On the road to Benares
So after a 13 hour train ride, I've arrived in Benares (Varansi).
For some reason I didn't sleep as well as I usually do on trains, but that seems to be something about this trip in general. Most of my sleep has been in broken segments, with each day ending the same way: I arrive in my hotel room, and fall asleep immediately, but then wake up a couple of times during the night with a final wake up at about 4:30 or so.
After the train ride, I disembarked (while forgetting my Nalgene water bottle), and fought through the train platform until I saw my ride. Everyone seems really confused by me. The backpack is a dead giveaway that I'm not a local, but they seem to find this discrepancy between how I look and how I talk. It really confuses them. Interesting to watch though.
I met a couple of travelers on the train this morning. Dave's a Brit who did his first trip to India about 6 months back, and after spending all his time in Rajasthan, he decided to come back to see some of the rest of India. He packs worse than I do. In addition to packing a travel kettle and lots of Raman noodles (apparently because of a weak constitution... I call it cowardice), he's packed both his digital camera (Nikon D70), and a film based camera, because he doesn't know if he can trust the digital. Dave brought his girlfriend along for this trip, but was having trouble getting her to wake up. There was an older American woman, who was an odd mix of traveler and stereotype. Typically the Americans that I've met traveling have been really interesting people with broad minds (as are most people that you meet abroad). She was helpful, but at the same time when we chatted this morning she came across as incredibly rednecked. She decided that on a train full of Indian, in a conversation with what she clearly realised was the chile of immigrants, and another person who had expressed the desire to immigrate to the U.S., this American railed against the problems caused by immigration. It seemed a bit incongruous.
I've booked my accommodation for Mumbai (but not for Calcutta yet), because I'm going to be there for Divali, a large Indian festival, and wanted to make sure that I had a room.
All in all, I didn't see much of Delhi, most of my time there was spent in meetings, or shuttling back and forth from the meetings. I'll have to try to see more of the city when I get back there. The part of town that I was in was clearly New Delhi, not the centuries old part. The newer part of town was designed by Luytens, and was the best running traffic flow I've seen without traffic lights. The new part of the city is planned around a series of radially connected traffic circles, when you get into a circle, you just loop around clockwise until you get to the street that you need. Traffic (outside of the morning and evening crunch) runs really well with the circles. During the rush periods, even the traffic lights are ignored, so the circles seem to be calmer then too. I spent my last few hours in the city lounging on the enclosed front lawn of the hotel sipping on sweet lime juice.
Benares is a contrast to the order of New Delhi. The big attraction here is the ghats. They're step like blocks built at the edge of the Ganges. People come here to bath in the holy water (not only is the Ganges here, but this is where the Ganges and the Yamuna meet). Just down from there are funeral ghats, where people are cremated. Apparently passing away here and being cremated at the ghats of Benares is a big help in ending your reincarnation cycle. Unfortunately, the river is incredibly polluted here so I don't think that I'll be taking a dip.
Well I best be off. I have to arrange my trip to Calcutta (so that I can then arrange a hotel), get out to see the city and plan for an early morning river boat so that I can see the ghats as the sun rises and the devout come out. I'll also try to get out to Sarnath where Buddha delivered his sermon after discovering the path to enlightenment.
dilip
followup: Damn train schedule... I have 1 night in Benares not two, with the way that the trains run I can't be assured that I'll be in Calcutta in time if I take the train on the Tuesday night, so Monday it will have to be, and Sarnath will have to wait. Now let's see if I can get a ticket 24 hours in advance.
dca
For some reason I didn't sleep as well as I usually do on trains, but that seems to be something about this trip in general. Most of my sleep has been in broken segments, with each day ending the same way: I arrive in my hotel room, and fall asleep immediately, but then wake up a couple of times during the night with a final wake up at about 4:30 or so.
After the train ride, I disembarked (while forgetting my Nalgene water bottle), and fought through the train platform until I saw my ride. Everyone seems really confused by me. The backpack is a dead giveaway that I'm not a local, but they seem to find this discrepancy between how I look and how I talk. It really confuses them. Interesting to watch though.
I met a couple of travelers on the train this morning. Dave's a Brit who did his first trip to India about 6 months back, and after spending all his time in Rajasthan, he decided to come back to see some of the rest of India. He packs worse than I do. In addition to packing a travel kettle and lots of Raman noodles (apparently because of a weak constitution... I call it cowardice), he's packed both his digital camera (Nikon D70), and a film based camera, because he doesn't know if he can trust the digital. Dave brought his girlfriend along for this trip, but was having trouble getting her to wake up. There was an older American woman, who was an odd mix of traveler and stereotype. Typically the Americans that I've met traveling have been really interesting people with broad minds (as are most people that you meet abroad). She was helpful, but at the same time when we chatted this morning she came across as incredibly rednecked. She decided that on a train full of Indian, in a conversation with what she clearly realised was the chile of immigrants, and another person who had expressed the desire to immigrate to the U.S., this American railed against the problems caused by immigration. It seemed a bit incongruous.
I've booked my accommodation for Mumbai (but not for Calcutta yet), because I'm going to be there for Divali, a large Indian festival, and wanted to make sure that I had a room.
All in all, I didn't see much of Delhi, most of my time there was spent in meetings, or shuttling back and forth from the meetings. I'll have to try to see more of the city when I get back there. The part of town that I was in was clearly New Delhi, not the centuries old part. The newer part of town was designed by Luytens, and was the best running traffic flow I've seen without traffic lights. The new part of the city is planned around a series of radially connected traffic circles, when you get into a circle, you just loop around clockwise until you get to the street that you need. Traffic (outside of the morning and evening crunch) runs really well with the circles. During the rush periods, even the traffic lights are ignored, so the circles seem to be calmer then too. I spent my last few hours in the city lounging on the enclosed front lawn of the hotel sipping on sweet lime juice.
Benares is a contrast to the order of New Delhi. The big attraction here is the ghats. They're step like blocks built at the edge of the Ganges. People come here to bath in the holy water (not only is the Ganges here, but this is where the Ganges and the Yamuna meet). Just down from there are funeral ghats, where people are cremated. Apparently passing away here and being cremated at the ghats of Benares is a big help in ending your reincarnation cycle. Unfortunately, the river is incredibly polluted here so I don't think that I'll be taking a dip.
Well I best be off. I have to arrange my trip to Calcutta (so that I can then arrange a hotel), get out to see the city and plan for an early morning river boat so that I can see the ghats as the sun rises and the devout come out. I'll also try to get out to Sarnath where Buddha delivered his sermon after discovering the path to enlightenment.
dilip
followup: Damn train schedule... I have 1 night in Benares not two, with the way that the trains run I can't be assured that I'll be in Calcutta in time if I take the train on the Tuesday night, so Monday it will have to be, and Sarnath will have to wait. Now let's see if I can get a ticket 24 hours in advance.
dca
posted by Dilip Andrade at
3:59 a.m.
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