Well, after another 12 awful hours in a bus I arrive in Varanassi, one of the holiest places in India and the most auspicious place for hindus to die. Apparently, for a hindu to die in Varansi and for their ashes or body to be sent down the Ganges means that they are sure to go to heaven and escape the cycle of rebirth on this earth.
There's certainly a lot of ceremonies going on all over the city, especially at the ghats, the steps down to the river. It's hard to move for Sadhus, people taking their ritual dips in the Ganges and cremations taking place. Every morning and evening, the Ganga Puja, a ceremony for the river, takes place. It's done by different people all along the river, but at the main ghat quite a performance is put on (mainly for the benefit of the tourists). All sorts of activities take place o the ghats. I particularly enjoyed a vigorous massage while watching the birds and kites flying overhead. It was nice to be there and relax without having all the hawkers hastling you.
I got a nice hotel with with a wonderful view across the river to the other bank (which was completely empty despite the great conurbation on the city side - the reason for which is that anybody who dies and is put in the river on the other side is said to be reincarnated as a donkey!). From the terrace it was possible to see the beautiful sunrise over the river and also all sorts of things in the river like the dead bodies, and to my surprise, a school of gangetic dolphins. I've no idea how they managed to swim in the river as it seemed (and smelt) more like an open sewer than a river, though when I took a boat trip on the river my boatman tried to prove the point that the water was clean by scooping up a handful and drinking it!
I then took the plunge (excuse the pun) and decided to spend my last week in Rajasthan, on the other side of the country, meaning I need to take 2 consecutive night trains! I arrived in Jodhpur, the blue city, so called because many of the small houses in the old town are painted blue. I stay in a small blue hotel in a blue house and stay in a blue room... well, when in Rome...
Jodhpur was a very relaxing place after Varanasi and it was wonderful to be able to just walk around and see some of the city. The fort on the rising from the desert was magnificent, just as if it were out of One Thousand and One Nights. The view from the ramparts was spectacular, too, with the palace and it's domes in the desert below silouhetted against the pink sky at sunset. I discovered the delights of the makhania lassi, a delicious local version of the inidan milkshake made with saffron and enjoyed a full indian shave with a cut-throat rasor and lots of poitions at the barber's. Oddly enough, I didn't see one pair of Jodhpurs in Jodhpur... maybe they've gone out of style...
I moved on to Jaisalmer after Jodhpur and spent a night in the desert. I took a camel ride to see the local villages and catch the romantic sunset over the dunes. I'd have liked to have spent longer out there and taken a camel safari for a few days but time was pressing on and so after a rather good banquet in the evening accompanied by some desert wine (the local hooch that I was told had precicely somewhere between 22% and 60% alcohol!)
Jaisalmer itself was a beautiful city. It's known as the golden city because of the buildings all being made from a delicately coloured sandstone. The architectural details on the buildings are wonderful. The Mughal influence must be coming in to play again with the fine stone screens around the windows and balconies, and the detailed carvings on the surrounds. I spent quite some time just wandering around the town and getting lost in the back streets. The fort at Jaisalmer was also nice but less impressive than the one at Jodhpur, though it did still conjour up romantic images of the desert very easily.
My final stop in Rajasthan was Jaipur, the pink city. I don't know why but it just seems to be the done thing in Rajasthan to colour your city in. Thought they claim it is pink, it's really more of a tangerene colour, but they couldn't really call it the Jaffa city, could they? Jaipur was nice, but was a much bigger city and didn't have the romantic attributes of Jodhpur or Jaisalmer. It did have the wonderful Jantar Mantar, a large field filled with monumental instruments for measuring the cosmos. There were instruments to plot the stars on a hemisphere, 12 instruments, one to measure the positions of each of the signs of the zodiac, and a sundial with a 34m gnomon! They certainly knew how to do things on a grand scale then.
I took a day trip to the spectacular palace and fort at Amber, just north of Jaipur. The buildings were interesting enough in themselves, but the setting was magnificent. The palace spreading over the lower levels of the hills with the fort crowning the hill behind, and all surrounded by a large fortified wall that ran up and down the steep hillsides all around. They certainly knew how to make imposing buildings back then.
My last days in India were spend in Delhi. I went to Shar Jhan's Red Fort and Jama Masjid (the largest mosque in India). The red fort cost $5 to see the buildings so I went on an economy drive and just wandered around the bazar inside that you were allowed to enter for free. The Jama Masjid was nice, though. Very peaceful and the views from the minaret over the city and the Red Fort were breathtaking.
Well, that's it for India. Next stop Bangkok...