I got to Delhi and was impressed by the pollution, the amount of people and of cows. After two days I went to Rishikesh to meet my cousin Biel who was staying at an Ashram there. The Ganges River runs beautifully in front of the building, green and pure and chilly straight from the Himalayas. Biel says the Ganges is melted Himalayan ice.
Ganges in Rishikesh
Upriver from Rishikesh there is a place called Laxman Jhulla, a beautiful place full of monkeys where you can practice Yoga and have massages. Is is said that this is the capital of Yoga in the world. Since almost everyone is a vegetarian, the whole relationship with animals is
way different than in other countries I have been to. They are not afraid of us and sometimes you find yourself having to dodge cows and dogs to get anywhere. It is not uncommon to have to take a different route because a big cow or buffalo has decided to rest right in the middle of the way. And monkeys quite usually are the masters of the high places.
From Laxman Jhulla we took a car to the Himalayas, through very beautiful scenery, scary gorges and nice views of the Ganges. The driving in India is something very particular, with constant honking and last minute swerving. Funny enough, after the 5th time that you think you are going to crash you simply realize that there is nothing you can do and just relax.
Driving in India makes me think that reincarnation would be a good idea after all. : ) On the way we got to see the highest peak in India, the Nanda Deevi which stands 7800 meters high, just 700 meters lower than the Everest. Very nice.
At a city called Joshimath we hired the funniest guide ever, called Joshu, which means Jesus in some language which I do not recall. We agreed with him do to a trek up to Kauri pass, a popular trek during the British Raj in India. To do so we had to hike up to a Village in the mountains and this proved to be one of the coolest things of the hike.
Himalayan party
Himalayan kids
The village was set in a beautiful valley and the kids there were so beautiful, amazing. One guy had very dark skin and blue eyes. The Frank Sinatra of the Himalayas here on the picture.
The night before the hiking we played guitar for a long time in the house. The hiking was nice and sometimes very hard because of the altitude. The guide had gotten so drunk the night before that he had to stop every five minutes. Biel would say that he was the only guide that the clients had to take care of. During the guitar session he was very excited and started giving me kisses on the cheek ahahah.
Himalayan crew: Nick, Biel, Orian, Shera and me.
Himalayan window view!
Varanasi street market
After that we went to Varanasi, which is said to be the holiest city of the Hindu culture, where Hindus come to die, as they believe that this will stop the cycle of incarnations, the Samsara. The city is lined up with Ghats in front of the river, and some of them are used to burn dead people. The burning Ghats work 24 hours and have different burning places for different castes. Each body takes 3 hours to be totally cremated, “Untouchable” people perform the cremations and they are judged by the amount of body left at the end. The less body they leave the better they are. Moreover, the amount of wood used is carefully weighted so that the clients pay the fair price. You can choose over different types of wood as well, from very expensive to very cheap. They say that the cremation serves to make you realize that you are not your body, that it is just a vessel for your passage through this world and your soul should not get attached to it.
Holy people, Children, Pregnant women and people bitten by snakes (because the Snake is Shiva's animal) are not cremated, for they are deemed already purified. Instead they are thrown in the water bound by ropes and stones. Sometimes the ropes are not strong enough and you see dead people floating around.
The city itself is crazy, very full of life. Everywhere there are cows, buffalos, monkeys, spiders, ants and etc… Just inside the rooms there is a whole ecosystem, sometimes with rats but always with spiders. People gather up on the balconies to play with kites and since it is said that Varanasi is the city with the most temples in the world you can’t help but to listen to prayers all the time, sometimes from mosques but usually from Hindu places. Sometimes during the night you hear the monkeys going crazy about something, and they seem to be spying on you quite often.
Random Varanasi kids
High tech monks! Notice that one of them has 2 cameras.
The Ganges there is very polluted, but it doesn’t stop Indians from bathing in it. The Lonely Planet says that there are 1.5 million particles of faeces per 100 ml of water when the maximum allowed for bathing is 500 per 100 ml of water!!! Ahhaa. And to see them all bathing so happily in what is almost sewer water! One of the days there was a festival of candles. Very nice, lots of candles in the River and people praying and bathing. I took boat trips on the river to have a good view of the city and it is the best way to appreciate it.
Light Festival
Monet in Varanasi
Varanasi
Preparation for the Light Festival
Light Festival
The Burning Ghat
Burning Ghat
From
Varanasi we went to Sarnath, where Buddha delivered his first sermon of the Middle Way after reaching enlightment. The city is nice and very peaceful, full of trees and colorful monks. A nice big round building marks the spot where the sermon was performed in the middle of ruins of the ancient Buddhist city. It is a mark of the period when Buddhism was very strong in India, before the resurgement of Hinduism brought about by the reform of Sankara Acharya.
After Varanasi I had to take a 40-hour train to Chennai in the south, where they speak Tamil and not Hindi!!! Then on my birthday we went to the most visited temple in India, where they speak yet another language. Aggressive head shaving (my head is full of cuts) and then 3 hours in line. You understand fast why every time there is an accident in India there are always a lot of people killed. It’s so many of them everywhere; there are even people inside the temple that work as pushers. They are there to push you so that the long line of crammed up people moves forward. Hmm. Very nice. Next birthday ill go for a holiday on the beach.
We got to the Ashram near Coimbatore on the 21st. The place if very nice, inside an ecological reserve. I wanted to go out at night to check out my email but I was warned that at night the elephants roam around the place. Then I decided to go back to my room and was warned to carefully check for scorpions!!!! Hahaha. Another thing I was told to keep in mind is that there are wild boars around and apparently they eat people if you get on their way. Oh god.
One nice thing about Indians is that they have the biggest most honest smile I have come across. Even the Rickshaws that try to screw you with money scams smile in an irresistible way. In the Ashram I get carried away by people all the time, and they start to tell stories about Nepal and how they think I look German ahahah. All in all and so far, India is exactly as crazy and interesting as people told me it would be. And I had thought that I would be prepared…
