India.... The Arrival

Well at last, we are in India. The last country on our list. Our last border crossing. And it was something of a shock! We got off the bus in Nepal about 5km from the actual border, where a chap from France, Loic, we found out, was doing the same trip to Varanasi as us, so we teamed up for the journey. We all jumped in a rikshaw each and raced to the border. We made a quick stop to exchange some money then said cheerio to our drivers as we cleared the Nepal side of the border. Then we braced ourselves as we could hear and see the mayhem on the other side. The good road ended and the mud started - that was the first sign. Then the traffic increased tenfold and the people one-hundred-fold along with it the noise. Trying hard not to look at what we were walking in, we found the Indian immigration - just a shack amongst many other shops so it would be easy to miss, and we didn’t want to make the same mistake that we made going from Vietnam to Loas! The three of us waited just a few minutes and there it was - the last stamp in our passports. We all wandered through the street of this border town looking for the buses. We had discussed a plan and decided to head for Gorakhpur where we could catch a train to Varanasi. The bus would take us 3 hours then the train 14 hours. At this point we were approached by a man who asked us if we would like to hire his 4x4 all the way to Gorakhpur. It would cost £13 for all 3 of us which seemed like a brilliant deal - especially if you saw the bus! So we stocked up on snacks for the journey as it was now 1/2pm and off we went. The scenery was nice but not stunning as Nepal had been and we thought India was quite similar to England, just the odd palm tree and the buildings made it look different. We arrived at Gorakhpur at about 6pm and it was dark. Thank Goodness!! The smell and the dirt was horrendous and we were so glad we couldn’t see everything. We could see people - men & women going to the toilet in the street and it stank of pee everywhere. Our driver dropped us at the train station and in we went. Well not knowing what to expect but fearing the worst, it was a real shock. People everywhere. I mean everywhere. Families seem to bring a rug and all cap out on it while they wait for their train. Apparently 4,500 million people use the trains every year in India. Not only that but there are cows wandering around the station and treading all over sleeping people. It was a crazy scene. Demand is high for tickets so Bryan and Loic dumped all the bags on Jody and off they went in search of a ticket to Varanasi. To cut a long story short, they couldn’t get a ticket until 5.30 am the following day so we decided to find some food and somewhere to stay for the night. The food bit was easy but the room was a challenge! Having looked at several hotels with cockroaches running over the beds and dirty disgustingly smelly bathrooms and charging not a cheap price either, we were all deflated. The streets were too filthy to drag our cases around any more, stepping around rats, water and filth. Loic volunteered to go on his own so he left all his bags with us in the restaurant and headed off in the opposite direction to where we had been. Well we can’t tell you how glad we were when he came back and said he had found somewhere and off we all went again. It wasn’t too bad as we walked in and got to our room, certainly better than everywhere else we had been but a little pricy. having no choice (other than the railway station floor with the rats and the cows) Setting our alarm for 4.30am we were just settling down on the bed when we found them. Loads of tiny bugs that looked like baby cockroaches under the mattress. Then we saw big ones too. Oh please tell us the whole of India won’t be like this! Well a good spray of the room with insect killer and about 11pm we finally went to sleep - with the light on! Welcome to India!!!