We arrive early at Howrah station and make our way to the designated track. People are spread out everywhere on blankets, newspapers inside the hall waiting for their train to arrive. When a train come in there are loads of people moving around and we keep having to move aside and make room. We have reserved our place in a sleeper wagon inn 2nd class and should be in Varanasi the next morning around 10 am if all goes well.
We check on the list stuck to the wagon and see our names. There don’t seem to be many people traveling today and we are lucky to be only a few passengers listed on our wagon for the night. There is a wagon master (we think for the travelers safety) in our compartement. We order dinner and soon receive our bedding. A man comes by to change our seats into beds. I will take the upper bunk and Carmen the lower one. We are lucky to be in the single bunks near the window and feel quite comfortable.
The night is quiet and we sleep until the next morning. Unfortunately there is no breakfast service and I have to live on chai until some vendors come by with omelettes and rice. We watch the scenery and see that many people watiting at the stations are bundled up with covers, looks like it is quite cold out. Suddenly a bunch of young men get on and the wagon comes alive with noise. Everyone is chatting and laughing and smile at us lazying around reading or sleeping. It is a bit strange being on the higher bunks when people are sitting below you, so we move down to sit with them. They come from Bihar and are also going to Varanasi. They look like they are in a good mood singing in chorus to film songs. We are running late and only get into Varanasi by 13h30 instead of 10h00 am…
Starving we head for the exit and are amazed at the amount of people moving around at the station. We find a motor rickshaw driver and make deal for 60 Rs to the hotel we have booked near the ghats. The day does not begin well. As we leave the station the driver says oh, it will be 65 Rs, 5 extra for the train station parking… The ride to the ghats seems to take forever, maybe it feels like that because we are tired and hungry. The roads are extremely crowded and traffic is slowly crawling along. It is very loud and all crossroads are jammed. Somehow it seems like there is a constant pilgrimmage going on moving towards the ghats…
Suddenly the driver stops the motor and explains that he cannot go further, motor rickshaws are forbidden. Here only bicycle rickshaws continue or you can walk. We are ready to pay the 65 Rs we have settled when he says, not it is 70, another 5 for parking… There I have had it… we have always fixed the price before we get on a vehicle since we began the trip and never have any problems. Here everything is slightly more expensive…It is not the amount we are upset about, but the principle. When we settle at 60 we are expecting to pay that price and not more. I end up yelling at him and tell him it is 65 and no more, he does not need to park here and walk off. Our bags are heavy and we are really tired. It is still a ways to the hotel but on foot is the fastest. Soon we are standing in front of an entrance to the old city. There are 2 guarded policemen with guns in front of pilled sand bags informing us that the hotel is this way.
We enter a long labyrinth of alleys of houses and shops. It is quite dark and we see the signs to each hotel painted on the walls to guide us, very practical. As soon as we begin walking a young man asks if he can help us find the way. We are on our gards, but agree. We figure that in this very touristy place you have to watch out a bit more than the previous places we have been to.
We reach the reserved hotel and give our name at the reception…We tell them that we have made a rsv via e-mail and had a return confirmation back stating that our room was booked. Apparently someone had not done their job well and there was no room for us… We can’t beleive it and end up showing them our e-mail confirmation on internet trying to see what went wrong… The thing that bugged us the most, was that there was never any sorry, excuse us etc. They just call up another guest house called Fuji Ganga View and escort us there.
Still more walking around the alleys with our heavy backpacks until we reach the new place… Uggh. The rooms are ok and too tired to argue we agree. We are up on the 5th floor with no elevator. After unpacking a few things it is already past 3 pm, we have still not had lunch and head down to the reception to sign in. The owner is Indian married with a Japanese woman, that is the explanation of the hotels name. We almost explode when the owner, mother and some others have just sat down for lunch at the reception and ask us to wait until they are done to sign us in… We explain as calmly as we can that we are also extremely hungry and we can surely sign in later, we are going to find some lunch! I think he was a bit surprised, but said, sure, ok. We sometimes just have to put our Swiss politeness to the side and act like they do!
