Oct 17 - Nov 20, 2001
Short Version
- Pokhara is a beautiful relaxing area 6 hours from Kathmandu, but the trek we undertake is a bit too strenuous for our liking.
- Bangladesh has little to offer, but was an interesting place to spend 6 days.
- India is always a struggle to travel in but Khajuraho & Agra have some of the most breathtaking sites in the world.
Long Version
Day 30/31 (Oct 17/18): Two rest days in Kathmandu before we're off on our big trek. We try to book our flight to Dhaka (Bangladesh) but the date we want (Nov 2) is overbooked. We're on the waitlist but are confirmed for Nov 5 at least.
Day 32: Pokhara is 180km west of Kathmandu. That's 6 hours in Nepali road language. More if there's an accident and a bunch of mad Nepali housewifes block the road until they're satisfied no more "dangerous" traffic will come by. Beside's being Nepal's 2nd largest city, Pokhara is breathtakingly beautiful. Lovely lakes, village houses built high up the green hillside and then there's the mountains. Beautiful whitecapped mountains fill 180 degrees of your vision. Of course that's on a clear day. It's cloudy when we arrive and we see nothing.
Day 33-39: Pokhara has 3 main treks. The 18-20 day Annapurna circuit that walks right around the Annapurna mountains. The 11 day route up to Annapurna base camp (ABC) and the 7-8 day Jomsom trek that is the last 1/2 of the Annapurna circuit. We opt for the latter.
TrekDay1: has us flying to Jomsom at 2700 metres. It's a service town & we quickly proceed to Kagbeni; 3 hours north. Kagbeni is a "Mustang" town & is a highlight of the route. The main Mustang villages are right on the Tibet border. Only recently have westerners been allowed to trek to them & even then it's after paying a hefty $700 fee.
TrekDay2: 1000 metres above us is the pilgrimage town of Muktinath. It's a holy site for both Buddhists & Hindu's and we are passed by a plethora of pilgrims including "Sadhu's"; holy men who wear orange robes and carry nothing more than a pot & mat. They walk in slip-on sandals that we wouldn't even trust in the shower. We opt to go up & back in the same day so we don't need to carry our packs. The strenuous 4 hour climb is rewarded by some lovely village views but Muktinath itself is a bit anticlimactic. The basis of it's holiness is the "sacred" trinity of holy water constantly flowing from 108 spouts, all of which pilgrims are supposed to bathe under, holy fire that constantly burns from a gas jet under the main temples & the sacred earth. It's great and all that but 4 hours uphill.?.?.? The walk back takes a full 3 hours (our guidebook writer was a speed demon), but we're not too exhausted & manage to spend the evening playing with 3 trilingual Nepali kids of a French expat Mum & a Tibetan Dad, also doing the trek.
TrekDay3: The hike back past Jomsom follows the Kali Gandaki river valley. It's a huge wide valley but only tiny bits of it are filled by the ice cold water of the river. To avoid having to cross it we must hike the river bank which involves ascending & descending as the path sees fit. By 11am a mean wind will be blowing up the valley so we start hiking at 8:15am. We make it to Jomsom before the wind, but our goal, Marpha, is still 2 hours away. Since we opted for the short hike, we foolishly decided to carry our own packs. The combination of wind, weight & wicked uphill is killing my wife. Tonite we make a halfhearted attempt to get a porter but our hotelier says there little call for them by this point on the trail & besides it's Dashain festival time; Nepal's holiest festival. Everyone will want to be with their family.
TrekDay4: Today's goal is Kalopani which has the 2nd best views on our hike. Typical for this area though when we arrive in the afternoon it's clouded over. We redouble our efforts for a porter & are lucky to get Prayhan. He's about 3/4 the size of Louise and his $10 daily wage (including room & board) is a little steep, but we're delighted.
TrekDay5: Off to the resort town of Tatopani (we're beginning to think 'pani' must be Nepali for village or something). It's a punishing 1400 metre descent, but it's interesting to watch the terrain change from rocky river valley to lovely rhododendron forest. Lunch is spent overlooking a 100 metre waterfall & watching Lou do some emergency foot care. It takes 7 hours to complete our 24km journey and we're as exhausted as ever, but our hotel has a beautiful garden & patio (we can pick oranges from our hotel room). The highlight however is Tatopani's famous hotsprings & we waste no time in getting to them. After a hour we feel fully civilized & go off to gorge ourselves on Tatopani's equally famous food. Even in Kathmandu we never found deserts as good as on this section of the trail.
