Kolkata

01.10.2009

Kolkata was the first place we had visited when we arrived in India and we hated it. On returning back we thought that maybe we would not see it as bad, considering the fact that the first place one experiences in India is always the worst. It was not our case… we still hated it, and we remembered why!! It is too noisy, too dirty and too chaotic, and this is saying a lot considering we had been to many other places just as bad. It was a struggle getting a taxi.

First we got out of the train station, then a driver started bugging us to get the ride with him, then we went to the prepaid taxi stand where a long queue was waiting. Eventually we agreed with the driver to go with him, then he asked us to wait in order for him to go somewhere else, then we ended up getting out of the cab and going with another driver. The drive was noisy and polluted, given we could not avoid keeping our window panes down due to the heat. During the trip Janet had to keep looking at the luggage compartment as the rear did not close and her backpack was in a precarious position.

After nearly a two-hour drive we arrived at our hotel and decided to spend a considerable amount of money for an air-conditioned room as we were in need of a good night rest given the early start for our flight the following morning. We had something to eat, re-packed our bags to make sure we were not overweight, and had an early night sleep in preperation for the following day. The alarm clock rang at 03:45 and we were supposed to have a wake-up call at 04:00 from our hotel-reception, which call never happened, so thankfully we set up our own alarm!

We were driven by the hotel cab to the airport and waited until our gate opened. Given there was a delay in our flight we had to wait three hours until we boarded our plane. We had many luggage checks along the way. On the first one our check in luggage were screened and Yakof had to get out most of his staff, which he so carefully packed the day before, because they had seen an electric device inside the bag, which turned out to be his mobile’s charger!! Needless to say Yakof was quite pissed off with the police in charge especially when the latter told him that he should open the compartment where the device was, when his backpack was a typical drawstring one!!!

 After this commotion we checked in our luggage and went up to our gate where our hand luggage had to be scanned… but we were not let through as our hand luggage had to have a tag too!!! They need this in order to stamp it checked. Yakof had to go all the way back to get the tags, he was stopped because he could not go back to the check in stand, and had to wait while an airport officer gave him the tags. Our last check was just outside the aircraft itself, something we never came across before. Our exit from Kolkata was quite eventful. Once seated on the plane we relaxed and our minds drifted to the thought that soon enough we would be back in Thailand!

Varanasi

22.09.2009 to 29.09.2009

Varanasi was another place we had heard so much about. Many travelers love it and all agreed that if you don’t visit Varanasi it’s like you hadn’t been to India at all. Other people we met just hated the place, saying that it’s too noisy and dirty.

Our opinion : we loved Varanasi. It’s definitely true that it’s quite a noisy place but not any noisier than other cities we have been too. In fact, like anywhere else in India, you can choose to be in a quiet place even if it’s noisy, and this was our choice. Once out of the train station we went over to the pre-paid rickshaw stand and paid the fee for the driver to take us to Assi Ghat. We specified to him, more than once, that we wanted to go to Assi Ghat and then find a guesthouse ourselves. But, true their name he took us to a guesthouse of his own choice, one that obviously paid him commission. We had to fight with him to take us away from there and he kept insisting this was the place we wanted to go and that this was Assi Ghat. After much insistence he started driving again, before deciding to stop once more. This time he told us that he could not go through with his rickshaw as the road was not good. Obviously pissed off, we climbed out of the vehicle, telling him what a cheater he was! We tried asking our way around and everyone was kind enough to point us the way to Assi Ghat… which was on the total opposite side to where the driver took us. A guy we met on the street told us he could take us to the guesthouse we were looking for, he said we had no reason to worry as he was taking no commission, but if we did not like the place he would then take us to ‘his guesthouse’.

We followed the guy who, within ten minutes, through alleys full of cows and their shit, took us to the place we wanted to be, Sahi Riverview Guesthouse. We were relieved that this time we were not cheated. The guesthouse looked really nice but was above our budget given the rooms started off at Rs350. We had a lucky strike though as the receptionist offered us a small room without bathroom inside for Rs250…which was quite a bargain given that the toilet was just in front of our room and we had the key to it! We decided to stay. We had allowed eight days for Varanasi as Janet originally thought she would start learning an instrument here, but on second thoughts, she decided to wait for another time to do this.

The days in Varanasi were very hot… too hot to roam around the city, though we did go to some places. One day we went for a short walk to a couple of ghats and stopped looking at the preparation of a corpse for cremation in the small burning ghat. That same day we ended up in a beautiful shop, full of many souvenirs and clothing items. The highlight of this place was the locally handmade wooden merchandise which we fell in love it… we ended up spending over three hours in this shop, but bought a lot of stuff for our family and friends.

