Hotel Vaibhav Varanasi

... they have already "gone to the other side" and cannot be burned again.)

That evening we attended the riverside ceremony. Seven Brahmans made prayers and waved flaming bronze vases, with hooded Cobra Snakes attached.There was musical accompaniment. The breeze came off the river and mercifully blew fresh air our way and not the smoke from the burning Ghats.

The next morning, around 5 AM, we got up and took a row boat out on ...

... in the narrow allyways and bazaars. Getting a flight to Kathmandu on Saturday, to save us from the 22 hour overland journey...which we have to do on the way back into India. Looking forward to Nepal, the himalayas, the freshair (!) and the cooler weather...

Our blogs may become less frequent when we're in Nepal due to treks and a possible lack of internet...will write our tales of adventures in a few weeks.

Bye bye! x

... the birds and kites would fill the sky. Living in Varanasi amongst the people you start to see more and more, there's glimpses of things that are so random that you're not sure if you saw them or not. Cows are in abundance here. Cows sleep in houses, come into restaurants and even into the internet cafe. I Love it. I Love cows. Say yes to cows, except when they accidentally stand on our puppies in the street. Say yes to Varanasi, i am sure i will find my way back here ...

... with some beautiful tunes streaming from the ipod. Bless the ipod. Lots of people come up onto the tops of their buildings to see the sun go to sleep for the day, getting up high if the go. From our position we could see kids flying paper kites, kids wrestling, families of monkeys scaling walls and leaping tall buildings in leaps and bounds, meditators, yoga sessions and families having a laugh together and just being. There is a reckless spirit of fun. Below us on their ...

... children swimming in one of the worlds most polluted rivers in the world, ghat side cricket match where they never lose the ball, old men washing with clay from one of the worlds most **** filled rivers, dogs chewing on bones of unknown origin, the untouchable caste (burners) sifting through human ashes looking for gold teeth and rings, feeble old men trying to scare you into buying firewood (And I quote: "I don't believe you. Come to my office, open ...

... whole of India. Sometimes it's difficult when you feel you have to be constantly on guard, when you feel like you are a walking piggy-bank, there to be picked at and plundered. This is a city of contrasts, of life and death, like the boy we watched fishing while a corpse bobbed and floated right past his line. Here, we have seen how different people deal with the struggle for life and it is a truly humbling, frustrating, but ultimately worthwhile experience.


XXX

So after all the craziness surrounding my sunstroke episode had died down we decided to relocate to a new hostel which was more centrally placed in Varanassi! From this moment on my opinion of the place totally changed. The area of Varanassi around the main ghats was full of character, small very narrow streets, where you would have to literally squeeze pass the occassional cow that was happily minding its own business, whilst the main street was full of markets stalls, crammed with ...

... it was explained to us, the guru of this temple is a strict nudist (we were shown the pictures) who believes that washing his body will do harm to the bacteria that live on his skin-so he never bathes, nor does he cut his hair or beard. He does not believe in the use of money and accepts to eat fruit only if it has fallen naturally from a tree. Underground vegetables and of course meat, fish, and fowl are forbidden. The temple is clean and there ...

... Ghat. The current was strong and the boatman eventually had to call over his brother, who he had spotted on the shore, to help with the rowing. We passed the funeral of the young woman we had seen earlier, who was by now being consumed by orange flames, black smoke billowing forth. After we had docked at Dandi the boatman demanded double the price we had agreed (saying the current was strong) and an avoidable argument ensued which resulted in him refusing to accept any money from us ...