Sarnath and one heck of a train!

Starting to feel a little more normal we need to get out of this room!

We take craziest Autorick ride yet to Sarnath, a village about 13kms from Varanasi where Buddha made first sermon.

We, yep, behind those pipes are homes!

And tonnes of litter.

Sarnath.

We decide when we arrive that after the hair raising journey, the fact that the midday sub us out and we're all feeling abit ropey, that we just can't be bothered. 

We see a couple of birds at the Deer Park 

Pose for some selfies and then lay under a tree.

One thing that we do love is the open, green space with relatively fresh air and not too much litter!

We have one last meal at the Varanasi Bakery and Cafe before heading off.

We're gonna miss these narrow, foul smelling streets with random cows.

Mughal Sarai is not a pleasent train station to hang around even more so a night. At one point Mark goes to speak to someone about our train and I begin to feel quite intimidated. We have several groups of men surrounding us and just staring. Personal space does not seem to be important here.

It's interesting to watch people climbing over the train tracks, big families all sleeping together on their plastic sheets, at one point a cow even appears on our platform! 

It becomes less fun when you are being gawked at and you find out your 10.30pm train is running three hours late.

Just as the boys are sleeping the announcement cones over that our train will be arriving at a different platform. Two very tired boys have to run the gauntlet through the sea of bodies to get to our train. At 2am they finally can get a good sleep in our private (thank the lord) carriage. I cannot sleep. Too many images running through my mind.

Views from the train.

We arrive in Tundla, taxi to Agra and am happy to report our homestay is fab and just a short walk to Taj Mahal. That's tomorrows plan at sunrise.

Delicious chicken curry, pashwari paneer and Malai Kotai. We well and truly have our appetites back. 

And now rest, we have an early appointment with a big white palace.

PS, thanks for well wishes, boys were ok, just grown ups with bug!