23-24 September - Moving On To Varanasi
RC: To get from Agra to
Varanasi we had to drive back to Delhi and catch a flight on Indigo, a budget, domestic carrier. It was 3.5 hours to get to the outskirts of
Delhi and then another hour plus to make it the final 25 miles or so to the
airport. All those movies and videos of what it's like to drive in India,
they're all true, maybe worse. Back to flying. I'm always a little
leery with cut rate airlines, but this was a very nice surprise with my low
expectations being completed unfounded. They fly the A320 Airbus, coach
only, but new planes, very good cabin service, and punctual almost to the
second. In the 65 minute flight from Delhi to Varanasi, everyone got
served whatever drink they wanted (no alcohol) and lots of meals, some made to
order. Very impressive. We landed at Varanasi at night and it was
raining a bit. Add darkness and rain to driving in India and you have a
whole new driving sport. We made it to the hotel, another very nice place
that I'm sure Beanie will have much to say about. Our schedule was to
have the first evening in the hotel with our scheduled events beginning the
next morning. We got started by visiting a local, not really sure what
you would call it, but to me it was an artsy, fartsy kind of place. We
were the only ones there. We toured some pretty cool stuff from way back
in the day, like 1st century. Keep in mind Varanasi is one of the oldest
cities in the world going back almost 4000 years. It used to be known as
Kashi (yep, just like the cereal) so there is some seriously old stuff
around. Our guide, Mr. Kabul (yep, just like the friendly city in
Afghanistan) was quite good. Added to our list (well, mine, Beanie claims
to have already known just about everything), is that Buddhism also started
within a few miles of Kashi (just seeing if you're paying attention), granted
it was 1500 years later, but still. There is some debate around
this. Nepal claims Lumbini as Buddha's birthplace, but India claims the
site of enlightenment. Guess it depends on how you're keeping
score. Anyway, back to the tour. We followed up with a visit to the
Buddhist Hindu University Museum. This place was huge and not air
conditioned. They had nine different exhibits ranging from sculpture to
painting to textiles. It was also pretty good, but just too big to
cover. It didn't help that we had a brown out and the entire place went
black. No fans and no a/c. After we left the BHU museum
the skies opened up and the rains were upon us. In a matter of 30 minutes
the streets were flooded, cars were stalling out, and we were wondering if we
were going to make it back to the hotel. We did, primarily due to some
pretty slick driving by our driver. The rains pretty much washed out the
rest of our Varanasi stay.
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| My most common sighting in India - Beanie Snapping Pictures |
By
the time we got to the hotel, unpacked a bit and had dinner it was time for
bed. More about the hotel later (well, you knew that!) but it
was excellent.
The
city of Varanasi is over 4000 years old, making it the oldest continually lived
in city in the world! The current
population is approximately 4 million. It’s
the holiest city in India in part because it’s on the holy river Ganges. Every Hindu strives to come to Varanasi at
least once. If you bathe in the river
your sins are washed away. When you die,
if half your ashes are put in the river, your sins are forgiven and you move up
in the ladder of reincarnation. If you
can time it right and die in Varanasi you can skip right over reincarnation and
go directly to heaven. I ask our guide
how the poorest people or people without families could afford to have their
ashes brought here. He said most poor
families figure out a way to bring their relatives’ ashes here since it is very
bad karma not to do it. But if it isn’t
possible, there are charities that do it for them. So it’s not surprising that over 5000 Hindus
come to Varanasi every day, either to spread the ashes of a family member, to
die here, or to bathe in the river. The
crematoriums run 24/7. It was quite
common to see a body being carried by people or on the top of a vehicle heading
to the river. Every evening the cremation
ceremonies (Aarti) happen along the river on the ghats from 6:30 to 7:30. The Aarti is the main reason we tourists
visit this city.
After
a good night’s rest, we awoke to an overcast morning which was nice for a
change and made it a bit cooler. We
headed out to visit two museums – one small and one large. We saw a lot of miniature paintings, Hindu
carvings, textiles (gorgeous), and other artifacts. As Randy mentioned it started pouring rain
while we were in the second museum and it was still coming down hard when we
left after wading to our car. The drive
back to the hotel was quite exciting with more than a tinge of terrifying. At one point we were driving through water at
least 2 or even 3 feet deep! Later that
night I told Randy that it sure would’ve been awful if we had stalled out and
had to climb out the windows. He said
the driver and the guide would climb out and push us out, we’d stay put!