TrekDay6: What goes down must come up & today's 1600 metre ascent has been hanging over our heads since day 1. The trail is punishing. Even our porter pants. We stop to rest every 10-20 minutes, and when we are walking I frequently turn to see Louise's sad looking face getting ever more distant behind me. Our motivation is the breathtaking views of Ghorepani; a 180 degree panorama of white capped mountains including the beautiful Dhaulghari & several Annapurna's (who knew there was more than one!). As always when we arrive it's cloudy but tomorrow morning promises to be beautiful. Most hikers pay $1.50 for a small room with shared bathroom, but we routinely go for the luxury of a private bathroom and extra space. $5 well spent. But Ghorepani's only hotel with attached bathrooms is full. We end up in a 8' by 8' plywood box. It doesn't have plumbing but it does have two big picture windows!
TrekDay7: Most people are up at 4:30am for the one-hour hike up Poon Hill. I however have found sunrises to be a little overrated so I depart at 6:20. Louise has found all uphill hiking to be overrated & decides to depart when hell freezes over. On my way up I pass no less than 200 people descending. The Jomsom trek is definitely not an isolated wilderness experience. The views at the top however are truly breathtaking. The glaciers look magical clinging to the side of the mountains. I spend ages staring trying to decide what route climbers take to get up these 8000 metre giants. Today's our last day & Louise looks almost human. It's a full 7 hours though, so we rush off as soon as possible. The 1800 metre descent is the longest of the whole Annapurna circuit and the only thing that keeps us going is pitying the people hiking up! We pass numerous rushing creeks, ancient villages & incredible hillside views but the highlight is the police post representing the end of the hike! We pay our porter & give him some gloves & the fleece shirt I've been using. It's hard to gauge his reaction; it's frustrating not being able to communicate. Lou starts to sort thru our stuff, but I see a Pokhara bus, so I grab her & jump on. The conductor tries to extort double the normal westerner fare of $1 since it's the peak of the Dashain festival. We settle for $1.30.
Day40: We make plans for the day; Morning - dick all, Afternoon - try to leave the room. We do make it out eventually, but what I thought would be a walk to the lake turns out to be a walk to the shops (husbands can be so naive). The movie at the restaurant tonite is The Wedding Planner; not bad.
Day41: For the 2nd time in a row the morning greets us with a breathtaking view of Pokhara's mountains. They normally cloud over by 10am but today bits & pieces poke thru all day. We finally make it to the lake and indulge in a relaxing paddle over to the island temple watching the eagles fish & the paragliders float in the thermals at the top of the hills. A quick bike ride thru the city then it's off to Devi falls; a rather interesting river canyon that disappears into a 50 meter underground waterfall. Apparently Miss Devi disappeared down there as well. My navigational skills are lacking on our return and we get an overly long tour of the perimeter of the airport. Happily we pass some kids playing on a giant swing set up for the Dashain festival. They mob me to take a turn on the swing but quickly change their mind as it buckles under my weight (it's not that I'm heavy - they're just light!). We change some money (then Lou spends it all so we change some more then . . .) sell our hiking books, get our wash done, buy our rtn bus tickets, get my holey pants (& Lou's broken bracelet) mended & order a custom t-shirt! Our favourite restaurant is out of chicken ('cause of the festival - they've previously been out of ice cream & Carlsberg beer as well) so I get the lemon basil pasta; delicious!
Day42: Another 6 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu. It's good to be home! We watch a few movies on HBO (wasn't Band of Brothers hyped a little bit too much!) then head to the casino where I learn to play Flush (a 3 card Indian poker game) & win $8 playing Pontoon (like blackjack). Louise would be impressed but she's been fast asleep for hours. Upon my return I'm locked out of our hotel (it's just past midnite). The door bells busted & no one answers my bangs on the metal shutters. Luckily I can push one shutter 10" past the other; see I'm not that big!
