Varanassi 15th May 2006

I woke up this morning and went to use the Internet before we had the first power cut of the day. I managed to use it for an hour before the power cut and even had time to update my blog.

When I left the Internet cafÈ I discovered that there were funny black things in the sky, I cast my memory back and remembered that they are called clouds! It had gone from bright sunshine to dark foreboding clouds in the space of an hour. There was a really strong wind and sand and dust was being blown everywhere, I put on my wraparounds and hat and headed down to the river. The river was really choppy and there was a sand storm blowing in from the exposed sandbank. The boatmen were tying their boats down, but still I was asked if I wanted to take a boat trip! These people just don’t give up. I stood on the banks of the Ganga for about twenty minutes, my face getting whipped by the flying sand, and it was nice to experience something other than extreme heat.

The rain never came though and the storm started to blow itself out, which is when I decided to check out my escape route for tomorrow morning. I think I’ve spotted the road that will eventually get me in the direction of Nepal, so I decided to do a reccy on my motorbike. I gave up after forty-five minutes. The traffic was just crazy, I managed to get as far as the Town Hall, which was on my map, so I know that I was going in the right direction, but I couldn’t continue, it was just too much. Biking is meant to be fun, this was slow torture. I went to a cafÈ I know and got speaking to the owner and I told him about my trip, actually, it was him who asked where I had been. As soon as he seen me he handed me a pale of water and told me to wash my face, when I checked in the bike mirrors my face was covered in what looked like soot, but it was a combination of sweat, sand, dust, rickshaw fumes (2-stroke) and diesel fumes.

He told me of another way to get to the road that goes through ‘new’ Varanassi and he even drew me a map. After I left the cafÈ, I dropped my bike back at the guesthouse and decided to walk the 4km to the railway station, which is on the road that I need. I followed the guy’s map and it did indeed take me to the station, which was amazing, as he couldn’t understand the map of Varanassi that I showed him. I even passed a ‘proper’ shopping centre on the way, and it had shops that sold Adidas and Lee! I had a quick walk around the train station and went to the Tourist Bungalow, as the guy in the cafÈ told me that the guy there is an expert on Nepal and how to get there. I tracked this guy down and he brought me into his office where I explained to him that I’m looking for a route to Nepal.

He brought me down this dusty corridor and we stopped at a table that was covered in dusty files and folders, it really was clichÈ stuff. The guy rummaged around for a minute or so and pulled out this big old journal and he started thumbing through it. When he found what he was looking for he put it away and then started going through one of the drawers on the desk, he even took the drawer out to find what he was looking for. He drew a blank and started going through some other files before pulling out a time stained map. He then took me through the quickest route to Nepal, which didn’t correspond to any of my own research. I decided to show him my map, published 2006, and his map didn’t have half of the roads (including the National Highway) on it. I tried to explain this to him, but he wasn’t listening, he was on a mission and he wasn’t going to listen to some tourist with a modern map. He ended up tracing a map by hand for me and putting the distance between all the towns in as well, I hadn’t got the heart to tell him that my map gives me all that information. It took him about half an hour to give me all this info and I was itching to get out of there, so I ended up grabbing the map from him and giving him a hearty Namaste.

I decided to be clever and take a different route back to my guesthouse. I took a road parallel to the one I came on and was doing well until it veered off in the other direction after 1km. I eventually found a turn that I thought would bring me back in the right direction and then came to a junction with four choices. I took what I thought was the right road and walked and walked and walked. I eventually came to a railway crossing (I never came across a crossing on my way to the station) and knew that I was totally lost. I had my map with me, but it’s not much use when all the signs are in Hindi. I took a guess and turned right and continued to walk, I came across a ‘truck graveyard’, it was actually a road of mechanics workshops, but there were some amazing wrecks of trucks there. Shame that I left my cameras back in the guesthouse.

I walked for a further half an hour, the sun was setting in the sky at this stage, so I decided to bite the bullet and get a cycle rickshaw. The guy told me that it would be 50 Rupees (about £0.40 GBP); as soon as we got a hundred yards down the road he told me that it would be 75 Rupees (nearly £1 GBP). He was taking the p1ss asking for 50 Rupees in the first place (I didn’t even bother haggling with him when he named his price and he would have charged a local 10 Rupees for the same trip), I told him that we agreed 50 Rupees and I’d jump out and he’d get no Rupees. He continued on in silence. We ended up passing Varanassi City railway station after a couple of minutes, I had a quick look on my map to see where we were and I had been walking in totally the wrong direction to get back to my guesthouse.

I got dropped off near Om cafÈ, where I had lunch earlier that day and found a bookshop. I had to replace the India guidebook I lost on my way to Chitrakoot and I was after one for Nepal as well, the shop had both. They didn’t have any second hand books, so I had to buy them new and the two books came to 2045 Rupees (which is a wallet busting £25 GBP)! That means I’m going to have to eat tree roots (which I learned about in Sapa, Vietnam) and sleep outdoors for the next week or so!

I got an email from Aby and Purdy the other day and they are just finishing up in S.E Asia, they are currently in Malaysia and having a great time by the sounds of it, they are head off to Oz next. I can’t wait to meet up with them back in the UK and share some memories / stories over a couple of beers.