Varanasi, here we come!
Today we traveled from Delhi to Varanasi. After a final breakfast at our
Delhi hotel, we went outside to load up our taxi to the airport. We were surprised to find that our taxi to
the airport was even smaller than the one that had taken us to the hotel two
days earlier. Luckily, we only had two
pieces of checked luggage for the group (Daniel is the world’s lightest packer
and Michelle still hadn’t seen her bag since Boston), so the luggage fit
strapped to the roof. Despite telling
the driver multiple times that we had to go to the arrivals areas to find Michelle’s
bag, he proceeded up the departures exit—and when we exclaimed “arrivals!” once
again, he tried to back-up down the exit!
“No! No!” we yelled, fearing for our lives, and we proceeded to
departures. Michelle and I (Cassie) had to talk
to every Air India employee on duty to find her bag that had finally arrived
from JFK before we could check in for Varanasi. “Go upstairs to departures to
get a pass to get through customs in arrivals” said one, “Talk to the people in
Gate 8” said the next…when no one was working at Gate 8, we were pointed to the
opposite corner of the building. The next Air India employee pointed us back to
Gate 8, informing us that “someone will come after some time”. Given that time was running out to check in
for our flight to Varanasi, that wasn’t going to cut it. After a few firm words with this gentleman,
we finally convinced him to get someone from the baggage office to bring
Michelle’s bag up to us.
Security posed another whole set of issues. First of all, they emptied everything out of
my bag (Cassie) and scanned it twice.
After finally approving all of the items, and re-loading them into my
bag, they were convinced that I stole the plastic numbered paddles that match
passengers with their items…in reality, they had already collected them, but
they were absolutely convinced I packed them into my bags. Luckily they checked
their stash of numbered paddles and found that they had, in fact, collected
them before they made me unpack everything again. Also, they had made a big deal of putting
name tags on our bags at check-in, and they were stamping these tags after
security—when Michelle’s didn’t get stamped, they waived her on indicating it
didn’t matter…luckily she made them stamp it, because they were once again
searching unstamped bags when boarding the plane.
Finally in Varanasi, Dr. Subodh greeted us with flowers and
warm hugs. It was exciting to finally
meet the man we had heard so many wonderful things about. He was so hospitable already, letting us know
he would be happy to answer any questions or stop for anything we wanted to see
on our way into the city. Driving in
Varanasi was approximately 10x crazier than anywhere we’ve been in India so
far! Cars, bicycles, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, pedestrians, and cows were weaving
all over the road, head-on and swerving at the last possible second. According to Dr. Subodh, there is only one
rule of the road, “convenience”.
Our first adventure in Varanasi was a visit to the mall to get traditional Indian clothes. We decided to walk the 1km to the mall. Every tuk-tuk that saw us lined up to ask us where we were going and offering a ride...the line up was causing a tuk-tuk traffic jam! The most treacherous point in our journey to the mall, well…besides crossing the street…was trying to get around the hoard of cows feasting on the trash strewn across the street and sidewalk. KC and Daniel bought traditional white Indian suits that they could wear for Holi while Michelle and I bought more colorful dresses.
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