Varanasi - Evening on the Ganges

The Itinerary:

"Feb 7: A city tour of Varanasi that includes visits to the numerous temples that dot the banks of the holy river. You will be able to walk through the narrow lanes and stop by at the bazaars to have a look at, among other things, the world famous Banaras silks. Sunset cruise on the Ganga — cruise on the Ganga at sunset and have a grandstand view to witness to the ancient prayer and oil lamp ceremony, as hundreds of lamps are sent floating on the holy river as the sun sets."

After a wild drive through Varanasi traffic, we walk through crowded streets to the banks of the Ganges river. There our guide secured a skiff where we row along the waterfront.



The ancient history of the city and its spiritual significance to Buddhism, Hindu, Jains, and Islamic religions are important context to the cacophony of sights, sounds and smells that assault the senses in this place. Our guide Dharum, does his best to provide every bit of that context over the next few hours.

It will take a while to digest what we experienced here. This will have to be a placeholder post as I don't have time to do it justice or even sort through the hundreds of photos. In the meantime, a selection of photos and impressions from the our evening on Mother Ganga.


The city is primarily Hindu. These pictures focus on two important aspects of Hindu spiritualism on the river.

The open air cremation of bodies on the river at this particular ghat occurs 24 hours a day seven days a week, and accommodates over 300 bodies a day. Because Hindus believe that cremation and burial in Varanasi on the Ganges releases the soul from the cycle of life and death, bodies are transported here from all over India.

After drifting past the cremation site, we returned to the ghat where we left, just in time to watch the Dev-Dipavali Mahotsava - a spectacular celebration of life and spirituality that takes place every night on the river. It is an energetic celebration and thanksgiving for every single day of life. the spectacular is repeated every night of the year on the river. The best way I can describe it is one part Mass, one part tent revival meeting, and one part part Busby Berkeley musical.

I recorded much of the ceremony on a digital video cassette to better capture the hypnotic sound and spiritual stagecraft with better fidelity. I'll post an edited version here eventually, but in the meantime this clip from my point and shoot will have to do.

India Date: February 7, 2010 11:00 PM

Varanasi - The Nadesar Palace Hotel

The Itinerary:

"Feb 7: Delhi - Varanasi. Board the mid-morning flight to Varanasi. Check in to your hotel upon arrival. There is a break for lunch."

The Nadesar Palace Hotel property was built by the East India Company in 1795 and the Maharaja Prabhu Narain Singh used it as his city residence in 1899. More recently, the Taj Hotel group restored it and converted it to a small hotel. While the hotel is new, and landscaping is still underway, I think we are going to enjoy this brief taste of Colonial era comfort. The rooms are named for famous visitors who have stayed at the palace. Our room is the "Pandit Nehru Suite", named for the first India prime minister, who was on the guest register in 1952.

Varanasi is one of the prime photo destinations for Sigrid this trip, and there are not many decent hotel options, so we burned some travel points for an extra night.

Our tour operators get us to the Delhi airport and meet us in Varanasi. Surprisingly, we may have packed too much.

The hotel

Our room

Lunch on the Veranda

Dinner Selections:

Appetizer

"Maharajah Tali"

Black Lentils were incredible

Lamb Kebob

Naan

India Date: 07-Feb-2010 2:00 PM

Delhi Power Tour

Our last full day in Delhi. Today's Itinerary:

"Start your exploration of India with a city tour of Old Delhi that includes visits to the Jama Masjid (1650 AD) which is the largest mosque in India, and the amazing Red Fort (1639-48) which was the seat of the Moghul Empire for more than 250 years. Enjoy a rickshaw ride along the alleys of the ancient bazaar at Chandni Chowk. You also visit the cremation site of Mahatma Gandhi (Raj Ghat). Enjoy a city tour of New Delhi that begins with a drive past Safdarjang's Tomb (1753 AD) while driving to the Qutab Minar (1193 A.D.) which is a striking medieval tower of victory of Persian architectural style and is 239 ft high. Within the Qutab complex, amidst the ruins of Quwat-ul-Islam mosque, stands the Iron pillar which has stood the vagaries of weather and has not rusted over 1500 years. Later, visit the Tomb Moghul Emperor Humayun and then drive through Lutyens New Delhi which includes the Embassy area (Diplomatic enclave), Government buildings, India Gate, a golden domed Sikh Temple (Bangla Sahib Gurudwara), Birla Temple and Connaught Place, which is New Delhi’s main shopping area."

Our guide Shurveer must have wondered about the the number of sites on the day's itinerary. He diplomatically asked whether we wanted to spend more time at any one site or just see how much we could get it. Sigrid opted for the "get as much in as possible", and we were off and running. I am familiar with the "Power Tour" concept, but am usually on the "giving" rather than "receiving side".









Editors Note: A lot of these are on "must see" list for tourists, so we knocked them out in a day. I am running behind on the blog, so posted a selection of pics, and will add captions later.

Editors Note 2: I am actually posting from Varanasi - I woke up at 4:00 AM to watch the Superbowl. It is not on. Soccer, tennis, cricket and basketball are all on, but no Superbowl. Go figger. I can see from the Intertubes that the Colts are winning 10-3. I'd miss the second half anyway. Heading out for the dawn rituals on the Ganges River.