Two of our evenings were dedicated to visiting two of the most famous ghats in Varanasi, Daswadameth Ghat (more well-known as the main ghat) and Manikaran Ghat (more well-known as the Burning Ghat). In Daswadameth Ghat we saw the nightly ceremony called aarti. Basically six young men chant religious songs in front of an adorned diety and perform puja. Many people are present, both local and foreign, and the procession is quite a nice one, thought we preferred the one in Haridwar. Before the ceremony started many kids were roaming around trying to sell postcards, bindi (paint for the middle of the forehead) and the likes. They were really nice though, even if we did not buy from them they were all smiles. After some time we had to move away from the ceremony as we were being attaked by insects who had been attracted by light, under which we were sitting. Manikaran Ghat, the Burning Ghat, was a totally difference experience. We had to go through many alleys to reach it, until finally a well dressed man indicated the road to us and told us we could go in a particular building where we could view what was happening given only relatives of the persons being cremated could go close. The men escorting us inside made it a point to tell us he was a voluntary worker. So we watched what was going on with this man telling us many things on the background.

The sight was surreal. There were corpses lying on the floor, covered and adorned by golden colour cloth and other type of decorations. Other corpses were being burned and the smell in the air was similar to a barbeque… one of human flesh. In the water we could see some human bones of corpses which had already been cremated. We decided to leave after a few minutes, and the man who was ‘escorting’ us told us to leave a donation. When we did not agree, he said that we MUST give a donation… at this we walked down the stairs telling him that a donation is heartfelt not a must do. On our way out of the alleys we made way to two corpses being carried by chanting men. One was modestly wrapped up while the other was adorned in a regal way. Once out of the alley labyrinth we tried to find out a rickshaw but had to wait until a procession in the name of Shiva passed us by.

One day we also tried to visit the so-called monkey temple but we were not allowed inside as only Hindus could access… as if they knew what religion we practiced!! Oh well. The rest of the days were otherwise spent at our guesthouse, which had a very nice common area with fans, TV and a free internet which many times could not be used due to lack of electricity. Luckily enough our guesthouse had a generator which allowed fans to ran all day, otherwise the heat would have been a killer! During our stay in our guesthouse we met some nice people, mostly on their way out of Varanasi… an English couple, a Belgian one and a very nice woman from Melbourne, Australia, who was leaving the same days as us. Our last impression of Varanasi was a very good one. We were impressed by the police officers at the train station. They were very nice to us, offered us information, and even escorted us to our train. Whilst waiting for our train we met a girl and a guy who had just bought a train ticket from the train station and had no place to sit as a consequence. We offered them our upper bunk until we were tired enough to sleep. The train ride was quite fine and we arrived in Kolkata late on the next morning.

Agra

20.09.2009 to 21.09.2009

The only reason we wanted to visit Agra was for the world-famous, wonder of the world, Taj Mahal. Most of the travelers we met and who had been to both, told us that the Golden Temple was a nicer experience than the Taj Mahal. Another thing everyone told us was that Agra was a horrendous place and that we would hate it. While the first assertion is definitely true the second one we totally disagree upon. Maybe it’s the fact that Agra is usually one of the first places tourists visit in India so the impact is not good, or maybe because we have definitely been in much worse places, but we did not hate Agra, not at all. It was a first timer for us to book a place to stay, but we did so given all the bad things we heard about the Agra, so we wanted to make sure we had somewhere decent and quiet. This is why we booked Hotel Sheela, which is a lovely guesthouse, with a beautiful garden, nice rooms and very quiet surroundings. It was also very convenient as it is only a stone throw away from the Taj Mahal’s east gate.

We arrived in Agra late in the evening, after, what turned out to be, a thirteen hour train trip. It was the first time we travelled by day and next time round we will make sure to get loads of food with us as we were starving by the end of the trip, especially watching all the Indians next to us eating fresh vegetables, fruits and home cooked meals! Our eating experience on our first night in Agra was a disaster. The food was not good at all and we ended up in two places. We chose the first one as it has a very nice view of the Taj… we did not know as yet that the Taj was not lit at night so there was no view at all! Given the fact that the menu did not inspire us at all, we just took a couple of drinks and headed off to another restaurant, having high hopes that the food would turn out good… which hopes never materialized. After a far from satisfying culinary experience, we made our way back to our room, where we enjoyed a restful night. The next morning was obviously an early start given we had to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. But even if the sunrise would have been visible, which was not the case due to the weather, we would nonetheless have missed it due to the slow queue which was gathered in front of the ticket office. We eventually realized that the queue was slow as there were tour guides who were getting tickets for their tour, some of them made up of twenty people!! In fact once our turn came for the tickets we were able to jump the queue which was in front of the East Gate entry.

