Curry Lovers

When we woke up in the morning, we didn’t even hesitate before heading straight downstairs for another delicious breakfast. Shana had yet another enormous pancake (her favorite breakfast all week) and Rob tried out the oatmeal. At this point in the trip, it was great to have familiar foods that we would normally eat at home. We were definitely starting to get some India-fatigue.

We met our car/driver shortly after breakfast to go do some sightseeing in Dharamsala. On the way down the mountain, we got a close look at the road that we had navigated at night to get to McLeod Ganj. It was treacherous: the road was barely big enough for one car, and there weren’t any guard rails. The traffic wasn’t moving very fast, but it was still pretty scary.

The Norbulingka Institute was our first stop. The Institute is well-known for helping to preserve Tibetan art and culture. The Institute provides training and education for Tibetans, and you can take a tour to see the artisans at work. There is also a gift shop which sells the artwork that is produced by the students and their teachers. The Institute grounds are not that big, but the gardens on the inside are beautiful and extensive. It was a lush green oasis compared to the street outside.

Entrance to the Norbulingka Institute

Central area between the buildings

Prayer flags and shrines

When we arrived, Shana was feeling pretty terrible, and she was both exhausted and dizzy. Our tour guide was pretty impatient with how slow we were moving, so he gave us a very brief tour and then left us alone. We explored the main temple, which had a huge gold Buddha and some interesting paintings outside. We also ducked our heads into a few classes to see students creating a variety of Tibetan sculptures and paintings.

Temple entrance

Buddha inside the main temple

The gift shop had lots of nice crafts, but nothing that was really that great. And, the prices were equivalent to what we would pay at high-end stores in the US. Pillows for $60-100 each. Carved wooden boxes for $50-100. After shopping in India for almost three weeks, we were a little shell-shocked by the prices at the gift shop. Some percentage of the profits goes to help the Tibetan government, but we decided we were better off donating directly.

We stopped at the Norbulingka cafe for lunch, since we were pretty tired and we had seen nearly everything there was to see.

Norbulingka cafe

A group of Spanish cyclists at the table near us was enjoying several plates of lo mein and momos, so we decided to order some too. The lo mein was pretty good, but the momos were disappointing. Although we had only been in town for a few days, we considered ourselves momo connoisseurs since we had them at nearly every meal.

Shana went to the bathroom after lunch, and discovered that it was completely filthy – and inhabited by the largest spider she had ever seen. A few other tourists were also standing by the door of the one-stall bathroom and gawking at it’s size (about 7″ long).

Enormous spider in the bathroom doorway

Shana was not thrilled about the spider, so she decided to just wait. We left shortly anyway to go see the Gyoto Tantric Monastic University. The Gyoto Monastery was the most famous monastery in Tibet, founded in 1474. It was recently relocated to Dharamsala to be close to the residence of the Dalai Lama. The monastery is framed by the mountains, and the background is pretty dramatic.

Gyoto Monastery

Monks at the Gyoto monastery

The inside of the main temple is colorful and ornate, with lots of tiny buddhas, glass flowers, and rows and rows of benches for the monks.

Lots of benches for the 500+ monks

Rob in front of the main display case

Glass lotus flowers

Buddhist Horns

The Buddha at the back of the temple

When we walked outside the temple, we had a nice view of the entire monastery.

Looking out at the monastery from the temple entrance

We even got to see some monks congregating, although it wasn’t yet time for one of the prayer services.

Group of monks outside

There were a few other tourists lined up at the central office to get permits to attend a prayer service. We decided not to stay since it was already late in the afternoon, and the next service wasn’t scheduled for quite a while.

Our driver met us in the parking lot and we headed back towards McLeod Ganj. On the way we stopped at the State Museum in Dharamsala. It was incredibly lame, so we didn’t spend much time there. The rooms had mold growing on the ceiling, the exhibits were boring and very poorly labeled, and there wasn’t even anything that was much older than 1950 or so. We jumped back in the car and drove back to our hotel, in time for another tea and cake snack and some relaxation.

For dinner we gave the Chonor House another try, but it was still pretty disappointing. It was clear that the best dinner in town was at our own little hotel, and we were pretty glad we had chosen it. We spent a little while walking around the town in the evening, and debating whether to buy anything, but nothing caught our eye. We really wanted to buy a thangka painting or two, but each shop had dozens of paintings. It was a lot of work to look through them all, and we had to sit down with each store owner to be polite. Finally we decided to call it a day, since we would have one more full day in McLeod Ganj.

Coming soon: Our last day in McLeod Ganj!

On our second day in McLeod Ganj, I’d like to say we felt a lot better. But we didn’t. The altitude had hit us hard, and we definitely weren’t ready to take that trek we had talked about. We decided to take it easy, and wander around town in the morning. We had a fabulous breakfast at our hotel. Rob ordered muesli with yogurt, which was awesome, and Shana had an enormous pancake for breakfast. We also took advantage of the ultra-modern espresso machine and made sure we were well caffeinated for the day ahead.

We wandered around town quite a bit, and discovered that although we had left the pollution and crowding behind, we hadn’t left the touts and beggars. McLeod Ganj has tons of tourists, so as a result there are lots of street vendors hawking trinkets and other touristy things. We tried to ignore them as we headed to the Namgyal Monastery, an enormous complex that contains the main Buddhist temple in town.

