Day 1
To get to Varanasi we had to take an overnight train. It was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but it took 17 because Indian rail has a policy that on time trains get priority and late trains get to be later. We were on a late train. I slept maybe 6 hours on this train. I luckily had a bottom bunk. It was air conditioned train. One of the people in our bunk had no clue about people or body language. She legit made everyone delayed in getting into their beds because she individually took out each item and hogged the aisle until she was done. The train ride was uneventful otherwise. Long but faster than a bus and likely more comfortable.
On the train I asked our guide why woman wear the veil over their face. Did you now it's so that they don't question what they are being told? I would not make a good wife in this country. I cannot blindly follow what my inlaws and parents tell me constantly. India has a population of 1.2 billion and 60% still live in villages. Those living in villages are more likely to veil up.
Hindu believes there is four stages of life. The first is childhood and education. Second is marriage and having your own kids. Third is grandparent hood. Final stage is about self time to meditate. It's all about credit and debit in karma. That's why family is so important to Hindu people.
I hit the post because we had no food for basically 20 hours that I could kill people and not look back. The child on our trip asked me a question and I had to tell him I can't talk I'm too hungry. Christina laughed because she knew I needed food hours before but we couldn't get to it. She knows once I'm starving the world needs to not talk to me and I go silent.
We had a night boat ride on the Ganges River. We saw the major crematorium. Varanasi is the holy city of India. There are over 12,000 temples in this city alone. Varanasi is the oldest city - it's older than all religions. Basically it's the centre for ending life. Indians believe that the Ganges River stops the cycle of birth and rebirth. It's a place of salvation. As such, Indians bring their dead bodies here to be cremated. There is dead bodies being carted down the streets on decorated stretchers. I had one go by me inches beside my nose. My entire body language screamed oh dear lord. We saw nine bodies just burning in public at the crematorium. People buy fire from there because the fire is about 1,000 plus years old. If people cannot afford cremation then they just dump the body in the river. I thankfully didn't see a floating body. There is also certain situations where people cannot be cremated in Hinduism: pregnant woman who died, those with chicken pox, and those bitten by snake, Eunich, and those in a coma.
Day 2
Christina got up at 430 am to do the morning boat ride. I opted out. I woke up dizzy from dehydration. She said it was pretty but definitely came back to nap. Upon her waking, we meandered to the observatory. It had a bunch of sundials but more interesting had informational posters. I learned a ton about the river and its history.
Ghat is a religious temple that is located on the water. You can find all Indian dialects spoken here and a shaman who speaks your language to lead you through a ceremony.
Today was a free day so Christina and I did our own thing. Group travel gets exhausting.
If anyone is in Varansi they need to eat at Blue Lassi. We did twice. It serves the best lassi in clay pots. I had a mango the first time and a mango papaya the next. It is in the middle of the old town. It's a maze in there but people can point it out to you.
Old town is one giant maze of market stalls. It's hot but the same trinkets over and over again. Christina and I wandered around it for a few hours. I bought the cutest hand carved stone elephants for my future house. I couldn't leave India without an elephant. We've seen elephants at Jaipur only. It's a shame.
We had lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Ganges. If I figure out the name from our photos then I'd also recommend it. It was a recommendation from our yoga instructor. I was super stoked to do yoga but then got way too hot and dogged to go. The heat and lack of water got to us so we skipped out. I should have just pushed through.
After getting back to the hotel, City Inn, we immediately ran into the group who was about to do a silk tour. Snap decision and we joined in. It was lead by this small elderly Indian man who was missing most of his teeth. Super knowledgeable. Silk is still made by hand here. There are five qualities of silk whose names went in one ear and out the other. It was incredible to see the handwork that goes into making silk and the designs. The designs are still hand punched. There is an old method of weaving and an electronic way which still requires human to be there on each machine. Woman still trim the excess thread off the silk pieces by hand. Apparently a scarf takes about three weeks to make individually. Beautiful pieces can be created.
Once we got back to the hotel Christina said she wasn't hungry then maybe just a small snack then maybe let's have dinner in the span of 15 minutes. It's hilarious since I've travelled with her before, I know exactly when she needs to eat about a half hour before she does. It works well.
Day 3
After basically no sleep and a 335 am wake up, we headed to the train to go to Nepal. I was not a functional human. After getting on the train, we quickly discovered that Indian people are sneaky and fit seven people in three seats. The entire six hour train ride was filled with screaming children who kicked our seats the entire time. We learned from the last train to bring a ton of food to avoid snappy grizzly bear Brittany. Once we got to the end of our train ride our bus driver couldn't find us so we had to wait on he platform for about an hour in 36C heat with our bags on. Everyone was staring at us like we were zoo animals. I've learned the best way to get people from stopping and staring is to look them in the eyes. Unfortunately someone died on the platform and we watched it being carried away. That's the first thing of poverty that has actually torn at my heart strings.
Once our buss driver found us we stopped at a fruit market for water, oranges, and bananas. I have eaten so many bananas on this trip as they are one of two fruits we can actually eat. I got solidly bus sick so I took a gravel and slept the entire four hour ride to the Nepal border. Customs was an interesting process since it's a walking border, you check out at the Indian side at this tiny customs office then walk across the border and check into Nepal. Kinda cool to walk over a border. Indian and Nepal passport holders can freely cross between the two countries. The border crossing we went to is the busiest land border in the world.
We got to the hotel just outside of Lumbini - Hotel Denovo, which is the best hotel we've stayed in yet as it had water pressure, hot water, air conditioning and wifi in the room plus the hotel was clean and had a pool. I'd highly recommend staying here. We didn't go to all the way to Lumbini as its not safe in Nepal to drive at night for tourists.
