India Travel

Trains

Gaya to: Allahabad (4 daily; 4hr 20min-6hr 30min); Calcutta (6 daily 6-9hr); Dehra Dun (1 daily; 26hr); Delhi (9 daily; 12-15hr); Haridwar (1 daily; 23hr|; Kalka (1 daily; 27hr); Lucknow (3 daily; 10-13hr); Mughal Sarai (13 daily; 3-5hr); Mumbai (1 daily: 31 hr); Patna (4 daily; 2hr 30min); Puri (3 weekly; 17-40hr); Ranchi (3 daily; 8hr 20min); Sasaram (10 daily; 1-3hr); Varanasi (3 daily; 4hr-5hr 30min).

Patna to: Agra (1 daily; 17hr 35min); Allahabad (8 daily; 6-8hr); Calcutta (6 daily; 7hr 30min-12hr); Chennai (2 weekly; 44hr); Delhi (8 daily; 12-24hr); Gaya (4 daily; 2hr 30min); Guwahati (3 daily: 21-26hr); Lucknow (3 daily; 9-14hr): Mumbai (3 daily; 33-36hr); Puri (1 daily; 19hr); Ranchi (3 daily; 11-Hhr); Varanasi (3 daily; 4-6hr).

Ranchi to: Allahabad (2 weekly; 1 Bhr); Calcutta (Howrah; 1 daily; Hhr): Daltonganj (1 daily; 7hr 30min); Delhi (2 weekly; 23-26hr); Dhanbad (2 daily; 5hr 30min); Gaya (2 daily; 7hr 20min); Jasidih (2 daily; 9hr); Patna (3 daily: 10-Uhr).

Buses

Bodhgaya to: Gaya (hourly; 45min); Patna (2 daily;5hr|; Ranchi (daily; 12hr); Varanasi (1 daily; 6-7hr).

Gaya to: Bodhgaya (hourly; 45min); Mughal Sarai(6 daily; 5hr); Patna (hourly; 3hr); Ranchi (8 daily;8hr); Sasaram (8 daily; 3hr); Varanasi (6 daily; 5hr30min).

Patna to: Gaya (hourly; 3hr); Ranchi (4 daily;12-14hr); Raxaul (18 daily; 6hr); Vaishali (2 daily:3hr); Varanasi (4 daily; 6hr 30min).

Ranchi to: Bodhgaya (1 daily; 21 hi); Calcutta(Howrah; 2 weekly; 2hr 20min|; Daltonganj (4daily; 8hr); Delhi (2 daily; 1hr 4Gmin); Dhanbad (6
daily; 5hr); Gaya (8 daily; 8hr); Patna (daily;i2-14hr).

Flights

Patna to: Calcutta (1 daily; 1hr 20min): Delhi (3 daily; 1hr 30min): Lucknow (1 daily; 1hr); Mumbai (1 daily; 2hr 15min); Ranchi (1 daily; 45min); Varanasi (1 daily; 35min).

The official headquarters of the park, Daltonganj. 25km from Betla, are served by direct buses and a branch railway line from Ranchi. Five buses each morning and three each afternoon (first at 7.30am; last at 4.30pm) run from Daltonganj to Betla, which is 6km off the main Ranchi-Daltonganj road. If you’re coming from Ranchi, you could try to change buses at the turn-off and get to Betla without going through Daltonganj.This is a fairly lawless corner of the state, so it’s best to avoid night travel.

Next to the Betla gates, the main park entrance, a small complex holds administration offices, rest houses and an information centre, where entry tickets, elephant rides and accommodation in any of the Forest Department’s rest houses can be arranged. All arrangements, including car or Jeep rental and accommodation, can also be made at Daltonganj through the Director, Project Tiger, Jail Compound.

Forest Department Rest Houses in Betla itself include the main one (0), which prioritizes visiting civil servants and is comfortable with attached baths, and the very cheap and basic Janata and Shyama lodges .

There are also a couple of hotels. The privately run Naihar, 300m from the park gates, has a nice garden, a dorm, a/c rooms and a reasonable restaurant serving Chinese and Indian food, while the grand-looking Van Vihar recently opened by Bihar Tourism, offers spacious rooms {some a/c) and also has a restaurant. Simple cafes can be found oppo¬site the gates at Betla,

In a remote and lawless corner of the state, 170km west of Ranchi, the beautiful forests of the PALAMAU NATIONAL PARK (also known as Betla), cover around 1000 square kilometres of hilly terrain rising south towards Madhya Pradesh. Part of the Project Tiger scheme (see Contexts, p. 1532). Palamau has been hard hit by drought, and even optimistic estimates of its tiger population stand at a mere sixty.Tiger sightings, more common in the hot season, are proudly announced on a noticeboard at the park offices.

