Im tired...
Last night was a painful night for me. I had diarrhea again for second time. But this time it was worst. My stomache felt like it was squeezed from the inside. I spent almost an hour sitting in the toilet. Sweat was trickling down my whole body from trying to withstand the pain!! Then I suddenly felt nausea so I vomited what seems to look like dinner. It was quite an experience which I hope I never will have to go thru again.
I think I was so exhausted from the toilet episode that I almost instantly dozed off when I lay down on the bed. The next thing i know, the alarm went off time to wake up and get ready for the boat ride to catch the sunrise. My tummy is still not quite recovered as I still feel a little bit of discomfort and pain at times. But we’ve already promised the boatmen so I just endure the pain and we went out to meet him, as promised.
We tried to go out by the back gate but it was locked. The hotel guy was telling us to go by the front. No choice we had to walk on e round to the front. After all that, finally got to the boatmen who recognized us immediately and off we went to catch the hopefully
picture perfect sunrise.
His dreadlocks must be very long
Meditating
It was still quite dark when we went out. But slowly the sun came but unfortunately the cloud was covering it, well….. we tried. Devotees were scattered everywhere Along the river, bathing in the “holy river”. Women and men, going about doing it side by side. A bit disgusting to me cos the men were clad in just underwear or skimpy “speedos” which doesn’t really cover much and the women some wearing sari or see through garments as they get really transparent when they are wet. You get the picture right… Anyway the boatman paddled up river for a good hour at least then finally asked us if we want to turn back already. So he let boat just drift along back to where we started and past it we went to the cremation area again. While we were there, there was a cow eating a orange flower garland. The poor fellar was munching on it then some of it got stuck to its horns. Swinging its head up and down, left to right trying its best to eat the flowers that’s stucked there. Finally it did it… Hehehe it was cute…… Anyway there was a female body waiting to be burned but only after the son finish doing the rituals. It is custom that the son has to shave his hair and leave just a bit at the back of the head, wear all white and after the ritual he has to go stay at a place in the crematorium for 13 days.
Is this what the Sentence mean?
After that we headed back to our hotel area and the boatman dropped us off there. Paid him 450Rs, extra 50 for his efforts paddling up river earlier and also cos he was a nice man. We went back to the hotel room, rest for a few moments and went outside to get breakfast. Today it Ramli ate 6 slices of toast with butter and jam while cindy ate banana and honey pancake. And of course a small pot of black tea. Finished up, paid and then we headed out to find an ATM.
By the time we go back to the hotel, it was about 1100hrs so we went back into the room showered and packed up all the things and got ready to check out of the hotel. We took our bags and went to the reception to settle our bill. It was 1500Rs for 2 days. Very expensive and way over our budget but I guess its ok to have a little bit of luxury once in a while. We were waiting for 2pm cause that’s when the chart for the train is confirmed. Meanwhile we decided to eat lunch first. Ramli ordered Macaroni with cheese and white sauce while Cindy ordered Veg and mushroom chopsuey and a sweetcorn soup. The food was ok only, nothing fantastic but we just dread the thought of walking out into the streets of Varanasi packed with all the devotees who’s there for the festival.
After lunch we checked again for the confirmation of the train tickets on the net but still it showed the same message. Ramli decided to call the train customer support line instead. Called a number that was on the list, someone answered but Ramli couldn’t understand a single word the person on the other line said as he had a very thick Indian accent and the crappy phone wasn’t helping either. The only thing that Ramli could make out was “call the other number”. There was another number and it was one of those automated call service. Long story short according to the computer voice on the phone, we got the seats. Yeay!!
So we grabbed our bags and headed out into the streets to find a taxi to take us to the station. Varanasi Junction Train Station. According to the hotel guy its around 45mins away. While walking, we were approached by this character who offered his taxi services for an outrages price of 200Rs. I told him 60Rs he say no not possible and kept saying the roads all blocked and very difficult. Ramli stood firm with 60Rs so he counter offered 150Rs. Ramli still insist on 60Rs then I 80Rs he still said not possible. And counter offered at 140,130 then he said final 120Rs. Ramli still said no. So by that time we already got to the main street. Another guy came and said train station 100Rs so just to piss that persistent guy off Ramli immediately said ok and at the same time turned to the guy and gave him that “Right ….. Not Possible” look and went on the taxi. Dumb Ass!!
The ride didn’t take as long as the hotel guy said it was gonna be. In fact it only took 15mins only. Anyway reached the station, it was as usual a mess and chaotic. Full of local people, scattered everywhere and a lot of them are actually lying on the floor and sleeping!! We walked around looking for a help counter, if it exists and stumbled on a Foreigner/Tourist help counter. WOW!! Bloody Amazing!! The feeling was like we a found a castle amongst the slum houses!! Hahaha.and they even have like this area where there was a big fan blowing reserved for Tourist and guarded by a few security guards who would shooo.. locals off if they tried to get into that area. I feel bad for them but who the hell cares!!. Hehehe I know its selfish thinking but at that point I really don’t mind it at all. So we approached the security guy and asked him for a ticketing office. He showed us where and we got our tickets sorted out. Phew what a relief cause we were still not sure if we got the seats or not. Anyway we went out to that area I said earlier which was reserved for tourist and sat down waiting for the train to arrive as the guard said he would inform us when the train arrives.
The train was an hour late but we don’t really care as long as we got on it. 2 days in Varanasi is too much for us that we couldn’t wait to leave. We got on the train checked the passenger list that pasted on the train and confirmed we have seats or rather beds as we chose the sleeper class again. We went in, settled down and Cindy was like a Alien to this guys as I can see from their faces and eyes that kept staring at her. Well that’s just say it wasn’t that comfortable and the story about the English couple we met in Chitwan park came to mind about the English girl’s breast groped or the “accidental” brush. Ramli was on guard all night ready to give hell to any one if that story above came to reality.
2 Stations later, this 2 old man and a little boy boarded the train and suddenly put his bag down on our bed and said something in his language rudely to Ramli. Like I F!#*ing understand what the hell you saying dumbass!! What I can make out from that is “this is my seat move!” WTF!! I was thinking to myself you do not want to piss me off you bloody stupid old man but kept my cool and decided to just slide over a little instead of attempting to reason with him. Then the local guys that was still staring at Cindy told the old man that his seats are over the other side. Well I would say the numbering system for the seats on the this train is damn stupid and don’t make any sense at all. Anyway at one of the train stops, Ramli went out and bought what seems to look like “KARIPAP” or those big triangle curry puffs we have in Singapore. It was very nice and crispy. So that was dinner. We ate and then time to prepare the beds. The beds are like bunks which we have to flip up and hook on to a latch above. Interesting! It was gonna be another 8 hour before we reached Agra so we rested awaiting for our arrival in the morning. All I can say is……….. INDIAAA….. INCREDIBLE INDIAAA…… Yep Incredibly S_______ ( I’ll let you fill in the blanks) all right…..
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