This is a special edition post to commemorate the first 10,000 clicks landmark of this blog! I am delighted to see that this link has been already loaded 10,200 times at the time of writing this post. Considering not much have happened since August, I decided to create a post from an epic trip back in 2009 when we embarked for a journey through northern India and Nepal. The plan was to travel from New Delhi to Varanasi and then to Nepal. From Pokhara to the Himalayan Annapurna trail, then Kathmandu, then fly back to New Delhi and back to Europe. All this in about 17 days..
Tour map
We arrived in Delhi in immense heat, and considering I had left London only few hours ago with cold and rain pouring, it was a kind of a shock to get off the plane and feel the 40oC heat on my skin. We met our friend Aris who was living in Delhi already 6 months teaching at a local school. Knowing the city, he suggested few site seeing tours and monuments to visit. We got our tuk-tuks and got submerged in the mad mad traffic of New Delhi. We visited the famous Bahai Lotus temple which people comparing it with Sydney's Opera house. From there we visited a world heritage site, the Humayun tombs, built around 1,600AD. Someone could sense the Persian influence to the architecture. The complex was large and it took us few hours to explore it in full.
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| New Delhi_Bahai Lotus temple |
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| New Delhi_Isa Khan's tomb |
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| New Delhi_Isa Khan's mosque |
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| New Delhi_Humayun tomb |
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| New Delhi_Humayun tomb interior |
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| New Delhi_Dealing with tuk-tuk drivers |
We left New Delhi to start our much anticipated planned journey. We got tickets for the train to Varanasi and the same day we were already on board. The train journey supposed to take around 11 hours, but in fact took 12 and a half hours to arrive to our destination. That was a train ride I will never forget. A low speed 'sleeper' train, with fans for air conditioning and some missing windows. We could go between the wagons and smoke at the open doors. I could actually sit at the doors while the train was running and stare at the night sky. A trip to remember...
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| New Delhi_Train to Varanasi |
Arrivied in Varanasi at morning and we embarked for the difficult task to find a decent place to stay. It took us about 2 hours to find something. All the guest houses we saw were at an awful state. Every single we visited was worse than the previous others. And with the immense sun above us it was not a pleasant experience. Luckily enough we found 'Mama'. A nice Sikh lady which offered us her large house to accommodate us. Thankfully, she also provided us with food as the local restaurants and street food sellers were serving mainly fried unidentified objects...
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| 'Mama' and her husband |
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| Varanasi_Lunch at Mama's |
We visited the silk district, a place were saris and clothing and other fabrics were made. Mama's cousin showed us around. Then of course he took us to his shop trying to sell his stuff. Interested tour, we bought some bargains and continued to river Ganga.
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| Varanasi_Saris on sale |
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| Varanasi_Workers at the silk district |
Varanasi, also known as Benares, is one of the oldest, constantly inhabited cities on earth. It widely known as the holy city of India. Pilgrims from all over India come here to take a bath at the holy waters of the river Ganges. Hindus consider the water of the Ganges both pure and purifying, despite the fact that it is considered as one of the five most polluted rivers in the world.. By bathing here however, Hindus are not necessarily attempt to remove physical dirt but symbolic 'dirt'. Its waters wipe away the sins of the bathers, not just of the present but of a lifetime.
The city is built at the east river bank. Everything happens at the east bank of the river, bathing, ceremonies, cremations and any kind of spiritual activity. We spent hours waking along its banks, the so called ghats.
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| Varanasi_East of the river Ganges |
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| Varanasi_Lazy cows |
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| Varanasi_Cobra charmer |
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| Varanasi_Local hucksters |
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| Varanasi_Vishwanath temple |
Next day morning some (brave) of us, woke up early to take a row boat and experience the sunrise and its smooth light over the ghat buildings. I say brave because what we were about to experience was not for the faint hearted. Paddling through the dirty holy waters, we saw cremations and groups of people silently mourning for their dead. The dead were being wrapped in cloth and covered with wood for burning. At the cremations points, the burning ghats, you could smell the burning human flesh. Those who are lucky enough to be cremated at the banks of Varanasi are granted instant salvation. Salvation can also be achieved even if death has occurred elsewhere, considering the ashes of the burned body are thrown in the waters of Ganges.
