Sorry I have been a bit slack in keeping things updated. We have been travelling such long distances that when we get somewhere, the last thing I want to do is get on the internet. From Varanasi we got a train to a place called Lucknow. Shane had seen it on ‘The Amazing Race’ and this was the reason why he wanted to go. Apparantly the food was good too and it is famous for kebabs. The kebabs we deep fried, small rolled up veggie patties and were not ‘good’… Thanks Shane.

The time in Lucknow was great and it has a rich history with the British. It was the place where the Indians took on the British and fought an 87 day battle at the British residency in 1857. There are cannon ball and bullet holes at the residency (which is a series of buildings spread around a large maintained garden. As a result of this battle, Lucknow is a place of great national pride.

However the highlight was Bara Imambara which is a huge building which contains a labyrinth with over 1000 different route possibilities. I’ve never seen such incredible and unusual architecture, and because the walls are hollow, a whisper reverberates all throughout the small narrow halls. So as you’re walking down, whispers are coming from everywhere as though you are in a horror movie. 

The food definitely didn’t warrant the long distance and the town is not really equipped for tourists - little english, everyone staring at us, a few guys heckling me, and we only saw 4 whities in 2 days, but overall it was an interesting experience - very modern and a unique Indian snapshot which is Western in one sense, but not at all geared for Westerners. 

My favourite meal wasn’t the tastiest, but was the best experience. We went to a very local restaurant - dirty, low plastic chairs, everyone eating with their hands etc. It was packed with Indian’s and there was only one choice on the menu - veg or non veg. We had an absolute feast of different curries, rice and unlimited chapati (I had 5). The bill came to 60 rupees for the three of us (50 cents each). 

We left Lucknow to head to Amritsar and arrived at the train station one hour early to make sure we didn’t miss it. It was due at 6pm, but it didn’t arrive until 8.30pm. There were no updates and it was very hard to find information. It also changed platforms at the last minute for no apparent reason which left us feeling very flustered. The train station at Lucknow was the dirtiest place I have ever been to and there were rats everywhere feasting on the rubbish. There are also people EVERYWHERE and it was incredibly humid as we sat on our bags waiting on the platform. It was also interesting when there was a power cut and we were left in darkness surrounded by rats and extremely poor people - a rather unpleasant and disconcerting mix.

But we finally got the train which ended up being 19 hours long and by the time we arrived in Amristsar we were frustrated as hell as we had been travelling for almost 24 hours. More on Amritsar soon