We really wanted to go from Varanasi to Rishikesh but that isn’t an easy commute so we flew back to Delhi, stayed the night in an hotel near the station and then got on the 6.45 am train to Haridwar. Beware hotels near railway stations the world over. This one was called The Mayfair with a degree of irony. You know you’ve chosen the wrong hotel when the check-in process asks you when you want your shower! Trains don’t go all the way to Rishikesh. Probably something to do with the mountains. Although it’s about an hour in the taxi from Haridwar to Rishikesh we thought it would be worth a night on account of it being another significant religious site on the banks of the Ganges.
The New Delhi railway station should be called Scam Central. The first scam we were already aware of but it surprised us as to how blatant it was. As you can imagine Delhi station is enormous and there are many doors to get in. Each door has an X-ray machine for the luggage and standing ahead of each X-ray machine is a man who asks to see your ticket. No uniform, no lanyard but a man who looks busy and officious. He asked for the ticket and we showed him. He said our train was cancelled and we needed to book another ticket. Could do it on line or could do it via a travel agent that he knew. We gave this guy the heave ho and went to another X-ray machine only to find someone else doing the same thing. We just ignored this one and went straight in. It struck me that these scammers couldn’t have been more obvious and it was a bit like state sponsored extortion. Still on we went and found that our train was on platform 16. Easy peasy except that as we walked across the footbridge, platform 16 was barricaded off with no arrows for a diverted route. There are porters who are there to help but they want paying and will certainly not tell you where any platforms are for free. A number of people tried to help us but we were going around in circles. Time was getting on and eventually we had to employ a porter. He was confident he knew where he was going and took us entirely out of the station, through a car park and back in through another wholly concealed X-ray machine. There was a few minutes of this journey where we were concerned it might be a scam but it wasn’t. He had my bag balanced on his head whilst he pulled Sarah’s bag. I wouldn’t say we was a tall man but when my bag was back on the ground it was covered in pigeon poo! He dropped the bags exactly where our carriage stopped so he must’ve known what he was doing. Then he asked for a fiver which is laughable for 5 minutes work in Delhi but he wouldn’t leave so eventually we gave him it. Beware of hidden Harry Potter-like platforms at Scam Central.
