June 20, 2006
I arrived at the Varanasi train station at 10pm for my 11:35pm train and see Indians sitting everywhere on the floor where I can’t even see the floor because there are so many of them and of course there are two huge cows casually laying down amongst them as if they are just “one of the guys”. It is 11:35pm and I am on platform 2 and there is a train there with wooden seats but the train number isn’t right and then I see 2 other white backpackers with confused looks on their faces so I assume they are looking for the same train (#1062) as I am so I go over and ask and sure enough they are going to Satna as well and then onto Khajuraho just like myself. Mirren from Holland and Marcelo from Brazil. Finally our train comes 20 minutes later and our ticket seats just happen to be next to each other in coach S-3. We see S-3 on the outside of the train and then jump onto that coach to find Indians sleeping in our beds and they tell us it is coach S-6 and that our coach is 3 coaches up so I go outside to check again to see that the coach is S-3 and think they are trying to pull a fast one to get our beds for the overnight train ride so I go back on and tell them that they are in our beds and we want them now!! An old Indian is shaking his head with frustration telling me that the sign that says S-3 is wrong and a few other Indians say the same thing so we are now frustrated because if this coach number is wrong they all probably are.
Finally we find the “other” S-3 and again find Indians in our beds and I say “OK the parties over, out of our beds!” but they don’t move. There are 2 men, 2 women and 3 young kids who are all together and they seem to think that these beds are theirs so we check their tickets and find out they have unreserved seats where our tickets are reserved and confirmed seats so the beds are officially ours. They still don’t move and I realize they have 2 beds between the 7 of them and basically they want the bottom bunks even though their ticket is for the top bunks. Their kids are sleeping so I exchange beds with them and take the top because I am too tired to wait for the conductor to come over to solve the matter since he is taking forever to solve disputes between passengers on the other end of the coach slowly working his way to us. There are never any train station employees anywhere which can be frustrating when you are trying to find out what platform your train is coming in on since it isn’t written on your ticket.
It was hot in Varanasi but even hotter in Khajuraho and I can only assume it is going to get hotter the further I move west in India. Once we arrive in Satna we catch a rickshaw across town to the bus station and grab a bus to Khajuraho. Once we get there, there are touts everywhere trying to get us into their hotels. Always being the one to get a bidding war started between the competition I try to get the lowest price where some young kid says “Sir, just name your price” and I say “OK 10 rupees (25 cents) per night” and he says “OK sir, done, come with me”. Of course I was just joking and do like to see pictures of the places before I lug my heavy backpack all over the place so I get a place right beside the bus station for 80 rupees that is nice for budget accommodation in India. Just to give you an idea how dirty India is, there are clouds of flies everywhere in the bus station and in some eating areas swarming around because there is shit on th floor and no one cleans it up.
I decide to spend two nights at this hotel so I can have a full day exploring all the temples in Khajuraho. The temples were absolutely breathtaking and the best I have ever seen with detailed sculptures in the stone. These temples were built by the Chandela dynasty between 950-1050AD. I think they rank up there with the Taj Mahal as far as the best of India’s attractions. One of the temples I went into had a bat sleeping right beside the window sill. After walking through the 7 temples at that one site I decided to walk down a little dirt road to another and sat down to take a breather when I see an Indian squatting beside a rock and at first I thought he was hiding on someone until I realize he was taking a dump. When he is done he pulls his pants only halfway up so he can walk, and walks another 50 feet over to a pond where cows are cooling off in the water and takes a few steps into the water and begins wiping his ass with the water and his left hand! Vere from our Tibet tour who lived in India for a year had told me that Indians eat with their right hand and wipe their ass with their left and I thought he was just making it up until I saw it for myself. There is no privacy in India and you could be taking a leak and an Indian will come up to you and start a conversation while you are pissing by the side of the road and say “Hello sir, where are you from? Oh I have a friend from Canada. How do you like India?”.
