Hello to all, It's 2:28 AM (Tues.) and I'm wide awake. My clock has not reset itself. (Couldn't keep my eyes open at 7 PM, literally!) India was a wonderful experience! The most unusual place we've be
Hello to all, It's 2:28 AM (Tues.) and I'm wide awake. My clock has not reset itself. (Couldn't keep my eyes open at 7 PM, literally!)
India was a wonderful experience! The most unusual place we've been to date. You knew you weren't in Kansas anymore.
This was a trip for the "Seasoned Traveler" A "newbie" would've been truly in shock. Luckily, our tour group (20) were all seasoned and one of the BEST groups we've ever had the pleasure of traveling with.
As a lot of you have probably heard, the poverty there is over whelming. A very dirty filthy place when it came to the major cities. Agra is a living cesspool. New Delhi and Jaipur weren't much better.
(Before you ask, our Hotels were top notch. The food was good. We were treated well. Smartours did a terrific job! Air India is a great airline.)
The begging and /or selling in India was ceaseless. At times it truly ruined our excursions. You had to press on until you reached your Temple, Shrine, site or whatever, before you could have even a moment of peace.
The poor are devastatingly so! They're living on the sides of roads in heaps of trash and sewers. No bathrooms, no running water, no food, no jobs,. nothing! The city traffic becomes a massive drone of honking beeping taxis, tuk-tuks and bikes. There seems to be no compassion for one's fellow human beings. India has a 'caste system' that still rears it's ugly head to this day. How the country expects to be a leader in the modern world is beyond me. They've got a lot of cleaning up and human rights issues to deal with before any of that can happen.
Speaking of rights, forget Animal Rights. The poor dogs are living in squalor even worse then the humans. Eating trash, being ignored, festering sores, mange, tumors, fleas and growths. I could've cried at times. Saw very few cats. (Hummmmm?) The cows are sacred, so they wander the streets looking quite healthy and revered. The elephants were well cared for. As were the few camels and horses we saw. Monkeys were abundant. They seem to live a life of their own choice. Posing. Grabbing whatever they could. Rather amusing.
Nepal was much cleaner. The people far more pleasant!
Thurs. 8:20PM. continuing
Am still suffering from severe jet lag. I'm waking up at 1AM and not able to fall back to sleep. I'm falling fast asleep at 8PM and can't fight it! Not me at all
Now for some of the "fun and good " things on the tour.
New Delhi was rather dirty and ordinary. Not much to impress.
Jaipur had some wonderful temples and shrines, though filthy itself. The Elephant ride was so much fun! We were carried up a looooooong ramp to the palace. The caravan looked like something out of the 'King and I'.
Agra had the Taj Mahal. Truly beautiful from afar. Not that impressive up close. Everything else in Agra was a cesspool!!!
Sunday 4:30 AM
Once we left the Golden Triangle, the trip became a bit 'cleaner'.
The country side became farms. The villagers seemed happier. Whenever we came upon a "town".the filth returned, though not quite as bad. It was very intriguing to ride through the country side. (I've seen enough 'mustard plants' to last a life time.) it was fun to see camels pulling carts. A better look into the infrastructure of how "India the Country" works. When you are the country that is about to surpass China as the world's most populated, you need lots and lots of food. Here in the countryside is where the farmers toil to supply the masses. Very humbling.
Khajuraho, India has some of the BEST ruins we've ever seen on earth. The Temples are in amazing condition. The carvings are magnificent. This is sometimes referred to as the "City of Sex"since some of the carvings are from the Karma Sudra and other forms of intimate pleasures. They seemed to be only a small percentage of of the whole. The buildings towered over the landscape. Beautiful!!! The town was more laid back, though the "dollar, dollar, dollar" sellers would appear like zombies from the shadows of the shops and stands. At least they felt manageable.
Our tour to Varanasi, India was my favorite site we visited. Here we visited the Ghanges River burial sites. We went both at night and in the morning.
(Let me tell you about the night tour. The most amazing experience I've had in all my travels.)
We left the tour bus quite far from the site and transferred to bicycle rickshaws that proceeded to pedal our group through the bustle of thousands of pilgrims going to meet their form of 'Mecca" at the Ghanges. The traffic made you feel like you were blood, rushing through huge veins towards the heart of the matter. After leaving the rickshaws, we ascended large stone stairs, lined on both sides by beggars, the destitute and even lepers (poor souls).
