Back to reality!

it's back to india (yes, goa is a vacation from india....), and we have just been undertaking a 52 hour train journey.... We skipped Bombay alltogether and decided to stay another week in Goa, doing the yoga thing and being beach bums. Thats 30 sessions with Swami Yogananda for me and i feel great!!! But finally, we dragged ourselves off the beach and Green Park ( a rather sad goodbye there...) and crossed India from Goa to Varnasi - all in one leg!!!. dammit... what were we THINKING booking that ticket.. we were originally taking the plain, but we thought "what the hell" and decided to go for the indian, hardcore style. which is to jam your ass in a seat next to a million people, hold on to your backpack and watch india go by (ok, we did a mix of 2nd class sleeper and 2AC, so it was not that bad...). its also a old school locomotive, so you get the real sound of the tracks - which can be either quite soothing, or definately annoying...

the route was as follows:
1. rickshaw to canacona train station (duration: 10 min)
2. train at 20:00 to mumbai (duration:12 hours)
3. arrive mumbai at 08:00 am
4. wait in mumbai for 4 hours
4. take the train at 12 noon to VARANASI!!!! (duration: 40 hours)
6. arrive varanasi two days later at midnight..........

We are knackered now, and feel a bit funny after lying down for 3 days in a small glove compartment on the train etaing crackers and drinking chai. we feel rather stiff all of a sudden... anyhow - WE MADE IT!! we are actually in Varanasi!. India's most holy hindu city, with the holy river Ganges and the picture we have seen in the religion books since pre - school of the women bathing and washing their clothes in the river. we are so excited to check it out tomorrow morning and we can't really believe we are here....
we are looking forward to take photographs in the early morning light over the river, see the lanterns with candles they put out on the river at night, and just take in the atmosphere. might catch a burning of the dead or two also... hmmmm. but all this, we shall see in the morning.. it will be completely different from now on, with having moved to the north (northeast) part of the country.. so yeah. great!!.first impression is anyhow that Varanasi is wild, untamed and unpredictable.. we have a great hotel near the train station (hotel buddah) with nice mix veg curries and TV in the room!! and service. really good service. almost too much service!!.

pics from Goa on the left side guys...

have a good one!.