Varanasi - the heart of India.

After the serene mountains and culture of Skkim its back to round 2 of India. This started as soon as I hit the sprawling mass of Siliguri.


Being a train veteran, I easily navigated the usual Indian railway station chaos and caught the 3pm capital express to Patna from Siliguri. Kathrin from Germany was also in the next sleeper so was nice to have a western conversation rather than the standard Indian one that goes along the lines of 1) 'where are u from?' There is usually a look of excitement when i say Australia and is followed by 'ah Ricky Ponting' 2) 'what is your name and age?', 3) 'what is your occupation?' 4) 'are you married?' . I also picked up a pack of cards from one of the many train wallas selling everything from music keyboards to towels. You never need to go shopping in India - just catch a train. Anyway with my newly acquired cards I taught the Indian family traveling in the same compartment with us 'Uno' which was greeted with plenty of Indian enthusiasm and laughter.



We traveled through Indies poorest and most lawless state "Bihar" so didn't really do any sightseeing and when we arrived at 'Patna' at 4:30 am! Luck was on our side and we were able to catch the 5am Varansi train which was a relief as we didn't have a onward ticket from Patna and had no real desire to spend any time there. We eventually arrived at Varanasi in the afternoon after lots of 'interesting' stops at sweltering dusty stations along the way.

As the guide book warned, were were savaged by waiting touts eager to get us to come with them to their number one guest house at the varansi station. I got to use my limited Hindi (Naah chow bhaar) which means 'no thanks' to great effect. The Singha guest house, at the quieter end of town, with 'Garden bigger than any other guest house' was where we eventually ended up and spent the arvo 'crashed' in the 40deg heat!

My first morning at the Ghanges was magic. First i felt like a bit of exercise, after being cooped up on the train for so long and chartered a row boat. I'm such a waterbaby. I just love being in it or on it. Anyway my days of rowing paid off as i was able to handle the floating tree with ease and the other boatwallas were full of praise.. Think i may have a job here:-)...post boat ride i did some much needed yoga on a stone platform with the locals. I shocked my self and couldnt resist having a quick dip in this famous holy river. Not to be a regular thing as it is extremely polluted according to the guide book. But hey my hair hasn't turned green and all bodily functions are normal. I've since found out that the water supply for the town comes from the main area in the Ghats. Another good reason to buy bottled water!



Varanasi is an amazing place. It is believed to be the oldest (over 2000 years) city still inhabited. It's is also a very spiritual place and attracts loads of people who come to wash away their sins in the Ghanges. Thus it has to be the worlds number one place to people watch! The perfect place for this is down by the Ghanges in the evening. It's hard to describe the 'buzz' of the place but there always is heaps to do. Last night I watched some brilliant Tabla and Flute playing by the river and meet heaps of great people, Indians and Foreigners.