Transportation in India

We have a lot to say about travel in India as we spent a large number of the 58 days there making our way around the vast country. We travelled our way from India’s northern border with Nepal all the way down the west coast to Gokarna (almost made it to its most southern tip but unfortunately our expiring visa told us it was time to leave) and there was a minimum 11 hours of travel time between most of our destinations. Overall our traveling experience in India was great. The country is very well connected and easily and affordably accessible through an excellent mixture of air, rail and road transportation. We can only comment on India’s rail and road transportation as we only took one flight and that was out of the country.



a double bunk on one side of the aisle in A2 class

 Let’s begin with train travel in India. India has an amazing railway network that connects all corners of the country and efficiently moves its 1 billion inhabitants… and not surprisingly you have to book way in advance! Sometimes this is weeks or months in advance depending on your destination, class and date of travel - especially if you are looking at a direct train for long distances with only once a week service. Buying your first railway ticket on your own in India can be a confusing experience as there are eight classes of travel available and you can purchase your ticket under three different quotas. These are the general quota, the tatkal quota and the foreign tourist quota. The first two you can purchase in person or on-line where as a tourist quota ticket must be purchased at the station. The tourist and tatkal quota (tatkal seats become available 48 hours before travel time at a price increased by 5-25% of the original ticket price) are there to ensure that last minute travellers and tourists can get seats. 



the four person sleeping area in the A2 class

 There are up to eight different class options when selecting your seat on Indian trains though not all trains offer every class. At the top of the list is the A1 (air conditioned first class) for longer or overnight trips. This is a sleeper car which sleeps two people and has a locking door. You get two sheets (one for the bedding and one to put your blanket on), one thicker blanklet (comes in very handy when travelling through the northern provinces in the winter months) and a pillow. This is by far the most luxurious way to travel in India and has a price tag to go along with it. We never chose this option as the two lower A classes offer similar luxury with only a few differences at a discount. The A2 (air conditioned second class) is divided into a four person section on one side with a curtain closing it off for privacy with a double bunk on the opposite side of the aisle which lies along the length of the car and is also closed off by a curtain. If you’re lucky you get the double bunk. The A3 (air conditioned third class) fits in more people with six to one side and a double bunk on the other side of the aisle and has lower quality sheets, blanket and pillow compared to A2 (which in turn has lower quality than A1). Then you move down to the sleeper class which is the same in size and layout as the A3 except that you do not get any bedding, there are no curtains dividing the areas and no air conditioning. The cars themselves are built differently without the glass sealed windows of the A class (these are slats and in the lowest classes, just bars) and the frames and seating are of a lower quality. Needless to say if you are travelling in the winter and get a sleeper car, bring a blanket as it gets cold in there. Sometimes a non AC first class sleeper offered, with double or quadruple lockable berths, then you have your two AC seater classes and finally the unreserved second class. This last class is what you see in movies with open doors and wooden or padded plastic seats and yes, it does get rammed with people and people do hang out of the door. 

With our way of last minute traveling we only had the chance to use the train on a handful of occasions and all but one of the times we were waitlisted to get on. How the waitlist works is when all the seats are sold out you get put on the list and hope that people cancel their trip so you can get their seat. You are notified by email and/or text telling you that you are off the waitlist and will be issued a seat. So how do you find out what seats you were given? There are rows of boards in every train station with lists of all the passengers leaving on the trains in the following two hours. The lists are organized by train number, class and finally cabin number. The lists are then organized by seat number and provide the full name, age and gender of each passenger assigned to each seat. The lists are also posted on the door of the two entrances of each car but only the lists with the passenger info for that particular car are posted.

chicken lollipops

One of the best parts of traveling on the train, especially when you are going on long hauls, is the variety of food that is available for sale at any given time. The chai merchant passes by every 15 minutes followed by men selling chicken and veg biryani, omelettes, samosas, chicken lollipops (chicken drumsticks which are breaded and fried and smothered in hot sauce), tomato soup (very random we know :), and a variety of chip like snacks and pop. Although the food might not be the best, considering its train food, it’s not bad at all.



chhatrapati shivaji terminus (Victoria terminus), Mumbai

 Before we leave off to talk about the bus system, we have to tell you a little bit about the train stations themselves. On our first visit we arrived in the late afternoon and the station was as full of people as you'd expect any station in India would be. We came back a few hours later to find out that the population at the train station had tripled with people not only buying tickets and standing around but making themselves comfortable all over the floors with blankets and dinners.



