Uttar Pradesh, India - [Jan 24 - Feb 9 2020]

challenge

+1620m/-1350m

ROUTE

952.5KM

TIME

10 days

off road

0KM

Sylvia

Noticing the non-obvious

Leaving Nepal and going to India is like leaving the comfortable for the uncomfortable.

After almost two months in Nepal, we cross the border to India at Sonauli. The difference between both countries is noticeable immediately. My senses are overwhelmed by the noise first, then the smell and dirt. The memories of feeling uncomfortable from our last trip are back, except now I am prepared for it.

I admire travellers, including Frank, who can relax into a new culture without any adaptation time. It takes me one week to ease into a different travel mode. I miss the always-changing landscapes of Nepal, their culture and way of living. The first couple of days in Uttar Pradesh are flat, dirty and very poor. People look surprised at us, rarely smiling before returning to their daily chores. Life looks difficult. There is no time or desire to connect with us, so we cycle long distances to get as quickly as possible to our first destination, Varanasi.

Varanasi, also known as Benares or Kashi, is on the banks of the holy river Ganges and is a major religious hub. It is the holiest city out of seven in Hinduism and Jainism. It is also one of the oldest cities in the world and is known as the religious capital of India.

Varanasi cremation ghats - close photos are not allowed, except if you pay $$$

Hotel towels and sheets - washed and dried at the ghats

Varanasi is bustling, full of energy. And surprisingly clean for India knowing the number of people who live and visit the holy city. The atmosphere here has changed from the first couple of days in India. People smile and engage, sometimes to sell you something or just to chat. The Ghats are the places to be if you want to witness spirituality. Here, I can feel the Hindu devotion and faith, although I still don’t understand it. All the reading about Hinduism and listening to Hindus trying to explain it, doesn’t make it easier. Their religious beliefs alongside with their acceptance of the cast system are deeply ingrained in the society. It is not wrong to say that Hinduism is the pillar of the Indian society (eighty percent of the population is Hindu and fourteen percent is Muslim). What would happen if people don’t believe it anymore? What if a new Mahatma Gandhi is born overthrowing old religious and societal rules in India? Or even better in the world?

Going all the way to understand Hindu spirituality

We leave Varanasi after a couple of visiting days to witness the Megh Mela celebration held in Allahabad this year. The annual Megh Mela festival is held between January and February. During this period, thousands of Hindu devotees take a dip in the three holy rivers converging in Allahabad, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Sarasvati rivers. The bathers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to penance for their past mistakes and that it cleanses them of their sins. The festival is also a celebration of community commerce with fairs, education, religious discourses, mass feedings of monks and/or poor, and an entertainment spectacle. Thousands of people walking, cycling, driving, joining the festivities. To me, it looks like a big party, for them it is a bit of everything.

The Kumbh Mela, same festival but bigger, is celebrated in a cycle of 12 years (next Kumbh Mela is in 2022 in Haridwar) at four different river bank pilgrimage sites. It is one of the largest peaceful religious festivals in the world with millions of Hindus participating.

Number signs to help pilgrims to find their people

After this incredible experience, I start to ease into the Indian mode. On the road, people offer us shelter and food. Experiencing Indian hospitality is a great honour for me. India, Indians, want us to leave their home country only with good memories. They want me to feel safe as a woman, always checking if I am comfortable with the facilities (bathroom) and that there are no inappropriate attitudes. Thank you to the owner of a gas station offering for us to stay in his guest house. Atul, who invites us to stay at his farmhouse where a couple of families live and weave carpets. Anoop who invites us to the village festivities, Shiva and his parents who invite us to sleep at their place. Or the young woman inviting us for a cup of tea that becomes a lunch with the whole family and the neighbours. All are caring people, highly educated with a strong sense of responsibility willing to contribute to their community by sharing their experiences and acquired knowledge. I haven’t even mentioned the vegetables and water we’ve received from strangers while cycling.