When we got to the complex, we visited the Tibetan museum first. The museum had lots of great photos, exhibits, and sculptures, but it was sad to read about the history of the Tibetan people. For those of you who don’t know, Tibet is occupied by China, and the Chinese have been trying to wipe out Tibetan culture. That’s why the Dalai Lama (the former head of the Tibetan government, and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists) lives in McLeod Ganj now.

Anyway, the museum was pretty cool, and we enjoyed taking a look inside.

Sculpture in the Tibetan museum that symbolizes the plight of the Tibetan people

After we finished looking at everything in the museum, we wandered around the temple complex. There were lots of monks noisily debating in the central area – they were basically shouting at each other to make their arguments. We peeked inside a few of the temples, which were very colorful with enormous Buddhas.

One of the main temples in the Namgyal temple complex

Central prayer area

Prayer wheels outside the main temple

There were also amazing views of the town, but it was hard to take a picture because there were several Indian people taking glamour shots in the spot we wanted to stand in. They moved on after about 10-15 minutes, so we got a few photos in too.

Looking back at the center of McLeod Ganj

Another look back at the town

The most amazing part of the monastery was the room full of butter lamps. Burning butter lamps is a Buddhist practice that helps focus the mind and aids meditation. The burning yak butter represents the illumination of wisdom. The little room that had all the lamps was a little bit dark so you could see the flames better, and there was an attendant inside who was making sure that all the lamps remained lit.

Butter lamps

Closer look at the lamps

When we finished looking around at the monastery, we went back to town to have lunch at the Chonor House. Back when we were planning our trip, we were surprised to discover that the Chonor House was already sold out months ahead for some of the nights we wanted. There are only 8 rooms or so, but we think that the main reason it is popular is because Richard Gere stays there whenever he’s in town. Anyway, we figured we could at least sample the food, and check out the inside.

Chonor House outdoor cafe

Rob at Chonor House

We had a decent lunch of momos and thukpa. Everyone swears by the food there, and we had read tons of great reviews online, but it wasn’t that good. At least not compared to the food at our hotel, the 8 Auspicious Him View. Also, there were plenty of raw vegetables sprinkled over all the food – we just couldn’t get away from them in McLeod Ganj, no matter how “touristy” the restaurant was.

After lunch, we checked with the Chonor House receptionist and it turned out there were actually a few rooms available. We debated moving from our current hotel since the decor was really cute, and there was a lot more space. In the end, we decided that it wasn’t worth it – the beds didn’t seem any better, and the price was nearly twice as much.

We felt a lot better after eating, so we walked around the town some more until we were tired. In the mid-afternoon we headed back to the hotel for some cake and tea, and to admire the view of the mountains from our balcony. We ventured out again in the evening to peruse the shops for thangkas (Tibetan paintings) and to explore some of the streets that we hadn’t visited yet.

When we were thoroughly exhausted, we had another nice dinner at our hotel. We figured we would have lots of energy for sightseeing by the following day, so we made plans to rent a car/driver (arranged by our hotel) to take us to visit the Norbulingka Institute, and some temples and museums in Dharamsala. Then we turned in early, as we usually do when given the chance.

Coming soon: Sightseeing in Dharamsala!

Our final destination in India was McLeod Ganj. When we were planning our trip, we almost didn’t put it on our itinerary because it’s such a pain to get there (see the previous post), but we decided it would be totally worth it to see the Himalayas. As it turned out, after 2+ weeks of traveling to cities with tons of trash, pollution, and crowding, we were SO ready to visit a quaint little mountain town.

McLeod Ganj, India (in the Himalayas!)

McLeod Ganj is right near Dharamsala, India, but it’s a bit higher up in the mountains at 7,000 ft. It’s known as “Little Tibet” because it’s the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and most of the natives are Tibetan. It’s also a bit of a hippie town, so there are some cool coffee shops and plenty of yoga classes around.

We stayed at the 8 Auspicious Him View Hotel, which was our second choice after the well-known Chonor House Hotel. We wanted to stay in Chonor House, but they were full for a few of the nights we were visiting, and 8 Auspicious got lots of great reviews on TripAdvisor. The “deluxe” room we ended up with was pretty plain, and had super sketchy sheets on the bed (stains of all kinds, ew!), but we had our own private balcony with AMAZING views of the mountains.

Our room at 8 Auspicious Him View. Kind of plain, right?

At least we had some nice big windows

It's all about the views, people. View #1 from our balcony. What were they thinking with that ugly Moon Walk sign though?

View from the center of the balcony, looking straight out

View of the buildings on the other side of the balcony

Anyway, despite the sketchy sheets, we quickly found out two very important things on our first day there: 1) We were totally exhausted from the altitude and couldn’t walk more than a block without taking a break, and 2) Our hotel had a tiny little restaurant with awesome Tibetan food, which was possibly the best food in town. So, although we did get around to some sightseeing in a day or two, we mostly spent the first day “exploring”, which meant huffing and puffing as we walked very slowly around the small town.

Main street that led from our hotel to the center of McLeod Ganj

The center of town

Colorful buddhist temple on one of the side streets

We were pretty surprised at how hard it was for us to adjust to the altitude. After all, Rob had lived in Colorado for three years, and we were both in pretty good physical shape. And 7K ft isn’t really that high. It hit us hard, though, and we were glad we hadn’t finalized any plans for an overnight trek. We had originally been planning to go on a 10km hike in the mountains and sleep outside for a night… but that seemed awfully ambitious.

