Monday, 16 February 2026
We were up early to be ready for a 7.00am pick up, for our transfer to the airport to fly to Varanasi. Both feeling a bit average we decided to skip breakfast, choosing to pop Zithro tablets and Gastro Stop instead. The breakfast you have in India when you have to take an early morning flight after a night on the toilet, ha, ha.
So, despite us having tipped them last night, it was Karamvir and Deetu who arrived this morning to drive us to the airport. Now, we were under the impression that we were booked to stay at the Hotel ITC Welcom because of its proximity to the airport. Imagine our surprise when we were on the road for half an hour and then an hour and … we still weren’t at the airport. By the time it reached 8.15am all of us were getting concerned about making check-in for our 9.45am flight to Varanasi.
When we checked our tickets they stated that check-in would close at 8.45am, a full hour before our scheduled departure. Aaargh! The tickets also stated that we would be flying out of Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad. What? So, the hotel is close to the Indira Gandhi International Airport for international flights but it’s the arse end of nowhere from the airport that our domestic flight leaves from this morning. Honestly, we should have been picked up at the same time as Sally and Julie to allow for the time that it took to drive from New Delhi to Ghaziabad in morning peak hour traffic.
Finally, we arrived at the turn-off for the airport and Bernie was optimistic that it was just straight down the road and we would be there. Ahem, that did not account for the fact that Hindon Airport is principally an Air Force base, with a civil terminal squeezed into a corner. Now, with an Air Force base comes military security, so that meant negotiating a chicane of barriers and checkpoints before we could be dropped off anywhere near the terminal building. With military personnel slow to push the barriers out of the way, Deetu jumped out to push them aside so Karamvir could drive the bus through. All well and good except that he was then told to wait while security personnel boarded the bus to check us out. Meanwhile the time had advanced to 8.45am and we were not inside the terminal.
Karamvir finally parked the bus beside the terminal and we hauled our bags inside at 8.50am … only to be told that check-in for the flight to Varanasi was CLOSED. Oh, no, we wailed, we need to be on that flight. No Special Holiday Travel rep had accompanied us to the airport, so it was up to the eight of us to try to resolve our big problem of getting to Varanasi today to continue our tour. The airport staff were helpful, calls were made to try to negotiate for us to make the flight. When they came back to us, it was with an offer to fly all of us to Varanasi WITHOUT OUR LUGGAGE and a promise to include our bags on tomorrow’s flight. Um, no thanks, we are not flying without our bags. Well, you’ll have to go back to New Delhi to try to get a flight from there.
Andrew tried to go back outside to see if Karamvir was still there. Nope, once you’ve entered the terminal you can’t go back outside. We looked up the phone number for Anmol, the Director of Special Holiday Travel, that was included in the paperwork we were issued on arrival. Just as Bernie’s call was connected, the staff came up to us with the good news that, yes, they would fly us and our luggage to Varanasi today. By now it was 9.10am. If they had just let us in five minutes late we’d already be on the plane!! What followed was a chaotic journey through bag screening where many of us had to explain items showing up on the X-Ray.
They didn’t like Bernie’s power board and my water immersion heater caused some concern. However, one of the sisters had a personal fan in her suitcase that they really didn’t like. She had to unpack her case and show it to them before she was cleared to go. Never mind the fact that her sister had the same fan in her case and it wasn’t picked up.
Check-in counter next. Tickets and passports were being handed around everywhere as we tried to get them to the person on the counter as quickly as possible with Emma running between the stragglers from luggage X-Ray to the check-in counter. Then we had to unpack all our electronic items into trays to clear personal security checks. I was next to walk through the metal detector when the attendant pointed at my watch and told me it had to go through the X-Ray machine. I took it off and plunged through the Mens’ queue and threw it into a random tray. I then cleared the metal detector and the paddle examination without any trouble and, thank goodness, was reunited with my carry-on bag, handbag, iPad, Kindle, phone AND watch from the X-Ray machine. We cleared the gate and boarded the bus.