The first sight we got of the Taj Mahal was unsettling. This building is simply perfect… and from a distance it looked like a ghostly structure floating in the air… like a mirage. Given the early hour we were lucky enough to visit the Taj with relatively few tourists, compared to the later invasion of herds of tourists, mostly in a tour group. The reflection of the Taj in the water is beautiful… and the mausoleum, itself inside the structure, is beautiful as well. There are the reproduction tombs of Akbar and his beloved wife. The real tombs cannot be visited and are situated underground.

The history of the Taj is like a fairy tale. The great Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, built this mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal (Persian for “Elect of the Palace”). On her dead bed, after just given birth to his fourteenth son, Mumtaz Mahal asked Shah Jahan to build something which will remind everyone how big their love was until the end of times. And, true to his promise, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. It took twenty years to finish the building, 20,000 workers and 10.000 elephants. The story along with the building, are wonderful.

The legend also says that after the construction had finished, one finger from every workers’ hand was cut off in order for them not to be able to reproduce the work done on the Taj. The same faith was reserved to the architects’ hand too, who, before the actual fact, is said to have gone quickly inside the Taj and changed something to the structure. This change leads the lower part of the Taj to flood during the rainy season. Till today no one was able to discover where the water comes in from. Although Agra offered other interesting sights, we decided that the Taj was the only one we would be visiting, also giving the fact that the Taj itself was really expensive to visit (Rs750 per person : 12 euros), especially considering that Indian nationals paid only Rs20 to get inside!!! After more than four hours hovering into its gardens, we left the Taj. By then our taste buds where in desperate need for some good food. We were rewarded by finding a great place to eat…Joney’s… a whole in the wall corner bar which made excellent food… their closed toasts were great. 

Once discovered we had our breakfast, lunches, dinners or whatever from this place. Here we also met a very cute dwarf-like man called Hanif. Hanif’s job is to sell essential perfumed oils… his shop is a small, metal case which he carried everywhere with him. The man was so nice, and his perfumes so good, that we ended up buying four of them! We spent our last day in Agra out and about, given our check out time was ten o’clock and our train to Varanasi was at eleven thirty at night.

So we went off to Fathepur Sikri. The old city itself is beautiful but the experience turned out not to be a very pleasant one given all the touts who did not leave us alone for one second. First some guides tried to make their way in. Then it was the young boys who said they only wanted to speak to us in order to practice their English as they were students. When we finally managed to leave behind a guy who had pestered us since our entry, we found another very nice guy inside the tomb who was telling us things about the place’s history. It turned out that this was their ‘manager’.

Trying to get rid of him, but not managing, we ended giving up to his request to see his ‘shop’, which was basically a small stall with marble miniatures of elephants and the like. When we eventually managed to convince them that we were not interested in purchasing any of their merchandise we were let free to roam around in peace. We walked as far away as possible to ensure that no one would follow us again and ended up next to the so-called Elephant tower. It is said that this tower was erected in the name of a warrior elephant. The surrounding fields were very peaceful, with only a couple of peasants and kids roaming around. After some time spent there we decided to head back to the bus station to catch our ride back to Agra.

Back in Agra we went straight to Joney’s place to have some quality food and walked back to our guesthouse to kill some time there. After a drink and some chit chatting we made our way to one of the marble shops we visited yesterday. Though many small shops promised quality products for a minimal prize we were totally unconvinced by their self-advertisements. We decided that if we were going to purchase something, we wanted to be at least sure it would be something of good quality. This would turn out be a very wise and lucky decision. After spending around an hour to find a good gift for our mothers, and having had a very nice conversation with the salesman, we decided to head off to the internet to call our parents. 

We spent around two hours at the internet café, by which time it was already nine thirty in the evening. At ten we were leaving for the train station and we had already made arrangements with an auto-rickshaw to take us to there. After having a last quick meal at Joney’s and on our way to the guesthouse to get our backpacks, Janet froze on the spot… her camera was not with her… and she knew exactly where she had left it… at the marble shop… three hours ago!!! With lost hopes we would make it to the train station for Varanasi that night we made our way quickly to the marble shop, with the knowledge that they had closed as soon as we had left the shop.

