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Now onto tour #2:

From Kochi in the south of India we flew to Dehli on December 24.

Ah the stench of the big city! With air quality readings into the high 300’s we were happy we brought masks. 

This tour was a National Geographic “comfort” tour: https://www.gadventures.com/trips/discover-india/4290/

I think it cost around $3,200. In return we had some of the best guides I have ever experienced on any tours.

Again, lets break it down by city:

Dehli: Arrive and are supposed to be picked up by a local taxi company that is run by batterred women (which, sadly, means almost any Indian woman could apply).

But wires are crossed or something so the wife emails the tour leader and we hop into a taxi for a fixed price ride to the hotel which costs, including tip, ~$12 for a 45 minute ride that takes us 15 km. Traffic is bad in Dehli.

Get to the hotel and go through security. Handbags through an x-ray machine and an unconvincing pat down.

Apparently this is a 4 star hotel and I just arrived from the south so used to 2ish star hotels and dressed like it too.

Check in and relax before meeting our new tour group who consisted of: a chinese man who was born in Calcutta and came to Toronto as a young man and now was bringing his daughter to see India (he is 78, she, a grade school teacher at a Roman Catholic school, probably late 30’s), a fiercely independent woman and self-employed engineer from Toronto area around 46, a scientist from New York who has given at least on TED talk and his wife who is a retired math teacher (public school system), a mother from Nashville and her daughter who now lives in DC, a woman from the UK, some aussies in their mid-30’s, a man from Holland and his wife from Turkey, and a young medical student from Australia but has Sri Lankan roots. By the end of the tour we will all become friends.

Leave the hotel for a short walk to find dinner at a local mall down the road. Go through security at the mall. This is getting weird!

Have a buffet experience where you fill up and then learn that that was just the appetizer round. Good food but not like the south.

Following day we get a bus ride to a “sh!thole” part of the city where we meet a 17 year old kid who tells us his story of being kidnapped at a very young age and finding this agency that helps get kids off the street.

Then we walk the streets of Dehli before going to a mosque.

Then a rickshaw to a sikh temple: nothing like “washing” your feet with common people water before entering a temple on barefoot to get the germaphobe senses going.

Finally go to the Qutub Minar to see some really cool ruins and some really hard iron.

Varanasi: we fly from Dehli to Varanasi which is a short flight. But with the hour it takes to get to the airport and getting to the airport early, we arrive later in the afternoon.

We have a nice lunch outside on the hotel lawn before climbing aboard one of the best tuk tuk rides of my life. We zoom through the streets to arrive near the Ganges river.

Then we snake through some laneways, dodging cows and... everything opens up at at one of the ghats.  I actually gasped as I was not expecting such a stunning scene: steps leading down to the rivers edge, boats, the river shrouded in thin fog, the other edge of the river across the way. 

Get on a boat for a bit of a ride.

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 Now, the river is no doubt filthy but it did not smell that bad.

Even when we arrived to the place where they wash the dead and then burn them by the rivers edge the smell was not bad (but we were up wind so...).

Seeing a dog hanging near this place was both amusing and disturbing. Give that dog a bone!

Anyway, the guide gave us an excellent lecture even if it was more religious based than science based (he seemed to think the river was just fine thank you very much - I’m no naturalist but I know what wildlife and plant-life look like in a clean river...)

Then we watch a religious concert being performed onshore from our boat before finding dinner and then another fabulous tuk tuk to the hotel.

The following morning we again go out for a boat ride to see the morning rituals and bathing. 

Then it was onto a bus to see the Sarnath ruins. This is supposedly the site of Buddha’s first sermon.   A very holy site for buddhists which is great because it was peaceful, serene, and quiet unlike visiting Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim sites. To be fair, Indians are on holidays at this time so the Hindu, Sikh, Muslim sites were busier than usual.  Also, to be fair, buddhists appreciate silence.

Then it was off to see the the silk houses. Within a 2km radius there are about 175 silk workshops clacking away.

Our group got the tour and then we invited in to sit down, have some chai, and buy some silk.

Being in a group helped as it took the pressure off. However, the silk was so beautiful that I ended up leaving the place with the group giving me the nickname “Mr. Silk.”.

The following day we would head out to the airport for a really short flight to Khajuraho but that will have to wait for another post....