Darjeeling to Varanasi

Saturday 27^th April 2013

We had hoped to get on the night train to Varanasi but as we couldn't book on line (due to not having an Indian bank card) the chances were slim, none the less we headed for a last meal at the bakery before heading to the share jeep stop to get a jeep down to Siliguri. The drive was a tad stressful as the mist had rolled in off the mountains reducing visibility to just a few metres ahead of us which isn’t ideal when you are driving down narrow windy mountain passes. As we got lower the visibility did improve so it came as a bit of a surprise when suddenly we came to an abrupt crunching stop. Our two left hand wheels had fallen off the road into the drainage ditch luckily it was on the mountain side of the road. It must have happened before because before we could say a word the driver was out of the truck and off down the road he came back with a handful of rocks and we built up piles of stones in front of each wheel, he then recruited another truck driver to pull us free. Although the under carriage had dragged along the ground there didn’t seem to be any damage and we were soon back on the road glad to be close to the bottom. The driver took us straight to New Jalpaiguri which is the train station in Siliguri. We set about trying to find out if we could get on the train that night and were shocked to see that the station looked so different during the day there were loads of families seemingly living outside the station and we were soon swarmed with begging children who clung onto our clothes, bags and limbs we got into the reservation office and lined up for an age to be told we were 49^th on the waiting list and that there was no way we would get on a train that night he told us to come back at 11.30am the next day so we piled into an auto rickshaw and headed to a cheap hotel in Siliguri. It was only about 4.30pm but we were all hungry so we went and had a thali for dinner followed by ice-cream crisps and chocolate bars. Back at the hotel we chilled out with some Israeli backpackers who were motorcycling across India later on we headed out to look at the markets before calling it quits for the night.

Sunday 28^th April 2013

We got up and had breakfast on the way back to the station where we queued up for well over an hour to be told there were no more waiting list tickets we were shepherded into the back room and told that they could get two of us on the rain to Varanasi that day but not five that we would be waiting weeks for a space to become available. Our only option was to get a train to Patna and from there pick up a connecting train the rest of the way. After a short amount of deliberating we booked the tickets the train left at 2.30pm that day but would take 15 hours to reach our destination. We killed time by having lunch and then went to find our platform. All five of us were in the same berth meaning we only had to share with a couple of other people but as it goes in India the three other seats contained about 15 people. We all lost ourselves reading for most of the afternoon before having a watery dhal and rice meal for dinner. About 9pm we set up the bunks and tried to kip immediately after turning off the light an Indian man who was climbing up to the top bunk hit his head on the fan blood went  everywhere and for the next few hours he sat stunned on the end of Aylas bed whilst she slept. Ayla and I got the worst deal as we were sleeping on the lowest bunks we had many people sleeping at the end during the course of the night although I think we still slept in relative luxury when compared with the Indian travellers who seemed to cram two to three people per bed.

Monday 29^th April 2013

We pulled into Patna at 4am and got off the train to be greeted with bodies sleeping in every available space we made our way to the reservation hall where even more people were sprawled out all laying on thin ground sheets it resembled some bizarre refugee camp. We got tickets on the super-fast express which seemed to us to be a regular train as there was no train number time or platform on the tickets it took us a while and a lot of walking back and forth before we finally found our train. We didn’t have any reservations and so had to travel in general class which on this train was just one carriage. The whole thing was full so we dropped our bags in the corridor and say on them as the journey went along we slowly all moved to seats but were disheartened when after three hours we still weren’t there yet three hours had been the time we were told it would take to get there. When he train reached the station before Varanasi we were excited to be getting there but sadly for us the train decided to sit there for an age in the already blistering sun. We reached Varanasi and all piled into one rickshaw with all our bags seemingly it was how many tourists can you put in a rickshaw? We were taken straight to a bakery where we had a huge cooked breakfast and pancakes we ended up staying at a guest house that was affiliated to the bakery and was within walking distance. At the hotel we chilled out for a lot of the afternoon catching up on emails and sorting out all our stinky clothes. Late afternoon we headed out to find the river which we walked along from the first sight of the Ganges I was absolutely in love with Varanasi and was kicking myself for not bringing my camera out with me. We went to a rooftop restaurant that had been recommended to us we were the only customers and sat on the floor on cushions around low tables we had freshly cooked homemade pasta which was phenomenal. After eating we decided to get a rickshaw back only the driver clearly didn’t know where we wanted to go and so we drove in never ending aimless circles around the cities hectic streets. The highlight of our night drive was seeing in Indian wedding in full swing dancing their way along the main road we wanted to jump out and join them but hesitated a the chance was gone as we whizzed by. Back at the hotel the fan did nothing more than push the hot air around our room hour after hour until morning.

