Posted by Catherine

Today was our last day in Varanasi. We were up very early & in the hotel lobby at 5:30am. It was still quite dark outside so there were lots of sleepy eyes in our group.

We loaded up into motorized auto-rickshaws & headed off towards the Ganges. Traveling through the city at this early hour was much different than at other times of the day. There was far less traffic & we saw lots of people starting their day in shops & in all sorts of vehicles delivering various food & other products to all the stores along the way.

As we got closer to the river the traffic got a bit heavier with lots of people just like us – going to see the sunrise.We arrived at the riverbank just as the sky was beginning to get light.

Manu had us all board the boat he had hired along with his special surprise! He had arranged for two local musicians – a master sitar player and his nephew who played the tabla – to serenade us as the sun was rising.

It was simply beautiful! The sun rose over the far bank of the river & a full moon still hung in the air over the city. (One of our travel group colleagues took the photo below).

Needless to say, there were lots of oooos & ahhhs to the spectacular sunrise complimented by the beautiful music.

Plus there was chai tea served from a metal tea pot into freshly made clay cups! Manu certainly “hit this one out of the park”. Everyone on the tour will remember this for the rest of our lives.

After the sun was rising well into the sky our group returned to the hotel for breakfast. It was still only 8:30am & we had until 12:30 noon to check out of our room.

After enlightenment, the laundry. We saw laundry workers doing the hotel laundry in the Ganges and hanging it up to dry along with several saris spread out on the walkway.

We had the luxury of getting laundry done at the hotel which we were pretty sure wasn’t beaten on a board in the river. It came back crisply folded around stiff sheets of paper.

Better than new! I’m hoping my roommate will do the same thing for me at home but she says – dream on buddy!

The group members all had free time until 1:30pm when the plan was to go out to a nearby restaurant for lunch. I was feeling a little “off” so Catherine & I decided to stay at the hotel & have a light lunch at their restaurant.

After lunch we took some comfortable seats in the lobby & began to check our emails & to start writing this blog entry. Shortly after we sat down there was a commotion in the lobby as large Indian wedding party arrived for a post wedding ceremony celebration in the hotel’s event dining room.

After the main wedding party passed through several smartly dressed teenage boys sat down on the couches adjacent to where we were. One of them came over to us, extended his hand & said hello. When he realized that we were open to conversation with him he politely asked many questions: why are you here, where are you from, what are your names, how old are you, do you have children?

Then his buddies came over for photo ops with us. There was such a happy commotion that the noise & chatter enticed many others from the wedding party to meet & be photographed with us. Grandfather of the groom, aunt & uncle of the groom, nieces, nephews & cousins of the bride & groom. One of the uncles was a minister in the Indian government & another relative was an MP for the region. So many people – it was like a party but it was also like trying to drink water from a fire hose!

Someone behind us sprinkled us with Marigold petals & gave us each a rose which enhanced the photo ops.

Once things quieted down a bit a woman & a young girl, both wearing beautiful dresses came over, sat with Catherine & had a small conversation while many more photos were taken. I wonder if any will end up in the bride & groom’s wedding photo album 🙂

Serenity at sunrise, happy wedding chaos in the afternoon. What could possibly be next? Oh yes, I almost forgot – an 16 hour overnight train journey from Varanasi to Orchha!

It was an epic voyage! The train station was only a five minute walk from the hotel and teeming with people. Our luggage was carried by porters Manu had arranged for us. These men work hard for their wages (100 rupees per bag – $2.00), are proud of what they do and appreciated our business.

There are 5 classes of travel on Indian trains and we were smack dab in the middle.

We were assigned seats facing each other on one side of the compartment. The bottom seats folded into a narrow bed and there was a bunk above.

On the other side of the compartment were benches that folded down into three tiers of bunks, for six beds altogether. The lads from London were across from us

The rest of the group were in other compartments.

We were each given two clean white sheets wrapped in brown paper while there already was a blanket and small pillow on the bunk.

I sat up for awhile but Cath made up her bunk – just like being on the sailboat!

Bedtime was 10:00 pm. People were coming and going all night.

The train was fairly smooth and quiet so we managed a bit of sleep. I have no idea how people knew where they were as there were no announcements, only about 30 stops!

Manu appeared around 6:00 am to tell us that the train was about 3 hours late, and we would arrive in Jhansi around 10:00 am. Give or take. We are on IST – not Indian Standard Time but Indian Stretchable Time.

We got in around 10:00 am, hopped into an auto-rickshaw for a half hour ride to Orchha. This is what greeted us when we got in. Stunning & right beside our hotel!