Varanasi; Our first step into India.

Varanasi.

Varanasi. When I thought of Varanasi before I had visited, it conjured up images of chaotic streets, vibrant colors and even more vibrant people and that's exactly what we got.

As our first destination in India we were both a bit apprehensive about it, especially since most people (including our guide book) had told us that Varanasi was well, how do I say it, a little (no, a lot...) crazy. There were also numerous stories in the press before our arrival about the rape of western travelers which had really scared us and in fact we were going to cancel our trip to India and try to go somewhere else but luckily for us we decided to take the chance and see the country that had intrigued me for such a long time.

On our way to Varanasi, our packed jeep made a stop at a tiny village for some of the people to have a cigarette. It was over 40 degrees celcius and our jeep didn't have any air-con or windows in the back (where we were sitting) so this rest stop was just what we needed. Once we got out a crowd formed around us. It seemed that the whole village had come out to take a look at us. It was such a crazy moment. Both myself and Jason are used to getting stared at living in Korea but these stares were so different from what we were used to. Usually it's young kids that would stare and try to talk to us in English but here in this tiny village we had old women, young boys and everything in between just stare, no words were spoken. They seemed so intrigued by this group of foreigners that had randomly stopped in their town. We stayed there for about 15 minutes trying to communicate with them and it was a wonderful introduction to the country.

Once we arrived in bustling Varanasi we realised just how chaotic it was gonig to be, there were horns beeping everywhere, so much noise!! We eventually made it to the guesthouse that we had prebooked and were thankful that we didn't have to be wandering the streets looking for accomodation. We were also very thankful that our room was very clean and more importantly had working electricity and air-con! We were the only people staying in the guesthouse during our entire stay. Mainly because it was off season and only fools would travel India in the crazy heat.

Varanasi.

 Although what we quickly realised about travelling in India in the off season is that, even though the heat can be unbearable at times, there are hardly no tourists around (Indian or foreigners) and the tourist sights (including the Taj Mahal) seemed quieter which we truly appreciated..

Sometimes our only companions on the ghats were dogs and goats.

After getting settled into our guesthouse we ventured out into the streets of Varanasi to explore. Our guesthouse was situated in a residential area and it was so awesome walking through that area and seeing the daily lives of the people around us. We also found that the streets were quite small and the cows were absolutely huge so trying to pass them in the small laneways proved difficult at times.

A woman selling fruit in a
lane way near our guesthouse.

One of the many many cows in Varanasi.

We made our way down to the rivers edge and came across a group of extremely fat bores that scared us a little, walked a little further and witnessed the beautiful sight of buffalos, children, adults and dogs bathing in the Ganges. It was such a unique feeling to be standing there watching what I had always dreamed about seeing. I truly was living out my dreams!

Jason looking out at the Ganges.

They were HUGE !

A girl watches on as people and buffalos try to cool down in the Ganges.

People splashing around in the Ganges.

That evening we went for a sunset boat ride of the Ganges, this brought us along the river for an hour and allowed us to get a closer look at the many different ghats in Varanasi, including the burning ghat.
The burning ghat is named so because this is the ghat where people are cremated and their ashes are released in to the Ganges. It is a very honorable thing to be cremated here and people come from all over India for the privilege. In the next couple of days we got closer to that particular ghat and learned more about it.

Me helping our boatman to steer.

Myself and Jason take over.

Jason taking in the beautiful buildings of Varanasi.

Varanasi during sunset...so beautiful!

...and again.

After our boat ride we managed to get swindled out of money by the boatman and then when we stood our ground against him suddenly a group of men were surrounding us. We grudgingly gave our money and left with a bitter taste in our mouth.

The next day I was pretty apprehensive about leaving the guesthouse and exploring after what had happened the night before. But what I quickly learned about India is that no matter how the day before was, you can NEVER predict how your day will turn out. We ventured out and ended up having a wonderful day exploring the back alleys of Varanasi with the cows, monkeys, pigs, water buffalos, birds, rats, people and only god knows what else. It was truly a magical experience.

A very inquisitive goat.

A man praying next to the Ganges.

One of the many beautiful buildings in a city that is
widely said to be one of the oldest cities in the world.

Man and buffalos live in harmony together.