When we were approaching the shop we realized that there were still lights on so we broke out into a run… there was still someone inside!! The salesman was there, waiting for us, but was just about to lose hope and leave. He told us he had gone to our guesthouse to ask for us and left a message to call at the shop when we returned. He even went through the trouble of checking a couple of restaurants. Janet was so happy that she wanted to offer him a compensation for all his trouble, but he refused to accept, which shows more how genuine this man was. After this incident we went quickly for our bags, met the rickshaw driver and drove off to the train station.

The train ride towards Varanasi was far from being uneventful. For the first time since we had ridden a train in India we were confused by the numbering system of the seats. There were two sets of numbers and we could not make out which were the correct ones until some Indian passengers confirmed them for us. From them on the show started. First a passenger approached us claiming one of the seats was his…he had number seventy and we had numbers 64 and 65, but one of the ‘older’ numbers was 70. The same passenger who instructed us where the seats were told this man that his seat was another one not ours. After this another man just decided to climb on our upper seat to sleep. When we stopped him he, together with his friends started complaining and telling us that there were three seats not two. When we asked him to show us his ticket to check his seats no ticket was offered so we told him that if he had any problem he should go and fetch the conductor. Eventually we decided to go to sleep and Janet went on her upper bunk. 

An hour later a guy tapped loudly on her seat to move down and those seats where his and his wife’s. We started explaining that the numbering system had changed but he insisted. We insisted as well and he went to fetch the conductor. He returned saying no conductor was on the train at the moment. At this point some words where exchange between him and another man who was sitting, not yet asleep, on the seat adjacent to ours. When the conversation ended, the man sitting next to us moved to sleep in our bunk, on the one which was closed. When we complained, another man told us to let go and that we were not right in what we were saying. At that point we were totally confused and Janet, exasperated, told them that she only wanted to know the truth as there were too many people stating different versions.

The end of the story is that Janet moved in the middle seat, on top of Yakof, and the couple went on the seats adjacent to ours (which technically were not theirs according to what they claimed). When the conductor came, through half-opened eyes, Janet stitched together what was happening. The couple was right in saying the seats we were occupying were theirs, which meant that the seats we were in belonged to this couple and the first man who claimed his seat as number 70 and eventually went on another seat. What happened was the following.

Some of the passengers had no tickets so they occupied other persons’ seats (persons who had paid for the ticket). Two such seats were ours, but these were not only occupied by asleep men when we climbed the train, but their friends or whatever we can call them, confirmed to us for their sake, that our seats where the ones they pointed to us. Obviously they knew we would get hassled by the real owners of the seats and that we might end up without a seat ourselves given we were the only tourist in a cabin full of Indians. Janet saw the conductor ask for the ticket money both to the man occupying our real seat and to the one sleeping on top of her. She also noticed that the conductor was asking something else out of the men after giving them the ticket, which she realized was a bribe not to fine them. So the story was complete.

We were tricked from the beginning and this made our trip very uncomfortable. During the day the trip was much nicer as most of the passengers stopped in Lucknow and we had nearly all the cabin to ourselves until we reached Varanasi.

Back in Haridwar

19.09.2009

Again we were heading back to Haridwar… again just for one night until we caught our train to Agra. We woke up relatively early to leave from Rishikesh and found transport via a jeep until Swarg Ashram. The rest of the way had to be done on foot, which was not as bad as we thought. The bags were definitely heavy, but given our early start, the sun was not extremely hot. We found a vikram (a small vehicle resembling an auto-rickshaw, taking up to eight persons… in our case luckily it was just two on our side given our huge bags) and decided to take the trip all the way to Haridwar as it was not worth it to stop at the bus station and then catching a bus to Haridwar. Once in Haridwar we decided to look for a guesthouse which was close to the train station, which we definitely found, bang on in front of the train station. We spent the remainder of the day in our room, having an early sleep awaiting our ten hour trip to Agra.

Rishikesh

09.09.2009 to 18.09.2009

Rishikesh, the so called ‘Yoga Capital’. This was one of the destinations we were looking forward to, especially Janet to have some time to meditate, study and practice Reiki. The bus ride took us less than an hour. Once at the bus station we opted to catch a ride with an auto-rickshaw from there… a mistake we rarely do. We asked the driver to take us to Lhaksman Jhula which he agreed to for a good fee. It turned out that the place he stopped us was marked as the road leading to Lhaksman Jula… but about three to four kilometers away!! To add it all up we had to walk all this way with our heavy backpacks and under the blazing sun… nice! Once in Lhaksman Jhula we tried our luck with three guesthouses before ending up at the ashram.

