Amritsar, Varanasi and Agra

Amritsar
From Delhi I boarded my first Indian train to Amritsar, home of one of the Sikh's holiest places, the Golden Temple. The temple is exactly what it says on the tin: Golden and temple-like however, the surrounding shimmering pool of water and white marble walkways do give a real sense of peaceful elegance, importance and if I were to believe in that sort of thing, I'd say spirituality! Also being a Sikh temple it is traditional to both feed and house visitors if they require it and so we sat in lines while food was slopped onto plates from buckets for us, we were given water and chiapata and team of people even washed up for us. It wasn't haut cuisine but, it was pretty good for free!

Amritsar resides about an hour away from the only open boarder between India and Pakistan and as such it plays host to a somewhat elaborate boarder closing ceremony where hoards of locals from each side cheer and holler at their soldiers as they march around in silly hats looking like they are auditioning for a position in Monty Python's ministry of silly walks! It really was quite remarkable to see the armed forces enter into an extravagant game of cat and mouse and even more so to see them egged on by a packed audience!




Varanasi
From Amritsar I took a 22 hour sleeper train to Varanasi. The train ride itself was pretty comfy even though it was 3rd class AC. It even had a proper toilet even though you could see the train tracks flashing past at the bottom of the bowl!

Varanasi was an interesting place. It is the place where the River Ganges is deemed to take the same shape as the horizontal creasant on Shiva's brow and is considered the holist place on the Ganges. People flock from all over to cremate their relatives by the ganges and push the burning bodies onto the water to be consumed by the holy river. You can even go and watch for free if you are careful to avoid the somewhat sick scams about widows not being able to afford the wood but, it's not so great when the wind changes direction and you get a mouthful of the burning dead!

As you travel along the river you are then witness to hundreds of people all washing, submersing AND brushing their teeth downstream of where they've just chucked a load of dead bodies! I was reluctant to get any washing done here incase it was done in the opaque brown water let alone brush my teeth it in! However, all of this did provide a throng of activity all along the riverside from sunrise to sunset providing many photo opportunities and unfortunately scores of touts trying to get you onto a boat to watch it!

You could escape some of this activity by getting lost in the slightly cooler winding streets of the old town. It was a raffle where you'd come out and what you would find. Some were filled with locals enjoying chai, some with people trying to sell you fake silk and Aladdin pants and some were blocked with cows and slurry pit of cow pats! Trying to walk anywhere was hot work and as soon as you emerged onto the market place or main road a rickshaw driver would attach themselves to you until you went and sought refuge back in the narrow streets or were extremly rude! All in all Varanasi was a great show of culture and colour but, was also a frustrating show of just how much hassel it was possible to get!




Sarnath
On our last day in Varanasi we decided to head out of the town and escaped to some nearby ruins in the quiet town of Sarnath. Even here people begged but, only to tourists and tried to sell bits of brick for 1000Rps! Still it was nice to get away from the claustrophobic heat of Varanasi for a while before getting the train to Agra.




Agra
It was while in Agra that a local rickshaw driver told me '85% of Indians are Bastard Liars'. It made me laugh as it reminded me of an Indian taxi driver that we'd had university who shouted 'idiot fucking' out the window at an erant cyclist but, his grammar isn't my case in point. With the amount of hassle you do undisputedly get in India as a tourist/traveller the Rickshaw man's statement really isn't too hard to believe. Especially when he himself tried to charge me quadrupal what we'd agreed at the start for going an extra 100m down the road!

Apart for Rickshaw drivers imparting their wisdom, Agra is also of course the home of the magnificant Taj Mahal and all the Taj Mahal tacky souvenirs including Taj Mahal snow storms that come with it! The Taj Mahal in the morning light really was impressive and is indeed worth the hype and the Agra fort is also a pretty pleasant place to wander around and escape the hoards of rickshaw drivers and postcard sellers trying to rip you off. At least no one offered me a beard here as they had in Delhi!




After Agra my next stop was Jodhpur in Rajasthan to which I had decided to brave the lower classed but, vastly cheaper sleeper class train....

Full pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/dabilster choose North India Folder

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