We also made our way to the train station and booked our first Indian train journey up to Agra. We ended up having to stay in Varanasi for an extra couple of days as the trains were booked up but we didn't mind.
That evening we found out that $1,000 had been taken out of Jasons bank account in Vietnam, since we didn't even go to Vietnam on this trip we were even more surprised. But after many phone calls to Jasons bank in America we managed to get the money back luckily!

The next day we decided to go out and wander around the ghats during midday. We thought we would be ok, and Jason was, but I could barely walk, I felt faint and we had to retreat to the nearest cafe and spend a couple of hours in the shade playing cards. This Irish girl really can't handle humidity or extreme heat (especially when there's no swimming pool).

After our rest we walked onwards and suddenly found ourselves right near Manakarnika (the burning ghat) and had a man stand with us and tell us more about it. It was very interesting to hear about the different wood that the families buy for cremations, different woods cost different prices. There are also three levels at which cremations take place on the ghat. The lowest level, near the rivers edge is where people from lower castes get cremated. The next level is for the middle caste and the highest level is for the highest caste. There are bodies being burned here constantly. It was so interesting seeing the bodies wrapped up in blankets being paraded through the streets on a stretcher towards the ghat and then seeing the body being placed on the burning fire. Only male relations of the family are allowed to be at the cremation, I think this is mainly because at one stage it was popular for women to throw themselves into the flames as a declaration to the person that had died. It usually takes between 8 and 10 hours for a body to fully burn.

The smoke to the right of the photo is a cremation.

The rest of our time in Varanasi was pretty much spent lazing by another hotels pool during the height of the day and wandering around the different ghats in the evenings when it got cooler.
We really enjoyed our time in Varanasi, it was definitely an eye opener and was also the perfect way for us to jump right in to India. But we were both very excited to leave for our next destination...Agra and of course the Taj Mahal!

Accomodation:

We had pre booked in to Rahul guesthouse after reading positive reviews on trip advisor. Unfortunately an air-con room in India is usually more than double a fan room so we spent about $30 a night. But it was a beautiful room with a TV and really nice bathroom. Also during the power outages the fan continued to work which was a life saver.
We did have one small issue when we received our bill for laundry and found that we were grossly overcharged for it. But after having a discussion with the manager we managed to get the price down.

Website: http://www.rahulguesthouse.in/

Trip-advisor reviews: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g297685-d1450944-Reviews-Rahul_Guest_House-Varanasi_Uttar_Pradesh.html


Getting there and away:

From Lumbini we caught a bus that brings you near the border. We didn't prebook it and jumped on it about 8:30 am. It doesn't bring you right to the border so once we arrived at the border we had to hire a cycle rickshaw to bring us the rest of the way. All of the rickshaws seemed to have a set fee and wouldn't budge when we tried to haggle.
Once we were into India we happened to see some other foreigners standing next to a jeep. They were waiting for more passengers going to Varanasi so we agreed on an amount and it brought us into Varanasi. The journey took about 10 hours total.

Leaving Varanasi: We went to the train station on our second day in Varanasi and found the room for foreigner bookings. Trains book up early in India so try to book as early as you can. We had to wait in Varanasi for 5 days total until we found 2 2nd class air-con tickets (we had wanted 3rAC but these book up so fast that it was impossible)

Beautiful Varanasi at night time.

Lumbini, Nepal

Beautiful view of the special zone.

After our wonderful stay at Chitwan it was time to go to our final destination in Nepal, Lumbini. Lumbini is a famous town among all Buddhists around the world as it is in fact the birthplace of Buddha. We had heard some mixed reviews about Lumbini but since it's quite close to the Indian border and it made sense to spend a couple of days there, we were excited to see it for ourselves.

First though we would be taking a local bus. I loved travelling on the local buses in Nepal, they are so vibrant with colourful hangings, pictures and beads all around the ceiling. The people that got on and off the bus were equally as vibrant. There was a big group of Nepali people on this bus that were returning to their homes after spending some time at a worship house for a guru in Chitwan. They were such nice people and were so excited to chat to us.

About three or four hours into our trip we heard a smash at the front of the bus. It was quite crowded so we couldn't see properly but all of a sudden we saw the front windscreen just collapse! A rock had chipped the glass and made it just collapse. Luckily the people sitting/standing at the front didn't get hurt and in true Nepali style the bus stopped in the middle of the road, some men pushed the rest of the windscreen out onto the road and we were off again with no windscreen. I have to admit I was secretly delighted because we now had a lovely breeze coming in through the bus which helped a lot in the 40 degree heat. I was a bit worried for the driver though as we were driving on high mountain roads and the wind that was coming in was quite strong that I couldn't keep my eyes open if I looked straight on so I can only imagine how the driver felt. But this is Nepal after all so we made it to Lumbini in one piece.