Day43: Our travel agent has been unable to move forward our Nov 5 flight date. I press him & happily he's able to come up with two Nov 1 tickets; we're all set! A few more movies then it's off to one of the many lovely restaurants in Thamel. Tonite we enjoy a delicious Chicken Princess & our classic; Spaghetti Bolognese. For desert, the Himalayan Love icecream is delicious (one downfall to Kathmandu is the lack of icecream in the corner stores).
Day44: The Kathmandu valley is quite expansive & historically it had 3 capitals. Today we visit the 3rd; Bhaktapur. We take a local bus which as always is quite a treat but costs only $.16 for the one hour ride, so we can't complain. But then we're floored to learn it's $15 to "enter" Bhaktapur. We spend about 30 minutes wandering the outskirts being followed by a guard on a bicycle before we finally relent & buy our tickets. We're now in a bit of a bitter mode, but the narrow laneways and lovely old buildings soon ease our spirits. Bhaktapur is famous for it's intricate wood work; including the 55 windowed building where each window took a craftsman 100 days to carve. But our preference is for the elaborate stone carvings throughout the town. As we are about to leave we notice an unusually large gathering of tourists. Turns out the King's coming. In June of this year the (former) King's son went on a rampage killing around 10 family members. The nation is still mourning this loss. We wait around for 40 minutes to catch a brief glimpse of "the guy with a short jacket & white sleeves", then make a beeline for the bus. Kathmandu's traffic is among the worst we've ever experienced. More due to narrow roads then an overwhelming number of cars. The ride back to town takes forever & the walk to our hotel would have taken forever if Louise hadn't noticed we were heading west not north (Lou has a compass attached to her watch when we travel). I hate losing my sense of direction.
Day45 (Nov 1): This morning we mail home 24 sets of photo's & a slew of gifts. All goes well but we're floored by the price; $110 (including $4.50 to have a lady sew a sac around our box as theft protection). We've never sent airmail before and our estimate of the weight we'd have was way off (8 kilos). Today we're off to Dhaka; where 6.5 million of Bangladesh's 112 million people live. When predominately Hindu India got their freedom from the British in 1947 two area's were partitioned off for Muslims; Pakistan to the west & East Pakistan (as it was then called) to the east. Pakistan however became dominant, denied the Bengals there language and passed them little foreign aid. In November 1970 Bangladesh was devastated by a cyclone that killed millions (the disadvantage of living in a country where most houses are practically at sea level). Pakistan's ambivalence to this disaster resulted in Bangladesh declaring their independence. This led to war of 1971 and the resulting genocide of the Bengals (primarily the elite) by the Pakistani army. Eventually India stepped in and Pakistan was quickly forced to surrender. Thus Bangladesh was born into war and poverty and is still struggling today. Dark is never the best time to arrive in a city, but in this case it worked well. We see little garbage or poverty on our auto-rickshaw ride from the airport & with the help of several people along the way, out driver eventually finds our hotel; one of only 3 in the old quarter that accept foreigners. Tomorrow is 'Shab e Barat' which I think means 'set off super loud firecrackers all nite long'. The street noise never lets up. The sheets aren't that clean. The sleep isn't that good ...
Day46: Friday is not a good day for siteseeng in a Muslim country and as we've found the airline office quite easily we book our flight North for today at 1pm. Our sales agent graciously takes our home address and offers to visit us in Canada! Next it's off to an ATM where despite having only the Visa Cirrus logo, our Bank Card nets us a slew of Taka (the local currency). After a late breakfast we've off. During our 1 1/4 hour flight (on Bangladesh Airways) we are able to determine that changing engine sounds is much more scary than frequent awkward turns, although Lou didn't really like either. The hotels in Saidpur consist of the usual rat traps plus 'Canada House'. Back in the colonial days Canadians came here on a project and built a large cement lodge (that Lonely Planet politely describes as a mansion!). It is now the property of the government but with hot water & a tv lounge it's the best lodging for miles. They only have 10 rooms however, and we are a little nervous arriving without a reservation. Turns out ok though as the last tourist they had was in September! We knew Bangladesh was off the beaten track but we never realized how far! People stare and ask dumbfoundly 'what do you do here? When we answer that we're tourists, they're floored. Apparently most foreigners in Bangladesh are on some sort of aid program. Mob's of children follow us everywhere. When anyone gets the nerve to talk to us others gather just to watch. Everyone asks; "Country". Now more than ever we're glad to have Canada as a response. Most everyone smiles as we pass, but a few folks give a stern disapproving frown. They're likely the ones buying the Osama Bin Laden posters at the shop we just passed. Being well removed from Afghanistan & basically so poor as to be inconsequential Bangladesh is safe to travel right now (or at least we couldn't find any warnings against going there).