Old Delhi

After breakfast, we meet our guide Shurveer (pictured in the Rickshaw above) and a driver for a day long tour of Old Delhi. The description of the morning activity from the itinerary:

"Start your exploration of India with a city tour of Old Delhi that includes visits to the Jama Masjid (1650 AD) which is the largest mosque in India, and the amazing Red Fort (1639-48) which was the seat of the Moghul Empire for more than 250 years. Enjoy a rickshaw ride along the alleys of the ancient bazaar at Chandni Chowk."

It was a power tour covering a lot of ground. The Rickshaw ride through the market was amazing. I'll add another post later to cover the rest of the tour, but that ride deserved a post of its own. We felt sorry for the guy who got the short straw, and had to pull the two big ass Americans through the frenetic market.

I was fascinated by the chaotic spaghetti-like maze of electric power lines filling the narrow overhead space between and crawling up the sides of the old buildings.

It reminded me of this old etching from turn of the century New York City.


Delhi time: 06-Feb-2010 12:00 PM

Red Fort at Night

On the recommendation of a local, we arrange to attend the Sound and Light show at The Red Fort this evening. Our cab driver Lala gets us there and back. There were a few glitches - the concierge told us the show was at 7:30, but actually the English Show started at 8:30 while the Hindi Show started at 7:00. We were late for the Hindi show, and early for the English. Since Lala was waiting to meet us at 8:30, we decided to catch the Hindi.

It was not what we expected, although I am not sure exactly what we were expecting - maybe lasers and music. The actual show comprised of sitting in a courtyard inside the Red Fort compound, among a variety of buildings and structures. The buildings surrounding us light up in various colors and talk to us and each other from around the court yard.

Since it was all in Hindi, we had no idea what the buildings were telling us. At one point they seemed to be laughing at us.


Still, the cab ride over and back was worth the price of admission,. Lala got us there and back to the hotel without incident. I would never attempt driving in Delhi.

A Hendricks Martini at Rick's Cafe helped settle the nerves.


Delhi Time: 05-Feb-2010 11:30 PM

Khan Market

The Khan Market is an easy walk from the hotel. The concierge cautioned us that the "touts" would tell us that the market is closed. It was a useful warning. All along the walk we had jitney drivers and pedestrians greet us, pace us, and offer advice. "The Khan market is closed. It is a holiday, they are closed today." "They only have restaurants open, I will take you a real Indian bazaar." "You are staying at the hotel? I work at the hotel! The Khan market is closed today. I will show you a better market." The closer we got to the market, the more strident they became -"You must turn here! Not that way! This way! The market is this way!" Unsurprisingly, we later learned they are paid a commission for bringing tourists to the non-Kahn Market shops.

We stayed the course and made it to the market. The market was not closed.

Sigrid purchased a pashmina from OCM Suitings and I picked up a blank book made of handmade paper with an enameled cover from Handpaper World. It is a cool store. Even the receipt was printed on handmade paper and the shopping bag was fashioned from recycled newspaper. I'll use it to keep a trip journal as I have in other travel adventures(while the the intertube is available at our current hotel - we won't have it for many parts of the trip).

Scenes from the Khan Market:



Delhi Time: 05-Feb-2010 6:00 2:00 PM

New Delhi

View from our room

Arrived late last night. We flew on a Continental 777 co-share with United. While Continental does a better job than United, flying 14 hours in economy is still flying14 hours in economy. It is not made easier on a full flight with an unhappy 14 month old across the aisle. Just something to be endured. Sigrid handled the flight with stoicism and grace for at least 12 of the 14 hours. Our tour representative found us at the airport and we made it the hotel and crashed

We'll be relaxing, recovering, and exploring the hotel grounds and neighborhood this morning.

Hotel pool.

Breakfast

Breakfast buffet comes with the room and includes traditional English, Japanese, and Indian selections. Sigrid went with an omelette, while I focused on Indian specialties. It was good, although I was not sure what I was eating. This is a top quality hotel, so we' threw caution to the wind and enjoyed the fruits, yogurts, chutneys, and fresh squeezed juice. So far so good.

Note: The blog posts are posting using San Francisco time/date. Undecided how to handle this - right now I'll just all the add the local time in the body of the post.

Delhi Time: Friday 05-Feb-10 10:00 AM

Newark airport

On our way. The long leg ahead. This is it for the Pre, at least until we are in WiFi range.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

SFO

First of 3 airports. Heading to Newark.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

India Tour

Sigrid and I will be spending the the next three weeks or so touring northern India and Nepal. As usual, this blog will serve as journal and photo album, subject to the limitations of internet access, technology, time and patience. We were calling this trip "From Timbuktu to Kathmandu" as we were planning on traveling with Wes and Susan, friends we met on our West Africa tour. Unfortunately that plan did not work out, but it is a big world and much to see and we will find another place and time to tour with our favorite travel buddies (um... Stan & Lisa - we of course mean co-favorites). Heading to the airport soon - looking forward to getting there, but not looking forward to the next 24 hours or so of airports and economy class seats. Stay tuned.