Traveling Fast Equals Bad Blogging
In about 2 weeks, I will leave India for Kenya, so I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for the last few days to see as much of the country as I can. At the time of my last post, I was in Bodhgaya. Since then, I have been to Varanasi (a city on the banks of the holy Ganges river) and Khajuraho (the site of ancient temples known for their “scandalous” erotic sculptures), and I’m currently writing from a train station in Jhansi on my way to Udaipur, a city in the deserts of Rajasthan.
As you can imagine, I have tons of stories to tell but not a lot of time to tell them. But, since I’ve gotten into the terrible habit of checking the page view stats on this blog and have begun to develop a sense of duty toward “my readers,” I thought I’d write a brief update.
Some highlights of the last few days:
In Bodhgaya, I went to the Mahabodhi Temple and sat under the Bodhi tree, the place where Siddharta Gautama achieved nirvana and became the Buddha. There were a few monks around me from various parts of the world, dressed in orange and red and yellow robes. There were also some young Asian women who sat in meditation. As for myself, I admired the way the sunlight fell on the heart-shaped leaves and had a few deep (or maybe “deep”) thoughts about existence. It was a lovely place.
Later, in Varanasi, I hired a boat for a morning trip up the Ganges, and watched pilgrims bathe in the waters to wash away their bad karma (and, said the Western voice in my head, to contract dysentery …sacred or not, the water is really, really dirty). Then, after the boatman dropped me off at a cremation ghat, where the caretakers tried to hustle money out of Matteo and I as we uncomfortably stood around the ashes of funeral pyres. I was feeling a little negative about the people of Varanasi at that point, but then we met some cute boys who wanted to see if I could play cricket (and were delighted to see that I could in fact hit and throw a ball) and all was forgiven. Later that night, I returned to the cremation ghats and watched several bodies turn to dust. (My thoughts about witnessing something like that can’t be described in the few minutes I have here…I’ll just say that it was an important event that I’ll continue to think about for a long time.)
Then, to travel from Varanasi to Khajuraho, I had to purchase a train ticket—an extraordinarily ridiculous event which deserves its own blog entry. Keep posted.
And finally, at Khajuraho, I had the fortune to view some gorgeous temples I had once studied in my university art history classes. (And another plus was renting a bike to ride around the village to find the temples.)
The temples are most famous for their erotic sculptures, which made being a tourist there fairly interesting… Indian society is pretty conservative. I’ve taken care to dress modestly (my legs and shoulders haven’t seen sun for the last 2 months) and avoid PDA with Matteo. So, imagine my discomfort when temple guards began eagerly pointing out carvings and exclaiming “Here, look! Kama Sutra!” and –my favorite—“Look! Dog sex!” But, sex aside, the temples are pretty amazing and well worth the journey if you ever find yourself in India.
Ok– now I have to catch my train!
Tags: India, RTW 07/08
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