Day47: Our reason for coming up here is the Kantanagar temple. A Hindu terra cotta brick creation from 1752. Lonely Planet lists it as the best site in Bangladesh. Every inch of it, inside & out, is covered with intricate carvings. Demon's eating monkeys, monkey's carrying away demon's, sailing ships, armies, elephants. It's truly incredible. Even more incredible however is the fact that there's two other foreigners here. Of course they're not tourists, they're foreign aid workers from Germany. They politely offer to drive us the 40 kilometres back to Saidpur. We jump at the chance since the bus ride here accidentally took us 20 kilometre's south to Dinajapur, 2km away on a rickshaw to find someone who spoke English, on a 4km detour to see an old British Raj's palace and then 20km back north to finally arrive at Kantanagar. As you might expect the Germans are starved for company and by the time we part, they've bought us lunch, driven us to their home, taken us to another Raj's palace and given us a tour of their city (the rickshaw capital of Bangladesh!). The bus back to Saidpur is the usual jumble of us being ushered into seats while the locals have to squeeze over, seeing women covered from head to toe perform some sort of rite anytime they accidentally touch me and watching rickshaws & children dive for cover as our bus literally rockets along the narrow country road. Soon, however, we're in the peaceful oasis of Canada House settling in for a nite of reading our new expensive picture (& story) book on Mount Everest. Since it weighs 1.2 kilograms we were too cheap to mail it home.
Day48: We've gotten a real feel for colonial living. Being the only people here the cook and houseman have been working just for us. Asking what we want for dinner & when we'd like it served. The gatemen are very friendly and the grounds are nicely landscaped. The sitting room is well stocked with reading. Everyone stares in awe as our rickshaw peddlers take us around town. We can just imagine life as a British Raj 100 years ago. This afternoon we fly back to Dhaka, upgrade our hotel and spend the nite watching Star TV.
Day49: Dhaka, the capital, is as filthy, polluted and impoverished as you would imagine. Walking thru the narrow old quarter we are often forced to walk on mud or garbage as we try to avoid being struck by the constant stream of rickshaws. We do however enjoy ourselves. People are friendly, the sites are interesting and its fascinating to watch their way of life. Bangladesh is basically an estuary the size of Wisconsin. The highest point is probably 20' above sea level. Huge rivers bisect the land and as we flew up north we noticed canals and pools of water everywhere. Now we understand why we so frequently read of thousands dying in floods. So, no tour of the country would be complete without spending a few hours on the water. Our rickshaw driver (a rare English speaker) arranges a boat for us and we're off. It's basically identical to the streets. There's a constant stream of boats and we are almost run down several times. People everywhere draw up buckets of river water to bathe themselves. We take tons of pictures but a one hour tour proves sufficient. When we get to the Armenian church a local couple are already waiting. Turns out he's the brother of the countries foremost artist (seriously). He helps us buy some rickshaw art (Bangladesh's rickshaws are the most colourful in the world) then we arrange to have him pick me up at 4pm for an art tour while Louise relaxes in the room. On a previous trip to Sri Lanka we met some American's who were doing 'capacity training' for the local people. They explained that they basically teach officials how to think logically & make the best of what they have. We now know what they mean. My artist arrives at 4:45 & brings his wife, even though the 3 of us can't fit on his bike. So we roar off, while his wife returns on a rickshaw. His wife however has the house key. So we wait. Then go for a walk. Then wait. It was only an 8 minute ride & he barely went faster than the rickshaws so I immediately wonder about his wife, but he confidently says 'traffic jam'. I ask if anyone else is home but he insists we just wait. After about 20 minutes a light comes on. Turns out his aunt & niece were home the whole time. They let us in & we go inside only to find that his wife is already there! Oh well, they're lovely people & I learn lots about art. Some of his pieces are truly incredible but he has nothing available for sale (no problem since his last pieces sold for $800, his brothers sell for even more!).
