Varanasi

My mission on earth has been completed and I got a photo of a baby wearing eye liner! It was towards the end of the day so much of the eye liner has worn off but you get the idea.  To get the photo I was asked to have my photo taken with two kids and then I noticed their baby sister, so I said yes to my photo being taken as long as I could take one of the baby.

Also, every room we have stayed in has a bucket in the shower/toilet room.  What are we supposed to do with this bucket? We have no idea what it is for and so sometimes it gets water in it from the shower and I just leave it there.  Any suggestions???

Ok, on to Varanasi.  It was nothing like we expected.  We had read that it was full on with touts and expect to be bombarded but actually we thought it was no worse, and certainly better, than some other places we had visited.  We arrived after a horror night train.  Nothing bad happened, just sleep didn't happen either.  We were allocated beds in the first bay through the corridor so all night long we had: a) light streaming through the window from the corridor making it far to light to sleep & b) people up and down all night either going to the bathroom or getting off at their stop.  

Again the train was running late.  We were an hour past our arrival time.  About 500m from the station the train stopped for no apparent reason.  The train man told me it stops here sometimes for 20min, or an hour or two! It had been about 20min when we started to think like locals and get off the tain and walk the last 500m. Luckily as we were gathering up our bags the train started moving again. We were then looking for our hotel pick up but he could not be found.  I asked some other hotel if they know where the hotel alka pick up is - he pointed out our man. Our man did not have a sign because "I have the names written on my hand and I know who I am looking for".  Ummm clearly not buddy.  I said that is ridiculous as we don't know who we are looking for.  With no sleep and no coffee this man got the full force of my teachers voice!

By the time we got to our hotel and had checked in it was 12:30 and breakfast and lunch time rolled into one! We just chilled the rest of the day in our room, sleeping, and watching TV.  I wasn't feeling well so we didn't even venture out for dinner - we just ate at our hotel restaurant which had a great view of the Ganges. It is a grotty looking river and it shocks me that people swim, fish, do laundry and bath in there! 

Day two in Varanasi was more action packed.  We had arranged a walking tour with a guide to take us around the old town and to the ghats.  As Varanasi is a holy city there are many temples dotted around the old town dedicated to different religions.  There was even a Nepalese temple!  We saw the cremation ghat.  Firstly we walked past piles of wood.  There are different wood varieties with varying prices and sandalwood is the most expensive.  Families pay for the amount of wood needed to cremate their relative, and then this cremation takes place in public, on top of a concrete slab.  For obvious reasons no photos are allowed.  If you get close enough you are then asked to contribute to the price of wood.  We were advised by our guide not to talk to anybody while we were there or else we would be asked for money.  

Further down the river I was taking a photo of a temple and next thing I felt some one push me and then got a sharp jab in the ribs which I thought was an elbow.  I spin around to see a cow! The elbow was a cow horn. And then two seconds later a big raging bull was heading our way so we had to literally jump out of the way and hug the wall to avoid being trampled.  Certainly keeps you on your toes.  Nathan now has to be lookout while I take photos.

In the afternoon we took ourselves down South to Assi ghat - the largess of all the ghats. This one is a hang out place, particularly in the evenings, where locals gather to listen to music and eat together.  As it is monsoon season Varanasi has had a lot of rain and the river has been in flood.  Lots of Assi ghat was covered in mud.  Also the full river meant no boat ride down the Ganges as it is to dangerous.  Nine locals drowned the previous week so all unnecessary travel on the Ganges has been halted.  

Walking around Assi ghat I spotted a hair dresser and Nath inquired if he had an electric razor.  Soon enough Nath was getting a road side hair cut (complete with cows walking past) as the rain started pouring down. Nath asked for a number 3, but I'm sure he got more like a one!

 We jumped in a tuktuk and went back to the old town.  We stopped in at the blue lassi shop and had a mango and chocolate lassi which was very filling.  Tonight we ventured out for dinner to a restaurant which did meat dishes.  We had eaten quite a lot of vegetarian meals and wanted meat.   We both got some form of chicken curry and went to bed with tummies full of meat (sorry Kara!)

In the morning we had an early start as we had our flight to Mumbai.  I am not going to go as far as to say I enjoyed flying, but it was preferable to taking long trains to get there.  I have never been in an airport as empty as this one.  It was eerie.  Also, there was only one shop selling food and I really missed not having a weatherspoons, M & S or Pret on hand to buy some breakfast.