{"id":1270,"date":"2010-12-31T04:37:16","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T03:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2010-12-31T04:37:16","modified_gmt":"2010-12-31T03:37:16","slug":"update-from-varanasi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/update-from-varanasi\/","title":{"rendered":"Update from Varanasi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After visiting Buddha&#8217;s birthplace in Lumbini and a nice x-mas dinner with friends from France, Thailand and Dutchland it was time to move on. Together with M\u00e9lanie it was a taxi that shipped us to the border. Out of Nepal was very easy. Than you walk to the Indian border. But where can we check in??<br \/>\nSo you ask here and they send you there and you walk further into India. Welcome back!<br \/>\nThan we did almost miss the little hut where 6 or so guys take care of the passport biz. Quick quick and we where on a bus toward Gorakhpur.<br \/>\nNow i did need internet on the phone. So lets go the the BSNL office. In the shared taxi a woman told me that it is holiday (x-mas!!) today and they are closed. Well lets try &#8211; and sure enough there where only 2 security guys there and everything shut. Great &#8211; but wait &#8211; this is India! The guy told me to go to the back and so we did. Than he escorted us to a small small office somewhere inside a huge file cabinet. And there was a crew of hardcore BSNL workers. Doing unpaid overtime to have the desk free for the next working day. So hello &#8211; aha &#8211; yes please take a seat. Uhu &#8211; well &#8211; i see &#8211; sorry this SIM card is from Himachal Pradesh. Oh &#8211; can i get a new one from here? No problem &#8211; a photo id, passport photo and somebody to guarantee for you! well who can do that here &#8211; i do not know nobody. Ok lets see &#8211; and the other guy went to work on the computer. Than more ppl came to see what is going on. Ok &#8211; no problem &#8211; the man at the computer did some this and that. Do you need a refill as well? Yes please! So after 10 minutes i had my internet flat for a month and 125 rp refill. Now i need the settings as well. The computer guy went to work. Big boss did order some tea and sweets and we had a cup of tea before we went back towards the hotel.<\/p>\n<p>This is the India i like &#8211; and stuff like that only happens when you travel. Thank you BSNL!!! And one month internet on the phone with data roaming all over India is only 4\u20ac!!<\/p>\n<p>The next day another bus to Varanasi. I did make the mistake to pay the fare for 2 ppl with a 500 rp note. And somehow the 2 tickets did cost 500 &#8211; ha ha never but we got good seats and somebody had to sit somewhere else. Laele had a really good hotel tip for Varanasi. Big garden and a bit away from the street &#8211; close to the river and not expensive. Emilia, Katie and Cheney are here so we try to organize something for new year tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Next year i go and visit Rita and her friends from Budapest in Bodh Gaya or go straight down to the beaches to see Efrat before she has to fly home.<\/p>\n<p>Happy 2011 to all of you!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After visiting Buddha&#8217;s birthplace in Lumbini and a nice x-mas dinner with friends from France, Thailand and Dutchland it was time to move on. Together with M\u00e9lanie it was a taxi that shipped us to the border. Out of Nepal was very easy. Than you walk to the Indian border. But where can we check&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kb_optimizer_status":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,182],"tags":[425,440],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-india","category-varanasi","tag-india","tag-varanasi"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Marc Hastenteufel","author_link":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/author\/marc\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hastenteufel.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}