It was personally difficult to digest all this. How can you consider its water pure when the large concentrations of coliform bacteria are almost 120 times more than the official permissible? How can you have people died from leprosy, bitten by snakes, people who committed suicide or pregnant women thrown unburned(!) into the river to disintegrate? It is a fine line between reality and spirituality. There is no clean or not clean for the Hindus, there is holy or not holy. And this applies not only for the Ganges waters. I will avoid writing about the hygienic standards at the city, as it can become very uncomfortable reading about it...
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| Varanasi_Sunrise at the river Ganges |
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| Varanasi_Beautiful Hindu architecture |
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| Varanasi_Holy dip |
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| Varanasi_Ahilya ghat |
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| Varanasi_Manikarnika burning ghat |
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| Varanasi_Another burning ghat |
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| Varanasi_Paddling through the 'holy' waters |
We tried to discover a bit more of Varanasi, apart from the Ganges. It is a busy city, flooded with tourists, pilgrims, locals, motorbikes, cars, tuk-tuks, pedestrians, cows and many other types of paraphernalia. We hired a driver and went to the outskirts of the city to visit a Buddhist temple at Sarnath. Despite the Hindu population, there is a growing number of Buddhists in the region. We visited the monastery and... at last some peace!
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| Varanasi_Downtown |
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| Varanasi_Buddhist temple at Sarnath |
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| Varanasi_Novice monks praying |
After few days of experiencing the extremes of Varanasi we took another train to go north. Our train arrived three hours late, at 3.30 in the morning. Three hours at Varanasi train station that I will never forget for reasons I will not expand here... Next day morning we arrived at the city of Gorakhpur at the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh region, near Nepal. From there we hired the most dangerous driver in the world to takes us to the border. After playing with death several times on the way and a break down, we finally arrived at the border of Nepal.
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| On the way to the border |
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| Still going... |
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| India ends- Nepal starts |
From the moment we stepped in Nepal soils everything suddenly became quieter and peaceful. Someone could sense that this is not India anymore, even if it was just on the other side of the border. The people were more relaxed, the mess was less and our driver was driving the van as normal.. After few hours driving, we left behind the low plains and ascended to the foothills of the mighty Himalayas.
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| Peace and Love |
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| Nepal_On the way to the Himalayas |
We stayed in Pokhara, a popular tourist destination in central Nepal. We wanted to trek the Annapurna trail. We stayed few days to get some rest and explore this beautiful area. Pokhara has taken its name from the beautiful lake located next to the city. Pokhara is the second most populous city in Nepal. Here you can find anything you wish as a tourist, good accommodation, good food, places to go out, other international tourists and generally a nicely bustling environment. Pokhara is situated at the foothills of three (out of the ten) highest peaks in the world within 50kms north from the city. Most tourists, like us, coming here to depart, or return, from the Annapurna trail.
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| Peaceful Pokhara (Phewa) lake |
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| Pokhara_Canoes for hiring |
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| Jewelry on wheels |
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| Herd on a bus! |
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| Nepal_Local kids |
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| Pokhara_Photo with a Newari lady |
The team separated here as some were not up to trekking, they preferred to see other landmarks and so we decided to meet back again in Kathmandu. For us there would be four days of trekking passing through beautiful landscapes and the Himalayan villages of the region. We booked our tour, hired a local tour guide to come with us, paid the fees, bought walking poles and embarked to the mountains.
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| Annapurna_Bhurjung river |
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| Annapurna_Carrom playing |
The first day was mainly easy walk next to the Bhurjung river. We met some nice people on the way and we were greeted with Namaste! So peaceful and easy going. At some point it started raining and in order to reach our first destination before dark we decided to get the small local bus. We actually climbed and went over the top of it but when rain came back again, the driver stopped and we went back inside. Good fun but not with rain.
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| Annapurna_Newari girl with her brother |
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| Annapurna_..and mum |
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| Annapurna_Local 'shop' |
We arrived at Tatopani village which literally means hot water. This is because there is a hot spring where locals and tourists taking a warm bath in its waters. We didn't have time as early next day morning we had to get going. We had requested to fit a six day trek into four days so we were mostly on the move. Which means we were exhausted most of the time. The second day it was all uphill. We did 25 kms uphill. We climbed from 2,100 altitude at Tatopani village up to 3,150 at Ghorepani. It was one of the most exhausting activities I have done in my life, and we all agreed that we regretted doing it in shorter time.