AFN
To get to Varanasi we had to take an overnight train. It was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but it took 17 because Indian rail has a policy that on time trains get priority and late trains get to be later. We were on a late train. I slept maybe 6 hours on this train. I luckily had a bottom bunk. It was air conditioned train. One of the people in our bunk had no clue about people or body language. She legit made everyone delayed in getting into their beds because she individually took out each item and hogged the aisle until she was done. The train ride was uneventful otherwise. Long but faster than a bus and likely more comfortable.
On the train I asked our guide why woman wear the veil over their face. Did you now it's so that they don't question what they are being told? I would not make a good wife in this country. I cannot blindly follow what my inlaws and parents tell me constantly. India has a population of 1.2 billion and 60% still live in villages. Those living in villages are more likely to veil up.
Hindu believes there is four stages of life. The first is childhood and education. Second is marriage and having your own kids. Third is grandparent hood. Final stage is about self time to meditate. It's all about credit and debit in karma. That's why family is so important to Hindu people.
I hit the post because we had no food for basically 20 hours that I could kill people and not look back. The child on our trip asked me a question and I had to tell him I can't talk I'm too hungry. Christina laughed because she knew I needed food hours before but we couldn't get to it. She knows once I'm starving the world needs to not talk to me and I go silent.
We had a night boat ride on the Ganges River. We saw the major crematorium. Varanasi is the holy city of India. There are over 12,000 temples in this city alone. Varanasi is the oldest city - it's older than all religions. Basically it's the centre for ending life. Indians believe that the Ganges River stops the cycle of birth and rebirth. It's a place of salvation. As such, Indians bring their dead bodies here to be cremated. There is dead bodies being carted down the streets on decorated stretchers. I had one go by me inches beside my nose. My entire body language screamed oh dear lord. We saw nine bodies just burning in public at the crematorium. People buy fire from there because the fire is about 1,000 plus years old. If people cannot afford cremation then they just dump the body in the river. I thankfully didn't see a floating body. There is also certain situations where people cannot be cremated in Hinduism: pregnant woman who died, those with chicken pox, and those bitten by snake, Eunich, and those in a coma.
Day 2
Christina got up at 430 am to do the morning boat ride. I opted out. I woke up dizzy from dehydration. She said it was pretty but definitely came back to nap. Upon her waking, we meandered to the observatory. It had a bunch of sundials but more interesting had informational posters. I learned a ton about the river and its history.
Ghat is a religious temple that is located on the water. You can find all Indian dialects spoken here and a shaman who speaks your language to lead you through a ceremony.
Today was a free day so Christina and I did our own thing. Group travel gets exhausting.
If anyone is in Varansi they need to eat at Blue Lassi. We did twice. It serves the best lassi in clay pots. I had a mango the first time and a mango papaya the next. It is in the middle of the old town. It's a maze in there but people can point it out to you.
Old town is one giant maze of market stalls. It's hot but the same trinkets over and over again. Christina and I wandered around it for a few hours. I bought the cutest hand carved stone elephants for my future house. I couldn't leave India without an elephant. We've seen elephants at Jaipur only. It's a shame.
We had lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Ganges. If I figure out the name from our photos then I'd also recommend it. It was a recommendation from our yoga instructor. I was super stoked to do yoga but then got way too hot and dogged to go. The heat and lack of water got to us so we skipped out. I should have just pushed through.
After getting back to the hotel, City Inn, we immediately ran into the group who was about to do a silk tour. Snap decision and we joined in. It was lead by this small elderly Indian man who was missing most of his teeth. Super knowledgeable. Silk is still made by hand here. There are five qualities of silk whose names went in one ear and out the other. It was incredible to see the handwork that goes into making silk and the designs. The designs are still hand punched. There is an old method of weaving and an electronic way which still requires human to be there on each machine. Woman still trim the excess thread off the silk pieces by hand. Apparently a scarf takes about three weeks to make individually. Beautiful pieces can be created.
Once we got back to the hotel Christina said she wasn't hungry then maybe just a small snack then maybe let's have dinner in the span of 15 minutes. It's hilarious since I've travelled with her before, I know exactly when she needs to eat about a half hour before she does. It works well.
Day 3
After basically no sleep and a 335 am wake up, we headed to the train to go to Nepal. I was not a functional human. After getting on the train, we quickly discovered that Indian people are sneaky and fit seven people in three seats. The entire six hour train ride was filled with screaming children who kicked our seats the entire time. We learned from the last train to bring a ton of food to avoid snappy grizzly bear Brittany. Once we got to the end of our train ride our bus driver couldn't find us so we had to wait on he platform for about an hour in 36C heat with our bags on. Everyone was staring at us like we were zoo animals. I've learned the best way to get people from stopping and staring is to look them in the eyes. Unfortunately someone died on the platform and we watched it being carried away. That's the first thing of poverty that has actually torn at my heart strings.
Once our buss driver found us we stopped at a fruit market for water, oranges, and bananas. I have eaten so many bananas on this trip as they are one of two fruits we can actually eat. I got solidly bus sick so I took a gravel and slept the entire four hour ride to the Nepal border. Customs was an interesting process since it's a walking border, you check out at the Indian side at this tiny customs office then walk across the border and check into Nepal. Kinda cool to walk over a border. Indian and Nepal passport holders can freely cross between the two countries. The border crossing we went to is the busiest land border in the world.
We got to the hotel just outside of Lumbini - Hotel Denovo, which is the best hotel we've stayed in yet as it had water pressure, hot water, air conditioning and wifi in the room plus the hotel was clean and had a pool. I'd highly recommend staying here. We didn't go to all the way to Lumbini as its not safe in Nepal to drive at night for tourists.
AFN
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