Day50: We start with a sobering tour of the War Liberation Museum (actually we started by watching the last few innings of the World Series, quite a game!). Its amazing to find yet another country that's had a genocide that the west basically has no knowledge of. Next we meet our 'artists' at their school. Everyone is quite friendly and we see lots of incredible work. Then we walk 15 minutes (which is 14.5 minutes more than you want to spend along Dhaka's smog infested streets) to the man who bought his best works. They're even better in person & the man also has an interesting collection of old cars including the first car in Bangladesh (owned by a queen in the 20's). We part ways at the National museum, do a quick tour then head off to Dhaka's famous 'modern art' parliament. It's a giant mess of concrete cylinders although the surrounding giant moat is quite nice. Next is the west end mosque. Most Bengalis wear a traditional shirt & sari with no religious gear. But here everyone has the traditional Muslim hat & the older men are in full religious wear. My shorts were fine before but aren't good enough to get into this mosque. The neighbourhood is quite interesting but soon we're on our way back to our hotel. When I said Kathmandu traffic was bad I meant the bottlenecks getting into/out of the city. In Dhaka the bottlenecks are everywhere. In the middle of the city we stop for 15 minutes as the traffic policeman (no one pays attention to Dhaka's few streetlights) lets traffic go in the other direction. In 1/2 an hour we've gone less than 1 kilometre. Just this afternoon we left our rickshaw to walk (it was faster). When traffic does move its almost impressive in the skilful way vehicles come from every direction and just miss each other. The collective ability of the drivers here is amazing; it's like a ballet. Once a one foot space opens up our driver noses in and the other vehicles seem to part around us. Buses blast thru intersections at full speed confident (or unconcerned) that whatever traffic is there will find an escape before it gets hit. Every car has a "Mad Max" type bumper to fend off other cars. Every bus has scrapes all along their side. We don't see any accidents but we do see 2 rickshaws tipped over. They're extremely difficult to drive especially with the loads some of them carry. The exhaust from the autorickshaws is notorious & Louise covers her face with her bandana. Back in the hotel we can literally see the grime on our skin. When we wipe our hands our towels are instantly blackened. We've showered daily in Bangladesh. Not a common occurrence on Asian backpacking trips.
Day 51: Today is a government holiday so the streets are relatively empty but the sites are also relatively closed. What we can see of the Lalbagh Fort is quite impressive. But it's just as interesting to watch the kids play cricket on the grounds. There's 4 separate games going on in a field about 1/4 the size of a cricket pitch. We finish early so decide to venture up into Gulshan where the ex-pats live. Although it's the home of some fancy restaurants it's just as rundown as the rest of the city. We opt for Wimpy (an English McDonalds) the only international fastfood place in the whole city. Our small meal comes to $10! Oh well I guess ex-pats get desperate.
Day 52 (Nov 8): Early flight to Calcutta. We clear the airport (including money changing & prepaid taxi purchasing) in a record 24 minutes. Those foolish enough to be last getting off the plane will still be waiting at immigration an hour from now. The grind of having to find new hotels every few days is starting to wear us down. Of the 8 hotels I check (with a freelance agent) 6 are full. We're forced into a room with a/c (expensive around here) and pay tv but no windows or hot water. At $28, this tiny room is one of the most expensive on our entire Asian trip. India is definitely no longer a super-cheap place to travel. Our quick trip to the tourist office stretches over the whole afternoon as we encounter Indian bureaucracy full on. There's two floors full of people who only do one task each. There's a form for everything.
Day 53: Calcutta seems positively civilized next to Dhaka. They've been doing a lot to clean up the city & it seems to be working. They even have a subway, the first in India! Today we do a city tour. There's only 3 white people on the bus, but the tour's in English. We tour a stunning array of buildings built by the British during the Colonial era. But the highlight is the Indian Museum; a collection of sculpture & temple walls from the past two centuries. It compares favourably with any museum we've seen and we can't stop taking pictures.
