We hired a pre-paid taxi upon arriving at the Varanasi airport since pre-paid tends to be more reputable and safer that hiring a driver at random. Still, the driver tried to charge us for "parking fees" then repeatedly told us that our hotel was very expensive and he would take us to his, "no problem." When he stopped the car in the city to let his friend get in with us, it was the last draw. Matt had been feeling under the weather and hadn't slept well in several days and politely shoved the driver's friend out of the car and loudly scolded the driver who stopped messing around and took us to our hotel, but not before asking for a tip.
Since all of the decent hotels were booked full, after numerous phonecalls we had to settle on an empty, run down apartment. The hotel staff tried to overcharge us for the room we had booked, but eventually they relented to the price we had agreed upon. I spent that day poking around the town while Matt laid in bed resting and trying to recuperate. (I even bought him a cheap watch for his birthday. since we NEVER have time apart, this was a golden opportunity and we needed a watch anyway, but now he's started wearing one he had in his pack, so I have no good present afterall) We stayed at our mediocre hotel and accomplished very little that day.
The following day, we were finally able to reserve a room at our desired hotel. While re-packing our belongings to move, we realized our cell phone was gone; we had either misplaced it or someone with sticky fingers decided it was theirs. We gave up on it and hired (overpaid) a rickshaw to take us to the ghats, where we were dropped off in an alley, then had to follow a child through winding backstreets to our new hotel. When we arrived, it was 2pm and they had already given away the "reserved" room since I had specified on the phone that I would arrive at 1pm. AAAaaaahhhh! Finally, Matt and I took the only room they had available, for $5 a night, with shared squatter toilets, and shared cold showers. Then we had a late lunch, which was pretty delicious, and things began to improve.
After our meal, we took a boatride (video) to explore the holy Ganges River (spelled Ganga and pronounced gahn-gah in India). The Ganga is sacred to people of the Hindu faith and it possesses many powers. Bathing in the waters can cleanse you of your sins and having your ashes placed in the waters can send your soul to Heaven. Despite the river's importance, it has innumerable sewers, agricultural toxins, and city water runoff emptying into it. But the Ganga is called the "Holy Mother", and the water is so sacred that people rinse with it, bathe in it, collect it, and even drink it. And certain bodies, which for spiritual reasons may not be cremated, are frequently placed in the river in their entirety.
"In Varanasi, India's most sacred city, the coliform bacterial count is at least 3,000 times higher than the standard established as safe by the United Nations world Health Organization, according to Veer Bhadra Mishra, an engineer and Hindu priest who's led a campaign there to clean the river for two decades." (Smithsonian, 2007)
Though we were in Varanasi for several days, we were trying to absorb local culture more than to visit tourist sites. Though I might not effectively put in to words all that we accomplished, we did see alot of Varanasi and came to really admire it. We made some traveler friends (Justin and Erika) from NYC while we were in town and had dinner with them three nights in a row. The third day was spent exploring the town by wandering the back alleys and main streets. If you have time for a 30 second walk, please check out this video.
We spent a significant portion of the fourth day at the train station arranging a trip to Bodhgaya, before returning to the river for a walk along the ghats. That night, a large portion of the young male population were partaking in rowdy, colorful, religious devotions (puja) involving pop music while frantically dancing through the streets, following an icon of Vishnu.
The following morning, we were walking through the alleys loaded with our packs on at 4:30 AM and there were a surprisingly number of people awake, brewing their tea, brushing their teeth and otherwise beginning their day. We successfully caught a rickshaw and got to our train platform in a hurry before discovering the train as delayed for an hour and a half. We met some other travellers and chatted with them for ages while drinking numerous cups of chai.
After a long wait and a longer train ride, we arrived at our stop and caught a rickshaw to our next town which was lovely. The Sakumuni Buddha achieved enlightenment in Bodhgaya around 500BC and it has become one of the most famous Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world. The utter devotion of the people in the town is inspiring and the town itself was beautiful and relatively calm. For some odd reason, all the children want to speak with foreigners to practice their English and we made many young friends while we were in town. Unfortunately, there are an inordinate amount of beggars because Buddhists believe you can improve your karma by giving, so the beggars know to come to this pilgrimage site.