I grab a 5:30am bus to Jiantse and then transfer onto a train for Agra which takes 4 hours. At the station there are dirty kids coming up to you for food which saddens me so I give them some soup and bread which they take and eat on the cement floor. I can’t eat when I see that. It is just a fact of life over here and most Indians ignore them because there are so many. I must say that despite the mass poverty and the dirtiness of India it is one of the most fascinating countries I have ever been to. It shocks all the 5 senses. I guess I love "culture shock" and that is what I travel for. Also the Indians are super friendly and they always smile and say hello as you pass by.
There are power outages every hour or so throughout India. I always save my emails as I write because the power will go off and I don't want to lose everything. The power went off while I wrote this and decided to go over to a restaurant for a bite to eat while I wait for the power to come back on since many places have generators. As I am eating I see a big black rat scurry across the floor and it doesn't seem to faze any of the tourists eating there.
Like Tibet, the Indians flatten the cow patties and dry them out in the sun for burning material. I have seen big carts filled to the top of dried cow patties ready to be shipped off to market ;). In Agra I checked into a hotel and then go to the rooftop restaurant and sip coffee as I gaze at the Taj Mahal which is in clear view. I see monkeys everywhere jumping from building to building and Indians with sticks chasing them off their balconies before the monkeys get a chance to grab something that has monetary value and make off with it.
The next day I arrive at the Taj Mahal at 8:30am which costs 750 rupees ($16US) to get in. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and the 100 meter narrow canal is empty of water for cleaning which makes a great picture when it is full of water and you get the Taj’s reflection in it. The Taj Mahal can only really be appreciated up close and in person and pictures just don’t do it justice with its finished white marble structure and detailed carvings in the marble with 4 white marble minarets on each side of the Taj. It is an architectural marvel for its time since it has a perfectly symmetrical white marble dome on top.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan between 1631- 1653 which took 22 years and 20,000 people to complete. It is said to be the most extravagant monument ever built for love. Shah Jahans second wife died in child birth in 1631 and he was so devastated by this he built this memorial for her. It is an Islamic design with quotations from verses in the Quran on the sides of the building. Even the vents are made from solid marble which is incredible. Later I went to Agra fort and Fatephur Sikri (15th century walled city).
I went for dinner at another rooftop restaurant where I met 2 New Zealanders. I was eating my rice and mutton and they told me that mutton was goat so I corrected them by saying no mutton was sheep and they say yes mutton from where we are from is sheep but in India if mutton is on a menu then it is goat and it is written in the Lonely planet guide. The next day I was sick and took some cipro for my stomach since I knew I was experiencing “Delhi belly” and had massive diarrhea which I am now positive was from the mutton (Ahem...I mean goat). I got up at 5am to catch the 6am bus to Delhi hoping to get to the Pakistan embassy before it closed at 12 noon. The autorickshaw I was in ran out of gas half way to the train station so the driver waved down another driver to take me. When I get there I am shocked at the huge lineups to get a train ticket for Delhi and the lineups are moving slowly and there isn’t much time before the 6am train leaves so I give up and decide to wait for the next 7pm train when the lineups won’t be so long. But then an Indian asked me if I needed help and I told him the situation and he said come with me and I watched him bud to the front of the line and I gave him my money. Other Indians were rightfully pissed off about this and I heard shouting and yelling at my guy and others pushing him away but he did manage to get my 6am ticket so I gave him 30 rupees for his trouble. Still sick and waiting on the platform for my train I began puking my guts out onto the railway tracks (3 big power pukes). I have decided I am going to be a vegetarian at least until I am out of India which is the safest way to go. It took 4 hours to reach Delhi. One thing about the trains in India is that they never tell you where you are or what stop you are at so I am constantly going around my coach trying to find an English speaking Indian to find out when I get off.
