After a very brief stop off in Bangalore, we headed to
Hyderabad to see Bharavi and Sugathi! We
were supposed to arrive before 6 in the morning but of course the train was
late so we got there closer to 7.
Bharavi had told us that we just had to get a local train to
Secunderabad and then he would give us directions to his house. So, we bought ourselves a ticket and got on a
train. Which we had been told was
heading where we wanted it to. However,
something didn’t feel right and I’ve now properly learnt to go with your
instinct. Because we started to head
further and further out of the city.
Until we were on a stretch of track where all we could see were a lot a
fields and a factory. So, Sarah went and
asked and was given a very shocked no in reply.
So we quickly got off at the next stop and got ourselves on the next
train to Secunderabad. Later than we
would have hoped, we were finally in a rickshaw heading to Bharavi’s! It was so nice to finally be back there. Because Sarah and I got to stay there on
Orientation, it was strange to be back right where we had started. And this time we knew exactly how to work the
shower. And we were properly fed by
Sugathi. So much food. It was so
good. It was strange to be back to
eating three full meals a day though because we’d just gotten used to eating
when we were hungry. I don’t even know
how I managed to eat as much as I did.
We met up with Anna and Jo to see some of Hyderabad and go for
dinner. It’s always so nice to see the
other volunteers. They could show us
everything they had seen in Hyderabad. So
many bangle shops. And all the owners
calling to us like we were cats or something.
The next day we just hung around the house with Bharavi and Sugathi,
partly because, for the first time since being in India, the rain had stopped
our plans. The rain was so heavy with
some amazing thunder and lightning as well.
It was nice to just sit around the house though and eat as a family,
which I think is a thing we’ve both been missing. It was nice to feel at home again.
Unfortunately though, we had to leave. We had to get ourselves to the airport so we
could finally head north! We got a very
late flight to Calcutta and we were finally in the North. Which was rather exciting actually because
we’ve become proper southerners now, so we were finally out of our comfort
zone. We decided just to stay the night
in the airport because it was so late but I can guarantee I will never be doing
that again. We hardly got any sleep, it
was really cold and quite uncomfortable. Not really what you want. I did however manage to get some of my TEFL
course done, in between the multiple cups of coffee. When we both got up in the morning we both
felt pretty ill. Not much food and no
sleep isn’t really good for you. It was
a good thing our taxi dropped us straight to our hotel and we could get in
right away to sleep. We stayed at Hotel
Galaxy and if anyone’s in Calcutta I would recommend staying there because it
was in a really good place, pretty cheap, clean and the people there were
really friendly.
We actually discovered that Calcutta’s actually a pretty
friendly city. We’ve gotten used to just
ignoring people when they say hello to us or something because they usually
want us to buy something, but I think these people were honestly just being
nice. We just wandered around the first
day we were there. It was pretty cool. We decided that Calcutta is what you
stereotypically think of when you think of India. It was busy, there were guys carrying massive
loads on their heads, there were flower markets (which I hated because it was
really claustrophobic), there were the old colonial buildings and there were so
many street markets. However we were
both still pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel pretty quickly. The next day we headed out to the Victoria
Memorial, which was this amazing building which looked a wee bit like the White
House. It was full of old paintings and
exhibitions from the British Era. I
absolutely loved that, but History Geek so… That night we just chilled in our
hotel after dinner and watched Tangled and American Pie. We really experienced the Indian
culture. However, there was no door on
the bathroom, just a curtain which did mean conversation was still pretty
easy. The next day we wandered around
Calcutta, tried to get to the Mother Theresa house but it was shut so we went
to get some traditional Calcutta food, Kati Rolls. This turned out to be a big mistake although
I didn’t know that until later. The roll
was delicious though, it was a kind of thick chapatti rolled in egg, fried and
then with a filling of veg and paneer.
Wonderful.
The very claustrophobic flower market
Miriam and Izzy arrived that evening so we went to meet them
at the train station. It was a good
thing we got to the station so early because it turned out our train had been
cancelled. But, Sarah and I are so proud
of ourselves. We didn’t panic. We knew there would another train, and even
if we had to go unreserved (which we really didn’t want to, it looks pretty
horrendous) we would get there. After
some helpful staff and some unhelpful staff and a look of double and triple
checking, we finally got ourselves onto another train only an hour later. And we still had beds!
We arrived in Gaya very early and were immediately
surrounded by rickshaw drivers. It was
one of the worst times we’ve had it. As
Izzy described it, it was like we were a piece of meat. And they refused to take no for an
answer. It wasn’t fun at all. However, we finally got to our hotel in
Bodhgaya, it was such a nice wee guesthouse with a really good restaurant. Gupta Guest House. It was really good, lovely and clean with
some really helpful owners. We just
slept that morning. And then the Kati
Rolls hit me. I ended up being sick a
few times, and had proper Delhi Belly.