in our first double sleeper bunk

 Since we could almost never find an available seat on a train we ended up travelling a lot by bus. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that for long distance buses there is a sleeper option. A sleeper bus is a regular sized travel bus that has been converted into horizontal cubes that sleep either one or two people. A bus can be either a complete sleeper bus with only single and double bunks lining the bus or it can be a bus with seats on the bottom and single and double bunks on top on either side of the aisle where the luggage racks normally are. We have to say that we really enjoyed travelling in a sleeper bunk although on one occasion the bus was really disgustingly dirty. We eventually found a fantastic website (www.redbus.in) where you can easily find route information and book and print your own ticket but the best part is that the bus companies are rated and pictured so you know what you are getting into before hand. 



inside a Mumbai taxi

 Once we made it to the many cities we encountered more options of transportation. Every city that we visited had some form of a bike or auto rick-shaws (tuk-tuk) that would line the corners of busy streets and thruways. There would be hundreds of them at any bus or train station and riding in one was an adventure to say the least. Then there were your standard cabs which really stand out in Mumbai with their yellow and black paint job in addition to their funky interiors. We highly recommend taking one if you are ever in this city as the feel of being in one is an experience on its own. In addition to being driven you can rent yourself a moped, bike or car and join the madness on the streets. While on the Goan coast we used a moped quite a bit and found it to be a great way of exploring the local beaches and towns. 

Overall we have to say that traveling throughout India was a comfortable, safe and enjoyable experience. The country is really well connected with affordable options of which we found the train to be the most comfortable if you can get a seat on one. Buses were a great second option with some variation in their appearance, smell and capacity. Both buses and trains are almost always late but jus as often happen to leave on time.
　

taxi's outside of Victoria Terminus, Mumbai



front of a cargo truck in India - they are all pimped out in their own way

 

back of  a Cargo truck in India with the stanard "Horn Please" as you are to honk so it'll get out of your way for you to pass

 

getting around on a moped or bike (note that almost all women sit sideways so they have special footrests for that)

  

a mixed sleeper/seating bus



a full sleeper bus ... with a man caught in action :)



the dirtiest sleeper bus we ever took - yes we tried to touch as little as possible ... wished we could float!

  

an auto rick-shaw or tuk-tuk in Varanasi

 

Jaisalmer: India’s Golden City

We left the chaos of the ‘pink city’ behind and took our first overnight sleeper bus (more on this form of travel in our up coming travel post) to Jaisalmer, also known as the Golden City. Before we fill you in on this sandy outpost, let us tell you a little bit about the bus ride. We left Jaipur quite content with our new mode of transportation and all the necessary provisions on hand: lots of salty and sweet snacks, bananas and three litres of water. Everything was going smoothly until about two am when our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere for five hours. Half way through this breakdown S really needed to use the ladies room but unfortunately the bus broke down on the side of the road next to very flat and open land. She decided to be brave, go back to bed and wait until the bus was fixed and we hit our next rest stop. Much to her painful displeasure the driver decided to make up the lost time by speeding to Jaisalmer without making the conventional rest stops. What this meant was that he continued to stop on the side of the road for men to relieve themselves but whenever S went to the front to ask to go to the bathroom she was greeted with an abrupt: “no, no stop!”. By the time we reached our final destination at noon S could barely move and to top it off we got dropped off at the side of the road in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere rather than a bus stop. S asked some boys where the nearest bathroom was and they sneered, pointed to a field behind them and said: “India is an open toilet”. Oh great … not for this lady!

inside the Jaisalmer fort

Jaisalmer is a smaller town on the edge of the desert and about 100 km from the Pakistani border. This geographic location put Jaisalmer in a strategic position in the old camel routes to Central Asia bringing it great wealth resulting in beautiful houses and mansions around the city. With the rise of the shipping trade out of Mumbai much of this wealth left Jaisalmer. However, the poor relations with Pakistan in the 60’s put Jaisalmer back on the map due to its excellent military positioning. You notice this as you drive into town and pass kilometres upon kilometres of military bases and barracks. Tourism is the military’s big rival now due to the city’s desert location and the beautiful and quite well preserved Jaisalmer fort that sits on top of Trikutu Hill overlooking Jaisalmer city. The fort was built in 1156 by Rajput ruler Jaisala and has about 99 bastions around its circumference and one well fortified entrance (with a series of gates) into the fort.