Regardless, we enjoyed walking around the town. There were lots of cows (and cow patties to avoid), and some pretty fast drivers on the narrow roads, but overall there was a lot less pollution and a lot less people. The views were fantastic in every direction, and the town just seemed like a great place to relax.

The street right outside our hotel - it was definitely less chaotic than the other cities we had visited. Check out the cow! (and Rob in front of the meditation sign)

When we got really tired, we headed back to our hotel to recover a little. It turned out that the owner liked to bake a cake every afternoon, so we started a habit of ordering two slices of cake and two teas to enjoy on the balcony while we marveled at the views.

Late afternoon

For dinner, we decided to eat at our hotel. We had some really tasty Momos (Tibetan dumplings), Thukpa (Tibetan soup) and Lo Mein noodles.

Momos with dipping sauce. Good stuff, especially the ones that come in bowls of soup. (Courtesy of Happy Sleepy on Flickr.)

Tibetan food is much less spicy than Indian food, so it was nice to give our stomachs a rest for a few days. The only problem was that our meals came with plenty of raw vegetables on top and on the sides. Tourists are supposed to avoid raw vegetables because they are often washed in the city water, which is usually contaminated with E.Coli or some other bacteria. We tried not to eat the really raw stuff because we were worried about getting sick, but it was tough – a lot of the vegetables (in the momos and lo mein) were pretty undercooked too.

We didn’t get sick that night, which we were grateful for since we were so tired. After dinner we got one more glimpse of the mountains before nightfall, and then turned in for the evening.

Evening view

We read our Kindles for a while (they’re great when you can’t watch TV), and then spent a fairly sleepless night trying to get some rest. We were looking forward to adjusting to the altitude a bit, and also getting to do some sightseeing the next day in McLeod Ganj.

Coming soon: Sightseeing in McLeod Ganj!

If you’ve read our previous posts, you might remember that we got word on a Friday (while we were in Varanasi) that our Monday flight to Dharamsala had been canceled. However, when we called Kingfisher airlines they confirmed that we were still booked on the flight. So, without any worries, we flew from Varanasi to Delhi. We planned to stay in Delhi overnight before continuing on the next day to Dharamsala, and finally McLeod Ganj.

We got in to Delhi so late that we didn’t have any time for sightseeing, so we just went out to dinner in the evening. We wanted to go to a really nice restaurant, so we could figure out where to go to dinner on our next trip to Delhi (which would be our last day/meal in India before our 15 hr flight home).

We decided to have dinner at Park Balluchi in Haus Khaz Village. The restaurant (and our hotel) were both in South Delhi, which is a very nice upscale retail/business area. Park Balluchi was highly recommended online, and it is a popular restaurant with locals. The restaurant is known for it’s flaming kebabs, which are pretty spectacular. We admired the kebabs, but we didn’t order any because we were very nervous about getting “Delhi Belly”. Instead, we tried a few new veg dishes and had some yummy aloo paratha (bread stuffed with curried potatoes).

Aloo paratha (bread stuffed with potatoes/peas). Photo by manish on Flickr

After dinner we tried to catch a taxi back to the hotel, but there were only rickshaws around. It was pretty frustrating – we had assumed that Delhi was such a big city that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting taxis. Finally we asked a woman who was walking by for help, and she gave us the number of a taxi service. It turned out that she had grown up in Bethesda, Md, right near Shana’s hometown (Laurel, Md). It’s a small world!

We finally made it back to our hotel, the Visaya. The Visaya is a small boutique hotel, and it was very nice. Our room was spacious, and the entire place was beautifully decorated with new-age stones, buddhas, and sculptures.

The Visaya hotel, photo from TripAdvisor

In the morning we had breakfast, went to the gym, and then headed to the Delhi airport. However, we got an unpleasant surprise at the ticket counter when we found out that our flight to and from Dharamsala had been canceled. Also, it turned out that our airline, Kingfisher, was the only airline that made trips to Dharamsala. They only had one flight per day, and all the other flights for the week were sold out.

This was a real problem, because we had been planning to spend the last four days of our trip in McLeod Ganj, which is a city near Dharamsala. We considered visiting another city altogether, or just flying home to the US that day. After we talked to the reservation agent for a while, she said the airline could fly us to Amritsar and then pay for a A/C (air-conditioned) taxi to McLeod Ganj. The only problem was that the taxi ride would be 5-6 hrs through the mountains, at night. Did we mention the driving in India? We decided to do it anyway – we didn’t want to miss seeing the Himalayas, and if things went smoothly we would still have 3 full days in McLeod Ganj.

Our flight to Amritsar was uneventful, but after we arrived we had to wait at least an hour to get a taxi to Dharamsala. When the tiny car arrived, we realized that although we had asked for A/C, we had forgotten to ask for seatbelts – and there weren’t any. Finally after a lot of discussion (and Shana’s refusing to go on the trip without seatbelts) the driver “found” the seatbelts underneath the backseat.

Our driver didn’t speak much English, so when he refused to put on the A/C we couldn’t really argue with him. We think he was concerned about using up the gas too quickly, but he said that having the A/C off would help the car to go uphill. It was pretty flat for the first 4 hours of the trip, so we were skeptical. We were constantly breathing diesel exhaust and grit from the poorly paved roads, and it was miserable! However, we were glad to be heading to our destination.

