A week in India and arrival in Nepal

  Pokhara, Nepal
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hello and welcome to my first entry!

I am writing this from Pokhara, Nepal's second city - not our intended first destination in Nepal but road blocks prevented our bus from getting to Kathmandu. Perhaps this has been a blessing in disguise as Pokhara is a great place: very quiet and friendly; seemingly paradise after coming from the unbelievable intensity of India.

So, after a decent enough flight in to New Delhi we arrived at our fairly grotty hostel in the main backpacker district, set in the middle of a bazaar. The place was littered with cows (often just sitting in the middle of the road obvlivious to the onrushing traffic), people selling wares, and a constant stream of horn-tooting 'auto-rickshaws'...a taste of what was to come!

We were eager to get out of Delhi but nevertheless succumbed to a city tour which was included as part of our travel arrangements to (supposedly) Kathmandu. We visited the Indian government buildings, India Gate, and a bunch of generally pretty amazing temples of various kinds:

Taj Mahal inspiration, Delhi

Lotus temple, Delhi

India Gate, Delhi

India Gate, Delhi

Due to no seats on the train, we were taken by taxi to Agra - home of the Taj Mahal. Thefirst stop here was the Red Fort,

Red Fort, Agra

Red Fort, Agra

an enormous complex of gardens and temples all surrounded by a moat and towering red brick (not the university kind!) walls. It was used, rather incongrously, as a barracks and arsenal by the British in the 1800s!

The exhaustingly busy environment of Delhi was replicated in Agra and the Taj Mahal was a perfect haven of tranquility, the gardens filled with water, green grass and songbirds.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Taj itself certainly lived up to its billing. Incredibly beautiful, its marble seemed to take on the changing colour of the sky making it appear as if almost sitting in the clouds. The throngs of tourists soon brought it back down to earth! Up close you could really appreciate the level of craftmanship that had gone into its 20 year construction with semi-precious stones inlaid into the marble to create inticate floral patterns. We had been treated to a thorough explaination of this process the night before at a marble 'factory' (read shop) that our taxi driver had dragged us to.


On we went to Varanasi, a holy city on the Ganges. We took a rather late (hardly a surpise considering it is a British legacy!) night train which in practice was much less romantic than it might sound. Very cramped bunk beds and constant distractions - mainly from Chai sellers pacing up and down the carriage - made for a fairly unpleasant trip.

Varanasi was, despite the squalour and dirt that eveloped it, a facinating and beautiful place. Unfortunately we were not there long enough to properly get to know it. However we did manage to take a night time boat trip along the numerous ghats that lead down onto the Ganjes. They have different purposes. Many are just for washing, while some have more significance as the site for marriage rituals or funeral pyres. We passed one ghat on which there must have been a dozen seperate cremations taking place; apparently it continues around the clock. Hardly suprising considering the sheer amount of serious illness that must be around the town. There were also two marriages taking place. Massive affairs with hundreds of onlookers and much music and ritual. We, along with a throng of other boating tourists watched on from the river with the ceremonies carried on above us.

Wedding ceremony, Ganjes

Ganjes boatman

And from Varanasi it was the small matter of a cramped bus trip spread over two days to Pokhara, made all the more difficult by a rather chronic bout of Delhi- (or should I say Varanisi!) belly!

It is fantastic finally be in Nepal and the contrast with India could not be greater. The people seem happier, healthier (although they are much poorer) and not constantly trying to wring you out of yet another rupee; the landscape far more pleasant: lush valleys, semi-tropical forests (we are still at quite a low altitude), steeply banked terraces...hardly any shit on the streets...

While we are staying in the tourist hub of Lakeside, we took a walk up to Pokara-proper today through tiny streets lined with quaint little wooden Newar (the dominant ethnic group in this area) houses and elaborate Hindu temples. We spent a few hours at the main temple complex the Bindyabasini mandir, mainly sitting and watching a procession of marriage ceremonies and soaking up the rather spiritual atmosphere. Unforunately we missed the animal sacrifices - the only disappointment of the day!

Temple on street, Pokhara bazaar

At Bindhyabasini mandir, Pokhara

Left aligned photo tag:

The happy couple!