one of the many laneways inside the fort

While almost a quarter of Jaisalmer’s population lives inside the fort walls, the fort is mostly a tourist playground with most of the old haveli’s (sandstone mansions built by the wealthy merchants) turned into hotels as well as hotels built inside the fort walls and shops and stalls selling jewellery, leather and colourful Rajasthani cloth lining all the laneways. When we first entered the fort it reminded us a bit of the Fez medina because of its narrow laneways lined with shops. However, it is MUCH smaller in scale and can be covered within a couple of hours with plenty of picture taking time included. There are quite a few spots to sit and admire the views of the fort, the Jain temple inside the fort and the new city below. Although pretty crammed with hotels, tourists and merchants, the fort itself has a very peaceful atmosphere and we really enjoyed our days spent wandering around. We also want to note that this is the only city we visited where the streets in the new city were quiet and pretty much devoid of vehicles after 10 pm (that means no honking!!). A true rarity for India thus far!


our room at the hotel Shreenath Palace

In Jaisalmer we stayed inside the fort at three different hotels, two of which are worth mentioning and also got to know and enjoyed dinner and chai with the owner of Jaisalmer Fort’s only boutique hotel, Hotel Victoria (which is definitely worth the price of admission and is very tastefully decorated!). Our first night was spent at the Desert Haveli Guest House which is located in the wall of the fort. While a neat experience, the rooms are very spartan and definitely overpriced. However, the fantastic staff makes up for the ripped off feeling and Aladin’s kitchen, which is located on the rooftop of the guesthouse, served up the best food we have eaten in India (and he taught S how to make his delicious desert gata curry - yummy!!). Our last night was spent at Hotel Shreenath Palace which in one of Jaisalmer’s old haveli’s. This is hands down one of the nicest rooms we have ever stayed in (and only for $60 … yah, we indulged but had a very good and smelly reason to do so but more on that in the next paragraph). The room was exquisitely decorated and we felt like we were sleeping in the royal quarters. As a side note, a funny thing happened while we were staying there: around 9 pm M said he thought he smelt something burning and being the good Samaritan that he is, he went to investigate. To his astonishment, he found out that the source of the smoke was the concierge burning a fire in the middle of the sandstone lobby to keep warm.  It was very surreal and classic India J .



S finally gets to experience the desert life

Our main reason for taking the detour to Jaisalmer was so that S could finally experience a camel safari as the first attempt in Morocco was thwarted by M’s evil stomach bacteria and fever. We decided to opt for the ‘authentic’ overnight desert safari which included a camel for each of us, all food and drinks and sleeping under the stars (without a tent). Our experience started with a thirty minute ride outside of Jaisalmer where we were met by two guys running up to our cab who can only be described as Goofy and his silent brother. The cabbie was to our observation very reluctant to let us go with these two guys but after multiple phone calls to confirm their identity and a lengthy conversation in Hindi we packed the camels and set off into the desert. We realized fairly quickly that our guides’ only goal was to do as little as possible while scoring a big baksheesh. Their English was not the best and they didn’t speak to us all that much with the exception of asking how happy we were, to which they always replied “if you are happy we are double happy”. They would also tell us from time to time how great Canadian people are because they are so rich and give good tips. At one point they told us a story about a great Canadian man who bought their friend a camel after a half day trip into the desert which we took as a hint that this is what they expected from us. After we set up camp they both took off for the night and left us with the ‘silent brother’s’ real life brother who kept telling us that there was nothing to be scared of in the desert. Shortly after this M spotted a scorpion centimetres from our feet and pointed it out to the brother who jumped a meter into the air and repeatedly pummelled the poor creature with the biggest pot he could find. We should also mention that before we went to sleep he tucked us into our sleeping area and reassured us that there was nothing to worry about while sleeping in the desert. He then proceeded to mummify himself in his blanket and didn’t reappear until the next morning. Overall we had an unforgettable time, the guides cooked some unbelievable meals, taught us how to make chapati and most importantly they brought us home safe smelling like camels with some seriously bruised asses from all of the camel riding.

