ON The Road Again - Cultural Back-pack trip - Update

Day 3- Varanasi, missed Ayodhya in LucknowI wake up at 5:30a.m as i want to watch the sunrise at the ghats. The previous night experience has been tiresome roaming around the tiny bylanes and being followed by touts everywhere. The place am staying at Sakshi guest house is alright. Its doesnt look very fancy,its a neat room in a old haveli with a attached bathroom and hot water. For 150 bucks its great value for money.

At about 6:00a.m i am at the Ghats( cant remember the name now). The atmosphere is truly divine and the air is magical. The sun hasnt come out yet, but the calm river still wipped in fog welcomes you.I get myself a one and half hour boat ride across all the ghats. The interesting ones among them are Narad ghat, where you will find any one bathing, as its believed that if a mother in law and daughter in law come here together they are bound to fight. The Hareshchandra ghat is a place where dead bodies are burnt in a electric crematorium, not the best ghat to watch and Meer Ghat is where the bodies are burnt in the normal manner and sometimes dead bodies especially of saints are just dipped in the water. My boat guide did show me one of the dead bodies floating in the water.

Surprisingly atleast in the morning, the water seemed clean, the boat guide tells me that the nagarpalika cleans the water every night and much care is taken for its cleanliness now. I watch the sun rise right in front of me from my boat. The view is undoubtedly outstanding, and i wonder about the no of sunsets and sunrises i have seen over the past couple of weeks on my trip, otherwise back home there is hardly any time to notice natures marvels. The morning is the best time to be at the ghat, its less crowded and very peaceful. Ofcourse viewing the migrant birds flocking besides the river side is another noticeble feature.

After that divine experience, i continue it by going to the rooftop restaurant of Dolphin hotel which is nice modern hotel on the banks of the ganges and ofters an outstanding view from top. After a quick breakfast i start walking through the ghats to go to Assi ghat which is close to Banaras University and on the other end. Its a long walk but nice to walk through the ghats and watching the ganga, thankfully its not crowded like the small streets and not many touts bother u except a couple of boat riders here and there on one or two of the ghats who offer u a boat ride. I notice a lot of Sadhus at their camps, sometimes i really wonder how authentic they all are, there is a possibality that some of them may dress and behave like sadhus just to get a free living.

At Assi Ghat, there is a set being done for a kavi Samelam shot for IBN live, the location is fabulous i chat with the guy who is in charge of production, he tells me he can organise anything we want on the ghats and its costs about 2000 as rent. The IBN team invites me for the shot at 2 and insists i come, i tell them that i can hardly understand hindi poetry and i might have to catch a train at 1 in the afternoon, but they still insist, i smile and leave

Assi Ghat is AND IS the only place to stay in Varanasi. Its nice, quite and you will not be bothered by touts and there is plenty of nice accomadations, how i wish i had come here instead of going to the other end. Anyways its about 10:00 a.m and i have lots of work to complete yet if i want to catch the afternoon 2:00p.m train. I stroll through Banaras University and take a rick to Madanpura. Its the muslim mohalla in Varanasi and a great place to buy Banarasi sarees at wholesale prices. Unfortunately all the shops in Madanpura are still closed, i move to Jagdamvadi next to it and after looking at a huge pile of sarees rush back to my guest house with 6 sarees. Now i am in a real rush to reach the station. The train to Faizabad leaves at 2 and i need to catch it some how. The road is terribly crowded, i am a little shocked seeing a deadbody on tied up on top of jeep,with its relatives sitting inside the jeep.

Inspite of the rickshaw guy rushing me to the station i end up at the platform without the ticket and the train almost leaving the platform. Some people on the platform volunteer to help me board the running train, but i disagree.

After running through various ticket counters i am told the next train is at 5 and would reach faizabad at 11 in the night. So its a bad idea to take that,i am advised to try my luck on the bus. I go to the bus stand and there is a airconditioned bus leaving for Lucknow, the bus driver tells me that i could get off at Sulatanpur and go to Faizabad from there. He said it would reach by 5:30p.m. The important point is also to reach Faizabad at a decent time. I would stay there the night and go to Ayodhya from there the next morning. By the time i check around to find out how far sultanpur is from Faizabad and how well connected it is, my seat in the bus is gone, i end up going in the drivers cabin seat upto Jaunpur.