McLeod Ganj, the city in the Himalayas where we stayed

The last hour of the taxi ride was pretty scary, since the road was extremely steep, had many switchbacks, and there were no guard rails. We trusted that the driver’s instinct for self-preservation would keep us safe. We had a little trouble finding the hotel (and it was 1am when we finally arrived), but finally we made it and fell exhausted into bed.

Coming soon: Our first day in McLeod Ganj!

On our last day in Varanasi, we decided to visit Sarnath in the morning. Sarnath is a city about 13 km from Varanasi. It is famous because it is where the Buddha gave his first sermon. Sarnath is considered to be one of the four places of pilgrimage where devout followers of the Buddha should visit. The four geographically important places in the life of Buddha are: Where he was born (Lumbini, Nepal), where he gained enlightenment (Bodh Gaya, India), where he gave his first sermon (Sarnath, India) and where he left his mortal body (Kushinager, India). As a result, there are numerous monasteries in Sarnath representing every sect of Buddhism that you can imagine.

The first monastary that we stopped at was a Tibetan Buddhist monastary, with an enormous Buddha in front.

Monastary in Sarnath, India

Large buddha outside the temple

The buildings seemed fairly austere, until we got up close to the temple and we could see the beautiful paintings across the front of the vestibule.

Prayer wheels and painting at the entrance of the temple

We walked around a little and saw some of the monks who were staying there. There weren’t any other tourists around, though, and it was very quiet. The inside of the temple was magnificent – there was a massive gold Buddha and cases with hundreds of smaller gold buddhas.

Gold Buddha in the center of the temple

Display case with hundreds of small buddhas. There was one case like this on either side of the large buddha.

After we finished looking around the monastary, we headed straight to the main attraction: the Mulagandhakuti Vihara Buddhist temple at Sarnath, which is right next to the spot where the Buddha gave his first sermon.

Mulagandhakuti Vihara temple

Next to the temple is a large bodhi tree, which is a descendant of the original tree under which the Buddha sat in Bodh Gaya (where he gained enlightment 2,500 yrs ago). Around the tree, there are descriptions of the site in several different languages. We had to work hard to find the English version, which was all the way in the back.

Around the temple there are also a number of Stupas, excavated ruins of monastaries, and the deer park where the Buddha gave his first sermon. The largest stupa is Dhamek Stupa, a massive circular structure that was built in 500 CE to commemorate the Buddha.

Dhamek Stupa at Sarnath

We decided not to walk around the monastary ruins or the deer park (it was super hot that day), so next we went to the Sarnath museum.

The museum contained a collection of Buddhist sculptures and art. The art wasn’t very well preserved, as we found in all the museums we visited in India. There were water stains on the ceiling, and most of the sculptures and art were just sitting out on pillars. Still, the art inside was pretty amazing. It was fascinating to see sculptures that are thousands of years old.

The museum is a fairly popular place to bring tourists, so there were beggars and vendors out front who accosted us on the way in and out. Overall it wasn’t too bad, but it was an incredibly hot day so we went straight back to the car when we were done.  Our driver offered to take us a few more places, but we decided we were done with sightseeing and we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our flight to Delhi.

We had gotten up early in the morning to take a boat ride on the river Ganges, and a walk through the Old City, but we still had the better part of a day to tour Varanasi. After breakfast, we met up with our guide and driver again for a tour of the city temples. We started with the Bharat Mata Temple, which was not so much a temple as it was a very large relief map of India carved out of marble.

Relief map of India at the Bharat Mata temple in Varanasi

We spent a few minutes finding all the cities we had visited on the map, and then we went outside. When we got back to the car we were surprised to find a man with an enormous snake in front of our car!

Snake man

We’re not sure whether he was a snake charmer, or if the snake was just an accessory. Either way,  we didn’t want to get too close. We gave him a few rupees for letting us take his picture and then got in the car.

The next temple we visited was Durga Temple, named for the goddess Durga. It’s also called the Monkey Temple and it was built in the 18th century. It’s a busy temple, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. We were the only tourists there but everyone pretty much ignored us. We walked clockwise around the center of the temple and watched people give their offerings to the deity.  Giving the offering entailed cracking a coconut that symbolized dissolving one’s ego.

Durga temple

After Durga temple we visited a very modern temple called Tulsi Manas. The Tulsi Manas temple was built by a local family. It is dedicated to Lord Rama. According to the Varanasi tourism website, “[The temple] is situated at the place where Tulisdas, the great medieval seer, lived and wrote the epic “Shri Ramcharitmanas”, which narrates the life of Lord Rama, the hero of the Ramayana.”

It was interesting to see a more modern temple. To go in, we had to take our shoes off in the street outside, which was a little gross. We paid a guy a few rupees to watch our shoes and then we headed inside. Photography wasn’t allowed, so we didn’t get any pictures of the temple.

The last stop on our temple tour was the New Vishwanath Temple at the Benares Hindu University, which is one of the major universities in town. The New Vishnawath Temple is one of the most popular temples on campus and it attracts lots of students and non-students. Our guide had studied at the university, so he was able to point out all the department buildings on the way to the temple.

New Vishnawath Temple

There were several shops selling trinkets and snacks outside the temple, and it was obviously a popular spot. Before we entered the main gate, we had to take our shoes off and leave them in a very smelly little shoe building. Then we walked about 100 yards over to the temple with lots of other people – and again, we were the only tourists around.