If you want to see more of the golden city as well as our desert outing click HERE (password: desert).



view from the fort wall



a cow with its hair dyed with henna :)



crazy facade detail found throughout Jaisalmer

 

another intricate design



making our way through the desert



working on our tans :)

a desert sunset

our bed in the desert with a rat hole next to M's head



Jaipur: India's 'pink city'

Jaipur, the capital of the state of Rajasthan, is known as the ‘pink city’ because of all the pink buildings lining the streets of the old walled city. Overlooking Jaipur from a ridge is Nahargarh, or Tiger Fort, which is one of three forts in the city’s vicinity. The largest of the forts is Amber fort and palace which was the home of Maharaja Man Singh, the man who planned out and designed the old city of Jaipur. Present day Jaipur has spilled out of the old fort walls to become one of Rajasthan’s most polluted, crowded and noisy cities.

main street in the old city

Getting ready to write this post we thought back on Jaipur and the only things that came to mind where our home away from home at beautiful Krishna Palace and how crowded and hectic the streets were. However, when we started to look back at the pictures and reflect on our time there we remembered the beauty that lay amid all that chaos. Once you accept the chaos for what it is you come to understand why Rajasthan is considered the heart of India: the streets are lined with pink limestone buildings and filled with carts of multicoloured produce and sacs overflowing with dried red chilli peppers, women are in their colourful saris and bangles and the men don eccentric moustaches and colourful Rajasthani turbans. All this life and colour amid all of the rich history is where the beauty lies.

Our first day we decided to walk an hour to one of the gates leading into the old walled city to see the real Jaipur. This walk was the beginning of a day which sure tested our patience and nerves. First of all, to get to the gate, you’re walking along the side of the road (as there are no sidewalks) fighting your way through countless people, bikes, cars, carts pulled by men and camels alike, buses, trucks, not to mention making sure you don’t step on anything unpleasant and of course saying “no thank you” to the relentless auto and bicycle rickshaws. The real shock comes as you walk through the city gates: in addition to the above mentioned obstacles the old city throws at you a million hungry shopkeepers and street vendors on either side of you trying to sell you anything under the sun. Feeding into this frenzy are hundreds of side streets bringing with them speeding motorbikes unwilling to stop for anything or anyone leaving the pedestrians to fend for themselves leapfrogging through traffic.


street vendor

It took us some time to adjust to the flow of this very vibrant city but as we said before, once we did the true beauty of Jaipur came to the forefront. First thing that we noticed about the ‘pink city’ and its buildings was the unique architecture on display. The pink facades are covered with intricate carvings and lining the main streets all the buildings have uniform archways that cover the sidewalk. Though many buildings are in bad shape it is nice to see that all the buildings in the old city continue to be painted pink.

Hawa Mahal

We have to note two sites that really stood out for us: the Hawa Mahal and the Jantar Mantar. The Hawa Mahal (or Palace of the Winds) is part of the palace complex in the old city and was built for the ladies of the royal household so that they could have a place to watch the happenings of the city from. The exterior is stunning with its beautiful pink honeycombed small windows overlooking the main street. The interior, on the other hand, is nothing but an open courtyard and paths and stairs leading to the many window ledges from which the ladies watched the city life go by. The other interesting place we visited was Jantar Mantar which is an observatory built by Jai Sing. It looks like a bunch of sculptures, some of them exceeding 8 stories in height, lying around a park. Then you learn that each piece has a specific astronomical or astrological purpose such as measuring the position of stars, altitudes and azymuths and calculating eclipses. The massive sundail tells time to an accuracy of two seconds Jaipur local time. Amazing for something built in 1728!

To see our walks, the forts, the palaces and the crazy beauty of Jaipur, click HERE (password: forts).

gate into the old city



the old pink city



Jantar Mantar



Amber fort and palace



Lake Palace



Albert Hall Museum



This is 'rat park' and what we mean by this is that it's a park with people lounging and eating surrounded by holes that we discovered were rat holes when we saw big fat rats running out of them. 



Delhi: Something Old and Something New

Warnings and stories prepared us for an insanely chaotic, smelly, polluted and crammed capital city. While it was crowded and very smelly at times, it was not the unbearable hell that we had been told about. A day didn’t go by that we didn’t say to ourselves: “it really doesn’t smell that bad here” (which we have to say, goes for the whole country). Yes, the wind does bring you some bursts of ‘perfume’ here and there but over all if you hold your breath just before the puddles on the ground, it’s all good. :) ** 

** NOTE; we have talked at length about the lack of intense smell here and we hypothesise that it is because we are visiting in the winter months and the 50 degree summer heat probably intensifies what we have been smelling by 1000 times.