The ride from Varanasi to Lucknow passing through Jaunpur is nice. Bright green fields with big mango trees on both the sides. The view of sun bidding goodbye behind the big mango trees was truly phenomenal.I make a couple of enquires seated in bus, check with my navigator friend for the distance between sultanpur and faizabad once again, call the hotel in Faizabad and even call a hotel in Lucknow. I read about Ayodhya once again in my book, it says u cant take cameras etc, so my plan to go to Ayodhya gets little shaken up. By the time we reach Sultanpur its about 6:30 in the evening, its became so dark and there are hardly any lights on the road. After getting off from Sultanpur i would still have to go further 60km by local bus of whoes frequency i have to idea on. I would reach Faizabad by around 8:00 at night. The thought of going to a unknown city in UP in the night alone scared me and i decided against it and bought myself a ticket to Lucknow on the bus and made arrangements for my stay in Lucknow. Ayodhya unfortunately gets a miss on this trip, but saftely is more important so be it.

I like the concept of waking up in a new city every day, Over the last four days i have been a new city every single day, and tommorrow it will be Lucknow

ON The Road Again - Cultural Back-pack trip

Day 1- Ticket to ride- Sunday- 18 Feb 07

I am still recovering from my road trip to Rajasthan, Gujarat and the day trip to Agra at my halt in Delhi, i finally wake up do some research and figure out a basic plan for my cultural extravaganza back-pack trip. Lucknow- Varanasi- Ayodhya- Allahabad-. I figured out that this was a circle so i could begin my trip from any location. My best bet was the Shatabdi to Lucknow but that was full too. I checked more than 30 trains on the internet going to Varansi, Ayodhya and Lucknow that night and can u belive it all were wait listed so i couldnt make a reservation online.

After a quick lunch at mall, and rushing the maid to iron my wet clothes i pack my stuff in a back-pack and leave in the radio taxi to New Delhi station. Radio Taxis are newly introduced in Delhi, they come within half hour of calling and charge 15rs per km its a electronic meter.

As i drive through Delhi, i admire the wide roads and the monuments, i pass by, i also love the feeling of not knowing which destination i am headed to as its completely dependant on the ticket i get. When i got of at New Delhi station at Ajmeri Gate- Ticket booking counter its about 4:30p.m and i am just amazed to see the huge lines in every window. No one knows anything, there is total chaos, i stand in a ladies line just to find out i cant get tickets in sleeper class or AC from this line. I move to another window, shatabi and rajdhani counter, the guy tells me all sold out, he advices me to just get into Rajdhani train standing on platrom 12 going to Mughal Serai and then ask the tC to make me a ticket. I think its a crazy idea coz it would reach Mughal Serai at 2 in the night and i would have to wait at the station and then take a bus or smthg to Varanasi. Anyways for the heck of it i enquire with the TC standing next to the train, he tells me its possible for 2500rs.

I go to Paharaganj ticket counter , which is again very crowded,i move from one line to other with no sucess, i also speak to a tout who is ready to give me a ticket in Shivganga Express for 1500rs, thats again a risky propostion both costwise and realiability wise. I finally get to something which seems like a right counter, i request the guy to give me a ticket to any destination varanasi, Allahabad or Lucknow, he laughs at me and tells me Magadh is full and for lucknow Mail i can try at 8pm,its full right now, i ask him to check for other trains, he asks me for train names, i dont remember them now, i remember my navigator friend at this time

In the middle of all these chaos i end up meeting two students from Banaras university, they are going back to banaras, they have one extra female ticket to magadh in sleeper class, i offer to buy it from them. They explain to me that the ticket is complicated, it belongs to a friend of theirs and has diffrent names and it cannot be canceled due to tatkal and if the TC is not ready to change names, so they advise me to buy a local ticket to Mughal Serai and then later adjust in the train. Later the two boys keep arguing about something in Bengali, i think its a better idea to part ways with them and figure out my own thing.

I enquire with a couple of TCs and they tell me that i can easily get in to the General compartment of Ladies in Magadh express. I didnt know wearing toe rings easily qualified one to be called as married women. As i chatted with the TC, he obivously was curious to know who i am and immediately told me that i was married and he guessed that by looking at my toe rings as in UP its a custom that only married women wear toe rings. Well i didnt say anything and will use this to my advantage as far as possible.

