Hotel Clarks Varanasi

... for a half and hour or so waiting for your train to move, while sitting in the heat over the tracks and the waste below. It made Gram pa Jacobs' IL out-house seem like a bouquet of flowers!

We rode in 3rd AC sleeper. The 2 tier AC sleeper and 3 tier Sleepers all fit into one coach. The cars have about eight "compartments". Each compartment consists of two chair/beds along the left side of the coach, one over the other. The 2 tier ...

... and collecting bottles at the train station. By the way, there's nothing like the Varanasi train station- cows were sleeping in the waiting area when we arrived! In town the ubiquitous cows block traffic on the dirt roads and even the narrowest alleys . Actually, we hadn't seen too much of India's infamous freely roaming cows until we got to this holy place. I checked my e-mail driectly after arriving yesterday- I was at an "interent stall" where only a canopy ...

... an antique, magical, active, vibrant, spiritual and a fascinating place but not one for people to visit straight from their home country in the west, it's full power India style all blended up into an acid trip with no LSD required. It's a place where anything goes, the unusual is the norm and a place so different from anywhere else on earth. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people love and hate it at the same time. It's the usual Indian style with everyone ...

... prepared ourselves for what we might experience as we approached. You could see family members milling about on the shore by the steps below the temple and workers stoking the fires with the precious (and very expensive) wood. We were brought quite close to shore and a fellow hopped and gave us an explanation of the ceremony. Of course, a donation towards helping families who are too poor to buy the wood was expected after the explanation ...

... but also life on the ghats-the Aarti (fire ceremony) in the evening, Pujas, yoga, laughing yoga, chanting, clothes laying out to dry. I enjoyed seeing the river at the different times of the day, as the water changes color as the light changes.

It is one of the most interesting places I have been to, although not the most pleasant. It was excruciatingly hot on top of everything else. My senses were overwhelmed by being there.

... camp is several hundred acres of fields, some being harvested, some being planted. As we watched them thru the binoculars, we noticed a line of women heading towards one open field and a line of men heading towards the river bank. The women dispersed around the open field, raised their skirts (exposing their brown bottoms to the world) and began fertilizing the fields-if you know what I mean. Each had a small bucket of water which she used to ...

... ceremony performed by Brahmin priests in extravagant silk costumes, on decorated platforms at the water's edge. They blow conch shells and begin chanting and clapping and then, to tabla and sitar accompaniment, they perform their elegant movements in unison, circling incense, candles and fire bowls and making symbolic offerings to the river. I have no comprehension of the significance of any of this, and my ...

... couple, who had overslept.

Down at the ghats people (mostly lumpy or stringy men) of all ages were involved in acts of devotion. Most were dressed in saffron robes or else grey cotton underpants, and they waded down the steps into the water before submersing themselves and filling enamel and brass pots with water which was then poured back into the river amidst much chanting. A few people were going about these devotional ablutions with the utmost seriousness but the majority ...