Hotel Alka Varanasi

I got to Varanasi today at 16:00 (now 9:20 PM). The flight was ok, but got late by about an hour. I managed to get a flight both ways to Delhi for about $140 which is pretty cheap. The minus is that it stops in Kajuraho on the way. This is also a very famous site which will have to see next time. It has one of the oldest temples in the world with Kama Sutra style like sculptures (sex related). It is in the middle of now-where and the whole place lives on those temples. Getting to Varanasi was...

Hugh: Varanasi - our last stop in India. We booked a hotel right on Meer Ghat on the edge of the Ganges River (a ghat is a set of steps leading down into the river, and there are many of them all along the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi). The hotel is in the old part of the city, which is made up of very narrow lanes - too narrow for our autorickshaw, so we stopped about a kilometre away and were lead to the hotel by our driver. He said there was no charge for leading us to the hotel, but I ...

The 3 ½ hr scenic train ride to Varanasi passed through spectacular countryside. Golden fields were radiant in the late afternoon sun; an occasional flash of brilliance denoting a sari-clad woman tending the crops while children bask in the sun or cool off in the river, waving furiously as the train clacks by. A parched river bed scorched by the increasing temperatures indicated we were in for some hot times. For part of our journey we were engaged in discussion with a local GP from Allahabad...

Took the night train from Agra to Varanasi, which was a more pleasant experience this time. We actually had time to sleep and in between naps, we'd drink chai or eat coconuts sold by the vendors going through the train. Our guest house in Varanasi overlooks the Ganges, which is great because there's so much activity on that river. The Ganges is considered one of the most sacred rivers in India, so Varanasi is quite a holy place. The entire length of the river is lined with bathing ghats where...

Namaste! Varanasi is definitely an experience. The mighty Ganges River, or the Ganga as it's known here, runs on the east side of the town. I'll start with some facts.. -about 60,000 people take a holy dip in the river in Varanasi each day -in this same area 30 large sewers are continuously discharging into the river -the water is so septic that no dissolved oxygen exists -samples from the river show the water has 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria per 100mL of water...in water that is safe ...

So I was pretty glad to get out of Delhi and onto somewhere a bit
different. I had been warned, however, that Varanasi was one of the
worst places in India for touts and general harassment. Plus, it was
apparently pretty dangerous to be out after 9pm. So I was prepared for
the worst, and organised to be picked up from the station by the hotel
to avoid the rickshaw drivers!

I actually really liked the city and didn't find the touts a
problem at all. Not as persistent...

Sorry, it feels like we haven't written for ages, and we've seen a lot since we last blogged. But we've been either in areas with no internet (or even decent phones - e.g. Andaman Islands), or we've been on boats, planes or trains etc. Anyway, since we're in Varanasi now, I thought I'd write about this place first and then maybe catch up on the stuff we've done in between later.

Varanasi is one of the holiest sites for Hindus, and supposedly the oldest living city in the world, altho...

Aqui, la Pato, se aventuro a cruzar a India solita... el aeropuerto, control de aduanas y conduccion, me lo tome con humor... y la primera impresion de la India... La ciudad, Benares, indescriptible. Las calles abarrotadas de gente y el trafico pegandose con las vacas. El hotel, basico, en el casco antiguo, en una de las miles de callejuelas llenas de mierda... voy a sacar dinero y el cajero no funciona y, de vuelta, me pierdo y se me hace de noche. Queria morirme! Al final encuentro el hotel...

December 17 - Getting to Varanasi While visiting a zoo, have you ever wondered how the animals feel about being watched all day long? Well, now we know. Not only were we watched at the train station. Gerald and I attracted a lot of interest on the train as well. On the Indian trains, Indian Railways provides travellers in Two-tier a/c (2AC) with sheets (remember the unidentifiable stains?), a blanket, a towel and a pillow. (Two-tier a/c means that when the beds are made, there are two tiers o...

Rebecca: Hello from India! We finally arrived in our last country, the hippie travel mekka, the country of crazy travel tales, the mystical, the fantastic, the exotic India. Thomas: And indeed, it is the most colourful and vibrant country, we visited so far. We only arrived yesterday but these yesterday and today yields enough material to make a first entry about India. By the way, I do not have diarrhea, yet. R: Getting to India was under the Motto how many mistakes can I make in one day. Mi...