Day 45 - The journey back home

Emily and her house-mate Alex met us outside the hotel at the agreed time of 8:00am. Up Spencer St, Emily had booked cafe where we enjoyed a lovely breakfast – very expensive compared to India! Luckily it was Emily’s shout.

After breakfast we said our good-byes and headed to Southern Cross for the next train to Bendigo. We didn’t wait long at all before we could board the train and it left for home. My very first impression was the clean air in regional Victoria. You could actually see it, or ‘not’ see it in fact. Back in Bendigo we didn’t wait long for the No. 54 bus to Maiden Gully. We boarded and were surprised to see one of the same passengers on board who we had caught the into Bendigo with seven seeks ago. She remembered us and asked all about our holiday on the journey out to Pioneer Dve.

We hopped off the bus near Ninnes Crt and wheeled our bags for the last 150m of our Indian Adventure to the back gate and home. 

Day 44 - The journey back to Melbourne

It took us about 5 hours or so to get to Kuala Lumpur International Airport where we waited for another 2 hours for our connecting flight MH129 to Melbourne – an eight hour flight. The wait time for our connecting flights both to India and back home again were spot on. Not so long that we got bored and more tired and not so short that we had the pressure of time upon us while we navigated a foreign airport in the “middle of the night”.

Fortunately, the row behind us was completely empty when MH129 lifted off so the couple next to us moved there and we all had plenty of room for the flight. The service on our Malaysia Airlines flights has been very good, the check-in baggage problems notwithstanding. We’d happily fly with them again. The  price was sensational at the time of booking in June 2022 - $1250 person. The last cheap flight we’ll see for quite a while I reckon.

The flight landed more or less on time at Melbourne airport at about 8:30pm. It was Thursday still but we’d been traveling for a very long time, all the time the wall clock adding more hours to the journey – 5.5hrs all up. The Australian Customs process is really good and modern. It’s all done without much human interfacing at all. We’d declared a couple of wooden souvenirs so we were directed through that aisle once we’d collected our luggage. The girl behind the desk was very good. We showed her the items and she just waved us through without any further questions asked. It was a breeze!

The Skyways bus arrived before too long and with our pre-purchased tickets at the ready on the phone we boarded and made our way into town. Once again we stayed at the Great Southern Hotel in Spencer St where we were presently surprised with a room upgrade, and a very nice room it was. After a quick bite to eat we hit the sack for a few hours sleep before our breakfast meeting with Emily. 

Day 43 - Happy Holi

Today we were lucky enough to still be in India to help celebrate one of the most important days of the year in the Hindi calendar – the festival known as Holi. It celebrates the divine love of the god Radha and Krishna. The day, also known as the Festival of Colours, signifies the triumph of good over evil. It’s held early in spring each year but, like a lot of things, was canceled by Covid-19 for the past two so the Indian population were really keen to make up for lost time.

Preparation for us started a week beforehand in Pushkar when, on advice, we acquired some clothing the we “don’t want to keep”. Our tour leader in conjunction with other Intrepid leaders and a couple from rival firm G Adventures had arranged for us to celebrate the day on the rooftop of our hotel in Karol Bagh.

Sadly, Eric and Irene couldn’t join us when we arrived upstairs just after 10:00am as they were already on their way to Kathmandu and Goa, respectively. So it was up to Anna, Cheryl, Kerry, Anant and me to represent the North India Revealed crew. In the next 30  minutes more people arrived and the Festival of Colour truly got underway. Plates of powder, in a fabulous array of bright colours, were placed around the rooftop and, on a whim, people were throwing it over each other. Clothes, hair, face, arm legs, it didn’t matter. Wherever you could “colour” someone you did and you could be “coloured” very easily as well. Everyone, young and old, got right into the spirit of the occasion. The bar was opened so people celebrated even harder. Holi music was playing so a bit of dancing happened sporadically too. The tour leaders of the respective tours there made sure that everyone was involved. When the powder was mixed with water chaos ensued as people tried to avoid getting a multi-coloured drenching. Everyone failed.

The hotel provided a really nice Indian lunch to give the revelers a bit of additional stamina. A few hours later the hose appeared on and was turned on all the party-goers to cool them down and maybe start the clean-up process. All it really did fore most was meld the colours all into a shade of mostly pink or purple. A couple of girls from another group over-indulged at the bar which made for a very sorry sight but most people didn’t overdo it.

We exited the scene after the group photo was taken and went for a shower to try to clean ourselves up a bit before we head to the airport later in the day. Well, there was some impression made on “the colours” in the shower but the result was far from perfect. A thousand thank-yous to Cheryl and Anna for lending up their shower and sharing their room for our last few hours in India. It was a god-send! We’d already checked-out so we were in a bit of a pickle. Funny thing is, if we’d arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport covered in all sorts of bright colours I doubt we’d have hardly raised an eyebrow amongst the locals.