Harumanji Temple - Delhi

 We investigated Delhi on foot which led us through a lot of interesting and treacherous ground (if you know what we mean …). Delhi is a massive city so please note that our tour was mainly limited to the cores of new and old Delhi. Delhi is divided into many small neighbourhoods with the neighbourhoods in New Delhi visibly emptier and wider than the narrow crammed streets of the walled Old Delhi. Each neighbourhood in New Delhi seems to be subdivided into zones by letter of the alphabet with each house number tied to this letter of the alphabet rather than having street names which are reserved for the main arteries of the city. So, each address has the name of the neighbourhood and then the building number, i.e. G19 Karol Bagh is building 19 in zone G in Karol Bagh. Sounds easy and organized enough but try finding G19 in any given neighbourhood as no one (local and cabbies alike) seems to now where the zones are.



a quiet spot for a vendor at the park

We first explored New Delhi, organized by the British with wide streets, roundabouts, parks and large buildings. The core of New Delhi is said to be the circle of Connaught Place and the business and residential streets surrounding it. At Connaught Place we came across a large circular park built above a shopping centre that was filled with people lounging and standing around the shopping mall’s air ducts and eating from the multitude of street vendors. We definitely took the opportunity to lounge next to the recycled air and sample the tasty street fare. To the south of Connaught Place is Ranjpath, a boulevard connecting the India Gate memorial at its eastern end with the residence of the Indian president (called Rashtrapati Bhavan) and the parliament buildings at its western end. 

streets of Old Delhi

Old Delhi, which was the old walled city of Shahjahanabad, sits to the left of the Red Fort (Lal Qila). The densely crowded, narrow and run down old town is a stark contrast to the spacious streets and majestic buildings of New Delhi. Walking into the old town toward the Red Fort you walk through congested and dirty roads, past squats next to (or more like on) gas stations and down the crazy and overcrowded main shopping bazaar known as Chandni Chowk. Compared to the outside streets, the Red Fort is a peaceful area of gardens and large pavilions. Highlighting more of Delhi’s Muslim history is the Jama Masjid near the Red Fort which is the largest mosque in India and has a courtyard that can hold 25,000 people.

While in Delhi we also made a brief visit to the suburbs in the south with their large condominiums and western companies such as E&Y, Dell and Microsoft opening up office space left, right and centre. We also made sure to experience for ourselves the metro system in Delhi. For the true experience we went during afternoon rush hour. The stations were fairly modern with large clean platforms and a token payment system. They also had the highest security we have ever seen at a metro station: each person has to walk through a metal detector, put their belongings through an x-ray machine like you would see at an airport and walk by dozens of heavily armed police officers before using their token. The metro cars were absolutely rammed and thankfully for S had a less cramped ‘Women and Disabled Only’ car at the front of the train.



Taj Mahal entering from the main gate

 Roughly a three hour train ride from Delhi you will find one of the great wonders of the world: the Taj Mahal. We opted for a day trip to Agra rather than spend the night there and we’re glad we did this - though we didn’t have time to visit the other sites of and around Agra (the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sitri, a red sandstone abandoned city) we were glad not to have to spend a night as Agra is quite a dump. The first amazing thing about the Taj Mahal is the price tag to get in and not so much how much it cost us to get in but the price differential between foreigners and Indian nationals. While we each paid 750 IRP (Indian Rupees, roughly $16.50 Canadian) to get in, each Indian national pays a measly 20 IRP (0.44 cents Canadian). However we have to say that this isn’t the first time this has happened on our trip as in Nepal nationals always enter all sites for free, people from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka pay a nominal fee and foreigners pay similar entry fees as noted for the Taj Mahal. I guess we better start getting used to the tourist tax :) . Anyway, I’m sure you’re all waiting to hear about the Taj Mahal so let us get back on track.

