Day 37 -39 Agra to Lucknow to Varanasi

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Day 37 Agra to Lucknow (Mon 9th Aug)

An average day of driving today. Glad to be away from that hotel though. Ali chose to sleep in with a couple of the other girls, so the room was a little cooler with only one person. Still like a sauna though, and of course with the fan on, we were showered with little bug all night. At least they didn’t bite...
Needless to say I slept most of the way to Lucknow despite the coach being rather uncomfortable for doing so.

Arriving in Lucknow, it was late afternoon and the hotel was quite nice. Unfortunately the service was rather grim though. We tried to get a meal at the hotel but not only did they not have most of what was on the menu but they were really rude about serving us too. They all stood around chatting and watching television and wanted us to wait. So we decided to eat out. There wasn’t much in the area and I was just about melting so I bought some fruit and went back to the hotel to eat it. Apparently the humidity was about 90%. No wonder I was hot...



Day 38 Lucknow to Varanasi

After a very late breakfast (we were ever so sorry to interrupt their television show with something as trivial as wanting to eat...), we departed for Varanasi.

So the journey wasn’t all that long really and we made it by mid afternoon. We all walked down to a nearby shopping centre (haven’t seen one of those in a long time) for lunch/dinner. There were a McDonalds and a Pizza Hut there, so we all had fast food... I seem to eat fast food more often on this trip than I do at home. I haven’t had McDonalds in years (apart form occasionally stopping in for an apple pie) and now I’ve had it twice in a week. Oh well.

It started raining while we were there. The heavens just suddenly opened up and poured down for about 10 minutes, and then just as suddenly closed up again. It’s really weird weather.



Day 39 Varanasi (Wed 11th Aug)

We met up at the lobby at 0500 and made our way (by tuktuk of course) down to the river Ganges. It was our first view of the river, as we had come into town the other way yesterday. The streets were already busy even pre-dawn and you really have to watch where you walk. It’s not just the cows and dogs that use the streets as toilets - the people quite openly do as well.

I didn’t really have much expectation of the Ganges itself. We boarded a wooden boat. It was like a wooden dingy really - big enough for about 12-15 people sitting around the edge and 3 crew to row and “steer”.

It was from the water that we watched the sun rise, which was rather stunningly beautiful. And even though the water was brown, and the people used it for everything, it was still rather awe inspiring - because it was so very BIG.

I can’t describe to you the majesty of the whole thing. Because truthfully if you really think about it the whole thing was rather filthy - but it was amazing none-the-less. Hard to explain.

The river is holy to the people and in the mornings they release flower and candle offerings from the shore. The people use the river to go to the toilet, bathe in, drink, wash their clothes, swim, and in the evenings they burn their dead there too. In no way is any of this at all hygienic, but you can’t help be in awe of it all.

Despite the awe, we were all still rather careful not to touch anything, anywhere.

We also got another taste of monsoon weather too. I managed to make it to the hotel without getting too wet (having been on my way back from a walk down the street) but some of the others weren’t so lucky! It was the same as yesterday and the heavens suddenly opened and down poured a wall of water for about 30 minutes. The streets were turned into mini rivers and you couldn’t go anywhere. It’s quite an amazing experience to just see that! And about an hour after it started, there was barely even any mud on the roads...

We had another “family meeting" tonight to discuss the trip and the border crossing into Nepal tomorrow. It was nice to sit inside and have a few drinks and just relax until they closed the bar at midnight.

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Photos

Ganges River 1
A lot of people around before the dawn

Ganges River 2
Sunrise

Ganges River 3
A laundry too...

Comments

[Leanne Dowsett]

Hi Amanda, you certainly have had some interesting experiences. It has been great reading all about your trip. 4 weeks till Bali and I will be there at the same time! Bye for now Auntie Leanne