ON The Road Again - Cultural Back-pack trip - Update

Day 3- Varanasi, missed Ayodhya in LucknowI wake up at 5:30a.m as i want to watch the sunrise at the ghats. The previous night experience has been tiresome roaming around the tiny bylanes and being followed by touts everywhere. The place am staying at Sakshi guest house is alright. Its doesnt look very fancy,its a neat room in a old haveli with a attached bathroom and hot water. For 150 bucks its great value for money.

At about 6:00a.m i am at the Ghats( cant remember the name now). The atmosphere is truly divine and the air is magical. The sun hasnt come out yet, but the calm river still wipped in fog welcomes you.I get myself a one and half hour boat ride across all the ghats. The interesting ones among them are Narad ghat, where you will find any one bathing, as its believed that if a mother in law and daughter in law come here together they are bound to fight. The Hareshchandra ghat is a place where dead bodies are burnt in a electric crematorium, not the best ghat to watch and Meer Ghat is where the bodies are burnt in the normal manner and sometimes dead bodies especially of saints are just dipped in the water. My boat guide did show me one of the dead bodies floating in the water.

Surprisingly atleast in the morning, the water seemed clean, the boat guide tells me that the nagarpalika cleans the water every night and much care is taken for its cleanliness now. I watch the sun rise right in front of me from my boat. The view is undoubtedly outstanding, and i wonder about the no of sunsets and sunrises i have seen over the past couple of weeks on my trip, otherwise back home there is hardly any time to notice natures marvels. The morning is the best time to be at the ghat, its less crowded and very peaceful. Ofcourse viewing the migrant birds flocking besides the river side is another noticeble feature.

After that divine experience, i continue it by going to the rooftop restaurant of Dolphin hotel which is nice modern hotel on the banks of the ganges and ofters an outstanding view from top. After a quick breakfast i start walking through the ghats to go to Assi ghat which is close to Banaras University and on the other end. Its a long walk but nice to walk through the ghats and watching the ganga, thankfully its not crowded like the small streets and not many touts bother u except a couple of boat riders here and there on one or two of the ghats who offer u a boat ride. I notice a lot of Sadhus at their camps, sometimes i really wonder how authentic they all are, there is a possibality that some of them may dress and behave like sadhus just to get a free living.

At Assi Ghat, there is a set being done for a kavi Samelam shot for IBN live, the location is fabulous i chat with the guy who is in charge of production, he tells me he can organise anything we want on the ghats and its costs about 2000 as rent. The IBN team invites me for the shot at 2 and insists i come, i tell them that i can hardly understand hindi poetry and i might have to catch a train at 1 in the afternoon, but they still insist, i smile and leave

Assi Ghat is AND IS the only place to stay in Varanasi. Its nice, quite and you will not be bothered by touts and there is plenty of nice accomadations, how i wish i had come here instead of going to the other end. Anyways its about 10:00 a.m and i have lots of work to complete yet if i want to catch the afternoon 2:00p.m train. I stroll through Banaras University and take a rick to Madanpura. Its the muslim mohalla in Varanasi and a great place to buy Banarasi sarees at wholesale prices. Unfortunately all the shops in Madanpura are still closed, i move to Jagdamvadi next to it and after looking at a huge pile of sarees rush back to my guest house with 6 sarees. Now i am in a real rush to reach the station. The train to Faizabad leaves at 2 and i need to catch it some how. The road is terribly crowded, i am a little shocked seeing a deadbody on tied up on top of jeep,with its relatives sitting inside the jeep.

Inspite of the rickshaw guy rushing me to the station i end up at the platform without the ticket and the train almost leaving the platform. Some people on the platform volunteer to help me board the running train, but i disagree.

After running through various ticket counters i am told the next train is at 5 and would reach faizabad at 11 in the night. So its a bad idea to take that,i am advised to try my luck on the bus. I go to the bus stand and there is a airconditioned bus leaving for Lucknow, the bus driver tells me that i could get off at Sulatanpur and go to Faizabad from there. He said it would reach by 5:30p.m. The important point is also to reach Faizabad at a decent time. I would stay there the night and go to Ayodhya from there the next morning. By the time i check around to find out how far sultanpur is from Faizabad and how well connected it is, my seat in the bus is gone, i end up going in the drivers cabin seat upto Jaunpur.

The ride from Varanasi to Lucknow passing through Jaunpur is nice. Bright green fields with big mango trees on both the sides. The view of sun bidding goodbye behind the big mango trees was truly phenomenal.I make a couple of enquires seated in bus, check with my navigator friend for the distance between sultanpur and faizabad once again, call the hotel in Faizabad and even call a hotel in Lucknow. I read about Ayodhya once again in my book, it says u cant take cameras etc, so my plan to go to Ayodhya gets little shaken up. By the time we reach Sultanpur its about 6:30 in the evening, its became so dark and there are hardly any lights on the road. After getting off from Sultanpur i would still have to go further 60km by local bus of whoes frequency i have to idea on. I would reach Faizabad by around 8:00 at night. The thought of going to a unknown city in UP in the night alone scared me and i decided against it and bought myself a ticket to Lucknow on the bus and made arrangements for my stay in Lucknow. Ayodhya unfortunately gets a miss on this trip, but saftely is more important so be it.

I like the concept of waking up in a new city every day, Over the last four days i have been a new city every single day, and tommorrow it will be Lucknow