Radisson Varanasi

We moved from Benaulim beach to Varca Beach so that we could visit with Divya and family. We checked into our small guest house sandwiched between the two five star hotels, Mahindra and Radisson. We paid our 500 Rs.($17CDN) per night and then went off to visit our friends paying 6000 Rupees/per night (this includes food though!). We arrived at the Radisson just as Homeopathic teacher, Jayesh Shah was finishing his last session of five. I was thrilled to run into old friends, Oded Magan (KHA I...

After watching India beat Sri Lanka in the one dayer our taxi arrived to take us to Varanasi. It looked good, new clean and very roomy compared to the buses and trains. Out of habit we reached for the seatbelts but alas nothing to clip them into despite searching high and low. Regardless we hit the road in good spirits as the afternoon turned to night. Cruising along at 100km/hr for the first time in India we thought we would make good headway. We chatted about our trip so far and then settle...

Pictures are coming in Vietnam. I will explain Later. India was a lot of fun. It was not at all what I expected it to be. Before we arrived into India I was a little nervous about the country. We were informed one day before our arrival that Veranasi, a city in India, was hit by terrorists. One temple was bombed, and the train station was bombed, and on the day of our arrival another bomb went off in that city. It is really lucky that we had not arrived one day earlier because we had trips th...

April 18th-2nd day in Varanasi Before leaving our guides last night we decided to forgo the 5AM trip to see the sunrise ceremony at the Ghats. We were both tired and Judith was a little turned off by the disorder and the filth. (There really is a lot of garbage and cow poop in the streets and around the river). So, instead, woke up early and had some time to relax before breakfast. We have a very nice room at the Radisson Hotel. The staff is very nice and the room spacious and well decorated...

Ap ril 21st. 7th installment The four of us took off at 9:30 for the 6 hour drive back to Varanasi. As we took the same road back, there was not much new to see, so, we peppered Rampal and Brisesh for information about the Indian culture. We learned that the main/strongest God for northern India is Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is usually depicted with 4 arms and a third eye between his eyebrows. We also found out that anyone can be cremated at the Ganges river, with 4 exceptions: children or teena...

April 22, 8th installment Promptly at 5:00 am Rampal, Brisesh, and I left the hotel and headed towards the Ganges river ghats. At this hour the traffic is light and the morning sky is just starting to give way to light. Judith decided to sleep in this morning. The early risers are standing in from of little sidewalk tea vendors, sipping on hot tea and chatting. Some of the less fortunate people are sleeping on the edges of the street and others are peeing on their neighbor's wall. As we arri...

From Keith:

So what are these "other things" to see and do in India? The second most visited site in India is the Hindu temple complex of the Chandelas. We puritans from the U.S.A. know this as the site of the erotic carvings (and they are very graphic). But in Hindu life, sex is just a natural part of living. And all the carvings are truly amazing.

According to our local guide in Varanasi, you don't know India until you've been here. It is impossible to accurately describe what...

This morning I woke up in Delhi, India. 6000 miles from home in a very nice Radisson Hotel near the Indira Ghandi International Airport. I have a flight from Delhi to Bangalore at 9:50am and before I went to bed last night I ordered room service breakfast on a card and hung it on my door, to be delivered at 7:30am. I woke up around 5:00am and finally got up at 6:00. Rethinking my breakfast plans, I decided it would be great to go downstairs to the restaurant and eat, so I called room service ...

What a day. We leave our Delhi hotel around 7am and begin a 19 hour detour to get to Khajuraho. The ticket's I bought on-line were not showing up with Indian Airlines, so we bought two new tickets at the airport. However, there is a unrelenting fog that has taken over areas of northern India that is causing transportation delays and putting a major dent into our visibility of national landmarks. Our plane is delayed for 3 hours, but eventually takes off. We make it as far as to Varanasi, our ...

WARNING - Picture number 07 shows a dead baby. I'd heard Varanasi was pretty intense, but didn't find that to be the case and took to it straight away. Varanasi is where many Hindus come to see out their last few years, then when they die they are cemated and there ashes swepted into the Ganges. They do about 50 or 60 cremations a day here. You can watch them but not photograph them. The riverside is lined with Ghats which are steps that lead down into the Ganges (Pic 10). We took a sunset st...