The journey to Varanasi

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Well the train Station a Patna was on par with New Jalpaiguri with respect to the dirtiness, the crowds , and the sleeping bodies everywhere! Our tired, dirty dismayed bodies made their way through the people to outside the Patna station with the thought of finding a jeep to drive us to Varanasi. One guy approached us who had reasonable English and we negotiated with him to organise this jeep. On discovering that we were Australian he assured us of his good friendship with Shane Warne. He allocated us a young driver who spoke no English and not a lot of idea of how to get to Varanasi, but with the deal of 5000 rupees we were set to go, or so we thought. The young driver did look a little dirty, however we loaded up with 2000 upfont payment and headed straight to a petrol staion to fuel up. The overnight train travellers were in need of a toilet, so after getting the very casual petrol attendant to open the petrol station we hit the squat toilets ! The things you do on a needs basis ! Then we were treated to a little tour through inner Patna and we stopped at a house. Out jumped the driver , who went into the house while we bemused waited in the Jeep. Some time later our driver returns, showered and with another young guy who sat in the back of the jeep and off we went.The drive was interesting as we drove through a lot of farming area and villages. Poverty was very evident and the lack of infrastructure in the organisatiion of water and the roads was evident. We travelled over a busy bridge, at one stage I was looking to the right admiring the river we were crossing, then I looked out my window on the left and there was a cow!!!! We travelled on and came across a traffic jam in the middle of a town. We sat in the jeep and waited, it was very hot and we were receiving plenty of interest from the locals who were amused at seeing a jeep full of a white family. Diary Entry ; "Kez had her melting moment and decided to go and see what was going on! The seasoned traveller stormed out of the car and up the road to find out what the hold up was". I was drawing pictures trying to work out something with our drivers . When Kezia returned she was followed by a trail of people and the car was suddenly surrounded by Indians.it appears that there was bamboo across the road put there as a protest to the lack of water to the region. Lou was very toey by this stage, I never felt threatened as our drivers were looking out for us, there were some people keeping others back from the jeep and stopping photos being taken of us. Then those organising the protest thought it best to clear a path for us and the "white family" were let go through the roadblock . What an Experience! We journeyed on with one more stop before we reached Varanasi. This was a melting point for me! Diary entry; " No western toilet, No cold drinking water, a stop in the middle of nowhere where they were cooking curries! The driver and I got marco and I some water and it was disgusting! Not impressed! After lots of requests for directions our young drivers eventually delivered us to Varanasi to the "Kedareswar Bed and Breakfast" on the Chowki Ghat which was to be our home/refuge for the next 3 days.

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