15 August 2000

I most recently visited Varanassi. It is a nice place, but they do hassle the tourist more than most cities. There was some Shiva festival going on. It seems like there is always some festival happening every week. This time there actually was a bunch of Indian tourist and visitors

to the most sacred Hindi temple here in Varanassi and a bunch of armed cops as well to maintain the civility, otherwise these Indians don't know how to wait in a line. The police were armed with long sticks and guns. I tried to use the internet there, but for some reason they were all incredibly slow, it would literally take days or the server was completely down.

I took a few boat rides on the Ganges river and saw the bathing, laundry, and burning ghats. There was also a huge bloated dead cow floating down the river. At one ghat they burn between 150-200 bodies per day, and there was six fires going when I first saw it. Your not allowed to take photos, otherwise I could of had a nice one with a sunset as background. They actually get quite emotional about their Hindu gods. They have a lot of small idols around town, and an Israeli guy was saying they were really hostile towards him when he accidentally stepped on one, not realizing what it was.

My boat guide drinking Ganges water - yuucck \\ kids swimming - Varanassi

Varannassi

The old city had a lot of small alleyways, which luckily didn't allow for rickshaw wallahs, but also I was just finding my way around without getting lost when I left. There are a lot of cows there as everywhere. I am always amazed they find enough to eat with no grassy areas around. I always see them eating cardboard boxes and some Dutch girls pointed out a couple of batteries that came out the other end. You have to be careful where you step.

There is water buffalo in the Ganges, and we watched one take a dump with some people bathing a meter or two downstream. My boat driver filled up his water bottle with the brown Ganges water, and there were Chi (tea) venders downstream that use the water for their tea. Mmm Yumm! The guide book says you have to be prepared to see the occasional cadaver floating downstream on the boat rides, but I didn't see any. Sadus (holy men that supposedly can gain special powers such as levitation and the ability to appear and disappear at will) don't need to be burned or children under a certain age either so they will just throw the bodies into the river.

 

I am amazed at how many Israelis there are traveling around. For a small country, they are a sizable percentage. The Indians in tourist areas speak Hebrew as well as English and there are signs and menu's in Hebrew as well. There are hardly any Americans. Since I've been in the main touristy towns, there has been a bunch of Japanese as well.

Last night I took the night train to Calcutta and will hopefully catch a flight soon back to Bangkok and see my parents for a couple of days. I am staying at the Salvation Army guest house here. It seems there are a lot more tourists around than when I first arrived. Today also happens to

be India's independence day so there is a celebration going on down the street with a band and an Indian lady singing. The local cinema is playing �The Patriot� with Mel Gibson.

 

sayonara,

Duane

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