Like many national parks, Palamau consists of a buffer zone, open to visitors, surrounding a core area which is not; the tigers are known to roam around 20km a day, but tend to concentrate in the core area. The fact that several villages are located within the park boundaries has not helped the protection of animals, despite a scheme of compensation for owners of cattle killed by tigers. Other animals found in the park include wild elephants, best seen after the monsoons, nilgai (antelope), leopard, gaur (bison), Indian wolf, wild boar and wild dogs. The best way to see the park is from the back of an elephant, and the earlier in the morning you go the more animals you’re likely to spot.

Most of Ranchi’s hotels are along, or just off, the long Main Road. If you’d rather not eat in your hotel, Friends Restaurant, Station Road, is a cheap and basic cafe serving south Indian snacks, while Suttor, on Club Road, is a good multi-cuisine restaurant. One of the best places is Kaveri, Church Complex, Main Road, a very reasonably priced vegetarian restaurant despite its upmarket ambience, while Krishna, downstairs, is a bit cheaper.The Maharaja Chinese restaurant also serves good food.

Embassy, Station Road. One of the better budget hotels along this stretch; reasonably clean with attached baths.
Highland Inn, Old Hazaribagh Road. Old-world, simple bungalow, with atmospheric if faded rooms, within walking distance of the railway station and bus stand.

Kwality Inn, Station Road. Justifiably popular with central a/c and smart, comfortable rooms, and one of the best restaurants in town - the Nook.

Ranchi Ashok, Ooranda district. Ranchi’s most prestigious, with central a/c, and all facilities including a bar and an expensive restaurant; it’s part of a poorly run government chain.

South Eastern Railway, Station Road. Capturing that Raj atmosphere, with pleasant gardens, and Bungalows with sizeable rooms and pillared verandas.

Yuvraj, Main Road, Doranda district. Popular hotel with some a/c rooms and a good restaurant

RANCHI, at the heart of the Chotanagpur plateau, is ugly and poor and it’s hard to believe that it was once the summer capital of Bihar, full of tea-gardens. The only reason to come here is to visit one of its ashrams such as the extensive Yogoda Math Ashram.

Several major trains - connecting with, among other places, Calcutta. Delhi Patna, Daltonganj, Dhanbad.Jasidih and Jamshedpur - either call at Ranchi station, near the southern end of the Main Road, or terminate at Hatia, 7km away. Indian Airlines has daily flights between Ranchi and Delhi, while there are twice-weekly flights (Tues & Sat) for Patna and Calcutta. Their offices are at 4 Welfare Centre Enclave, and Jawan Bhavan, both on Main Road. From the main bus stand near the railway station, regular Nagar Seva buses travel to Gaya (8hr), Hazaribagh, Netarhat,Jamshedpur, and to Daltonganj, headquarters of the Palamau (Betla) National Park, 160km to the west. Ranchi’s Tourist Office, in the Tourist Complex, Hotel Birsa Vihar, Main Road (Mon-Sat 8am-8pm), is friendly but offers little more than dusty brochures.They also have an information booth at the railway station. Holiday Travellers, Patel Chowkh offers organized tours to the waterfalls around Ranchi, Betla and Netarhat.

On the eastern extremities of the Vindhya hills, at the northern fringes of the Deccan, lie the forested hills and escarpments of the rugged Chotanagpur plateau.The area became a new state,JHARKHAND, in 2000, after years of agitation by its largely tribal population, though it seems unlikely that its extreme poverty and lawlessness can be dealt with by creating a slew of new government positions and changing some names.

The state capital is Ranchi, although Jamshedpur in the southeast corner is one of eastern India’s most important industrial towns, the headquarters of the steel conglomerate TISCO. The forests that surround Jamshedpur, at the edge of the plateau, are home to aboriginal tribes such as the Santals, Oraon and Munda, who amount to around sixty percent of the region’s population. Christian missionaries have had a strong impact here, and some Munda villages display shrines to the Virgin, but much of the area is unsafe for travellers as it is patrolled by bandits and left-wing guerrilla groups.

This area was formerly renowned for its wildlife. Sadly, the beautiful forests of the Palamau or Betla National Park, on the southwest edge of Chotanagpur. have been damaged by years of drought and its tigers are now severely endangered.

