More on Varanasi

WELL,
as always we are trying to buy our train ticket out of a city within 24hours of when we want to leave. This means that we are not sure if we are leaving or what class we will be in, but like every other time something unexpected will happen and we will get to say "it was meant to be!" To be honest if we don't get to leave tonight I won't be upset. Varanasi is a city that I can only take in little bit at a time. We leave for our shopping for the day or whatever and then I need time to decompress afterward, sitting high on our rooftop or quietly in our room. The day before yesterday as I was trying to get back to the room I got really, I mean really, lost in the ally maze that is the old city of Varanasi. I walked passed houses that have been there for hundreds of years and have the same way of doing things as back then. Yesterday while waiting for my friend who was inside a temple another guy we met and I had some beggar kids come up to us. This is not special and happens all the time, everyday, but because we were kind of stuck where we were about ten-15 of them eventually came up and started to play with us. We played with them for at least 30min. Of course they asked for a rupee, but in all that time they only asked twice. They were having so much fun with me just clapping hands and practicing their English counting that we all forgot about everything else. It was really interesting, and once again this is totally common, after we started talking to just a few who were under 10 one of them called to some of their friends something like bring over the babies. Well some 4/5 year olds brought over 3 babies, under 2 years old one was no more than 5 months old. This is one of their strategies i guess. Every beggar girl or woman has a baby under two that they have with them. Every single one. Well anyway this story isn't about that. Right away the kids could tell that we were not going to give them money, but we were going to give them time. my friend kind of held all the babies while i played games with the older ones. I had to make sure every one got a turn clapping and counting because there were two girls who kind of ran the show and pushed the littler ones around and wanted all the attention. After a while a man came up, and we think for many reasons he was kind of like their boss man just like in Slumdog Millionaire. We just ignored him and kept on playing.
Its so easy, when you see all of these various horrible things, to want to blame someone. It has to be one particular person's fault. Like the boss man for the kids. But in reality he is the only one feeding them or giving them any sort of anything. Another interesting experience happened just last night, we were in a tuk tuk with a young driver and a police man stopped him and just smacked him. A few min. later the kid had to give him a 50rupee bribe. There were a lot of things going on at the time but when it comes down to it my friends and I think this: First our new friend was sitting in the front seat next to the driver so the police man easily saw that westerns were in the tuk tuk. Of course we gave the guy an extra 50 later to pay for the bribe. I think the police man new we would pay the kid back. Now police men barley make enough money for shelter and food for their family's. Everything else they have to pay for with bribe money. So maybe that police man needed 50 for something so out of all the drivers he chose ours, maybe, knowing that in the end the kid wouldn't really have to pay for it. That still means the cop was an asshole and the police force is majorly corrupted here, BUT it also shows a bit of humanity in all of it. The kid was just 19 years old and didn't know his way around. Who knows how long he had been driving- a week? a month?
Anyway you can kind of imagine how a person could feel overwhelmed here, externally as well as internally. I am constantly thinking and processing what happens around me. Ever since I got here, to this city in particular, I feel that all of my sense are heightened. I smell more of the world, I see more color. And my heart is just trying to keep up with it all, trying to be a real part of it while still reserving some of myself. If I don't hold just a little of myself back, well, I can put it this way:For a selfish reason I wouldn't let myself hold the 5 month old yesterday. I just knew that if I held that baby it would be too much for me. I don't know what would have happened, maybe I would have cried or maybe I would be coming home with a little baby but I knew that holding that particular emaciated calcium deprived baby would kill me inside. I had a great time with the kids and I know they will remember it just like I always will, but that one baby would have somehow opened me up too much...
Like I said, still processing, still taking it all in, always wondering what will happen next.

India

Men doing laundry and bathing the Ganges: Below-Just outside of the old city in Varanasi, this kid was just washing his shoe!:

Just an ally off the main street:

Above- this guys job is to take the cow poo and dry it out and then sell it for fuel for cook stoves as all lumber goes toward cremation.

Below- Varanasi:

Ganges:

It's the Taj:

Kids at Taj:

At the Taj- sooo wet!:

Waiting to get into Taj:

View from farm with the kids who lived on the farm:

The farmer's clay house:

The Baby Taj:

The baby that was thrown at me on my walk to the waterfall...

