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Published: July 21st 2013
Read any travel book, or talk to people who have been, and they will tell you: Rule #1 when traveling to New Delhi: “Watch out for scams”. We were both well aware of this; however, upon our arrival in New Delhi, within mere minutes of stepping out of the train station, we were taken for a doozy. We left the train station in search of the ‘Grand Bazaar”, which we knew was only a five minute walk, and we came across a man who claimed he worked for the rail station. He kindly informed us that the Grand Bazaar had been closed off due to religious conflicts (Hindu-Muslim) that had taken place during the Ramadan festival. He told us that in order to get into the area we had to go to the Government tourist office and get a pass (which is free) that confirmed we were staying at a hotel along the Bazaar. It was 8:30pm, we were tired, confused, and lost; this all sounded reasonably legit, so we decided to listen and the man had a tuk-tuk drive us to the Government office. Sure enough we arrived at an office with an official looking “Government of India: Tourism” sign.
Official looking men with uniforms and id tags greeted us and took us in to the office. They called our hotel to figure out how this situation could be solved. I was put on the phone with the ‘hotel owner’ and he told me that the hotel was closed for the night because on the conflicts occurring on the Grand Bazaar. I was furious, as we were now stranded at night, in the rape capital of India, with nowhere to stay. The tourist official took the phone from me and berated the man, telling him this was an unacceptable way to treat tourists! He said he would be reporting the hotel to the Government! The official offered his sympathies to us, and said he would help us find another hotel. He called a number of guesthouses that were within our budget and told us they were all full. He said the ONLY hotel available in New Delhi was just outside of town and was 5,000 rupees a night (our original hotel was 800 rupees). It was 9pm now and we just wanted to be inside a safe place; believing the tourist official was an honest Government employee, we gladly accepted
the room. We talked about how lucky we were that railway employee had informed us about the Grand Bizarre closure, and how great the tourist employee was to take us in and help find a safe place to stay!
The next day when we arrived in Varanasi I received an email from our original hotel owner asking us why we never showed up, and why we had not called!? He said he was going to charge us a night rent at his hotel. I explained what happened, that the road was closed, that we had called from the tourist office and had been turned away from his hotel! In his email he responded, “You have been scammed!” He told us that the Grand Bazaar was NOT closed, that we had NOT spoken to the hotel owner (but instead the scammer’s associate), and that in fact there was no such thing as a Government tourist office in New Delhi. He said, “Everyone that you spoke to last night was involved in an elaborate scam, and I am sorry” We were gutted. I was furious at the scammers, and I was embarrassed that we had not seen
it. “Welcome to India!” we thought. Luckily the owner of our original hotel was very kind and did not charge us for the night we missed which helped stopped the bleeding a little bit. No more laid back Nepal! We learned from the experience, and read up on common Indian scams. We were on our toes now and ready for India.
Before we traveled to India we knew it would chaotic and intense. We knew the traffic would be crazy, there would be poverty, it would smell bad, all of that; our hour taxi drive from the Varanasi airport into the central town hit us with all of it, big time. Traffic is the first shocker you notice in India. Roads are completely packed with vehicles of all shapes and sizes, along with pedestrians, dogs, goats, and cows, all winding chaotically amongst each other as fast as can possibly be achieved. Horns are used constantly by all vehicles, not out of anger, just sort of to announce your presence, every second of your presence. There are no traffic lights, stop signs, crosswalks, nothing. Everyone just sort of honks and winds amongst each other in all directions; it
is an incredible thing to experience first hand. We both love the experience of taking tuk-tuks and rickshaws in India; it is always an exhilarating, head shaking adventure. Being a pedestrian, on the other hand, is taking a leap of faith. You walk along the roadside, motorcycles and scooters whip past you on both sides, you squeeze past cows, horns blare non-stop, and you just have to simply trust that you won’t be hit. And usually you don’t!
