saving it all. We worked hard and now were having a holiday. Slept a little and then arrived at Varanasi just before 5am. Made our way to the hotel, which was a 10 minute taxi and a 10 minute walk as our hotel is in a little laneway on the banks of the Ganges River. We watched the sunrise on the Ganges and then fell asleep for a few hours to recover.
Varanasi is located on the Ganges River and claims to be one of the oldest continually lived in city in the world, more than 2000 years of civilisation! The ghats are areas along the Ganges river in Varanasi that are used for bathing, cremations, washing, fishing…the list goes on, primarily though it is bathing and cremations. To quote our very handy lonely planet guide “The city is the beating heart of the hindu universe, a crossing place between the physical and spiritual worlds, and the Ganges is viewed as the river of salvation”. The ghats are stone steps that lead the river, there are over 25 ghats in a 3 km stretch along the west bank of the Ganges river. Only 2 of these ghats are used for cremations, which are performed daily. The remaining ghats are used for bathing. To hindus bathing in the Ganges erases a lifetime of sin thereby improving their chances of escaping rebirth. 4 days in Varanasi so far has been a quick crash course in Hinduism (very different from the Buddhists we met in Nepal).
The sights and scenes are amazing, confusing and confronting all at once, I’m not if I can even properly describe Varanasi very well. Maybe an overview of the last 2 hours of my day will help…in only 2 hours theres still a lot to describe…
Wandered back from the ghats (even though this is outside the 2 hour period we found the tastiest stall selling samosas which are fried vegetable pastry type things, very very tasty) and sat at the balcony of our hotel watching the local kids below flying tissue paper kites, along the banks we could see hundreds of silently gliding kites. Met a Canadian river rafter and a French girl who described their local yoga lessons and invited us along tomorrow morning. From went back up to our hotel room and the next door neighbour was STILL making noise. It started at 9am when he started clanging tambourines and little symbols, then the chanting began at 12 noon and at 6pm he was STILL going, very loudly. He is praying which I thought was fair enough until I overheard the hotel staff saying that their praying could continue for hours..even days…please no. So as the noise was still going we left the hotel, the monkey screeched at us on the way past. We were heading out for dinner and on our way passed little cubby holes in the old wooden and stone houses. In every cubby hole was something different, one was a shop selling silk scarves, another was a man ironing clothes with an old metal iron that above the plate had a section where the hot coals went, next cubby hole was kids playing supermario and then just past that was a small temple with a god covered in flower garlands and incence wafting into the street. Passed a few fat cows sitting in the street, I’m a little wary of the cows today as yesterday a perfectly calm cow in a crowd head butted me and now I have a blue bruise on my arm..holy cow my ass.
Overall the cows arent a problem, apart from all the cow poop everywhere. We were walking back from dinner and watched an fully grown cow laying down while two very small puppies were jumping on its head, chewing its ears and licking its nose, was very cute.
Back to dinner, we were headed to a restaurant called the “brown bread bakery” it advertises itself as a German Bakery but it serves much more than bread. The menu was so varied I was a little worried, in the end dan had vegetable curry and rice and I had cheese pizza. It was all very tasty. As we were leaving I noticed the bakery counter and the chocolate brownie caught my eye. It was really good brownie as well. Dinner with brownie cost 400 rupees about $8 aussie dollars
Along with the cow being jumped on by the puppies on our way home we also passed several armed police (actually more than several probably about 10 in a 5 minute walk and not just at night, 24 hours a day) patrolling the area. Came back to hotel and am now laying under the fan (its hot here, but the heat isn’t the worst part, the humidity is horrible) and guess what I can still here at 9pm…after 12 hours of smashing that damn tambourine and symbols and chanting in a horrible wailing voice…our damn neighbours are STILL praying….
We are in Varanasi till Tuesday night when we have an overnight train ride to Khajuraho. Khajuraho is home to the temples which depict the karma sutra. From there onto a small town called Orcha which has been recommended to us. And then probably in a week or so we will be in Agra to see the Taj Mahal!
Hope all is well,
Lots of love, Jess xoxoxo
