24/03/2011
Most tourists to india, especially first timers, will be seen carrying 'The (holy) Lonely Planet Guide to India', obviously we are, and it can be a little ray of light in the darkness. Possibly comparable to the light of Earendil, which galadriel gives to frodo for times of dispair. It also fills you with a little bit of joy when you see another tourist carrying the same one...yey they are also confused and I can have a real conversation with them!
In Gorakhpur it well and truly let us down.
In the jeep I had cooled considerably and we were both prepared to try our luck at the station, hopefully moving us straight on to Varanasi. The lonely planet described gorakhpur station as a place of hope and reasonable ease where there was a very helpful tourist information office and even told us which ticket station we could get our tickets. At about 12pm we walked into the station and at first felt hopeful...nobody was harrassing us...we could take our time and get it right. We strolled past the massive cow sat amongst the passangers, chuckled, glanced at the man in tourist office and began to look for booth 118. I think counter 118 must be similar to platform 9 and 3/4 and, unless you are in fact a wizard (neither of us are, though alicia sometimes says she looks like one) it is impossible to find. Slightly disgruntled at our lonely planet's unhelpful information we decided it best to go to the tourist office. The tourist office was locked. It was 12.30 though so maybe the guard had gone for lunch, waiting here we sat down...lots of people were staring. We changed our mind and got up, I saw a guard hitting a boy with stick. Maybe we should go get some cash whilst we wait...the lonely planet says 'there is a 24hr ATM just outside the station'...the ATM was out of service.We went back to the station, still nobody in the office. 'Maybe we should ask someone' apparently there is only one person in Gorkhpur station who speaks any english (i wish i had tried harder to learn hindi). This is what happened.
Firstly, he approached us as we looked confused and I had just moved alicia away from the boy, who had previously been being hit with a stick, when he came and stood next to her and stared. This english speaking gentleman was tall and wearing a suit.
'Where from?'(thankgod someone who might be able to help)
'England'
'how you like India?'
'Very good'
'What is your qualification?'
'theatre,'
'What is your qualification?'
'erm, Degree?'
'No, no, what is your QUALIFICATION?'
'theatre, degree, university'
'WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION?
'degree, theatre, lights, college, acting, film, cinema, painting?????'
'NO, WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION?!!!'
(at this point we had a reasonable crowd around us, including the stick battered boy)
'sorry'
'YOU DONT UNDERSTAND, WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION!!!!'
I look to alicia for back up. In the most nonchalant way, without looking (though i could feel her anger vibes) alicia says 'No, you dont understand us, we understand perfectly thankyou, lets go'
We walked away and as we did, saw the young boy being chased away by a different guard, this time, hitting him with a slipper. Interesting, entertaining...very unhelpful. We were still stuck at gorakhpur station with no help. More trauma in gorakhpur tomorrow...iv run out of internet time again!
Most tourists to india, especially first timers, will be seen carrying 'The (holy) Lonely Planet Guide to India', obviously we are, and it can be a little ray of light in the darkness. Possibly comparable to the light of Earendil, which galadriel gives to frodo for times of dispair. It also fills you with a little bit of joy when you see another tourist carrying the same one...yey they are also confused and I can have a real conversation with them!
In Gorakhpur it well and truly let us down.
In the jeep I had cooled considerably and we were both prepared to try our luck at the station, hopefully moving us straight on to Varanasi. The lonely planet described gorakhpur station as a place of hope and reasonable ease where there was a very helpful tourist information office and even told us which ticket station we could get our tickets. At about 12pm we walked into the station and at first felt hopeful...nobody was harrassing us...we could take our time and get it right. We strolled past the massive cow sat amongst the passangers, chuckled, glanced at the man in tourist office and began to look for booth 118. I think counter 118 must be similar to platform 9 and 3/4 and, unless you are in fact a wizard (neither of us are, though alicia sometimes says she looks like one) it is impossible to find. Slightly disgruntled at our lonely planet's unhelpful information we decided it best to go to the tourist office. The tourist office was locked. It was 12.30 though so maybe the guard had gone for lunch, waiting here we sat down...lots of people were staring. We changed our mind and got up, I saw a guard hitting a boy with stick. Maybe we should go get some cash whilst we wait...the lonely planet says 'there is a 24hr ATM just outside the station'...the ATM was out of service.We went back to the station, still nobody in the office. 'Maybe we should ask someone' apparently there is only one person in Gorkhpur station who speaks any english (i wish i had tried harder to learn hindi). This is what happened.
Firstly, he approached us as we looked confused and I had just moved alicia away from the boy, who had previously been being hit with a stick, when he came and stood next to her and stared. This english speaking gentleman was tall and wearing a suit.
'Where from?'(thankgod someone who might be able to help)
'England'
'how you like India?'
'Very good'
'What is your qualification?'
'theatre,'
'What is your qualification?'
'erm, Degree?'
'No, no, what is your QUALIFICATION?'
'theatre, degree, university'
'WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION?
'degree, theatre, lights, college, acting, film, cinema, painting?????'
'NO, WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION?!!!'
(at this point we had a reasonable crowd around us, including the stick battered boy)
'sorry'
'YOU DONT UNDERSTAND, WHAT IS YOUR QUALIFICATION!!!!'
I look to alicia for back up. In the most nonchalant way, without looking (though i could feel her anger vibes) alicia says 'No, you dont understand us, we understand perfectly thankyou, lets go'
We walked away and as we did, saw the young boy being chased away by a different guard, this time, hitting him with a slipper. Interesting, entertaining...very unhelpful. We were still stuck at gorakhpur station with no help. More trauma in gorakhpur tomorrow...iv run out of internet time again!
No comments:
Post a Comment