Varanasi by relative luxury of 2AC train

  Delhi, India
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Woke up at 10:30am (must be UK time), with empty stomachs and the fear of missing out on breakfast. Proceeded down for coffee/tea, toast and jam with muslie and yoghurt. Set us up nicely for the day ahead.

After the 3 S's we headed for the Metro (after th previous good experience) and headed to Chandi Chowk again but this time to visit the Jamia Masjid. This is the largest mosque in India apparently. But just before getting there we stopped off Coffee Days which is the India equivalent of a Starbucks.

The mosque was rather basic, but had a very impressive minarete which you can climb and see an amazing view from. Also interesting was the fact that men and women are not strictly segragated here.

Shortly after, we headed out on the old rickshaw towards the Imperial Hotel which has an amazing restaruant according to Amanda's guide book. After being dropped of at some wierd place that defintly wasn't it, we decided that I should ask some trusty looking locals who directed us towards it and we caught another rickshaw there (thank god it was only 10 mins away).

Got to the Imperial hotel and it was really gorgeous, with amazingly helpful staff, decore and the food was equally scrumptious. But the cost of this was a hard hitting 4,500 rupees! Still after the hardships suffered so far, Ben and Amanda agreed that we earned it lol.

Delhi Imperial Hotel entrance

After a short food induced coma, we headed back to the hotel by Metro and our stuff out of the hotel store. Bumped into two German girls who were on the same train to Varanesi. So I organised two taxis for us to get to the train station 1 hour ahead of the train time.
Well it got to half seven and we started to worry about the taxis only to then be told that the company now says no taxis are available. So we rushed of onto the main road to catch rickshaws. Managed to get on for the two girls but we ourselves could not get one. Tryed to go to the Metro but security checks at the Metro wont let us through without going thrugh our rucksacks. So back to the road and managed to get a rickshaw.
About 2/3 of the way the driver tryes to extract another 50 rupeers out of me by suggesting heavy traffic and another route. I stuck to my guns and told him to do as he was meant to. What do you know, 2 - 3 mins later we end up at the station.

Rushing along the huge platforms, we were aw struck by the sheer length of the train. We were in the middle and could not clearly see the last carrages! But Amanda to the rescue as she deduced that we are to the front by carefully reading the board (obviously a skill we guys lack!). So got into the train with like 5 or 10 mins to spare, whew!

The train was not as bad as I thought, with a bunk bed style layout, accompanied with curtains. Had air-conditioning so that was a relief. Top bunk was a bit of a short straw of sorts though, as it was a bit crammed up there and al;so the air con was blowing in your face, literally. Poor old ben got the short straw on that one as I had a sore throat (honest I did!).
Carefull note to those wishing to use the trains. You can padlock your items underneath the bunk beds, as there are 2 or 3 metal fold up hooks there. This is highly recommended as it is not unusual for thieves to jump on at stops and try to grab a bag and then jump straight off before the train leaves.
We yapped for an hour or two, during which we were interrupted by nosey locals wanting to look at the token western girl (dont ask) and also by the chai! and kwuffffeeeeee! sellers trudging up and down the train.
Eventually lights went down and we got some on and off shut eye.

Got woken up in the morning by the train/dogs body guy and told that Varranasi is coming up shortly. Grabbed our stuff and legged it outside, to be met with a rather more well um unappealing station and heat. Bumped in to two German travellers who we had met at Sita Guest House and got the unfortunate news that one of the Girls bag had been stolen while she slept (she had placed it next to her pillow while she slept). She lost a few valuable items, including camera, mobile and some money. I offerred for them to tag along with us as they were a bit shook up.

As usual couldnt even make it to the light without being hassled for transport by what Ben rightly calls 'dodgy lot'.
After the hounding of these folk I headed off to a gurad/police man near by and asked for his advice on where hotel pickups occur. He took us to the Tourist/Visitors office (which is on the right far corner of the exit area - if you are coming out of the station). Where I phoned the hotel only to find out they had not sent anyone (yep I shouldnt be suprised I know), so I asked for them to arrange it asap and also to put up the two German girls.

Turned up near the Hotel and found that the alley ways are too small to get to by rickshaw, so dropped off near it and walked to it. Was a real eye opener for poor Ben, who was even confronted by an alley of snake charmers and like (he has a massive phobia of them). I think he scared the pants of the locals when he screamed hehe.