Catching up..

We are actually in Thailand right now but I figured I'd catch the blog up and finish off our travels in India..

Jai Guru Deva
After spending an enjoyable week in McCleod we moved east to the hippy town of Rishikesh, where the venerable Ganges gathers itself out of the Himalayas and where the Beatles spent several months finding themselves and also apparently the inspiration for their subsequent 'White Album'.

Ashrams on the Ganga in Rishikesh

Unfortunately, Rishikesh was a bit of a bust..overpriced and overcrowded with the baggy pants brigade in full force so we decided to spend just one day walking around the myriad of ashrams and visiting the now abandoned Beatles ashram before heading out. (for more on the shams and ashrams read the Beatles own account of perverted Maharishis and sneaking chicken to vegetarians here)

Downstream from Rishikesh we stumbled upon the much cooler town of Haridwar where we watched the evening Ganga (i.e. Ganges) celebration. Pilgrims from across the country were visiting the Ganga to float candle-topped lotus leaves down the current as an offering to the Pantheon of Hindu gods. If you're not familiar with Hinduism it's worth reading up a bit as it is actually quite colorful and interesting. There are thousands of gods and other incarnations available for petition on everything from financial success to marital happiness although the main gods, Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu dominate most of mythology. Haridwar as it turns out is one of the holiest places to Hindus.

Ganga offerings

Hindu Pantheon

Haridwar was interesting for the couple of hours we spent there whilst waiting for our connecting train to Varanasi further downstream.

Anyway we boarded our train later that night and began our 26 hour train ride to Varanasi..that's right 26 hours. When you consider that the distance between Haridwar and Varanasi is less than 1000km, this makes the average speed about 38km per hour or about 23 miles and hour..pretty damn slow..this has been one of our greatest challenges in India..getting from A to B just takes so dang long..even short distances of 100km or so seem to chew up entire days or two..

Varanasi
Anyway, so we get to Varanasi, which is The City to go to in India..especially if you are dying and want to be released from the cruel wheel of karma. Varanasi is quite a spectacle. Day 1 we did the tourist thing and toured the silk factories. It was interesting to see hand looms in action..especially when we learned how the fabric pattern is translated to a punch card that is then used to drive the weave mechanism of the loom (you can see the 3x5 punch cards hanging in front of the loom)..it was very similar to the old school type of computing..the factory owner even calls this his 'source code'. We saw the dye factories and watched as these guys toted bundles of material from one shop to the next, hammered out punch card patterns or relentlessly threaded the shuttle back and forth through the weave... I think the daily wage for these workers must be something like 100 rupees a day..or about 2.50usd..maybe less.

The next day we took an early morning boat tour of the Ganga. This is what Varanasi is about..well, half about at least. Every morning the Ganga comes alive with flocks of pilgrims streaming down the many ghats to bathe in the holy waters. These pilgrims are met by hundreds of boats full of tourists floating silently past like crocodiles on the prowl.

Ganga Sunrise	Main Ghat
Ganga Bathers	Ganga Scene

In addition to the bathing pilgrims, mystics, and other holy revelers lining the shores..it is quite a scene. I would say it was a bit of a carnival but it really is a holy affair for the pilgrims so I won't. Here is a brief list of the things we saw: An old man, whom we initially thought was dead, lying on the steps of a ghat with his robe hiked up around his waist, hanging out like a Scotsman and covered in buzzing flies. A candy box assortment of mystics lounging under umbrellas offering worldly and spiritual advice to passers by..for a fee. A 10 year old preacher who had an entire ghat captivated by his life lesson. Intoxicated men in complete body paint and costume offering photo ops for 5 rupees. Indian police men stroking their quaffs in front of a riverside barber. Children playing cricket. Shore side massage parlors. Various cafes and eateries. And cows...always cows.

Ganga Mystic	More Mystics
Rupee Photo Op	Ganga Police and riverside barbershop

As I mentioned earlier the Ganga is the place to die if you want to escape the endless cycle of karmic rebirth. Apparently if you die in Varanasi you are granted a 'get out of karmic rebirth free' card and so many come here specifically to die and to be cremated. There is even a cremation ghat that performs several hundred cremations a day. Actually, they do about 200 bodies a day..and not all of the bodies are burned completely before being dumped into the Ganga-kids for example are not cremated since they are deemed to be pure and thus don't require the cleansing fire of cremation. This creates substantial pollution for everyone downstream as there is something like 350 tons of ash dumped into the river every year..and an additional 250 tons of unburnt flesh that is also dumped. When combined with the open sewers and other run off that all flows into the Ganga you can imagine how filthy it must be. Yet surprisingly people still bath here and still use the river to do laundry. Strangely there's even a species of fresh water dolphin that lives in the Ganga..weird.

Crematory Ghat -note the smoke

Varanasi Laundry

As with every morning, every night the banks of the Ganga come alive with crowds to watch the Ganga celebration show, this is the other half of what Varanasi is about. Throngs of men dressed in white tunics and women dressed in their finest silk saris sit in groups to watch the 7 or so young performers offer incense and fire to the Ganga.

Varanasi crowd	Varanasi Celebration
Karma sparks

Darjeeling

After Varanasi we headed north again into foothills of the Himalaya to the hill station Darjeeling. Darjeeling is famous for its tea and for being the launching off point of some of the earliest Everest expeditions. The world's 3rd tallest mountain rises magnificently behind Darjeeling and Everest is a mere 100km or so away..easily viewable from Tiger hill on a clear day.

Population wise Darjeeling was an interesting place. Squeezed between Eastern Nepal and Western Bhutan it is populated mostly by Gurkha, and was much more Asian influenced than we expected. So much so that it hardly seems that it should belong to India. History informs us how it and neighboring Sikkim came to be part of India (read: British Raj era meddling) and also explains the "Free Gurkhaland" rallies we kept seeing around town.

Flower and Vegetable vendor

School kids

Due to this cultural difference, Darjeeling has been granted certain autonomy from India at large. The biggest difference we noticed was the beef butcher shops around town..something that is strictly forbidden in the rest of India. Darjeeling was also cold and rainy, but what else do you expect from the Himalaya in late October.

We spent a couple of days in Darjeeling exploring the town.

We visited the Happy Valley Tea Plantation to watch how tea is made.

Tea Plantation

Tea Sorters

We rode the famous Darjeeling Toy Train

Toy Train

Train hand

And we visited the famous Buddhist stuppa upon Observatory hill where the monkeys run wild.

Helen at Observatory Hill	More Monkey Menace
Monkey Love?

All in all we ad a good time in India. It is an amazing place but after 6 weeks we were ready to leave. And so after Darjeeling we bused it back south to Kolkuta airport and flew to Thailand.

Smokin'