Varanasi

On Tuesday night the girls and I, along with 4 of our close friends that we have met in Kolkata decided to get the heck out of Dodge (or Kolkata if you will) and have a short vacation in Varanasi, India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi
We took the overnight Himigri express from Howra Station to Varanasi Junction. A train that was supposed to be 14 hours but ended up being closer to 22 due to some amazingly long delays at other stations along the way. We heard rumors that there were people protesting a recent arrest of a political candidate by laying down on the tracks in Patna. That could be one of the many reasons that we were delayed but no one really knows for sure, it could just be the oh-so-reliable Indian Railway system.
The train was a very interesting experience in itself, it set off from Howrah station at midnight and we had 5 out of the 6 beds in our sleeper compartment with no one in the sixth, and two more beds in the same car, in a different compartment. The beds were stacked three high with middle one folding down to make a chair/bench when not sleeping. We were basically alone for the night but as soon as morning hit (about 4 a.m.) I was awoken by a quick grab of the ankle and a man yelling at me asking if I wanted chai. I said no and only then did I notice the three men sitting on my bed and the three others on Emily's. Not talking, not rummaging, just sitting. Slightly surprised, I looked around and realized that they simply didn't have seats, I'm still not sure if they had bought tickets or if they just bought standing tickets but my awakening didn't seem to bother them much, in fact as I sat up from my reclining position it made more room for them to stretch out and invite their friends over. I spent most of Wednesday trying to figure out how long till Varanasi, first answer: 30 minutes, second answer: next stop, third answer: 4 hours. How we ever made it off that train I'm not quite sure. But while we weren't trying to figure out when to get off we were reading or being part of the spectacle that is WESTERNERS IN RURAL INDIA. People climbing over people to look in the barred windows of our cabin from the outside of the train and shouts in Hindi followed by bellowing laughter from everyone around except for us. All in all it was an amazing experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, and if you've seen the Wes Anderson film Darjeeling Express and think that's what an Indian train is like, than you are sorely sorely mistaken.
We arrived in Varanasi at about ten o'clock on Wednesday night, a whole 8 hours after we were supposed to arrive. Needless to say we were all exhausted so we made our way to a hotel and passed out right quick. The next morning after breakfast we went on a walk with a guide from our hotel along the Ganges river to each of the famous ghats (steps down to the water) that line Varanasi's shore. Each one has a different story and serves a different purpose (although all are used for public bathing) the most interesting of these being the burning ghats. Where public cremation ceremonies take place 24 hours a day 365 days a year. In Hindu culture if you die and are burned on the banks of the Ganges river you are able to escape the exhausting cycle of reincarnation and while I don't pretend to completely understand why or how this works, people are passionate about it. So passionate that there is a fire burning in this Ghat that has been burning for the past 3000 years! People from all over Varanasi and the surrounding villages bring the bodies of their loved ones to the shore to be burned in public. It's a beautiful (and yes quite shocking) tradition that proves to me that there is never one 'right' way of doing things. It was amazing how easily people opened up and shared about their culture and while sometimes bits and pieces got lost in translation it was a beautiful time nonetheless.
We made our way down shore a little bit and found ourselves looking at these giant fortress/ palace walls that have deteriorated over the past thousand or so years. Each one has a different story but most were built by wealthy kings of India at the end of their lives so they could die in Varanasi and have their bodies burned at the very same ghat that we just walked through. AMAZING!
We spent the rest of the day getting ourselves lost on the tiny, and I mean tiny (about 5 feet wide at the most!), streets that make up Varanasi's old city. It's amazing that so many people, cows, dogs, and goats can live in such close proximity to each other. If you think New York City is crowded, think again. It was beautiful though, there were monkeys jumping from roof to roof over our heads and hanging from telephone wires, snake charmers that sat on the ground and played a sort of wind instrument to get cobras out of their wicker baskets, and staircases that seemingly went on forever. One of the best parts of the whole trip was that our hotel was the tallest building around and we could see everything from the roof. Truly truly spectacular.
Friday morning we woke up at about 5:30 and hopped on a row boat that took us all the way up and down Varanasi's shore. We got to see the sunrise over the Ganges river, illuminating the faces of devout peoples lining the ghats, stretching out last nights sleep and bathing their sins away in the polluted water. Our boat ride lasted about two hours and was a really really relaxing experience, something that hasn't really happened a whole lot in India. Our boat driver let us all row for a while and every once in a while another boat would pull up next to ours to see if we wanted to buy postcards, bracelets, tiny shiva statues, or other souvenirs as well as the chai boats peddling tiny glasses of chai from their floating shops. It was great.
We left Varanasi on Friday night, again taking the overnight train to Kolkata and we didn't get delayed as much as the last train, only about a four hour delay this time, and for the most part it was uneventful with the exception of Emily and I waking up at 3:30 in the morning and realizing that there were three men sitting in our cabin, one on her bed and two on the empty bed below me, holding very large guns. Now that's not all that uncommon for India, every police officer, security gaurd, or general ruffian hired to stand watch and ward off potential criminals has a fairly large gun strapped to their back, unfortunately for us at 3:30 in the morning it was too dark to tell if any of the men had uniforms or any sort of indication of being military or police officers so we both just laid in bed hoping for the best. After about 20 minutes another "gentleman" carrying a large rifle walked up to them and started barking orders in hindi, they all got up immediately and left and we never saw or heard of them again, thank God!

So Varanasi was amazing and it was great to get some time out of Kolkata, a little vacation of sorts, and even though we were only gone for about three days I think we all realized how hard it's going to be when we do leave to come home for good. I missed my boys at Daya Dan and I missed the regular faces at Kalighat. I missed walking out the gate of Hotel Maria and seeing Abdul, Kurtik, and Keshore. I missed the regular beggars and the man who walks around with the monkeys on a leash. I missed it all and I was only gone for three days. When the girls and I finally piled in the taxi after arriving at Howrah station on Saturday morning we all sighed, looked at each other, and said, "Finally we're home!" Oh boy. This might be rough.

More tomorrow.
Love you all.
Heath.