We finally managed to get our buttocks out of Nepal and back to India. The day our bus was going to leave for the Indian border there was another strike and we couldn't go. When we found out that the strike was going to last for 4 more days we said, that's it and took a flight to Varanasi. It was true luxuary and took only 50 minutes instead of a two-days bus journey. It felt ridiculous to think about all the long days and nights we've spent on uncomfortable trains and buses when it could be this fast and simple. Afterwards I realised that I had left all our undeveloped camera films in the main luggage. I really hope the x-ray didn't destroy them!
Arriving in Varanasi was like walking into a wall of heat and the small airport was totally unorganised, maybe partly beacause India has not yet invented the queuing system.
We had expected Varanasi to be a lot of hassle arriving there, but: No! Our taxi took us were we wanted to go and we found our hotel without any problems.
Varanasi is a truly amazing town. Walking the narrow alleys in the old city is like going back thousand years in time. The city feels ancient and is as much India you can get. There are cows and cow shit everywhere, it smells like India, it's noisy and crowded and polluted. Even if India is a pain in the ass it was nice and like meeting an old friend! (Although, a very annoying friend that you only can spend short amounts of time with, Ante pointed out.)
The hotel we stayed at was very nice because we met heaps of nice people. Mostly we spent time with two Hungarian sisters, Ildi and Kata, and we just met them again here in Rishikesh.
We also went to se some cremations and it was not as grosse as we excpected. You see the body burning on the pyre but since everybody is so natural about it it's not discusting.
One day we did a boattrip on the Ganges in the sunset. It was very nice and we saw people praying and bathing. (Those people were swimming under the water and drinking it! Since the Ganga is so polluted they should be dead, but they seemed just fine. How is this possible? Ignorance is bliss as you say.) We heard many people that had seen corpses and floating about, but we saw none.
Varanasi was to hot so we didn't have energy to do much. Almost everyone on our hotel, that we shared bathroom with, was sick in there stomachs so after one week it was time to leave.
After a 26 hours very sweaty train-ride, we arrived yesterday in Rishikesh. Unfortunately it is not cooler here but we're going to chill out here for 10 days before we go back to Delhi and Agra, swimming in the Ganges and doing some yoga.
See you soon
Kyss Gaby and Ante