The stairs were steep and wide. You ascended towards 7 large platforms occupied by young monks performing in unison, the burial rituals for the masses that were there. Hundreds, probably thousands of the faithful surrounded the platforms and the river's banks. The site was lit with every manner of light. Candles, fires, electric Xmas lighting that had nothing what-so-ever to do with that particular holiday. The site literally had a life of it's own. It pulsated. It droned. It enveloped.
We passed between two of the platforms and were loaded onto large wooden boats that took us out onto the river. The water was pitch black. The boat, surprisingly stable. Though we were part of many boats floating along the water, there was a feeling of calm and being alone. Handed small floating lit candles, we each made a wish and prayer, and set our little 'gifts' afloat in the darkness of the river. Looked a bit like fallen stars caught on the water's surface.
In the distance, large fires and smoke loomed. These was the cremation fires. We approached silently. Our boat soon was on the shore of the river. I will never forget this scene, the rest of my life. It was like a huge multi-tiered Stage Play had been placed before our eyes. (If any of you have seen Fellini's "Satyricon"- you may know what I'm describing.)
There were 7 cremations, on several levels, in different stages of progress. The bodies wrapped in white cloth, and placed at downward angles on the steep steps that went from the street 5 stories up, to the rivers edge. They were waiting their turn for the cremation fires. (I was told that it takes 4-5 hours for the entire cremation process.)
The panorama was breathtaking! Families waited, tended, wept, and rejoiced over the deceased's remains. Wood was piled in preparation for the loved ones. The bodies that were now nothing but ash, were swept by the closest relatives into the healing (and filthy) waters of the river. Glowing embers of wood, etc. ran along the last few steps to the river's edge. The closest male of each family would be clad in only a white waist wrap and proceed to have his head shaved. He would tend to the fire. The ever present abandoned dogs sniffed at the ashes on the river's edge. The randomly roaming cows walked among the cremation platforms. People bathed in the water. The whole scene glowed with life. Yes, life. What a beautiful, tender way to leave this world.
We watched in silence for quite sometime. Then slowly drifted back up the river. We watched the remaining progress of the ceremonies being held at the spot we'd descended. Then departed our boats. Climbed the stones stairs. And were once again peddled back through the veins of the city. This time away from the heart and it's life.
The next morning, just before dawn, we once again visited the site we'd descended to the night before. Gone were the crowds and the ceremonies. In their place was the sun just beginning to rise over the Ghanges. Fog lent a mysterious pallor to the whole scene. People were in all manner of undress, bathing in the river's (filthy) waters. Gurus and their followers chanted and practiced yoga on cement platforms along the banks. We boarded another boat and this time saw the funeral fires in the early light. No less touching, family members tended to loved one's remains. It was beautiful in it's own right.
Monday Feb. 2 4:30 AM
Now off to Nepal.
Nepal is definitely not India. Kathmandu has an almost European look to it's structures. Reminded us of New Orleans french quarter at some points. Though it was a french quarter over taken by prayer flags, merchants and people living in every nook and cranny. Though we arrived after an 18 day trash strike. (weren't we lucky?).the clean factor was evident right away. We arrived with piles of trash in certain areas.(not everywhere)and it started to disappear a day later. India needs to look at Nepal for inspiration concerning it's trash management issues.
The "dollar dollar dollar" chanting had stopped. When the people said "Hello" they meant it. You could shop at ease. What a change!
Nepal itself was beautiful. It's located in a large valley at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains. The mountain range looks like no other I've seen on earth. Very sharp and jutting towards the sky.
Visited their funeral fires. So different from the Ghange's. This was along a filthy dry river bed. Looked almost like an old abandoned train station, it's platforms turned into cremation platforms. Stone bridges granted a closer overhead look to the cremations taking place. Monkeys and dogs stiffed and picked their way through the dried and puddled river bed. Again, a site I will never forget.
Everest.
We were lucky enough to do an up close fly by of Mount Everest in a twin prop plane. Each of us had our own window and were allowed 2x to visit the cockpit for a pilot's eye view. An amazing experience!!! The snow and wind blowing off the top of the mountain was so fierce and breathtaking! What a view!
Well, Folks, Thanks for letting dump my memories on you. This will assist me in remembering the events of this trip. There is so much more I have not included in this letterjust so much my poor old brain can recall at the moment.