I had two taxi drivers try to rip me off when I got off the train in Delhi. The first one was telling me I had to confirm my hotel reservation at the agency across the street before he could take me in his cab which is just another scam waiting to happen because I read about this in my Lonely planet guide that taxi drivers outside the Delhi train station will bring you to a crooked agency to confirm your hotel reservation which is just BS and tell you that your hotel is already booked or double booked and then they get you into an expensive hotel where the cab driver and the agency make big commissions. I ignore the guy and go looking for another driver and find a Sikh cab driver and ask if he has a meter in his taxi that worked (very important detail) and he said yes come with me and after walking a few minutes to his cab he informs me that it will be 100 rupees no matter where I go and all taxi drivers in Delhi will demand the same price. I basically tell him forget it and finally find an honest one who will take me to my hotel for 30 rupees so I give him 50 just for his honesty.
I decided to just recover from my sickness and laid in bed for 5 hours than go out to the Pakistan embassy since it was 11am already and there was only one hour left before closing. I had joked with the New Zealand couple at the restaurant that I might bump into them in Delhi and sure enough I did!! What are the odds of that.
Next day I went to the Canadian embassy to get a “Letter of recommendation” which was needed for my Pakistan visa application. At the Canadian embassy visitors go into a sealed steel booth where an official is behind plexi glass and has a speaker to talk to you with. The letter costed $50 CDN!! The official asked me when I planned to visit Pakistan and I told him in 2 weeks and then he says “Have you read the latest travel advisory bulletin concerning travel to Pakistan?” at which I say "no" and he says “It is not safe to travel to Pakistan right now and you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time blah blah blah….” Anyhow at the end of his little scare mongering speech I thought he was going to end it by saying “Sir…….you could DIE!!!”. I am like “Ya Ya just gimme my letter and I will be out of here”. I have to go back tomorrow to pick up the letter and then go over to the Pakistan embassy to apply for my visa so I will be in Delhi for a couple more days that I had expected. After Delhi I will be going to Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodypur, Jaisalmer, and then Amritsar before heading into Pakistan.
Kevinder Binder
I arrived at the Varanasi train station at 10pm for my 11:35pm train and see Indians sitting everywhere on the floor where I can’t even see the floor because there are so many of them and of course there are two huge cows casually laying down amongst them as if they are just “one of the guys”. It is 11:35pm and I am on platform 2 and there is a train there with wooden seats but the train number isn’t right and then I see 2 other white backpackers with confused looks on their faces so I assume they are looking for the same train (#1062) as I am so I go over and ask and sure enough they are going to Satna as well and then onto Khajuraho just like myself. Mirren from Holland and Marcelo from Brazil. Finally our train comes 20 minutes later and our ticket seats just happen to be next to each other in coach S-3. We see S-3 on the outside of the train and then jump onto that coach to find Indians sleeping in our beds and they tell us it is coach S-6 and that our coach is 3 coaches up so I go outside to check again to see that the coach is S-3 and think they are trying to pull a fast one to get our beds for the overnight train ride so I go back on and tell them that they are in our beds and we want them now!! An old Indian is shaking his head with frustration telling me that the sign that says S-3 is wrong and a few other Indians say the same thing so we are now frustrated because if this coach number is wrong they all probably are.
Finally we find the “other” S-3 and again find Indians in our beds and I say “OK the parties over, out of our beds!” but they don’t move. There are 2 men, 2 women and 3 young kids who are all together and they seem to think that these beds are theirs so we check their tickets and find out they have unreserved seats where our tickets are reserved and confirmed seats so the beds are officially ours. They still don’t move and I realize they have 2 beds between the 7 of them and basically they want the bottom bunks even though their ticket is for the top bunks. Their kids are sleeping so I exchange beds with them and take the top because I am too tired to wait for the conductor to come over to solve the matter since he is taking forever to solve disputes between passengers on the other end of the coach slowly working his way to us. There are never any train station employees anywhere which can be frustrating when you are trying to find out what platform your train is coming in on since it isn’t written on your ticket.