Just a few mintues walk and we are down by the ghats (or stairs) leading to the Ganges. We decide to have lunch at the Palace on River Hotel. The northern food specialites are wonderful (as usual!) and the view is fantastic overlooking Varanasi and the Ganges. We can see monkeys running around on the roofs and boys flying kites. The place is just perfect to look soak in the atmosphere. We have elected this as our base in Varanasi for every meal and will even come to stay here the next night.
http://www.palaceonriver.com/
We check on the list stuck to the wagon and see our names. There don’t seem to be many people traveling today and we are lucky to be only a few passengers listed on our wagon for the night. There is a wagon master (we think for the travelers safety) in our compartement. We order dinner and soon receive our bedding. A man comes by to change our seats into beds. I will take the upper bunk and Carmen the lower one. We are lucky to be in the single bunks near the window and feel quite comfortable.
The night is quiet and we sleep until the next morning. Unfortunately there is no breakfast service and I have to live on chai until some vendors come by with omelettes and rice. We watch the scenery and see that many people watiting at the stations are bundled up with covers, looks like it is quite cold out. Suddenly a bunch of young men get on and the wagon comes alive with noise. Everyone is chatting and laughing and smile at us lazying around reading or sleeping. It is a bit strange being on the higher bunks when people are sitting below you, so we move down to sit with them. They come from Bihar and are also going to Varanasi. They look like they are in a good mood singing in chorus to film songs. We are running late and only get into Varanasi by 13h30 instead of 10h00 am…
Starving we head for the exit and are amazed at the amount of people moving around at the station. We find a motor rickshaw driver and make deal for 60 Rs to the hotel we have booked near the ghats. The day does not begin well. As we leave the station the driver says oh, it will be 65 Rs, 5 extra for the train station parking… The ride to the ghats seems to take forever, maybe it feels like that because we are tired and hungry. The roads are extremely crowded and traffic is slowly crawling along. It is very loud and all crossroads are jammed. Somehow it seems like there is a constant pilgrimmage going on moving towards the ghats…
Suddenly the driver stops the motor and explains that he cannot go further, motor rickshaws are forbidden. Here only bicycle rickshaws continue or you can walk. We are ready to pay the 65 Rs we have settled when he says, not it is 70, another 5 for parking… There I have had it… we have always fixed the price before we get on a vehicle since we began the trip and never have any problems. Here everything is slightly more expensive…It is not the amount we are upset about, but the principle. When we settle at 60 we are expecting to pay that price and not more. I end up yelling at him and tell him it is 65 and no more, he does not need to park here and walk off. Our bags are heavy and we are really tired. It is still a ways to the hotel but on foot is the fastest. Soon we are standing in front of an entrance to the old city. There are 2 guarded policemen with guns in front of pilled sand bags informing us that the hotel is this way.
We enter a long labyrinth of alleys of houses and shops. It is quite dark and we see the signs to each hotel painted on the walls to guide us, very practical. As soon as we begin walking a young man asks if he can help us find the way. We are on our gards, but agree. We figure that in this very touristy place you have to watch out a bit more than the previous places we have been to.
We reach the reserved hotel and give our name at the reception…We tell them that we have made a rsv via e-mail and had a return confirmation back stating that our room was booked. Apparently someone had not done their job well and there was no room for us… We can’t beleive it and end up showing them our e-mail confirmation on internet trying to see what went wrong… The thing that bugged us the most, was that there was never any sorry, excuse us etc. They just call up another guest house called Fuji Ganga View and escort us there.
Still more walking around the alleys with our heavy backpacks until we reach the new place… Uggh. The rooms are ok and too tired to argue we agree. We are up on the 5th floor with no elevator. After unpacking a few things it is already past 3 pm, we have still not had lunch and head down to the reception to sign in. The owner is Indian married with a Japanese woman, that is the explanation of the hotels name. We almost explode when the owner, mother and some others have just sat down for lunch at the reception and ask us to wait until they are done to sign us in… We explain as calmly as we can that we are also extremely hungry and we can surely sign in later, we are going to find some lunch! I think he was a bit surprised, but said, sure, ok. We sometimes just have to put our Swiss politeness to the side and act like they do!
Just a few mintues walk and we are down by the ghats (or stairs) leading to the Ganges. We decide to have lunch at the Palace on River Hotel. The northern food specialites are wonderful (as usual!) and the view is fantastic overlooking Varanasi and the Ganges. We can see monkeys running around on the roofs and boys flying kites. The place is just perfect to look soak in the atmosphere. We have elected this as our base in Varanasi for every meal and will even come to stay here the next night.
http://www.palaceonriver.com/
