Just Returned from India.....

toindiatoyoga

I read this forum with interest from my hotel room in Varanasi - I haven't yet had been into town yet, so will certainly be interested to see what it is like.

Yes, I find India on the whole to be dirty, but as mentioned in so many posts there is a lack on infrastructure at the moment and until that is built up, India will not be as clean as the western visitor might like.

I was in Delhi last week, talking to an Indian couple who have been living in Boston for 7 years, they talked about how much it had changed since they left. Their predicition was that in 5 years time, in Delhi at least, they would expect the streets to be cleaner etc.

I love India beacuse of the dirt and the attitudes and the lack of 'health and safety'. Its a little bit of chaos in my sanitised Western lifestyle!

Ringo Ng

Pantelis , I will be at Varanasi few weeks later , thanks for the great message. Sure it's another world .After Varanasi i will go to Kathmandu for trekking too , but so far i can't find any air-lines fly from Varanasi to KTM , i have to fly or Trian back to Delhi then fly KTM , just wondering are you fly the same way or any short cut you can suggest ? I know that's bus , but it gotta be a long time .

pkibbee

Currently Indian Airlines flies from Varanasi to Kathmandu three times a week. I just bought a ticket on this route this week. My problem now is getting any guesthouse I query in Varanasi to answer my emails!

Ringo Ng

PKibbee , thanks for your message , how much is the ticket ? My friend suggests me to stay in Hotel Alka , Varanasi http://www.hotelalkavns.com , and i booked in March too .

pkibbee

The airfare is a little over $100. I can't say precisely as I booked it together with a flight on Indian Airlines from Delhi to Kathmandu. Thanks for the hotel tip. I just emailed them.

Ringo Ng

I just log in and try to book the FLT online , but don't know why KTM is not in the city list ? Did you book online or by the agent ? I checked many airlines , but everyone told me i have to fly from Delhi to KTM .

Norway

Hi,

I didn't see this thread before today. I haven't read all the answeres yet, but I think I agree with you. I went, for my first time in India, to Hyderabad in Jan. I expected the worst, as I had heard from everybody what to expect. I am a clean-freak, delicate and glamorous (as our frind said to me the last day in India: "I didn't expect to see you here in India C.! You are too delicate and glamorous to be here... :-D I could have found this offending, but I know he only meant it well, so we had a laugh of it.) I even find it hard to find a decent hotel in UK (but that's not only me, in Norway, UK is not very famous for it's cleanleness).

So off I went. I had taken all my "shots" and had my bag full of tabelletts against everything, and also lots of disinfectant gel.

The traffic scared the *** of me. We stayed at a 4-star business hotel and I never saw any dirt there. The food was excellent and the toilets was clean. We never ate at other places than 4-5 star hotels, but I didn't dare to eat meat even there. At the street I saw lots of garbage and... ehm... yes... shit... I went to a public toilet, but am not sure if I would have called it a toilet... It was DISGUSTING! I saw rickshaw-drivers "doing there things" in the middle of the street, without even trying to hide themself.

Because we stayed at a very good hotel and we only went to "tourist-places" to eat, I think my experience of India was a lot better than I had expected. I never got sick and I didn't get "bed-bugs" (we got that at a hotel in London a year ago...).

You can say the dirt and the shit is the genuin India and that we don't HAVE to go there. That's right, a clean-freak like me should not go to India. On the other hand... All countries, even the richest once (like Norway) have to attract tourists. People are traveling and the tourists are a good source of income. I have heard that India is the country that have the most increasing "tourist-population" (nah, I couldn't find the English word... sorry) in the world, so why not take the opportunity to get the most of it? Buy cleaning a little bit...

Just my two cents...

(And I now see why I didn't read this thrad before today, it was an old one... :-D)

C.

robotvoice

there comes a time when the responisibility falls in to one's own hands. when i was walking on the ghats of varanasi i wanted to take a huge pressure washer and spray that shit down. maybe next time i will.

does anyone know where to find a pressure washer in varanasi?

tnog

Interesting, I had a somewhat similar reaction to Varanasi my first time, more than a year ago back in October '05.

And it's not like I was back then even an India newbie or anything. ME, kvetch about the oppressive heat, piles 'o trash or relentless touts?

Like living in Delhi can help acclimatize a person to this real quick like. But somehow Varanasi...

Anyways. Last week I was pleasantly surprised. As were my sis and brother-in-law. They being first timers and all, I thought that it would wear thin quickly.

Despite the the whole too-do about the doo-doo, I enjoyed some peaceful and rewarding hours wandering the alleys of the old city.


Other IM'ers might not fancy it, but don't write off the street food. There are wonderful opportunities to sample some unique and rare delicacies, all for a measly 10 Rs.


In fact, after the pre-requisite early morning boat ride (think tourist boat race), meandering about near Alamgir Masjid, I ran across the fabulous Daulat ki Chaat.


What? Well, there was a crowd surrounding a typical shop of the old city. Like there was a cricket match on the telly, 'cept they were all intent on getting a clay cup full of a white frothy stuff, tinged the color of saffron. That and everyone was devouring the stuff right there and then with a look of serene contentment. Possibly even lactose inspired grace? (Slight hyperbole...just).

Yes, ambrosia may just be the rightful term here.

And just for comparisons sake, I dined a week before at the Imperial in Delhi. Someplace where I'm sure you can actually drink and sup out of the toilet stalls, if you had to, and come out feeling rejuvenated and new.

And there I was attendin' some hoo-dah with a bunch of billionares. Seriously. But the food was blah. Indifferent--middling makhanis, tasteless tikkas, and don't even get me started on the kulfis.

__________________
"...seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."


~Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

ranjan154

Yes, it is true as the things are getting changed very fast after the economic boom. Hope to see more cleaner cities in the near future.

__________________
Rakesh Ranjan
--------------
http://www.flickr.com/photos/travinfoindia/