Photo Album #3 & 4

Some Varanasi and Himalaya magic is viewable at Magic India: part 3
and Magic India: part 4

hope u enjoy it as much as I did!

(by the way Nanda Devi is the mountain on my right, not the picture right.)

Rishikesh is lots of fun! more in a day or 2

trekking

Gone trekking...http://www.gmvnl.com/newgmvn/photo/

In Varanasi - everything really IS possible

It has been said that being in Varanasi is like being in a permanent trip. It like scuba diving where all that might be possible in the manifestation of life parades past in spectacular beauty and surprise, and what’s more it is in a magical timewarp, a city where the cycle rickshaws outnumber all the other traffic, and river and sun hold sway, as they might at any time in human history. Varanasi is certainly the pinnacle of every place i have travelled to date, and a complete Indian experience, one I think I have been waiting for.. I am lucky the cold himalayan weather forced my life this way, just as 2 years ago in Goa weather pushed me in equally wondrous directions ;).

Dawn, as the sun rises over the distant tree line, lighting the large dunes on the east bank, then the river proper, it reflects into my balcony in a 500 year old Haveli over looking the serenity. I walk to the river side and take a row boat down the river for an hour, it is very peaceful, just the slap of the oars, and the larger tourist boats being attacked by hawker boats, selling candles for prayers, like magpies attack a hawk, never giving up.

The ghat life comes alive with the sun, as it is first seen above the horizon, a loud ringing of all the ghat temple bells begins until it is fully risen, in beautiful red-sun-orange...to the beautiful golden sound of bells and cheers. At the burning ghats the morning fog mixes with the funeral smoke, ash falls gently if you stand close, next to the pyres are giant piles of wood from forests unknown and undoubtedly depleting...i ask one man what will you do when the forests are gone, and receive an uncomprehending look. The fire used to light the pyres is 5000 years old, tended by small men in adjacent domed buildings, and there is the hospice where the frail and wasted dying men and women are brought for their last few hours or days. I tell one ghat side man of my profession and am quickly offered a visit, but i decline, feeling that i would be but a gora tourist to those spending their last hours praying for a worthwhile reincarnation.

If u turn your back for one minute with your door open, a monkey will snatch anything resembling fruit, be it edible or otherwise and be out in a flash...so far its monkeys 2, me one...in another flash of reality a monkey is violently electrocuted in the alley streets late at night, grabbing a live wire.

The old city is a wondrous labyrinth of small streets and cobbled laneways, with many small neighborhood temples, riots of color and noise, silk merchants, fruit carts, shiny silver rickshaws, hawkers, sweet shops, yoga centres, paan sellers, music schools, water buffalo, mangy dogs, and of course cows. Jodhpur had asthetics of magical light, but Varanasi has the mysticism, a surprise around every corner, and too many laneways to explore in a week. The ghats stretch 5 km of so in length and the laneways run crisscrossing in parallel. During one day I visit the amazing silk factories, in the muslim quarter, the silk caste in dark homes, day by day dyeing and weaving the gossamer thread into beautiful forms.

Today I went to Surnath, 10km away, one of the 4 holiest Buddhist sites in India, the place of Buddha’s first teaching. It is a wonderful place, the new temple is filled with incredible Japanese Buddhist murals from the 1930’s, the old stupa is on the web site 2000 years old…

more on Surnath

At sunset scores of boats plough the great rivers mirrored water, hundreds of candles are released into the water midstream and float like fireflys as the incredible sunset puja spectacle gets under way. Where else in the world does a stream of candles float downstream to celebrate life and manifest prayers? Each evening the ghat steps are filled with ceremony, bells ringing in the temples and at the ghat step stages, the central attraction at the waters edge, a stage like area with small platforms is where 6 beautifully dressed priests in gold and saffron robes perform the ceremony at sunset. Another night a music festival, outrageous beats from traditional Indian musicians at a special showcase concert.

It is not just water that flows down this river, but life itself, I have seen bigger rivers, but none that carry such a lifeforce along its banks, the force of the human spirit, Siddarthra, the deep religious complexity, and the deep personal meditation on the non existence of the self, here no one cares who u are or what you are, and one can get on with the business of self examination...

I go to the waters edge and collect a small candle burning in a wax paper cup, place it on a larger plate filled with rose and marigold petals, saying my prayers for my loved ones, it is sent down the river Ganges, holy river.

Boys launch small paper kites that float in the seemingly breathless air, they let out the string for up to a mile downwind, then fight with any competitors in the air, the kites flit like peculiar dragonflies. I sit on the ghat steps with wondeful peppery masala chai, watching the hordes of passers by, pilgrims, sadhu's, musicians, vendors, young indian men everywhere, a boy with a chained monkey, pet goats that are washed daily in the ganga, a rich mix of tourists and travellers, as it is sunday there are cricket games at every ghat, i talk with a boat boy- to find to my surprise that despite his 4 foot height he is 14 years old, a sad reminder of the fact that up to 70% of indian children suffer some form of malnutrition, including that of growth retardation (recent WHO figures).

