A train journey to Agra

Now this train trip didn't hold the excitement that it did in China. It is sort of a case of been there, done that but this is a different trip with a different group of people and for most it was their first time on a sleeper train. Actually the trains in India have more space than the ones in China. As we settled in we met a local who was a try hard travel guide who was also to sleep in our six berth along with another local who was given the name "grumpy" who was sleeping at the bottom bed below me. Thankfully, there are early nights on trains and the lights are out by about 9.30pm and really we had no choice because "grumpy" wanted to go to be.

Varanasi train station

So the challenge was set to get onto the top bunk. I think I am fairly nimble but there wasn't a lot of room up there. You definately couldn't sit up.

Not much room to move

I attempted to somewhat make my bed with try hard travel guide laughing at me and in the end everyone was in hysterics over our own predicaments. Jackie had her own spacious bed at the end of the six berth but was too tall for the bed especially as you end up sleeping in bed with your small (in name only) bag. I was hanging out over the end but due to how high up I was I only hit a few people on the head.

 We didn't get much sleep because the door to the toilet allowed light in and our curtain that was meant to keep the light out kept getting pulled open. After a disruptive night sleep we made it to Agra in the early morning in time to see the sun rise.

Me, Elisca, Sarah and Mary

Varanasi

Well, hello again. I have decided to get on here and get up to date while I have time. We are currently just filling in time before we catch an overnight train to Agra which should be an interesting experience.

Yesterday I got up early at 5.00 and with the rest of the group headed off to the ganges river to see the early morning happenings of the locals. It was quite chilly but what struck me was the sheer number of people who were sleeping in the streets and then those who had probably spent the night on the street that had woken up and were now begging for food and money. There was also alot of people out begging who had twisted bodies and bodies with open sores.

Down at the rivers edge we jumped on a oar boat and went for a cruise upstream and then drifted downstream to the ghats (cremation site). There were thousands of people having their baths, floating in the river, washing their clothes, playing cricket, meditating/praying to the river. It was just one site after another.

We were on the river for about three hours and then went through the old town with its little alleyways which is about two people wide but a bit tricky when faced with a cow or bullock which have ultimate rule of the road and alleyways.

We came back to the hotel for breakfast and then off again to see silk being woven and the muslim quater of Varanasi. It was also a day of sacrificing animals and as we were making our way around all the little silk making houses we passed and heard numerous goats being killed in to such a humane way (and on reflection I cant believe I had goat curry last night). It is amazing the work that goes into making genuine hand woven silk fabric with it intricate gold patterns. By this stage it was getting quite warm and the smells of the little alleyways was quite powerful.

In the afternoon we had some r and r time and then left again for the Ganges at about 4.30pm to see evening prayers and other pagan rituals at the river. It is in its core river worship. It appears you can trash what you worship in this country as the river is very polluted and putting the ashes of 300 people per day (just here at Varanashi) is probably not helping. We watched the sun set over the Ganges and then floated down the Ganges to the Ghats (cremation place) for our second installment for the day. What was really disturbing was that you could see the feet on someone who was being cremated and they were definately feet perched on a log. It horrified all of us on the boat (except the guide). We then floated upstream again and watched the Bhraman performing the evening prayers to the river. I am guessing these guys are not the ones sleeping on the street, in fact I think these rather nobel looking men are quite rich. While we were sitting there in our boat surrounded by thousands also sitting in their boats I turned around and found that we had a boat on Indian men right beside me and I had about 20 cameras pointing at me and hearing "come on lady smile". It was quite intense and a bit too much but our guide told them to back off so that was nice.

We sat in the boat for about 2 hours and then climbed out, very careful not to fall into the sewer that is the ganges and we headed off to a roof top restaurant for dinner. 160 steps later and we were on the roof top overlooking the ganges and listened to bad Indian music. All the menus here have about 100 options and by the time you read through it all you really have no idea what you want so last night I had mutton curry. Now mutton is not sheep, it is goat and last night it was rather chewy goat. For the most part I have gone vegetarian but have thought that I probably need some protein and that looked the "safest" as far as safe goes here. We got back at about 10pm and then off to bed and the first sleep in that I have had on this trip.

It appears that my card reader is not working today so I am having some trouble with downloading photos but somewhere along the line I will get some up.

Have a great day and thanks for reading

Bron

From Nepal to India by taking one step over an unseen line...but it could have been under the rubbish

Firstly, I have added a photo to my last post of the elephant ride.

