My next destination was Varanasi, or as popularly known, Benares. I had two options: Go back to Kathmandu by flight, and fly to Varanasi, or go overland. The first option was the most convenient, but ridiculously expensive. I had to pay around 270 sfr for two short flights! So I chose to go overland. For that, I had to take an 8-hour bus to go to the border town, Sunauli, cross the border on foot, and take a bus to Gorakhpur, and then Varanasi by train.

The day before departure, I tried to buy the sleeper train ticket for the next day, but it was sold out. So train was not an option and I was thinking of getting the bus to Varanasi from Sunauli. I asked Lokraj to give me a ride to the bus terminal the next day, and he gladly accepted. I got the bus at 6:30 AM from Pokhara to Sunauli for 500 NPR (~6 sfr). The bus ride was expectedly rough and the road was winding up and down in mountains all the time, but the scenery was awesome.

We arrived at the city close to the border at 2:30 PM and the driver said he couldn’t go further. It was hot and humid, and I got a rickshaw (a tricycle-like vehicle that is used as a means of transport). The guy said 50 NPR, and I agreed. I felt kind of guilty, as the guy was quite old and he had to carry me and my luggage in that hot weather. But on the other hand, it’s their job, and if I don’t take it, they don’t earn money.

Anyways, it was like 2-3 km to the border, and when we got close, there was huge traffic, and I decided to hop off and walk. I walked up and as I got closer, it became more crowded and dirtier and there was a lot of dust in the air. It was so crowded and messed up, that I crossed the border of Nepal and India, without seeing a sign of immigration office. I was expecting to reach somewhere that I could pass and show my visa, but I didn’t. I even asked an officer where the border was, and he pointed me in the wrong direction! I walked on and on into India, without anyone stopping me!

You can’t imagine how hot, dirty, dusty, smelly, noisy, and messed up this place was. Certainly the worst I’ve ever seen! I was getting tired and I asked a rickshaw where the border was. He said it’s way back, and I asked him to take me there. He said 100 INR, and I haggled it down to 100 NPR, thinking that it was fair. I then found out that the price was at most 20 INR! Anyways, he took me to the immigration office, a very small and cramped place in a corner that I could never see with all those trucks jammed in traffic.

I went in and they told me that I had to go to the Nepali side and stamp my passport first. I walked back into Nepal, and tried to find the immigration office there. Again, I had to ask, otherwise I couldn’t see it in that corner. I got the stamp and walked back to India for the Indian stamp. Over there, an officer asked me where I was from, and when he found out that I’m Iranian, he greeted me warmly and we started chatting about the common history and culture of Iran and India.

When I told him that I was going to Varanasi now, he said it’s better to stay overnight in Gorakhpur. I said why, it’s only 300 km, it’s a plain road and it should take 3-4 hours at most. He was bewildered by what I said, and said that the max speed of a bus in India is 50 km/h, and as the road condition is bad and there’s lots of traffic, it’s a 10 to 12 hour ride! This meant that I had to spend the night in the bus, and I was already extremely tired. He suggested I stay in Gorakhpur overnight and go to Varanasi by train the next day. I accepted his suggestion and took a local bus to Gorakhpur for 70 INR (~1 sfr).

Before getting on the bus, I again crossed the border to Nepal to change my Nepalese Rupees to Indian Rupees. The Indian officer said I would get a better deal in Nepal than India.

A Note About Scams

Apparently India is full of touts and scams, at least in touristic areas. As a rule of thumb, you should always ignore the people that approach you. Like there was a guy that was standing at the door of the Indian immigration office, guiding tourists in. You would think that he is an officer, or something, but he wasn’t. And when the tourists exited the office, he would suggest them somewhere for changing their money, or taking “that” taxi to go to Benares. There are loads of them and one should be very careful with them.

So I got the local bus and as its name implies it was full of locals, and it was dirty and totally run down. All other tourists were swept by another bus I guess. The road condition was really bad, just slightly better than Nepal, and the bus went really slow. It stopped more than often and it took some 4 hours to do an 80 km distance! I was really happy that I did not take the direct bus to Varanasi.

I checked my Lonely Planet book of India to find a mid-range hotel quickly to spend the night. I was SO SHOCKED AND TIRED by then that I didn’t want to have a disastrous night in a dirty hotel in front of the train station, or be subjected to scam and brought to a filthy hotel by a rickshaw. I asked a local on the bus how much I should pay for the rickshaw and he said at most 20 INR for any place in Gorakhpur. I got a rickshaw to President Hotel, not far away from the train station. I didn’t even ask him how much, I just paid him 20. This was more like being a local!

