Varanasi, India

November 12, 2005

We arrived in Varanasi this morning, not really knowing what to expect. We've been traveling since 5am yesterday morning -- 1 hour taxi from Rishikesh to Haridwar, 5 hour train to Delhi, an hour layover there, then 17 hours to Varanasi. We're not as exhausted as you might think. We lucked out on the long train from Delhi by getting the end berth, so we had an upper and lower bunk to ourselves. We both slept quite well, and even enjoyed Indian style dinner of rice, vegetables, tofu, nan, soup and a bag of water.

We're both starting to get into the mindset and rhythm of India. It's a good thing too, because Varanasi has a lot of the characteristics that can be hard to get used to. There's open sewage in the streets right next to the vegetable market, hordes of people, rats scavenging in the waste along the train track, more trash than you can imagine fills every gutter, stream, and empty space. The air is brown and thick with pollution, and real poverty is everywhere. A press of noise, sights and smells confronts you everywhere you turn. The few escapes are welcome. The hotel and the internet cafe are quiet, clean refuges from the chaos outside, but more and more we feel comfortable out there.

There's amazing beauty here too. Women in brightly colored saris ride bicycles through the narrow streets. Kids play cricket in any open space bigger than your living room and fly homemade kites in the downriver wind. Orange robed swamis meditate along the river banks, and there are colorful temples almost everywhere you look.

We are already counting ourselves very lucky here. Nichole called ahead and secured us a room and a pick-up from the train station. We had heard horror stories of people being taken everywhere but the place they want to go by commission-seeking rickshaw-wallahs. Instead we were met at the train platform by a nice Indian man named Ravi, holding a sign saying "Welcome Ruke Miller". He carried Nichole's bag, ushered us through the throng of touts and rickshaw-wallahs to his microvan, and gave us the lowdown on Varanasi.

Varanasi is a sacred city in India, and hundereds of thousands of people come here to bathe in the Ganges - Ganga, The Great Mother. Even though the river is extremely polluted here - full of sewage, trash, industrial waste, and worse. Varanasi is the birthplace of the Hindu god, Shiva, and is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth - about 5,000 years old! (though it's been sacked so many times, few of the buildings here are more than 300 years old.)

Ravi also warns us about the many varied scams people try to pull on the tourists here.
"Don't accept food or drink from anyone" He says. "They are only being friendly so they can lure you into their shop." People will charge you 5x as much because you are a tourist, and frequently, you don't even get what you're supposed to. What is sold as real silk is often nylon and polyester, "pure" oils are cut with vegetable oil, and handmade crafts are mass-produced, and given a once-over by hand to make them look authentic.

So, now that we're safely settled into our room, showered, fed, and rested, we're ready to venture out today. Ravi has offered to take us out this afternoon to the Ghats (docks along the Ganga) to see the evening Puja ceremony as the sun goes down. We have seen the sunset Puja ceremony in Rishikesh, but here it promises to be much more grand.

We'll be here for three days, and have a lot planned, so I'm sure you'll be getting more stories.

Love to everyone!

November 14, 2005

Well, we sure had an amazing day yesterday! We were up at 4:30am to go have a boat ride on the Ganga to watch the sunrise and the morning puja ceremony. Our boat-wallah Dubji was very cool, and the beauty of the morning was undescribable! We saw dolphins swimming in the orange glow of the sunrise - yes, dolphins do live in the hyper-polluted Ganges!

After returning to the hotel for some breakfast, we went with Ravi for a tour of some of the main temples here in Varanasi. The Shiva temple is the most impressive since Varanasi is the city of Shiva. Nichole and I both recieved blessings of marigolds. We also visted the Monkey Temple or the Temple of Hanuman - the Monkey God, and the Durga Temple - the Great Mother. Nichole can tell you more about all the meanings and stuff. All I can say is they're really beautiful.

After a mid-day nap, we had the very fortunate opportunity to visit the silk district. There's a long history of silk in Varanasi. Currently the whole industry is controlled by the government. All of the legitiment silk weaving shops are set up as apartments and work space. On the first floor is the giant loom, all the supplies and large windows that open to allow vistors to see the silk being loomed. Upstairs are the private living quarters of the weavering family. The Indian government also trains young boys, who are orphaned, as weavers, giving them a skill which they can make a living by.,br>
Instead of buying silk on the street markets, Ravi got us the insider connection to buy from the source - we spent 4 hours buried under mountians of silk, drinking chai, and eating fresh piping hot samosas. Nichole got wrapped up in a traditional Indian Sari, and we both picked some cloth and had some clothes made for us. We'll pick them up today!

That's a pretty brief sum-up of one of our more amazing days in India, but we're leaving today, and still have more to do. Overnight train leaves at 5:30 for Agra where we'll watch the full moon come up over the Taj Mahal tomorrow night.