Holy cow!

This will be another no-picture post, because the internet continues to be unpredictable in its availability. Ah, well.

Today, we arrived in Varanasi! This was, however, less simple than that sentence makes it seem. We had another harrowing drive out of Darjeeling to the train station 3 hours away (it was worse on the way down, for some reason), and settled in for what we thought would be the next 2 hours. Which became 3. Which became 4. The train eventually did arrive, and then we realized that the labeling of the cars was weird and we weren't really sure which one we were in. Eventually, we figured that part out, got in, and discovered people in our berths. Sigh. Because we looked foreign and, presumably, helpless, the conductor (or someone else official, I'm not sure) took pity on us and had an argument on our behalf with the family in our berths. About 10 minutes later, half of them vacated, while the others remained (in their actual seats, to be sure) and glared at us for a while.

This was the first (of 2 total, thankfully) trains where we didn't have AC1 tickets, because AC1 cars don't exist on these trains. It turns out that AC2 is an inordinately large step down. The layout is such that there are "rooms" on one side of the wagon, with 2 berths facing each other, as you'd expect. On the other side are two more berths, going the long way along the corridor. All of this has curtains for a modicum of privacy, but there's nothing to secure the curtains with, which means people passing by can inadvertently open them because there's not much space, and vendors selling food, water, newspapers, tea, and randomness of all sorts can just step in. I kinda wanted a paper, but really didn't want to encourage this nonsense.

So anyways, we sat at the station for another 30 minutes or so (not sure why, but it was very annoying), bought dinner (the bread left much to be desired, but the curry and potatoes were pretty tasty), and finally the train started moving. At this point, a different person tried to convince us to buy dinner again, and while we tried to alternately just say "no" and explain to him that we'd already eaten, the Indian family, taking pity on us, jumped in to explain and make him go away. After then, they thawed towards us and chatted, and helped us figure out which one our station was the following morning.

Our train ended up arriving over 4 hours late (I feel bad for our hotel driver, who waited for us -- we couldn't call him because our phone wouldn't get service on the train!), and in to Varanasi we went. It's...crazy, but weirdly charming. There were cows everywhere! This is what I'd been expecting, but so far, hadn't actually seen -- Kolkata is too crowded and industrial, and Darjeeling too small and high up. But Varanasi sure has those cows! They meander or lay or stand obstinately while small children attempt to get them out of the middle of the road. It's pretty great. We also saw goats and pigs and lots of dogs, but the cows outnumber them all. The streets are very crowded, but there's much less vehicular traffic. There are bikes and some motorcycles and some rickshaws, but mostly, just a ton of people walking every which way. This kind of crowd is somehow easier to deal with than the crazy amount of cars in Kolkata, at least for me.

Our hotel is right on the Ganges River, and the noise around it, to me, sounds like a beach party. There are birds, yelling children, boats, a murmur of hundreds of people talking. It's not exactly soothing, but after a while, it kind of leaves one's notice. The weather is lovely, too -- warm but not sweltering, with a nice breeze from the river. We napped, and then Mu decided to internet, and I decided to go for a walk along the river to see some of the ghats. Ghats are steps leading down to the river, and some are huge. The one nearest the hotel is pretty quiet, but slightly further south are more popular ghats, with huge crowds. I sat for a bit on the steps, one of maybe several hundred people (with more floating in) and listened to music and took in the atmosphere. There were tons of tourists, but also lots and lots of devout Hindis come to worship at the Ganges. They were dressed in robes of all colors, and were frequently barefoot, which seems amazingly unpleasant to me. It was nice to just sit and observe the craziness. I wasn't as accosted by touts as I'd expected, either. Sure, there were inevitable people trying to get me to take a boat ride, but with a few exceptions, they weren't really persistent. There was also a nice tea stall where I had a glass of hot chai that cost me pennies, and lots of shops, none of which I went into. I meandered a bit down some small alleys, but the sun was starting to set, and the lighting here isn't very good, so I decided to save the alleys for tomorrow.

Now, we're relaxing some more, preparing for the New Year's celebration at our hotel, which we're told will include dinner, beer (this was highlighted many times as it is something of an oddity here), and a "cultural presentation." We'll see what that actually means, but it's not like we have any other plans.

Even though I said this before, have a happy and safe New Year's, everyone! May 2012 bring you lots of happiness and joy!