Indian Trains: Backbone and Bloodline — Varanasi Excellent Tour

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With determination we discovered the breadth of India from the mystery of Kashmir in the west, to verdant Assam and Sikkim in the east, to the heights of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the north, to the shores of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south. We rode the rails throughout our nine months in India in the fall/winter of 2017/2018 and again in the fall of 2019.

There are diverse transport options and we used them all. We loved the vitality and momentum of the fast-growing, super-efficient, Indigo Airlines. We relished our many point-to-point transfers when hiring a car and driver and the personal, one-on-one conversations where we could learn so much. But riding the trains was next-level excitement, adventure and romance. Just like trains everywhere.

Downloading and activating the IndianRail app on our phones was a little tricky as a foreigner. But once set-up we arranged all our reservations online. We just flashed our e-ticket to the conductor. Such is the efficient, vital backbone and bloodline of blessed modern Mother India! If only America’s Amtrak had the same grit and gristle.

Riding the Indian trains is such a romantic adventure.
Just like trains everywhere!

And by casual observation any train excursion in India involved gristle and grit. The train stations are bustling microcosms of the society at large. Very often we encountered big crowds sometimes a few souls sprawled out sleeping while waiting for trains. Stations might be a bit dirty. They’re just as likely to be well tended. But without exception, they’re all managed efficiently. Often it’s quite cacophonous! It’s not the gleaming, sleek Japanese shinkansen system, we also admire, but damn it, India’s train system works — and moves 24 million people daily! And it’s really fun.

We always bought the highest class ticket we could get — executive class, AC1 or chair class. We just found a reserved seat with AC. The eager red scarf porters — we came to see as the informal, and invaluable, customer service-like representatives promptly locating our platform and car in the gazillion-car long trains — helping with our bags, from our arrival at the curb and sometimes waiting until we were inside our car and placing our bag in the storage above our seat in exchange for a generous tip.

Here’s a short story…

We were sometimes greeted, as we stepped off an Indian train, by eager young businessmen with offers of taxis and tours around the arriving city. More than once we quickly sized up the offer and proceeded to have extraordinary, positive experiences that linger in our memories as among the greatest. Meeting a stranger and making a friend. And learning about a nesw place through their eyes. We loved supporting a young man’s small business!

Our arrival in Varanasi, also known as Benares, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, was one such opportunity. We were greeted upon our evening arrival from Kolkata by a guy who commanded great English and the wheel of a very suitable automobile. He promptly delivered us to our hotel and closed the deal to collect us the next morning for a look around town. Only in the morning did we learn that two men share this car — one during the day and the other at night. They worked together, clocking long hours, and both providing for their families with the shared resource of one automobile. Ingenious, we thought.

While we were there, if we needed something in the daytime then Bablu was our man; in the evening Anand was behind the wheel! If you’re in Varanasi and looking for some expert guides check out, on Facebook, “Varanasi Excellent Tour.” Tell Bablu the Hotel Guys sent you.

We’re still friends with him to this day! Meet Bablu in the second pic below, while talking with Paul on the train platform.

The first pic below is a porter with both of our roller bags — on his head, walking through the crowd on the platform taking us to our location to board.

Udaipur, Rajasthan: City of Love and Light — Planned Five Days, Stayed Two Months

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Wedding season in Udaipur, a popular destination activity for Indian nationals, typically begins in the fall. The timing depends on favorably astrological alignments of the moon, planets and stars to foster an amicable and fruitful coupling, we learned. During this special time, Udaipur is a city of lights and romance with frequent fireworks filling the evening’s sky. It’s a pretty magical place even without the weddings as attested to it’s history as a major international tourist destination forever!

Our planned five night visit here was part of a swing through the rich and storied region and state of Rajasthan southwest of Delhi where our journey had begun a week earlier in the fall of 2017. By the fourth evening we looked at each other ask, ‘why are we leaving the day after tomorrow?’ Without a sufficient answer, we tossed out a not-too-expensive non-refundable plane ticket and canceled our onward hotel reservations we’d made.

Suddenly being in no rush, we moved into the wonderful Udai Kothi hotel where we stayed week-to-week, surprisingly staying for two months. We came to know every shopkeeper around the hotel, often sitting in the evening and sipping Indian tea and beer, learning so much about their lives and deepening our knowledge of India. Other travelers too suggested future destinatins that enriched what would still four remaining months in India when we left Udaipur after the new year 2018.

It was such a wonderful romantic experience that generated rich, lasting memories and many friendships that have withstood the passing of time, now nearly seven years later.

Weddings during our stay were ubiquitous, and frequently lasting three to five days! It’s customary for strangers (wedding crashers!) to be warmly welcomed as honored guests — something we did on more than one occasion!

We snapped this wedding celebration image on december 12, 2017 at the Amet Haveli hotel on Pichola lake

India - The Back Story

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Why India? How India?

On our first visit to Southeast Asia in the winter of 2016-2017 we initially planned to visit Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We planned to be traveling about three months. All along the way it became a little comical as fellow travelers kept asking us if we planned to include a visit to Myanmar. As our planned itinerary was nearing the conclusion we realized we were returning to the still cold weather of Portland, Oregon USA in mid-March. Why? So we heeded what was obviously the Universe’s clarion call to add a visit to Myanmar and we spent three weeks at several locations mostly in the north. Each of the countries in SE Asia are distinct yet so close geographically. Something about Myanmar’s mystery and history was an instant portal to our next travel destination which immediately consumed our dreams. India was calling. And we both felt ready to rise to the challenge!

We were under the impression that travel in India could be, would be challenging. We saw the benefit of not waiting any longer. We weren’t getting any younger!

We knew we wanted to stay more than what a 30 day tourist visa would allow us to see and do but weren’t really sure how long we would stay. At that time, if you didn’t arrange the 30 day visa, then the 10-year tourist visa was the next option. So we sent our passports to the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. and they were returned with gorgeous 10-year tourist visas. We were ready to stay more than 30 days and less than the generous annual maximum of six months.

The following fall/winter 2017-2018 we ultimately did stay, perhaps surprisingly, the entire six months allowed by our visa, spending three months in northern India and three months in southern India. We fell in love with India, the people and the food. We loved the trains, we loved how chaotic things could be to get from point A to point B. It was a challenge and we rose to it. We absorbed India, we loved India and India loved us back. It cracked us wide open and busted our butts!

We returned after our epic, grand tour spending the summer back home in Portland. We never stopped talking about India, studying about India and we ate Indian food about five nights a week for dinner perfecting our homemade curry.

The following winter we spent in Panama and Costa Rica, but the fall and winter after that we returned to India for three more months discovering new destinations not our on initial itinerary.

We absorbed India, we loved India and India loved us back. It cracked us wide open and busted our butts! To this present day India is still one of our biggest teachers and closest friends — strange as that may sound, but true.