Lumbini was an interesting town. It was mainly one main dirt street and was quite devoid of tourists. Lumbini isn't a place that many western tourists visit and when they do they usually stay outside of town. Since we were on a tight budget we found a little guesthouse on the main street.

The main problem that Lumbini had was that it never had any electricity. Most places in Nepal never had any electricity which was fine but it was about 40 degrees celcius when we were staying there and no electricity=no fan which means we were just dying from the heat for our entire time there.

Anyways...back to Lumbini.
What makes Lumbini so interesting is that because it is Buddhas birthplace it is very sacred for many Buddhists. The government has set off a huge plot of land near his birthplace for Buddhist countries all over the world to build temples there. So in this one small area you can go around to all of the temples and see the differences.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle around. That day we got to see Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Cambodian, Burmese, Nepalese and Laotian temples. We probably saw more but I have forgotten due to the extreme heat that we were cycling around in!

Jason cycling around Lumbini.

...and me cycling around.

This is the Chinese temple (I think)

The buildings were so beautiful and peaceful...there were
 no other tourists around.

The Burmese temple, this was my favorite,
the way it glistened in the sun was breath-taking.

I can't remember which temple this was...maybe Cambodia?!

It was great fun though and we were usually the only people in the temples. It was so interesting to see the differences among the different countries. There was also many other temples, including a Korean one, but we got lost along the way and couldn't seem to find them, we also couldn't face cycling around during midday in the heat so we decided that it was time to go and see Buddhas birthplace.

His birthplace is still intact and you can see the remains from the area. They are covered and protected by a building. It was amazing to see the exact spot and to see all of the offerings that people have left for him. It was a huge sea of red around the area that he was born due to people putting the same stuff that tikkas are made from around it.
There was also a beautiful old temple next to the building which was nice to walk around.

The group of stupas that are around Buddhas birthplace.

Jason taking in the stupas

The building where Buddhas birthplace is being preserved.

We also got to see the Ashokan pillar which has an inscription on it that is said to be the oldest in Nepal. The inscription grants Lumbini a tax free area in celebration of Buddha being born there.

Overall it was a lot of fun to cycle around to the many different temples in the serenity of the huge temple area of Lumbini. I would definitely recommend it to someone, especially if you are making the trip from Nepal to India or vice versa as it breaks the trip up a bit and the border is only about 40 minutes away. But be prepared to sweat...a lot! (that is, if you are silly and go during the hottest months of the year, like we did)

Accommodation:

Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of our guesthouse and have searched through my many cards that I have kept from our travels and don't have one from that particular one. But if you get off of the bus just in front of the main street it is the first guesthouse on the left. It was cheap enough and had a rooftop restaurant. I have also heard that the Korean temple does temple stays there which could be interesting. You can spend the night but cannot have any alcohol, smoke or play card games there and must stay quiet while there.

Getting there and away:

We booked our bus to Lumbini through our guesthouse in Chitwan. The only bus that goes from Chitwan is a local bus that leaves once daily, I think. You may be able to get tourist buses from Pokhara or Kathmandu as they are more popular places.

From Lumbini to the border we caught a tourist bus that goes there early in the morning (about 8:30 a.m) It was waiting at the top of the main street in Lumbini. It stops a couple of kilometers from the border so we had to get a cycle rickshaw to the border itself for a little bit extra. There are plenty of rickshaws waiting when the bus pulls in.

Pokhara and Chitwan.

After recieving our Indian visas in Kathmandu it was time to finally bid farewell to this city that we both fell in love with. Our next destination was Pokhara. Most people visit Pokhara  because it is the beginning point of many treks in the Annapurna range. Since we were finished with our trek we were mainly going there to relax and have a very lazy week.

Pokhara is situated on a big lake and has a couple of short day hikes nearby from which on clear days you can see the Himalayas. We took a bus there and after looking through tripadvisor, decided to stay in the Iceland guesthouse. Even though we hadn't booked, the owner happened to be at the bus station when the bus arrived and gave us a free ride to the guesthouse.

