Delhi & Varanasi

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Namaste. After our love/hate first day in Delhi our second day was much better. I'm not exactly sure why it was better, maybe because we figured out that anyone who approaches you in Delhi is a liar, or maybe because we found a great shopping/eating street. I guess in the end it doesn't matter, it was much better to be on the love side of India than the hate side.

When we woke up we had some breakfast at the hotel, which was included in our rate (which turned out to be free, more on that later). We shared a traditional Indian breakfast and a traditional American breakfast as we weren't sure what the Indian breakfast would be like. In hindsight we would have just ordered two Indian breakfasts as the food was wonderful! We had Aloo Parantha (a sort of potato pancake tortilla thing) with curd (which I believe is kind of like yogurt in the U.S. but seems slightly different). We also had chai tea to accompany our Indian breakfast. Now that we know we like Aloo Parantha we can always explore other items because if we don't like the new thing we at least have the Parantha and curd as a back up.

As previously mentioned our room turned out to be free. One of the touts at an "official" tourist office (which of course is not official) wanted us to buy a driver package for the main tourist state of Rajasthan. In doing so he "sold" us this hotel for 1400 rupees. We were under the impression that we would pay the hotel, he was under the impression that we would pay him. After he had his driver pick us up from our old hotel and drop us at our new hotel we never saw him and we had not paid. When we left the hotel in the morning we let them know that we did not pay for the hotel and they told us since we came with the tout that he had to pay for it. Maybe this is karma coming back to Delhi for all of the lies, I personally am torn between feeling bad and believing that it is karma.

After breakfast we headed to the train station and went directly for the tourist office (the real one), though we did have some touts try to push us to the "official" not real offices again. It sure is nice to know what is going on! For those that come to Delhi and are faced with our dilemma, the real New Delhi train station tourist office is located on the 1st floor (above the ground floor where you buy the tickets). Look for a blue sign that will point you in the right direction, if you don't see the huge blue sign, then you are not at the real office. While waiting in line at the office we met a woman from Duluth Minnesota, what a small world! She had been to India before and essentialy told us what we had heard before but didn't necessarily want to hear - which is to stay away from Delhi and Mumbai and you will love India. Ultimately, we were successful in getting a ticket to Varanasi, leaving around 1pm and arriving around 3am - not entirely sure how finding a hotel will go that early in the morning.

With our train tickets in hand, we headed down the main bazaar, which turned out to be a huge shopping center. For me, Central America was a great place to find neat things and purchase things relatively cheap, but India shopping was like all the Central American shopping on steroids. Intentionally we did not pick up too much since we fly out of Delhi and figured we could buy more before we leave, but I did buy a thick 100% wool blanket for $8 (it is not itchy either). Amy picked up a few things too. I'm guessing that before we leave India for Bangkok we will buy some more from that street and ship it home.

On our train ride we sat in a sleeper compartment (two tiered beds with A/C -known as 2AC or just 2A) with three other Indian men. As Amy dozed in and out of sleep I talked with them for a couple of hours. They did not speak very good English and I speak zero Hindi, so it made for quite and interesting conversation and cultural exchange. After 12 hours or so we made it to Varanasi at 2am.

Varanasi is a huge Hindu religious town that has many ghats - which are essentially stairs that lead down to the Ganges river where the Hindu's bathe each morning in a ritual manner. They also use the water from the Ganges for just about all their daily living needs, so it was rather dirty. In Central America at 2am you could easily find a hostel, in Varanasi, not possible. We were dropped off at the main ghat, walked awhile along the ghats in the dark looking for a hotel and finally just stopped where there were two hotels side by side and they had a nice place to sit above the main boardwalk along the Ganges. As we sat there we were able to witness the bathing ritual time and time again as we listened to Indian music from both our right and left, it was quite an experience, we probably experienced more than most visitors to the ghats with regards to the bathing ritual. When the hotel opened it turned out that they would not have room until 10am, so we went to find breakfast. Walking around with your backpack is just an invitation for every person you pass to try to sell you something or take you somewhere, it is very annoying after awhile. Note to ourselves: try at all costs to get a hotel and drop your pack as soon as possible before walking around the streets. We had breakfast, made a new game plan, which was to leave Varanasi since we had seen the ghats and were not enjoying the town itself. We walked through the main market in Varanasi and made our way to the train station.

Our attempt to leave Varanasi taught us that we need to book train tickets a few days in advance or we will be stuck. We tried to go to three different locations from Varanasi and they were all booked for the next two days, eventually we were able to find a place to go the next day (our fourth choice), but it was a 24 hour train ride in second class sleeper, which at the time all we knew was that we were out of Varanasi and we had a bed for the ride. So, we booked the tickets, found a hotel near the train station, ate some food, and went to bed, in the morning we would be off to Amritsar, the Sikh holy city with a golden temple. This will be the start of our Northern India excrusion near the Himalayas, if all of our train tickets pan out.