It was hot in Varanasi but even hotter in Khajuraho and I can only assume it is going to get hotter the further I move west in India. Once we arrive in Satna we catch a rickshaw across town to the bus station and grab a bus to Khajuraho. Once we get there, there are touts everywhere trying to get us into their hotels. Always being the one to get a bidding war started between the competition I try to get the lowest price where some young kid says “Sir, just name your price” and I say “OK 10 rupees (25 cents) per night” and he says “OK sir, done, come with me”. Of course I was just joking and do like to see pictures of the places before I lug my heavy backpack all over the place so I get a place right beside the bus station for 80 rupees that is nice for budget accommodation in India. Just to give you an idea how dirty India is, there are clouds of flies everywhere in the bus station and in some eating areas swarming around because there is shit on th floor and no one cleans it up.
I decide to spend two nights at this hotel so I can have a full day exploring all the temples in Khajuraho. The temples were absolutely breathtaking and the best I have ever seen with detailed sculptures in the stone. These temples were built by the Chandela dynasty between 950-1050AD. I think they rank up there with the Taj Mahal as far as the best of India’s attractions. One of the temples I went into had a bat sleeping right beside the window sill. After walking through the 7 temples at that one site I decided to walk down a little dirt road to another and sat down to take a breather when I see an Indian squatting beside a rock and at first I thought he was hiding on someone until I realize he was taking a dump. When he is done he pulls his pants only halfway up so he can walk, and walks another 50 feet over to a pond where cows are cooling off in the water and takes a few steps into the water and begins wiping his ass with the water and his left hand! Vere from our Tibet tour who lived in India for a year had told me that Indians eat with their right hand and wipe their ass with their left and I thought he was just making it up until I saw it for myself. There is no privacy in India and you could be taking a leak and an Indian will come up to you and start a conversation while you are pissing by the side of the road and say “Hello sir, where are you from? Oh I have a friend from Canada. How do you like India?”.
I grab a 5:30am bus to Jiantse and then transfer onto a train for Agra which takes 4 hours. At the station there are dirty kids coming up to you for food which saddens me so I give them some soup and bread which they take and eat on the cement floor. I can’t eat when I see that. It is just a fact of life over here and most Indians ignore them because there are so many. I must say that despite the mass poverty and the dirtiness of India it is one of the most fascinating countries I have ever been to. It shocks all the 5 senses. I guess I love "culture shock" and that is what I travel for. Also the Indians are super friendly and they always smile and say hello as you pass by.
There are power outages every hour or so throughout India. I always save my emails as I write because the power will go off and I don't want to lose everything. The power went off while I wrote this and decided to go over to a restaurant for a bite to eat while I wait for the power to come back on since many places have generators. As I am eating I see a big black rat scurry across the floor and it doesn't seem to faze any of the tourists eating there.
Like Tibet, the Indians flatten the cow patties and dry them out in the sun for burning material. I have seen big carts filled to the top of dried cow patties ready to be shipped off to market ;). In Agra I checked into a hotel and then go to the rooftop restaurant and sip coffee as I gaze at the Taj Mahal which is in clear view. I see monkeys everywhere jumping from building to building and Indians with sticks chasing them off their balconies before the monkeys get a chance to grab something that has monetary value and make off with it.
The next day I arrive at the Taj Mahal at 8:30am which costs 750 rupees ($16US) to get in. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and the 100 meter narrow canal is empty of water for cleaning which makes a great picture when it is full of water and you get the Taj’s reflection in it. The Taj Mahal can only really be appreciated up close and in person and pictures just don’t do it justice with its finished white marble structure and detailed carvings in the marble with 4 white marble minarets on each side of the Taj. It is an architectural marvel for its time since it has a perfectly symmetrical white marble dome on top.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan between 1631- 1653 which took 22 years and 20,000 people to complete. It is said to be the most extravagant monument ever built for love. Shah Jahans second wife died in child birth in 1631 and he was so devastated by this he built this memorial for her. It is an Islamic design with quotations from verses in the Quran on the sides of the building. Even the vents are made from solid marble which is incredible. Later I went to Agra fort and Fatephur Sikri (15th century walled city).