Carpet weaver - cost of labor, wool and silk for one carpet: $500-700

Volley ball game before starting the day

Our next stop is Fatehpur Sikri, a fortified ancient city west of Agra (Taj Mahal), short-lived capital of the Mughal Empire because of a lack of water (1571-1585). An elderly guide recommended by a French couple staying at the same hotel, provides us with a wonderful tour of the magnificent city, in impeccable French. He is a self-taught french speaker using words we never heard before. Erudite and handsome, he reminds me my father. This is the best-guided visit of ‘old stones’ I've had so far.

Perfect French speaking self-taught guide in Fatehpur Sikri Fort

When we leave Fatehpur Sikri, the weather is getting hotter and the cycling boring. I try to stay in Frank’s wheel enjoying the nice draft until I realize how many headwinds we have. I propose to Frank that I draft him a bit. To my surprise and my disappointment, he accepts eagerly. We switch every 10’ and I realize how nice Frank was pulling me. Now it is my turn to be nice, at least a little.

There are many hotels along the road, but quite pricy and full of tourists, so we decide to stop at this weird place, sort of restaurant and souvenir shop. They propose us to stay there overnight for $14. We are happy to accept it, it has a toilet, bed (not clean sheets) and it is quiet. This might sound weird, but places have positive or negative energy, and this one has good energy. The young man helping us, speaks relatively good English. He is kind and does a good job answering our questions. And the food is cheap and good.

By now, I don’t mind weird places and new experiences. I look a bit further than my nose and try to notice the beauty, not the ugly or uncomfortable. I think I am just happy to be where I am together with Frank.

Likes

incredible welcoming people

Indian food of course
Sense of humour of Indians
The very smooth pavement on highways

Dislikes

traffic! the narrower the street, the more aggressive the drivers with the biggest truck winning.
Air and ground pollution. After a month in Uttar Pradesh, our lungs are tired of the polluted air.

Men, particularly, like to enhance their selfies by our presence

Frank

It is not the first time we cross the Indian borders. It has always been a sort of adventure by itself wherever you cross it. If everything and anything can happen, there are usually a couple of scenarios possible, especially as independent cyclists. Make the right choice of the border post can be a good preliminary. It will define the draft script of what may happen. At a major border gate, you may have to deal with a very bureaucratic process and a custom “agent” too happy to use and abuse of his position, especially if there are a lot of people around to witness his power. He will ask you a lot of questions, sometimes with no idea of what to do with or how to interpret all your answers. Eventually, when the audience has lost interest - and this can take a while as Indians are curious and ...patient - he will give up, stamp your passport happy by his performance. At a remote border check, “they” can make it clear that a little donation for the border patrols/team families could make things much faster. It is a game, and if you play it well, everything can end up with a smile and a few selfies instead. In all cases, it is hard to predict the time it will take, so we try to show up in the morning. Especially with borders closing for the night.

Coming from Nepal, we had to go through 4 different offices and buildings from one side to the other side of the Sonauli border - police, immigration, customs - and you do not want to miss one of them if you want to avoid further problems when you will leave the country. The last control, separated from the previous one by a distance of 1km in town is barely marked. Lucky, locals with a big smile, are pointing the direction adding a hint... the office is right beside a barbershop. It makes things easier.

Just by walking and cycling those few hundreds of meters, you can tell this is not Nepal anymore. Definitely dirtier, smellier. It makes you appreciate the effort done in Nepal in the last 20 years to reduce pollution of all sorts.

People who are familiar with India and Nepal will tell you, if you’ve never traveled to India, you should start with Nepal. Nepal is like an acclimatizing camp for the Indian Sub Continent. If, as an independent traveller, you make India as your first destination in Asia, you go for the big shock. Travelling with a tour operator agency can make things much easier as they will prevent you from a big part of the uncomfortable aspects but with the risk to make your experience more “tasteless”

India is a profound personal experience. You are constantly out of your comfort zone. Even after a few past cycle and bus-train trips in different parts of India, I am still experiencing the same mix of feelings during the first couple of days and quickly I let it go and feel wrapped up by this unbelievable country, the people and their complex culture-religions. You can never say “ I have done India”! Tourist arrogance claiming a country has been DONE because he spent a couple of weeks in it, is here, even more stupid. India is not one country, it is a complex mosaic. You have not enough with one life to explore the complexity of India’s culture and history. Each of the 28 Indian States and 8 territories show differences in social, cultural, religious aspects but also ethnicity and morphology.