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| Just A Little Bit Soggy |
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| This Cab Stalled Out |
Varanasi Ganga Aarti Holy River Hindu Worship Ritual
Varanasi Funeral Pyres and Ghats
We hoped to go on a boat ride the next morning before we caught our flight back to Delhi to see the people coming down to bathe in the river at sunrise but that wasn’t to be either as it rained off and on that night and the lanes were still flooded. Another disappointment
But,
never fear, the long trip to Varanasi was not a complete bust. We really enjoyed the Nadesar Palace
Hotel. It is yet another historical
hotel with beautiful grounds that feels like an oasis in the midst of
turmoil. It was built by the British
East India Company over 200 years ago to house visiting dignitaries and later
military officers. Consequently, it has
a very colonial feel and design. About
100 years ago the British gave it to the Maharaja of Varanasi and he lived in
it for two years before moving to a new palace and then also using it for
visiting dignitaries. In 2009, the Taj Hotel
Group of India bought it and converted it into a boutique hotel. There are only 8 rooms and suites and each
one is named after a visiting dignitary that stayed there. We were in the Count Mountbatten Suite and
there were photos of the count and his wife during their visit throughout the
suite, which consisted of a living room, dining room, bedroom and
bathroom. The woman who showed us the
room explained that many of the pieces of furniture, including the four poster
bed and the cast iron claw foot tub were original. The service was again extraordinary. There was a Hindu ceremony for us when we
arrived and when we left. Both were very
interesting but I must admit I felt more than a bit self-conscious – nothing
new there! We ate both breakfasts and
dinners in the hotel and the food was excellent. The chef came to our table both nights to
talk to us about the menu and tell us that he’d make anything we wanted that
wasn’t on the menu. Randy told him about
a wonderful salad we’d had in Jodhpur made with (we thought) tomatoes,
cucumbers, onion and peanuts. The chef
said he knew exactly what it was and it was even better than the first one we’d
had. He also told us that they grow all
their own fruit and vegetables on the hotels grounds – all organic.
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| Front Entry to Hotel |
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| View of Hotel From Grounds Behind The Hotel. Our Room Is Behind Palm Tree On The Left |
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| Beanie Chilling On The Balcony |
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| Breakfast. Best Seat In The House Overlooking The Grounds |
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| Inside Dining Area - We Used Once But Much Preferred Outside |
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| Upstairs Foyer Area Accessing Balcony |
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| Common Area. This Is The Computer We Used To Catch Up On Blog |
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| Front Living Area Of Our Room |
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| Dining Portion Of Our Room |
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| Bedroom Portion Of Our Room |
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| Evening Turn Down Services Included A Rose Petal Bubble Bath |
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| Me & My Bride Doing The Carriage Ride Thing |
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| Ajeet With His Marwari Horse. Maybe Not Pure As Ears Don't Quite Touch |
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| They Sometimes Get Close!!! |
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| Originally The Lions Cage Repurposed As The Greenhouse |
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| Just Can't Pass Up A Picture Of A Kingfisher - Bird or Beer!!! |
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| View Of Grounds From Balcony Outside Our Room |
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| And Then Came The Rains |
RC: The return flight to Delhi on Indigo Air was just as good as the
one going out. We checked into the J.W. Marriott near the airport.
It's quite a complex, just under three years old, but incredible service and
facility. They graciously upgraded us to a killer suite, a rounded room facing
the airport, another spa type bathroom as well as a half bath just off the
living room area. We were greeted at reception, escorted up to our room,
and briefed on the "stuff" at our disposal. The executive
lounge was off the hook and we spent a couple hours there the first night just
relaxing with adult beverages and grazing around the food offerings.
The next morning it was off to the golf course. I met up
with Mr. Singh, our liaison for arranging everything we did in India (except
for all the stuff the Bean did) and we were off to the course.
Unfortunately most golf courses in India are closed on Monday so we ended up
playing a nine hole course about 45 minutes away (or 6 miles of driving in
Delhi). We knew we were going to play golf so we thought, "let's
bring him some trinket from a golf course here in the valley". Our
first thought was a golf hat from my home course. Then we got to thinking
about it, "hey, this guys is a Sikh", he wears a turban. How's
he going to wear a ball cap?" So we dodged that blunder and picked up a
ball marker and towel. So I'm supposed to meet him in the lobby that
morning. I'm looking around for someone in a turban and up walks Mr.
Singh wearing a ball cap. I'm thinking "crap, even when we're right
we're wrong!!" I relayed our story to Mr. Singh and he found it
pretty humorous. The golf course was pretty nice, though they were
working on getting the greens back into shape following the monsoon season. We
got in 18 holes in about 3 hours, the only ones on the course. It was a
nice wind down after the hectic life of vacationing. I suspect Beanie
liked having a little Beanie time also.
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| Me & Mr. V. P. Singh. See, The Ball Cap Would Have Worked. It's Not That Slanted - The Caddies Lists A Bit To His Port!! |
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| We Spent A Nice Evening With New Friends, Dave & Madhu |
The flight from Doha to LAX was pretty
uneventful. I watched 6 movies and
Beanie got some much needed sleep. Food
and service was once again excellent. We
were an hour late getting to LA (why? I have no idea) which cut into our
already tight 2.5 hours layover time considering we had to clear customs, wait
for luggage, recheck luggage, move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 6, clear
security again, and make the flight. We
also had to do this without TSA PreCheck on our tickets. Amazingly enough from the time we got off the
plane till we were waiting to board our flight to Phoenix was less than an
hour. Having the Global Entry program in
place really paid for itself on this trip.