The next morning we went to the train station, boarded the train that was a few minutes late, and found out what second class sleeper was going to be like for 24 hours - not fun! It isn't that the train would have been bad if we were only going for 6 hours or less, we could have managed fine in that case, but 24 hours is not a place for second class sleeper. If I had to rank the comfort level of the chairs that fold out into beds with 1 being a chair/bed of pins and needles and 10 is a lazyboy/pillowtop mattress I would rank second class sleeper as a -3 (yes, MINUS 3) over a 24 hour trip. It is not just the comfort it is a lot of things combined. The area you and your luggage are supposed to fit in is 6 feet wide by 6 feet deep by 8 feet tall - but it is supposed to fit 6 people and all their luggage, which for Indians can include a lot such as sacks of food. Quite consistently we had at least 6 people and at times more than 6 people in our sleeper compartment. Also, who is in your sleeper changes all the time as people get on and off at the 50 or so train stations we stopped at - maybe it was 100 stations. It is absolutely freezing at night (we could see our breathe, maybe 40F), that is why it is 2am and I am up typing this. Oh great, the boy next to me just threw up all over our 6X6X8 room with 7 people in it - AWESOME! I gave Amy the wool blanket I bought in Delhi - probably a saving grace for her. I'm covered up with my pack towel and just about every item of clothing I brought with. We may have to purchase some new/warmer clothes in Northern India. I guess it is all part of the experience, but we plan on sticking with 2AC from now on for our train rides, it was much more comfortable!

There is so much in India that is a new experience I feel compelled to write a lot in these blogs, sorry if they ramble, but the blog is also my journal to some extent and the website has a feature where we can turn our blog into a book when our travels are complete, so I want all these experiences documented. One more thing before I turn off the computer and freeze (truthfully I was hoping the computer would warm up from the use and in turn warm me up, it has not worked yet). India is rather dirty, as most everyone knows. However, to give you an idea of how dirty it really is consider this...when I blow my nose it is like I came out of a hole in the foundry shoveling vitabond all day without a mask (my family will understand that comparison). For those that have never shoveled vitabond at the foundry, everything that comes out of your nose is black, just from breathing normally. Many Indians have a "cough" and clear their throats often - I understand why given what I see coming out of my nose just from breathing. Oh yeah, the kid just threw up again - it smells - AWESOME! And as I was re-reading my blog and got down to the end again, he threw up again. That is three times in about 30 minutes - are we in Amritsar yet? Nope, should have about 7 more hours of this - OUCH! I must admit, at this point it is almost becoming comical at how this is all going, I almost have a smile just thinking about it because it all seems so ridiculous.

OK - one more comment...about 4 hours ago I went to find my sandals to go to the bathroom (which in itself could be a blog, but to sum it up you pee/poop on the train and it goes straight down onto the tracks). My sandals were gone, so I assumed they were stolen by someone that came and went as they were laying on the floor like everyone else does with their shoes. As the people that were throwing up all over our 6X6X8 world left Amy sees my sandal under their chair/sleeper thing - of course it is covered with puke. I'm wondering if they planned on stealing my sandal but then used it to help clean up the puke. Who knows, either way, that SUCKS and they SMELL! A good washing at the hotel and hopefully they are better.

We did end up making it to Armitsar, I'm sure it will bring more stories. One story already, I forgot my throw-up sandals on the train (maybe a blessing in disguise). Amy and I keep saying that it seems like each day is close to a week of experiences. We have not been here a week yet and we feel like we have had a month worth of experiences. All I can say is India!

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Photos

Varanasi ghats at 3am
Waiting for a hotel to open, we were able to see the bathing ritual over and over throughout the early morning.

Main Bazaar - Delhi
This is the main shopping/hotel/eating street near the New Delhi train station.

Food?
Amy being asked for food.

Me at ghats
Ghats to the right, ganges to the left.

Ganges River
Boats on the historical Ganges river in Varanasi

Boats at ghats
All the boats lined up at one of the main ghats. Varanasi

Indian Girl
Taken at the train station, she was loving watching the monkeys play.

Prison Cell?
This was our 6X6X8 sleeper for 6 people. The blue rest for Amy's back flips up to be a bed and what she is sitting on is also a bed, you can see the bottom of the top bunk above her head.

Dirty
This is what it looks like all across the countryside. Everyone on the train just throws their garbage out the window.