Varanasi 2

After I signed off yesterday, Wayne and I went exploring again and this time went north along the ghats where we hadn't previously ventured. We almost immediately came to the biggest cremation ghat, which I can only assume is a huge tourist attraction. Both Wayne and I had a modest interest in it from a cultural point of view, but we were uncomfortable with sitting in on strangers' funerals and frankly the smoke is pretty unappealing. We left fairly quickly, and in the process managed to tick off the tout who had decided that he would educate us on the whole process (for free but with a required donation). I have been somewhat envious of Wayne who generally has a much higher tolerance level for the people here and I have to admit to being a wee bit happy when he lost it with this guy. Please note that this tout was totally deserving of Wayne's wrath, after delivering death threats and just generally being persistent beyond what any normal tourist should have to endure.

Shortly thereafter, I managed to get myself involved with a guy doing a puju to a shrine on the shore of the Ganges. I ended up covered in tikas and had had my hands and feet doused in the Ganges. I was a bit concerned about this but was trying to go with the solemnity of the whole situation and not be concerned about the health risks. We'll see if I come out of this with any diseases or other side effects. Naturally, after this beautiful ceremony during which I was blessed and cleansed by "Mother Ganga" was completed, I was expected to pay for it.

Later on, we eventually came to a community that seemed much less exposed to tourists and the people were much nicer there. The children (and some adults) asked us to take their photos, just so they could see the pictures on the screen of the camera. It was a much more relaxed place and we could feel the pressure being lifted from us there. At this point we were hungry and Wayne suggested that we find the place where we had dinner the night before. We hailed a couple of rickshaws who happily took us somewhere totally different. After walking for quite a while trying to find the restaurant, we gave up and entered another restaurant that was very western in style. We had a lovely meal in air conditioned comfort. We even made it home at a decent hour, after only getting lost once, and had an early night.

We got up fairly early this morning and took our showers. As I was digging around in my backpack for something, I noticed a bad odour, like rotting flesh. I finally got to the bottom of it and found a dead bat being devoured by a swarm of ants underneath my clothes in my pack. After disposing of the bat, I sprayed my bag with Wayne's bug-killer and later today cleaned out the dead ants. The room, and half of my stuff, still smells like rotting meat, and I'm hoping that I can eliminate the odour over the next day or two.

After the bat incident, we took a boat ride up and down the ghats. It was already incredibly hot at 9:00 AM but the light was good and we saw some interesting scenes. My camera died halfway through, but it turned out to be a battery problem rather than a camera problem so it was rectified as soon as we got back to the hotel. I'll be stealing Wayne's photos from the boat tour.

I then took off, on my own, to visit a town about 10 kms from here called Sarnath. This is the town where Buddha made his first sermon in a place called deer park. The park is still there, stocked with deer, as are many Buddhist temples, a museum and some very old ruins. It was a wonderful respite from Varanasi and I actually got to walk barefoot in the grass among the ruins. There were many fewer touts and disruptions there, and the energy was very positive. I ended my visit with some meditation in the Tibetan monastery there. It was a great way to spend the day, and it was really nice to feel relaxed and at ease. I was also happy to see that I can handle myself in this environment and am becoming more confident and less intimidated by India. That being said, don't wait for news that I've bought myself a house here :-).

We've just had a couple of beers as we've done our internet chores, and I'm now feeling ready to just chill for a while (and my tummy is rumbling for some good Indian food). We were planning on moving on tomorrow but will likely make it the next day as the bus we need to take leaves at 4:30 AM and we both need to prepare ourselves mentally for an early-morning departure. We may have to sleep at the bus station, as getting transportation there in the middle of the night is unlikely. I'll keep you posted....