Tag Archive for 'Travel'

Banaras, The city of life, death and life again

The thing about Banaras that you have to remember is that this city is over 5000 years old and to add to that this was ransacked by 10 times by Muslim invaders, all the temples were broken by Aurangzeb and made into Mosques and what not.

The point I am trying to make is that do not expect Banaras to be a planned city, expect nothing from it, Cleanliness, Hygiene….if anything else, expect the opposite, death, small streets a car a truck and a cow fighting for space to walk.

Not exactly on what I was getting at

This is city of temples and gullies, there is a temple in every gully…. there is a cow, a dog sleeping a few human beings trekking a path between them….Ah its fun.Its an Experience. You remember my Ladakh trip…..this one is exactly opposite to it

If you are like me and have zero expectations from the town then get ready to have some fun…

How you say? This town is one of the cheapest towns that I have seen in a while. People live here by paying a measerly amount of $50 a month. You read me right. If you are living near the ghats you will not be paying more the $50 a month. You will see a lot of foreign tourists lazying around here … That is for a reason…Where else on the planet can you live for $50 a month and with cheap Ganja? I am not too sure about the rates but I hear its cheap.

Things to do
Temples….In Banaras there is a temple in every gully, take some time and visit them. Also visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the main attraction.

A broken and possible a abandoned temple

Ghats… Do them…all of them… adjoining every ghat is a gully, go through them, drink some tea, have a pan, walk around the place.

Dhobi ghat........

Boating……hire a man powered boat to show you around the place… the mighty ganges and how it flows

Paddle power boats

Buddhism…I am not too much into buddhism but Sarnath is near by and there you will see something of grave importance to buddhism. I am not too sure as to what but it is.

Japnese buddha

Death…..its banaras…of course some one is either dead or dying. “Mama always said death is a part of dying” – Forrest Chump….I’d be damned if it wasn’t. It is believed that if some one dies or is cremated in Banaras he will directly go to heaven. So you will find score of people being cremated here. Think of the river ganga as the River Stix from the greek mythology.

On the bright side if you die doing drugs here……… then woo hoo!! You are going from one heaven to another.

Banaras is truely a global village, the people here speak all the languages spoken in the world.
Chinese, Japnese, Thai, French, Russian,Korean, Spanish and Portuguese, as if that was not enough…..they speak Hindi, Telugu, Oriya, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Gujju.

Working globally, living in a gully.

The best time to visit is in winters when the flow is people is a the lowest and the so is the water of ganga.

If you are thinking of living here that that is cheap too.. as i mentioned the rent a while ago …..the prices of vegetables here is cheap. Its seems that inflation forgot to hit this town. The reason is that the vegetables are grown locally and sold locally at local prices. That did not make much sense? Did it?

Veggy man

I only spent two days in banaras… I wish I could have spared some more time there but …some other time I think.

Before I conclude….Please remember that do not go into the city expecting any modern facilities.

Think of it as a place which survived thousands of years of systematic destruction but still keeping its head tall.

I will leave you with this picture that I clicked in one of the gullies. Looks like Jesus Christ was in banaras to see “whats up ?”

What's Up banaras.....?

“Go into the city expecting death and you will find life”

Bucket List Part 1

I am making a itinerary for my world tour.
Think of it as a “Bucket list” of places I want to go before I get married.(O ….. I am getting married sooner than you think)

So here is the “Bucket list”

1.Cambodia.
I want to go to the temples in Cambodia, they are still unexplored relatively

I’d like to have a “Indiana Jones” moment of my own
I’d like to have a “Indiana Jones” moment of my own. Who knows I might find some hidden treasure of Raja Raja.
Its not just that,I plan to cover all the major Hindu pilgrimage in India. And although Cambodia does not jump on the radar but ….I want to cut it off for just in case.

1 Indian Rupee = 94.53477 Cambodian Riel

And the hotels are pretty cheap too
I mean $8 USD for one night….I mean come on…It doesn’t get any cheaper than this. And this hotel is a bit posh with fancy amenities like WiFi and wireless printing. I can live without WiFi and wireless printing.

To be continued………..

Malaysian airlines

Malaysian airline

I must say when ever you are traveling in from India to another country please do not use Malaysian Airlines.

Well for starters they have the worst plane and well the food is not so good either.

For me it felt like traveling in an UP road ways bus, it was rattling and making noise. The only thing
That kept me going was the free beer and the juices. The female air hostess were not so good, well they Were polite but not so good looking and more over when traveling in a international flight for the
First time you want the best of everything.

The females dress was from head to toe and well more over they felt like the princess of the sky.

Asking them to get you a beer was like asking the Queen of England to wipe the floors. A pain in the ass,male attendants were much cooler chaps and well I guess they understood what a free beer means to People like us.The food was yuck, they gave rice and chicken and some dal, and they also included some sweet which was some kind of a Muslim thing I guess.

I could not hear the pilot clearly and he had a thick Arabic accent

Compared to the same Malaysian airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, it was better with better looking females and male air hosts and better food to eat and better beer to drink.

Well i will put it this way. Food and air hostess in the domestic airlines in India are much much better than the ones here in Malaysian airlines.

