Last days in India

We arrived back in Delhi early this evening, Monday 29 April after a long day on the road.  Yesterday we drove from Varanasi to Lucknow, stayed the night in Lucknow - nothing to report.  The hotel was on the outskirts of town.  It was grotty and the only helpful staff member was a (near) toothless elderly waiter.  Maybe they were tired as it is wedding season and they were packing up from one that day and setting up for another for today.  No excuse for bad manners or uncleanliness.

Sugarcane juice on the side of the road at the train crossing

Another roadside snack - salted cucumber

Today the drive from Lucknow to Delhi was full of sights as everyday in India normally is.  There was numerous truck mishaps, trucks being driven to body works for fit out, oddities on bikes, full to the brim taxis and more.

Oops!

And again!

Bangles followed by more bangles

Family of 4

Milk pickup by motorbike & on the right a semi of new tractors

Oops again &again!

New semi drives along the highway to body works to be fitted out

Not one but two goats

Lucky he's got a little bottom

Varanasi - catch up day

Today we sat around and caught up on emails and writing multiple blogs, while we have Internet.  There is a mall up the road so we wandered up there and had McDonalds for lunch.  We don’t even eat it at home but we have had it 3 times in 5 months in India.  Jim had the McChicken burger and I had the McVegie burger, it was fresh and tasty. 

The mall had four levels but not all the shops were occupied. The shops were western shops, the Levi shop, Reebok etc.  Too dear for us, we’re on a budget.  On the top floor was the cinema centre.  I thought it would be good to go see a movie as I do like Bollywood films but the ones I have seen have subtitles.  Sitting through 3 hours with no subtitles would be too much.

Jyoti was our first female tour guide in India, what luck for us.  She was a vibrant young lady and was an Indian doppelganger for my niece Shannae.  We told Jyoti and she was delighted as was Shannae when I emailed her yesterday with a photo of Jyoti.  Even their laugh and mannerisms were the same. 

This evening Jyoti came to the hotel with gifts of hair ties and jewellery for Shannae and I.  What a lovely thought.

Whilst writing this final blog for the day (it is 10.30pm) there are two weddings going on at the hotel.  We have just watched the second wedding party arrive in grand style with fireworks and a band. 

Remember back to one of the earlier blogs in Mandawar, the first night of our Rajasthan road trip I was kept up all night from a wedding, I hope it doesn’t happen here.  We have been watching the wedding reception areas being set up during the day.  Walking back from the hotel restaurant after dinner we were peering through the windows checking out the reception areas.  A man saw us looking so offered to take us inside for a look.  They were beautifully decorated with garlands of fresh flowers, rosebuds with coloured twisted twigs entwined with fairy lights placed about.  The perfume and incense finished off the room perfectly.  Just beautiful. 

The Golden Arches - we were asked to put our camera away

The wedding reception area

Jyoti and me - I am wearing Jyoti's gift of necklace, hair clip & earrings

Family now

Varanasi evening sights

Every night at sunset there is a Hindu ceremony held at the Ghats.  

Due to the high number of pilgrims and tourists there are numerous ceremonies at different Ghats along the river.  The ceremony is in honour of the river Ganges – Mother Ganga. 

Whilst driving to the river through the heavy traffic Jim says to Deepak how are you handling the traffic?  He answers, “ at least in Delhi there are rules and people follow them”, we laughed.  They weren’t obvious to us.  Sounds like Sydney drivers versus Melbourne drivers.

Deepak parked the car in a car park and we caught two rickshaws from that point along the road a bit of a way and through the market to the Ghat.  Jyoti and I went in one rickshaw and Jim and Deepak in the other.  It was great to be sitting up high looking at all the sights.

It was a bit difficult to get into the spirituality of the ceremony because of the distractions surrounding us.  The boat traffic was frantic.  The atmosphere in general was special regardless.

After the ceremony we walked back through the market, no rickshaws for our return trip.  It was a mass of people to move through.  Jyoti was so sweet and caring she held my hand for most of the way worried I was going to get lost in the thick of it.  Whilst Deepak went and fetched the car from the car park Jyoti, Jim and I sat at the traffic police corner and watched the traffic.  It is amazing what each and every person is up to at every house of the day in this vast country.

