Varanasi Day 1

14th of March will never exist for me. I left SFO on the 13th and flew to Hong Kong and then to Delhi. I waited in Delhi for 10 hours before my next flight to Varanasi. Long plane flight that seemed to never end.

Once leaving the airport in Varanasi I jumped in a taxi and made it (an hour later) to my hotel. The further we got away from the airport and the closer we got to the middle of the city I noticed a change in the appearance of the area around store fronts. As we went further away they started to get more organized, the road started to get a little better and the there were more and more people. I saw a few places with glass instead of broken bricks and I saw newer paint on some of the buildings. I'm not saying that in the city there are not broken roads or broken down buildings, just seems like less of them. Lots of people walking everywhere as well as on motorbikes and bicycles. Lots of rickshaws and small cars to also transport people from one place to another.

I once viewed honking as an annoyance, just people being caught up in their own world and pissed of at someone else for slowing them down. Now I believe that there must be another reason why the people of India would honk. I believe they honk so often to tell the person in front of them that they are about to pass them. Who knows they may also just be honking to tell everyone else around them that they are alive. There are no rules on the road as I have later found out.

My hotel room is very simple. Two rooms one with a bed and a small desk and a small closet the other a shower/toilet/sink. I have a balcony with a spot to sit and stare at some other buildings behind the hotel. The bed is not clouds, but when I close my eyes because I can't keep them open any longer I don't notice the difference. My walls are pink with a white ceiling. I have a fan and a small table with a phone on it next to the bed. There are old school switches on the walls where you flick a switch so that power will be turned on to the thing you want to use. There is a great restaurant at the bottom of the stairs with all kinds of food. I'm still well so I'm guess the food is all good.

I took a nap once I got to the hotel and woke up before the sun went down. So I strolled around the streets to get a sense of where I was. Lots of vendors, bikes, bicycles, rickshaws. There were cows walking or lying in the streets. Lots of very under feed dogs. Kids playing games with marbles or wood sticks, tires or just sitting by. Lots of delicious looking fruit and vegetables being sold (don't worry I wasn't buying). Spices, nuts, cloths, food. Trash riddled the streets and back alleys. Some paint was left from the Holi celebration. The footing for the back alley ways were cobble or stone and explore deeper into the city were small homes broken down buildings. As it started to get dark I made my way back to my hotel just off one of the main drags. I got some food and went to bed.

I woke up from a dream with the immediate feeling that I had missed my pick up time with the group I would be traveling with. I looked at my clock and sure enough it said 8:25. I had five minutes left for the time they said they would meet me in-between (8 and 8:30). I threw my stuff in my bad and gathered anything else I had. Locked my door. Ran down stairs and told the guy at the front desk that I was checking out because I was meeting up with a group momentarily. I paid, I signed and sat on the couch. Once I started to form clear thoughts again I realized it was still dark outside and I couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour. I got my key back and went back to my room for a sleepless nights rest. Funny how the mind works.