After our clean-up we just killed some time in the 3rd floor foyer with a coffee and some chat with a couple of German girls just about to start their Indian adventure. Just before 7:00pm we moved to the front lobby, our driver arrived and we headed for the airport. Traffic was relatively light, our driver was a great conservationist. We covered the usual topics like cricket and politics and also got some insight into his personal position. He was from up north in the foothills of the Himalaya and had been in self-imposed exile from his family for about eight years, driving cabs just to earn a rupee to support them. The tone and depth of our conversation suggested that driving cabs was well below his capabilities, but I reckon that’s probably the case for many cab drivers the world over.

We happily tipped our driver 500 rupees and proceeded through the doors into the Departures hall. The lines for check-in were numerous and very long. By the way, to get into the Departure hall you’ve gotta show your passport and your boarding pass to an armed law enforcement official (not sure if he was police or army). The same was the case at the Kochi International Airport. After mistakenly standing in the wrong line (Thai Airways, which was going nowhere ‘cos check-in hadn’t opened yet) we moved to the Malaysia Airlines queue. Only  ten minutes lost. That queue moved marginally faster. It split into three separate queues closer to the desk and of course ours was the slowest. It’s frustrating seeing people who were behind you get processed before you. We had plenty of time and our turn came with still two hours to go before departure. The chap behind the desk looked at our luggage and declared that our ticket did not include any check-in, just like his colleague in Melbourne seven weeks ago. I disagreed and asked him to check again, which he did and found the record we was looking for. Thanks to Leanne at Bendigo Travelcentre for getting this sorted. She’d provided me with plenty of evidence so I was ready for a fight (again) but thankfully that was avoided. The rest of check-in went very smoothly and quickly. Our two checked-in cases weighed 16kgs each. Cheryl had loaned us her portable baggage scales back at the hotel so I was confident that our weight wouldn’t be a problem, after all the actions we’d taken during the last six weeks to keep on top of it.

Sailing through Customs few found a KFC for dinner and a nice place for a good coffee then headed for the boarding lounge to wait our turn. On time and just after 11:00pm flight MH191 rolled onto the runway and we were off.

Farewell India! We’ve had one fantastic time with you!

 

Day 42 - Back in New Delhi

At 8:00am Anant woke the sleeping travelers to tell us that we were just 15 minutes from our destination in New Delhi. We hurriedly put our bags together and we were lined up in the aisle ready to alight just as the train came to a stop. Unlike on other occasions we had no problems getting off the train as this was the end of the line. Incidentally, Varanasi was the start of the train’s journey so, similarly, we had no dramas there either.

Private transport awaited us at the Delhi train station so we were quickly on our way back to Hotel Perfect in Karol Bagh, the same place we left three weeks ago. Even though today is a normal work day I was astounded at the relative lack of traffic on the roads. One might almost be tempted to call it quiet-ish. Our old friends at the hotel greeted us before we headed upstairs to a much-needed shower and change of attire. A short time later we gathered and walked to a very nearby cafe for breakfast. At midday we started our walk through Old Delhi, which necessitated a trip on the New Delhi Metro prior to its commencement. Karol Bagh station is only five minutes walk from the hotel. Like the Metro itself, it’s new and clean and modern. I can’t comment on the ticketing system other than to say that we each wound up with a little token in our hand courtesy of Anant’s acquisition of our tickets on our behalf. Entry to the platforms is guarded by the typical gates that retract when the token is place near the sensor. Exit is gained at the end of your journey by depositing the token in a slot at the gate, never to be seen again. We changed line a couple of times with no dramas, the trains were on time and also clean and new. I’m really impressed with the Delhi Metro.

Our first port of call was an old mosque built by Shah Jahan, the same chap who built the Taj Mahal. While there is some marble there it’s constructed mainly of red sandstone. A large, shallow square pool stands at the centre of a massive stone courtyard. Being a place of worship we were obliged to remove our shoes and wear leg coverings. The red sandstone bricks were bloody hot on the feet so after a few “selfies” with some young lads and lasses we retreated to the shade to appreciate this fine building. The number of young men and women who are delighted when you agree to posing in a “selfie” with them is astounding. Everyone leaves with big smile on their faces, even the tourists. Can’t be anything wrong with that!

Shoes back on we walked through some narrow lanes, admiring the work of the craftsmen who a long tine ago built what were once magnificent houses but are now in need of much TLC. Down more lanes and alley-ways we eventually found our way to Chandni Chowk in the heart of old Delhi. This was once where the central market was but it is much more sanitised now. Not completely, but the roads we walked earlier in the afternoon are much more authentic. It’s strange how the efforts of city councils and developers to bring the life and colour of a given area in a city to more people usually end up sucking the like and colour out of the place. A short cycle-rickshaw ride later we were at the bottom of Chandri Chowk and into the spice stalls of the adjoining street where there was way more life and colour and the wonderful smells of all sorts of spices emanating from the countless little shops along the way. Quickly we visited one of those little shops to add a few more items to the ones be bought in south India.

Back at Chandri Chowk we boarded the cycle-rickshaws again to visit a Sikh temple towards the other end. This was not a temple as you might imagine it. It was quite a modern building that certainly served as a place of worship for the followers of the faith (and there were lots of then there) but it also seemed  to have some sort administrative function and it had a huge kitchen and dining room where the faithful and the non-believers alike could get a meal for free. The central part of the building, the temple space is gloriously decorated with an elaborate, covered golden “altar” at one end and ample room for those who wish to pray. Visitors, like us, are able to participate in the proceedings on the main floor. So we sat for fifteen minutes of “quite” reflection and listed to the guru speak (not in English, mind you). Rested and calmed we visited the aforementioned kitchen where a large group of women were making mountains of chapati bread. Our girls were invited to join in, so they did much to the other women’s delight.