This is also very obvious as we cycle through our first Indian state. Within a few kilometres, you may have to adjust your attitude, behaviour, sometimes the way you are dressed to avoid inappropriate looks or situations.

India can be difficult to travel for a woman. Surprisingly, we have noticed this time, more concerns expressed by the old generation about how Sylvia, as a woman, is feeling.

In no time we are surrounded by a crowd of men curious to see pale faces

Some men, not only in the countryside but also in towns and larger cities can have that weird stalking attitude that makes you feel like prey for them. It is sometimes only a misunderstanding or miss interpretation of behaviour from a different culture but the feeling is there and sustains. An incident later, with no big consequences, will be a good wake up call and reminder...it can happen.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the poorest states in India. The level of poverty is sometimes unbelievable. It impacts frequent contacts we have as cyclists, with locals. I try to not reject anything but, it is hard to have the right attitude or to react properly and spontaneously to a situation that takes you off guard. These feelings can and are conflictual for me. It is even hard to explain them.

I am amazed by the Human Condition here and always been, all around the world, in each of my cycle trips. To be honest, it has been one of the main motivations, for me, in the choice of a destination. Aside from the quest for isolation into the wilderness. Probably both going together and eventually blending to make who I am as a human with all the human complexity and growing lack of certitude. The global Human Condition fascinates me. I like the way it challenges me in my personal choice of lifestyle. It definitely guides me.

Spirituality is the cement of the Indian society

During our 5, or so weeks, crossing Uttar Pradesh, we witness a lot of spirituality. Surprisingly, Varanasi is not the most memorable moment. A Hindu pilgrimage in the Kumbhs of Allahabad at the confluence of 3 sacred rivers deserves the palm of the spiritual experience. The sandy riverbanks of the Ganges, the Yumana and the Saraswati rivers are the scene, every 12 years, of the Kumbh Mela. A world major Hindu festival where around 60 millions of pilgrims (!!) express their spirituality and joy. We missed by one year the last one but a small version of it - the Megh Mala - happens every year at the same location in late February. An average of 50 thousand people every day and so during 45 consecutive days are wandering among the colourful tents forming a maze of prayer, devotion and living clusters separated by dusty temporary streets leading to the Holi waters for a ritual bath that is going to sweep off all the pilgrim’s sins.

India, under the Modi government, has seen many development projects at work. Enhancement of the road network, better access to drinking water or just to water and better or sustainable power availabilities.

However, countryside road maintenances have been ignored lately in favour of big Hwy projects between major cities. Budgets are limited and it all makes sense. Priorities have been made.

Teenagers cruising all day long on their motorcycle

We like countryside roads, winding through little villages surrounded by green fields where women in colourful saris are busy with their work while men are wandering to what seems to us just a waste of time. Education is mandatory to the age of 14. A free meal offered each day became a good incentive for parents in poor farmlands to send their kids to school before, for some, getting back in the family farm to help at their daily existence. According to the number of boys we can see riding their motorcycles everywhere at all hours of the day, many seem to have given up their education and farm chores. Riding their motorbikes seems to be the main reason to get up in the morning. Only 3% of the GDP is going to education. In comparison with Cuba - the leader with 12% - or the 5.3% average among the European countries and North America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spending_on_education_(%25_of_GDP)

Side roads are the way to “meet” with India but also a tiring way. Sometimes, a barely half-width band of pavement remains. And everyone is fighting to stay on it. Indian drivers do like clean cars. Their cars, trucks, like their motorcycles, are part of their pride.

