Blogs from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia - page 66

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Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 22nd 2005

Without doubt, Varanasi is the holiest place to die in India. Should you be lucky enough to expire here, Hindus believe you transcend the normal cycle of birth and rebirth and attain instant enlightenment. Breathing your last breath on this precious soil is the celestial golden ticket, an instant get out of rebirth free card. We arrived here hot and dusty after a long train ride from Agra. The novels of Salman Rushdie and John Irving who write so vividly about the city of light, had stoked my imagination and I was determined that our stay in India would not end before we had seen Varanasi. The river Ganges represents the elixir of life to Hindus - and it is deeply woven into their daily ritual ablutions. Therefore the only way to really understand Varanasi is ... read more
Sunrise on the Ganges, Varanasi

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 20th 2005

As always, getting to my destination city was an adventure in itself. On one of my trains between Agra and Varanasi, I was harassed by a drunk man claiming to be an army officer who demanded to see my identification papers. His friends calmed him down, bought me some tea, and chatted with me until he climbed into his bunk and passed out. On the long train ride, I had plenty of time to try and steel myself for the onslaught that awaited me in Varanasi. From what I had read in my guidebook, it sounded like the sort of place where the unwary traveller would be eaten alive by touts and scammers. There were warnings that "criminal elements" (a Hindu mafia, if you please) operated in the city, intercepting tourists at arrival points like the ... read more
Ghat
Street Scene
Brahmin Ceremony

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 19th 2005

Namashkar! I am currently in Banaras (Varanasi), and am in the midst of my Independent Study Project, which is going...not exactly as planned; nevertheless, rest assured that my experience here will undoubtedly prove a memorable and ultimately rewarding one. This city is overwhelming to the senses: the Ganga and the filth and the silk shops and the hippies and the scholars and the ashrams and the temples and the beggars and the funeral pyres and the sadus and the water buffalo and the music, and it all just gets to be a bit much sometimes. But I manage, and along the way I find myself having some really incredible experiences. As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, the children at the school at which I teach can be quite rambunctious and disorderly. The school is ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 16th 2005

After possibly one of the worst nights I have ever spent in a hotel in the border town Bhairawa Nepal side - Someone had a mouse run out from under their pillow and there was crap smeared on the walls - we entered India. We had one nights rough camping on a local village cricket pitch infineatley superior to the hotel, we drove towards Varanassi stoping at the town of Sarnarth (where Buddha first gave a sermon). After lunch we toured the town and it's monuments and headed into Varanassi to the Hotel Surya where we looked like a bunch of gypsies camping out on their front lawn! The next day we got up at 5.00am and headed for a boat ride along the Ganga river to view people bathing, doing washing and some of the ... read more
Sarnarth
Some pretty soldiers!
All the tourists out on the river

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 11th 2005

These things take forever to load. Sooo let's try again:... read more
Smile!
Fatepur Sikri
More Fatepur Sikri

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 10th 2005

I am back in Varanasi, embarking on my independent study, which, theoretically, involves the adaptation of Western-based children's fairty tales and folk tales into Indian children's performance...however, the children at this unconventional school are a little bit on the wild side, and so far I don't see my project flourishing in the near future. So, we will have to move to plan B or C or...we shall see. Alright, enough of my blabbering. Here (hopefully) are the pictures I'm sure you've all been dying to see.... read more
On the Ganga

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 4th 2005

Hi All. First I want to say sorry for not keeping you all updated. The tour was crazy we were always busy, or seemed to be anyways. Now you are all going to be flooded with India blogs, again sorry about that. We took taxi's to the Nepali border, got bicycle rickshaws to take the luggage and we walked across the border into India. We must have walked 800 meters before we the customs "office" appeared. It was just 3 guys sitting at a table on the side of the road, crazy, we could have walked right by and no one would have stopped us. Getting out on the otherhand... Then we rented a jeep to take us all to Varanasi. The jeep ride was nuts, the driver had a tape of the soundtrack from a ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi October 21st 2005

You think the only people who are people are the people who look and think like you, but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger you learn the things you never knew, you never knew… - Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas. For those of you who know me you know that I really don’t share my emotions at all. Maybe that’s why its so hard to write anything, because it was a very emotional trip….I don’t know how to describe everything that I saw, heard, did, and smelled in India, because it’s nothing like I’ve ever known before. I did a lot of traveling with early (4am) mornings, and late (11pm) nights. The 4 days that I spent up north felt like 2 weeks because we did so much, in such a short amount ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi October 2nd 2005

Namaste! I would just like to thank all of you, my family and friends (and maybe some strangers) who read this log of my thoughts while I am away. It really means the world to know that someone is keeping track of me (hehe) and, more importantly, that you are allowing me to share my experience with you. I realize that I don't update half as often as I originally intended. I guess a major reason for this is that sometimes, there are just no words. Daily, I am inundated with new sites, scents, tastes, smells, and feelings; I continuously grapple with concepts and ideas I never knew existed. It would be impossible for me to share all of the amazingly interesting and intruiging and shocking and incredible experiences I am having here, as much as ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi September 11th 2005

I am sitting at an internet cafe in Varanasi. Took a boat on the Ganges and slept in tents a couple of nights ago...it was pretty incredible...I just loved it. Felt like a bag a shit though as the heat and sand and sweat is not a good mix. I thought paddling was tough, the poor two guys that ROWED our spoiled asses for two days have it pretty bad. I sat in and rowed for 27 minutes and fet really bad for them...and myself...blisters on both hands. Hell, I shouldn't complain. I had more than white rice for dinner. Varanasi is much different than what we have seen so far. The people a luittle more uuummmm....assertive (to be nice) in their way of getting one to rent a boat, buy a leaf with flowers and ... read more




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