Buy now the group were all pretty tired so there was no disapproval when Anant suggested we catch the Metro back to Karol Bagh. Back in our neighborhood some wandered off for a last look at the streets and we wandered of in search of a cold drink which we found and finished off in our hotel room while waiting for dinner time.

Day 41 - Sunrise on the Ganges

At 4:30am the alarm sounded, I got out of bed, switched in the hot water heater and went back to bed for ten minutes. Across all of India, hot water is a hotel room is a difficult to find commodity. For us, hot showers in the morning versus cold or lukewarm showers has been a 50/50 proposition. Quite often one can get hot water if one runs the shower for five to ten minutes before you want to shower. Of course, this is very hard to do for Australians who have been very water conscious all their lives, especially in the last fifteen years.

So, today’s shower was another lukewarm one. By 5:10am we were in the hotel lobby ready for a journey back to the ghats and to board a boat for a sunrise cruise down the Ganges. By the time we arrived the daily morning worship ritual was in full swing – at the same venue as last night’s sunset presentation. Our boat was ready so we boarded and headed out to the middle of the river where the captain cut the engine and we just drifted in silence. After 15 minutes the black/pink sky gave way to the huge red ball of the rising sun as it slowly crept its way above the G20 tents of the Tent City on the sandy eastern bank of the river. The shutter of the camera was in overdrive trying to get that one superb shot. To be honest, it was pretty hard to not get a shot that really tells the story of this sunrise.

Meanwhile, the tall buildings that frame the Ganges on the western bank were beginning glow in the bright red and yellow of the rising sun. A very different look to the that which we saw in the evening in Saturday. The river was once again full of boats of all shapes, sizes and capacities. So poor chaps were rowing their clients down the river. We made it down to the bottom “burning” ghat and witnessed the remains of last night’s fires still smoldering, before making our way back upstream close to the western bank. Along here we watched people bathing in the Ganges, holy men sitting cross-legged and praying and crowds of believers gathering to pray and worship on the steps of the ghat that provided most spiritual relevance to them. The ghat for people from south India was particularly busy.

When we “docked” nose first into the bank we came across a large gathering of people practicing communal yoga in the morning sun, being led by a yogi up on the stage they were all facing. We respectfully walked in by and boarded our tuk-tuks in search of a place for breakfast. We found one nearby in the form of a bakery called “The New Bread of Life”. The menu offered only standard western breakfast dishes which suited us all fine. The pancakes were popular as was the apple pie. I opted for a dish which approximated Eggs Benedict. It did the job. Back to our tuk-tuks we went and back to the hotel for a rest, pack our bags and check-out.

Check-out was at 12:00 midday, which was very generous. We dropped our bags in the groups private day room and met the rest of the crew in the lobby. The rest of the day was free for us the have our last look at Varanasi before our 10:00pm train back to Delhi. Up our road we went in search of a coffee, which was not as easy as it sounds. I was leading the way, not knowing where I was going. A crazy old man jumped out from behind a stopped tuk-tuk and accosted me for no apparent reason. I gave him all the respect he deserved, brushed him off and kept walking, finding a weird bakery a little further along.

After my non-appearing coffee was finished Kerry, Eric and I grabbed an e-Rickshaw and directed him towards the market area of Varanasi. We weren't really sure where we were going so I just randomly picked a hotel somewhere in the area and pointed him there. Anna, Irene and Cheryl went to a shopping mall somewhere. Our driver took us a far as he could before road barriers prevented him going any further. We paid our 200 rupees and joined the throng on the road walking and riding in the direction of the Ganges. Along the way Kerry befriended a “lovely little chap” who was very keen to show us how to get to the markets. We dutifully followed him through the crowds and then the alleys and lane-ways, past a bright yellow temple hidden deep in amongst the other buildings, until we reached a specific shop he wanted us to visit!  We knew we’d end up at the place of his choice but it was fun anyway. At the shop we bought a three cotton Indian-sytle shirts which I suspect probably won’t make it through the first wash in one piece. Further along Kerry found some inexpensive ear-rings she liked and a few other nik-naks. By chance, we bumped into Kerry’s “lovely little chap” again so he led us to a shop that had cold drinks. We sat out the front and enjoyed our drinks then steeled ourselves for the journey home. We’ve become quite adept at dodging Varanasi traffic. All it takes is a little courage  and, most importantly, so indecision about where and when you want to step. If ever the old saying “He who hesitates is lost” applies anywhere it applies on Varanasi streets.

We got to the tuk-tuk zone, found one and once again advised the driver how to get to our hotel. Exhausted, we made it back to our day-room and waited there until everyone was hungry enough to go downstairs for dinner. At 8:45pm we gathered in the lobby for our ride to the Varanasi train station and the start of our final leg back to Delhi.