The Mahabodhi complex is the main religious site in town, containing the Mahabodhi Temple and a Bodhi tree grown from a cutting of the original, under which Buddha became enlightened (to investigate further into the religion, please check out the BBC website on the topic). The first evening during lunch, we met a few little boys who wanted talked to us about our country, our ages, cricket, school, etc. Many children spoke to us while we were around, but these children from the first evening kept criss-crossing our path and we returned many times to their family's tea shop. There were about a dozen people in the family and all the kids were filthy but adorable, they spoke good English, and they never asked us for anything except to come by the shop.
During the days we spent in Bodhgaya, there was a chanting ceremony taking place and monks from all over Asia were in town, dappling our vision with orange, red, yellow, and mauve . If there are people in this world striving too attain enlightenment and a perfect peace, then that kind of peace must be a possibility. I particularly adore the child-monks, with their young faces and serious expressions who make me want to run and hug them. The chanting during the festival was so rhythmic and coming from so many people simultaneously that it had an amazing power. We spent at least twenty minutes sitting cross-legged outdoors riveted to the sounds, trying to absorb some of the passion that these monks were chanting with. It was almost as if they didn't have to speak the words for us to hear them.
The second day, we explored more of the town, seeing temples built be people from every country or region in Asia, with their own architecture. The straight lines and golden deer from Tibet, the golden, pointed temples from Thailand, and the dragons and sweeping rooflines from China served as a Buddhist review of our trip. Right at sunset, we came around a corner to find a giant Buddha statue with the sun setting behind it. We admired the rainbow of colors while sipping chai (we've become chai addicts on this trip and it's so cheap and delicious, I can't seem to find a problem with it yet). The third day we spent a couple morning hours on Valentines Day conversations before wandering around in town, strolling about the outskirts, checking out the lotus pond, (during this afternoon Matt caught a goat. Please check the link to his blog on the right to see pictures) going out of our way because the president's motorcade was coming, and spending time with our adopted family. The last evening in Bodhgaya, we sat down with our family for a while and handed out some hygiene items and a couple issues of Newsweek, learned some Hindi song lyrics, and generally chatting before it was time to get a moto-rickshaw back to the train station.
The following morning, we were back in crazy Varanasi. We had a chance to catch up on a bit of sleep, do some laundry (please check the video), wander around and get lost, finally locate dinner, and finally put some good time into the Delhi blog post. The following day was ridiculous. We hopped a flight and arrived in Delhi with too much time before our next flight to stay in the airport, but not enough time to go anywhere else. When we arrived, we picked up our bags and went searching all over for an internet cafe (Matt has a great picture of the two of us in a crowded, crumbling alley pushing the luggage cart that we borrowed from the airport). Frustrated and unsuccessful, we returned to the airport dragging our cart and resorted to pleading our case to the airline representative. She gave us passes to the airline lounge which turned out to be a bare, public restaurant. But I only know that because I searched for it out of curiosity. You see, when we accidentally showed up at the fancy lounge by accident, lugging our bags, completely frustrated, we must have looked quite pitiful because the receptionist there let us stay, though she turned many others back out. There, we found delicious finger food, plush couches, free internet, and all the tea we could drink.
The following morning, we were back in crazy Varanasi. We had a chance to catch up on a bit of sleep, do some laundry (please check the video), wander around and get lost, finally locate dinner, and finally put some good time into the Delhi blog post. The following day was ridiculous. We hopped a flight and arrived in Delhi with too much time before our next flight to stay in the airport, but not enough time to go anywhere else. When we arrived, we picked up our bags and went searching all over for an internet cafe (Matt has a great picture of the two of us in a crowded, crumbling alley pushing the luggage cart that we borrowed from the airport). Frustrated and unsuccessful, we returned to the airport dragging our cart and resorted to pleading our case to the airline representative. She gave us passes to the airline lounge which turned out to be a bare, public restaurant. But I only know that because I searched for it out of curiosity. You see, when we accidentally showed up at the fancy lounge by accident, lugging our bags, completely frustrated, we must have looked quite pitiful because the receptionist there let us stay, though she turned many others back out. There, we found delicious finger food, plush couches, free internet, and all the tea we could drink.
The pictures in this post are: the holy Ganga River, daily activities at the ghats, a sign reading "fortunate are the people who reside on the banks of Ganga" painted among filth, vendors selling bangles and other necessities, a busy row of Varanasi's famous silk stores, monks participating in the chanting ceremony at the main temple in Bodhgaya, the main temple at sunset with a golden Buddha statue glowing inside (zoom), and the family who Matt and I befriended and won't forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment