Travel to India, Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi.

One of the more delightful things about India is the random event or meeting. Again the hindi word 'kudrat' (gift from god) comes to mind to describe these occasions.

I was minding my own business having a day of slow walking through the northern ghats along the Ganga. Of course, access is very limited now because the river is so high – you cannot walk along the ghats; you can only take separate little side streets to explore whether they lead to the waters edge (which is now lapping high at steps above the submerged infrastructure below).

Having had a swim at Lalita Ghat, and a nap in the cool tunnel (along with some babas who didn't seem to mind me sharing a part of the side concrete slab with them), I ventured on towards the Burning Ghat. But I was not that interested in seeing bodies burning (been there and done that a lot in previous visits when the water was low and you could move around a little, and in the heat of the day in late summer, its no joy being close to fire and smoke).

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Travel to India, Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi.

Someone leaning over your table at a desolate, dirty old bar in Delhi to inform you that the place you are about to travel to “takes no prisoners” is always concerning. But as two South Africans and One New Zealander discovered, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The destination in question was

Varanasi AKA the home of the great Ganges River AKA a place we should brace ourselves for, apparently.

So in the words of Journey “we took the midnight train…” from Delhi to Varanasi. Turns out the midnight train deserves the title “takes no prisoners” far more than the city does! This train orders you aboard, sleeps you at the mercy of the three or four other passengers in your cubical, and can’t be done without a small prayer.

We were in sleeper’s class. (You could pay more and be a lot more comfortable.) This involves signing a waiver to say you won’t blame the train company if you get ‘poisoned, raped, or murdered’, and a hard bed without a blanket or pillow.

The journey’s a long one and we arrived in Varanasi after more than 12 hours travelling. Looking around Varanasi’s
Varanasitrain station it seemed we had been transported back to India circa 1930. Beggars and hungry children congregated at the old, run-down station. As we ventured into the harsh light of day we were greeted by cows, dust, dirt, tuk-tuk’s, and no roads in sight.

And there we were. Varanasi. A city of many names: “the spiritual capital of India,” “the holy city,” or to quote the best one I’d heard so far, “The oldest living city on earth.” One can only imagine how many incarnations these cows had been through.

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Travel to India, Uttar Pradesh, Agra.

We woke up after a good night sleep occasionally being interrupted by street dogs barking and barking. We were out the door early to catch the 7am train to Agra from Delhi. We organized with our hotel to drop us off at the south train stations. It was a little bit expensive considering it was not far, but we preferred the security of knowing a taxi will be there early than having to look for one.
I was excited to be on my first train ride and so was taking pictures of the train station surroundings and exploring a bit the station before the train left. I got some chai and a few snacks and water as well. We had second class seats so we found our seats, Kyle put our baggage overhead and strapped them in so that they could not be. The train ride was about 5 hours and the train left one hour late. We arrived to Agra around noon.
As soon as we stepped in he train we were surrounded by locals for the trip. Some sitting others standing through all the trip. Kyle baptized me on my first Indian train ride with a cup of chai from a passing vendor. We arrived in Agra at 12pm. Kyle found a very good site to check the train status at raildb.com and so we could see whether the train was late or on time.
When we got to Agra around noon we were surrounded by tuktuk and taxis our way through them to the prepaid booth. As we had paid for the taxi an older local man went with us and offered for 600Ruppees to be our guide to see sights for the day. His name was Munu and he had had a book full of written letters from previous tourists. We first went and got our hotel, which was a 5 min walk from the Taj Mahal and the hotel rooftop restaurant and incidentally our room had views of the Taj.. It was a kind of modern hotel and out room was the only one on the top and it had a rounded bed. It was quite cool!

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