24/03/11
We left the station again thinking maybe we can find a hotel...the lonely planet fails again...we went to the only one we could see suggested and it was full. We also looked for an internet cafe within the vicinity and then went back to the tourist office hoping. It was still closed. In our despair we did what any lost and confuse in india people would do...I turned on my phone and prayed that we would finally have a network. O2 is rubbish for roaming in Nepal. THANKYOU GOD. We had one and did the only thing we could think of...phone dad, at some time around 8am english time we called home 'dad, we are stuck in gorakhpur station, we have been ripped of by the indians at the border, no one speaks english and the lonely planet lies, please can you go online and work out what we need to do' Bless our dad he did. Just hearing a voice that wasnt speaking hindi or asking my qualification was really all we needed and when we stepped outside whilst waiting for our dad to call back we saw another lonely planet hotel which had somehow blended into the background before. After two and a half hours we gave up trying to get a train or wait for the tourist man and booked ourselves a night in the hotel. We asked the hotel to get us a train ticket for the next morning. and they had a TV...we joyfully watched the only english film on that night 'Prince of Persia' Jake Gylenhall is hotter than a spicy indian curry. All was well and we got our train to Varanasi at 630am.
The train journey was about 7hours of indian people staring at us and the odd man running down the train shouting 'Chai, Chai, Chai!' but spreading ourselves out on the sleeper wasnt too bad and even in the souring heat we arrived ok.
We left the station again thinking maybe we can find a hotel...the lonely planet fails again...we went to the only one we could see suggested and it was full. We also looked for an internet cafe within the vicinity and then went back to the tourist office hoping. It was still closed. In our despair we did what any lost and confuse in india people would do...I turned on my phone and prayed that we would finally have a network. O2 is rubbish for roaming in Nepal. THANKYOU GOD. We had one and did the only thing we could think of...phone dad, at some time around 8am english time we called home 'dad, we are stuck in gorakhpur station, we have been ripped of by the indians at the border, no one speaks english and the lonely planet lies, please can you go online and work out what we need to do' Bless our dad he did. Just hearing a voice that wasnt speaking hindi or asking my qualification was really all we needed and when we stepped outside whilst waiting for our dad to call back we saw another lonely planet hotel which had somehow blended into the background before. After two and a half hours we gave up trying to get a train or wait for the tourist man and booked ourselves a night in the hotel. We asked the hotel to get us a train ticket for the next morning. and they had a TV...we joyfully watched the only english film on that night 'Prince of Persia' Jake Gylenhall is hotter than a spicy indian curry. All was well and we got our train to Varanasi at 630am.
The train journey was about 7hours of indian people staring at us and the odd man running down the train shouting 'Chai, Chai, Chai!' but spreading ourselves out on the sleeper wasnt too bad and even in the souring heat we arrived ok.
Oh my god - do I sympathise with all this. Poor girls, glad its all better now. The qualifications thing is funny/true - as with the staring. Have amazing adventures x x polly
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