And back from the N.India trip

I am back; after 17 days as i had run out of my budget. I had planned around 3000 INR for a period of 30 days*, but i ended up spending a little too much on street food in Varanasi and Ayodhya and had to cut short the number of days and be back home. It was a good trip covering many aspects of life and meeting different kinds of people and talking to them and exchanging experiences; not to mention the 3000+ pictures that i clicked (have to upload em somewhere!!).

Trail :

Chennai -> Mumbai -> Delhi -> Agra -> FatehpurSikri -> Jaipur -> Pushkar -> Varanasi -> Allahabad -> Chitrakoot-> Varanasi -> Ayodhya -> Jhansi -> Orcha -> Gwalior -> Chennai.

Itinerary:
Day - 1 (30 Sep) Tue : Chennai to Mumbai (Flight- Spicejet) ; eve walk in Churchgate-Colaba. Around Gateway of India and Taj Hotel.

Bombay Marine Drive

Day - 2 (01 Oct) Wed : Mumbai to Delhi(Flight- Spicejet) ; Spend the eve in Delhi

Delhi Metro

Day - 3 (02 Oct) Thu : (its Id!)Around Delhi - Red Fort, India Gate; Leave for Agra(5 hour bus ride); Reach Agra in the Eve.

Day - 4 (03 Oct) Fri : (Its a Friday - Taj is Closed!)To Fatehpur-Sikri. On the way back, view Taj from Agra Fort. Roam around Agra.

Fatehpur Sikri - Salim Chisti Durgah

Day - 5 (04 Oct) Sat : Leave for Jaipur (5 hr bus ride); Eve around Jaipur(Amber Fort).

Day - 6 (05 Oct) Sun : In and Around Jaipur

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

Day - 7 (06 Oct) Mon : To Pushar(uneventful ride to Puskar). In the eve to Gultaji-ka-Mandir(also called Monkey Temple).

Pushar Lake

Day - 8 (07 Oct) Tue : In and Around Jaipur(City Palace, Amber Fort and Gultaji-ka-Mandir)

Monkeys at Monkey Temple

Day - 9 (08 Oct) Wed : Leave for Varanasi/Benaras(reach Delhi by Jet and then to Varanasi via Spicejet). Took a beautiful drive from the Varanasi Airport to city bus stand via the local bus - nice ride - heard some good nice Avadhi Hindi and Bhojpuri. Stayed at Kanchi Sankaracharya Mutt, Hanuman Ghat. Went for a walk along the streets of Varanasi. Its Navami!! and the streets are filled with the most beautiful women and salivating street food.Roamed around the streets and the durga pooja pandals.

Durga Pooja Pandal at Varanasi

Day - 10 (09 Oct) Thu : Start for Chitrakoot(along with another family who were in the Mutt). Reach Allahabad. Bathe in Prayag/Sangam - confluence of Ganges, Yahuna and Saraswati.Visit some small temples around.Anand Bhavan closed.

View from the boat in Prayag. Australian Sea gulls there.

Dusty and bumby ride to Chitrakoot. Reach in the evening. Stay in a Ved-Pathshala - in the middle of agri fields and loads of greenery all around.

Day - 11 (10 Oct) Fri : Bathe in the Mandakini river(RamGhat). Visit Banarasi Ram, Bharat temple, trek-up to HanumanDhara(mysterious perennial stream appears from nowhere and disappears into nowhere), KanchMandir(temple made of mirrors and glasses), Janaki Kund(Sita used to bathe here), Ram Darshan and Ayush Dham. Ram Darshan was the best of this entire trip - the paintings and the PoP sculptures were amazing; the statue of Ram and Sita in the final room was like a 'durbar' and was pleasing to the eye,mind and the soul. Stroll along the Ayush Dham was beautiful, see different varieties of Cows and how they were nurtured; there is a Cow-research institute here. Came back to the pathshala to see a small snake in the room!

View from HanumanDhara, Chitrakoot

Day - 12 (11 Oct) Sat : Start the day at 4am. Bathe in the Vedpathshala's pumpset(in the open) in darkness. Did a 5km parikrama(on foot) of the Kamadhgiri). The pathshala's teacher('master') was the guide for the day.Visited Gupt-Godavari, Sati-Anusuya temple and Bharat-coop(this is the well in which Bharat(Ram's brother) poured the waters of the all the oceans and the rivers in the world - the well never dries and is the only well in the region that had water during my visit here).

Monkeys with the statue of Tulsidas, during Parikrama of Kamadhgiri, Chitrakoot

Beautiful non-stop and full throttle ride from Chitrakoot to Sitamarhi via Allahabad.Sitamarhi is the place where Sita is supposed to be gone into the Mother Earth.Reach Varanasi at 10pm. Have a good pot of thick 'malai' curd in the local malaiwala and sleep.

