Is this Africa?...but wham! India right in the face!

I have a bit of time here to update the blog

Took the overnight train to Guwahati on the 4th class (known as sleeper) in which they pack 8 people into a "cabing" area. The same classes on Russia and Chinese trains have only 6 people in them, so it tells you about the crowding. From Guwahati I took the bus to Kazinranga National Park. Even on the bus ride over to Kazinranga, famous for its rhinos, I saw 4 rhinos. My time in Kaziranga would be nice in terms of wildlife, but also a bit stressful for several reasons (aside from worrying about getting resumes, cv's, cover letters, and government internet website applications done when one has not their own computer). When I arrived, I found there was a festival for the Assamese going on and all of the hotels were basically booked. I walked around to every one and although there were no Westerners in the town I was only able to find rooms for the 3 nights I wanted to stay at 3 separate places. So while I was there, I always had to check out at noon everyday to move to another place. I had also hoped to find an internet cafe or at least a travel agent there. This is a famous NP, so I figured there would be one. But no! No travel agent. I had not booked my train ticket leaving Guwahati while in Darjeeling, bc I wanted to stay in Kaziranga long enough to see a rhino and elephant, but no longer, so I figured I would just wait until this was done and then book the ticket. Well, there was no travel agent, and I had recently figured out that Indian train ticket bookings should be made as early as possible (especially when there is no travel agent around) as they fill up quick. There are ways to get urgent tickets (Tatkal...2 days before some are saved, a few tourist quota tickets, and some other methods), but you need the travel agent. Luckily, there was one internet place in the area...a 5km walk. That evening, realizing the rhino would be easy to see and that train tickets are hard to secure, I decided I should just decide to stay about 3 days no matter what, so that I could book my ticket. That evening, around 7 or 8 I arrived at the internet place. It looked sort of like a house and I found out it was more of a teaching place that happened to have one computer. It also looked sort of closed. But I knocked on the door, and a young gal opened it and said that they were just open 9-5, so I could come back in the morning. Of course I would be on the safari the next morning, so it would be not until the afternoon I could reach the internet, and with the Indian trains, every second counts. I had a fair amount of stress during my time in Kaziranga, but I met a few extremely nice and helpful people that made things a lot better (but this would be the last time, at least up to this point that I would say this about the Indian people as mostly they have been quite annoying, always trying to cheat you, etc. As a couple I have been travelling with now said after we had several bad interactions in a row where they really tried to cheat us..."you definitely don't come to India for the people. But assam and darjeeling where I really liked the people for the most part are sort of away from the mainstream India). She was the first one. I explained to her my situation and she let me go on the internet, so I was able to book a train. The train was full, but I got put on a waitinglist as #5. This would of course cause a bit of stress b/c I didn't have a confirmed ticket and I didn't know if being WL #5 was a good chance of getting a ticket or not. And the problem was that Guwahati is so far out of the way, that there are no busses towards main India. And if you really need to book 12 days out to get a ticket, I was getting worried I may find myself stuck there (and besides Kaziranga there wasn't much reason to stay in Assam especially since they were warring in the northern part of Assam, but safe where I was, well except that when reading in the paper you saw that a couple villagers had been attacked by a tiger and killed and the hotel people had told me that a rhino had been walking around the town and had charged a few people) But thank goodness I had been able to book then so that I could at least be WL5 instead of WL20 or something.

