I have been in Varanasi for a few days. The city of chaos and vitality, of temples and learning, the city where ‘life begins and where it ends’, the center of Hindu Universe. It has been known in the past under many names, as I found out today, Benares and Kashi… I’m enjoying it here greatly, staying in Hotel Buddha near the Old City.As you have figured from my previous posts my cycling part is done!!! On Saturday, Dec. 2nd, I’m taking an overnight train to Delhi and after a day or so another long train journey to Goa (via Mumbai). I still don’t have tickets for the latter part but will get them soon.
For now, enjoy a few of my favorite photos from my early morning boatride on the holy Ganges river alongside many ghats bustling with life and activity. I have also put up a photoset called Ghats of Varanasi (2006) on flickr (photoset; slideshow):
Praying time, originally uploaded by Rich.
Early at work, originally uploaded by Rich.
Street hairdressers, originally uploaded by Rich.
November 30th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
India |
3 comments
“Life isn’t how many breaths you take.
Life is how many moments take your breath away…”
Who knows which movie is this from?
November 30th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Fun |
2 comments
Total distance: 6,376.6 kms (3,980.4 miles)
- It might be very slightly less. I think my cyclo-computer was overestimating the distance by about 1-2%. (When setting my wheel circumference I measured it with an unloaded bike.) Based on my observations of road markers in different countries. Still, a respectable distance in 80 riding days, especially if you take into account total altitude gained.Total distance by country:
- India: 2,463.7 kms
- Pakistan: 1,062.4 kms
- China and Tibet: 2,330.5 kms
- Nepal: 520.0 kms
Total altitude gain: 69,175m (~227,000ft)
- Yep, that’s only up and straight up, vertically. Imagine climbing almost 8x the height of Mt. Everest (from the sea level). Physically, even though hard, I liked it, as long as roads were decent, which they weren’t that many times;)))
Total altitude by country:
- India: 28,370m
- Pakistan: 14,875m
- China and Tibet: 21,000m
- Nepal: 4,930m
Max./min. distances: 196.92 vs. 28.04 kms
- The longest one was on Sept. 22nd from Karakul lake to Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang province, mostly downhill on a perfectly paved road. But I still remember it was very cold that day, I even had to pass through a snowstorm, but as I was nearing Kashgar and desert-like looking plains around it, I had to lose some of my clothing pretty quickly;)
- The shortest one on July 19th from Whiskey Nullah camp to Pang tent summer settlement in India’s Ladakh. Not because I couldn’t go further but I enjoyed Steve’s company and it was a long way from Pang to the next place. (At the time I didn’t know about new tent camps at the Tso Kar lake.)
Longest/shortest rides: 8′40″ vs. 2′06″ hours
- The longest, and probably also the hardest day, was from Chilas to Gilgit in Pakistan’s Northern Areas on Sept. 9th. It was lots of ups and downs (1,745m in almost 136 kms) on the very hot and dry day with very few places to stop. I was really counting on stopping in Talechi, about halfway through, where there was supposedly a NAPWD housing. It turned out to be partly incorrect. The housing was there but occupied by army people and I couldn’t stay there. So, I had to speed toward Gilgit reaching it in complete darkness.
- The shortest one same as above, the July 19th ride to Whiskey Nullah to Pang.
“Real” punctures: 2
- I had a few more but those were related to my cracked rear-wheel rim. The Schwalbe Marathon XRs are really tough!!! Not surprisingly the vast majority of tourers select them for their around the globe trips. Mine still look good (forgetting a few small cuts;) despite all the beating they took on probably the worst roads in the world.
Weight loss: 25 lbs.
- I started out with 177 pounds. My normal weight is around 170-172lbs. I just had a spare reserve for the trip. The last time I weighted myself, in Kathmandu, I was only 151-152lbs!!! The last time I was this light was when I was in a high school. I didn’t expect that much loss. But hey, now lots of useless upper body muscle mass is gone. Looking on a bright side of things: with my cardiovascular health in top-notch shape and no extra pounds, I can start training for the NYC marathon;)
I might come up with a few more and add them later…
November 28th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Cycling |
4 comments
My last cycling stats;)
Start: Mau (NH29), India
End: Varanasi, India
Distance: 124.13 km
Elevation: 120/-90 m
Time: 5′26″
Avg: 22.9 km/h
Total: 6,376.6 km
Riding/Total days: 80/147
November 27th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
India |
no comments
Just some stats;)
Start: Gorakhpur, India
End: Mau (NH29), India
Distance: 110.27 km
Elevation: 170/-145 m
Time: 4′48″
Avg: 23.0 km/h
Total: 6,252.5 km
Riding/Total days: 79/146
November 26th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
India |
no comments
Not much to report over the next three days. I was trying to get to Varanasi as fast as I could. I like India but dealing with Indian traffic wasn’t one of my favorite things about the country. The overpopulated plains of Uttar Pradesh didn’t help it either. So, I just put my head down and kept cycling, trying very, very hard to ignore the almost deafening and uninterrupted noise of the traffic.On my way to Varanasi I stayed in Hotel Bobina in Gorakhpur, a decent place but a bit too over-praised by the LP’s guidebook. To their credit, in-house restaurant had good food and they had some reconstruction work going on. The second place where I spent a night was the town of Mau (or Maunath Bhanjan) in Hotel Madhav, with very friendly service but its rooms were long overdue for a thorough overhaul… In Varanasi, I booked into Hotel Buddha. (My first choice, Hotel Surya, was booked out.) Sofar, based on my first impressions, the place looks good: quiet, friendly, with a good restaurant and ‘real’ broadband internet access (very important for me;). Actually, I was lucky to get the last room for today. Just a simple one, not usually given to visitors, but it was cheap, I slept in lot worse places, and tomorrow I will get a better one;) It seems like Varanasi is booming with travelers and Indian businessmen, too.
