Life and Death on the River Ganga.

18 hours on the train is never fun. Especially when you can only get a second class unreserved ticket and you have to bribe the conductor 20 bucks to let you sit in the a/c car because everything else is full to the brim with humans and luggage. The only nice thing about the a/c train coaches are that they have less sellers so you are not woken up at 4 am with the scream of "Chai... Chai.... Cooooofeeee.....Coooofeeee" As much as I love that sound its no fun at 4 am. Anyways Varanasi is one of the most holy places in India. It straddles the ganges or ganga river (which is supposdly one of the most poluted rivers in the world). However, besides the fact that animals and people use it as a bathroom, bodies are dumped in it (if they do not meet the criteria or cannot pay to be cremated), and factories dump heavy metals upstream it does not look that bad. I even had the pleaseure of seeing one of the ganges river dolphins come up for a breath of air. These dolphins are very endangered and are blind which is pretty cool. It does not smell like the canals in amsterdam or venice but i still would not bathe or drink it. I ended up staying at a place recomended to me by this israeli couple uvi and leo. It was very quiet and family owned. I even had a view of the ganga from my room if i opened the door. The only problem was the power always goes out in varanasi and its reaches about 44 Celsius or around 120 F in the day. It never goes below about 34 C or 90 degrees at night. The only way to put it is that varanasi is effing hot during the summer. The only other people staying in my place where these three really funny israeli guys. All they ever did all day was get stoned in as many ways as they could. Being that I don't smoke it was still fun to hang out with other people and see some of the different parts of the city that they knew becuase one of them lived in varnasi for 2 months. I just drank a mango lassi when they were drinking bhang lassies (its funny that a mango lassi costs about 25 ruppes or 50 cents and a bhang (one of the weed products they make her) costs about 15 ruppee or 30 cents). ONe of the kids was vegan so they actually made him a bhang water which was just green water that looked like they took pot and just blended it with some water. Only in India would you see this.
Its hard to "do" a lot in varnasi this time of year becuase its so hot and there is not many tourists so they touts hit you even harder. Everyone wants to sell you manali hash, a boat ride, a rickshaw, a teddy bear, a 56 chevy bel air with a/c... anything they can get there hands on. Outside of this its a really beautiful city. With its dark and steamy alleyways it reminds me a lot of venice but with much more stink. THere are cows everywhere. They tend to have one area they never leave and if they are not foraging for scraps they just plop down and you have to either jump or walk around them. I wish i had taken a picture of the 3 cows i walked by everyday. One was a huge white water buffalo ( i never saw a white one before) then a massive black water buffalo and then a regular black indian cow that was always laying in a fresh pile of its own shit. You just have to be very careful of cow pies. Dave the irish guy i met in hampi and again in sikkim was also in varanasi and he messed his toe up really bad after slipping on a pie. It is very comical walking down an alley and you are competing with motorcycles, bikes, hundreds of indian people and massive cows. Its something you really have to see for yourself one day.
Most people are very interested in seeing hte burning ghat. I was staying right next to it so every morning i could see the smoke of burning bodies rising up past my guesthouse. There were also usually funeral processions with the brightly wrapped bodies continously walking past me. It was really special to watch. The ceremonies are a lot different then american funerals and I even saw one family surrounding there dead father and talking a photo with him while the body was on the bed of sticks waiting to be burned. ITs something we in the west would not do but it was amazing to watch. The funeral pyres are still maintained by people of the untouchable castes which is proof the caste system is still a part of indian culture whether they admit it or not. Unfortunatly some of the attendants have resorted to trying to rip of tourists at one of there holy sites. SInce you are not allowed to take pictures they try and usher everyone up to this "offical viewing platform" even though you are allowed to be in the area if you like and tell you for 150 ruppees you can take photos. Or that you shoulod pay money to them becuase the wood costs about 200 ruppees for 1 kg even though it is really 10 and there is an electric cremation station down the ghat for people that cannot afford this. I really enjoyed sitting out and watching the burning ceremonies but one guy really got to me. He tried ripping me off then proceeded to trying to rip off some "fresh" japaneese tourists. I couldn't take it and started yelling at him that he is a no good worthless bastard for perverting his religion and taking advantage of tourists (I was tired and overheated and it was about 120 degrees at the time). HE then ran over to me and tried to fight me. It was pretty ammusing that this 50 year old (sorry dad) little indian man was going to try and fight me at his holy place. Not only was i not going to fight him becuase it was in a holy place, i am not going to fight some guy infront of all of his fellow cow workers who have saws and axes for cutting wood. Instead i tried to diffuse the situation but just ended up walking away. It probably wasnt the smartest thing to do but as i am sure martin will agree with you sometimes just lose it in india and you never know when all that built up aggression wil come up after dealing with so many shitty people and being ripped off so much.
After the first night I ended up meeting up with Dave and clair the irish couple and there friends yukio a korean girl and another japaneese guy. We went out for japaneese food. IT was actually really good. Many foriegn girls (especially asian girls) marry indians in varanasi and open up guesthouses. Many koreans and japaneese come here for months to stay for some reason. They love it here. I got some noodle dish with tempura vegetables and it as great. Any food is good in india if you dont get sick after. IT was nice to hang out with another diverse group of people from around the world and share stories about our homes and travels in india. The best part was meeting this group of 3 japaneese girls and one guy who were on a 2 week holiday to india. They just arrived 2 days ago and were super shocked at India. I am pretty sure I looked exactly like them in mumbai. After spending 2 months here varnasai does not seem much worse but to these girls they were still culture shocked as can be. Its also funny seeing people you met earlier on in your trip and swapping stories.

DELLLLLLLLLHIIIIIIIIIIIII BELLYYYYYY

So it finally happened as it does to most people in north india. For some reason south indians are much cleaner and more proper than the north indians. I never had late train until now and now they are really late like 5 hours or more. Most people get sick in the north and not the south. So i ordered a banna lassi at this place owned by an indian and korean women. It came with ice but ididnt think it was a problem since it was owned by awesterner and was visited mostly by travelers. However as i got down to the bottom i noticed the ice looked a little dodgy. Everyone says in india for some reason you know when you are eating something that it is going to make you sick and once you get sick you know for sure exactly what in your food made you sick. Well it was that way with the bannana lassi. Good thing i had some medicine for it but still 3 days later I do not want to eat much and still feel a little sick. I wanted to write more on varansi but its not so fresh in my mind and i need to upload some pics of the taj and golden temple.

Hey martin( I also saw the israeli girl from mamapalapurum in varnasi. We ended up having coffee and she told me to say hi to you.) India is a small world.

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