1/5 Safari on Elephan back early in the morning. Truly Amazing! Reminded me just like Africa in that there was a similar landscape and so many animals. It truly could have been the Serengeti. We started the trip in the morning mist, which added to the experience and made the sunrise amazing. Saw 5 rhinos (these are indian one horned and very endangered) right up close from atop the elephant. Besides the Rhinos we saw tons of hog deer and swamp deer, lots of wild boars and water buffalo. In the afternoon, I took a jeep safari through a neat lake and grassland area. Tons of rhinos (we saw at least 20), lots of waterbuffalo, eagles, vultures feasting on a tiger kill, wild boars, two types of turtles in the river. We were close to seeing a tiger as we could hear the barking deer warning calls they make when there is a tiger, but the the grass was too high (a jeep behind us would later see the tiger when it walked into the open by a lake). That evening was more train ticket hassle and stress as I tried to contact with travel agents in Guwahati to help me buy a ticket. This is when I met Hari, another extremely helpful person. He ran a little shop next to the jeep safari booking area. Trying to share a jeep for me was a huge hassle b/c there were no foreigners and for some reasons all the Indians thought I wouldn't want to share with them. Of course this would just be way too expensive if I couldn't share the 6 person jeep with 5 others. The first time I did it by myself, but it was so difficult. The next 2 times, Hari would walk over and explain it to the vacationing Indians that I didn't mind, and so he helped me out a lot there! He also made lots and lots of calls to Guwahati with contacts he knew, trying to help me find someone who could get me a ticket (he did eventually find someone who could sell me a VIP ticket, which means a gov't official ticket that won't be travelling and for about 20 dollars more, though in the end this turned out to not be necessary). He spent lots of time and made lots of calls and in the end, the day I was leaving, when I tried to pay him, he wouldn't accept the money. He was hoping to set up a travel agency in his shop and said I was good practice, and he learned a lot from me. But everynight and some afternoons I would spend in Hari's office trying to figure out tickets and him calling and all that, which was not how I wanted to be spending my evenings, but I was just so worried about getting a ticket to get out of there.

1/6 In the morning I went back to the internet place to see if I had moved up on the waitlist (no) and to see then if I could be a tatkal ticket (no, all sold out). Really feeling like I was being stranded now! And to add to this, I had skipped the morning safari to try and make sure I got the ticket and what did they see on the safari...a tiger, which is extremely rare in this park. They also saw elephants, which is something I really wanted to see.
I did the afternoon safari. Again really nice with much of the same wildlife and lots of eagles. And the highlight was 3 wild elephants! That evening I ran into Frederick and Magaline (germans, but now professors at WashU and Columbia) the only other westerners besides me I had seen. I was feeling a bit lonely as well by this time, so it was nice to hang out with them. We visited the big Assamese festival going on with some dancing and booths and other stuff. It actually felt a lot like an American fair, just with Assamese flair. They heard my train story and felt a bit sorry for me and treated me to a nice dinner and beer.

1/7 Took a morning safari to a different range of the park. The area had a nice feel with all of the lakes, grasslands, birds, and of course rhinos around. Lots of just immense buffaloes as well. That afternoon, I took the bus to Guwahati. It was delayed, so I arrived into Guwahati around 7pm, but by the time I got into the city on a city bus it was 8pm. I then proceeded to walk around for 3 hours in the city looking for accomadation. This was incredibly frustrating! And in fact I became even quite angry and a few times I guess I was just overwhelmed by emotion and partly fear and I told a few guys that I hated India and had no idea why anyone would come (b/c I likely won't get too much farther than assam in this posting, I just wanted to let you all know that I have adjusted to India, figured it out a lot more, found some companions, and doing quite well now, so don't worry). But here is why I was feeling like I was. Of course in the back of my mind I was still thinking I had no confirmed train ticket and how was I going to get out of here. The city was completely nasty, dirty, etc. Everything you would expect from an Indian city and of course even worse than most indian cities tourists visit b/c there was no like tourist area or backpacker ghetto. The city was full of hotels, but everyone I went to said they were full. I would ask kindly for help to find one that wasn't full, but they would just give this stupid little smile, do the Indian head dip, and say nothing. A few that did offer a place, directed me towards a $50+ a night 4 star place. After about 2 hours, I became suspicious that it was because I was a foreigner (in india they use that nasty term foreigner as opposed to visitor, guest, or even tourist) since I had had some issues getting the shared jeep due to me being a foreigner. Finally on a few I noticed they still had a lots of room keys hanging on their wall. I asked to see their registration book which they have to keep so I could see if all rooms were checked out. They refused saying it was private (which of course it is not b/c if I were to book a room, they would give me the book and I would sign my name and info on the page right next to everyone else's that is in clear view. So I snatched one and saw that there were plenty of rooms. It was on these occasions in which they were just so blatantly lieing to me that I lost my cool (anyone that knows me well will know it must have been quite the situation b/c I don't easily lose my cool) and told them I hated India. By now it was almost 11pm and the streets were closing up and lights were going out and I was beginning to fear I would have to sleep out on the filthy, feces filled street with the rats and other things. This had not worked out well before for me in a much, much cleaner thailand (think rat bite). Eventually I was pushy enough that I got a room, but they way way way overcharged me for this poor excuse for a room. It was quite gross and grundgy, but I set up my little mosquito tent to shelter me from the cockroaches, mice, and of course mosquitos. That evening I went to the travel agent that Hari had said would get me the VIP ticket. As we were checking to see if my ticket had been confirmed yet (no it hadn't, WL 3 now though), I saw mom on gchat. I had her call me with her cheap international call thing and she helped me to feel much better!

