Stuck in Varanasi, but in a good way!
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
17
29
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh,
India
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Anyway, 4:30am in Varanasi.
We got off the train, infact most of the people on the train got off the train and we were swept away in a wave of bodies. We were going to try and get a train from there towards Darjeeling that evening, but we didn't have a reservation so we needed to arrange that. Only the reservations office didn't open until 8am, so we set up a little camp on the platform, I went to sleep and Sarah kept lookout for cockroaches
Our hotel
. With an hour or so left to go until the ticket office opened I went for a walk. Outside the station the usual taxi touts tried to persuade me to go with them 'you're very lucky, today is festival! Come to my hotel' one said to me, I ignored him.
On the platform i bought a cup of Chai for 3 rupees. Chai is the sickly sweet milky tea that is on sale everywhere, including on the train at 4 in the morning 'Chai, Chai' shouts the man, causing me to get stuck in my head 'Too Chai Chai, hush hush eye to eye' Like the Kajagoogoo song that I should be too young to remember!
Anyway for your 3 rupees you not only get tea, milk and a week's recomended allowance of sugar, but you get a clay cup from which to enjoy it, and throw away/smash on the tracks after. Or you could keep it as a coming home gift for your family 'look, a nice candle holder' Ok, so the secret's out now.
So, 8am came, we filled in the ridiculously complicated form that you need to book a train ticket (and the reason why the queues are hours long to do so) and.....there were no seats on any trains, at all, for 2 days
Ghats by the Ganges
. So we resorted to plan B.As we resorted to Plan B, which was as yet un-created, another group of English people came in looking to go to exactly the same place (New Jalpaiguri) and struggling, like me, to say 'Jalpaiguri' (try it yourself, 10 times, fast!)
The obvious answer was to stay in Varanasi, we were due to visit in a week or so and were just meant to be passing through, but with a bit of a change to our reservations we could make it work. We booked ourselves onto the train 2 days later and called a hotel from the guide book.
We picked the 'G' catagory, supposedly the cheapest '1500 Rupees per night' the man responded. That was 20 pounds, or more accurately, our entire daily budget. 'Err, we'll call you back'. We then tried another, 300 rupees, river view, sounds great. We got a rickshaw over there, kicked out the tout who thought he'd get a commision (never leave Varanasi station without a reservation, you'll be ripped off) and were met by the owner who took us down the windy passageway to his plce.
The hotel was great, and it did have a river view which is good for a place called 'River View' In fact it was right on the banks of the Ganges, and there was indeed a festival on, the Ganga festival (Ganga as in river, before you get too excited)
We spent the day walking up and down the river bank, avoiding the touts asking us to hire a boat, and the kids asking us to buy postcards or visit their uncle's spice shop/uncle's silk factory/uncle's nuclear testing plant (I don't know why it's always their uncle, not another family member)
There was lots of activity on the banks, including several large stages being set up along with thousands of butter lamps (which look just like Chai cups, look Mum, I bought you back a 'butter lamp'!!!)
As the sun set all the butterlamps along the riverbank were lit, the concerts started and the kids set off lots and lots of fireworks
Sarah loves goats
. Varanasi is a dirty place, there's no getting away from it, but it is also a beautiful place and on our last morning we got up before the sun to take a boat ride up the river. This is the time when most people wash in the river (and seemingly the only time that women do) It would't really be for me, that it one very dirty river! It as bad enough hundreds of miles upstream when it was the Sun Kosi and people were cremated and thrown into it, but down here it is truly horrifying how filthy it is, and the bodies aren't always cremated before they end up floating down-stream. But it's holy, so people go in it!
So our little unexpected stop in Varanasi was very nice, we got a Rickshaw off to Mugal Sarai station where we'd pick up our train Eastwards to Darjeeling.....