Day 54/5: The tourist office talked us into staying for "Kali Puja". It's one of their biggest festivals, but it's 4 days after we were planning to leave. So to fill the time we're taking a two day tour of the Sunderbans; the worlds largest mangrove forest/estuary. This protected wildlife sanctuary is on the border with Bangladesh 3 hours from Calcutta. The highlight are the man eating tigers. Here they are king of both the water & the land and it's not uncommon to see a fishing boat float by empty, it's owner plucked out by a stealthy swimming tiger. Unfortunately we hit a rare November rain & our cruising up & down the sea of rivers proves mostly futile. Since we booked at the last minute all they could offer us was a mattress on the upper deck but because of the rain they politely let us sleep on the floor of the lower deck, with the cockroaches . . .
Day 56: Calcutta's botanical gardens houses the worlds largest Banyan tree. It covers an area the size of a 400 metre track. We've been on a pilgrimage to see it ever since looking at Henry Fords giant Banyan tree in Florida. The gardens are filled with birds and even with the rain we check off a few new ones (It's not supposed to rain that much in November!!). Next is Science City; an Indian version of the Ontario Science Centre that all the locals have been raving about. It's 50 cents to get in & another 50 cents for the cable car ride to the back of the park. There's lots of great exhibits but as we're in India half of them are broken. We spend about 4 hours and catch a new Imax movie (a full dollar this time). On our cab ride home we get scammed for the first time we've noticed. The meter shows 22 rupees. The current multiple is 2.4, so I round up and pay 60 rupees. I pull out a 10 & a 50 and double check that it's not two 50's. I walk away & the guy says "Hey it's 60 rupees". I look back & he shows me the two bills I gave him; a 10 and another 10! I wonder about it but just say sorry & replace one of the 10's with a 50. When Louise & I check my remaining bills we conclude I must have paid a 10 & a 50 to start with. He must have switched the bills before calling me back. Oh well $1.35 isn't a bad price to pay for that lesson. We now wonder about all the joking he did with his cab mates as we refused to pay an artificial 10 rupee 'parking charge' as we left Science City.
Day 57: Lou chipped her tooth on the Sunderbans tour (too many chewy toffees!) & a local businessman recommended a decent dentist. Just as well since we haven't been in 20 months (it sucks to pay for something you used to get for free!). While the equipment looks a little antiquated (is that a oil burner powering one of the tools?) he seems above board. Lou gets 2 fillings & I get a cleaning. The total of $100 is far less than Canada but we're unsure if it's a good deal for Calcutta. Next we ride India's only subway (clean but crowded) and walk thru a grimy part of town to the Marble Palace. The home of yet another Raj in the mid 1800's; it's truly breathtaking. All the floors & walls are marble. Each room is a treasure trove of statuary & paintings. The grounds are lavish but the caged animals are perhaps unnecessary. Next we walk to the incredible riverfront & the city's main super crowded bridge (a 2nd one has been built but it's 30 cent toll is avoided by almost everyone). Soon however Lou's baby toe, which has basically sprouted it's own toe since Lou whacked it into a bedpost, becomes to much to bear & we hop in a cab. Although Calcutta's traffic is better than Dhaka it's still a big jumble of cabs jockeying for position then turning off their engine while they wait the 3 minutes it takes for policeman to let their direction go again. We grab train tickets to Varanasi & plane tickets onward to Khajuraho & Agra then retire for the evening.
Day 58: It's the day we've been waiting for; Diwali, the festival of lights, and Calcutta's own, Kali Puja (Calcutta was named after the godess Kali). Most things are closed today so we opt for another walk in the Botanical gardens. It's hell to find postcards in India and we get stuck with fairly lame ones. We fair better trading in our used books. We try to crash for a few hours but our tiny windowless room (bigger than our $28 one but without a/c) is like a sauna. Our knapsacks are literally wet from the humidity. The fan lets us sleep but isn't quite enough during the day. Our Kali Puja tour runs from 10pm til 5 the next morning. Surprisingly most other participants are Indians (being as large as it is, domestic tourism is huge in India). Throughout the evening we visit about 10 puja's; shrines dedicated to the godess Kali. Each time the others on the bus line up to do a 'doshan' while we check out the best picture angles. The only other white guy on the bus is more decked out in Hindu gear than the locals and is obsessed about doing a doshan even if the line's as long as a football field. It's quite an interesting nite and there's some spectacular displays of light (just like Xmas!) but we're well ready for bed by 5am when the tour sadly stretches on another hour. We don't really like being up at dawn!.
