Another reason to ease into India. Varanasi is coming and I want to have some India "legs" before we hit max Shiva energy.
I also had a weird dream in Goa about Varanasi. I wasn't asleep exactly...I was just nodding off like in an opiated dream and had this disturbing vision of boogie boarding (like from earlier in the day?)... but I was boogie boarding in Varanasi, in the sludge of the Ganges headed for the steps of a Ghat. Blahhh, amongst the bodies......ugh.
That had me a bit shaken..... I hadn't been to Varanasi to be able to see it so accurately...
And I didn't want any prophetic bullshit thoughts about this... I'd hate to think what that could mean.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Goa Overview
We had crossed off a bunch of the itinerary from Goa to not be completely insane. It was now down to Varanasi, Rishikesh and we would briefly hit Pushkar and Udaipur on the way back down. That is already too much.
I had hated bailing on Hampi that was so close to were we had been in Goa.
But Indians have a saying about Goa. Something like "Take it easy Goa man" It's actually a condescending phrase as people from Goa are considered lazy. I don't know if that's true but they for sure have a nicer life than most in the country and contrary to what I was told about the beaches being dirty and locals not using them for recreation...and to not eat anything that was not cooked etc...
I don't know what happened but we had more fresh salads and fruit then anywhere I've ever been and the Goans were doing a hell of a lot of swimming, boogie boarding and some surfing.
Where we were was perfect.
Goan man didn't take it easy, but we did...and we didn't want to move. We had our killer yoga teacher (and by this I mean he was almost killing us everyday), massages, a Royal Enfield or a scooter to drive, the quiet village of Agonda Beach and some cool friends we met hangin' out there.
We met a wild Irishman who had lived there 12 years and had built a really cool house. He had hilarious tales of the experience of an expat trying to shuffle through the bureaucracy of India and getting anything done. There's a book; Don't Stop the Carnival that everyone should read who is considering becoming an expat anywhere. He made the book seem tame. Coincidently, he was also doing sculpture and setting up a whole bronze casting thing.
We now have reasons to go back to Goa.
Is that song still playing?
I had hated bailing on Hampi that was so close to were we had been in Goa.
But Indians have a saying about Goa. Something like "Take it easy Goa man" It's actually a condescending phrase as people from Goa are considered lazy. I don't know if that's true but they for sure have a nicer life than most in the country and contrary to what I was told about the beaches being dirty and locals not using them for recreation...and to not eat anything that was not cooked etc...
I don't know what happened but we had more fresh salads and fruit then anywhere I've ever been and the Goans were doing a hell of a lot of swimming, boogie boarding and some surfing.
Where we were was perfect.
Goan man didn't take it easy, but we did...and we didn't want to move. We had our killer yoga teacher (and by this I mean he was almost killing us everyday), massages, a Royal Enfield or a scooter to drive, the quiet village of Agonda Beach and some cool friends we met hangin' out there.
We met a wild Irishman who had lived there 12 years and had built a really cool house. He had hilarious tales of the experience of an expat trying to shuffle through the bureaucracy of India and getting anything done. There's a book; Don't Stop the Carnival that everyone should read who is considering becoming an expat anywhere. He made the book seem tame. Coincidently, he was also doing sculpture and setting up a whole bronze casting thing.
We now have reasons to go back to Goa.
Is that song still playing?
TO VARANASI
We lost our reservation in Varanasi at Ganges View Guest House by staying so long in Goa. We re-booked at Shiva View Guest House which is perched just above the cremation ghat at the other end of the ghats.
Its actually a cool place to stay with great views....even with an occasion whiff from our balcony.
And it has very hot water.
Its actually a cool place to stay with great views....even with an occasion whiff from our balcony.
And it has very hot water.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Trying to put Varanasi into words is somewhat like trying to describe Burning Man. You can't put it into perspective. The energy is so intense, its wild. Cows, people, bodies, whacked out sadus... shit and sounds and smells everywhere, it assaults all your senses and all your emotions.
It is said that this is the oldest continuous city on the planet and that it was already an ancient city when the Buddha arrived here in 500AD. If continuous means that for eons it has been this teeming mass of life and death constantly building and crawling upon itself along narrow passages in a maze... then its closer to a description.
And the maze of narrow streets are not wide enough for cars nor rickshaws to enter. The passages go everywhere. No one has ever been able to map them. You can't find your way around and I don't care what kind of sense of direction you think you have, Daniel Boone couldn't find his way out of there and you are gonna get lost if you wander.
Seriously.
I have a really good sense of direction and so we walk along a street and I know it parallels the river.
Simple.
We walk, and then turn to go to the river...but there's no river. Impossible. It has to be right here. Turn again, still no river. We're somewhere else...how the hell can I lose the damn Ganges? Its makes up one whole side of the city and we were just walking there.....shit. The sun or moon is no help. You are surrounded by rock buildings.
And everyone says to not go out late at night in this old part of town.
So where does one find Mark and Lynne now? Why of course out late at night, lost in this maze with all these weird ass people asking us where where we are going, where are we are from or whispering out if we want to buy hashish or opium when we pass.
I could have used a hit of opium right now...this has got me nervous. I'm lost back here with Lynne who they probably view as a whore and trying to ask for directions which is a bit of an admission that I'm helpless in itself. And if not finding these shady characters we are finding cops...and I don't trust them right now any more than the drug dealers.
