Faran Hotel Varanasi

... our room and hanging out was getting to be too much. We would’ve stayed another day and tried our luck on another safari, but we’ve booked flights now from certain cities, including our flight back to London (11 December) so we have to keep on moving. Our next train left at 4.30am, so it was a 3am start. The train station was only 30km away, but it takes 1 hour to get there by 4WD! Bad roads. The train booking system here is... well interesting. The online service is easy ...

... for tourists in India :). Next day we flew to Varanasi which took only 40 minutes, which was really great.<br><br>Varanasi is the oldest city in the world and also the holiest city. When we got to the city we went into the old part where our lodge was and you cannot believe how small the streets were and there are no roadsigns anywhere. Of course we got lost in those streets on several occasions, but it was really funny to ...

... and I caught up with the blog and our travels in India. So after spending 4 hours separately on our blog work we dragged our selves out of the room and into the throng of Varanasi walking along the ghats by the water watching saddhus pray and beg and fielding touts at 2 minute intervals. Wayne this evening is less tolerant of the persistent touts continually sidling up to him offering him drugs, smoke, hash and opium. He is normally tolerant but today got him down. There ...

... but to no avail. Two choices, 1) Stay an extra day and night in Varanasi and travel the next day losing the tickets we had bought, 2) put up and shut up for the 18 hour journey in basic sleeper with no aircon class. Oh I forgot to say it is around 40 degrees during the day and the train carriages are like heat conducting tin cans and we would be one of the hundreds of sardines packed inside. The fowl stench of urine is everywhere especially when the ...

... trying to get there. We were trying to find the bus and after asking at Tourist Information at the bus station and asking bus drivers we were told "There is no bus to Sarnath". We thought this was odd because the trusty old Lonely Planet reported a bus. So we kept asking and kept walking and about 40 minutes later we were finally pointed in the right direction of the bus by a helpful stranger. The Indian people do this to try to get tourists to ...

... The sun was really red so it looked beautiful. Strangely there were lots of people swimming in the river. This surprised us as it is so dirty but it is supposed to be sacred water so I guess it&#8217;s not that weird. The tuk tuk driver who took us to the Ghat waited for us and drove us back to the hotel where we had a nice dinner in the restaurant. We are planning an early night tonight as we have an early start and a long bus ride ahead tomorrow.

... is yoga, i straightened up and then miraculously the wind from my lips was making the sweet sounds i desired, If the flute is yoga and 'all life is yoga' as it states on a special edition Sri Aurobindo 2 rupees coin that Nads found the other day then it's all connected and i should have another lesson. After this we had lunch and a jam session with a flamboyant Japanese drag queen.<br><br>Another day we were in for the djembe drumming class. For one hour we were ...

... mit ein** P**son inn**halb von 5 Minuten<br>mit ein und d** selben P**son mehr**e Male durchgefuehrt w**den, wobei<br>die En**gie nicht selten vom Gegenueb** ausgeht. <br><br>Ok, das<br>klingt vielleicht allenfalls ein bisschen lustig, ab** es ist<br>unvorstellbar n**vig. Es treibt uns bisweilen zu mehrstuendigen<br>Aufenthalten bei McDonalds (= ruhig und besinnlich).<br>Wir brauchen<br>tagsueb** imm ...

... Jams that all the traffic just turns off their motors and wait for something to happen. I actually walked around the massive jam and could see the actual line where the northbound traffic and southbound traffic were parked directly in-front of each other in a silent standoff. Truckers simply curl up and go sound to sleep in the middle of the road. Tee blaring of horns is their cue to wake up and get going.<br> <br> After 16 ...

... br> <br> Several of the group then hired rickshaws to return to the Main Ghat to watch the evening ceremony, which involved 7 holy men dressed in orange robes standing on a line of raised platforms performing flowing movements with a variety of flaming devices. This was accompanied by piped music, and numerous people playing drums (following no apparent rhythm) and the energetic ringing of bells by the faithful. Once the ceremony was over we managed to find our way ...