Outside of the New Vishwanath temple at Benares U

The temple was surprisingly busy, and there was a musician inside playing the tabla (drum). Varanasi is known as the birthplace of Indian classical music, so the music department at the university is quite popular. We wondered if the performer might be a professor or student at the university, but we didn’t get a chance to ask.

Drummer inside the temple

After visiting four temples in a row, and driving all over Varanasi, we were ready to head back to the hotel for a break. We had arranged to have music lessons later in the afternoon at a local ashram, so we had a few hours to kill.

We had a nice lunch at the cafe in the hotel, and then after lunch we called the airlines to check on our flight back to Delhi (the next day) and our flight to Dharamsala (the day after that). We were planning to spend four days in Dharamsala before returning to the US.

However, we soon found out that our flights to and from Dharamsala had been canceled, and we were unable to book another flight. We freaked out a little, and went downstairs to the hotel’s travel desk. The hotel rep called the airlines and confirmed that we were booked on our flights, and he assured us there should be no problem. At that point, we probably should have called the airline back ourselves, but we had to get ready to go to our music lessons.

The hotel had arranged for us to take a 1hr tabla (drum) and sarangi (string instrument) lesson at a local music school, the International Music Centre Ashram. We paid for a hotel car to take us to a parking lot in the middle of town, where we met a student from the school. We followed him across busy streets and down some twisty alleys until we got to the ashram, which was a small, dilapidated building in the Old City.

Performers at the ashram - photo is from the Int'l Music Centre facebook page. Rob's teacher is on the right!

The ashram was dimly lit and dusty. We were led up some dark, steep stairs (we held onto a rope all the way) where we found a few small (8×8) tiled rooms with cushions on the floor. Rob’s tabla teacher was waiting for us in one of the rooms. Shana’s sarangi teacher was running late, so we all sat down on the floor to start the tabla lesson.

The tabla teacher was a larger fellow in his 50′s, wearing a skirt and no shirt. He sat cross-legged on the floor and showed Rob the basic tabla technique. He was an excellent teacher, and he spoke English well, so it was fascinating to watch. Rob was very quick to catch on, and soon he was tapping increasingly complex patterns with both hands.

When the sarangi teacher arrived, Shana went downstairs to a separate room for her lesson. The teacher was a young guy, about 18 yrs or so. He didn’t speak very good English, and he had a terrible cold. However, he played a little bit and it was clear that he was very experienced. He wasn’t a great teacher, but he showed Shana the basics. The sarangi is played like a cello, and the bow hold was pretty easy to pick up. The hard part was pressing down the strings, which is done with the end of the first knuckle instead of a fingertip. It was painful to hold down the strings this way, and after about 30 minutes Shana was ready to go. She learned to play (most of) “Three Blind Mice”, but it was not easy.

After the lessons we headed back to the hotel for another great dinner at Varuna, the hotel’s restaurant. We considered going back to the Ganges to see people perform their evening rituals, but we were exhausted and the pollution/traffic were daunting. We decided to take it easy, since we would be pretty busy the next day. In the morning, we were planning to visit Sarnath. Sarnath is a city near Varanasi where the Buddha gave his first sermon. After visiting Sarnath, we planned to fly to Delhi, where we would spend the night before continuing on to Dharamsala.

Coming soon: Sarnath, and a night in Delhi!

Varanasi, along the banks of the Ganges river

Varanasi is a city on the banks of the holy river Ganges, in the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest city in India, which makes it several thousand years old. According to legend the city was founded by the Hindu deity Lord Shiva. Approximately 80% of India’s population is Hindu, so Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities in India.

Varanasi is an important pilgrimage destination for Hindus, and a few of our drivers had told us that they had visited the city to worship Shiva. Pilgrims also come to Varanasi to wash away a lifetime of sins in the Ganges, or to cremate their loved ones. Many Hindus believe that they can be released from the cycle of life, death and reincarnation by dying in Varanasi or having their remains cremated on the ghats (the public steps) along the Ganges.

We had read that Varanasi is also extremely crowded, dirty, and treacherous for foreigners. Our guidebooks said that it would be nearly impossible for us to avoid being scammed in some way by taxi and rickshaw drivers, and we had also been warned about pickpockets and food-poisoning scams. So, we came to the city with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we were looking forward to seeing the Ganges and the ancient architecture.

Our hotel, the Taj Gateway, was nice and kind of fancy in a British-colonial way. The lobby was formal but dated, and our room was pretty spacious. It wasn’t a very modern hotel; a lot of the decor looked like it dated back to the ’70′s, and the electricity went out regularly during the day. However, the hotel restaurant, Varuna, was widely considered to be the best tourist restaurant in Varanasi. Overall the hotel was much nicer than many of the other places we had stayed.

This photo of The Gateway Hotel Ganges Varanasi is courtesy of TripAdvisor

When we went to our room, we were surprised to find that the staff had baked a cake for us! We must have mentioned that it would be our honeymoon when we booked.

The honeymoon cake

Our room at the Taj Gateway, Varanasi

 It was pretty late in the evening, so we had a wonderful dinner at the hotel restaurant and then headed to bed. When we got into bed, we discovered that the top sheet was missing. It’s common for hotels to leave it off because laundry is expensive, and we had to ask for one at nearly every hotel we stayed at. We had a little difficulty convincing the hotel staff to bring us a top sheet, but after a few phone calls and a trip to the front desk, we finally got one.

