Jennatool

 i arived in calcutta in the very early hours and spent a further two hours bartering and running away from taxi drivers that were trying to rip me of. i eventually got to the hotel that my friend was allready at stupid o’clock in the morning. after being driven for ages through what to me looked like awar zone . the was bodies lying everywhere turned over cars and just filth. with loads of policemen that had massive guns and looked like soldiers on every corner.

the next day spent all day wandering round just trying and failing to get used to everything that was going on around me. had my first of many lassis (amazing thick curd drink) and proper indian chais. had a look at the market and some saris the cloth is so amazing here its hard not to be atracted to all the beautifull colours.  meet up with some friends that i had meet in chang mai randomly in a internet cafe so went for a drink with them then spent the rest of the day wandering round and sorting out train tickets.

next day we left for varanasi on a 20 hour train ride this left at miday and arived 10 the next morning.  we booked in then went for a wander towards the gangees river. stopped for breackfast in the street on the way, half way through i was bloody suprised when they walked past with a dead body on a stretcher. as you can imagine i was quite shocked but was told by sarah my friend that im with that they burn dead bodies at the river cause rivers are thought of as goddesses and they can clean away your sins.

this one is for you jodders!!!

lots of people come to varanasi to die as it is such a holy place close to the gangees.  so we headed down to the river to have a look, this is a common thing for people to watch as they believe in reincarnation this is not a sad event but a happy one as they are passing on to a better life. they go through a ceromaony then clensing his body of all sins then the get cremated in bonfires on the river banks. at the end of the day the were 10-12 fires burning all with a different body in them. a local man explained what was happening to us and all the different rituals they use.

today we spent most of the day shopping and walking round the crazy streets here. you can never get bored as the is so many weird odd things going on and diffent foods to try.

 

sadhu ..holy guy!!

monkey!! bloody millions in varanassi.

yjr ganga (or ganky ganga) the river that is soo minging but soo holy so we swam in it!!!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006 at 7:35 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.