17/12/2014 [Varanasi]
Our day started bright and early again this morning, with a sunrise boat ride down the Ganges. It was an incredible feeling, standing up at the bow with the cool breeze in my hair and the early morning sun warming my face. It was fascinating to watch the everyday hustle and bustle of the morning rituals that take place on the banks of the river - everything from religious ceremonies to bathing to washing laundry (and livestock).
Our whole group had breakfast together this morning - these moments are some of my favourites. We all get along so well, and have some really interesting conversations together. We ate at a little cafe called Open Hand, which supports people who are the victims of sexual abuse and people living with HIV - as well as delicious food, they sell lots of handmade goods, so a couple of us stayed and did some shopping. We then wandered further into town and found ourselves on one of the highest rooftops in the city, so we sat up there in the sunshine and ate lunch with a beautiful view over the Ganges. We had some great conversations about life and love, and about decision-making and risk-taking.
My lunch buddy then decided to keep walking towards a temple further along the river, and I headed back towards our hotel by myself. As I walked, a man followed me for a couple of kilometres and kept touching my bum and muttering in Hindi - he was scaring me a little bit, and he just laughed at me when I told him to go away and stop touching me. Thankfully I soon bumped into a couple of girls from my group, and he wandered off .
We went on another boat ride down the Ganges at sunset, which was beautiful - we watched a daily religious ceremony from our boat, and our group leader explained about religion and the role that it plays in the caste system, which was really interesting. Moments later, we were setting off fireworks and eating chocolate cake, as a surprise for one of our group members who has a birthday coming up. At one stage, the wooden boat accidentally caught fire but the boat drivers simply threw whatever was on fire into the river, and continued to light the next round of fireworks!
The party continued back at our hotel - I am going to miss nights like these, where we all squeeze onto a bed, drinking beer singing along to songs on an ipod, laughing and chatting and playing games and just enjoying each others company. I feel like maybe I've finally found a place that I belong, after a lifetime of searching and hoping - and it's not even an actual 'place', it's a feeling.
18/12/2014 [Varanasi - Kolkata]
I hung out by myself for a while this morning, before bumping into one of the guys from our group and heading to Open Hand for breakfast with him and most of our group slowly joined us as the morning progressed. I realised today just how close we are to finishing our travels together - we head to Kolkata tonight, where we will have one more day and one more night together before we all go our separate ways.
I've decided that I really do love Varanasi - I love the craziness, the strange sights, the energy and the spirituality of this city. I spent some time on the balcony of my hotel room today, just watching the world go by. Sometimes I think maybe I would have seen more of the 'real' India if I was invisible, or at least blended in with the locals a bit more. I would have loved to have gone off the beaten track a bit more to meet people who genuinely just wanted to chat and to share their stories, rather than hassling me to buy things. I crave a deeper connection with the people of India, but unfortunately I just don't think it's possible in this kind of context because we are on the move so much.
We were supposed to be taking a 15 hour overnight train to Kolkata this evening, but it was delayed by over 14 hours which meant most of us would miss our connecting flights scheduled for Saturday morning. Obviously this would have been pretty disastrous, but thanks to our group leader's quick thinking and problem solving skills, he organised for us to take a private bus for the 16 hour road journey instead.
A few hours into our drive, we stopped at a little roadhouse where we had a delicious thali feast for dinner. The owners had a 'pet' owl which they kept tied up and didn't appear to treat very nicely, which made me really sad. I don't think I'll be sleeping very much on this journey... it makes me a little anxious knowing that we only have one driver for the entire 16 hour journey, and Indian roads are terrifying at the best of times!
19/12/2014 [Kolkata]
Well, we arrived in Kolkata in one piece, thank goodness! It was a very long and painfully uncomfortable night, so I nearly kissed the ground when we finally reached our destination - and really, if I was going to kiss the ground anywhere in India, it would probably be in Kolkata. It is actually so clean here, compared to the other cities we've been to - there are no stray animals, no poo in the street, and no piles of rubbish lining the gutters.
We had about an hour to get into our rooms, settle in and have a shower, before we headed off on our orientation walk. My room was not available yet, so I had to hang out in one of the twin rooms which meant there wasn't a chance to shower, so I was feeling pretty gross and tired by the time we headed off for our walk. We had planned to take taxis into town because it was too far to walk - but it turns out the taxi drivers are all on strike today. We really aren't having much luck with public transport here so far! We eventually managed to catch a public transport bus - these buses rarely come to a complete stop, so you have to jump on and off as they continue to drive along, which is terrifying and exhilarating all at once!
We went to check out Victoria Museum, which was a bit weird at first - it had a strange art exhibition in the entry wing, which didn't appear to relate to the building or the city or... anything much! However, further inside there were some really interesting exhibits related to the British Indian empire and religion. We then headed back out into the city to try ti find Park Street, which is apparently infamous for its shopping and cafes. Unfortunately we got rather lost, and ended up wandering around for ages. We were all very tired and 'hangry' (you know when you get so hungry that you actually become angry?) by this stage, so we swooped on Pizza Hut when we saw it! It felt weird to eat in such a Western franchise, but we were all so hungry and exhausted and cranky that we decided to eat there anyway. At one stage, the Pizza Hut staff all busted out a strange dance routine, almost like a flash mob... I'm still not sure what that was about!
Later this evening we went to the Planetarium, which was a little underwhelming - it sounded much cooler than it actually was! But we only paid the equivalent of 80 Australian cents, so I honestly didn't expect to be mindblown anyway. After the Planetarium, we headed out for our final dinner as a group - most people have very early flights tomorrow morning, so we all said our goodbyes tonight. It's a bittersweet feeling, knowing that I start my journey home tomorrow.
20/12/2014 [Kolkata - Mumbai]
I woke up at 3am to say my final goodbyes this morning - there are only four of us left now! We went back to sleep for a few hours before heading to a bakery on Park Street for a delicious breakfast this morning. After breakfast we walked for a couple of kilometres until we found Mother Teresa's house and the attached museum. We spent an hour or so browsing through the museum, paying our respects at Mother's tomb, and seeing the bedroom that she lived and worked in for most of her life.
The taxis were back in action today (thank goodness), so we asked one to take us back to our hotel. He got hopelessly lost, and actually had no idea where we wanted to go (it turns out he couldn't actually understand the directions or street names on the card that the hotel provided us with, as they were in English and he couldn't read them). We ended up having to navigate for him, and then he tried to charge us extra which was pretty cheeky.
Once we finally made it back to the hotel, it was time for me to say goodbye to the other three as they were heading off to Science City and I was heading off to the airport to start my journey home. I had a pretty long wait at the airport, but I didn't really mind because it gave me plenty of time to reflect on my adventures and experiences over the past few weeks. From Kolkata I fly to Mumbai, then on to Singapore where I have a 12 hour stopover, before finally arriving in Brisbane in the early hours of Monday morning.
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