Varanasi

Humans below, monkeys above at the train station in Hardwar. When one of the monkeys would randomly open up his bladder and douse the people sleeping below, it was a great show.

One of the less than human corpses floating in the Ganges.

And 50 metres up stream from that...a bath.

To get to Varanasi we caught a train from a city called Hardwar, about an hour or so down river from Rishikesh. We quickly visited the train station, then went to find a bite to eat at a restaurant a few blocks away, where we somehow ran into Sesha (friend who I stayed with down in southern India) and his family. This may not seem weird to people since we're both in India, but it would be similar to running into a guy from Toronto, in Vancouver and putting a billion or so people in between the two cities. Needless to say it was a bizarre, yet cool coincidence.

From Hardwar we caught a 20 hour train southeast down to Varanasi, where we are now. Varanasi is famous for its river side body burnings along the Ganges. It's said that if a person dies in Varanasi they ascend directly to heaven (or the Hindu equivelant...might just be breaking out of reincarnation...not clear on that). To be cremated then have your ashes tossed into the Ganges is a form of purification. So, after visiting the local hospital (where I was diagnosed with Giardiasis...a cousin of Beaver Fever who I brought along for the trip around the world all the way from Brazil), we made our way along the Ganges, through the Ghats. Ghats are basically concrete pads and pillars and open areas that have been built right down and into the river. Most Ghats are for bathing, meditation etc, but two of them are there specifically for cremations. There's obviously no photos at the burning ghats so we just sat there and watched it all happen, the process goes something like this. The bodies are first wrapped in cloth and flowers, then paraded through the winding little streets of the old city, where they end up at the burning ghat. The wood is the most expensive part of the process, costing 165-800 rupees per kg, and taking about 200-400 kgs to successfully burn the corpse. The funeral pyre is created, then the body (still wrapped in cloth) is doused in the Ganges, honey, butter, kurd and some other stuff is spread over top of it, then the whole package is put onto the pyre. From there, the head mourner (dad, husband, brother) ignites the pyre using a fire from some temple up the road, and does some circles around the corpse. There are no woman allowed near the ghat, because they believe that showing outward signs of grief disturbs the spirit's departure (that and the odd wife has been known to throw herself onto the smouldering pile in the past and therefore cremate herself as well). The body takes about 3 hours to burn, there isn't much visible to the outsider except when the shroud burns off or falls away, leaving some pale face staring at you or letting a dead arm flop out. The ashes are taken and chucked into the Ganges after the head mourner has deemed the fire done. The body is obviously never totally burnt, so the area surrounding the ghat has floating, charred body parts. Although gross to us, the stray dogs loved it and could be seen throughout the area munching on steaming limbs or chewing on a charred torso. Needless to say it was quite an eye-opener. I was curious as to how I would react given that I had never even seen a dead body before, but I think years of movies and video games have dulled any of those emotions to the point where it just seemed quite regular.

Following that we enjoyed the first steak we've eaten since Kenya (for me at least). Made our way back to the hotel while the town was being swarmed with locusts (not sure why...but there must have been trillions of them all over the town..was quite something). This morning we received another round of massages by strange little Indian men, and tonight we board a train bound for the Nepal border. Hopefully I can get in to the place even though I have no more room in my passport for a visa.