The Family we met on the train to Agra:

Each day India reveals a new part of itself to me. I am constantly surrounded by new overwhelming things that both amaze me as well as horrify me. The last time I wrote I was in the Northern Part of Dharamasla, on top of the mountains in a heavily Buddhist/Tibetan area. From there we took a public bus to Amristar, the capitol of the Punjab State as well as the home of the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple on a 500 year old holy site. After arriving in the evening we got accommodations just across the street and then entered the sacred sight. All of the ground is marble and the real golden Temple sits in the middle of a small lake. We had dinner with all of the other Pilgrims before meditating with them as we waited for the temple to undergo the ritual of being washed with milk between 12 and 2:15 am. All are welcome to the temple and served equally. Outside of the kitchens hundreds of people work together to peel the vegetables for the food that is served for free, 24hours a day. Inside, all sit down on the cement floor together and are served slop bucket style. The food was so delicious! Afterward we had a several hour long talk with a baptised Sikh about his religion as well as life. Then at 2:30 in the morning we we let into the golden temple!. To enter there is just one bridge across the lake, representing life. The is just one way in, birth and death. I would love to talk more about this but I don't want the blog to be too long, I will just leave it at being one of the most amazing experiences of my entire trip.

So then we went on our way to Agra, to see the Taj. On the train ride there (sleeper class, no AC) we met a nice family who kind of adopted us. They gave hena to Monique and their kids hung out with us for almost the entire night. Agra was everything that we expected, dirty and busy with many people trying to make an extra few hundred rupees. The first day we took a tour of the city and saw the Fort, as well as visited a small farm where we got to talk to the family who had been living there for generations. Well we didn't actually get to talk to them because they didn't speak English but we got to see their "house" and learn how they lived. PS did you know that India has been so effected by Global Warming/ lack of monsoon that harvest is two months late this year and veggis and rice have gone up in price by more than double? The next day we went to the Taj. It was stunning (an entire palace of white marble and inlay) but we just stayed a an hour or so as it was raining and very touristy. From there another train ride (overnight, of course) to Varanasi.

And here is where I need to take a breath. Varanasi is so... over the top for all the senses including the spirit. The first night we stayed just 50ft from the ghat where they burn the bodies. We sat on our roof and overlooked a family singing their loved one into heaven while they burned the body and threw it into the Ganges. The old city, where we are staying right along the river, is said to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. It is made up of hundreds of small alleys/ streets lined with shops, houses, temples, cows, trash piles, shit piles, bathing children, sleeping beggars, salesmen, more shit, and bugs/insects. Yesterday we walked all along the ghats to see them all. This morning we woke up at four am and took a boat ride all along the ghats (the different piers along the river) to see the people bathing, etc. We did see one whole dead body but it was covered in the traditional bright fabric and then floated on some bamboo. It looked like a child and I assume that the family did not have enough money to burn the body. Now we are staying in a hotel just a little ways deeper into the maze of streets but it has a high rooftop restaurant where we can look out onto the entire old city.

At first when I got here I kind of took the whole thing for granted, seeing it just as an ideal- the "varanasi" that we all read about and see on TV. But after being here for a few nights and spending more time in the city and especially after this mornings boat ride the reality of it has really sunk in. I cannot believe people live like this. I mean that in a way of just common sense. There is poop everywhere!!! People and animal. As well as dead animals. This place is covered with all the generations of trash since the beginning of this cities time. Also people who have lived here their entire lives often go crazy, thinking things like they are Shiva reincarnated...

But, besides all that I love India. It is amazing and more than I expected. I'm glad that I finally found a place to upload pictures, I'll try to put a lot. Much love to all and thank you for your emails!

More of the same amazing place!

I am just now sitting in the small cafe of our guesthouse, I am drinking lemon ginger and honey tea, outside it is still wet because of the heavy rains earlier. It is monsoon season here and in the north it rains for a few hours every afternoon. Today we hiked to some beautiful waterfalls and lots of people asked me to take pictures with their babies. One man just handed me his beautiful baby before I really knew what was going on. I was actually really glad because the babies are beautiful here and i have been dyeing to hold one!!! well after that about one hundred Indian men all wanted "just one snap miss..." which got to be a little overwhelming, but it was totally cool and i just told them when i had enough(which was literally 100 pictues later, including the "secret" ones they thought they were taking) it is really different to be the exotic one, definitely something i have never experienced growing up in cali. we have met some great Indian Muslim friends and we are going over to their house for the second night to have dinner. they are so respectful, kind, and hospitable that it puts our culture to shame!! its funny because they are both young and very prosperous buisines men but they live in a one room studio. its just the Indian way. we sit on their floor to hang out or eat dinner or whatever. i think we have got a really rare look into the indian lifestyle. i think tomorrow we are walking to a Tibetan children's refugee camp and going to volunteer with the kids for a while. we don't want to leave but we have so much more to see.............!!!!!!!!!!! that is the only worry i have in my life right now so i'm not complaining.

Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj

I don't even know where to begin. Now I know why people say there is no place in the world like India. In the 5 countries that I visited before coming here nothing came close to my journey here. I'll just have to pick up where I left off, in Delhi...
leaving Delhi was a big relief. We spent a lot of time in the different bazaars and got to see the Red Fort, of which pictures I will put up later. I left my friend to go home a little early and had a little bi of a bad experience with a bicycle rickshaw driver. He kind of followed me after I got out of his rickshaw(as he did not know where I wanted to go) and so I went into a shop. He came in and argued with the owners of the shop who told me that he wanted 20 rupees. I told them what happened and then just gave the driver 10 Rp to go away. Although it was an overwhelming experience it was really good because it made me realize how India works. For every beggar or hassaler there are two respectful and helpful people right by to help you out.
The next morning Mo and I headed to the train station planning to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Well we quickly found out that train tickets needed to be booked at least 4 hours in advance and that going to Agra would not be possible. So we pulled out our map and decided to go to another of our top destinations, Dharamsala. We had to wait until the 9:30pm train and then got off the next morning at 7:30am only to catch a 3 hour bus to our destination. Talk about the "real Indian experience."
Well Dharamsala is in the far north west and it is the current residence of His Holiness, the Dali Lama. We are in the small village of Mcleod Gani staying just a few hundred meters from the temple. We are actually in the Himalayas!! It is so beautiful here and the people are sooo giving and kind. We have made many friends, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist etc. and love to have chai with them and are invited to a home cooked dinner tonight! There are more tourist here as there is a big yoga center here as well as the Dali Lama (whose house I went to today!). The vibe here is just so relaxed and although it rains a lot I like I am high up in the heavens.
So change of subject I am trying to extend my trip. Monique is returning to the states on Sept 10 after returning to Thailand and I realized that the only thing I have to go back to is my job (at a bar, whoo hoo...) so why not try and stay a little longer??? More details on that to come later. The important thing to know is that I am safe, happy, having the best time of my life and having once in a lifetime experiences!!!

India

Right now I am sitting in a small internet cafe next to our hostel, the Peace Hostel. We are staying in a small Refugee area for Tibetans. I am wearing a traditional Indian style Tunic suit and wearing bangles!!! Yesterday we went to our first market to shop for our outfits. I got two tunic things and one pair of pants. It was so amazing to shop right along side Indian women. Its really different from shopping at home. Because there are only 2 or 3 styles each outfit is really ornate and everything has to match perfectly! you know me I don't match so its a little hard but I'm trying.

Yes we have seen all the things that people told me to look out for, begging children, people sleeping in the street along side cows, I almost got run over by a bus. Literally. But also it is just a city like anywhere else and people live here and I do not have that fear that I was expecting. Everyone is so nice. Yesterday I slipped on the stairs to the subway and two people helped me up and one man asked very sincerly "are you hurt mam." I was so touched. In the states no one would have blinked.

We have one more day in delhi and then we are going to the Taj Mahal. Not going to spend more than the day in Agra as it is not a great place, instead we are spending the night in a nearby town called the "city of eternal love." Driving was probably the craziest part of my short time here. I thought that the driving the the middle of the road in SE Asia was dangerous but here is 10X worse. When I get pictues I can't wait to show you my Indian oufits but for now just know (Mom) that I am safe and happy and don't want to ever come home!!!

Love you all so much, EM

Last SE Asia Photos

Tigers!!

Giant Laying down Buddah

Last Day In SE Asia

Well the last few days in Bangkok have been fun. We are in a very busy part of the city and so there is always a motorbike or tuktuk honking as us or other tourists stumbling down the streets but it is Bangkok and what else can you ecpect. We were sad to leave Ayutthya becasue we had made some great friends there but I had to get back here to finalize my Visa stuff of India. Jamie left a few hours ago for the airport and will be home in 24 hours or so. Mo and I fly out tomorrow afternoon so we are hoping to take tonight easy and prepare to the big adventue to India. We don't really know what to expet, although we have heard a lot of horror stories about how overwhelming it will be. After two months in South East Asia I know that it will be overwhelming but I am also not to worried. Its not such a shock going from squat toilets without flush or toilet paper to squat toilets over holes in the ground... or is it? Just doing some last min shopping today although my backpack is getting pretty heavy. Tonight I'm throwing out alot of the clothes that I won't be able to wear there (almost everything I own) to make room for all the new great things I will buy there. Well off to an afternoon nap, much love and the next time you will hear from me might be from India!!!!