6 Things to Do in Varanasi with a Padhaaro Greeter

I first learnt about Padhaaro's "welcome visitor" program in India from twitter some time last year before I traveled to New Delhi, India. Their admin for their twitter account tweeted to me and told me about their great program. Sadly, it was only this year was I able to try out their program. :)

Basically this program is meant to help foreign visitors to India meet up with locals also known as a Padhaaro Greeter. These greeters will host the visitors and bring them around interesting places for free! The catch? Just pay for their food and transport. Quite easy right?

So the first step in enjoying this great service is by filling out a form online to request for a greeter. ( http://www.padhaaro.com/tourist-visit-request-form/) :)

My travel group of three (Alid, Suntea and I) managed to get Gaurav as our lovely Padhaaro greeter at Varanasi. We met up at our Couchsurfing host's house some time during lunch and ate together. Both guys never heard of what the other site is about. It was kinda funny to have both of our Padhaaro and Couchsurfing hosts together. Hahaha.

"Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."  Mark Twain

Alid sandwiched between Padhaaro host Gaurav (left) and CS host Arihant (right) with our lunch in the front! haha!

So Gaurav would be our tour guide and Arihant provides us food and bedding. How more convenient can our trip to India be? :P

Places that Gaurav brought us to for Day 1:

1. Banaras Hindu University

Statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya on the left and Vishwanath temple on the right which is situated at the campus

Banaras Hindu University is a public central university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Established in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya (his statue is erected right at the university's entrance), BHU is one of the largest residential universities in Asia, with over 20,000 students. (Wikipedia)

In terms of ranking, this university is notable number one in India after the university in Delhi which makes it a very prestigious university. I also heard that the Engineering courses here are among the best in town. Maybe I'd continue my studies here? Hehe. *wishful thinking*

2. Crossing a pontoon bridge over Ganges River

The concrete road bridge across Ganges River heading to Sarnath is always congested with trucks occasionally breaking down at the middle of it! At times like this, auto rickshaws prefer to detour using a floating pontoon bridge. It was this bridge that Gaurav brought us to cross to get to the other side.

I managed to find a photo of a similar pontoon bridge used in one of India's most elaborate festival as mentioned below. Pontoon bridges were built temporarily over the river in Allahabad to cater 30 millions devotees!

Photo credit to here.  See the masses of devotees here!! Amazing!

And this how it looks from inside the auto transport when crossing the bridge. Sorry, the picture isn't that great. But this was among the most memorable experience of mine in Varanasi. Crossing the pontoon bridge across Ganges River. :)

Pontoon Bridge - easily constructed, economically cheap and fits the needs of people wanting to cross the very wide river!

3. Visit Ram Nagar Fort 

Alid was particularly excited to come here. He told me that it was the 7th Pit Stop of The Amazing Race 18. He even had us take his picture at the exact spot where the shot the episode. LOL

Outside the fort that faces Ganges River

The fort is turned into a museum but is really in bad shape. It is a typical Mughal architecture seen similar to the buildings in Jaipur and were inhabited by previous kings of Benaras (the title was long demolished in 1971). Historic pictures of foreign leaders and kings that visited here can be seen inside the museum and I was surprised to see a picture of a Bhutan king there. And due to the pictuesque scene outside the fort, it also has been used as film locations for their movie Banaras. 

In and about Ram Nagar Fort 

4. Exploring the Lanes of Kashi

Varanasi itself is a maze of narrow lanes (3 to 4 feet wide) and quaint alleyways which are filled with colorful shops selling interesting items from pooja materials, books, idols to sarees, a lot of eateries, people walking up and down, and even the occasional cow roaming aimlessly around. Well, thankfully we had Gaurav to maneuver us around the maze, else we certainly would've got LOST!

Sorry Caci, I've nothing to buy here. T__T

5. Watch the Ganga Aarti after sundown

And then in the evening, we got to experience a ceremony at Ganges which is famous world-wide, the spetacular Ganga Aarti on the Dashaswamedh ghat (one of many ghats in Varanasi). It starts just after sunset, with a bunch of young priests choreographing to Hindu chantings whilst holding and swinging the lamps in a rhythmic matter. It is a way to offer holy prayer to holy river Ganges and done every evening!

Ganga Aarti. There were boats on the river full of people to watch this ceremony. The area itself is crowded with people!

6. Sunrise boat ride on Ganges River

Will blog about this on a separate blogpost because we did this the next morning. :)

Enjoying my boat ride on the great Ganges River!

We ended our city tour with Gaurav and headed back to our couchsurfing's house situated in a railway settlement just at the outskirts of Varanasi. There was a wedding to attend and Arihant was bringing us there.

Till next post! Happy traveling peeps!

^__^

India in Eight Days

They say the number eight means great wealth, good luck and all that positive vibes as also taught in Feng Shui. Though I'm not really that superstitious but I love this number anyways. :p

The initial plan was to travel with Alid, a good friend of mine from Indonesia and we were suppose to have this competition on whose itinerary was the best. I actually worked hard on mine so that the places I wanted to visit were on it. Guess it paid off (or Alid got lazy in planning his own version, haha) that my itinerary won without much protests. Hahaha.