Model of Sita going into Mother Earth, SitaMarhi

Day - 13 (12 Oct) Sun : Nice walk around Varanasi to visit the temples of Lord Vishwanatha, goddess Vishalakshi , goddess Annapurni and Kala-Bhairava. The security in the Vishwanath temple was amazing; there were a hundred gates to it, all of which merged into 2-3 final ones.Nothing is permitted inside the temple except for the dress that one wears and probably watch and a non-leather purse. Visited the ruins and the monasteries of Sarnath in the noon. Evening was a visit again to Vishwanath temple for the Saptha-Maharishi pooja;Got place bang opposite the lingam, near the garbha-griha and watched this mind numbing ceremony -- This was also one of the spotlights of this trip. The 1 hour long pooja with the priests chanting some mysterious mantras was amazing. The floral lingam decorations and the final arati of the lingam was something of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Came back after this and roamed around the streets and ate some good street food.

Sarnath ruins

Day - 14 (13 Oct) Mon : Woke up early in the morning and took a dip in the Ganges in Kedar Ghat. Came back took my camera and walked along the ghats. Went from Harishchandra Ghat(famous for crmating bodies) all the way to the right. And then came back and went all the left till Manikarnika Ghat(again, a very famous ghat for cremating). Met some interesting people from different walks of life along the ghats - a boatman, dhobi(cloth-washer),kids selling postcards, saints, naga-sadhus, drug-dealer, few foreign tourists, etc etc. Boarded the train at midnight to Ayodhya.

Ghats of Varanasi

Day - 15 (14 Oct) Tue : Reached Ayodhya at 4:30 a.m. Took a small cheap room near the station and slept for sometime (the previous 2 days have been hectic). Start the day at 7:30 am. Bathe in Sarayu river. Roamed around the streets of Ayodhya. Visited the famous Rama-Janma-Bhoomi(RJB).Security at RJB is impregnable - the entire region was like military stronghold - army and police at every nook and corner to take care of the delicate situation. Saw the statue of Lord Rama in the tent in the site - heard some 'interesting' comments from the visiting die-hard-Ram-devotees.Ate some amazing sweets and good food along the streets of Ayodhya. Boarded the train at 6pm for Jhansi and slept immediately :)

Streets of Ayodhya

Proposed temple at the Ram Janma Bhoomi Site

Day - 16 (15 Oct) Thu : Reached Jhansi at 7:30am. Dumped my luggage in the cloak room and started for Orcha.Roamed in the ruined palaces and the temples in Orcha. Orcha is a must-visit place in this region. The noon sun was too harsh and in the meantime i had also covered all places there(just didnt take a plunge in the river betwa - but the view from the palaces of the turquiose green waters was beautiful).

Palace at Orcha

Came back to Jhansi and visited the famous Jhansi Fort.

Place from where Queen Lakshmi Bai jumped out of the fort on her horse

Jhansi Fort

Took a train ticket in the UnReserved category to Gwalior and went into the Sleeper compartment - was caught by the ticket checkers, but managed to convince them and got out without a fine(actually i didnt know that i am not supposed to travel, as a Police constable told me that i could).Moved to the General(Unreserved category) and sat on the stairs. It was a nice ride in here. Midway i slept, and i think something hit on my knee, and there i was , with excruciating pain. For a minute, i thought that i had lost my leg, and tried to standup and i did, but could not feel my leg. I let the blood flow for sometime , but the pain was amazing - but there was no blood around! I just let it pass and controlled the pain till i reached Gwalior. I decided to play it safe a little, as the knee joint hurt a little when i tried to climb the stairs - spent sometime in the station's intenet cafe and then got bored and atleast thought of checking out the local lores.I chose not to visit the Gwalior Fort and the other temples as they needed some walking and i did not want to excert any pain on my knees. I asked around and went to the Baaada Bazzaaar and roamed around here. Some of the most beautiful(read 'not sexy') women are in Gwalior. It was great to see all of them wearing Indian dresses(i.e, Salwars/saris) - hardly could spot any wearing western wears. Spent some talking to the Fine Art students who were sketching in the bazaar junction. Also, ate some more luscious street food. It was a time well spent.

Day - 17 (16 Oct) Fri : Boarded the train at 3:30 a.m from Gwalior to Chennai. Train was late by an hour. Day spent in the train and chatting with the fellow travellers. There were teens(in their 19-20) from Kashmir who were undergoing AirForce training in Avadi and were returning back(to Avadi) after a vacation back home (in Kashmir); and also jawans(soldiers) who were returning home(to TamilNadu) from Kashmir border for Diwali vacation. Brain numbing chats with the guys and their experiences. Spellbound. The teen soldiers were showing me the pictures of their girl-friends back home in Kashmir and how one of them got engaged to his GF recently. I could see a couple of wet-eyes here and there. The guys also offered me Golden Apples(the best variety) and dry fruits. Had a wonderful chat with the guys on Kuran and the Kashmir-issue. I must say that this was one of the best days in my life. Train was running 3 hours late.

Day - 18 (17 Oct) Sat : Train 15 min ahead of schedule. Bid adios to mates in the train - exchanged addresses and ph nums. Reached Chennai(Home) at 8:30 a.m.

There i was .. bearded+stinking..back home.

* Update : I was sponsored from Mumbai to Varanasi. After that, it was on me.