The Taj Mahal is said to be the most extravagant monument built for love - it was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his second wife whose death in childbirth left him devastated and heartbroken for life. The mausoleum took 23 years and 20,000 workers to complete and some of the craftsmen later lost their hands or thumbs so that the beauty of the Taj could never be duplicated. What makes this a truly Shakespearian tale is that Emperor Shah Jahan was disposed by his son, Aurangzeb, soon after the Taj was complete and spent the rest of his life imprisoned in Agra Fort across the river from the Taj Mahal looking at his wife’s final resting place.



the Taj Mahal up close and personal

 The most impressive thing about the Taj Mahal is walking through one of the three gates and having your first look at the beaming Taj. The large white marble structure sits at the end of a long watercourse on a raised marble platform framed by two twin red sandstone buildings, with the western one being a mosque and the eastern one simply there for symmetry (as it can’t be used as a mosque as it faces in the wrong direction). It really is quite something to see, such a beautiful and impressive monument. However, we have to admit that the Taj loses some of its impressiveness the closer you get to it … which might explain why all of the pictures of it are always from a distance at the gates. Don’t get us wrong, the building is beautiful with its simple carved detail into the marble but after a walk around and an hour or longer wait to get inside you are let down by its simplicity. There was nothing inside but a circular room with a tomb. It is a mausoleum so I don’t know what we were expecting but we were left a little disappointed - go us over westernized individuals. Having said all that, it is most definitely a place you must visit and worth the price of admission!!
　　
The rest of our pictures of Delhi and the Taj Mahal are HERE (password: taj).



rock stars for a day - we posed for many pictures with children at the Taj

 

India Gate Monument

 

Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi

Delhi's Red Fort, home of a Mughal Empror for a short period

India: Starting on the Holy Ganges

 After much anticipation and some trepidation we were finally ready to set foot on Indian soil. Crossing the border from Nepal into India on foot was quite an experience. It is an open border so it looks like any Nepali or Indian city main road with loads of people walking and the only way you know you’re at a border crossing is by the fact that there is a large wooden arched sign welcoming you to India. We walked into India and were looking everywhere for immigration to be told that it was 500 meters down the road to the left. It ended up being a small shack we almost missed had it not been for some French tourists with their big packs out front. To top off the informal entry into India the guy at the office helping us fill out our forms and guiding us to the bus also tried to sell us drugs just a few steps away from the “immigration office”. Too funny.



almost across the border into India



That was just the beginning in ‘all business India’ where they sell as much as they possibly can. A good example of this was our bus ride. We scored the first seats right by the door so we had the perfect vantage point. The bus ride started off as it would have in Nepal with our bags on the roof and a guy hanging out the door looking for passengers. The only difference being that the people in India weren’t as friendly and the town was much more crowded, dirty and therefore polluted but at least the roads were paved so there wasn’t all the dust that Nepal had. But twenty minutes into the bus ride we saw the way things were done in India. The man hanging out the door did just what he was supposed to, he sold and sold and rammed that bus full of men, women and children. And we mean full. At one point, we commented ‘that’s it, there is no way one more person could possibly be crammed in here’ as M had three people partly sitting on him, there were people hanging out the door and a few women with infants and children were squatting on the ground in the aisle with people standing and practically sitting on them. Absolutely unbelievable chaos. Then the bus pulled over and the guy talked seven more people into getting on the bus. Astonishing.

The train we had to take was much more comfortable and we finally arrived in mystical Varanasi. In the past it was known as Kashi (Shiva city) or Benares (what the locals still call it) but is now internationally known as Varanasi, which means the city between the rivers Varuna and Assi. It claims to be one of the oldest living cities in the world and Mark Twain once said: “Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together”. 



Varanasi, India

 Varanasi sits on the western bank of the Ganges which is considered the holiest of all rivers by Hindus and is worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. Many Hindus believe that life is not complete without taking a bath in the river Ganges. Not surprisingly Varanasi is one of the most important pilgrimage sights in India with a nightly Hindu prayer at the main ghat, Dasaswamedh Ghat. There is so much life to see and experience walking along the river from ghat to ghat with over 100 ghats in Varanasi. Not much is private here as everything happens along the ghats; most are for bathing, others for washing laundry and two of them are used for cremating the dead. All life unfolds along these ghats (including men urinating along the walls and we even saw a few performing the other bodily function) and it’s unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else in the world.



a large laundry ghat next door to our hotel

 While all the ghats have a unique charm to them the two types of ghats that stood out the most for us were the laundry ghats and the burning ghats. You know you’re near a laundry ghat when you hear the sound of wet laundry being rhythmically beaten against a slab of rock along the shore. We learnt that 90% of the hotels and guesthouses in the area do their laundry at the ghats in addition to the rest of the city - now that’s a lot of laundry every day.