Otherwise, on the road, it was cycling, stopping only here and there for quick refreshments. I don’t think that I took any pictures in the three days from Lumbini to Varanasi. The monotone and hazy look of the flat plains didn’t inspire me much. More importantly, I really needed to keep my eyes on busy roads if I didn’t want to end up as a roadkill. I saw plenty of that, mostly dogs. Every day I encountered one or two ‘just killed’ animals, besides the many rotting carcasses. Not very picturesque…
So, no photos here and no commentary for the next two days. I hope you can live with that;)
Start: Lumbini, Nepal
End: Gorakhpur, India
Distance: 124.38 km
Elevation: 230/-225 m
Time: 5′03″
Avg: 24.7 km/h
Total: 6,142.2 km
Riding/Total days: 78/145
November 25th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
India, Nepal |
no comments
Today was an easy day, completely flat, finally, with just slight headwinds. In the morning, I quickly headed out of Bardaghat, a rather forgetable place. I had over 30 kms to reach Butwal, a major crosspoint on the Mahendra highway, had an early lunch there, too. From there it was another 18 kms of a ‘fast’ ride to Bhairahawa. On this stretch, I got lucky. I was able to catch a nice loaded truck going at about 35-40 km/h and hang in its slip-stream;) I raised my average speeds quite a bit as I was mostly ‘cruising’ at 37 km/h… The truck was keeping me away from winds, sweet. Plus, it pushing the headwinds swirling around its back. As I was fairly close, about 3-5 feet behind it, I was getting nice push too;) I think I did 15 kms in something like 20-25 minutes. The guys in the truck, and onlookers alongside the highway, just couldn’t believe that I was able to keep up with it… I guess they didn’t understand the simple physics concept… It was fun while it lasted. In Bhairahawa I needed to make a right turn and follow a local road for another 22 kms in order to reach Lumbini. This time it was directly against the south-westerly winds.I reached Lumbini shortly after 1pm. I checked into Lumbini Village Lodge, a very nice place with friendly and helpful owners, just like the Lonely Planet guidebook said. After shower, lunch and a short rest, I went to the Lumbini Buddhist complex. I didn’t know what to expect. The guidebook said the whole area was too large to explore on foot, and I only had two, maybe three hours of daylight left. If it was interesting though and I needed more time to visit the many monasteries spread out over the compound, I would most likely stay another day and take my time…
I started with the Ashoka pillar and ruins of the Maya Devi temple. The pillar was erected by the famous Maurya emperor more than 300 years after Buddha’s death and its inscriptions are the proof that this really was the place where Prince Gautam Siddhartha was born. The temple, dedicated to his mother, was swamped by many visitors, most of them either Nepalis or tour visitors from Buddhist countries around the globe.
After the Maya Devi shrine complex, I headed north, to the main monastic compound and visited a few temples built by various gov’ts and Buddhists’ organizations. The most impressive temples were the Zhong Hua Chinese monastery (on the Mahayana side), Royal Thai monastery and Lokamani Pula pagoda (Theravada side). The rest of them were underwhelming: either being still constructed (Korean, Austrian Geden Intl. Foundation, Drubgyud Choling and some others…) or didn’t open its doors to random visitors (Vietnam Phat Quoc Tu) where they told me that it was still undergoing construction despite looking quite complete and impressive, too. Plus, a tourist bus full of visitors just backed into the compound as I was coming there. Not very Buddhist, if you ask me…)
As I was leaving the Royal Thai monastery, a few minutes past sunset I knew already that tomorrow morning I would head for India.
Start: Bardaghat (H01), Nepal
End: Lumbini, Nepal
Distance: 79.52 km
Elevation: 120/-145 m
Time: 3′13″
Avg: 24.8 km/h
Total: 6,017.8 km
Riding/Total days: 77/144
November 24th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Nepal |
one comment