1/8 In the morning I went back to the travel agent. I was still WL #3, but the chart still hadn't been prepared, so there was still a chance. The train was set to leave at 12pm and at 11, while I was sitting there drinking a chai, the guy looked at me and said the chart had been prepared. He sat there looking at me for a bit, adding quite a bit of suspense, then finally he said, "and...you have been confirmed" I jumped right out of my seat, yelling, and ran over and gave him a high five!! I was going to get out of that dump of a city! I ran to my gross hotel to pack my stuff and head off to the train station to catch the train, which of course would be quite delayed, but I didn't care. This time I was on AC-2 or 2nd class which has 6 people in the cabin. I was heading to Mughal Serai which was near to Varanasi. The train took about 32 hours, but was quite relaxing for me and I got to work on my cover letters and such for the jobs.

1/9 I arrived to Mughal Serai around 8pm and attempted to get a ride for the 20kms to Varanasi. Of course the foreigner prices for taxis were ridiculous, but there was meant to be shared jeeps. Of course the jeep operator wouldn't let me on, I guess b/c I was a foreigner or something and they probably get like commission from the taxi drivers to not let foreigners on. But eventually I just forced myself onto a shared jeep and was off to Varanasi. Masato who I met in Ghorepani back in Nepal, had given me a guesthouse number that he liked, run by a japanese woman and her Indian husband. Since I love the japanese and was in need of something I loved, I had booked a placed at Kumiko's guesthouse. It was a lovely place, overlooking the ganges and full of friendly and ever so polite Japanese. It had a special japanese buffet breakfast and lots of charm. It was great. And that is when things turned around for me and since then India has been much better. I mean of course you still have the super annoying touts, all the people trying to cheat you, the smells, the nasty cities, etc, etc...but those things don't bother me so much now and they are more things you joke around with to the people you are traveling with. And the cool things of india, the sights, the food, the festiveness, the color, etc, etc, far overshadow the negative things for the most part.

1/10 In varanasi it was extremely cold (30F as the low and the coldest recorded there...in the paper it said that 87 people had died of cold already that january in the varanasi area) and thus very foggy in the mornings. So instead of the dawn boatride, I shared an after breakfast boat ride with 2 japanese guys from the guesthouse. The boat goes along the very holy Ganges river past the bathing ghats where Indian Hindu pilgrims come to bathe and wash away their sins and also wash their clothes. The ghats are full of life (even kids playing cricket along them) with so much color and festiveness. Some say they are the beating heart of India. The Ganges in lined with temples and palaces for the old royalty that used to come to the bathing ghats, so of course the architecture is very nice as well. The architecture mixed with the river and the bathers and other activity going on along the ghats just created a cool visual spectacle. There are also the burning ghats where you can be cremated and sent off into the river...though they now also have electric cremations as well as wooden ones as they are cheaper. The streets of old Varanasi are quite cool. Very narrow and winding. Filled with cows, monkeys, dogs, people selling stuff and all that. Of course you have to watch your step (like in all cities) to avoid stepping in feces (human, cow, dog, monkey), but I guess it just adds to it. I spent the afternoon doing a fair amount of computer work for jobs