I wait at the platform, the train is late by two hours and all the platforms are crowded with humanbeings, there are numerous announcments of trains going to allabahad. Lucknow, Varanasi. I just wonder where do so many people go and come in UP. Inspite of having over 30 trains across 3 destinations you cant get a reservation in any class.

Finally the train arrives at 9:50 p.m and honestly looking at the crowd on that platform, i just thought i would have to go back home that night, but somehow i managed to get in and that two a window seat.In no time i had children and mothers sitting and then later sleeping in every inch of place around. Some Men managed to climb in to this compartment. For some reason the ride didnt seem to long and at about 8oclock i was at Alahabad station


Day 2 - Alhabad & Varanasi
One very good rickshaw guy leaves me to Sangam. The area from where i need to take the boat ride to watch the Triveni Sangam. The chacha warns me not to pay too much to the boat guy and comes all the way with me, inspite me asking him not to come. i like the way he calls me betiya,its sounds very sweet

I negotiate the price and for 300 bucks i take a boat ride from Jamuna river upto the Triveni Sangam. Its beautiful in the morning, so calm and peaceful, the river seems to be still wrapped in the winter fog. The triveni sangam is a mixture of three dharas(rivers) Jamuna which is green in colour,Saraswati which is yellow in colour and Ganga which is white in colour.

The boat rider is informative and he shows me the places around. The ride from Sangam Ghat to Triveni Sangam is beautiful, with ducks and flamingos for company. First he tells me about why the place is called Prayag, apparantely the fort which Akbar had built on the banks of the jamuna always kept falling down, he had a dream that if he sacrificed the Prayag Maharaj a wellknown priest and two elephants, it would stop from falling. RIght here on the banks of this river he was sacrificed and the fort stoppped from following. There is also an outlet from the fort where Akbar wife Jodhabhai would come for a dip in the river.

As we go further,my boat rider insists i do the three cocunut sacrifice in the water, i tell him, i am not too keen on doing it as it pollutes the water, but before i could say anything a pujari with a boats come closer and he gives me the coconut,he makes me say a couple of prayers and i give him some 20 -30 ruppes. I am very angry with him and boat rider when they try to force me to do a 10 kg bhog to ganga which would cost somthing 600 rs. I guess i have just got alert with the touts around.
I walk through the city of Allahabad, its much more alive now. The architechture of some of the temples here have a lot of Islamic influence, the domes are very similar to mosques. I notice a lot of gun shops on the way,but first i decide to freshen up by going to the best hotel in town. The Grand- Intercontinental is the only luxury hotel in Allahabad, its located in civil lines. I use the bathroom and have some breakfast and then decide to go and see the famous Allahabad university.

Its a long walk, but nice walk through old colonial houses. Allahabad has some very nice British houses and lot of modern bunglows in Civil lines area. After a lot of walking i finally reach the university. Its huge and its architecture again has a lot of islamic influence. A lot of domes around most of the building. But the best part are the lovely classrooms with carvings inside and the huge lawns where a lot of young boys and girl spend there so called studytime together:). The campus is spread across diffrent diffrents and simply magnificent with its beautiful buildings.

I am tired of the walking and ask a rickshaw guy to take me to Harivanchrai Bachchan`s house, we go through various small lanes only to find out it doesnt exist anymore, i sort of dont believe that ,but anyways i have to get to Varanasi before night so i forget about it. A stop to gun shop is a must

I visit ths gun shop called Shastralaya. The old men sitting at the shop are more then happy to show me around. They tell me that they sell guns only to those who have a license. A license can be availed from a DM and its takes about a month to get it. He showed me guns ranging from 25,000 rs to 2lakh rupees. He told me they are supposed to sell it to criminals but usually its ends up going to them

I reach the bus stand at about 3:00pm and i get on to the bus to varanasi. Its a 3 hour ride from Allahabad fopr Rs 75.I reach Varanasi and as i have read in the book am tired of getting rid of the touts and guides then come behind me. I want to stay at the ghat so i rickshaw, and this is where i see a sea of just people and rickshaws. its chaotic. I run pillar to post to find a hotel, but cant, its getting dark and almost every individual on the street is interested in knowing where am going, its difficult to keep them away. Finally i manage to find a room in a guest house run by family for 150 rs. I atleast have a roof now. I look forward to morning on the banks of ganges tommorrow

ON THE ROAD!