Deepak & Jim on their rickshaw

The market place

Jyoti and I on our rickshaw

Who are these people

The cremation Ghats in full swing

The boat traffic

Looking at the ceremony on the Ghats from our boat

Varanasi afternoon sights

We visited Sarnath, the Buddhist city 13kms out of Varanasi, a continuation from Varanasi now but once a separate town.  

It is an important place for Buddhist pilgrims to visit because Buddha gave his first sermon there.  Even though it was hot it felt cooler in Sarnath because there are lots of trees.  It was once a forest and many remain today.

Jyoti told us Varanasi is famous for three foods: bell juice, spicy lassi and curd.  She asked if we were keen to try any of them.  As usual I said yes, Jim gave a quick no! We all laughed.  We stopped at her favourite roadside lassi cart.  Watching the man make them I was thinking what have I agreed to.  He put in a mint paste, chopped up red onion, green chillies, lemon juice and curd (yoghurt) sprinkled with coriander and cumin seeds.  What a bizarre taste, it was like drinking a curry meal.  I love a sweet lassi because they are equivalent to a fruit smoothie but I could only drink half of the spicy lassi, it is an acquired taste. 

The cart next door was selling bell juice.  Jyoti said it tastes like lemon and you add either sugar or salt or both.  As much as I have loved a fresh lemon soda nearly every day I didn't want to offend (a second time) if I couldn't drink it after not finishing the spicy lassi.  Jim should have tried it though as it has medicinal qualities for stomach complaints and his tummy is still gurgling. 

Next stop the silk emporium.  There was a demonstration on a hand loom, poor man we dragged him away from his lunch.  The handloom was referred to as the modern handloom, we all gulped.  It looked ancient to us.  It is the modern loom because the pattern is designed and put on cards that are fed through the loom.  It takes 15 days to make a scarf and using the manual hand loom takes two craftspeople and twice as long.  The manual handloom is a dying art because no one wants to learn the old hard way.  It is the way of the world – can’t say I blame anyone in this case.  The work is outsourced to local villagers where the hand looms are set up.  You can only image the villagers get paid a pittance. 

Varanasi is known for its silk products, the silk comes from Kashmir and the weaving is done here.  The things you learn. 

Back to the hotel for a 2-hour rest.  Jyoti joined us as her village is a 45 minute drive away on her scooter.  We enjoyed lunch with her and learning all about her life.  She is a modern Indian woman breaking with tradition but that is a whole other story.  Her path is a hard one but she is to be admired for her bubbly persona and positive outlook on her complicated life. 

Man working the loom

Bell outside Buddhist temple

Inside Buddhist temple

Inside Buddhist temple

The Lassi cart

Sunrise on the River Ganges 26 April

Deepak and Jyoti, our local guide met us at 5am at our hotel – Hotel Surya.

We were off to see the sunrise and the pilgrims praying (from a boat) on the River Ganges. 

Jim commented that there was still traffic at that time of day.  I said it is a bit like the tradies’ traffic in Sydney that starts at 6am, an equivalent of sorts.  It was so nice to have our own space (rare in India) when walking the narrow alleyways down to the Ganges. 

The Ganges was everything we thought it would be.  Wide, dirty, polluted but magical.  It had a calm and peaceful feeling to it even if there was the odd tout (salesperson) around at 5.30am trying to sell you postcards and bindi tikka (what the Hindu woman wear - signifies marriage).  

It didn’t take long for more boats to fill up the river.  Once again we are lucky we are travelling in the summer months, the off-season for tourists.  I would hate to be here in peak season.

We did buy a puja (offering) to place in the water of Mother Ganga (the river).

Watching the oarsman take a drink from the river Jim’s comment was “I would rather clean my teeth with poo”.  Well, he almost did.  He moved from one side of the boat to the other and the boat over balanced.  We all got a fright.  The oarsman gave us a toothy grin.

After the boat ride we walked through the maze of activity in the narrow alleyways.  Locals, pilgrims and tourists all on their way to somewhere and doing something. 

We were back at the hotel for breakfast by 8.30am and a rest before meeting Jyoti again at 1pm.

5.30am arrival at the Ghats

Salespeople even on the Ganges - is nothing sacred

Our pujas floating away

Jyoti and I

Pilgrims 

More pilgrims

Cremation Ghats

Drive from Khajuraho to Varanasi 25 April (ANZAC day)

Yesterday’s road trip from Khajuraho to Varanasi was another long one, 8 hours.  The roads were generally in an okay state but there seemed to be a constant parade of pedestrian traffic either hanging by the side of the road or trying to cross it.  Unnerving at times, you think they are going to be run over.  

