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Published: December 20th 2006
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We made it from Kathmandu in one piece. The bus ride was long and the exchange rate for currency at the border was unbelievably low, but we had a pretty good time getting back into beloved India.
We only spent a few days in Varanasi. It took some getting to love, but once we settled into the pattern of things, it was a pretty beautiful city. Beautiful in a dirty and truly unconventional way.
We took a bicycle rickshaw from the bus station on a long and interesting journey through the city and ultimately to the wrong hotel down some dark and creepy alleys (Evidently Puja and Buddha sound very similar when Jason says them, or else that was an incredibly convenient excuse for sliding us into his buddy's hotel... which we didn't do. Anyway...). Coming back through the city we got stuck in the convergence of all of these parades- columns of people carrying huge flourescent lights on their heads, surrounding seriously cacophonous marching bands and cars covered with flowers and horse drawn buggies with children dressed up inside. We were a bit confused- coming across the border we had noticed a lot of wedding parties, which is
not strange, as Hindu weddings happen only on auspicious astralogical days, so many of them are often going on at the same time. These parades looked like wedding parades- the same flowers, the same dazzle- but there were no brides or grooms, as far as we could see, only bodies covered in shrouds tied to the roofs of jeeps or in the back of ox carts or on the shoulders of four or five men. I have resolved myself to the fact that I might never understand the religious and cultural nuances of this place, but was still delighted by the implications of the similarities of two completely different celebrations.
We actually spent our first day in Varanasi leaving Varanasi, for a day trip to Sarnath, about 18 km outside of the city. Sarnath is where Buddha supposedly gave his first teachings, in Deer Park, after reaching enlightenment in Bodh Gaya. There is a huge stupa on the spot where he taught, amidst a huge field of ruins that used to be monestaries and stupas before they were torn down by some invading, probably alternatively-religious, force. We spent an hour or so wandering through the remains, finding small beautifully
carved pieces of stone amidst the bricks and rubble and general chaos, and more often stumbling upon a young couple cuddling in the shade of a decaying stupa. It was pretty nice. The weather was the best, I think. Kathmandu was downright cold, but coming back into India, not even that far south, we shed our wool coats and socks and soaked up the sun more than anything.
Sarnath also has a bunch of Buddhist monestaries, each from a different country. We didn't have a ton of time, since we hired a rickshaw driver to take us and bring us back, and he said he would only wait for three hours. We buzzed around the most central part of town, looked at the third generation sapling of the tree under which the enlightenment occured, read Buddha's original teaching, which is written in 7-10 different languages in huge stone engravings all around the tree. We took a thousand pictures, which you will see soon. Needless to say, our rickshaw driver abandoned us, and since the museum wasn't open (which I really wanted to see) we flagged down another and duked it out for a fair price back to the hotel.
We spent the rest of that evening and the next morning before the train walking along the Ghats on the Ganga River. In the evening, they were chaotic, with puja going on for either small or large crowds on every other ghat, and little children selling flowers and candles for prayers, and tourists snapping obnoxious pictures of beggars and religious ongoings. The ghat by our hotel was one of the burning ghats that Varanasi is most well known for. The woodfire, open air riverside cremations take 350kg of wood and about 45 minutes from beginning to end. We sat on a pier and watched the entire process, as dark as that seems, and it was really pretty intense. I'll spare you the details for now, but if you ask later I will tell you enough to temporarily change the state of your dreams.
I think we were a little aggrivated with Varanasi at first- it seems like everyone is trying to get something from you or get you to go somewhere or get in their rickshaw, but that aggrivation faded quickly. I think part of it could be attributed to the length and stress of our journey, and
part to the fact that Thamel in Kathmandu is so far away from what the rest of this part of the world is truly like that we were completely unacclimated to it when we returned to reality. I think I'd like to go back again, a little better prepared, and spend some more time wandering around. For now, Bombay.
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Debi Baker
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What an adventure!
Sara: Think of us when Dec. 25 roles around, and we'll be thinking of you as the Bakers gather in State College for the holidays. It's so wonderful reading about your travels.....I think you are going to come back a Buddhist! (My colleague at the Daily News is a Buddhist and she's got great karma!) Ernie and I are so excited that Amanda will be living closer to home, it's making our holiday especially happy this year. Continue to have a safe and exciting journey. DEBI