I have to admit that when I got to Delhi I was feeling the lack of desire in getting back into constant travel mode, but I finally rallied and made it out of Delhi on an overnight bus up to Rishikesh, about 6hrs north of Delhi. The bus ride was pretty hellacious; luckily I was at the front of the bus so I missed out on a lot of the big bumps, but that was more than compensated for by the draft that came in through the 2inch gap in the window next to me, the air was absolutely freezing continued to get colder and colder all the way up until we arrived in Rishikesh at 6am. I'm positive that if there had been any moisture in the clouds above it would have snowed. Definitely the coldest I've been on this trip, even with all my top layers (6) on I could barely keep from shivering. Rishikesh is in the foothills of the Himalayas which explains the cold air...I was ill prepared.
I met a nice English guy on the bus who had been to Rishikesh a couple of times before and I tagged along with him to the 'swiss chalets' up the hill. He told me that Rishikesh is considered the 'Yoga Capitol of the world' and it showed as I walked around and saw that every person with a shack to their name, no matter how meager, had an attached sign offering yoga classes, lessons, etc. Unfortunately I was only there for a brief 24hrs and so I spent my brief day and a half there wandering around the small town and taking things in, breathing in the fresh air (the last gulps I would get for a while), and having some good food and tea. I was somewhat surprised to see how clean and clear the Ganges was, something that would change in Varanasi.
Around 3pm, about 30hrs after arriving I headed to the nearby town of Haridwar to catch my train to Allahabad. The train was about 45mins late and because it was tough to find info about where it was arriving, I found myself running from one platform to another trying to make sure i didn't miss it. I had been warned that 'sleeper class' was pretty crazy and when I finally loaded everything up I found out exactly what 'sleeper class' was all about; instead of individual 'rooms' as I was accustomed to from the trains in Europe there were just 8 beds setup in repeating rows next to each other for a total of 72 beds per car. A bit cramped maybe, but not bad I thought. It wasn't until we started rolling that additional people piled on and our area set to seat 8 people was now holding almost double that with another 10+ people standing in the aisles. At each stop these 'extra' people would hop on and off and this continued for the next 6 hours or so until it was time to put the bunks down and get some sleep. I got to know my neighbor, Praveen, and at each stop he would pull me off the train and treat me to some great hot tea or food, refusing to let me pay anything. The food often came in small bowls made of dried leaves and the tea in small clay cups, both of which we would just toss from the train window when we were finished. In this time the temperature had also dropped significantly which I feared would lead to another sleepless, shivering night and I was about right. Despite wearing a wool hat I had acquired in Rishikesh as well as all my top layers I was still frigid and got little sleep.
We arrived in a town called Allahabad, where I needed to transfer to a bus, about 2hrs late and I got on a bus to Varanasi. Allahabad was actually hosting a 6 year religious festival called the Kumbamela and was filled with pilgrims, sadus, and other religious/holy hindu men and women. It took us close to 2hours to finally get out of the town and as we crossed the bridge spanning the Ganges I looked out the window and on either side there were tents as far as I could see. Apparently there were close to 10 million people in the town for this festival. The bus, like the train, was also filled to capacity with people standing in the aisles, with the added element of the driver playing chicken with all oncoming vehicles and his hand heavy on the exceedingly loud horn, which sounded like some mutant goat. Finally, about 25hrs after leaving Rishikesh I made it to Varanasi...
Photos: Rishikesh
I met a nice English guy on the bus who had been to Rishikesh a couple of times before and I tagged along with him to the 'swiss chalets' up the hill. He told me that Rishikesh is considered the 'Yoga Capitol of the world' and it showed as I walked around and saw that every person with a shack to their name, no matter how meager, had an attached sign offering yoga classes, lessons, etc. Unfortunately I was only there for a brief 24hrs and so I spent my brief day and a half there wandering around the small town and taking things in, breathing in the fresh air (the last gulps I would get for a while), and having some good food and tea. I was somewhat surprised to see how clean and clear the Ganges was, something that would change in Varanasi.
Around 3pm, about 30hrs after arriving I headed to the nearby town of Haridwar to catch my train to Allahabad. The train was about 45mins late and because it was tough to find info about where it was arriving, I found myself running from one platform to another trying to make sure i didn't miss it. I had been warned that 'sleeper class' was pretty crazy and when I finally loaded everything up I found out exactly what 'sleeper class' was all about; instead of individual 'rooms' as I was accustomed to from the trains in Europe there were just 8 beds setup in repeating rows next to each other for a total of 72 beds per car. A bit cramped maybe, but not bad I thought. It wasn't until we started rolling that additional people piled on and our area set to seat 8 people was now holding almost double that with another 10+ people standing in the aisles. At each stop these 'extra' people would hop on and off and this continued for the next 6 hours or so until it was time to put the bunks down and get some sleep. I got to know my neighbor, Praveen, and at each stop he would pull me off the train and treat me to some great hot tea or food, refusing to let me pay anything. The food often came in small bowls made of dried leaves and the tea in small clay cups, both of which we would just toss from the train window when we were finished. In this time the temperature had also dropped significantly which I feared would lead to another sleepless, shivering night and I was about right. Despite wearing a wool hat I had acquired in Rishikesh as well as all my top layers I was still frigid and got little sleep.
We arrived in a town called Allahabad, where I needed to transfer to a bus, about 2hrs late and I got on a bus to Varanasi. Allahabad was actually hosting a 6 year religious festival called the Kumbamela and was filled with pilgrims, sadus, and other religious/holy hindu men and women. It took us close to 2hours to finally get out of the town and as we crossed the bridge spanning the Ganges I looked out the window and on either side there were tents as far as I could see. Apparently there were close to 10 million people in the town for this festival. The bus, like the train, was also filled to capacity with people standing in the aisles, with the added element of the driver playing chicken with all oncoming vehicles and his hand heavy on the exceedingly loud horn, which sounded like some mutant goat. Finally, about 25hrs after leaving Rishikesh I made it to Varanasi...
Photos: Rishikesh
No comments:
Post a Comment