Deepak has a good sense of humor he said yesterday the game Zombie Highway could be renamed the MP/UP Highway.  MP for Madhya Pradesh and UP for Uttar Pradesh, the two states we drove through.  Khajuraho is in MP and Varanasi is in UP.  The object of the game is to gain the highest score possible while driving your car along the highway with zombies jumping out at you.  You are given guns of various calibre to help you gain more power hence kill more zombies and go up a level.  Deepak is hooked.  He is on a higher level than Jim and JC now.  What do you expect, he did stay up till midnight the other night playing.

The road we travelled from Khajuraho to Varanasi is not widely used by tourists.  Apparently most tourists either fly around the states or catch the train.  I can understand it after travelling these roads it would be a shame to miss the countryside, the villages and village life that you get to see by driving and also the interesting food stops.  Deepak, at times has trouble finding a restaurant for us to eat at.  Like I said because these roads are not widely used by tourists there aren’t what Deepak refers to as ‘clean’ restaurants for us but yesterday we took a chance at a truck stop.  What a surprise!  The dahl and roti were fantastic, some of the best we’ve had.  The roti was being rolled in front of us, cooked and put on our plates puffed up and steaming hot.  I asked for dahl - not spicy please, it was really good with fresh coriander and mustard seeds.  I still left a little pile of green chillies on the side of my plate though.  Jim had coke and chips, he is always a tad reluctant to eat at roadside places and his tummy is still settling.  The meal of coke, chips, water, 6 roti, 2 dahl and 2 chai (tea) was 165 rps ($3).  What a bargain!  We were so lucky to stop at a place with such good cooks and fresh produce.  We would normally pay between $8 and $10 at a tourist stop.  I must say whatever amounts we have paid for food it has always tasted good.  It is just luck of draw if you end up with a funny tummy or not. 

It is Friday(26th) morning 9.19 am, we were up this morning at 4.30 am to go to the Ghats at sunrise.  My eyes are burning writing this so I think I’ll have a little lie down and post a blog about the Ghats in a little while.  Until then it is nice to be sharing our experiences with you again. 

Leaving Khajuraho, driving through the nature reserve

Jim visiting the ATM (yet again) so much easier than travellers cheques

MP countryside - harvest time

The village well, normally situated right on the road side

MP rural village housing 

Driving into UP 

Khajuraho sightseeing Wed 24 April

Khajuraho is a large village/small town with a population of 18,000.  Mukesh, the local guide was proud to say his small town has small problems.  Sanjay the guide at Orchha said a similar thing.  They are very proud of their small villages.  Indians in general love their country and are a very proud race.  It seems we are the only ones that see the rubbish and pollution. 

Anyway, I digress Khajuraho is a world heritage site with temples dating back to 950-1050 AD.  The temples were built by the Chandela dynasty over a hundred-year period.  Originally there were 85 in total with many lakes.  Today there are 22 remaining with only 2 lakes.  The temples were re-discovered in the early 20^th century, cleaned and restored.  Apparently due to the location of Khajuraho being difficult to get to, this is the reason the temples were saved from being desecrated over the centuries.  End of history lesson, just wanted to let you know the background because the place is interesting.

Mukesh showed us the Eastern area, then walked with us through the old village and ended with a tour of the Western area.  We used an audio tour for the Western area because it is so large, took 2.5 hours to walk around.  Khajuraho is renown for the erotic carvings on the temples and there are many but they only account for 10% of the carvings but make for a good Karma Sutra story.  I haven't included any erotic temple photos per se but if you look close enough you might see something.

For dinner we went to a Italian (organic) restaurant for wood fired pizza, couldn't resist.  Every day at least one meal we eat Indian fare so when we see something more to our norm we are tempted.  Jim and I enjoyed ours, Deepak ordered vegetable fried rice.  Deepak had one piece of Jim's Tropicana pizza (chicken and pineapple - no ham in India) he said "tastes like roti" (Indian bread cooked in the tandoor - clay oven).  It did actually but yummy all the same.

 

You have to look closely (you may need to enlarge the photo)