4.30 am. That’s what time the alarm clock went off today and it felt like I had just a blink of sleep. Katie and I were walking around the hotel room like extras in Night of the Living Dead, struggling to make ourselves look half human for our sunrise boat trip along the Ganges.
As it turns out, it wouldn’t have mattered if we looked half-dead as Varanassi, the oldest city in the world, looks just like a medieval movie set. I’ve been to this crazy place four years ago, where I struggled through human traffic in the narrow streets and watched many of funeral processions, heading to the burning ghats.
This time it was different; we headed directly for the boat, paying little attention to the many sellers on the street and the sadhus. Being on the Ganges was quite cool and yet a little odd to think that thousands, perhaps even millions of body remains are buried deep within its murky waters. With this in mind, the sacred river is also used to rid you of bad karma, to wash your clothes, brush your teeth, and hey, why not, have a little swim or even a paddle!? It’s not something I would personally ever feel like doing (there was even a dead animal corpse floating in it, not far from where someone was ‘washing’) but I respect the importance of this place for the Hindu’s and I admire the faith they have in it.
This time though, Varanassi had lost part of its magic. I think you have to explore this place on ground level, not just on the Ganges from afar. Plus, as sick as it may sound, there was no visible cremation taking place on the burning ghats and that is part of its bizarre yet truly historic appeal for many tourists.
After our boat trip we headed straight back to the hotel where we were allowed a few hours sleep. Hooray!! It was very much needed. In fact, I feel that our somewhat unenthusiastic outlook on Varanassi was mainly due to lack of sleep as well as the visit being rushed.
Two hours sleep later and I was fine and dandy and ready for the road trip ahead. The other two were still feeling the strain so I was first to drive the lil lady. The roads were bumpy and we saw a cloud ahead... yes, it was going to rain, and I don’t mean spitting either. So, having learned a lesson from yesterday, I put on my floral raincoat, whilst Katie and Gordon wrapped themselves up in the tarpaulin sheet in the back, not only that but we managed to finally fix the hole in the canvas by sowing a plastic bag over it! It might look a bit odd, but it certainly did the job! The rain absolutely hammered it down and it was like being on a ride in an amusement park, every bus or truck that went passed us completely washed us out- don’t forget, the il lady doesn’t have any doors, and we were all shrieking and laughing like mad. It was actually the highlight of the drive!
We finally got to Mau (having taken a wrong turn and apparently travelled through a ‘terrorist hotspot’) and were quite looking forward to a nice, comfortable sleep.
The hotel we were booked in to was anything but comfortable. The sheets were dirty, the pillow looked like it had been chewed on by a goat, the fluorescent green carpet only highlighted all the grit, chewing gum, dead bugs (and live ones), whilst the sockets were hanging out, the bathroom was crawling with bugs and didn’t have a mesh thingy on the window –meaning that it was a free-for-all for all the bugs in town wanting somewhere to hang out, and the shower sprayed upwards and towards the door. Oh,...and the air conditioning wasn’t working, which wouldn’t have been an issue had our room not had a temperature of 35C (we found this out when it did eventually work during the interviews). Phew,... sounds like I’m moaning, but add the fact that the mattress had more bumps than the Indian speed humps, then I’m sure you can sympathise.
Needless to say, we agreed on an early start the next day, just so we could say ciau to Mau.
No comments:
Post a Comment