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Published: April 4th 2008
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Hi there, we have now effectively completed our Indian leg of our travels and presently await our next flight to London tonight! We have really enjoyed India but can honestly say we are ready for somewhere a bit quieter, that smells nice, and serves beef :-)
After our trek in Nepal we headed back into India to the Holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the mighty Ganges. Varanasi was quite a different experience to the other Indian cities we have visited in that all the interesting stuff is all on the ghats (landings) leading down to the bank of the river. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around here, walking past sleeping and smoking Babu's (holy men), with the river bank being peppered with temples every 50 meters or so. Once you moved away from the river the normal pace of Indian life took hold with all its accompanying sounds and smells. This meant that the river usually was a nice relaxed place to be, with only the only significant distraction being the frequent calls of "Hello, boat?" from one of the many boatmen looking for business.
The banks of the Ganges are a good
place for Hindu's to die and get cremated. During our wanderings we visited the major and minor cremation Ghats, where bodies shrouded in orange and golden fabrics are laid onto wooden pyres out in the open air. This was probably the most foreign thing to us - seeing the dead go up in smoke and any remaining bones being pitched into the river from the ashes right in front of us. This practice also gives the riverbank of Varanasi a distinctive smell depending on the wind direction - mostly of woodsmoke, but with something undefinable mixed in as a background odor.
We also made a nice deposit onto our good Karma balance with a couple of votive candles set adrift in their own little leaf boat surrounded by a nest of flowers. This, combined with all the peanuts we have fed to temple monkeys probably means that we can be quite naughty in Europe :-) We kind of paid a bit too much for these candles as they were sold by a rather charming (and pretty slick) little girl with good English - before we had a chance to think about money she had both little boats in the
river with the candles alight, then drove a pretty hard bargain as we had already bought the product!
The timing of our travels also put us in Varanasi for the festival of Colours (Holi) which welcomes in Spring. We had heard before hand that this involved a religious water fight, with coloured dyes added to the ammunition. We each had a special set of sacrificial clothes put aside, and it was a good thing we wore them the day before hand as a lot of the local kids decided to start early - giving us a good taste of what the day entailed. Unfortunately participation in the festival was determined by your sex - with the males running around the streets with the little kids, and the women locked up safely on roof tops and balconies.
We set out together on the morning of the festival, but had only traveled a short distance before Simon had concerned older men approaching, warning that he shouldn't bring "his woman" out on the streets as it was not safe for her, and that he should return her to his hotel for safekeeping... Needless to say, Sandra was not impressed. The reason
for this was that the guys used the day as an excuse to get boozed out on the streets, and once your clothes got sufficiently colourful they were fair game to be ripped off you. Simon experienced this exuberant behavior (after returning his woman for safekeeping) - getting throughly soaked with colour, receiving many powerful bear hugs from the local guys as the morning wore on (accompanied with shouts of "happy holi!") getting the cheeks of his face pinched by one guy while being hugged by his mate, and narrowly avoiding being dragged bodily off to party with a bunch of teenage guys. The drinking kept on well after all the kids were told to finish up and wash off in the Ganges so Sandra found they day to be a bit of a frustration.
Our next stop was at Khujaraho, a rather quiet site where a number of unique Hindu temples were located. We came to see the "naughty carvings" which the attached photos illustrate. The level of detail and volume of work on each temple (both inside and out) was pretty stunning, as was the subject matter and creative use of riding animals and servants for balance....
It was a good place to stop for a couple of days as Sandra had picked up a tummy bug, and the rising heat (37 degrees our first day) encouraged a slower pace to be taken. It was also nice in that the place was really small (22 000) so the noise levels, smells and traffic volumes were well down from what we now considered normal.
Our next pit stop was a place called Orchha, which was even smaller than Khujaraho (it had one street) and which put us into easy reach of the rail lines to get us back to Agra. Orchha had a number of large palaces and cenotaphs which were pretty much open for visitors to clamber around in as they saw fit.
After a brief visit we headed to Agra to finally get around to the most recognized site in India - the Taj Mahal.
We decided on an early start to catch the sunrise and hopefully beat the crowds - but unfortunately the crowds had the same idea :-( This was to be expected really as Agra can be tourist central in some places, and needless to say we really enjoyed our
Holi celebrations
(keep your women shut up at home) visit, taking a bunch of photos (small sample attached) as the sunlight strengthened. The building is symmetrical on all four sides (which was news to us), and pretty large too, so if you took your time you could eventually get your photo with no other tourists in shot :-)
Agra also had a number of other Murgal era monuments which we also explored, but we were kind of spoiled by the Taj so were a little jaded when we took them in (and we have run out of space for more photos on this post!) Well worth checking out, but we probably should have taken in the Taj last....
So thats it for us in India. We are now all packed up and ready for leg number three, 5 months self drive around the EU starting off from London and heading first to Ireland to make sure the wheels don't fall off our vehicle before we leave English speaking lands. Next post will probably be of a bunch of monopoly board sights, so stay tuned!
S&S
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