Monu Family Paying Guest House Varanasi

... owner came and took it away boo!

In a happier mood after monkey friend making i decided to go see the cremation Ghat. Through the tiny alley ways leading up to it i had already seen the funeral processions go through. I got to the Ghat and there were 7 big fires going and i stood from a distance and watched. I thought that was it, nothing too dramatic but then they brought the bodies out. First the body, wrapped in cloth is dipped into the river. Then ...

... ni nada! Obviamente esto tiene sus consecuencias, la calle es un zoológico, hay caca de todos los animales por todos lados, basura por doquier, olor no muy agradable y muchas cosas más; pero ellos están contentos y andan descalzos.

Al principio no nos sentimos tan atrapados por el lugar, pero después de unos días a medida que caminábamos por los callejones estrechos de la ciudad, escuchando mantras que salían de todos los templos, gente meditando y haciendo yoga de todo ...

... in piles of wood. The next morning we returned to watch the sun rise over the river. Hundreds of pilgrims were bathing in the sacred (and very dirty) river.

For us, Varanasi was a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget!

From Rie:

Each Indian has four mothers:
Her/his own mother
Mother Ganges
Mother cow
Mother India

... 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 sit for a half and hour or so waiting for ...

... some footage from previous ones. On the eclipse morning the guy had a good position on the ghats as the sun disappeared behind the moon and he managed to capture the emotions of the thousands of pilgrims who were bathing in The Ganges at the time. Some days later we accquired his movie and he gave us some other good information and conversation.

Nag Panchami

It seems that everyday in the City Of Lord Shiva there is a festival or some kind of celebration of a ...

... little pieces from her shop as a group of five little scruffy girls carrying cardboard collection sacks stopped to watch us trying the jewellery on. It's probably a usual game for them to get tourists to buy them jewellery but they seemed very interested in the earrings. Nadia and i couldn't resist buying the girls a pair of 10rupees glass earrings each which they immediately put in their ears and modelled. The pair each girl selected seemed to suit them each perfectly ...

... people come here to die, my friend. Do you know what my job is?'

My first thought was con man because I knew this talk was going to cost me. But I told him I didn't know.

'I take care of the dying people here.' he said. 'All of these buildings around here have many sick and old who are waiting to die.'

He went on to explain much of what I already knew about the Hindu ritual of burning the bodies and sending the ashes into the Ganges. During his ...

... would start, this was a cross between a dance and a religious ceremony giving thanks to 'Mama Ganga’ the river that brings life to so much of India.

I’d met two young American girls from Colorado and they accompanied me on a boat one evening down the Ganges, the Indian who rowed the boat waxed lyrical about 'Mama Ganga' and how he drank her water, bathed in ...

... I regret my only real views of Varanasi on this trip will have been from the tour car to Sarnath I've come to relish, as always, the passing parade of colors, sounds and humanity (a drive through India is so unlike any place I've experienced in my 50+ years!). On the way my guide, Brem, offered up fascinating information about Varanasi. He said that because of the incredible concentration of diverse religious practices and temples in the city ...

... had been warned to expect this but still it was an ugly experience and we wondered what he could hope to gain if he did this to everyone. Later we asked the hotel manager to give him the fifty rupees we had agreed on, which he did. Later still we passed the boatman in the street and he was jovial and pleasant, as though the incident on the ghat had not happened. Puzzled by this behaviour, we asked a local man if ripping off foreigners didn't constitute a loss of karma for a devout ...