the last 24 hrs

Thought i might share what i got up to since arriving in Varanasi, India.

I've forgotten my camera cable so i'll update with photos shorty..

Landed late yesterday afternoon and headed to my guesthouse via the mental streets of Varanasi.It is mad. I thought that Sydney people liked their horns...My driver had is hand on his horn the WHOLE trip in from the airport. We dodged cows, people on bikes, rickshaws, motorbikes, pedestrians. Not a single traffc light works and in some way the chaos works for them here. I had the window down and was inundated with so many random smells. AS we got closer to the city there were some nice smells and for a while i started o worry that i liked the smell of burning bodies?!

Anyway, the random night started when some hippy traveller dude who is now on permanent vacation came to the hotel for some dinner. He ended up takng me out after dinner to see some of the sights. In hindsight i prob shoudn't have gone. New city, people, easy to get lost, dangerious etc etc. Lets just say i've learnt from it all.

Firsty we walked about 1hr along the Ganges from the southern end, where the assisi ghat is, all the way up to the burning ghat that is fired up 24/7.
Its a real eye opener. At this stage it was around 9pm so there wasn't a lot of people out. The river was super still and glowing in this murky haze of pollution and moonlight. You could see garlands of marigolds floating on the shores, tinsel from the burnings, rubbish, little wooden boats all brightly painted and moored. There were monkey's and goats, packs of howling dogs and massive cows going about their business amongst the local homeless people and riverside sellers.

The burning ghat is a hive of activity. The lowest caste people prepare the bodies. Each body is shrouded in something that looks like a sari then dipped in the river. The family buy the wood and lighter fluid by the kilo. The son of the dead wears a simple sari thing and had has head shaved specifically for the ceremony.

The burning itself is surprisingly natural. you can see the body catch light and the skin drip and melt. It sounds kinda sick but when you stand there you really get that there is nothing but a body lying there burning and being returned to the earth.
There is a sense of completeness about the ritual that i don't think you achieve with a burial either.

At this stage it was about 11pm and i was starting o worry that I wouldn't be able to get back into my gated guesthouse. We started walking back and my hippie friend stopped into one of the tiny temples that sit on the banks. Inside we were blessed by this beautiful gentle holyman. He pasted brown stuff on my forehead, then we were offered lassi to drink out of small clay bows. It was made from the dafney flower, curd, sugar and weed. It actually made me nervous drinking it..i kept having minor freak outs that this was all gong to go horribly wrong and i'd end up fucked or dead somewhere. Thing is you can't just say no to their hospitality. After about 10 cups of the stuff we wraped things up. The holyman got back into his normal clothes and we walked back towards home. The holyman took us intop temples that you couldn't normally go into, showed us the oldest buldings and even older arworks. We visited the orphanage that mother teresa had set up too.

so we were walking walking walking...and i'm like fucking hell i need to go back. i was super tired & still feeling slightly dodged out by the whole situation. All i coud think of was, my mum would kill me if she knew how stupid i was being, But what do you do I didn't really know my way back + it was late and walking around on my own would have been way too dangerous.

Down some back ale the holyman asked us to come into his home.Hs brother answered the door and we were taken up a windy staircase onto the roof where he had his home. It was so humbling. THis little rooftop was half open and half closed where his family includng a wife and 3 kids - 16, 12 and 9 shared this shack. The kids were all sleepy and woke up as we arrived. Its like no matter how little they had they offered everything. I spoke to he kids about school and the wife cooked us all a smal meal of chapati and this amazing spicy potato dish and tomato like salsa/chutney to have with it We smoked a cigarette that was just 1 leaf of tobacco rolled into a smoke. They were so proud to have us there and to share their little world. The wife even brought out her 2 little pets. A guinea pig and rabbit that were so tame. Al i remember is how much she adored them.

Finally i got home around 1.30am. The gate was locked and i had to scale the fence. WTF?~! I was so dodged out cos some random guy on the street watched me. For the rest of the nigt i as freaked out that someone would follow me in and bang my door down.

Anyway, it didn't happen. I woke up with massive mosquito bites and eyes like sandpaper. It was about 5.30am and i was about to head off to the ghats for an early boatride which was beautiful. My little guide was a true gentleman and gave me a full run down of the city's, temples and rivers history.

right i've just looked outside and its dark again so i better go home.
I'm going to have a massage from my host lady who is totaly divine and i also have to try her special stuffed potato. yum.

Tomorrow im flying to Dehli to meet my group.Hurrah!
I'm looking forward to being with a group again. Being on my own is exhausting.
I miss Nepal and my old group + and i miss talking to my mumma and papa. I really have to get a sim tomorrow.

X