So tomorrow i leave Varinasi for a 20 hour trip to Rishikesh, the river and the mother mountains... the Himalaya's!... but for sure I will return, there are many trippy lifetimes here yet to experience.

to Varanasi

Varanasi starts with a train journey. Through the bubbling confusion in the rainy Delhi night, arriving at the platforms packed with dark faces, scarves knotted around heads and necks, parcel wallahs yelling watch out coming through with their carts laden with packages, I am ripped off by my baggage wallah, and to add further insult to the extortion taken to the wrong platform, but my gut feelings were crying out loudly and i soon enough found the right one, the train however arrived on time, through the sea of people streaming to the carriages the luggage is finally stowed, bunk claimed and all is calm, where i quietly munch on delicious indian gooseberries- bound to be packed with antioxidants. The inspector shows up and spends a long time looking at my ticket, checking his sheaf of papers, again my ticket, i am confident i have the right train and ticket, so i wonder what is going on, then finally telling me with a stern look to come down from my bunk..."congratulations Sir, you have been upgraded to first class" he says, well its just like monopoly i think and so off i go to the next carriage, a peaceful 4 bunk room, aircon, softer bunks, my companions an Indian interpreter at a Japanese embassy and a drunk over talkative Mauritian-Indian off to meet his guru, and by the sounds of it get drunk with him in Varanassi, coming here every 2 years to do puja at the burning ghats. He offers me his 5 hour old Wimpy grease ball fries and his rum, to which i decline, but thankfully soon enough he is unconscious and snoring and i am left to my typing and my new wonderful indian music. The second time thru Delhi I realise it does have good and cheap shopping compared to all the other places so far visited. I am buying alot of the impossible to come in the west indian classical music and it is wonderful, diverse, spiritual, sad, longing and well produced, sitar and tabla....

More will come here i am sure but for now a prayer:

Ganga Puja in Varanasi
May we offer this prayer to Ganga, the divine mother and wave the festal lamp before her; may we glorify her who delivers us from the cycle of transmigration and the ocean of this world as if she were a steady boat.
You are born of he lotus-feet of Vishnu and are famous as a stream of unpolluted water. You are Brahma in a streaming, flowing form brought to earth by Bhagiratha, sacred and a repository of all virtues.
Shiva?s locks are as it were your bower of bliss where you enjoy roaming about; you are the destroyer of all the three kinds of afflictions, physical, mental and providential, deliverer of the sons of Sagara and redresser of all sins.
He who chants your name even from a long distance is instantaneously rewarded with great comfort and pleasure and attains deliverance as well.
Just a few drops of your holy stream sanctify the bones of the dead, who touching them, go straight to heaven.
The countless creature that live in the water or on land, the innumerable birds, cattle, insects as well as the trees growing on your banks are all entitled to salvation (by their association with you).
O compassionate goddess, be kind to the poor and the destitute and revealing to them the lotus-feet of the Lord, lift the veil of delusion which covers their conscience.

Album #2

Finally album 2. Magic India - part 2. Indulgent and full of tourist shots, although i really liked the cycle rickshaws in Jaipur, remnants of a dying age, i hope Varanassi/Rishikesh will make the next one more real.

and excellent album from another traveller can be found here

The world survives by those who have generosity of spirit. It is owned by those that have none. Tarun Tejpal.

Jaipur briefly

I decided that i would try to persist with this thing, if only for posterity...

Last week i felt more like a tourist, but in Pushkar many i met were yearly visitors, or long time travellers, some eternal travellers, able to pass on knowledge, make me laugh, share the catharsis of Holi, laughing about the fake priests and the puja extortion racket. Pushkar attracts many more travellers than tourists, where i stand is not always clear, in my mind i cannot always find the freedom that these people seem to possess, but it becomes easier in holiday mode, harder in 'professional life'. Many of these guys pass thru the same festivals I have - here for buying clothes + jewellery to sell in Europe or Australia. I loved sitting in the market area after dinner drinking chai, eating carrot cake and meeting people from all countries, although mainly scandinavian, western european, and israeli. India is already asking to be visited repeatedly...but then travel always has filled my head with dreams.

Back in tourist mode Jaipur is fun, hectic, but not truly filthy like Delhi, great eating and shopping. I visited the amazing astronomy centre with the worlds largest sundials, and the beautiful Palace of the Wind, and the wonderful marble Lakshmi Narayan temple, then wandered the old city for ages. Delhi tomorrow before the train to Varanassi...time there to enjoy wireless connections with Barrista coffee again.

Pushkar- wow

Pushkar, where traveling begins, where the traveler community is vibrant, like a huge giant ongoing festival...quiet streets, no rickshaws, i have met more travelers here in a week than in the whole time in all the other places.

Tonight is the start of Holi, this night there is music across the whole town, drumming, wild hindi music melodic and entrancing, echoing everywhere, but not loud, floating in and out , round and round the town lake echoing, this afternoon bonfires, then drumming and indian boys dancing. Then during the night a full lunar eclipse, although not an auspicious occasion in Hindu tradition. Thanks to Indiamike.com for the picture.

Holi was wildly fantastic, the chalk flew and the dancing was nuts...getting entirely covered in paint like chalk was cathartic. Then after it all settles down, an afternoon hike to the temple high above town for sunset with Aussie friends i met.

A week here - i could stay a month and just chill and forget about India, drinking chai all day in the street side hang outs but exploration calls, the Himalaya's however are as with every other northern hemisphere place having a late cold snowy winter, so its a little unexpectedly off to Varanassi instead of Manali for a week or 2. The ghats sound out of this world, then to Rishikesh for Yoga ashrams. Varanassi comes on the recommendation of many travelers. After that it should be warm enough for Himachal Pradesh.

This whole blog thing is a little less inspiring than it was a few weeks ago, the price of hanging out in wonderful Pushkar. Hopefully another photo album soon.