Disgusting yet enchanting

India is disgusting. No two ways about it. Since we have been here we have seen rubbish literally everywhere, cows rooming the streets, woman urinating on railway tracks, men doing worse next to the Ganges River whilst people are bathing; to name but a few. This aside, India has been amazing so far, completely different to anywhere else we have been. It is an attack on all the senses, in particular smell, which cannot be accurately portrayed with words. It is anything but a relaxed last two weeks!

On our last day in Kolkata we ventured back to the Maiden to see if we could play some cricket with the local kids and after being bombarded by offers we eventually joined a game. Steve was straight into the field whilst I chilled with the batting side with my new found translater 12 year old Muhammad 'Seph' Khan, whose English was perfect (even to the point of listening to Miley Cyrus on his phone...). Steve then got called up to bowl but after one somewhat 'loose' delivery was asked "Do you bowl?", "No" was the reply, "Do you bat?", "No", "Do you play cricket?", "Not really....". This sort of set the tone with my batting not proving much better, however I managed to catch one in the deep and my team one by 3 runs. It was an incredible experience playing with the lads in their world with the hazy sun on our backs and the Victoria Memorial in the distance, unfortunately we did English cricket no favors.....

That wrong was righted but our glorious cricket team that evening in winning the T20 World Cup against the Aussies!!! As you can imagine we have met a lot of our Southern Hemisphere friends on our travels so this victory was very sweet indeed! We found a small place named 'Super Pub' which wasn't really that super and more like a small dungeon that Del Boy would frequent. The locals all wanted England to win and with our Westerners table all for the boys in blue it was a great, Kingfisher fueled evening!

With stage one being surviving Kolkata, we were ready for stage two of our Indian adventure, an 18 hour train to Varanasi in Sleeper Class (only 4 quid a ticket). Once at the station, we were awestruck by the shear volume of people and traffic. India has people everywhere! We managed to find the right train and our names were on the print out, happy! In our compartment we met a few lads who were mesmerized by us, in particular when we spoke, and just stared at us for most of the journey. In our wisdom we had booked the lower seats, thinking they would be better closer to our bags. ERROR! Although they were next to said bags, they were also the general seats until bedtime and also still general seats for people who jump on in the middle of the night, cue people sitting on our legs etc. You just cant get away from hoards of people here! The train proved to be a great way to see the Indian scenery and watch the world go by (we are so bored of buses), with people hanging off the sides and jumping on moving trains to sell various items, it was like a scene from "Slumdog Millionaire". Happily we arrive in Varanasi on time-ish and although very dirty and tired, still intact.

Our time in Varanasi has been dictated by one major factor, the unrelenting heat. We knew we were going to India in their summer but 45 degree with no breeze is not funny and from the looks of the forecast we arn't going to see anything less for the remainder of the trip, cheers! British weather is starting to seem very enticing indeed (never thought I'd say that...). Due to this we decided upon an AC room, very rare for us, but with Varanasi's electrical grid system being from 2500BC we have spent half our time without it! Varanasi is the Hindu holy city and thousands of Indians come every day to bath in the water and worship on the banks of the Ganges, in one of the tens of Ghats along the river bank. Our first evening was spent, alongside Aussie Pilot Ben, watching the evening ceremonies unfolding along the river with thousands of Hindus. Varanasi comes alive both in the early morning and later evening (mainly due to the heat) and the Ganges bank turns into an open air temple with music and fire making the place seem both mystical and magical. We also attempted a day walk through the alleys of Varanasi which are a maze of shit and cows, we were lost before we started as was every other white person we met.

The next morning we took a 5.30am boat cruise along the Ganges with Ben which again provided us with incredible scenes of the locals using the river for every task under the sun! Literally everything. The furthest point of the trip took us to a burning Ghat where we watched a river side cremation. Although shocking at first, this seems to fit their way of life perfectly as everything is returned to the holy river. After that we fruitlessly went to a fort which we didn't go in, cheers Lonely Planet, but the crazy auto-rickshaw ride there more than made up for it. We hid from the heat of the sun and spent the evening chilling in our hotel roof top bar watching and listening the scenes unfold again as they do everyday at this spectacular venue. Another morning visit to see the main burning Ghat and our time in Varanasi was up. Tonight a night train to Agra and lower seats in sleeper class again, get in!