Blogs from Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia - page 6

After a leisurely start, we are after all on holiday, we had breakfast (sadly and surprisingly only juice on offer is orange which Bob can't drink) then found our driver waiting at the hotel front door. It had been raining and we could only hope it wouldn't rain much more as, perhaps foolishly, when packing to come away, we considered the possibility of rain and discarded it and therefore our macs in sacs. We left Agra on the same totally unsurfaced road we came in on as we were heading for Fatehpur Sikri. Took us a good hour to get there and our driver had phoned ahead to book us a guide as he said we needed one here. Another Unesco World Heritage site and petrol / diesel vehicles are excluded so we had to drive ... read more

'If you let cloudy water settle, it will become clear. If you let your upset mind settle, your course will also become clear'.* Is this something Buddha might have said? I think so - but probably not in those words.† Take a look at an actual quote in the picture alongside! It's a definite fact, however, that Buddha's story was one of riches to rags - but it's not one that many people know about, so be prepared for a bit of history: Born in 563 BCE as Siddhartha Gautama, he was the son of a wealthy chief from a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. He was brought up in relative luxury but, when he ventured beyond his spoiled existence, he was shocked to discover poverty and suffering in the world outside. A ... read more

25th January 2018 Uttar Pradesh Return to India 5 (click on 'previous' below the panorama for earlier blogs) Varanasi - The Ghats and beyond Continuing the travels of two somewhat elderly brothers, David (of ‘the grey haired nomads’) and the younger, Mike, (aka, ‘keep smiling’). The good guidebook tells us there are 88 ghats here in Varanasi; those long terraces of riverfront steps leading down to the banks of the mighty Mother Ganges. Most are used for ceremonial bathing but just two are used exclusively as cremation sites. Raju, our guide here in Varanasi, has organised a boat to take us downriver this evening, to view the proceedings from the water just before sunset. The guidebook also talks much about tigers, but that will have to wait. T... read more

January 2018 Return to India 4 (click on 'Previous Entry' below the panorama for earlier blogs) The Ganges by boat Uttar Pradesh Continuing the travels of two somewhat elderly brothers, David (of ‘the grey haired nomads’) and the younger, Mike, (aka, ‘keep smiling’). Allahabad to Varanasi Continuing the travels of two somewhat elderly brothers, David (of ‘the grey haired nomads’) and the younger, Mike, (aka, ‘keep smiling’) getting to know each other rather better as they travel through the north of this fascinating country. Our hosts at Kanchan Villa Guesthouse in Allahabad are joining us for breakfast again this morning and there’s much excitement in the air as we prepare to embark on a two-day boat journey down the River Ganges, drifting gently on the mighty... read more

Pilgrims often arrive in the holy city of Varanasi on foot. Tourists usually arrive by air or by road. A few travellers arrive by boat. These two grey-haired brothers, determined to be travellers rather than tourists, were among those latter few! In the late 1960s, one of the finest travel writers of all time, the late Eric Newby, wrote a book* describing how he and his wife Wanda set out by boat to cruise the entire length of the River Ganges. Travelling in a variety of unstable vessels, their journey was more treacherous and slower than they'd imagined, but it was absolutely fascinating nonetheless. One critic rightly observed that the book's pages contained 'all the exasperating charm, dusty enchantment and recurrent dottiness of India'. Perhaps it was my reading of those same pages long ago which ... read more