Varanasi Mornings

The next morning we woke up at 4 am to take another

boat ride on the the Ganges, this time to watch the sunrise.

The hustle and bustle around the river had such a different

feel to it, lighter and more cheerful.

There were many Yoga sun salutations. I loved these children

doing their stretches at all their different levels.

Monkey's starting early on their mischief.

After the boat ride our very inattentive guide took us through the back alley's of the

city. It was too early for shops to be open and the streets were vacant of people,

all we saw were dead and alive rats, diseased dogs, and tons of cow poop that

we had to pay attention not to step in. Our guide was busy munching on his

packet opiets and didn't say one word about the town. We eventually

had to ask to go back to our hotel, so I could look up on the internet

what I was supposed to be learning about the area.

We then took a short nap before flying out.

It was too bad that our last taste of India was so pointless. Many of you know

that if you asked Reece if he liked India right after we came home he totally

said no, not one bit. But I had to remind him that we shouldn't judge our whole

trip based off our last experience. It is true that traveling in India has been hard

and quite a culture shock. But we have learned so much, and seen some

really beautiful things. And many hotels we stayed at had the most welcoming

atmosphere ever.

Varanasi evenings

(picture I took at a museum in Jodpur, where I learned the most

about the River Ganges... do you see the river flowing from Shiva's hair?)

Our Last stop in India was to Varanasi to see the culture and ceremony

surrounding the sacred Gages River. (We were supposed to see Varanasi

first before our driving tour through Rajasthan but there was a mix up

with tickets with our flight from Delhi, then dealing with multiple officers

that claimed they didnt speak english caused us to miss our flight before we

could solve the mix up) We almost were forced to miss our second attempt to

fly to Varanasi due to the lack of organization in the domestic terminal in

the Delhi airpot. We were shocked at how the locals didnt respect lines,

people would cut in front of you and if you confronted them they would

pretend they didnt know what they where doing and act too confused to

move to the back of the line. BUT,

when more people tried to cut in front of the people who just cut in front

of us, heated debates would arise with lots of yelling. Talk about a complete

fend-for-yourself, dog-eat-dog culture. We had to burst out of our comfort

levels and assert ourselves to a disgusting degree just to get on the plane

moments before the plane took off. And I was worried we would never

see our checked baggage again... fortunately it was waiting for us

when we arrived. Whew.

We arrived in time to walk through the streets of the town and

then take a sunset boat ride on the Ganges before ending the night

by watching the nightly ceremony on the river bank.

Varanasi is regarded as a holy city by Buddhistsand Jains, and is the holiest

place in the world in Hinduism (and center of the Earth in Hindu cosmology).

It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably

the oldest in India.The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names

of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for it lies at the confluence of the Varuna,

with the Ganges being to its north, and the Assi, with the Ganges being to

its south. Varanasi is a holy city in Hinduism, being one of the most sacred

pilgrimage places for Hindus of all denominations and is one of seven most

holy places for Hindus in India. More than 1,000,000 pilgrims visit the city

each year. The city is believed to be founded by the God Shiva. Varanasi is

one of the holiest places in Buddhism too, being one of the four pilgrimage

sites said to have been designated by Gautama Buddha himself. In the

residential neighborhood of Varanasi lies Sarnath, the site of the deer

park where Gautama Buddha is said to have given his first sermon about

the basic principles of Buddhism.

The Ganges is the most sacred river of Hinduism. Shiva is always depicted

with the Ganga originating from his matted hair. Ganga descended to the

Earth through the locks of Shiva to make the whole earth pious, fertile and

wash out the sins of humans. Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges remits

sins and many Hindus believe life is incomplete without taking a bath in the

Ganges at least once in their lives. Many families keep a vial of water from the

Ganges in their house. This is done because it is auspicious to have water of the

Holy Ganges in the house, and also so that if someone is dying, that person will be

able to drink its water. Many Hindus believe that the water from the Ganges

can cleanse a person's soul of all past sins, and that it can also cure the ill.