Now, onto todays post. Our last day in Nepal consisted of a bike ride around to Buddist temples. I am not really sure why I went because a) I dont particularly care for biking and neither does my bottom and b) I dont particularly care about buddist monestries but alas I went for a bit of exercise. I should have known and learnt from my experiences in China that bikes in these countries are not built for anyone over 160cm tall so I felt like I was riding a kids bike. It was also really hot and very sunny. We had been biking for about 90 min when I decided that seeing budda birthplace (a tree) was not really worth the pain so turned around and waited under the shade of a tree for the rest of the group. I dont know what was the better decision a) to stay with the group and die or b) sit under the tree and get chatted up by three Nepalese guys. In the end (30min), it got a bit much so I got back on my bike again and headed off into the dust leaving three very keen men in my wake (why is it not that easy in Australia!).

I arrived back at the budda garden hotel (which neither had a budda or a garden) and sorted myself out with a couple of liters of water. I think I was in bed at about 9.30pm absolutely exhausted and perhaps suffering a bit of heat stroke.

Nepal, turned out to be a country of contrasts with the busyness of Kathmandu and the very simple, third world life of the rural people. The people in Nepal were really friendly and very willing to help. I wasn't bugged by beggars and felt really safe whereever I went even after dark. It is very much a third world country. THere is virtually no signs of development though I did see a road being sealed. Most people live with marginal to no power in their houses and life is very basic. If they ever have an earthquake I fear for them as many houses are made of brick and mortar made from marginal materials. They love New Zealanders and that has definately helped. The usual conversation on the street was

Them: Mam, where you from?
Me: Have a guess
THem: America?
Me: No
Them: British?
Me: No
Them: Canada?
Me: No
Them: Oh, you are tricky, Australia?
Me: I am from New Zealand
Them: Oh, New Zealand very beautiful country. You live Wellington, No?
Me: No

It is easier when I am overseas to say that I am from NZ rather than a NZ'er living in Australia because it just gets weird and confusing when I say I am from Australia and then pull out a NZ passport.

The next day (yesterday) was to be the biggest travel day. Initially advertised as being 8 hours on a bus, it ended up being 14 hours and 14 hours of sitting on a bus after having a big uncomfortable bike ride the day before does not make for a pleasant ride. We made it to the boarder about 8.30am and took about an hour to negotiate all the immigation hurdles. In my head I was having the following conversation:

"Great...boarder crossing....shouldn't take a photo...oh, what the heck, I'm going to take a photo...oh, look man with machine gun....perhaps shouldn't take photo....well, I will get the camera out of the bag and wait for man with machine gun to look away...man looking away...take photo...eww, whats that stuck to my shoe...ew, its brown and now things are sticking to it....is it poo?...probably...need to get plastic bag and poo off shoe...why is man with machine gun laughing?....man its hot....and stinky...ah, made it to India...what a dump...something else is on my shoe...what is it?...it is brown...wheres the immigration office...oh there it is..."

You know that you are going to have no problems when you are standing at a wooden desk and a partially collapsed building waiting for your passport to be stamped when the immigration guy looks at your passport photo and says "oh, very pretty" and merrily stamps it. I have never had that happen before.

The first perhaps 30kms into India was like driving through a rubbish tip with garbage everywhere and with smells wafting through the bus that are best left on the outside of the bus. The temperature was probably 30 degrees and the bus didn't have air conditioning but some nice puny little fans which didn't work after about the first 30 minutes. The trip was about 320km long and took us 12 hours to complete. We had one food stop and two toilet stops. The road was rutted and pot holed from the monsoon season and  meant that we couldn't really travel fast. It was a bone rattling day and very hot. We got to Varanasi about 9.30pm starving, hot and I had a ripper headache. Dinner was about 10.30pm and I couldn't really eat because I was really nauseated from the trip.

First impressions of India. Initially the amount of rubbish everywhere was amazing. There was rubbish everywhere. For all that the western world is doing to save the environment there is a need to help india clean up its act, at least in this part of the country. As we got closer to Varanasi the amount seemed to decline but there was still alot of mess and filth. Another noticable thing is the amount of children and adults begging for food and money and it is constant. As soon as you step into India world there are kids there saying..."mam, money, rupee". Also it seems that there is always somewhere for indians to go. There are people everywhere. I know there is a billion people here but there seems to be people two or three deep even in country areas, in the cities it is just people everywhere. Also, the women are either walking or are in rickshaws only the men seem to be riding bikes or motorbikes.

This is a pic of the group that I am travelling with. Aussies, Swiss, South African and Me

Road side living in Nepal. Very basic and very similar to Africa (except the buffalo perhaps)

Farewell Nepal. Note the clean, uncluttered road but look what awaits!!



This is looking back towards Nepal (standing on the India side). Let the filth and dust begin



This actually belongs to the previous post but this is the reason why I am having trouble with internet. It is a bit prehistoric and todays would make you laugh as well



Walking to the bus on the india side. Not the clean sides of the road

I will come back later and do todays details.