Welcome to India!

Kate and I left yesterday to go from Pokhara to India. The man said it would take 6 hours, it took 8 to get to the border with India. It could have taken 4 hours except we were apparently on the scenic bus with seats that not only didn't recline, but actually made you sit at a slightly forward angle for EIGHT hours. Not so scenic when you have to stare down at your feet. We get to the border at about 3:30 pm and go through Nepali customs and then India customs and then get ready to take a shared jeep to the train hub in India. The man says that the ride will take 2 hours, the ride takes 5.5 hours. We pile in a jeep type vehicle with 1 Canadian girl, 5 Israeli guys, and 5 locals. This means that everyone is actually slightly sitting on someone else's lap. Kate is sitting up front with two locals who are sharing the drivers seat and the Canadian girl sharing the passenger seat with Kate. The drive starts off bad and never gets any better. First off, we have to keep stopping so that the locals can get out of the drivers side and shift into the proper gear. Since he is shifting into his friend's crotch, he keeps stalling the car. Then one of them gets out of the car and gets it back into first gear and then the driver hops in again. This happens at least 4 times. Then bags start falling off the roof of the jeep. So we have to stop and adjust the rope. This happens at least twice. Then we have to stop at a bunch of check points. The co-driver has to get out of the car 400 m away from the check post and walk to the gate and talk to the police for at least 20 minutes. This happens at least 4 times. Everytime we stop the israleli's want to be let out of the trunk of the car. They have nominated me as the guardian of this task. I am not happy with my assigned job. Mainly because every time we stop and they get out it takes another 5 minutes to get everyone back into the car. It is not easy to pack a clown car. 3 hours in to the 2 hour journey, we are finally getting somewhere. Then the driver decides that it is time for chai. He pulls over the car. All hell breaks loose! We all start yelling that we are not going to pay if he stops for chai. Kate is vigorously giving the horn a workout. The Israeli's are yelling as much as we are. They want to catch a 9 pm train and it is already 7:30 pm. The driver collects the co-driver and we are about to start moving on without chai when we realize we have a flat tire. The Israeli's start trying to flag down another vehicle. I check for the spare. The spare is merely for decoration as it is the BALDEST tire I have ever seen. At this point mutiny breaks out. A couple of us get on top of the car and start undoing the tie downs for the luggage. The Israeli's start negotiating a new price for the rest of the ride with the new vehicle. Then the real hassle begins. The 3 guys in our car who appear to have an interest in the taxi service start getting aggressive that they want 70 rps for the ride they have given us. We estimate that we have gone less than half way on a 100 rp journey. The men start to man handle everyone and trying to forcibly put their luggage back on taxi 1. A shoving match breaks out between the Israeli's and the taxi men, the Israeli's have just finished their 3 years compulsory military service, the Israeli's lose. Everyone is yelling. People are staring at us. Cars stop on the road to watch the spectacle.

The 2nd taxi driver and the 1st taxi driver have an earnest discussion. They decide that the 2nd taxi driver will drive into town and buy a tire and drive it back. In the meantime, we all have a coke and discuss our failed mutiny. After an hour, the 2nd taxi driver returns with a tire. The tire is fixed and the luggage is reattached to the 1st taxi. We all pile back into the clown car and the driver announces he needs 50 rps from someone as the emergency fee. We all refuse to pay. He doesn't have enough money to pay the 2nd taxi driver for repairing the tire. (just a little side note: 50 rupees is about $1.25 USD. It is seriously cheap to have a tire fixed in India). Now the 1st taxi driver and the 2nd taxi driver get into an almost physical yelling match. After 2 minutes, it is decided the 1st driver will pay the 2nd driver down the road. Now we are finally getting on the way. The rest of the drive is filled with animals who have been hit by cars. Goats, limping dogs, and cows with holes in them. It isn't pretty but we finally make it to Gorkhapur at 10:30 pm. Kate and I find a hotel room and book our train tickets to Varanasi for the next morning. Mosquitoes also find our hotel room as well. A lot of mosquitoes find our hotel room. I don't get much sleep. Kate sleeps like a baby while the mozzies silently feed on her flesh. Speaking of flesh. . .

The man says the train takes 6 hours, the train takes 9 hours. It is long and hot. Very hot. 100F in the shade hot. We are starving. We have eaten both of our snickers. We finally make it to Varanasi at 3:30 pm and get to our hotel. Varanasi is the holiest Hindu city in India. It is where many people come to die, believing if they are cremated in the Ganges river they will be free of the rebirth and death cycle. You can watch cremations, public cremations. We are not doing that tomorrow morning however as we need one day to recuperate from all the traveling. Never-the-less I am VERY excited about this.