If you have a choice the certainly do avoid Malaysian airlines and well if you don’t then I guess you
Better keep your hopes down.

Leh trip

Well I urge every Indian to go to Leh and Ladakh…..

It is so so bloody beautiful and barren….

Leh is a cold desert..it is a land locked and a rain shadow are…..which basically means that there are no rains in this part of the world…..

Leh has a history of it own …it was an important stop during the silk route period and a important place for Buddhist pilgrimage

Leh is at a height of 3,500 metres (11,483 feet) and you will find worlds three highest bridges here

1.Rohtang la (13,051 ft)

2.Chang la (17,800 ft)

3.Tanglang la (17,582 feet)

Leh has a cold, arid climate with long, harsh winters from October to early March, with minimum temperatures well below freezing for most of the winter. The city gets occasional snowfall during winter. The weather in the remaining months is generally fine.

There are two ways to get to leh

1.Jammu-srinagar – kargil- leh

2.Manali – leh

Me unfortunately had to take a cannon ball trip to leh via manali but to political troubles in Srinagar ( that place is evil)

It is called a cannon ball trip because of the time it takes

Manali leh route is the shortest way…you get a bus from manali at 2 am in the morning and you reach leh by 8 pm in the evening

It is a 18 hours trip

well it is not as picturesque as the Kargil Leh but sure saves a lot of time

Been there .....Done that

Stuff you do when you get there

1.Take a 3 days rest (2 days atleast) you need to acclimatize yourself at that altitude or else water start to settle in your heart and the only cure for that is to drop altitude as soon as possible….no matter how experienced climber you are or how tough or weak you are you need at least 2 days acclimatisation

2.Tablets…do take tablets of diamox which help reduce the body metabolism and help your body to acclamatize faster

3.Rafting……brown water rafting for 3 hours in the world most dangerous rivers the zansker Rs.1500 per person only

4.Pather sahab…….well as the story goes guru nanak was resting in leh when a demon see him and throws a rock at him …the rock hits him and melts it takes the form of his back…..hence the name pather sahab

here is a picture

The impression of the back of guru nanak

5.rent a bike….you can rent a Pulser for Rs500 a day and a bullet for Rs.600 a day and go where ever you feel like …..petrol costs are to be borne by you

Pic

Rent a bike services in leh

6.Pangong Tso (or Pangong Lake; Tso: ladakhi for lake) is a lake in the Himalayas situated at a height of about 4,250 m (13,900 ft). It is 134 km (83.3 mi) long and extends from India to china. Two thirds of the length of this lake lies in China. The lake is 5 km (3 mi) wide at its broadest point. In winter, the lake surface freezes completely.

pic

Speachless

7.Trekking…This is one thing that i could not do while I was in ladakh due to lack of holidays….but none the less another trip is planned this time with a personal car or a bike..

My Stuff

My stuff

Well here I want to list out all the stuff I carry when ever I am out (which is always), I carry with me a foot loose bag which is one of my pride possession.

That dear bag of mine took a big abuse and is still with me…what would I ever do with out hat bag (my sister gave it to me),its red in color and very eye catching, very easy to spot and locate, I have been using it for 5 years now and I plan to keep on using it

Well let me list out the components inside my footloose bag

1.A Zippo (Red color)

2.An Ink pen (Black color)

3.A 2GB pen drive (Red color)

4.An iPod shuffle (Red color)

5.An iPod charger (Black Color)

6.A Jogging head phones (Green Color)

7.A Laptop (Silver color)

8.A laptop charger (Black color)

9.A MOTO Razer V 6 Maxx Ferrari edition (You read it right… I bet that you have not seen May of these!)

10.A MOTO Razer charger (Black)

A Many of you must have noticed that most of my stuff is red in color I would like to point out that RED is my favorite color.

A few quotes from Wikipedia on red color

Passion

“The color red is associated with lust, passion, love, and beauty as well. The association with love and beauty is possibly related to the use of red roses as a love symbol. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews considered red a symbol of love, as well as sacrifice.^”

“Red is also used as a symbol of courage and sacrifice, as in blood spilt in sacrifice or courage in the face of lethal danger.”

“Red catches people’s attention, and is often used either in a negative way to indicate danger and emergency, or in a positive way in advertising to gain more viewers, or in nature, as a ripe fruit announces its readiness with its red color.”

“In the Indian Sub-continent, red is the traditional color of bridal dresses, and is frequently represented in the media as a symbolic color for married women. The color is associated with sexuality in marriage relationships through its connection to heat and fertility. It is also the color of wealth, beauty, and the goddess Lakshmi.^”

Scientific

“Several studies have indicated that red carries the strongest reaction of all the colors, with the level of reaction decreasing gradually with orange, yellow, and white, respectively.^”

^“Because of this, scientists have repeatedly recommended red for warning signals, labels, and signs. Because of these recommendations, red has seen widespread use as a danger signal, in stop signs, to warn people of extreme heat or flammability, and even to signal warnings in sports such as soccer”

I tend to misplace my things a lot, having red color bag makes it easy for me to easily locate it

Man “U” uniform is red; the F1 Ferrari team color is red

The bottom line being Red is not a girly color (You are wrong Sister!!)

Tag Archive for 'Travel'