We made it the house by 7:00 PM local time and were in bed by 8:00. The kitties were all over us and it felt
really good to get back into our own bed.
Kathy: We had a nice last two nights in Delhi. The JW was beautiful and I especially wanted
to point out the refrigerator in the room that was covered with small abalone
shell tiles – over the top! You can’t
really see it well in the photo.
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| Marriot Living Room Area - Check Out The Frig |
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| Marriot Bedroom Area |
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| Marriot Living Room Area |
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| Marriott Outdoor Courtyard Area |
While Randy golfed with Mr. Singh, I slept in,
explored the hotel, did a bit of prepacking and just generally relaxed. I did get a chance to meet Mr. Singh in the
lobby when he and Randy returned from golf but it was very brief as he had a
business appointment to get too. It was
nice to finally meet the man I had been corresponding with for so long. Mr. Singh is a real gentleman. That evening we had a very nice time with
Dave and Madhu and we look forward to possibly meeting up with them again in
the future.
The next morning we caught the Qatar 10 AM flight to
Doha where we had a 20 hour layover. We
spent the night in The Airport Hotel in the transit area, which meant we again had
access to the wonderful business class lounge for drinks and meals.
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| Reception Area To Qatar Executive Business Class Lounge |
Final Random Things:
RC: Driving in India is a whole new level of
competition. Lane lines are just vague recommendations,
animals always have the right of way, children – not so much. Any turn from any
lane at any time is fair game. Just because
you’re on a divided six lane highway it doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep an
eye out for camels, cows, cars, trucks, or elephants heading eastbound on the
westbound lane. All this being said,
rage driving is virtually unheard of (outside Delhi) and there is a certain
level of courtesy amongst the chaos. Here's a short video of what became very routine after the first couple days.
Kathy:
Domestic Airlines.
We were quite impressed with both Air India and Indigo Airlines despite
having read some bad reviews. Indigo’s
website talks about charging for overweight bags (their checked bag limit is 35
lbs) so we were prepared to fork over some cash, but on both trips with them
they didn’t charge us. The cabin crew,
always attractive young women, busted their butts on all the flights. Boarding was fast and efficient. On flights of less than two hours, they
managed to serve either a hot meal or snacks and drinks. Our flights left on time and arrived on
time. Indigo has an inflight magazine
called HELLO 6E – think about it & say it out load.
Security.
Indian airports have much tighter security than in the US. You have to show your ticket and
identification to get into the airport.
You can pretty much forget ever putting away your boarding pass and
passport because around every corner someone needed to check it. For example, you show it to get into the
boarding area, at the gate before boarding, at the door to exit the gate area and
get onto the bus to take you to the plane, at the door onto the bus and then
finally at the door of the plane. Whew. Also, separate screening lines for men and
women and everyone gets wanded (is that a word?) and a pat down.
The vehicles we used were all Toyota Innovas. They were very comfortable with excellent
suspensions, which is important for me and my new back!
We noticed several restaurant menus that said “In
keeping with our secular policies, we don’t serve beef or pork”. Huh?
French fries are called finger chips on many
menus. For some reason that just cracks
us up.
I think we mentioned that cows are sacred – they
provide milk and the gods live in the cows.
So people feed them. Bulls with
humps are used for pulling carts so they are fed also. But bulls without humps are not good for
anything so they are not fed and have to forage through the garbage for
food. People don’t want the cows or the
bulls in front of their homes and stores so they shoo them away. Consequently you see a lot of them standing
or sitting in traffic in the road or in the median where they feel less
harassed.
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| Cow In The "Safe Zone" - Center Median |
Milk is very expensive, about $4 a gallon – about
what it is in the US?
Qatar Airways was excellent from the food to the
service to comfort. Like many oil rich
Middle Eastern countries, Qataris don’t need to work and almost all of their
workforce is “imported”. The Qatar
flight crew we met were from Bosnia, China and the Philippines. Oh, and Qatar
is the only airlines that I know of that provides pajamas in business class. No, I’m not pointing to my boob, they haven’t
been that high up in a lot of years – it’s the Qatar logo, the head of an oryx
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| Beanie In Her Qatar PJs |
Despite poor reviews of Indian wines, I liked Sula
chardonnay. Wine is quite expensive –
anywhere from $9 to $12 a glass for Indian wine. More for imported wine. India only makes three beers – King Fisher,
Budweiser, and Heinekens – who knew about the last two? In the US Randy drinks Taj Mahal beer at
Indian restaurants and that’s what he ask for in India, but no waiter or bartender had ever
heard of it. Oddly enough it’s made by
the same company that makes Kingfisher.
Maybe it's only for export or just sold in certain parts of India.
And lastly, if any Indians or Indian history buffs
have stumbled onto this blog, we apologize for any facts we may have screwed
up. It’s likely there are more than a
few. There was a lot to take in and
learn and rather than presenting a bunch of dates and figures our focus has been to convey what an incredible adventure we‘ve had
in this amazing country, India.