The second thing you notice right away is the poverty, particularly the large amounts of garbage that can be found everywhere. Roadsides, rivers, parks, are all rittled with garbage. Large groups of cows gather in piles of trash along the roadside grazing for scraps. Varanasi is in Uttar Pradesh, one of the poorest states in India, and we are told that the garbage problem is particularly terrible in this state. You try to look beyond the trash, as you could easily let it ruin your experience, but in Varanasi it was so bad that walking down the narrow streets of old town was nearly impossible due to the amounts of garbage. In Varanasi there are also cows everywhere, and
I don’t mean like 10 cows, I mean there are many cows on every street, sidewalk, corridor, and ghat. There are also countless stray dogs, pigs, and goats all over the place. With this mass of animals running around comes the inevitable large amount of poo. Sounds lovely doesn’t it!? I won’t dwell on the garbage and poo, but it had to be mentioned, as it is a big issue in India, particularly in Varanasi.
Varanasi is said to be the oldest living city in the world. It is a maze of narrow streets that open up to a number of Ghats whose steps lead in to the Ganges River. Varanasi is also the holiest city in India, and Hindus from all over the country pilgrimage to Varanasi to bath in its water, dissolving themselves from a lifetime of sin. They also bring deceased family members to be cremated on the burning Ghats, and after their ashes spread into the Ganges. We visited two of the burning Ghats, and witnessed bodies being burned on open flames with families standing witness. It was quite a powerful thing to witness. At the other Ghats you see Brahmin, Holy
Men, and other Hindu followers bathing in the waters of the Ganges or worshipping on the steps. The Ghats are a lively and intense place, with things going on twenty-four hours a day.
While visiting one of the main Ghats, a local old man approached me asking if I wanted a haircut. I did want my haircut! So after coming to an agreement of $1.50 (Canadian) he proceeded to chop off my hair, right there on the steps of the main Ghat. People couldn’t believe what was taking place, and out came the cameras. People were pointing, watching curiously, and taking pictures throughout the whole cut. It turned out to be the best haircut I’ve had in a long time! After the hair cut, my barber called his friend over, and the two of them proceeded to lay me down on a wooden platform where they gave me a full body massage for over 30 minutes. Every inch of me, almost literally, was vigorously attended to. It culminated with one man sitting behind me, his legs wrapped around my thighs, and his arms with me in a full Nelson. The other man had one hand across my back, and his other hand tugged my arm wildly into the air. I eventually had to make up an excuse and say we had dinner plans in order to end the public spectacle and get out of there. It was quite the scene, and each of them earned an additional 2 Canadian dollars when it was all said and done.
We also had young Varanasi guys often approach us asking us all sorts of questions about Canada, and about our travels. They would walk around with us and show us interesting things about Varanasi. As we walked I would mention to them that we had no money because we left it all at the hotel, and almost immediately they would lose interest in us. When I told one of the guys who was touring us around that we had no money, he was insulted that I even brought up money! He said he was a student, home on vacation, and just wanted to be friends and show us the city. We apologized and said that we would of course love for him to show us around, and that is was so nice to meet someone not trying to sell us things or scam us! He laughed and slowly toured us through the winding streets. Eventually we ended up outside an apartment where he said his uncle worked. He asked if we wanted to check it out and say hi, so we went in to take a look. Sure enough there was his uncle and a couple business associates waiting for us with big smiles and samples of silk scarves, quilts, and saris. They sat us down and showed us sample after sample for 15 minutes. “Ooooh” we thought, “there’s the scam….good one!” We listened politely for a while, then said we were not interested and left our friend behind.
You can only handle so much Varanasi before you need to escape to a quiet place. Luckily we had an amazing guesthouse that was located 10 minutes outside the old city in a quiet area. It was right on the Ganges River, and had an amazing rooftop terrace where you could get food and chill out. Our room was big and clean with air conditioning! It was a fantastic, much-needed oasis after hot days sightseeing. Varanasi was like being thrown in to the deep end of the pool, we had to start swimming pretty quick! The crowds, chaos, and poverty and are all full-on in Varanasi, and I think will be unmatched during the rest of our trip. I am glad we came to Varanasi. It is a different world, and a place that needs to be seen when in India, but I am happy to be moving on. We now have a 13-hour overnight train to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal! We are very excited to see what else India has in store for us.
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Caryl
non-member comment
Love your blog!!
So great to read your wonderful descriptions....such an amazing adventure...love you!! Mom