To make matters worse; Indians do not want to say that they do not know something...so they will just say something and you will get 20 different somethings from 20 different people. And if you are lost in a maze at night and you are trying to ask directions and one person points that way and another points another way and another says that its the way we just came from thank you very much, it can get you just a little nervous y'know....just a little jumpy...and a dog barks and something moves in a doorway and someone hisses hashish again...godammmit.....and then suddenly...there you are; at the cremation area... with weird untouchables tending to the dead and you're so happy and relieved... skipping through this valley of death with glee like you have just found Oz because because becaaaaaaaause... because you've broken out of the maze and you're almost home. Because our hotel was just above the cremation ghat and if we found burning bodies, we found home and right now there was no place like home [sigh].
It is said that this is the oldest continuous city on the planet and that it was already an ancient city when the Buddha arrived here in 500AD. If continuous means that for eons it has been this teeming mass of life and death constantly building and crawling upon itself along narrow passages in a maze... then its closer to a description.
And the maze of narrow streets are not wide enough for cars nor rickshaws to enter. The passages go everywhere. No one has ever been able to map them. You can't find your way around and I don't care what kind of sense of direction you think you have, Daniel Boone couldn't find his way out of there and you are gonna get lost if you wander.
Seriously.
I have a really good sense of direction and so we walk along a street and I know it parallels the river.
Simple.
We walk, and then turn to go to the river...but there's no river. Impossible. It has to be right here. Turn again, still no river. We're somewhere else...how the hell can I lose the damn Ganges? Its makes up one whole side of the city and we were just walking there.....shit. The sun or moon is no help. You are surrounded by rock buildings.
And everyone says to not go out late at night in this old part of town.
So where does one find Mark and Lynne now? Why of course out late at night, lost in this maze with all these weird ass people asking us where where we are going, where are we are from or whispering out if we want to buy hashish or opium when we pass.
I could have used a hit of opium right now...this has got me nervous. I'm lost back here with Lynne who they probably view as a whore and trying to ask for directions which is a bit of an admission that I'm helpless in itself. And if not finding these shady characters we are finding cops...and I don't trust them right now any more than the drug dealers.
To make matters worse; Indians do not want to say that they do not know something...so they will just say something and you will get 20 different somethings from 20 different people. And if you are lost in a maze at night and you are trying to ask directions and one person points that way and another points another way and another says that its the way we just came from thank you very much, it can get you just a little nervous y'know....just a little jumpy...and a dog barks and something moves in a doorway and someone hisses hashish again...godammmit.....and then suddenly...there you are; at the cremation area... with weird untouchables tending to the dead and you're so happy and relieved... skipping through this valley of death with glee like you have just found Oz because because becaaaaaaaause... because you've broken out of the maze and you're almost home. Because our hotel was just above the cremation ghat and if we found burning bodies, we found home and right now there was no place like home [sigh].
Monday, March 3, 2008
Life and Death on the Ganges
Life and Death on the Ganges.
That people come to Varanasi to bath in the Ganges is well known. Tourists swarm on boats to take pictures of it daily. But a girl pointed out to us when we asked about a small whirlpool in the river that it was water was being sucked up into a huge city water tank. Was this the city water? Does that mean we were all bathing in the Ganges? Even from the hotel shower?
Oh God.
Earlier, we had been given quite an insiders tour of the cremation ghat as we were staying right above there. A guy took us right up to the smoldering fires and then up to see an old hag whom takes donations for wood. Wood is expensive. He explained that not everyone can afford to be cremated so they are then tossed into the river. Additionally, holy men, children under 12, pregnant women and lepers are not burned but weighted down and also thrown in. You'd think they would want to burn lepers but for whatever reason they don't.
We could be showering in leper water. Oh God....what a horrible thought....as bad as boogie boarding through floating bodies...but the reality is that its not the lepers or the dead people, its the toxic sludge and shit that has polluted this holy of holiest rivers that makes your skin crawl.
And of course I don't really believe that we are showering in untreated water but I don't know what would treat what I have seen. One thing for sure...I did see that half the time when one sends one's laundry out to be done and you assume it's going to some laundry place somewhere, it may just be going to the washing ghat as I did see plenty of westerner's clothes out drying there ...just being freshly washed in the Ganges. Therefore, there are a number of tourists somewhere happily wearing their freshly laundered clothes with just a hint of toilette du leper
That people come to Varanasi to bath in the Ganges is well known. Tourists swarm on boats to take pictures of it daily. But a girl pointed out to us when we asked about a small whirlpool in the river that it was water was being sucked up into a huge city water tank. Was this the city water? Does that mean we were all bathing in the Ganges? Even from the hotel shower?
Oh God.
Earlier, we had been given quite an insiders tour of the cremation ghat as we were staying right above there. A guy took us right up to the smoldering fires and then up to see an old hag whom takes donations for wood. Wood is expensive. He explained that not everyone can afford to be cremated so they are then tossed into the river. Additionally, holy men, children under 12, pregnant women and lepers are not burned but weighted down and also thrown in. You'd think they would want to burn lepers but for whatever reason they don't.
We could be showering in leper water. Oh God....what a horrible thought....as bad as boogie boarding through floating bodies...but the reality is that its not the lepers or the dead people, its the toxic sludge and shit that has polluted this holy of holiest rivers that makes your skin crawl.
And of course I don't really believe that we are showering in untreated water but I don't know what would treat what I have seen. One thing for sure...I did see that half the time when one sends one's laundry out to be done and you assume it's going to some laundry place somewhere, it may just be going to the washing ghat as I did see plenty of westerner's clothes out drying there ...just being freshly washed in the Ganges. Therefore, there are a number of tourists somewhere happily wearing their freshly laundered clothes with just a hint of toilette du leper
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)