I went for dinner at another rooftop restaurant where I met 2 New Zealanders. I was eating my rice and mutton and they told me that mutton was goat so I corrected them by saying no mutton was sheep and they say yes mutton from where we are from is sheep but in India if mutton is on a menu then it is goat and it is written in the Lonely planet guide. The next day I was sick and took some cipro for my stomach since I knew I was experiencing “Delhi belly” and had massive diarrhea which I am now positive was from the mutton (Ahem...I mean goat). I got up at 5am to catch the 6am bus to Delhi hoping to get to the Pakistan embassy before it closed at 12 noon. The autorickshaw I was in ran out of gas half way to the train station so the driver waved down another driver to take me. When I get there I am shocked at the huge lineups to get a train ticket for Delhi and the lineups are moving slowly and there isn’t much time before the 6am train leaves so I give up and decide to wait for the next 7pm train when the lineups won’t be so long. But then an Indian asked me if I needed help and I told him the situation and he said come with me and I watched him bud to the front of the line and I gave him my money. Other Indians were rightfully pissed off about this and I heard shouting and yelling at my guy and others pushing him away but he did manage to get my 6am ticket so I gave him 30 rupees for his trouble. Still sick and waiting on the platform for my train I began puking my guts out onto the railway tracks (3 big power pukes). I have decided I am going to be a vegetarian at least until I am out of India which is the safest way to go. It took 4 hours to reach Delhi. One thing about the trains in India is that they never tell you where you are or what stop you are at so I am constantly going around my coach trying to find an English speaking Indian to find out when I get off.
I had two taxi drivers try to rip me off when I got off the train in Delhi. The first one was telling me I had to confirm my hotel reservation at the agency across the street before he could take me in his cab which is just another scam waiting to happen because I read about this in my Lonely planet guide that taxi drivers outside the Delhi train station will bring you to a crooked agency to confirm your hotel reservation which is just BS and tell you that your hotel is already booked or double booked and then they get you into an expensive hotel where the cab driver and the agency make big commissions. I ignore the guy and go looking for another driver and find a Sikh cab driver and ask if he has a meter in his taxi that worked (very important detail) and he said yes come with me and after walking a few minutes to his cab he informs me that it will be 100 rupees no matter where I go and all taxi drivers in Delhi will demand the same price. I basically tell him forget it and finally find an honest one who will take me to my hotel for 30 rupees so I give him 50 just for his honesty.
I decided to just recover from my sickness and laid in bed for 5 hours than go out to the Pakistan embassy since it was 11am already and there was only one hour left before closing. I had joked with the New Zealand couple at the restaurant that I might bump into them in Delhi and sure enough I did!! What are the odds of that.
Next day I went to the Canadian embassy to get a “Letter of recommendation” which was needed for my Pakistan visa application. At the Canadian embassy visitors go into a sealed steel booth where an official is behind plexi glass and has a speaker to talk to you with. The letter costed $50 CDN!! The official asked me when I planned to visit Pakistan and I told him in 2 weeks and then he says “Have you read the latest travel advisory bulletin concerning travel to Pakistan?” at which I say "no" and he says “It is not safe to travel to Pakistan right now and you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time blah blah blah….” Anyhow at the end of his little scare mongering speech I thought he was going to end it by saying “Sir…….you could DIE!!!”. I am like “Ya Ya just gimme my letter and I will be out of here”. I have to go back tomorrow to pick up the letter and then go over to the Pakistan embassy to apply for my visa so I will be in Delhi for a couple more days that I had expected. After Delhi I will be going to Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodypur, Jaisalmer, and then Amritsar before heading into Pakistan.
Kevinder Binder
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