Hello!As you may have noticed from the bottom of the photo we did not take this, but I wanted to have something to show you what Varanasi is like and we are having some problems uploading pictures from our cameraa...Rach and I with computers is never a good combo! Anyways, we arrived a few hours ago from a worldwind trip to Varanasi. For those who don't know, I will give you a bit of background. Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities in India for Hindus, the Ganges river flows through here and the water is considered sacred to Hindus. As a result, Hindus bathe in the water and perform rituals there, including cremations. People from all over India want to be cremated in Varanasi and have their ashes spread there, we were told a few times that there are homes for older people to live in as they wait to die so they can be cremated there. The cremations occur at special burning ghats (ghats mean the steps in the above photo and they area all over Varanasi) and the cremations go on all through the day, every day of the year, we were told that 200 cremations take place each day...very unbelievable to imagine. It was a pretty surreal experience watching this ritual out in the open, something you would never see in a million years in Canada.
As well as being a place that Hindus come especially to bathe in the waters of Varanasi it has become a stop for most international tourists. And this means that is has become so touristy unfortunately (this was the first really touristy place Rach and I have been to and I kept being slightly shocked to see tourists, a lot of European and Japanese, as we have seen so few the last month!) All and all it was a very overwhelming and fascinating place, watching people bathe in water that also has fresh ashes in it, being accosted every step by people trying to sell you things, and also trying to avoid stepping in cow dung which is EVERYWHERE and the smells were also overpowering not in a good way...it was an interesting place for sure!
Unfortunately we had a difficult journey reaching Varanasi and then on the way back as well. We took the Express train which was supposed to take 14 hours...we eventually arrived 23 hours after we had left kolkata): It was pretty much torture, we subsisted on cookies and candy for a day, I finished my book with still 8 more hours to go, and we were never told why the train was so late or when we would arrive, we just waited and waited...I know it is part of the Indian travel experience but it was SO frustrating! On the way back we were only delayed by 4 hours, which at this point impressed us! Anyways, the delays meant we had less than 24 hours in Varanasi and missed the boat ride on the river at sunset, although we did get up to go for a boat ride at sunrise (which is when people are performing rituals and bathing), which was a really unique experience. We had some delicious meals on rooftop terraces overlooking the Ganges which were also pretty memorable! I still have mixed feelings about Varanasi, the weekend was so tiring and overwhelming and so was the city...I will just say that is it something worth seeing but I am not sure I need to go back:)
Rach and I were just talking about how things in India can make us smile, break our hearts, and be SO frustrating often at the same time. Little things happen each day that I just love, today for example, we boarded a bus after reaching the train station in Kolkata to take us back to the IICP, where we work and live. Rach handed the ticket collector the exact change for our two tickets and I just loved the looks from the surrounding men on the bus, they were incredulous that we were A) on the bus with our backpacks and all and B) that we knew the exact ticket price. We get these looks in the area of kolkata where we are living often too, it is an industrial area so there are no other tourists at all, so we often get these hilarious looks as we are on the bus or doing grocery shoppping like, "are you completly crazy or lost!?" The children who are begging or are working for money break my heart the most. On trains people come on at every stop to sell you everything and anything you could imagine. Today a little boy came on (about 6 or 7) and was sweeping the garbage from under our seats hoping to get a few rupees. We gave him some of course and then he saw our almost eaten bag of cookies on the table which he pointed to. I handed him the bag and he touched it to his forehead as a sign of gratitude and then gave us the biggest smile you could imagine...it was so heart breaking. By contrast, the thing that annoys me to no end and makes me want to scream are the drivers of taxis and rickshaws...every time they try to get more money than we agreed and get angry with us and it becomes a big deal...it is SO frustrating.
Okay I have rambled on long enough, hopefully we will figure out to add some more photos this week:)
Other than that
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