Day 59: Indian train travel is famous for it's lack of civility (as is Indian bus travel and Indian plane travel & Indian taxi travel . . .) but our train to Varanasi ('very nasty' as it's known to travelers) is excellent. We get the upper bunks and snooze most of the way. We arrive by 8pm and are flabberghasted to see everyone push on to board for Delhi before we have a chance to get off (a 'capacity training' issue I think since all seats are reserved!). We find a mellow rickshaw guy who takes us straight to our requested hotel. It's a delightful new place with super clean rooms & a lovely hot shower for only $12. So far, so good . . .
Day 60: Varanasi is a sacred place for Hindu's & Buddhists. If you die here you end your cycle of rebirths & go straight to heaven (like getting the best Chance card in Monopoly). All the activity takes place along the Ghats (steps leading to the river). Our autorickshaw man recommended a 5:30am start (our 2nd dawn in 2 days!). His price of 1.50 for the return trip is a bargain & we soon find out why. He's taken us to a minor ghat with few choices for boat tours. The gov't rate is $1.60/hour per boat but the first guy we see (a buddy of his who'd pay a fat commission) asks $7/hour per person! A short walk away however yields regular boat guys and a decent price. Plus good english as well! The ghats are filled with pilgrims who come to bathe in the holy water of Mother Ganges. Children do somersaults into water so polluted even cholera bacteria can't survive. Men lather up in their 'underwear' (or less), women struggle to wash in their sari's, Sadhu's sit peacefully chanting at the sun. We soon reach Manikarnika Ghat where the cremations take place (No Pictures!). Since people literally come to Varanasi to die they have around 100 cremations a day (in a city of 1 million). The procedure is handled by people from the lowest caste; the untouchables. Bodies are carried on bamboo thru the old quarter (where sometimes pall bearers have to stop and ask for directions), are swathed in cloth, dipped in the river then placed onto the logs. The logs are carefully weighed since you pay per pound. Using the holiest logs a cremation can cost $1000. The poor are simply tossed into the river (holy men get a rock tied around them). Hospices around the Ghat are filled with those waiting for their turn. Although the visibility of it all seems morbid it's no worse than being buried under 6' of earth. After breakfast our rickshaw man takes us to a few temples then in a last ditch effort for a commission takes us to a silk weaving factory. Sadly we make no purchase and at the hotel he's disgusted to be paid only twice the rate he initially promised. As our hotel is a little isolated (although blissfully peaceful as Louise points out) we switch to one on the Ghats. Our room is a dream. With windows in 3 directions we can see almost the whole river full of Ghats. The old quarter is a mess though; frequent power cuts, garbage (and cow shit) everywhere, impossible to find your way around. And no alcohol or meat to boot! I've given up shaving & now just get a barber shave every 10 days. The ghats are filled with men sitting on the steps with a razor but I opt for a proper store (1' by 3' with outdoor seating). Lou watches in terror but the procedure is completed painlessly and the $.35 it costs is less than 10 days worth of shave cream & razor blades!
Day 61: Not much planned for today so we sleep in, then prepare to leave at a luxuriously slow pace! We walk up to Manikarnika (the 'burning ghat') where a 'I am not a guide' guides us around and is disgusted at our paltry donation to 'the elderly'. We then survive a walk thru the old quarter but emerge nowhere near our intended target (although we were still in India!). One of the frustrations of traveling is never knowing what you'll get foodwise since you're seldom in the same place twice. Louise hasn't been enjoying the food in Varanasi & today's lunch is no exception. We laze the afternoon away enjoying the breathtaking view from our room. That nite across the river I run into a picnicing family and am treated to some puffed rice as their kids run around posing and yelling 'take my picture'.
