Our Adventures continue

Namaste!



We are Currently in Varanasi on the River Ganges, having visited Agra and Lucknow.
Agra – (Home to the Taj Mahal)was a pretty big place, full of camel-drawn carts and horse-drawn carts, mopeds, bicycles and tuk-tuks. The roads were pretty advanced...dual carriageway!...Our Guesthouse had a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj Mahal and the Main Gate which was pretty awesome, so every night we watched the sun go down on the Taj Mahal...we didn’t have much choice with that as around that time we didn’t have electricity. It would turn on at 6am – 11am and then it was off all day until 6pm – 11pm...

We also went to Agra Fort via a rickshaw...got conned, he charged us 50rupees and Dom did half the cycling for him...lazy...he kept saying he had experience but really....how much experience do you need to ride a bike??...legend

After that we found a park...which had LOADS of PARROTS IN!!! That had made Sarah’s day! Bright green and blue parrots...wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get a pic though.
A few lads came to play cards and were trying to show us their shuffling tricks...pretending to be amazed by this we started playing patience and they got the message!

After a few days there we caught the public train to Lucknow which was....well, not the best place we’ve ever been, a big busy city like Delhi but lacked a few things... foreigners, restaurants and cheap hotels! We eventually found a hotel that even the locals hadn’t heard of it...we got a rickshaw and he asked us the way to it!...after walking around and seeing the main sites, we stopped off at a coffee shop which was awesome! Until the food came out...not so good!
We then went back to the Train station and booked our next ticket for the following morning at 6am so we could move on...Lucknow – Very disappointing...ah well, at least we’ve been and seen but -

Henley...a word of advice!...I wouldn’t waste your rupees on going here unless you are really stuck on places to go! We found about 1 restaurant that looked half clean, all the rest were full of flies....oh and forgot to mention, our “lovely” room at hotel snow white!!...not quite what we hoped...turned out we had a mouse in the room and big massive king cockroaches in the toilet...I say toilet, I mean a squat and drop hole!

So after our fun filled time at Lucknow we ‘sadly’ had to leave and got on the train for a 7 hour journey to Varanasi J Dom had read about this place and was looking forward to it as soon as we arrived in India. We arrived at the station and we saw our first fellow foreigners! Woohhooo!!
Our tuk-tuk driver ‘Vino’ warned us about walking the streets at night because there were mafia groups...not what we were expecting to hear...




We arrived at Hotel Elvis...the food was amazing!! And what swung it for Sarah was the fact it had hot water....1st hot shower in India, yet we have been here 3 days and Sarah is yet to actually have a hot shower!! The temperature has been ridiculously hot again, around 40’C.
Every evening at 7pm we walk down the River Ganges and there is a Hindu ceremony which is pretty fun and LOADS of Indians and cows just chilling!...we went round the City and to Monkey temple yesterday....FULL of monkeys but weren’t allowed cameras

There are cremations at the riverside, you see them carry out the body and put it on the fire as their family stand and watch, and then throw the ashes in the river....next door to all this...people are washing themselves and their clothes!! It’s very surreal/a bit disturbing...we saw someone’s leg hanging out the fire earlier and their face burnt off...ooo err

We are getting a boat ride tonight to watch the sun go down as we go down the Ganges and go to the other side where it’s just desert which should be awesome. Thinking of leaving out Kolkata and going straight to Nepal after Varanasi as its closer so will hit back on here once we have a bit of time, the internet should be easier to access there apparently.