Wall painters arrive in Varanasi

We have successfully made it to Varanasi with the help of Qatar Airways and IMS-service. We are really grateful for them that they have made the trip doable!

3D view of our flight

Delicious!

Flying high on Qatar Airways

We will publish a more detailed report later on, because the Internet connection in Varanasi is rather slow, and downloading pictures take a lot of time.

The city of Varanasi welcomed our arrival with smooth weather, even a little chilly in the mornings and evenings. What can I say about the changes in city from the first glance, well, now Varanasi has more quality big format outdoor advertising, both in terms of constructions and printing. The ghats have more lightning during the evenings, so they are easy to navigate, I barely used my flashlight going from Dasashwameth to Assi ghat. To my surprise I saw children playing not only cricket, but also badminton! Totally amazing.

A night view from Assi ghat

The traffic stays the same, the streets are crowded with riksha-wallas and chai is still a major treat here.

The central ghat and other ghats around 500 meters from it were cleared of all advertising paintings in November for the Dep Devali celebration. Our announcement was also removed, but we are not discouraged, we will do a real wall painting, not just an announcement )

As for the graffiti, we have met everyone we needed on the second day of our arrival, including the owner of the ghat Mr. Mishtra, so today at 11-00 we started our long awaited and long air-flighted wall painting.

You can follow us on twitter.com/govaranasi to learn the latest news first.

Varanasi graffiti trip - update

We have received Artyom’s passport in Moscow, now Inderaj from IMS-Service has done almost impossible, booking tickets and delivering all the documents for visa to the Indian embassy, so now we just wait.

The flight is scheduled on November 25, Varanasi, here we go!

Turbulence zone

We believed that we had reached the final stage in our graffiti project, that already took almost a year to happen. We thought we just had to come to Varanasi and start actually drawing on the wall. Evidently, we made all arrangements in summer - we chose the winners, we booked the tickets to Delhi and Varanasi with the help of Qatar Airways, we confirmed the dates.

But making plans with Varanasi is not that easy, as you probably now, and the city itself has suddenly made a move. Interesny Kazki informed us a month before departure, that they would not be able to make the trip on the arranged dates, since they are busy with some very important art event in USA in November. Oops.

We can't change the dates of the trip, because we can't change them in the tickets. So we just loose them - two tickets to Delhi and two domestic to Varanasi. Anyway, we are very greatful to Qatar Airways - guys have really taken all the pains to deliver tickets on the exact dates we requested, despite Kazki's changing plans a couple of times. Qatar have even booked us a return trip in December, a high season for India.

So we had a situation - artists would not go, and two tickets went down the drain.

Alright, we needed plan B. Plan B is Artyom Semyanenko with his esoteric Moscow subway logo. His work has won a lot of appraise both from the Jury and from the special forum on India travel from Russia and CIS indostan.ru.

We call him and yes, he is ready to go, but he doesn't have a foreign passport. Artyom quickly gets all the necessary documents and submits them to the Russian Migration Service in his hometown Rostov-na-Donu, because the departure is already scheduled for November 25th.

Then we face another challenge - we have the artist, but no tickets for him.
We turn to our Indian friend Indar, who works in Moscow providing for tickets to India, domestic flights and railroad tickets there. We have booked tickets through him for many-many years and we know him from some of our best friends, who also travel to India with his help. His agency is called IMS-Service and is well known among Moscow offices of airlines, who fly from Moscow to India. He has also promised to provide a free of charge visa for our project and a ticket, if we need one.

So we tell him about our predicament, and luckily he says he will help us and book Artyom a free ticket to Delhi. Thats pretty amazing, thank you Indar for your trust in our project! Seems like Varanasi comes through really nice people anywhere on Earth.

So we hope it all go well, though the Universe can once again change our plans, because if Artyom receives the passport later than November 18, he won't be able to get the visa in time.

A few words about Artyom. He is 19, he lives in Rostov-na-Donu and he has never been to India. He studies in Architecture Academy, majoring in Restoring of art in architecture.

Here are more of his works

No more tourists in Vishvanath Temple

We have just learned, that Vishvanath, the most sacred Golden Temple of Varanasi, has ultimately closed its doors to foreigners. As one of the tourists was busted in the temple with a camera in September, the Ministry of Tourism has banned foreigners altogether from getting inside the temple.

So right now there is no way curious travellers can get in - not with the help of the government approved guides, not through the priests, who sit along the alleyways near the entrance to the sacred site.

UPD
As it turned out, Vishvanath has lifted the ban - probably in the wake of new tourist season. So you CAN actually get in, proving to the guards that you are Hindu ) The ban has stayed for two months.

A live webcam from Varanasi

Modern technologies slow, but steady dig their way into Varanasi.
We are proud and sad (good old Varansi is getting way too globalized) to present the first ever webcam streaming live video from Iiba - a clean, nice and cozy restaurant in the middle of Varanasi.

Wow.


Live Video streaming by Ustream

Qatar Airways offers cheap Moscow-Delhi flight

Qatar Airways has a nice special offer for those who want to get to India from Moscow in comfort this autumn. Only for 357 euro you can book yourself a flight to Delhi through Doha - cool and modern airport whith a lot of things to buy in its large duty free shop.

The offer is valid until August 31.
Grab the moment!

Lonely Planet got lost in Varanasi

Lonely Planet referrs to Varanasi as the second best place to get lost in. After Venice.

Lets's see what it says about Varanasi.
"You could throw yourself into Varanasi’s dark maze of streets a hundred times over and still come out at a different point. Discover temples, sweet shops and silk bargains in its back alleys." - quite right!

"Get found: Countless bicycle rickshaw drivers will be only too happy to take you home – for a price that’s in range of just about every budget." - absolutely wrong!

In fact, there are no rickshaws in the Old city of Varanasi - and we are speaking exactly abou the Old city, since that's the place where tourists wander. Just because it's streets are two narrow for a rickshaw - sometimes it's so narrow that only 1 person can pass at a time. So there's no escape on a rickshaw. The best way out of the Old city (if you can't get yourself back on the road with rickshaws) is to walk down the streets to the river. There you could consult your map and find out where you are - the names of the ghats are everywhere. And from there you can take a boat to where you want to go.
Otherwise you just trust some local to get you out of the labyrinth. Just believe that he actually is a good a person and he will surely help you out )

The upside is - no one has ever failed to find the way out of the Old city )