Varanassi 11th May 2006

I woke up just before 03:00 this morning and was lying in a pool of sweat. The room was roasting last night despite an overhead fan and a room cooler. I pulled the bed directly in front of the cooler and positioned myself under the fan, so I got to sleep easily enough. But as is there want in India, someone came around and switched off the master power switch from outside the room!

It was probably just as well that I woke up early anyway as I was having a really weird dream. In it Kevin Rowland from Dexy’s Midnight Runners opened up a shop near my family home in Dublin. As a big Dexy’s fan I went back to Ireland to see what the shop was all about, turns out it was a café. There was an early Dexy’s song called ‘The teams that meet in café’s’, but I’m not sure if this had anything to do with the dream. There was also a big Indian festival going on in the backfield near the house and the whole area was taken over by Asians. I went to the café to order some food and Kevin (first name terms now!) was behind the counter looking really sharp in a ‘60’s style suite, cap and pencil moustache. He was belting out songs as he was serving the food, but for some reason stopped singing when he went to check the chips. I ended up getting on a bus with some of Kevin’s chips and showing some of the Indians around the local area. It was at this point that I woke up.

I did manage to nod off again for a couple of hours and finally got up at 06:15 and I was on the road by 06:55. I really wanted to get to Varanassi in one go, as I didn’t fancy spending the night in some out of the way town again. I found the road to Allahabad fairly easily and the next two and a half hours saw me ride on a variety of surfaces at various speeds and I made it to Allahabad in good time (for India). I did have one incident as I approached a very small village. The bike started spluttering and I thought, “sh1t, not another push rod, I’m never going to get a spare from this place”. The bike started to die so I pulled over and had a look at the right hand side of the engine – why I don’t know! I then looked at the other side only to see that the fuel pump had worked it self loose (damn bumps) and petrol was flowing onto the hot engine. I managed to reconnect the pump and set off down the road very relieved. The road to Varanassi was well signposted and other than heavy traffic, Allahabad was easy enough to skirt around. I’m not going to go on about Indian drivers again, let’s just say that they are the worst drivers I have ever come across.

There were no signs in English to tell me if I was approaching Varanassi, even the usually reliable Km markers at the roadside were absent. I’ve been trying to learn some of the Hindi characters as I’m riding along, by which I mean when (if) the sign is in Hindi and English I try to memorise a couple of the characters so that I’ll have some idea where I am. I did cross a big river and had a look to see if I could see any Ghats, but although there were buildings dotted along the riverfront, I couldn’t see the Ghats. I was also expecting there to be a road leading off to the left before the bridge (according to my map), but I didn’t see it. I carried on across the bridge and about 10 kms later the bike started spluttering, I had a quick look at the fuel pump to see if it had came loose and unfortunately it hadn’t, unfortunately because that is a quick fix that even I can manage. I thought that I may have been running low on fuel so I switched to the reserve tank, but the spluttering continued for the next ten kilometres. I saw a petrol station in the distance and decided to fuel up and if the bike wouldn’t start, they may have been able to get a mechanic.

I asked the guy manning the pumps how far it was to Varanassi and he told me that I’d passed it 20 kms ago! I decided to bite the bullet (pun intended) and risk the trip back to Varanassi where I should be able to find someone to take a look it. But lo and behold, she started running fine again; maybe it was her way of telling me that I’d missed my turn. I got back to the other side of the bridge and had a look for the road, which would take me down to the Ghats. There was a dirt track leading under the bridge and I asked one of the locals if it would get me to the Ghats and he said it would. The road was as bad as any I’d been on during the last couple of days and it took me about twenty minutes to travel what must have been a couple of km’s. I had been told about a quiet-ish Ghat and been given the name of a hotel, which I made a note of in my Lonely Planet, but with the Lonely Planet on some roadside somewhere in Panna I was alone.

More by luck than any kind of planning, I found the Ghat that I had been recommended (Assi)) and I think I’m in the hotel that I wanted! I got a room for 150 Rupee (just under £2 GBP), it’s a bit pokey, in fact the bathroom is a big as the sleeping area, but it’s very clean and does free yoga and meditation classes. I had a quick shower but couldn’t lie down on the bed because of the effects of riding on the bad roads for six hours! I found an Internet café and caught up on some emails and had a couple of beers during the two hours I was there. I then went for a stroll down to the Ghats to be overwhelmed by the Spirituality of the Ganga (Ganges). Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m tired after riding all day, but I was distinctly under whelmed. The Ganga is the great holy river of Hindus, I wonder why they piss into it and crap all along the riverbank? I was hassled from the moment I stepped onto the first Ghat until I escaped onto the road about halfway down. Every time I stopped to try and take in some of the (I’m struggling for a word here) “atmosphere” I was approached by people trying to direct me to their clothes shops, buy candles / flowers or take a boat ride. There were gangs of kids playing cricket along the Ghats and I didn’t feel any Spirituality about the place. Personally, I think the Ghats at Pushkar are a lot more (don’t know if this is the right word) impressive.

I wandered down the back lanes for ten minutes dodging rickshaw wallas and when I got to the ‘main road’ it was at a standstill. It was rush hour and there were a heard of water buffalo, a wedding band and an elephant all-trying to use the same bit of road. Not to mention the rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes and cars – pure chaos. I went back to my hotel to eat and I had mashed potato and mixed vegetables, which was nice and plain. I’ll try and get up early tomorrow morning to see the Ghats at sunrise; maybe some of the Spirituality will be around then.