The next morning we got up at 4:45 to go to the Ganges river. We had arranged for the hotel to provide a taxi, guide, and boat ride on the river. Many people go to the Ganges in the morning to bathe or perform rituals, and an early-morning boat ride is considered an essential part of any tourist visit to the city. Even though it was quite early, the traffic was already pretty bad. It’s not possible to drive right up to the river, so at some point our car stopped and we got out to walk the last 1/4 mi. It was dark, crowded, and smelly, and we had to work hard to avoid stepping in cow patties.

Early morning tourist crowd on the banks of the Ganges

It took our guide a few minutes to locate our boat, since there were so many other tourists there looking for their boats. Our boat was a small, wooden row boat that was just big enough for the four of us (the rower, our guide, and the two of us).

Our boat - you can see the ghats behind us on the left

There were lots of other boats on the river. Most of the boats carried tourists with cameras who gawked at the people bathing on the banks of the river.

Other tourist boats

Large tourist boat at Munshi Ghat

A boat full of monks (who were also touring the river)

Although it was very crowded, we were glad we had come early to see the sunrise.

Sunrise on the Ganges

The current was surprisingly strong, and our rower was working so hard that at one point he broke the rope holding one of the oars. We stopped so he could retie it, and in the meantime we drifted several feet.

The Ganges may be the holiest river for Hindus, but it is also one of the top five most polluted rivers in the world. The city of Varanasi releases around 200 million litres of untreated human sewage into the river each day, leading to large concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria (eww!!!). In addition, thousands of uncremated and cremated bodies are thrown into the Ganges, so it is not uncommon to see the bodies of people or animals floating around. It is pretty amazing that so many people continue to use the water for bathing and cooking.

Water filtration area - this is how the water is "treated"

The ghat for the local aquatic association (Benares is another name for Varanasi)

We felt a little funny about watching people bathe in the river, but it was fascinating. It was clearly a deeply spiritual place, and the people on the banks ignored us as they followed their morning rituals. It was amazing to see such devotion in such a polluted place: the river was a deep brown color, and the sun glowed an interesting red-orange color from the pollution in the sky.

Men bathing in the Ganges

One of the more popular ghats

There are a lot of different types of ghats lining the Ganges. There are public ghats and private ghats, ghats that are only for certain castes, bathing ghats, and cremation ghats.

Very old buildings along the Ganges

A few different ghats

A colorful public ghat

Tourists are not allowed to take close-up pictures of the cremation ghats. We managed to get at least one shot of a cremation ghat from a distance, though.

Cremation ghat

After we had toured the twenty or so ghats lining the river, we got out of the boat to explore the old city with our guide. We hadn’t realized this was included in our tour, and to be honest, we weren’t thrilled about walking through the narrow, smelly streets so early in the morning. After visiting the older parts of Udaipur and Jaisalmer, we already had a sense of what the “old city” would look like, but we went along with our guide. We walked to an important Shiva temple in the center of the old city. Cameras weren’t allowed inside and it was crowded,  so after a quick look we walked back to the car. We were pretty hungry, and we were looking forward to getting breakfast and a shower at our hotel. It was still pretty early, though, so we had almost the entire day left to tour the city.

Coming soon: a day of sightseeing in Varanasi!

After we spent a few hours visiting the Taj Mahal (and had some breakfast back at the hotel), we went with our guide to the Agra Fort. We had met a couple from Australia on our Jaisalmer camel safari, and they told us that the Agra Fort was their favorite fort. Which, considering how many forts there are in India, is saying a lot. Really.

Entrance to the Agra Fort

The Agra Fort is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, although it’s not as famous as the Taj. It was originally a brick fort which dates at least as far back as 1083. Akbar The Great (the 3rd Mughal emporer) made it his capital, and he finished rebuilding it with red sandstone in 1573. The fort is also famous because Shah Jahan (who built the Taj) was imprisoned by his son in the fort at the end of his life.

Our guide gave us a good tour around the fort, and he was patient with us as we snapped lots of pictures.

Rob talking with our guide in one of the courtyards

It wasn’t too crowded and we were able to walk leisurely through the inner gardens to admire the buildings.

Looking down a garden path

Columns on the side of the courtyard (also in the photo above)

Another view of the courtyard, from a different angle

Building on the side of the courtyard gardens

The Fort is an interesting mix of Hindu and Islamic architecture. We really enjoyed looking at the intricate wall carvings, and the beautiful mosaics.

Room with detailed carvings on the walls and ceiling

The same room from a different angle

Another interesting room - I had to climb on a railing to take this photo since we weren't allowed to go inside

There were also some nice views over the side of the Fort – you can even see the Taj in some of our photos.

Looking over the side of the Fort wall at the Yamuna river

Another view from the side - the Taj is in the distance

Zooming in to take (yet another) picture of the Taj

When we were finished at the Fort, we went back to the hotel for an early lunch. We ate all our meals in Agra at the hotel. It was expensive, but we worried less about getting sick at the hotel. Even though Agra is a major tourist destination, it is not known for it’s restaurants. Also, we had read that there was a food poisoning scam in Agra a few years ago in which some tourists were intentionally given food poisoning, and then taken to a special “doctor” associated with the restaurant who submitted fraudulent claims to the traveler’s health insurance. Terrible, but true.

Anyway, after lunch we met our driver to go to Fatehpur Sikhri. Fatehpur Sikhri was the capital of the Mughal empire in the late 16th century. It took 15 years to build, but it was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was unable to sustain the population (thanks to Wikipedia for refreshing my memory). When we got there, our driver parked in a special parking lot where he could wait while we took a bus to the city.

