BootsnAll Travel Network



Archive for the 'India' Category

« Home

A Last Taste of the Subcontinent: Amritsar and Delhi

Saturday, May 28th, 2005

My return to India snapped me right back into the differences between that country and Pakistan. I had to bargain for several minutes for the rickshaw ride back to the bus stop, and fend off several taxi drivers at the same time.

I caught the bus back into Amritsar and headed to the train station to try and book a ticket to Delhi that night. (My extra night in Peshawar had meant that I needed to cut out a day somewhere, and I decided that it had to be Amritsar, since I needed to get my plane tickets replaced and didn’t want to limit the available time to do that in Delhi.) After waiting in line for the better part of an hour, I learned that the trains were all jam-packed-full and my chances of getting a ticket were poor.

From that point on, however, things took a big positive turn. I managed to book a seat on an overnight bus with little difficulty, and even got a good enough feel from the booking agent that I was willing to leave my pack in his shop while I made my quick tour of Amritsar.

My previous visit to Amritsar had been confined to a single night, and some of you may remember that the only photo I included of it was of a garbage pile near the railway station. I’ll attempt to redress that here.

Amritsar is the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, and the holiest city for the Sikh religion. This is due to the presence of the Golden Temple, which is the centre of the Sikh faith and reputed to be one of the most beautiful religious buildings in the world. The Golden Temple was to be my first stop.
[read on]

Whistle Stops in Agra and Amritsar (last in India for now)

Monday, April 11th, 2005

The train trip from Varanasi to Agra was actually fairly boring. For once there were many other tourists on the train (this trip was the only one of my five train journeys in India where I saw even ONE other foreigner on the train.) Given that we left Varanasi Station at 17:30, almost all of the 13hr trip was made in the dark. We had light for about one hour, during which we passed more of the flat, dry farmland I’d seen elsewhere in the country, though in this case, things were brightened by occaisional patches of marigolds being grown for use in religious garlands. The rest of the trip was spent fast asleep.

I’d heard really, really terrible stories about Agra from many different sources. From what I’d heard, every single person in Agra was out to steal from, cheat, or at least irritate visitors. The non-tourist portions of Agra were reputed to be dirty industrial areas. Several people told me that I should go to Agra, visit the Taj Mahal and then leave as soon as possible. As such, I hopped off the train at the Agra City station at 09:00, adjusted my ticket so I could leave that night, and then climbed back on for the trip to Agra Cantonment Station.

At Agra Cantonment, I dropped my big pack off at the left luggage office, then headed into town on foot.

Given the stories I’d heard about the place, I was so, so ready to use the puns “Agra-phobia” or “Agra-vating” somewhere in this entry, but as it turned out, my short time in Agra was actually pretty much Agra-eeable (which is even better, since the first two were stolen from other sources, but Agra-eeable was my own invention.)
[read on]

Holy Cities of Northern India: Bodhgaya, Varanasi and Sarnath

Thursday, April 7th, 2005
My first train trip in India began in pleasant fashion. I climbed aboard the Capital Express (all of the major trains in India [and there are hundreds of them] have names) at New Jalpaiguri Station and found my seat. ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Soft Landing in India: The Hills of Darjeeling

Tuesday, March 29th, 2005
I crossed the border from Karkhabitta Nepal to Panatanki India at about 4:15 in the afternoon, and while there wasn't any major physical boundary (just a medium sized river, smaller than several I'd crossed in Nepal) it was quickly clear ... [Continue reading this entry]