off to delhi - then to see some burning bodies....!

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anyhow, we arrived in Delhi safe and sound, and stayed in Parhaganj - main bazaar, bustling, in the centre. no motor rickshaws allowed as the streets are too narrow, so we squeezed ourselves, 2 rucksacks and the slug (yes, we still had our 6ft snowboard bag) onto the back of a cycle rickshaw. full respect to the driver, he did well, although i was pretty afraid of getting electrocuted as the slug was often dangerously close to overhanging wires....
we had a fun few days in the big smoke, mostly trying to sort out sending all our snowboarding stuff home, which was on the whole successful. however, i still have my snowboarding helmet and trousers (so much fun to carry around) due to a mix up at DHL. i'm going to have to keep hold of them until we are back in India, apparently only 40% of post gets through in Nepal...thats a pretty impressive reord. we ended up bumping into a few mates we'd met in kashmir, and treated ourselves to a night out at, get this, TGI FRIDAYS - rock on.
Overnight train to Varanasi, always fun....people on the train with waaaaayyy too much luggage, so it won't fit under the seats, and they end up putting it on beds, and then seats get changed around, and then there is confusion, then more people get on, then they have the wrong seats, and it continues........

anyways enough of the sarah dawgs crypto jargon its time for the timstafarian to have his say...so; varanasi. dogs in houses, cows in houses, burning bodies and crazy monkeys. that just about sums the place up. possibly one of the most fascinating ancient places in india, the old city is based around the river ganges with the banks being a series of steps (ghats) that lead to the river. all manner of religious rituals take place on the ghats from bathing to clean away sins (which seems bizarre as the river is infact toxic from severe effluent pollution and also a battery factory up river) to the cremation of bodies.
the burning ghat, where the cremations take place is a fascinatingly eery place. bodies are carried through the winding allyways, which make up the old city, are then dunked in the ganges to cleanse them and placed on a funeral pyre on the ghats.the fire used to light the pyres is never extinguished as burning wood is passed on fom pyre to pyre in a constant cremation process 24 hours a day. wood is wieghed out on giant scales which the family pays for by the kilo, sandalwood being the most expensive, fig the cheapest. people not allowed to be burned such as pregnant women, chidren, lepers, snake bite victims, people with small pox and sadhus (holy men) are simply taken out on the river and sunk with rocks. they are dealt with in this way as they are already deemed to be pure, as you can imagine it is not uncommon to see body parts floating down stream.
its an amazing contrast to see death dealt with so openly rather than the behind closed doors aproach we take in the west.

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Photos

varanasi
sunset on the river ganges