Tuesday 30^th April 2013

I was up early this morning due to the heat and Alex was up not long after me we made our way to breakfast while the others enjoyed the luxury of a sleep in. when we got back the others were just beginning to surface and so when they headed off to breakfast I decided to stay and get some writing done. Three hours later and they still hadn’t returned not that it bothered me as it gave me some time to catch the world up on our rickshaw adventures and as I was sitting in the lobby one of the staff members gave me an astrology reading which was so interesting much of what he said was the same as the last psychic reading that I had in London.  when finally Claire came back it transpired that they were down the street in a music store having some sort of jam session with the locals and another traveller we went to join them and on the way I took my ripped trousers to the tailor who repaired the split crotch for a mere 10 rupees. We sat and listened to the best tabla player in Varanasi until his “energy” ran out. The other guy in the shop then took us to the best lassi shop in town the walk took quite a while as we were constantly being diverted by the police including one instance where the policeman pointed his rifle right in Ayla's face. We were told the police presence was due to a terrorist alert real or a drill depending on who we spoke to but it later turned out that it was because a prime minister (of which country we are unsure) was visiting one of the many temples in Varanasi. Finally we made it to the lassi shop where we were skipped to the front of the queue to order. I had mixed fruits which tasted surprisingly nice a lot like a yoghurt smoothie.  We were close to the Burning Ghat and so as we had our drinks we saw several bodies being taken down to the river for funerals. On the way back to the old town where we were staying we lost our guide and so wondered back through the many twisting roads. The girls all stopped to look in a pharmacy and I stood outside chatting to a shop keeper. He told me it was his dream to move to England and so I asked him why he would want to leave India he replied that it was because Indian men had such a cheap mentality that 95% of them only saw women as sex and that it was never going to change, he showed me his rubbish bin and said that he had asked all the shop keepers to put their rubbish in the bin and that he would remove it yet the streets were still full of rubbish he remarked that if men were too lazy to use a bin then they were too lazy to change their mind sets. The conversation went on for a lot longer and he showed me many pictures of his wife and kids. In the afternoon I chilled out at the hotel while the others went to dinner as I hadn’t drunk enough water that day and had made myself sick with dehydration.

Wednesday 1^st May 2013

Another early start for me this morning. By the time anyone else had surfaced I had already done my laundry and was showered and ready for the day down in the lobby. We went and had a long breakfast and then decided to hang out at the river for a few hours we found the Burning Ghat but as we didn’t really want to intrude on someone’s funeral we back tracked hoping to find another section of the river only we got completely hopelessly lost in the maze of streets we walked around for two hours before ending up back at the Burning Ghat. During our walk we saw the side of India that people try to avoid, all the parts that are uncomfortable and that no one wants to think about let alone talk about. We were confronted with puppies dying in the heat, loads of beggars and street children many who had physical deformities or mental disabilities. We got to the main road and there was a truck with two cows on it there was music playing, incense burning and lots of people about but we just thought that they were worshipping the cows as they are holy we had a double take though as one cow had three eyes its third sitting in the middle of its forehead blinked every time the other eyes did he also had a third horn right in the middle of his head. The other cow had six legs, its four normal ones and then an extra pair coming out of his neck. We patted the three eyed cow for good luck and left feeling sad for their deformities but happy that they were so well treated. If only the people could be treated this way. Back at the river we only sat for a few minutes before retreating into the shade of a café for a light lunch after which we went and did two hours of yoga, I was hoping the class was going to be strenuous but it was quite light yoga and a lot of meditation, the class was really relaxing and I came out feeling Zen but I would have lied to get my sweat on a bit more. Narca-Ayla struck again and Ayla fell asleep in the middle of a relaxation part of the class and I was put to shame by the guy next to me who was wearing jeans but still had far more flexibility than me. In the evening we had a quiet meal followed by more food from the street vendors and an early night to digest our hectic day.