Day 62: Half day trip to Sarnath, one of the many cradles of Buddhism (he gave his first sermon here). Lots of nice ruins and plenty of nice parakeets (they seem to frequent places like this). Then we cab to the airport for our plane to Khajuraho. And here starts a rare event for this trip; a nearly perfect day. The checkin is efficiency challenged but we would expect no less from Indian Airlines. The flight however is excellent. Before the Sep 11 bombing this flight was daily and would have been sold out days in advance. Now it runs 4 times a week & is half empty. Upon arrival there's a plethora of hotel agents but only us looking for a hotel. We view the city's best 5 star hotel a luxurious affair offered to us for $35 (would be at least $100 normally) but settle on the much more central Marble Palace for $9 including hot water! Our restaurant yields decent food & a view of the sound & light show & the shopping en route back to our room is delightful.
Day 63: Khajuraho is famous for it's erotic carvings. The temples built here in the 10th & 11th century represent the peak of art & architecture for the Mughal empire. They are exquisitely balanced and are embellished everywhere with carvings of everyday life in all it's facets! Aspara's pose playfully, dressing, putting on makeup, pulling thorns from their feet. You can see the wetness if they've just come from the bath or the muscle definition if their leg is bent rather than straight. Couples run through the gamut of Kamu Sutra poses. Ladies turn away as a man finds a horse is truly his best friend. The majority of the scenes however are more mundane. But they're just as spectacular. The carvings are in excellent condition as the restoration effort here is enormous. Our a/c car & driver costs $11 & today the temples are free (saving us $16)! Our perfect day ends however as we watch our flight leave while we're eating dinner. Happily it was heading in the other direction. Unhappily it won't be back until 2 hours after scheduled departure. Oh well reading at the airport is almost as relaxing as in the hotel. Our destination of Agra is famous even within India as being a horrible place to travel in. But the lure of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort ensure the tourists keep coming (they just don't stay that long -one guidebook says the average stay here has fallen from 1.7 days to 12 hours)! Much like 'Vari Nasty' however we find 'Agra vation' not that bad. Our airport taxi & hotel are quite nice (although we change rooms to avoid the mouse) & tomorrow 3 of our 4 rickshaw wallah's take us where we ask!
Day 64: Of Agra's several spectacular sites we start with numero uno; Shah Jahan's tribute to his dead wife; the Taj Mahal. It's simply breathtaking & is the most spectacular site we've ever seen (although Khajuraho comes a close second). The cost of this mausoleum spelled the end of the Mughal empire and it's possible that Human history will never again see such an extravagance. The marble's spectacular luminescence leads to changes in it's appearance throughout the day. Everything is perfectly balanced. Even the incredible red mosque that highlights the Taj's whiteness has a mirror image. It's completely for ascetic reasons though as it doesn't face Mecca. The Taj's exterior yields an elegant simple appearance but is laced with Koranic verses and beautiful inlaid marble work. The best work however is inside. Single flowers inlaid into the marble are the culmination of 64 different semiprecious stones being cut exactly to size. The tombs themselves are viewed thru delicate marble screens, each one of which was carved from a single block of marble. The $23 entrance charge is almost bearable. Agra's other sites are also excellent. The Red Fort looks both imposing and beautiful. It's various rooms, many for the Shah's harem, are all lavishly carved. The city has two other mausoleum's that are precursors to the Taj & are almost as breathtaking. On our way to the first one we are dumped at a mosque which the driver claims is our destination. Luckily we had just walked from here (& can generally tell a 4 minute ride from a 20 minute one) so we knew to just walk away without paying. The second one is denied us as traffic comes to a dead stop (possibly for a police road block as security is very tight in Agra given the, mostly internal, threat of terrorism against these spectacular sites). The highlight for Louise however is dinner. Right near our hotel there's a Pizza Hut! The pleasure of predictable (& decent tasting) food can only be known once you've traveled here.
So far we haven't had any bombing related trouble. Cabbies have even joked that we should take one guy rather than another 'cause the one we chose was a Muslim'. In Muslim Bangladesh we had more of an issue proving we were married to the hotel clerk than we did from the guys buying the Osama Bin Laden posters. I think that even if someone hates "America" they don't necessarily hate "Americans" especially ones "decent enough" to come learn about their country.