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| Annapurna_Hot springs at Tatopani village |
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| Annapurna_Happy to be here |
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| Annapurna_Himalayan village
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| Never Ending Peace And Love |
The food was basic and supplies limited. I remember, upon our arrival wherever we were staying for the night, they were asking us what to eat so they can start preparing it about 6pm to eat at 9. I also remember seeing someone picking up a chicken from his backyard and taking into the kitchen for 'preparation'. Overall, I don't want to complain, we had enough and good food to keep us going...
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| Annapurna_Alu, naan and dal |
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| Annapurna_Terraced rice fields |
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| Annapurna_Typical Nepali house interior |
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| Annapurna_Tough trail uphill |
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| Annapurna_Buffalos |
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| Annapurna_A welcome from the Maoists |
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| Annapurna_Ghorepani village |
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| Annapurna_Take me with you plz |
During our stay in Tikhedhunga, our guide called in Pokhara only to discover that the Maoists had close the roads due to a (usual) strike. Which means our driver could not come and pick us up from the meeting point, Bheni village. We were a little bit concerned as to how we are going to go back to Kathmandu to catch our flight on time. Luckily enough, the strike ended next day and we were able to move on with our schedule back to Pokhara.
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| Stop over at Tikhedhunga village |
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| Annapurna_Prayer flags |
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| Annapurna_Fellow trekkers |
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| Annapurna_Happy kids |
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| Annapurna_Shops at Bheni village |
Upon or return, we got another small tourist van from Pokhara to Kathmandu. It took about 8 hours to do a trip of 200km! The main national road is small way with lots of turns, and trucks and buses passing so close. Numerous accidents happening every day. We even saw few... We were stopped for more than an hour at a massive traffic where non of the vehicles was moving. After an exhausting trek, we had an exhausting trip to the Nepal's capital Kathmandu. We finally arrived well, in one piece...
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| Kathmandu_Back to 'civilisation' |
Kathmandu is one of the most fascinating cities I ever visited. Located at the Kathmandu valley at an elevation of 1,400m asl. Hinduism and Buddhism are equally practised and respected here. It is definitely a spiritual city with plenty of temples, stupas and Buddha statues spread across the valley. The infrastructure, despite that it's the best in Nepal, it is still pretty basic. Load shedding (power cuts) occurs very often and the traffic is immense. I loved Kathmandu though. I met my ex class mate in Stockholm who is from here and he gave me an insight of the city. He said, there are a lot of problems to be solved but people are generally happy.
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| Kathmandu_Downtown
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| Kathmandu_Sadhus at Durbar square |
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| Kathmandu_Temples in Patan |
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| Kathmandu_Newari architecture
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| Kathmandu_Trans-mission impossible... |
We saw a Tibetan protest in one of the busy streets of touristic Thamel. You see, unlike within China, here in Nepal Tibetans can freely express their views against the Chinese regime occupying their region. It was peaceful, however Nepali army police had a close eye of what was happening.
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| Kathmandu_Tibetan protesters |
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| Kathmandu_Riot police |
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| Kathmandu_Royal gardens |
After exploring the most important sites in Kathmandu we flew back to New Delhi. Another two days there and then we got in a plane to return to Europe. The views from the air plane over the Annapurna range were majestic! We read in our guide that we should sit at the right hand side of the plane in order to have the views of the Annapurna and so we did! When we arrived in Delhi, we had promised ourselves to leave moustaches so we can 'blend in' with the locals easier(!) Well, we hoped so..
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| Annapurna from above |
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| New Delhi_Moustache boyz |
This journey had almost everything. Cultural and natural beauties, easy and difficult times (difficult especially related with our suffering stomachs). I personally learned a lot for the Hindu culture despite the few days we travelled. I fell in love with Nepal and it was then when I decided that I really wanted to come back here and work and help those disadvantaged communities. It was a start of my pursuit that ended up by completing the Light4Life school project in the remotes of Gorkha region (see posts from May'10). Since then I feel a great sympathy for Nepalis and a never ending desire to come back here. It is the land of the greatest mountain range on earth, the land of Never Ending Peace And Love.
Be well
Nektarios~