Then there are the burning ghats which are such a strange and eerie place to visit. There are bodies being burnt (cremated) at the two ghats from sunrise to sundown every day. Understandably no pictures are allowed so we will do our best to relate everything that we have learned. First of all, there are no women at the burning ghats at all as the fellow told us that women are too emotional so they stay at home. We were also told that this was for their own good so as to make sure that a woman doesn’t throw herself on her husband’s burning body. Sure, like the women used to do that willingly. As a side note, women used to have to burn themselves with their husband and this ritual was not abolished in India until about 50 years ago. Naturally a woman’s life is not worth a penny without her husband.



wood for sale (mango is cheaper than sandalwood)

So a little about the cremation process. The dead bodies are handled by outcasts known as doms and are carried through the old city to the Ganges on a bamboo stretcher covered in cloth. There are huge piles of firewood stacked along the top of the ghat and the wood necessary for the burning weighed so the price of the cremation can be calculated. Once at the river’s edge, the bodies are washed and covered in white cloth and then a coloured sari depending on who you are: married women in her red wedding sari, married men in a gold sari and everyone else in a white sari. A male member of the family is to light the fire but before he can do this, he must shave his head then bathe in the Ganges and wear all white. Before the body is lit it is sprinkled with sandalwood, incense snf clarified butter. The body is then surround by wood and set on fire next to the Ganges - the distance from the river depends on your caste with the lower castes closer to the water. The fire usually burns 3-4 hours and then the body is doused with water, after which the ashes are poured into the river. Following this funeral, the men return home to the women. None of the immediate family members of the deceased are allowed to leave the house or work for 15 days following the funeral and cannot eat cooked food. The man that was in charge of burning the body cannot shave for the 15 days, must continue to wear white and cannot sleep with or share a bed with a woman. Once the 15 days are over the final ritual is for the male members of the family to come back to the holy Ganges to give a puja (a sacred practice of Hindus to either worship, pray to or show respect to their deities).



the small burning ghat with a laundry ghat next to it

 The last bit of information on the cremations we will give you is that not everyone gets cremated. The following people get their bodies thrown into the water weighed down by a big rock: (i) holy people, (ii) babies under 6 months, (iii) pregnant women, (iv) people who have died of snake bites and (v) lepers. The reasons are as follows: (i) a holy person is a pure person who gets everything they need from God and does not need a body for their next life; (ii) a baby of less than 6 months is also considered a pure life; (iii) likewise a pregnant women is considered to be pure as she is caring a pure life inside her; (iv) as a cobra snake saved Shiva’s life by sucking poison out of his body (except his face, which is why you sometimes see it blue), a person who has died of a snake bite is considered to be pure; and lastly (v), the reason we were told for lepers is because their previous life was full of bad karma so they paid for it in this life and thus have paid for their sins.



view of the temple we visited from the river

We noticed a few things in Varanasi, first of all, similar to Morocco, there were mostly men everywhere (working, sitting, talking, bathing or just lying around) and the few women we did see that were not working were walking with a purpose. Compared to Nepal we also noticed many more cows and dogs roaming the streets and catching rays along the ghats J . The increase in the bovine and canine population (and all the human urine) made walking the narrow streets of Varanasi a difficult task. We weren’t sure we’d have a chance to see anything around us as we were so concentrated at avoiding all the booby traps. One thing we did get a chance to see while walking around the old town was the inside of a very important Hindu temple and we got to experience our first puja. This Hindu temple has a lingam that came about naturally (that is, not man made) and our guide said it represents the legs of Vishnu - the head is at Mt. Kalish and the front and back at Pashupatinath (near Kathmandu). It was very cool to be allowed inside such a sacred temple where most non-Hindu’s are not allowed, unfortunately, some were not happy with our presence and others tried to use the situation to their advantage (i.e. donations).

We have to admit that at first we were a little hesitant to go to Varanasi as there was a bombing at the main ghat a week before our scheduled arrival with one dead and 27 injured. However, we were blown away by this city, which has been one of the highlights of our trip and so glad we went. This is definitely a city not to be missed in your travels in India and we would recommend spending a little extra money to have a room overlooking the ghats for the spectacular people watching and sunrise and sunset views.

Find more pictures of this beautiful city HERE (password: holy).



our room with a great view at Sita Guest House



river salesmen at sunrise

northern ghats, Varanasi

morning bathing



sunrise boat ride



they hounded us to take their picture