I AM SO EXHAUSTED!!! Will try and stay awake just to catch you all up on that's been going on out here ... may fall asleep at the keyboard though?!?!?!
Let me see: got up yesterday at 7am to find that the electricity had gone again, as had the water!! Claudine was in a state because she was worried about being too smelly if she couldn't have a shower, then panicked about me touching some of her clothes after I had handed her some money before washing my hands; she was worried I may transfer germs from the notes to her t shirt!! I knew from that instance, that she was feeling better and back to her old self again!
After a quick breakfast we both said goodbye to the other volunteers (Julia, Sunita, Ele and Hannah) as well as Sharan and finally the Major and his wife Neema. I was still feeling upset about the experience at the girls' orphanage the previous day, so before I left I told Sharan that I wanted to pay for any of the medicine needed for the little girl with the sore on her face. I was concerned it was going to run to about £100 but the Majot said £10 would suffice and Sharan assured me that not only would something be done, but any change left over after buying the medicine would only be used on the same girl.
We gave one final wave goodbye then headed off towards the car where we had a three hour journey to the train station. Here we had to wait another hour for our train to finally arrive, but once on, you can imagine how delighted we were to find out that we were sharing our little 'area' with nine men, one of whom had climbed on board illegally (there were only eight beds)!!!
Claude and I immediately laid our bags out over one of the bed/couches afte which I think they kind of got the message and no one came near us for a while - mind you, most of the journey was spent with them just staring at us, as though we were some kind of new creatures in a zoo.
Lunch and dinner were pretty much the same - hot and spicy curry!! (I did advice Claude against it all things considered!) Luckily we had come on board laden with biscuits - much more appetising. In fact, it turned out that the meal was so spicy that even a couple of the guys couldn't eat it.
I finally gave into my bladder and attempted to go to the toilet ... have you ever tried to use a squat toilet, on a moving train, where the floor is soaked in water and piss and there is only one rail to hold onto at the same time as trying to hold your trousers 'out of the line of fire' with your other hand whilst also trying to stop your trouser legs from dropping below your ankles and soaking up the water on the floor??? Bloody difficult! After that I refused to have anything else to drink for fear I would need to go again and thought dehydration was a much better option!!
Eventually we made up our beds and tried to sleep, that was also not an easy thing to do: trying to sleep through the sound of the train as it rattled down the tracks, whilst a load of men lie sleeping nearby snoring, burping and farting without any consideration that there are British ladies around!!!! ('Britishess' as they like to call us).
But thank goodness we were awake at half past midnight, because miracle upon miracles, our train arrived at our destination half an hour early!!! After leaping out of the bunk, I was desperately trying to remain calm as I gathered my ruck sack (that seems to have put on as much weight as I have lost), when suddenly, Claude starts panicking as she realises that she has padlocked her ruck sack to the top bunk and it is too dark for her to work out the code. The solution was simple ... I turned on the light and sorted it! Then we got off the train, whilst checking with one of the other passengers that we were at the correct station because everything was written in Hindi. The man was very helpful and luckily my cousin Robert had warned me that should I ask anyone a question that requires a yes for an answer, the person will nod AND shake their head!!! So reassured we climbed off the train and as it pulled away, Claudine started panicking (again) and screaming (again) that the man could have lied to us!! Again I stayed calm and asked her why he would feel the need to do so, to which she replied that she had read some people just lie?!?! At that point a young man walks over to us holding a sign with Claudine's name on it - our driver to take us to the hotel!!! (I think we were rather easy to spot, seeing as not only were we the only white people standing on the platform, but we were also the only people still awake). And so we made our way through the sea of sleeping Indians and finally got into an air conditioned car!
On arriving at the hotel we went up to our rooms and both passed out on the bed - it was 3am!
Today we were taken on a tour round a small part of Varanasi (so called because the river Vara runs into the River Ganga at one end and the River Nasi runs into it at the other. The day was full on; visiting Silk factories, Buddist Temples (the first one), Jain Temples, Museums and prayers on the Ganges. Then finally ending up at MacDonalds for dinner - an exciting change to curry!!!
But I have to be up at 5am tomorrow as we are going to watch the sunrise over the River Ganga - the holiest place in the City. And so I will save the rest of our trip in this weird and wonderful city until the next time ... so until then 'Namastay'.
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