Agra to Varanasi

---

---

Left Agra at 08h00 and raced down the NH2 - the Grand Trunk Road - a very good four-lane divided highway. I had decided to do Agra to Varanasi in one day and it would be my longest and hardest day of riding in India. At first it was cool, so I pushed the bike harder than usual to get some distance behind me. Agra to Etawa to Kanpur (formerly Cawnpore). By 11h30 it was getting hot so I had to slow down.

I’ve seen plenty of brickworks and brick buildings in this country, but at Kanpur it was particularly noticeable. The entire city seemed built of bricks and made me think of London, yet it was Indian architecture: narrow one- and two-storey rectangular buildings.

Aberrant behaviour?
Shortly I was startled to see vehicles coming toward me on my side of the four-lane highway. I took this at first to be total lunacy. It seems that drivers here don’t go in the correct direction to the next gap in the dividing barrier to make a U-turn and reverse their direction. They simply come down the road against the flow of traffic. What’s worse, they don’t use the shoulder. They use the inside, high-speed lane. Trucks, buses, tractors, bicycles, even bullock carts all do it. At first I took this to be the apogee of Indian driving stupidity. But, thinking about it, for Westerners four-lane divided means two in on direction, two in the opposite. It means faster travel and greater security with less chance of head-on collisions. Here, I think they perceive such a road to be two regular highways side-by-side. So their behaviour is just standard for any highway and I’m in the wrong to perceive it as aberrant.

There is plenty of inter-driver communication, too. First, the horn. You blow it endlessly, usually as a warning that you’re overtaking or, in the case of towns and villages, coming through. It lets others know you’re there and that they should be aware of you. It’s not used in the Western sense, as a blare of anger for some infraction, except occasionally. After all, what infractions are there here, really? Almost all behaviour is likely an infraction.

Secondly, when you blow your horn to overtake buses and trucks, the driver often signals to you with his hand to indicate Yes (all clear) or No (not right now).

Thirdly, I use the exaggerated head shake No at oncoming traffic that’s trying to pass if I think it can’t be done safely. Often this works well.

Driving for Indians also involves luck and fate. Because their attitude to life and death is deeply caught up in karma and fatalism, accidents become an expression of fate, not skill or lack of. Given this, it falls to me to be more wary, more alert, because I put the emphasis on responsibility, not fate.

Kanpur to Allahabad through fields that were mostly harvested and stood waiting for planting dressed in dry yellow and brown. Most of the villages I went through were dusty, ramshackle communities, the Indian equivalent of perdition, I suppose. Between these lay the occasional ratty building. In fact, the brick villages seemed to be made of buildings either half-built or half-ruin.

Driving at night
Nightfall found me still two hours from Varanasi. In darkness, all of the difficulties found in daylight driving continue, exacerbated by an inability to see well. Oncoming trucks blinded me as my helmet’s visor refracted light from their headlamps into piercing rays. Things on the road ahead loomed suddenly, including a bullock cart with no lights coming toward me in my lane.

Driving in India is intense in daylight; at night it’s far worse and requires unwavering concentration, particularly as my headlight was poor and not properly aligned. This was the fist and, I hope, the last night drive I’ll ever do in India.

At last I came to Varanasi - formerly known as Benares - and found a hotel just above the ghats on the Ganges. It was 22h30 and I was exhausted. My room was a monk’s cell filled almost entirely by a bed. I didn’t care and simply crashed.

---

Comments

[Gabriela Breton]

I am planning a trip to India and I want to know what is the best way to get to Agra from Delhi and to Veranasi from Agra. Is it train? bus ?plane? or I have heard that for very cheap I can get a driver too? If it is by train I have read there's various express trains. Does anyone know the time frame from each town and if it is best to do this journey through the night? Also I believe you have to buy the train tickets way in advance if you want first class and private room, is that true?Thank you Gabriela

[ADB]

Agra to Varanasi
I'm unable to help you with this question because I travelled through India by motorcycle and never took a train or a bus, so really don't know much about them. Good luck with your trip.