Hindus also believe that dying in Kashi ensures release of a person's soul from

the cycle of its transmigrations. Around 500 bodies are creamted on the banks

of the river per day requiring multiple tons of wood. The bodies are burned at

evening and the ashes are spread on the river afterwards.

The Ganges also ranks among the top five most polluted rivers of the

world with fecal coliform levels in the river near Varanasi more than

hundred times the official Indian government limits.

Unfortunately again we had a guide that was impatient and annoyed.

He would walk a million miles per hour and loose us multiple times

as we couldn't go without taking pictures along the way.

A car getting decked out for a wedding that night.

It was odd to see families swimming in water where dead bodies were

being lined up and burned only a few hundred feet away.

I lit a prayer candle to add to the growing mass of flickering

floating candles as dusk was approaching.

We than sat down to wait for the ceremony, we had great seats.

A couple dragonflies watched the entire show from my shoe and finger.

On our way back to the hotel the traffic was extremely slow,

but we got to see many festive wedding parties push though.

The grooms in the wedding parties are supposed to ride in

on a white horse. Look hes riding faster than we are driving.

Ive loved all the beautiful canopies he have slept under on our trip so far.

That night we listened to the music and celebration of a wedding going on

at the resort next to ours. I wanted so badly to sneak on over and take

pictures but we were too shy. Someday I would love to go to an Indian

wedding, they look so beautiful and fun.

The Fall

Early last year a friend shared this beautiful movie with us.

We might have liked it a little too much. We possibly might even

have planned our trip around a few of the sites found in this movie.

See how many familiar places you can spot....

Taj Mahal

After waking up at 4am and riding our hotel shuttle to the Taj Mahal, then passing through security and getting a small tripod taking away from us, we found ourselves approaching the photographic view point only to find that we were more concerned with trying hard to protect our eyes from the early morning dust storm then being awed by the sunrise. There was no sunrise, just a yellow haze. We were at first disappointed, but reminded ourselves that we were lucky to be where we were seeing such a beautiful scene, dust storm or not the Taj Mahal is a stunning structure.

We snapped pictures like crazy, we couldnt believe how few people were around.

We were coming back to tour the grounds with our guide later that morning, but we wanted to get most of the pictures we wanted so we could relax durning the tour rather then stress about how many people are in our shots.

We came back to the Hotel for a quick breakfast and then ventured back, this time

with our guide.

Same mean guide as the day before, he was a little better, although he kept telling

us how sick he was of seeing the Taj Mahal. (you might have seen it before buddy but we havent!) We tried to not let it get to us. We still ooooo-ed and ahhhh-ed not

caring what he said, we wanted to enjoy every minute.

I loved seeing the exterior up close. The calligraphy and inlaid designs were

beautiful. The craftsmanship was wonderful.

The calligraphy on the Great Gate reads "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you."

In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the birth of their 14th child, and started construction of the Taj Mahal as a Mausoleum for her. The plinth and tomb took about 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took another 10 years. Soon after the Taj Mahal's completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoleum next to his wife.

We then visited Agra fort where Shah Jahan was under house arrest.

imagine candles in everyone of those niches in the wall. So beautiful.

this tower was said to be where Shah Jahan spent most of his arrest,

looking out at the memorial to his wife, the Taj Mahal.

We then drove back to Deli where we were to say goodbye to Anil our driver,

and then spend a night before we flew to Veranasi in the morning, our last stop in India.

The rain that the locals were waiting for to cool down the heat, fill up the

lakes, green up the country side, and roll in the rainy season, finally started falling

on our drive back to the city.

Goodbye Anil, we loved having you as our driver, you were amazing.

We took Anil out to dinner, to Pizza Hut which was actually a fancy sit-down restaurant, Anil

said he really liked american food and Reece and I were happy for the taste of home.