photo courtesy- Sarfaraz Merchent(Pro-photographer in the making)

Over 35 hours behind the wheel ( with more than 2 flat tyers and one tyer burst)... 3000km of India`s scenic canvas ranging from the fields, to the desert and the forests.. 4 notorious characters. Adventure, Discovery & more

The route
(Mumbai- Surat- Ahmedabad- Himant Nagar- Palanpur- Sanchor- Barmer- Jaisalmer


Day 1- The beginning ( Friday- 9 Feb 07)

In the fading winter darkness of the morning I set out on this journey with 3 of my travelmates in quest of exploring the unknown. Although this is not really the beginning as our first stop is a wedding in Surat. Hardly had we reached the toll naka near Dahisar, that one of our travel mates opened one packet of Lays chips. He had got about 20 packets of Lays as he had a distributor for the product next door to his office. I immediately commented on How gujaratis love to eat all the time, and how their journey ends and begins with food. On the way to Surat, we halted at a Reliance petrol pump, and I was very impressed to find out that they provided facilities for shower for 20 bucks, I hoped to find such petrol-pumps on our long journey to Jaisalmer, as we might end up using one.

The highway from Bombay to Surat is well made and scenic, and with the good driving and speed of our travelmate we managed to reach Surat by about 10:30 in the morning. After gulping down some scrumptious breakfast of Ghee- Khakra, Ameri Khaman, Ghatiya and Jalebi we chatted with the bride, as the other two travel mates who weren’t supposed to attend the wedding set out in the heat to find something to do in Surat.

Surat
Surat has nothing to do, It’s a very crowded city and the only thing you could probably do is go to the Kapda Bazzar. In the afternoon we go to the Bombay Market which is a huge market selling saris and dress material. Its fascinating to see the colours and the chaos. Although we are quite unsuccessful in finding a simple kurta in this market which our friend wants to wear for the wedding as he ended up coming with the wrong clothes. If you are looking for something classy and simple then Bombay Market is not the place to shop for you.

Boredom and the need to rest compels our other two travelmates to find themselves a place to rest in a dingy little guest house. One of them has to drive in the night so the sleep is definitely needed

At about 10:30p.m in the evening we are done with the wedding and after many goodbyes we are finally ready to hit the road to Jaisalmer. The four of us have never seen a desert and we are quite excited to visit one.



Day 2 – On the road to Jaisalmer – ( Sat- 10 Feb 07)

Its about 12am now and we are on our way to Ahmedabad. One of the travel mates the morning driver is already zonked for the day. One of them our navigator who has religiously studied the road route sits in the front directing our third travelmate who is driving. My head is spinning and I have this desire to drink tea. Since the journey had just began, my travel mates are still very civil to me and are adhering to all my demands and requests.

The dhaba where we stop for chai is buzzing with truck drivers and their are some of them even with their families. We all wonder how difficult life would be for them traveling all the time.

The Ahmedabad express highway is mind-blowing, after crossing ahmedabad and various queries we end up taking a shorter route through a short cut near Himmat nagar. As we drive through this small road we can see nothing but trees, we do hope to find a ghost somewhere on the way, but there is nothing accept the silence of the night.

In the morning when we reach Palanpur, we halt at a petrolpump and I am just delighted to know that we have toilet paper with us, thanks to one of our travelmates who is in the tissue paper business. Our navigator friend opens the map on the bonnet of the car again trying to read the route map. Jaisalmer is still about 400-450km away.


Its time to swap drivers, and our day driver travel mate begins his journey. From Palanpur we need to get to to Barmer via Sanchor. We take a short-cut road which turns out to be a bad idea coz the road is dug up and bad. Rajasthan raods are not as good as the Gujarat roads, that’s a striking difference between both the states

The drive is scenic with just fields on both sides, the chakdo( a special type of rickshaw, which front is made up of a bullet bike and a square block behind for people to sit inside). At about 1:00p.m we halt for some food at a Dhaba. The Dhaba is well equipped with khatiyas and small separate dinning areas under huts. The food consisting of the dal, mixed veg is extremely oily, but the parathas are nice. I am a little sad seeing the young boy who is serving us food. He must be hardly 10-15 years old and here he is earning a living for himself

On the road further we see a little bit of the desert, but it not barren, its green. All our hopes of seeing a actual desert are getting shattered, maybe the desert we imagined was just in the movies and not in real. At about 3pm we reach Jaisalmer, after a series of debate we decide to stay in the fort.