It was not fun at all. I just
felt rubbish. The next day I thought I
was feeling slightly better so I headed out with the others to the Buddhist
monastery. Bodhgaya is the centre of
Buddhism. It has the tree under which
Buddha gained enlightenment and lots of other Buddhist monasteries. People were meditating under the tree and the
whole place was so peaceful. It was
lovely. We met this lovely monk who just
wanted to tell us all about Buddha and he was so happy and just got really
excited about some parts of his story.
It was really cute. His smile was
one of the nicest things I’ve seen in a while.
He unfortunately had to go to do some chanting I think. It was lovely. That night was not fun because I was up to
the bathroom almost every hour. So the
next day I just stayed in the hotel all day.
Somehow, everybody who worked in the hotel knew I wasn’t well and were
giving the other girls advice on what I should do for it. It was really quite odd.
After another early start we were off the Varanasi! From the centre of Buddhism to the most holy
place for Hindus. Varanasi is right on
the Ganges with Ghats running all the way along the river. And I’ve only very recently learned that
Ghats are not holy water where they bathe but actually just the steps going
down to the river. And I’ve lived in
India for almost 8 months now. Because I
wasn’t really well I didn’t really get a good feel for Varanasi. We got a boat at sunrise which was amazing
and then again at night to see some kinda of ceremony which happened just after
sunset. That one was a bit strange. I wasn’t really a big fan, it was probably
too cultured for me though. We found an
amazing café and shop there though, called Aum Café. It was really lovely, with, if I was eating
and not scared to for the after effects, some really good food. And the woman who owned it was one of the
nicest people we’ve met. She was American
but she’d moved to India and now has her own shop and café. One of things I really didn’t like about
Varanasi were the burning Ghats which are apparently a really big
attraction. Basically, people are
cremated on the banks of the Ganges and then their ashes are thrown into the
river. They burn them right on pyres
where you can see them. And the amount
of people who are cremated there every day must be astonishing. Apparently some people even come to Varanasi
to die so they can be cremated there. I
really didn’t enjoy that and when the others were watching one cremation, I just
had to walk off a bit. It felt like I
was doing something I shoudn’t or that I was being disrespectful. I also felt that I couldn’t watch it because
I had missed my Gran and my Grandad’s funerals, it didn’t feel right to watch a
strangers.
Sunrise in Varanasi
Early Morning baths
Please excuse my face, it was about 6 in the morning
We left Varanasi on the evening of the 20th and
headed to Khajuraho. Now, if you google
Khajuraho you are going to get some really odd photos. That is correct. The temples at Khajuraho are the Kama Sutra
temples. So they have some questionable
carvings. But there weren’t that many I
have to say. All of the carvings were
just pretty amazing. They were so
intricate and it’s crazy to think that some of them were so old yet they were
still so well persevered. It was pretty
hot though so we basically ran from temple to temple to cool down. Eventually
we had to head back and cool down in a café.
Because we were only there for a day, we didn’t have a hotel to chill in
so we just had to lounge in a café, which was nice but with loads of
flies! After some Kama Sutra merchandise
was purchased, we headed back to the hotel to wait for a while for our
train. Somehow getting really lucky,
Miriam and Izzy got upgraded on the train so they were off to the posh class,
Sarah and I were left to sweat.
Don't look too closely
The next day was one of the most stressful days we’ve ever
had. And unfortunately it was Izzy’s
birthday. We were supposed to arrive in
Varanasi at half 11, plenty time to get ourselves to the airport for our flight
to Jaipur at 3. Well, the Indian
transport system is very, very, very unreliable. We ended up being stuck in a place called
Allahabad I think. At half 11. Which is actually 4 hours from Varanasi. And we had no idea when the train would
actually leave again. So in a panic we
got off the train and headed to get a taxi. We knew that a taxi might just make
it and we were willing to take that risk.
However, it seems that everybody in India thinks we’re idiots and they
can rip us off. So a rickshaw driver
took us to where we could get a taxi.
After a lot of arguing, we were finally on our way. But the taxi driver ended up not being
wonderful either and we managed to just make our flight. Thankfully because it ended up being delayed
by 40 minutes. After being reassured by
everyone at the airport that we would actually make our plane we finally
relaxed at the airport and we could enjoy the luxury of planes. Where we actually got some dinner! And then straight onto another train to Udaipur! We were finally heading to the desert!
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