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Our 12 hour journey to Varanasi turned into a miserable 15 hour journey thanks to the punctuality of the Indian rail. Plus, we had the pleasure of sharing our cubicle with a wheezing bull (well, he definately sounded and looked like a wheezing bull). Suffice to say we woke up that day rather grumpy.
Holy Cow its Holy Varanasi
K.thambi2006-01-06 13:51:28
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Our 12 hour journey to Varanasi turned into a miserable 15 hour journey thanks to the punctuality of the Indian rail. Plus, we had the pleasure of sharing our cubicle with a wheezing bull (well, he definately sounded and looked like a wheezing bull). Suffice to say we woke up that day rather grumpy.
To make matters worse, Indian Airlines had contacted us and told us that the flight we had booked from Varanasi into Nepal for the 14th had been rerouted via Delhi, so we now had to fly to Delhi on the 13th (today) at 3pm. Thus, instead of having 1.5 days in Varanasi, we now had about 6 hours. However, since the train decided to be 3 hours late, we now only had 3 hours. Plus we had to go collect our new plane tickets from the Indian Airlines office which should have reduced our time to only 2 hours. However, our rickshaw driver had no idea where he was going, thus wasting 30 minutes, and the Indian Airlines office decided to take 1 hour to reissue our tickets. The end result was that we had travelled 15 hours to Varanasi to have about 1.5 hours to see the
actual city. Annoyed!!
Yet it was worth it. Varanasi is one of the most holy cities in India and is also a city where the most holy river, the river Ganges, flows through. Indian pilgrims regularly travel to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges, as it reputed for having healing powers. Additionally, it is believed that if you die in Varanasi, then you go straight to heaven, and thus lots of old people tend to loiter about waiting to die. Being cremated in Varanasi also assures you of a boost in your Karma, thus hopefully allowing you to be reborn as a donkey rather than a one-legged rat with no teeth.
I'm sure you've all seen images of Varanasi on TV. People bathing in a river with big wide staircases leading down the banks of the river. This is what we saw and it was splendid. There were people bathing all over the place, which was kind of gross
...
See photographs from:
India Gallery