There were a lot of touts and beggars in the parking lot, but it was nothing compared to what we would see later in the day. We boarded a very crowded bus (we were the only westerners) and got a quick ride to the ticket counter. It was really difficult to get off the bus, because a crowd of Indian people was pushing to get on at the same time. Shana threw some elbows, but Rob got swallowed up for a minute or two until he pushed and shoved his way out.

Once inside the city, we were free to wander around – and it wasn’t even that crowded. It was hard to tell what the buildings were, but they were pretty interesting to look at.

Building at Fatehpur Sikhri

Another building

Shana in a doorway

After we had wandered around for a while, Shana decided to use the restroom. It was Indian squats only, but clean enough. It’s a good thing that we did so much research about what India would be like before we left on the trip, or it would have been quite a shock. As it was, a few of the older female German tourists who peeked in decided to just wait until… well, Agra was a good 1hr 30min drive (40 km) away, so I’m not sure how long they were going to wait.

We found our way back to the main parking lot, and realized that there was another complex to see. When we walked over to the second city area, we were followed by a few child beggars. They were quite persistent. They wanted us to give up our used ticket stubs so they could sell them to someone else for 20 Rs. Rob gave them his ticket stub, but Shana was stubborn about it, so they followed us around for the rest of the time that we were there.

The second complex at Fatehpur Sikhri was much more crowded because it was free, and there were beggars everywhere. The beggars harassed both of us quite a bit, and it was pretty annoying. Still, the buildings were pretty interesting, and we (mostly) enjoyed walking around.

Building in the ticket-free part of Fatehpur Sikhri

Temple in Fatehpur Sikhri - it was pretty crowded and dirty inside, so we didn't spend much time there

Panorama of the second complex

After seeing Fatehpur Sikhri, we drove back to our hotel in Agra to relax. It had been a really hot day and we were exhausted. We had dinner reservations at Esphehan at 9pm (at the Oberoi hotel), but we decided to just try another restaurant at our hotel and turn in early. We had a wonderful dinner at Jankar restaurant, and enjoyed some specially prepared eggplant and dal dishes that were dairy-free (for Shana). The food was unexpectedly good and we were glad we had decided to stay in for the night.

The next morning we flew back to Delhi, so we could take an afternoon flight to Varanasi. The Delhi airport seemed incredibly modern and nice compared to the rest of India. However, even though there was a full food court, we couldn’t decide where to eat for lunch. Everything looked sketchy, and we considered eating at McDonald’s. Shana had read a story or two about food poisoning from this particular McDonald’s, so we decided to stick with Snickers and Pringles for lunch. The McDonald’s had a much more interesting menu than the ones at home, though – the McSpicy Paneer (see below) is a fried cheese sandwich!

Our flight to Varanasi seemed like it was going smoothly, although it was taking a lot longer than we thought it should – when all of a sudden we heard the announcement that we would be landing in Gaya in a few minutes! What?! It turned out that we had already flown over Varanasi. We were totally caught by surprise, since this sort of thing would never happen in the US. After the plane landed, and several passengers got off, we took off again and flew back to Varanasi.  Needless to say, our flight arrived much later than we expected.

Once we collected our bags at the Varanasi airport, we got a prepaid taxi to our hotel: the Taj Gateway. It turned out it was a 40 min drive into town – another surprise. Since it was the end of the day, the prepaid booth ticket taker jumped in the car with us to get a ride. He was actually a pretty nice guy, so we didn’t mind. However, we were very lucky that our flight wasn’t any later, or we would have been stranded at the airport.

Coming soon: Sightseeing in Varanasi and our ride on the Ganges!

Agra was a very busy, crowded city with lots of tourists – mostly Indian, to our surprise. We left for the Taj early in the morning, around 5:45am, so that we could beat the crowds. When we pulled up the site, it turned out we had to walk for a little while down a footpath that had monkeys, camels, and people milling around. Our tour guide explained that the reason there were so many people around is because a lot of people get up as early as 3am to start their day.

We walked down the path to the ticket counter, where a line was already forming. Our tour guide walked right to the front and got our tickets (750 Rs each!) and we headed to the entrance. At the entrance there were separate lines for men and women because of the security check (a common practice in India). Once we got inside we hurried to one of the famous photo spots – but there were already lots of people there, even though the Taj had just opened a few minutes earlier.

The entrance to the Taj

Our first view

It was a pretty amazing sight, and our tour guide let us wander around and take pictures for a while before he started telling us about the history of the Taj. We were lucky to have arranged a very good guide – his English was excellent, and he knew a lot about the history of the site.

The Taj was built by the Mughal emporor Shah Jahan, in memory of his third wife. It was finished in 1648, and the main tomb features Persian and Mughal architecture. The Taj is notable for it’s incredible symmetry, and the use of white marble (the preferred Mughal building material at that time was red sandstone). The emporer, Shah Jahan, described the Taj as follows:

Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator’s glory.

It took us a while to get some good shots of the Taj, because there were so many other people trying to get the best spot for a photo. As the sun came up, the light changed a lot and we were glad we had come early.

We asked our guide to take a quick photo of us too, without any posing.

The two of us at the Taj

In front of the main tomb of the Taj is a large, 1000 ft garden that has been divided into 16 parts.

