First of all an Indian food update. The food was very good at Karims (One of the best restaurants in Asia (According to Time magazine)) and all is functioning well . On the topic of food, we went to a rooftop cafe in Delhi for a bite to eat before our departure. With the overnight train journey pending I thought it was best to opt for a safe option which left me with Pizza or Pasta. In the end the Spaghetti Carbonara got the nod as it came with a deal breaking garlic bread. Much to Rory's amusement the garlic bread was literally that, a slice of lightly fried bread containing coarsely chopped raw garlic. I'm sticking to curries from here on in.
The electricity has managed to stay on long enough for me to upload some new photos today so feel free to have a browse. If you click on the small pictures to the right (Not the arrows that appear) under Recent Pictures a new window should pop-up and allow you to see the album. To see more albums of previous places we have visited, click James near the top left hand corner. This should take you back to the photo home page. Here you can click on which album you wish to view.
We have now left Delhi and have arrived in Varanasi, the most holy city in the Hindu religion. The train journey was eventful to say the very least. We found our seats and were in a compartment with a lovely gentleman named Sanjeev who spoke fluent English, 3 Chinese girls with 6 backpacks bigger than themselves and a non-English speaking farther and son that looked like the Indian version of Del boy and Rodney. The first hour of the journey we spent learning various facts about India from Sanjeev and he also learnt his fare share about England from us. After this it was time for bed and the Cabin had to be rearranged for sleeping. The Swiss army train had bits of bed coming out of every surface and large chains had to be attached to lock them into place. The sleeping arrangement lottery wasn't overly kind to me as I was drawn a middle bunk next to the door.
At 6' foot tall I wouldn't say I'm that big, but my feet were a good 5" off the end and I was made extremely aware of this every time a security guard, who by the way carried a machine gun, clattered through the door. The entire cabin was about the same size as a the rear of a transit van, so not that much space for 8 people. If Mr machine gun wasn't enough of an annoyance, the 3 girls took it in turns to get up throughout the night to go for a walk and Del Boy was suffering from a terrible case of flatulence. In the morning we discovered why the girls needed such big bags, One withdrew a camera with a lens the length of my forearm and a telescopic stand, plonked it in the walkway and started snapping away. By this point I was at the end of my tether. I was tired, grumpy and just wanted to get off the train. The icing on the cake was when another one of the girls made a KFC bargain Bucket appear from her bag and they sat round eating it cold at 7:30am.
Varanasi is situated along the bank of the river Ganga (Ganges to the English). Along the embankment there are over 80 Ghats which are large areas with stone steps leading from the various temples, terraces and palaces along the cities edge down to the river. As Hindus worship multiple gods each has their temple along the bank and its own ghat for worship. We spent the day wandering from the North of the city down to the south along the river side observing the various rituals and ceremony's at each Ghat. These ranged from a respectful cremation carried out on a floating barge to a large, flamboyant celebration of light at sunset which involved music, dancing, bell ringing and the placing of many floating candles into the river. Both equally diverse and fascinating to witness.
And finally, we now have a mobile phone which we think you can contact using this number. But don't hold me responsible for any costs incurred:
00919971517758