We were very impressed when we saw it, it had beautiful old rooms with high ceilings and lovely wrap around balconies. The price was a little above what we had hoped for but luckily the owner dropped it for us since we would be staying for 5 days.

Unfortunately I can't report much on Pokhara as we took those 5 days and just ate, slept and relaxed. We did go to a bat cave one day. The guide book said that over 1,200 bats live in this small cave so were looking forward to seeing that. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that it was mating season so there were about 10 bats there.

Jason crouching inside the bat cave.

The weather was mainly cloudy for our stay so we decided to not do any of the short treks as there would be no views. Pokhara was a strange little place as it seemed to be a town set up purely for foreigners. At the beginning it was nice, eating pizza and fresh bread every day but after a while we got bored and were ready for our next destination...Chitwan National Park.

There are 2 main reasons to visit Chitwan and they are rhinos and tigers. Tigers are very elusive and sleep during the day so we knew that our chances of spotting a tiger were very low but we both really wanted to see a rhino.

Once again after looking on tripadvisor (our savior while travelling) we found the Chitwan Gaida Lodge and hoped to get a room there. Before I go any further I want to say that if you ever visit Chitwan you must stay at Gaida Lodge! It was one of the best places that we stayed throughout all of our travels.

Moving on, we arrived at the bus park and Gaida Lodge had a jeep waiting and had rooms available so we jumped on. Once we arrived the staff had cold lemonades waiting for us and showed us our beautiful room. We were staying in a bungalow with a nice balcony where we could listen to all of the sounds from the jungle (that was just across the road from us). That evening we booked our activities for the next couple of days which were a canoe ride down the river, a full day jungle trek and then a half day jeep safari. We were determined to see some wildlife!!

That evening one of the guides , Bishnu, brought us and another couple out for a walk around the area, we got to see the government owned elephants. We found out that a lot of times wild elephants come into the area and impregnate the female working elephants. We also got to see some birds and rhino poo. (so close!) When we arrived back after our walk the staff were waiting for us with some cold drinks and nice cold wash towels to freshen up with. It were these little extras and the fact that the staff were incredibly friendly that made Gaida so wonderful.

I got pretty excited when I saw these buffalos...mistaking them for rhinos.

A cute baby elephant.

The next morning we were up early to begin our morning canoe ride. I was hoping to see some wildlife but I wasn't feeling lucky as I always seem to miss out on animals. For instance, while in Borneo we did a jungle stay where you are practically guaranteed to see a wild orangutan, Of course there were none to be found while we were there. While I was diving in the Great Barrier Reef all I wanted to see was a turtle, unfortunately my air ran out quickly so I had to go back up about 5 minutes before the others...in that 5 minutes they all saw a turtle. You get where I'm going with this.

Jason inside our dug-out canoe.

Myself, Jason, Kristel and Gavin set off with Bishnu and a local canoe owner and began our animal spotting. Bishnu had told us that usually the morning canoe rides are mainly about bird watching. It was so peaceful on the water and we saw so many birds, then after about 15 minutes we spotted our first crocodile, he was quite far away but we managed to swim up close to him before he went under the water. Then as we turned a corner Bishnu saw a rhino a bit of a distance away. We all fell silent as we got closer and closer to him. He was wading in the water so close to us. He noticed us but then went back to grazing on the grass nearby. We sat for about 10 minutes watching him, he was so beautiful.

One of the crocodiles that we saw.

Our first rhino!

Asian rhinos look different from African ones in that they look like they are wearing full body armour. I was so content after seeing that one that when we saw a second one I couldn't believe our luck! This one didn't like us hanging around and wouldn't keep his eyes off of us for the whole time we were there. But as we drifted away he went back to his business.

It was right around that point that we spotted another crocodile. He went under the water as we were getting close to him but while looking for him he came up right next to our boat and swam away. It was crazy seeing him so close!

After the amazing canoe ride it was time to get out of the boat and climb up into the jungle. Bishnu gathered the four of us around for a serious chat. He warned us that we must not make any noises and to always follow him and if a rhino comes and tries to charge at us to try and climb up a tree. It was at that point that I got a little scared. We were in a jungle where tigers, rhinos, sloth bears and elephants live and we were walking around with no protection whatsoever!

