Friday, September 22, 2006
"Everything in India Has More Spice"
....Is what the mother of the family who shared our sleeping berth on the 15 hour train from Agra to Varanassi. We lucked out with a sweet aircon 3 tier train. So so so exciting to have something work out. Well, I should start from the beginning of our day. As I wrote the last blog entry, there were multiple power-outtages in Agra, and we were told to get off the internet after only 45 minutes of use. Then the guy tried to charge us for 1.5 hours that we supposedly used according to his secret book that he writes in. After being up since 5am and dealing with 37* heat with no power (fan or AC!) Justina and I had enough. We absoultley fought tooth and nail with this guy about how unfair and dishonest he was being, and the funny thing was he kept adding on the blatent lies! It was just typical of what we had been experiencing the days before and we didn't want to take it anymore. We wouldn't leave without getting our money back and kept up the arguing. After about 30 minutes - he gave in and gave us our money back (20 rupees, not even a dollar, but such a symbol!) It was incredible the feeling that we had of beating an Indian at his own game.
So if anyone is keeping score at home it's now India 11 : Justice and Lifa 2.
We left our hotel around 8pm to find the biggest street party taking place along the maze of streets in Agra. Huge floats dipicting the Hindhu gods, cows, goats, camels, elephants all combined with thousands of people with fireworks wandering around. It was hectic to say the least, but Justina and I got into it and bought a crazy hat with a whistle and partied our way to find an autorickshaw.
We sat on the concrete platform leaning against our backpacks, drinking chai tea out of clay cups watching the cows, women in neon pink saris walk by and I really felt that I was in my element. I was just so excited to be actually doing this - ahh its hard to explain but after all the hassles I realized that I am enjoying every second of this trip and can't believe I'm here.
So now we're in Varanassi, basically the holiest place for Hindus to come. Most come here to take a dip in the Ganges. Others come to die since death here means you are freed from the reincarnation cycle. It's a crazy place that I don't think I can even blog properly. There are Ghats that line the river where bodies are cremated (if people have enough money, if not they're just thrown in the river) and the whole riverside area is a maze of alleys no bigger than 1m accross, so if a cow is heading towards you - find a silk shop to jump in fast. Every turn is another surprise and it's hard to know if you should look up (to find signs), down (to watch for the big cow droppings), in front (to avoid the millions of touts yelling at you), or behind (to see if Justina is still alive) There is also a distinct smell here that can't be explained properly without you actually coming here. And unfortunatley I just don't have enough rupees to send for you all to experience this! We took a day trip to Sarnath, a place of ancient Buddhist ruins where Buddha came after his enlightenment. It was a really cool place to check out, but the 40 minute ride through Varanassi to get there in an autorickshaw was the highlight. It's amazing how few systems there are in India, and how many people there are just doing nothing. Justina observed that there are no machines here to do things, and just as she said that we came to an intersection where instead of a traffic light, there is a box for a policeman to stand in and direct traffic. I guess with a billion people hanging around its cheaper to get a bunch of them to do the work rather than install and upkeep the machines....
Internet and electricity in general has been more off than on here in India. So pictures aren't going to be forthcoming until I find a reliable internet cafe that wont charge us extra to upload pics (any way to squeeze a bit more money out of you...honestly.)
So if anyone is keeping score at home it's now India 11 : Justice and Lifa 2.
We left our hotel around 8pm to find the biggest street party taking place along the maze of streets in Agra. Huge floats dipicting the Hindhu gods, cows, goats, camels, elephants all combined with thousands of people with fireworks wandering around. It was hectic to say the least, but Justina and I got into it and bought a crazy hat with a whistle and partied our way to find an autorickshaw.
We sat on the concrete platform leaning against our backpacks, drinking chai tea out of clay cups watching the cows, women in neon pink saris walk by and I really felt that I was in my element. I was just so excited to be actually doing this - ahh its hard to explain but after all the hassles I realized that I am enjoying every second of this trip and can't believe I'm here.
So now we're in Varanassi, basically the holiest place for Hindus to come. Most come here to take a dip in the Ganges. Others come to die since death here means you are freed from the reincarnation cycle. It's a crazy place that I don't think I can even blog properly. There are Ghats that line the river where bodies are cremated (if people have enough money, if not they're just thrown in the river) and the whole riverside area is a maze of alleys no bigger than 1m accross, so if a cow is heading towards you - find a silk shop to jump in fast. Every turn is another surprise and it's hard to know if you should look up (to find signs), down (to watch for the big cow droppings), in front (to avoid the millions of touts yelling at you), or behind (to see if Justina is still alive) There is also a distinct smell here that can't be explained properly without you actually coming here. And unfortunatley I just don't have enough rupees to send for you all to experience this! We took a day trip to Sarnath, a place of ancient Buddhist ruins where Buddha came after his enlightenment. It was a really cool place to check out, but the 40 minute ride through Varanassi to get there in an autorickshaw was the highlight. It's amazing how few systems there are in India, and how many people there are just doing nothing. Justina observed that there are no machines here to do things, and just as she said that we came to an intersection where instead of a traffic light, there is a box for a policeman to stand in and direct traffic. I guess with a billion people hanging around its cheaper to get a bunch of them to do the work rather than install and upkeep the machines....
Internet and electricity in general has been more off than on here in India. So pictures aren't going to be forthcoming until I find a reliable internet cafe that wont charge us extra to upload pics (any way to squeeze a bit more money out of you...honestly.)
# posted by Laura Davies : 9:59 PM