The Taj Gardens

Outside the walls are several additional mausoleums, including those of Shah Jahan’s other wives and a larger tomb for Mumtaz’s favourite servant. The mausoleums are built out of red sandstone.

We got to go inside the Taj, too. First we had to put on some disposable slippers, and then we joined dozens of other tourists in a brief walk around the inside of the main tomb. The doorway had beautiful intricate letters lining the sides. Colored marbles and gemstones are used as decorative materials to form mosaics along the outside and inside walls.

Entrance to the Taj

Closeup of the letters along the entrance

Gemstones and colored marble inlaid in the outer wall

The Taj seems enormous when you get up close, and it’s amazing how much marble was used to build it.

The side of the main tomb up close

Side of the Taj

We didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the Taj – I think we weren’t allowed to in the main room – but we did get a photo of one of the mausoleums nearby, taken from a window on the side.

Looking out at one of the mausoleums on the side of the Taj

The mausoleums on the sides were not as impressive as the Taj itself, but they were still massive and beautifully architected.

After we walked through the main tomb, we could see the Yamuna River in the back of the Taj. The Yamuna is the largest tributary of the Ganges river. Sometimes the river is completely dry, but the monsoon this year was very rainy.

Yamuna river from the back of the Taj

Looking out across the river

We spent a few hours looking around and taking photographs, as more and more tourists streamed inside. By the time we left, it was quite crowded.

Walking back towards the entrance

We headed to the car to go back to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we planned to see the Agra Fort with our guide, and later in the afternoon we would visit the city of Fatehpur Sikhri.

Coming next: Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikhri

After spending one full day in Jaisalmer, we were ready to move on. We drove back to Jodhpur, stopping halfway for lunch at the Manvar Desert Resort again. It was a lot cleaner the second time we stopped there, and the waiter told us that it was because the tourist season had officially started.

When we got back to Jodhpur, we stayed overnight at Ratan Vilas again (see previous posts for pics) in the same room. We went to a tourist restaurant called “On the Rocks” in the evening, which a number of people (and our guidebook) had recommended very highly. The dal was watery and the papadums (crackers) were stale, so we didn’t think it was that great. The restaurant was in the Indian equivalent of a strip mall along the side of the road, in a little mosquito-ridden garden area. We chatted with a few Indian businessmen at the table next to us, and found out that we’d been paying special “tourist” prices for our hotels – at least 50% more than the locals.

We didn’t do any sightseeing the next day since we had a flight to Delhi. In the morning we just tried to work on our blog a little, which was no small task with such slow internet speed. When we went to the airport, we found out that our flight had been delayed two hours, and we had about 3+ hours to kill. Luckily we didn’t have any connections to catch, so it didn’t really matter – that’s the nice thing about being on vacation!

We decided to leave the airport and go to lunch at a 5-star tourist resort nearby called Ajit Bhawan. It was very nice and once you were inside you couldn’t even tell you were in India.

The outside of Ajit Bhawan resort

Sitting by the pool as we decide what to order for lunch

Rob, lounging by the pool

We actually ended up eating inside, but it was nice to relax outdoors for a bit. When we went into the restaurant, we saw that there was a large European tourist group there. We noticed that the buffet featured a number of “continental” dishes, so our expectations were low. We ordered a veg curry dish, dal, and some roti… and to our surprise it was really really good! We thought it might be the best meal we’d had in India.

Enjoying lunch (and eating with our hands)

On the way out, we noticed that the hotel had a collection of very fancy cars for picking up foreigners from the hotel. Cars like these are very rare on the roads in India, since most of the vehicles on the road are motorbikes, small cars, or rickshaws.

Cars at Ajit Bhawan

After lunch we went back to the airport and had no problem getting on our flight to Delhi. We were glad we hadn’t spent much time in the Jodhpur airport, since it was dirty and hot there.

The Jodhpur airport - only one gate!

Our flight was pretty uneventful, which was good. Once we arrived in Delhi, we met our driver at the airport, and immediately started on the road to Agra. It was late in the day, and the traffic was heavy. Once again, we were very glad we had decided to book a Toyota Innova (larger minivan) because it was a very long ride.

We stopped about halfway there to use a roadside restroom, which was connected to a very large tourist shop. Our driver asked us if we wanted to go shopping and it was clear that he was hoping to earn some commission. However, we were exhausted and we wanted to just press on. As it became dark, the drive got pretty nerve-racking. The road was just two lanes, but everyone was passing a lot, and some cars didn’t have their lights on. Every now and then we would suddenly pull up behind a horse-drawn cart or people walking. It was better to just sit back and try to relax (and not watch the road), and it was a relief when we finally arrived at our hotel.

The lobby of the Taj Gateway Hotel was really nice and modern, and we had high expectations for our room. However, as soon as we stepped off the elevator onto our floor we were greeted by a really strong mold smell. Our room smelled even worse. We asked for a new room right away, but we were told that the hotel was full – and it wasn’t hard to believe, because it was quite busy in the lobby. Clearly the tourist season had started.

We had a sleepless night due to the smell and poor AC. It was too bad about the mold, because otherwise it was a decent room. When we woke up the next morning, we were excited to find that we had a nice view of the Taj.

View of the Taj from our hotel room

After a quick breakfast we went to meet our driver and the tour guide we had arranged for our trip to the Taj. We were looking forward to spending a day exploring one of the most amazing historical sites in India.

Coming soon: Visiting the Taj Mahal!