Jason and Bishnu just after climbing out of the canoe and ready for our jungle walk.

The first area that we were going to be walking around was a long grass area. The grass was taller than all of us and we all walked around so silently pausing every time we heard a noise. Every once in a while Bishnu would make us pause and then check the grass around us. While we didn't see any animals we did come across some tiger pee, it was quite fresh which meant that a tiger had been there maybe a couple of hours beforehand. After the long grass area we got into a wooded area, here we saw some deer, a snake and were tracking some wild buffalo but lost the track before we could find them. It was close to midday now and to say it was hot is an understatement. It was probably in the mid 30's so we found a shaded spot and ate from the delicious packed lunch that Gaida Lodge had made for us. We then continued walking until we found a watch tower. It was so hot and we didn't have any water so we decided to stay here for a couple of hours to get out of the sun and to try and spot animals from the high vantage point.

The long grass in Chitwan jungle.

Me looking out at the jungle from the watch tower, desperately trying to spot some wildlife.

Some claw marks, Bishnu thinks they are from Sloth Bears.

Our guide, Bishnu.

Jason making his way through the jungle

A huge termite hill.

These beautiful bugs were everywhere!

At this stage you are so desperate to see something that every grass that moved we were sure there was a tiger hiding behind it! Once it got a little cooler we decided to head back towards the entrance of the park which would take a couple of hours. In this time we saw some working elephants and more deer. As we were walking all of us were dreaming about getting back to the lodge so that we could have some icy cold baths. My fingers swelled up so much from the heat that I couldn't intertwine them. While getting closer to the entrance all of a sudden a massive hail storm began. I've been in lots of hail storms in Ireland but none like this! The hail was actually the size of golfballs and hurt so bad when it landed on you. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes and before we knew it we were back at Gaida with some nice cool drinks waiting for us.

The next day we had a free morning so we went down to the nearby river to watch the elephants being bathed. Then it was time for our afternoon jeep safari. Since we hadn't seen any rhinos during our jungle walk the day before, we were hoping to see some today. About 10 minutes into our drive we were all startled by a rhino right next to the road. Unfortunately I think he was a bit more startled as he immediately began charging at the jeep. Luckily he seemed to come to his senses a couple of seconds later and ran the other way hiding in the bushes. I was so scared when I saw him charging but it was incredible to get to see him so up-close. During the next couple of hours we would see 3 more rhinos, monkeys, wild peacocks and working elephants. It was an incredible experience for both of us. We were both so happy with the animals that we had seen and after hearing that the night before a tiger had come in to town and mauled 3 locals to death we weren't too upset about not seeing one.

one of the elephants getting
washed by his owner.

The next day was to be our final day in Chitwan and with no more activities booked we spent the day with Kristel and Gavin by a neighbouring hotels swimming pool playing with some Indian kids.

Leaving the river after his bath

This is a working female elephant and her baby that we saw during our jeep safari. 

A flying monkey!

A rhino in the lake, the bird was perched on top of him for the longest time.

A wild peacock.

Sunset by the river.

Chitwan was definitely one of of the highlights of our trip and would definitely reccommend visiting it for anyone that is in Nepal.

Tips:

Accommodation:

Pokhara:

We wanted a guesthouse that was close to everything but not too close and the Iceland Guesthouse was perfect for us. It is down a small peaceful road with other guesthouses there but only a 3 minute walk to lakeside.
Tripadvisor reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293891-d1964995-Reviews-Iceland_Guest_House-Pokhara_Gandaki_Zone_Western_Region.html

Phone Number:   9856031305  



Chitwan:

As I already mentioned Chitwan Gaida Lodge was an amazing little guesthouse. The staff were the most welcoming of any place either of us have ever been and always have a smile on their faces (seriously...even at 5:30am!) They also really try to create the best itinerary that suits you and try to keep the costs down as much as possible...highly recommended!

Chitwan Gaida Lodge Website:

http://www.chitwangaidalodge.com/Default.aspx

Tripadvisor reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1367591-d2083553-Reviews-Chitwan_Gaida_Lodge-Sauraha_Chitwan_District_Narayani_Zone_Central_Region.html

Activities:

We organised all of our activities through Gaida Lodge and most other guesthouses would have this facility. There is no need to book anything before arriving in Chitwan.

Gaida Lodge from our balcony

Jason enjoying a beer after our jeep safari.