India to Nepal

3 juni 2017 - Pokhara, Nepal

After Cynthia left me I went for a hike and I traveled to Varanasi, a famous holy Indian city. Varanasi is intense, crazy, beautiful and very hot! After Varanasi I left for Nepal, Pokhara is a tourist city with a beautiful lake.

This hike I did with a Brazilian girl I met. The hike was so beautiful! It wasn't to difficult 4 hours up and 3 hours down. We saw some monkey's that almost attacked us, many many goats and not too many people. We went up until we had a beautiful view of snow peaked mountains. Such a beautiful day, we felt so lucky! (There was a storm the previous night, the worst ever according to a shop owner)
Right after this hike I went to the train station, I was so tired and then the train had a 5 hour delay, 5 hours!! I was waiting on the station with my bags and my everything, I was struggeling to keep my eyes open. Instead of 22.00 the train left 3.00 a.m. In the train I was in a sleeper (cheapest seat/bed without airco) and two families were sitting in the same part of this train. They didn't really speak any English, but that didn't stop them from trying to have a conversation with me. One guy especially he was staring at me and whenever I woke up he made sure that everyone knew so they could all stare at me again. This guy was giving me food all the time, and when I left the train for a minute or went to the toilet he followed me while his wife was sitting next to him.... she didn't seem to care. (I did... I was so glad when I got of the train!)
The train was 22 hours so I arrived at 1.00 a.m. in Varanasi. I never saw so many people laying down on the floor before. On the platform, between the platforms, the entire station and outside of the station as well. Insane and not only many people also cows were walking on the train tracks. Welcoming me to Varanasi.

Varanasi is beautiful I walked around in the old part of the city, only early in the morning or late afternoon, between 11.00 and 15.00 I coudn't do anything because of the humid heat, only spending time in Airco. Also I went by boat over the Ganga and it was beautiful experiencing sunrise and sunset. Seeing the cremation proces and the fire ceremony. Hindu's want to be cremated and have their ashes in the Ganga. On one side cremations and on the other side children who are learning how to swim in this same river. After sunset the fire ceremony, this ceremony is to wash away your sins by putting a tiny boat with a flower and a candle in the river. Unfortunatly we also saw a corpse in the water what can happen because of drowning or if you are one of the 4 acceptions that you can't be cremated. (Pregnant women, children under 10 years old, if you dedicaded your life to Hindouism (baba's) or if you are bitten by a scorpion)
With a Dutch girl I met we went walking around in the narrow streets in the old part of Varanasi, it's like a labyrinth. We met so many locals, having a coffee with them and some communication and as always many, many pictures. The people are so nice!
In this city, with the narrow streets there are many shops, many people and many, many cows. They say it will bring luck if you step into cowshit, luckely for me, I got only lucky once.

After 4 days in this beautiful city I decided to go to Nepal. This travel started with a delay, again.... again in the middle of the night in the heat with a lot of humidity and all my stuff. And again on the station so many people and this time I only saw one cow walking over the station.
With a 3 hour delay I arrived at the station and I took a shared taxi to the border where I met 2 Spanish guys. After the border crossing somehow temperature dropped immediatly, while we were on the same street! At 18.00 we had another night bus that stopped everywhere, and took forever to get somewhere and it was quite cold. But we made it. Now in a beautiful lakeside city Pokhara, a city that I will explore later today or tomorrow. Instead of trekking I might do a several day bicycle tour or rafting tour since I have a small injury.

Very exited to explore this country and very exited to have a good night sleep tonight (not in public transport, J!)

Namaste! :-)

1 Reactie

  1. Wieteke:
    3 juni 2017
    Boh wat maak je toch veel mee. Geniet van al het moois wat je nog gaat zien. Dikke kus Wieteke