So picking up where we left off, Krishna drives us back to the beginning of the alleys that lead us back to our hotel. And sadly enough, even in his drunken state, he navigates the shadows and the darkness of what I recall to be something like 13 different turns. I try to remember landmarks and general items as we hurriedly followed our tuker past old men hiding in corners, huddled over small burning fires, staying warm, and roasting whatever. As we make it back to our hotel, all I can think of is our antiquated concrete walkway and 'not up to code' balcony somehow dumping Hahn and I 40 feet onto the slabs below. This place is a deathtrap when the sun goes down. Anyway, we say good night to Krishna, and he tells us he'll see us tomorrow, and take us to some temples and whatnot. And as Hahn and I sat down, we realized we didn't have any water. In fact, the only thing we did have was a can of pepsi. So Hahn, in his infinite wisdom, and totally blotto state, states that we need to get water...like right now...at 1am. For the next 15 minutes, we debate what it would take to get water, and even though I tell him over and over again what a bad idea it would be for two fucking whities to go back out into those alleys this late, we do it anyway. But first, we have to dress as inconspicuous as possible. So we changed into plainer looking clothes...which made us look exactly not one iota different then what we looked like before, opened our door, and headed into the night. Good thing I had plenty of the brown liquid courage in me, otherwise Hahn wouldn't have stood so close behind me in case something went wrong. So we take the first couple of turns, and for whatever reason, shit seemed dark...really dark. Within the span of that half hour since we got back and ventured out, it seemed like all those crazy old guys with the fires burning disappeared. And it was silent. Really silent. We got to about turn 4, and as Hahn and I ventured half way down yet another mystery alley, a pack of wild dogs round the corner and head in our direction. The 4-5 dogs immediately start barking and snarling, and the alpha or lead dog, whatever you want to call him, slowly headed his pack towards us. I would have taken a look at Hahn and see what he had to say in order to assess the situation, but he was already 15 feet behind me, and ready to leave. Wanker. Not me however, the dogs weren't overly large, but definitely tall enough to get you in the junk with little effort and perhaps the face if they decided to get airborne. So me and my intoxication took a quick stab forward, and the alpha dog backed off a couple of steps, all the while raising hell by barking more. I turn my head and tell Hahn we could probably back these bitches down, but no sooner did I say this, then some mysterious old man appear out of the shadows to our right, and start yelling at the dogs in Indian. And just like that, the snarling fuckers followed the alpha dog back into the darkness.
Afterwards we quickly asked the old man if he had any water, and he looked at us like once again we had purple dongs growing out of our foreheads, and, like the dogs, chased us around the corner. We made it about two more alleyways before we ran into two more Indian men, and the one man, basically insisted that we turn around, yelling at us when we tried to turn either corner to the left or the right. So he beckoned us back, and sent us in the direction we came from. Which was just as well, since even if we made it all the way to the main road, I'm pretty sure we could assume that all of Varanasi was pretty much closed for the night. And with that, we were defeated.
The next day we pretty much awoke with the sun, and Hahn and I immediately set out for the great H2O search. We found water less then 200 feet away behind our hotel, in a small restaurant run by a robust middle-aged Indian man. We both bought 4 litres of cold water, and spent the next 45 minutes hanging out on a Ghat watching the reflection of the rising sun over the Ganges. We were a couple of stoops pounding water and talking about Indian culture while taking in the random stare from a passing native, or a kid looking for a handout. Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel, and shot pictures while waiting for our hotel desk to open up in order to book train tickets.
No comments:
Post a Comment