Hello again
We're now in Varanasi, the city on the Ganges, in India. After Pokhara we made the overland trek over two days by bus to get here. After an 8 hour busride from Pokhara to Senaouli on the Nepal-India border, we took another busride 20km to the birthplace of Buddha, Lumbini. This consists of the actual birthplace of Buddha preserved under a temple, and various Buddhist temples from many different coutries. An American buddhist nun told us that we could stay at the Korean temple for nothing but a donation of our choosing, so we accepted. They provided a great meal of Korean food, and after wandering around the site and seeing some temples, etc we organised our busride for the next day. It was the last day of a 10-week festival around Buddha's birthday, so there were monks and nuns from all over the world camped out in huge tent cities around the place. The actual birthplace was surrounded by thousands of candles (the Festival of 100,000 lights apparently) and was really beautiful.
Our bus left Senouli at 7.30 the next day so we got a taxi at 6 and crossed the border back into India, which was very lax. Plenty of people with guns, but not a great deal of security. Turns out we had booked on a government bus, and it was an absolute sh*t-heap of a bus. The roads were absoutely terrible for the first few hours, and some of the seats broke from the vibrations. For about an hour of driving through a dense forest, we were thrown about a foot in the air every few seconds and it was going to be a long day... after that the roads improved and after an exhausting 13 hours on the bus, we arrived in Varanasi last night. After checking our results at the nearest internet place, we followed this guy around the narrow alleys of the old city on the banks of the Ganges trying places (from Lonely Planet). The first two were full, so we relented and went to the place the rickshaw driver had been touting all along (we just wanted to sleep, we didn't have the energy to avoid being duped...). Turns out Hotel Sunrise is actually quite nice...the hot shower was a too-long-awaited treat :)
Tonight we are going on a sunset boat ride along the Ganges to see the Ghats, and again in the morning for the sunrise. Tomorrow we're also going on a temple tour of about 5 temples in the area...both boat tours and the temple tour are only going to set us back Rs 200 - about $6. Bargain.
Just uploaded photos from the trek too, so sink your eyes into those juicy shots and enjoy.
Think I'll go and wash away my sins in the Ganges.
We're now in Varanasi, the city on the Ganges, in India. After Pokhara we made the overland trek over two days by bus to get here. After an 8 hour busride from Pokhara to Senaouli on the Nepal-India border, we took another busride 20km to the birthplace of Buddha, Lumbini. This consists of the actual birthplace of Buddha preserved under a temple, and various Buddhist temples from many different coutries. An American buddhist nun told us that we could stay at the Korean temple for nothing but a donation of our choosing, so we accepted. They provided a great meal of Korean food, and after wandering around the site and seeing some temples, etc we organised our busride for the next day. It was the last day of a 10-week festival around Buddha's birthday, so there were monks and nuns from all over the world camped out in huge tent cities around the place. The actual birthplace was surrounded by thousands of candles (the Festival of 100,000 lights apparently) and was really beautiful.
Our bus left Senouli at 7.30 the next day so we got a taxi at 6 and crossed the border back into India, which was very lax. Plenty of people with guns, but not a great deal of security. Turns out we had booked on a government bus, and it was an absolute sh*t-heap of a bus. The roads were absoutely terrible for the first few hours, and some of the seats broke from the vibrations. For about an hour of driving through a dense forest, we were thrown about a foot in the air every few seconds and it was going to be a long day... after that the roads improved and after an exhausting 13 hours on the bus, we arrived in Varanasi last night. After checking our results at the nearest internet place, we followed this guy around the narrow alleys of the old city on the banks of the Ganges trying places (from Lonely Planet). The first two were full, so we relented and went to the place the rickshaw driver had been touting all along (we just wanted to sleep, we didn't have the energy to avoid being duped...). Turns out Hotel Sunrise is actually quite nice...the hot shower was a too-long-awaited treat :)
Tonight we are going on a sunset boat ride along the Ganges to see the Ghats, and again in the morning for the sunrise. Tomorrow we're also going on a temple tour of about 5 temples in the area...both boat tours and the temple tour are only going to set us back Rs 200 - about $6. Bargain.
Just uploaded photos from the trek too, so sink your eyes into those juicy shots and enjoy.
Think I'll go and wash away my sins in the Ganges.
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