The Fort offers a variety of accommodation for the budget traveler. Our first stop is a nice hotel call Surya, but since it has squat toilets I request the other three to look for other options. We finally reach a place called Maharajas Haven or Surya Palace, and find ourselves a good room after a little bargaining for 600 bucks. The room called the dream room with a outside balcony provides a spectacular view of the golden city from the fort. This is no palace hotel, but just a small house with couple of bedrooms and baths and a restaurant at the terrace The clouds are already out and in no time it begins to pour and our dream room turns into a rainy room.

The manager- Manubhai tells us that rains are very uncommon in Rajasthan that the room is not equipped to handle the rains, he shows us another room below which is saved from the rain. Once the rain stops in the evening we set out to find a mosque for one of our mates who needs to offer his evening prayers. I am fascinated walking through the tiny lanes of the main bazzar. We stop at a saree shop to buy some sarees which one of them needs to take back home. The saree shopkeeper is friendly and tells us about the Desert Safari, advises us to go only after the rain stops, while our navigator friend ends up chatting to some one else at the Phone booth to get some information on the Safari. He also finds out that Tanot( I kept calling it Taukhat for some reason) about 200 kms away which is on the Pakistan border is also interesting place to visit. They don’t allow you to go upto the border but just near the village where there is a temple.

We all wanted to stay in a village or a desert for atleast a day, so this seemed like a interesting proposition, if we could get to stay in the village near the border

We wait for our travel mate to come back from his prayers as we sip some coffee and savour some cake at the German bakery round the corner. Our pasta fanatic friend has seen the Italian restaurant- Little Italy at the fort and we all go there for dinner. I look at a Hajam shop and enquire if I can get a oil hair massage, the guy agrees for 45 bucks but my friends think it’s a bad idea for me to get one and convince me to forget about it


The restaurant- Little Italy has a nice ambience, with table and chair seating and Indian style seating. We choose the Indian style seating and place our orders. The pasta is slightly uncooked and when we argue with the manager, he tells me this is authentic pasta, and everyone here( mainly the firangs) like it that way.

Day 3 – Jaisalmer & Desert Safari (Sunday- 11 Feb 07)

We all have a good sleep, and wake up quite late. At about 11:30 we proceed for breakfast at our hotel. It’s a nice sunny day and Savan a young boy comes to take our order. We eat as if we haven’t eaten for ages, Plates full of burjis, porridges, cereals, pakodas and toast gets wiped up in a matter of time.

Savan- The little rockstar

Savan is about 15 years old, he has been working in this hotel for about a month or so now. He is in charge of cooking as well as serving the food. He has a distinct, innocent smile on face. He is from a village close by and his father was not to keen that he studied so he dropped out of school and came here to take this job. The boy is very sweet and is more to happy to sit and chat with us every day when we go for breakfast. We ask him if there is any small village which is in a desert, where we could go and stay. He tells us about Tanot and the surrounding villages but advises us to take the Desert Safari


After a series of discussions with Manu Bhai the manager of the hotel, we finally take the safari for 550 rupees a person which would include to transport to a village near Khuri, a camel ride in the desert, accommodation under the sky with gaddis and rajai along with food. We walk around the bazzar and in to the lanes of the city to locate our other two namazi friends who have gone to the mosque to offer their prayers. I am amazed to see the small houses, all like little havelis with some carving, all of golden stones. An interesting feature to be noted is, that whenever there is a wedding in any of the house, the wedding invitation is painted on a white patch on the wall of the house. So we pass through various such invitations of weddings which have already happened from 97- 2007.
On one tiny crossroad, I come across a group of women are chatting which each other, they smile at me and the chatterbox that I am we start chatting. They tell me that its Sunday, so they are relaxed as their husbands are sleeping and they are finished their morning chores of cooking etc. My other friend is troubled by the running children around who want to look at the pictures in the camera

We do locate a mosque, but just to find out that are friends are not in that mosque so we walk further to find a mosque called Jama Masjid. At first some people think we are crazy trying to locate Jama Masjid in Jaisalmer. Anyways we finally find our friends and rush to the hotel, as we have to leave for the desert safari at 3pm.

Still much more to write... about the next 5 days.. Watch out