The room was okay, though pricey for what it was (800 INR) and there was no hot water. My clothes were SO DIRTY, as if I had rolled in dirt. I took a shower and had dinner in the restaurant. Everything that day was so tiresome and unpleasant, but to my amazement, the food was really good! I had Chicken Masala with rice. Supposedly it was not spicy, but it was the limit of the spice that I can stand! But the taste was really good.

After dinner, I asked the people in hotel about the train to Varanasi. They said that there are two early trains at 5 and 6:40 AM, and nothing then till 4 PM. I wanted to get to Varanasi early, so I decided to get up at 4 AM and head out. But there was a problem. I had no Indian Rupees. I had to get money from an ATM first, then check out and go to the train station.

I got up at 4 the next day, and went out to find the ATM machine that they said was in front of hotel. It was pitch dark when I went out. There was just a rickshaw out there sleeping and a few homeless people sleeping beside the street. Very eerie, and potentially quite dangerous. Nevertheless, I went into a dark mall to find that ATM, and damn, it was not working. There was no point in wandering around the town at that hour to find an ATM, and I went back to the hotel.

The next day, I had two tasks to do: Find an ATM and buy train ticket. Finding a “working” ATM was not exactly straightforward, and I had to try several machines before finding one that actually worked. Those that were apparently functional, accepted the card and code, but did not give any money (Hope they have not screwed my account). Anyways, I found a working ATM, from Punjab National Bank, and got 10,000 INR. I got so much, because each time I extract money from my Maestro card, I am charged 5 sfr. Anyways, I got my ticket from the train station afterwards.

The train itself was quite an experience. As I didn’t reserve before, I could not get A/C sleeper class which is rather clean, but I got a normal 2nd class for 61 INR (~1 sfr). It is very cheap, but you get what you paid for. First of all, you don’t have a designated seat. The wagons are worn-off and the seats are expectedly quite dirty. Upon entering, a waft of urine odor and sweat hits your nose. The people are crammed up and it’s quite noisy.

But above all, what disgusted me more than anything, was the prevalence of small “cockroaches” everywhere in the train. On the ground, walls, seats, everywhere! To give you a feeling of what I say, every drop of sweat that ran down my body gave me the feeling that it’s a cockroach! I was jerking up and down every minute to avoid the cockroaches! The train stopped at various stations, and there were loads of people getting in and out. At some point, there were two guys sitting on the baggage place on top of us, and I was worrying it could break anytime!

But anyways, I still prefer this over travel by local bus, as the bus took 10 hours to reach Varanasi, but the train took around 5 hours. Should I have gone by bus, I would have had to sleep in the bus with all that constant jerking up and down.

All in all, the first day in India was a BIG SHOCK! I used to think that I was prepared for the shock of India by reading about it, and watching YouTube videos on it. Before coming, I thought that I’m so ready that when I step in India, it would be like normal to me! When I saw the dirtiness and noisiness of Kathmandu, I thought that India cannot be worse than this! But NO WAY! Nothing prepares you for the shock, until you experience it yourself!

Though not to be unfair, I roughened up my trip to Varanasi myself. I could have paid a premium price and flown to Varanasi, avoiding all the local bus and 2nd class non-sleeper non-A/C train cockroach experience. I paid overall 8 sfr for the trip from Pokhara to Varanasi, not considering the price of the hotel, and that’s what? Not even a McDonald’s menu in Switzerland! Unbelievably cheap!

Side Notes:

  • I slept with ear plugs that night in the hotel! There were dogs barking, cars honking their horns, etc., for the whole night!

  • In the train station, I went to buy the ticket from a counter on the left side that was the least crowded, where there were only a few women over there. A guy saw me and said “Mister, you should go on the other side, this side is just for women!”

  • In the train, an Indian woman was sitting beside me, extremely beautiful, pretty much a classical Indian beauty, but with a mentally handicapped son of 8 years old, very slim and suffering from a disease that made him all so jerky (he kicked my belly a lot!). He had her face, and you could see that she loves him so much, but the kid was not even understanding it. It’s a sad life.

  • Indians tend to be very inquisitive and may ask you abrupt questions about your personal life, upon meeting you. I asked a fellow in the street where I can find an ATM, and he said he will show me. The next thing he said was “What is your university degree!” They also easily look at what you’re doing with your mobile phone, like this fellow that is sitting beside me now!

  • Did I have toothache?