For whoever happens to be tuning in and hasn’t read the previous post, coming up is a telling of my adventures on our (our being the five other girls I was traveling with) trip to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi. You've tuned in just in time to catch my tales of an Indian bus ride (sleeping train, to be exact) and my exploits in Varanasi. 

Choo choo train....So I realized that I've never been on a train before. Ok sure, I have been on that MetroRail thing that takes you from Disney park to the parking lot--but I'm pretty sure that doesn't count. So I had my very first train experience here in India. The train stations here are insanely busy; a perfect manifestation of how overpopulated this country is. (Oh jeez, I ended a sentence with a verb--English majors, look away!) So after weaseling our way around the station and finally arriving at Platform 9 (we stood between 9 and 10, unfortunately I couldn't find a magical wall to run through to get us to 9 3/4's but I'm pretty sure the Hogwarts Express doesn't stop in Delhi). Once we arrive at the platform, we wait. We were about an hour early so by the time 6pm rolls around we're ready to get moving. But of course the train is late. 2 hours late to be exact. Luckily enough, we meet a nice Indian family while waiting that help us find the right car when the train arrives. Mind you there's no announcement that the train is the right train and it seems impossible that we could have found the train car on our own. Our ticket said 1st class A/C but it turned out that the train wasn't equipped with such luxury so we were really in 2nd class A/C. 

The beds in this train were 6 to a section which means that two are parallel with a space between them, one perpendicular, and they're all topped off with another layer of beds (bunks). The problem is that the beds that are perpendicular are directly bordering the aisle, as in the general aisle that everyone uses to make their way around the train. We very unluckily ended up with six of these kind of beds. Did I mention these beds are also much thinner? I don't want to relive the experience in detail but let's just say I realized in the daylight that the toilet emptied out right onto the train tracks, there was a mouse or two meandering the train cabin, and I had a rough night mostly because there was no curtain to cover my bed so I slept on top of my bed with my knees nearing the aisle...and constantly being bumped by those selling things or going to the bathroom. Oh, and the windows were terribly useless. One of the reasons we decided to take a train was so that we could see the scenery of the countryside....but all I could see was yellow through the "window." I did manage the shape of camel at one point and I must say that was very exciting. The train went at snails pace and seemed to stop constantly so we arrived to the station in Varanasi four hours late. Alas. 

Our time in Varanasi was very interesting, to say the least. We took two boat rides (not a motorboat) on the revered Ganges River--one at night and one the next morning to see the sunrise over the Ganges. It was a much wider river than I had imagined and, at sunrise, it was extremely crowded with people bathing in it at every possible area on the river's edge. 

People immersing themselves in the Ganges

We also paid a visit to the Crematory (via our boat on the river), which I found fascinating. Everyone is cremated here and there ashes are then sprinkled into the river. This process allows their remains to be "purified," so only those who are already pure are not cremated. In this category are kids younger than 10, pregnant women (because they're housing such children), and holy men (monks). These parties are tied to a large rock and sink to the bottom of the Ganges. There is a particular set of families that attend to the crematorium, and only these families are authorized to do so. The men of the families of the deceased come to watch the cremation (the body is wrapped up in foil, we saw one sitting on a set of stairs near the eternally-burning fires), but the women of the family are not allowed to attend as they are clearly too fragile to witness such things. 

I'll put up some more pictures on Sunday night (my time) but now I must rush to my Hindi quiz and then to Mumbai for the weekend- it'll be our second field trip there. Have a great weekend!