And waited, and waited for the bus to set out across the tarmac to our flight. Come on, come on, come on, what are we waiting for?? Eventually the bus set off, only to make another stop to pick up some airport personnel who obviously needed to go where we were going. We arrived at our IndiGo aircraft and made our way onboard. Seated in the last two rows of the plane we had to do sort of a walk of shame all the way down the centre aisle. Well, not really, we had made it onto the flight before it’s scheduled departure time so we hadn’t held up our fellow passengers at all. In fact, despite everything, the flight started taxiing to the runway about six minutes ahead of time … with all of us onboard, even if we were feeling a little frazzled.
After an uneventful flight, that took just over an hour, we touched down in Varanasi. From our travel documentation: The city of Varanasi is situated along the west bank of the Ganges in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Called Benaras by the British, Varanasi is an important pilgrimage centre for the Hindu religion. It was a flourishing trade centre when Buddha came to Sarnath to preach his first sermon in 500 BC. The renowned American novelist Mark Twain once wrote, “Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together”. Since ancient times, Varanasi has stood as a symbol of the Hindu Renaissance and preserved the rituals and traditions of Hindu philosophy. Down the ages, pilgrims from distant lands have come to Varanasi in search of divine blessings.
We proceeded to the baggage carousel expecting that all our bags would have been last on and would, therefore, be first off. Nope! Margot’s bag was already circling the carousel as we arrived in the baggage claim hall. The rest of our bags arrived randomly interspersed with those of other passengers, until we were just waiting for Bernie’s bag to arrive. And waiting, and waiting. He checked the location of his AirTag on his phone, which confirmed that his bag had arrived in Varanasi, it just hadn’t arrived at the carousel … yet. When it eventually popped out onto the carousel we were able to head out into the Arrivals Hall where we were met by the local rep for our transfer to the Hotel The Amayaa.
Straight away he started revising the itinerary with us. Aargh! Rather than doing the Aarti ceremony at the Ganges this evening, your guide will pick you up at 2.00pm to complete a couple of activities from tomorrow’s itinerary today, to make it easier to fit in the optional excursion to Sarnath tomorrow. After completing part of the City Tour today you will have the evening at leisure. We weren’t being asked, we were being told!
We checked in at the hotel and headed upstairs. We were lucky – our room was ready AND it didn’t smell bad. June and Chris had to wait for housekeeping to finish making up their room and Emma and Andrew had to ask to change rooms because their room smelt moldy. They were offered air freshener but they held firm and insisted on a new room. I was still feeling pretty ordinary, so I broke out the packet of Sao biscuits I brought with me and ate a few of those with a scrape of Vegemite. Bernie walked to the mall about five minutes along the street and bought himself a veggie burger at Burger King before coming back with some bottled water from the supermarket. Gotta stay hydrated despite the dodgy tummy!
At 2.00pm we headed downstairs where we were met by our Varanasi guide, Dinesh. We piled onto the minibus and drove across town to the Bharat Mata Mandir Temple, a unique temple dedicated to ‘Mother India’ as a deity, rather than traditional gods. Inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1936, it features a massive, detailed, undivided (pre-dating the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh) map of India carved from Makrana marble on its floor, symbolizing national unity and patriotism.
Groan! The next stop on our so called City Tour was at the Bressler Silk House to observe artisans weaving silk, one using the centuries old traditional technique and another on a more modern loom. After a short demonstration we were, of course, ushered into the showroom to be shown all the silk wares available to purchase. We were shown some larger pieces – table runners and bedspreads – but mainly it was about the scarves. So many scarves, in so many different colours and patterns in a variety of grades and prices. I resisted, but scarves were purchased by several of the girls.
After the obligatory shopping, it was back to the hotel for a quiet evening. We dined in the hotel restaurant this evening with Bernie opting for a prawn biriyani and me pasta again. I thought I would try their pesto sauce with penne. Hmmn, Bernie said his biriyani was delicious BUT, the pesto sauce on my pasta was NOTHING like my pesto sauce and … I didn’t really fancy it all that much. Not helped by me still being without much of an appetite.
With our pick-up scheduled for 5.45am in the morning, for our first activity for the day, I turned the light out before 10.00pm hoping to get a decent amount of sleep.
Steps: 4,937 (3.25kms)
