Hindustan International Varanasi

... then getting yourself and your bags on the correct car.

The trains' bathrooms (2 on a car) feature aluminum toilets (one western style, one Asian Squat model). Both deliver their contents directly to the rail bed below the coaches, via a stove pipe. Unlike SE Asia and Russian trains, where they lock the restrooms while train in in station, here they are wide open as people load and wait. I'll just say , you haven't lived until you ...

... keyboard has white out written on the keys to indicate the different letters. Needless to say, I won't be posting pictures until I get back to a more high tech situation, maybe back in Delhi sometime the first week of August. I remember feeling so frustrated about the inefficient computers earlier in my trip- now I'm totally relaxed.

So I'm really having the "India" experience- right off the train we encountered a small classroom's worth of dirty, skinny kids ...

... with what turned out to be all the swine flu symptoms of weakness, fatigue, fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, body aches and runny nose. It was a low point having to lie in the bed all day. We're not sure if it was actual swine flu but it seemed to disappear just as rapidly as it started, very fast. The fever was very high and Varanasi was out of thermometers to gauge it until some chap went somewhere on his motorboke and brought one into the pharmacy for me. The ...

... the life of a junkie in a place where people come to be cremated has to be crawling around at the rock bottom of the pit i would say.

Varanasi (Benares), the city of Shiva is one of the holiest places in india where Hindu pilgrims come to wash away their sins in the Ganges river or to cremate their loved ones and also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It's old school but even with the feeling of death lingering, we still found it to ...

... 2 young boys who were our rowers for the evening. The river was busy with similar row boats, large and small, filled with a few tourists or packed to the gunnels with Indian pilgrims. The golden light glowing off the old buildings lining the river quickly turned to night as the boys rowed us slowly up to the Harishchandra burning ghat. We could see the fires in the distance and could smell the pungent smoky smell of the burning wood and ...

... weren't about to jump in the river for a swim, there were plenty of people in it at all hours of the day. We saw a swimming class going on, lots of clothes being washed in the early morning hours, and people bathing in the water. I'm not sure how anything could get clean in that water, which apparently is officially septic but still somehow supports life!

We took two boat trips on the water, where we were able to see not only the people in the ...

... and the room spacious and well decorated. We are looking west from the 6th floor and have a very nice view of the countryside. About a quarter mile away but within easy view is a large encampment of what appears to be agricultural workers. There homes are mostly plastic tarps with little fire rings in front. We can see many families wandering around the camp in the early hours of dawn, making small fires to cook their breakfast. To the south of ...

... are almost impossible to navigate, I’d get lost about once a day however the Indian people were as ever very helpful and you’d soon be back on track. I also took the liberty of trying the local bhang lassie’s, one evening I had two and after four hours nothing happened so I went to bed and promptly slept for 16 hours, I guess they took effect once I was asleep.

... form in the flames, then shovel the ashes into a pile to sift through for any jewellery remaining. Death and cremation in this holy city guarantee release from the cycle of reincarnation and the burning ghats are flanked by rest houses populated by the old and the dying living out their final days in anticipation of their assured release.



I sit on the ghats again for evening puja, an intense ...

... and the alleys were full of the sounds of shuffling feet as the devoted made their way down to the river to perform their morning puja. For a few enchanting minutes a strange pink light illuminated the air and lent credence to the idea of this being a holy place at a holy hour. Unfortunately we didn't experience this strange phenomenum whilst on the water, as had been recommended, but instead from the cramped doorway of our guesthouse as we awaited our fellow passengers, an ...