We had a look at three rooms, and for the first time since we had been in India (apart from our anniversary in Darjeeling) we spent a lot of money in a room (a lot in our budget terms)… Rs400 (6 euros). We could not help it though… Janet just fell in love with the room… actually the room in itself was nothing in particular, we had rooms in better conditions for a lower price, but the view was capturing. It had a balcony which directly overlooked the Ganges, with a full sunset view. Yakof could do nothing but consent to her wishes. 

We spent eleven peaceful days in Rishikesh. Janet had time to read her Reiki books (most of which where new purchases from Rishikesh), practice hands on her Reiki and apply her Yogi diet. This was the ideal place to do all this… the place emanated spirituality from all pores. Here we must put a note though that our ashram was not true to its name. It was anything but holy… people smoked marijuana where it should be strictly prohibited and the manager was not a nice person at all. When he greeted us the first day he was all nice and smiling… hiding his true nature.

We discovered the real him when we decided to book the train ticket to Agra from the ashram. We had asked him for specific seats on the train, Yakof knew exactly which seats were situated where, and we always preferred the two in the corridor. When he came back with the reservations he gave us two seats which were totally the opposite of what we had asked for. When we asked whether we could change them he said it was not possible as the computer booking assigns seats automatically… which is true but you can give it your preferences and tell the system not to confirm the tickets if these preferences are not available. 

Whilst reading the details in the tickets Janet came across the possibility that the ticket can be cancelled. Once again she asked the manager whether this could be done. On his negative answer both of us made it a point that he contacts the agent who did the booking and cancel the reservation… giving back our money. This is what he did in the evening, failing to give us back the commission he charged on the ticket. Eventually he gave up and gave us a full refund. After this happening we decided to go down to the train station ourselves and book our ticket from there. In fact we ended up booking three trains : one from Haridwar to Agra; another one from Agra to Varanasi; and the last one from Varanasi to Kalkuta. In RIshikesh we found a great place to eat, Little Buddha.

This place is owned by a very friendly Nepali, with a beautiful white dog named Tommy, which we occasionally also saw in the Ganga, either bathing on a hot day or playing with a fellow dog… mostly female. We made this restaurant our habitual eating place… it had the best pizza we ever tasted in India (well this statement is not giving much credit considering the pizzas in India), so to rephrase it, it was one of the best pizzas we ever tasted since our travelling. But all the rest of the food was equally great. A couple of times we also visited Swarg Ashram. On one of these visits we visited the famous Beatles ashram. Nowadays the ashram is no longer in operation and is quite run down. It should not be open to public but with a small bribe one can manage to get in, like we did. We had to visit the place… all Beatles fan had to do it. The ashram, though in very bad conditions, still showed sign of its grandeur in its old days. Here the Beatles wrote some of their best songs. The place is huge and used to have different kinds of accommodation, ranging from rooms with balconies, without balconies and cone shaped huts. We could make out some other places like the kitchen, the yoga/meditation room, etc. The gardens are huge, swallowing most of the steps in the ashram as well as some of the rooms. During our walk we also encountered some very big species of spiders. 

During our stay we also gave a try to a yoga class, but was not really in the mood for that. Rishikesh is also a host for monkeys. We had two particular experiences with them. One was on our balcony. We saw these two big monkeys, male and female, on the balcony next to us. We decided to call them into our balcony by bribing them with some cookies. They immediately took the plunge. It was funny watching them taking the cookies from our hand and eating them. The female opened them, licked the insides first and than ate the rest of the cookie, similar to what we used to do when we were kids. There was no chance in touching them though, because as soon as you moved close to them they showed us their full set of sharp edged teeth.

Our second experience was next to the Beatles ashram. There was a whole big family of monkeys on a tree. The young ones cradling in their mothers’ arms… others were just playing with each other. After spending some twenty minutes looking at them, we realized that one of them was moving quickly on top of us and luckily realized on time what was happening… the monkey was peeing on us!!! The bastard!! He totally, metaphorically and literally, was talking the piss out of us… well technically on us!! We also accidentally ran into a friend of ours, Maltese, something quite rare for us when travelling given the small amount of Maltese who travel, especially around Asia. It was nice meeting him and we spend a lovely evening with him and his Italian girlfriend Daniela, which we also knew back in Malta.

The days here went by pretty quickly, considering that life was so slow. So one beautiful sunset after another, our last day arrived. This time our packing was quite heavy… we took out all of our things from our backpacks and tried to find a way how to pack our staff… mostly our twenty two books!! In fact most of our weight was books which we could not leave behind. Once fully packed we could not believed how heavy are bags were… the road with them will be quite hard!