Our bicycles are still marked by the muddy roads we went through in Nepal and cyclists are anyway, seen as poor. So the dirty, dusty, rocky sides of the roads are usually for us. At first, I tried to fight....a hopeless war. So when we are tired of the constant up and down from the pavement or getting over the numerous speed bumps that break our momentum, we look at main roads. The new ones have up to 3 lanes each way and a wide shoulder. Sounds pretty safe. The fight here is just different.

A new Hwy not officially open will be our private road for a couple of hours

In India, we “drive” on the left side. One of the very last English heritage remaining. Driving has rules in the book, not in real life. The only goal is to move at the rhythm of the loud honking, anyways. It is true for trucks, school buses, motorcycles, pedestrians, camels, cows, dogs, ox carts, and indescribable vehicles from 2 wheels and up.

Forget the feeling of security on a 3 lane Hwy, traffic can come from anywhere at all times. To survive, you must learn quickly to develop your new 360-degree traffic sense.

My patience, when the legs get tired and the wind is blowing against us, reaches the limit and I then decide to re-educate 1.3+ billion people. Hopelessly.

The young generation in Uttar Pradesh likes selfies. We do not mind too much... in the early time of the day. But what is some fun distractions during their motorbike daily crusades, starts to be annoying as the day goes by. They can ride right beside you for an endless time, just observing then questioning to finally begging for the selfie. Always the same scenario. No surprise, we know very well the routine. Which is even more annoying. We know that eventually, we will have to break our momentum and work after a short stop to work to get back into our comfortable riding pace. When the mood is good, these moments can be fun and the beginning of unexpected experiences and social contacts.

For an Indian, it is an honour and pride - a duty? - to welcome you. Many times, we have been invited for a “chai”, sometimes followed by a lunch and/or by a night over. Sharing time with families, learning, exchanging, getting answers to all the questions that pop in our mind as we cycle become memorable moments. We may value them at their right level only later, but sometimes they are so exceptional that you can feel right away that excitement caused by 3 factors; the right time, the right place with the right bypassing persons.

At first, people can be rude toward foreigners like anywhere in the world, in India it does not last. A smile, a “Namaste” ( Hindi greetings) and in seconds the situation changes.

We experience generosity, huge generosity from the people we are expecting the least. Pick up trucks full of people overtaking us and fruits or veggies are offered to us in the action. One cup of tea offered on the side of the road and a few minutes later the entire village is there to welcome you and offer accommodations. Not much different, actually, than what we experienced in many other countries in Asia... but so different in Occidental countries driven by fears of the unknown and concerned by missing privacy.

An invitation for a tea or a meal is often followed by a sleepover

Camping in India is not easy. Hard to find a spot where you won’t be seen eventually, then surrounded by all the kids followed by their parents. Again, we have had the same experience in other Asian countries. Hard to get around it. So one invitation for the night is tempting. We try to filter, though. We like to share and learn but our Hindi is less than basic. So if the host speaks English it is a plus to accept the invitation. It avoids long evenings of no real communication. Body language has its limitations, and the day on the bike has been tiring, we need some stimulation to not fall asleep early. Every morning we are dealing with a cold fog or should we call it smog?

Flat terrains, green fields, poor visibility in the morning, cold hands. Some days there is not much reason to stop other than for a snack. The first 500km to Varanasi have been covered in 4 days. Our sins swept off in the Ganges, a couple of rest days later and it is another long stretch to Allahabad and its Hindu pilgrimage at the confluence of 3 sacred rivers and more amazing experiences are filling up our days. The biking here is more a way to move than a real cycling fun. We are commuting between highlights.

Uttar Pradesh was a rich experience in humanity and cultural differences. we have cherished both more than anything else. Rajasthan will be more about History.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? That question has no reason to be in India. Every instant is like the first time.

IndiaFrank JanssensMarch 9, 2020Eastcapades Frank & Sylvia

The Story