And I later believed that this star itinerary of mine also attracted another traveler from Indonesia to join us! *gushes with pride* This was maybe my best planned itinerary yet! I was also highly influenced by another travel blogger of Philippines who just came back from India. Her famous blogpost on her own experience getting harassed in India during Holi heightened my survival instincts for this India trip. But actually, I was getting worried if Alid was the protector type. Thankfully, god planned that we had THREE other protectors as well during this trip. :)

My India trip was made more awesome with Addy, Yayan, and Mukhlis as our extra protectors. :) 

Day 1 - Touchdown at Kolkata International Airport

It was Alid's and I first time in meeting up with Suntea and also with Addy (Jakarta), Yayan and Mukhlis (Batam lads). We weren't going to travel together but every little moments we had together always meant something fun and a blessing. So only Suntea, Alid and I were together until the end and here were our itinerary. India at that time was peaking at 50 degrees during daytime.

• Board overnight sleeper class train from Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri (10 -12 hours)

Day 2 - Darjeeling

A quaint town up near the Himalayas. 

• The train arrived late to NJP by two hours! hahahaha! 
• After the train ride, we rode a shared jeep (have to wait till it is full before they take off) up to Darjeeling, costing us 200 rupees per person and takes around two to three hours to reach. It was a damn bumpy ride!
• Stayed for a night at some guest house that has free wi-fi. =P
• Nothing to do during that day as all the stores and restaurants were closed due to some political chaos earlier on that day. T__T

Day 3- Darjeeling Sight Seeing! 

• Read this here -->> Alid's post 
• We left Darjeeling to NJP to catch our train to Varansi at 17:15 pm. This time it was an overnight sleeper class ride that took around 14 hours to reach Varanasi. Muahaha!

Day 4 - Varanasi with Padhaaro Greeter and Couchsurfing Host

• Reached Varanasi at around 9 am and taken a sort-of mini van to our CS host named Arihant.
• Read more of our Varanasi experience here --->> Alid's post  (I'll bliog about mine later. haha)
• We also had the pleasure to meet up with Mr Gaurav who gallantly showed us around Varanasi via auto-rickshaw. You guys can arrange for a local greeter at this website http://www.padhaaro.com/ and it's for FREE!
• Watched a spiritual event called Gangga Arte near the ghat Dasasmawedh. Said to be held every evening at 7pm.
• That night was spent at an Indian wedding which Arihant brought us to. I "accidentally" videotaped Alid showing his Indian moves here. Hehehe. 

The young and vibrant Gaurav at Ram Nagar Fort.

Day 5 - Ganges River at Varanasi 

Morning activities at Ganges River.

• We took a boat ride at Ganges River and watched the sun go up. (alid's version)
• After that we traveled to Sarnath, a holy place for Buddha as this was the place where Gautama Buddha held his first teachings.
• Left varanasi for our next train ride to Agra at 17:20 pm. This time it will take us around 13 hours to reach Agra. :)

Day 6 - Agra with Addy

Picture credit to Suntea featuring the four of us on our Agra trip together.

• We got hold on to Addy by dropping by his hotel and ringing his room from the receptionist desk. Haha. We didn't have any working phone at that moment. Luckily Addy was still there!
• Hired a non-air-conditional car to take us to Fatehpur sikri which we successfully came in using local fares!! Then to Taj Mahal but only two of us succeeded. And lastly to Agra fort where all of us failed.
• This Agra trip marked the most adventurist and daring trip ever for trying to scam the entrance officers that we were locals. haha! Though sadly we weren't 100% successful. :)
• It was only a day trip and that night we had to catch a train to Jaipur via the 20:10 pm train. 

Day 7 - Jaipur with Hussey

• The train was horribly LATE!! And we didn't have no way to inform our couchsurfing host in Jaipur that we;ll be arriving late by almost 2 hours! I felt horrible!
• Reached Jaipur at almost 3 am.... but thankfully Hussey was still there waiting for us. Almost cried with joy when he showed up. :)
• Hussey brought us sight seeing around Jaipur as he now has a legal license as a tour guide and it was for free. We only paid for transport. 

Alid and Hussey enjoying the view of Jaipur from above at Tiger Fort during sunset.

• We enjoyed a sunset at Tiger Fort and later enjoyed a dinner of Nasi beriyani with another of my friend, Tanveer.

Day 8 - Back to Kolkata and then Malaysia

• We had to catch an 8:20 am local flight via Indigo from Jaipur to Kolkata. The flight took only 2 hours ++. 
• Stayed at the airport until our afternoon flight back to Kuala Lumpur. haha.
• Suntea was going to continue her India trip without Alid and I.
• Reunited with the Batam lads and Addy. :)

Reunited at Kolkata's international airport. Hehe.

Thus I end my short entry on my most recent India trip in May 2013 that covered five cities in 8 days. If I'm extra hardworking, I might blog about my personal experience in each city. But that will be much, muchhhhh later.

Till then, happy traveling!