Thursday 2^nd May 2013

As usual I was up early again this morning and was out of the room quickly as I had run out of water in the night and my throat felt like sand. Ayla and Alex slept late this morning and so by the time we joined the others for breakfast it was late morning. When finally we got active we walked along the river taking photos and taking in the sights and smells of the river we stopped under a shade where the plan was to sit and people watch for a while only it turned out to be us that were on show as usual a million young guys (and bizarrely several couples) wanted to take pictures with us. There was a photographer taking pictures of pilgrims swimming in the Ganges and then printing them and selling them on the spot and creepily several guys got pictures of/with us printed. We managed to pick up some followers a young guy who seemed to have fallen in love with Ayla and a small child who was about eight who seemed to appoint himself our body guard for the rest of the day. We walked along the river some more until we met an American guy and his friend who was Indian we sat and talked to them for a while the Indian guys English was really good and so Alex took the opportunity to ask him several questions about Indian culture. The small boy that was following us must have been bored as he kept getting in our faces doing his Hanuman (monkey god) impression; he wasn’t impressed with my monkey impression though. We walked all the way to the Burning Ghat and did see some bodies being put on the fires, I spoke to a young guy who works in a local hospice and he told me that the fires burn 24 hours a day and that they burn between 250-400 people a day he went into a bit too much detail about the process but it was interesting to learn. The poorest people are burnt on the river bank and depending of wealth and social status people are burnt at higher points of the tiers. It is widely believed that being burnt on the fires and having your ashes scattered into the Ganges will give you a free ticket to heaven which is especially important to the Hindus as it ends their cycle of rebirth. We chilled out in the hotel for a while before heading back to the river to watch the Aarti ceremony it’s a nightly celebration of the river Ganges we arrived and were blessed and given candles to float on the river (for a small price of course) we then sat for a while taking in the hectic river side pilgrims come to Varanasi from all over India to see the ceremony and swim in the holy waters so there was people everywhere. After a while we got into a boat and watched the ceremony from the water our boat man then rowed us further along and we lit our candles he then dropped us off at the smaller Burning Ghat we jumped to shore trying to ignore the fact that the water was thick with ash. We walked in the darkness the rest of the way along the river to the Asi Ghat where we got some dinner (which ended with apple pie and ice-cream!) we then tried to find the monkey temple to see some live music but we got lost and it seemed every time we stopped a drunken leery man would appear until we had a crowd following us down the road. We called it quits and got a rickshaw back to the hotel.

Friday 2^nd May 2013

Today was our last day in Varanasi and the first time that I had slept in I woke up feeling like I had had too much sleep and was still super full from yesterday so much so that I took today to fast. I sat and had fresh mint tea whilst the girls had breakfast and then we made our way to a Sari factory we had hoped to see the women weaving the fabric or something like that but as it was Friday they were all off work. We sat in a room and several guys showed us every piece they had in the workshop they must have thought we were rich tourists as all the saris they showed us were 4000 rupees or more. They were all beautiful though and so we all tried them on. He also showed us some silk duvet covers which were stunning and a few of the girls brought them. We left the shop and went and got some henna. In the afternoon we all split up and Ayla and I hit the market buying some cheap cotton saris. In the evening we headed to the station in a complete rush to catch our night train to Agra. On the train two policemen came and asked us to read a poorly written public notice for foreigners not to eat or drink anything on the train that they didn't purchase themselves as there was a high case of travelers being drugged and having all their bags stolen. We had to sign that we had read the statement which was a bit creepy. But other than that the journey passed uneventfully.