Almost midway between Patna and Calcutta (Howrah),jasidih is easily accessible by train, and several buses link Monghyr, Jamalpur and Jasidih. Jasidih’s small selection of hotels includes the reasonable Yatrik, the vast Arog Bhavan with a very cheap dorm as well as a/c rooms, and the amazing Mitra Garden, offering a/c rooms, a restaurant and indoor and outdoor pools - the proprietor will have you picked up from the station and also organizes trips to nearby Santal villages. Options near the ashram include the Sita and Dreamland. In Deogarh, the Yatrik and the Baidyanath have very reasonably priced a/c rooms.

The best food is in the hotel restaurants - Mitra Garden s is the best - although in Jasidih, the excellent vegetarian meals at Neelkamal are also worth a try.

JASIDIH, a small industrial town 220km southeast of Patna on the main line to Calcutta, has started to attract travellers due to the international popularity of the ascetic Swarni Satyananda and his Rikhya Yoga Ashram, 12km from the centre. Note, however, that the ashram is open to the public only a few select days every year; visitors are expected to donate clothing and medicine. Yoga courses are run b his disciple Niranjan within the walls of the old fort at Monghyr, 60km to the north (nearest train station, Jamalpur) and 180km east of Patna. For information, write to Bihar Yoga Bharati, Ganga Darsham Fort, Monghyr. Bihar 811201.

Baidyanath Dham, the Shiva temple at DEOGARH, 6km to the east on the Ganges, has been an important pilgrimage centre for centuries; legend has it that this is where the evil Ravana rested on his way to Lanka after abducting Sita. Deogarhs tranquillity is shattered during the annual tneta, held during the monsoon month of Shravan (July/Aug) when around 100,000 pilgrims visit the temple every day.

The richly adorned towers and the fairy-like turrets, like the pointed hill-tops, are congregated together . . . The stages have dragon projections and coloured eaves, the pearl-red pillars carved and ornamented, the richly adorned balustrades, and the roofs covered with tiles that reflect the light in a thousand shades. These things add to the beauty of the place.

Hiuen Tsang, who spent twelve years at Nalanda as student and teacher.

Founded in the fifth century AD by the Guptas, the great monastic Buddhist university of NALANDA flourished, with thousands of international students and teachers, until it was sacked by the Afghan invader Bhaktiar Khilji in the twelfth century. Excavations have revealed nine levels of occupation on the site, dating back to the time of the Buddha and the Jain founder Mahavira, in the sixth century BC. Most of it is now m ruins, but the orderliness and scale of what remains is staggering evidence of the strength of Buddhist civilization in its prime. Nalanda is now part of the modern Buddhist pilgrimage circuit, but even the casual tourist will appreciate taking the time to walk through the extensive site, or climb its massive 31-metre stupa for commanding views.The site is strewn with the remains of stupas, temples and eleven monasteries, their thick walls impressively intact.

Courses taught at Nalanda included the study of scriptures of the Mahayana and Hinayana Schools of Buddhism, Brahmanical and Vedic texts, philosophy, logic, theology, grammar, astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Education was provided free, supported by the revenue from surrounding villages, and by benefactors such as the eighth-century king of Sumatra. Informative booklets available at the ticket booth render the numerous and solicitous guides unnecessary. A small alfresco bar inside the grounds serves tea, coffee and soft drinks without the hassle of the touts and beggars at the entrance.

Nalanda Museum (daily except Fri 10am-5pm; free) houses antiquities found here and at Rajgir, including Buddhist and Hindu bronzes and a number of undamaged statues of the Buddha. Other sculptures produced here during the eighth- to tenth-century Pala period are displayed at the Indian Museum in Calcutta, the National Museum in New Delhi and the Patna Museum! Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, the Pali postgraduate research institute, houses many rare Buddhist manuscripts, and is devoted to study and research in Pali literature and Buddhism.

Shared Jeeps ply regularly between Bihar Sharif and Rajgir, stopping at the turning to Nalanda from where an assortment of transport, including shared tongas, is available for the remaining 2km to the gates of the site. An old colonial villa 300m past the site is now run as a PWD rest house and exudes an evocative air of the decaying Raj, offering large double rooms with veranda, lounge and gardens. Simple food and soft drinks are available.

Ajatshatru. near the hot springs. A basic place run by Bihar Tourism, where it costs Rs. 100 tostay in a dorm.

Anand, a couple of hundred metres up trie road opposite the bus station, Nice terrace and cosmic blue paint,

Centaur Hokke. 4km from the bus station and 2km from Kund market, at the end of a dusty road leading from the hot springs, An ugly concrete exterior plays host to an extraordinary Japanese restaurant and comfortable rooms (see box). Worth a visit just to try the seaweed sandwiches.

Gautam Vihar, 300m from there bus station on the road to Nalanda. Spacious old building with conference facilities. Large rooms with pleasant verandas and attached bath. Run by Bihar Tourism.