Day 53: Bad Trains and Varanasi, City of Light

Soooo.. sometimes I jinx myself by finishing up a blog post with the words “I'm sure we will have some weird adventures trying to catch our train and traveling at night again but for now I'm going to sign off.”. We did in fact have an adventure. But it was the kind of adventure that gave us a glimpse into the life of how a backpacker might see India and then leave with a bad impression.

First off, the word Tundla will forever be a swear word in our mouths. Tundla is a place of crushed hopes for sleep and unpleasant encounters with sketchy people. We got to this train station and realized that our train to Varanasi had actually been booked for two hours before the time we thought… so there we were in Tundla, trainless. At this point I want to cry because this is 99.9% my fault. I was the one who had looked at the time on the ticket. 20:50 is actually 8:50pm btw not 10:50. Who knew? I NEED to do more math.

So we run to a train ticket counter, somehow make it to the front pretty quick with Israel’s help. We ask the ticket guy if he has 3 tickets on a train to Varanasi. He tells us to go talk to the people next door. So we go… they tell us that there are no trains tonight to Moghul Sarai (or something like that); they tell us to buy 3 tickets there and from there to get a ticket to Varanasi. We smile a bit, finally someone is being helpful! So we go back to the other ticket counter and the guy sells us 3 tickets to Moghul Sarai. Finally.

But then we see that the time on the ticket was like… five minutes ago. So we run to try and find the platform… which is really hard because the signs are horrible and the tickets are hard to read so its never very clear where you are supposed to go. You just have to guess. Not all stations are this bad but Tundla is one of those places that looks like we just stepped into the 50s. The 50s.

So we can’t find our train and we start asking people… but everyone seems to think that our train leaves at 11:20 not 10:20 (even though that is what our tickets say). We run back to the ticket offices and start asking around.

Long story short, we found out an hour later that there was another train leaving at 1am going straight to Varanasi so we went and exchanged our tickets. But at this point the only tickets they had were general tickets-- which means that basically you just stuff yourself wherever there is room on the train.

When we got on the train the only free spot we could find was on a sleeper car in the space where the entrance and exit are. We were also right by the toilets which just smelled horrible. And there were sat/tried to sleep for the next three hours. Least comfortable thing in the world. At about four AM some beds cleared up and Car & Israel grabbed those. I found an empty seat which was great for about half an hour and then I woke up freezzzzing. When I woke up I also realized that there was this young guy looking at me. I was too tired to pay too much attention to him so I kind of closed my eyes again. I don't know how long they were closed but when I looked again he was still there and this time he tapped me on my shoulder. In his broken English he said, "Empty bed, over there. You sleep".

And this is where it all started looking up :) We had spent all night being really sketched out by the people of Tundla and I had forgotten that there are a lot of really amazing people anywhere you go. So this guy leads me to a bunk further into the sleeper car. He talks to a few guys sitting there and points at me. I feel a little bit embarrassed because I look like a crazy person wrapped in my blanket shawl and wearing my scarf around my head. But a few seconds later the guys pick up their things and move to give me the bed! It was one of those moments where I just couldn't even express how grateful I was. I sank into a puddle of exhaustion and I don't even remember falling asleep. My last thought was that the young guy who helped me left so fast that I didn't really get to say a proper thank you. But he is an angel! :) I will always remember how thoughtful he was!

So we all slept on and off the train for the next eight hours. I'm sure that we didn't get more than 3 hours of sleep over all but it turned out way better than we had anticipated.

We arrived in Varanasi at noon and by this time I felt super awake! We took a rickshaw to our guest house, met our couch surfing friend Dev and then I got to take my first HOT SHOWER in forever! After two days of feeling nasty and after our rough night it was Heaven to have a little piece of home here.

After this our day in Varanasi began and I'm just going to post some pictures of our boat trip on the river.

The Ganga! As dirty as they say but more beautiful than I expected.

This is a burning ghat for cremations.

Night time at the burning ghat with all the other boats. 

We have come to this city at the perfect time because there is a Shiva festival happening tonight and tomorrow. We got to see a performance on one of the biggest ghats from our boat and then we went to see some of the burning ghats (where they cremate people every day). It was one of those nights when everything seemed so overwhelmingly perfect. I was reminded that this is the place I would have lived in for four months had my internship not fallen through last summer. Its strange to me that I am back here now, just for two days though. God's timing is everything and I could feel that everything has worked out how it should.

Now it's time for bed! I love you all :) 

Stéf