Here we are back in Varanasi

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Hi guys,

waiting for our train to Delhi, so here is a little catch up on our en devours. Varanasi is a wonderful city with ever present culture. We have arrived late at night and set of to look for a reasonably priced clean hotel without any bedbugs...this proved to be a challenge as there was a power cut every 10 minutes and the streets near the Ganges are so narrow and resembling very complicated mouse maze. After an hour we have managed to find a beautiful place...they have even reopened the kitchen so we can have a nice meal on the roof of the hotel...when we got up to see the stunning view on the whole city we have noticed about 5 fires burning only 50 meters from our hotel...it did not take long to realize that we have managed to walk across the whole town to the main burning ghat (Manikarnikat) and those were indeed burning bodies. The next 4 days we got into the habit of waking up very early to watch the waking city and to beat the heat. The walks by the ghats are a real treat...every morning and evening they fill with people taking bath, washing clothes, praying and saying goodbye to their loved ones...it really was one of the strongest cultural happening we have ever seen. After few days of getting lost in the various mazes of old Varanasi town we have set of towards Allahabad, which is very important place for Hindu pilgrims as there is a meeting point of two most important rivers- Ganges and Yamuna...well as soon as we have arrived the series of unfortunate events began...got into argument with rickshaw driver as he kept taking us everywhere but to place we wanted...in the cheapest, still overpriced hotel they wanted us to photocopy almost all pages of our passport saying the nearest photocopier is 3km away and the people were just unbelievably rood... especially to Katka...but we knew there would be places like this so with a clinched fist we went to see the local sites...the most memorable would be the towns fort with its catacombs with a god for every occasion...we even got married there under the tree of Shiva and Parvati...only for 20 rupees-bargain! and sorry for not inviting u you all it just happened so quickly! 😊
The next day we were quite happy to leave for Chitrakoot a nice little town about 160 km south of Allahabad, which got just newly into our guide book...it is called a little Varanasi and from the photos you can see why...we have found a nice place just by the river (little did i know it was a very important choice for me) the owner spoke a very good English and recommended many very interestingly sounding locations around Chitrakoot documented by his own photos...very tired and exited we went to bed...in my case not for long as 2 hours later I woke up with fewer and my body went into strike trying to get rid of that is inside in whatever possible way and the shortest possible time...it got me bad and I did not get out of bed for 3 days...Katka and the hotel owners had to do absolutely everything for me and did it really well...so only the 4th day we were abler to discover at least some beauties of the place from a boat to a near by holy mountain. Pressed for time wanting to go to Nepal in the best possible time we set of towards Kajuraho...a small town with what remained of 84 temples each littered with images from kamasutra...here we have found a very nice cozy hotel and went on exploring 😉 ...it was a great place...many of the temples have still remained looking like new with beautiful carvings retaining its details even after 1100 years...but our excitement from our Nepal plans was getting ever stronger and we have decided not to postpone our departure any longer and went on to Varanasi from where there was to be good connection to Pokhara...unfortunately here we were met with another big drawback 2 days prior to our arrival there has been a Maoist uprising and the country was brought to a standstill...our bad luck with wanting to go to countries where there is overthrow of the government in action has continued...
so here we are now...back in Varanasi waiting for our train to Delhi and hoping the situation in Nepal will change soon...if not we will make our way towards Ladakh ...Indian Himalayas even though the bast treks over there are closed right now we are not prepared to give up our peak at the roof of the world...


I shall let u know what we have managed to cook out of this as soon as we do...till then a hearty Namaste!

Radim Kaca xx

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Comments

[charles layton]

Hi Radim
How are you? is it as wonderful as you hoped?

[samson]

hiiiiiiiiiii :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
it looks like your having loads of fun and we're remembering our own trip as you write this (sorry we didn't mention our cheap hotel, their wern't any bugs) anyway continue having fun samson ps did i use enough smiles in the title.

[radimphoto]

;) of course u did ....not
Hey man...good to hear from you!!!!...i miss u 3 very much!!! I've learned few street cricket tricks here in India...u can try me when we come back;)...please send my love to Bruno as well and mum too of course... I will try to send her THE email as soon as i can Radim x