A LOOOOOOOOOOONG GOOD-BYE

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:51 PM

Idalis:

Dharamsala






We enjoyed our last few days in Dharamsala and took advantage of the relative peace in the city, knowing in the back of our minds, that we would soon be going to the Belly of the Beast, Varanasi! I went with our friend, Nic, to a yoga class on the rooftop of her guest house. Swami, the friendly instructor, urged us to IIIIIIIINHAAAAAAAAAALE and EEEEEEXHAAAAAAAAALE often, probably to take our minds off of the loud firecrackers that were going off next door for a wedding. With good intentions, he tried to “clear our chakras,” but Nic and I had to stifle a laugh as he tried to blow into a conch shell in order to “receive energy” from his late guru. How I miss a good ol' sweaty yoga class!

We enjoyed a traditional Tibetan dinner (yummy momos included!) at one of our favorite restaurants, Khana Nirvana, and watched a documentary on the Tibetan Uprising of 2008. After learning about the atrocities the Chinese government has inflicted on the Tibetan population, Kevin and I are glad that our plans to visit China did not work out, opting to save that trip for when treatment has improved.

One of our highlights while in Dharamsala was a day hike Kevin and I did to the top of Triund, where after a 4-hour ascent, we were treated to beautiful views of the Himalayan range. How breathtaking! It was well worth all the huffing and puffing, and the sore knees the next day after our descent! It made us even more anxious for our next destination, Nepal, where we plan to do some trekking in the Annapurna Sanctuary.

The one sad part was saying goodbye to our dear friend, Nic, whom we've enjoyed meeting up with several times in India. Nic will stay in Dharamsala for several months, as she is taking classes on Buddhism and is doing volunteer work, teaching conversational English to Tibetan monks. But, we've promised to meet up again, next time in her home of Australia. Nic, we have enjoyed your company immensely and look forward to future long conversations, 'roo steaks, and the Outback scenery! We wish you the best and will see you soon!

Varanasi










Our 27-hour train ride to Varanasi was surprisingly pleasant. Although long (very long), Kevin and I had a semi-quiet berth, so we were able to sleep, read, look out the window at the sometimes crazy scenery (including jam-packed trains and defecating citizens), and start planning our trip into Nepal. The one bad thing was arriving in Varanasi at 1:30 AM but thankfully, we had arranged for the Hotel Alka staff to pick us up and take us to our guest house.

Varanasi was a mixed bag, which was actually better than we anticipated. Because of our late arrival, we spent most of the next day just resting and relaxing in our room and gratefully catching up on TV! We did manage to make it out in the afternoon, and meandered through winding, narrow alleys, avoided wandering cows, smelly poo, and shifty drug dealers selling Chinese opium to make it to the ghats.

Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world, and definitely India's holiest. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims come every day to perform puja and bathe in the very polluted Ganges, believing that the waters wash away sins. Anyone who dies in Varanasi attains instant moksha or enlightenment, and many widows and the elderly come here to live out their final days, finding shelter in temples or living off of alms from begging. This holy city is also one of the dirtiest we saw in India, and Varanasi is rife with touts and scams. Thankfully, Kevin and I had “been around the block” in India before coming here, and had some prior experience dealing with the mayhem.

We woke up before sunrise the next morning to take a boat ride on the Ganges. As the sun was coming up, we saw hundreds of devotees praying, making offerings, and bathing in the holy waters. The burning ghats contained the bodies and ashes of the deceased being cremated close to the shore and here, Kevin and I witnessed a disturbing sight: stray dogs chewing on human bones and people defecating, while pilgrims bathed in the waters nearby. The Ganges is very polluted, containing high amounts of fecal matter, heavy metal chemicals, and decaying body parts. Needless to say, Kevin and I skipped a dip in the river. Despite the filth, the dawn boat ride was a moving experience. We watched people perform their ablutions, a group of young brahmin boys lighting candles, people doing yoga and meditation on the steps, a man singing holy mantras, and an ash-covered sadhu ringing bells. Whatever might be said about Varanasi, it's definitely not a place you forget quickly.

The next day was much mellower! We spent the day with Francois and Marie, a lovely French-Canadian and American couple we had met during our Buddhism course at Tushita. Together, we took a very bumpy rickshaw to the nearby peaceful city of Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon. We walked along the ruins of old stuppas, visited a great archaeological museum (air conditioned and only two rupees!), and chatted away over cold Limca sodas in the shade. That evening, we all went out to dinner together, where Kevin and I had our Last (Indian) Super and got tons of great tips from them for South East Asia. Dearest Francois and Marie: Thank you for the wonderful company. We wish you the best in your future travels and hope to see you again. Happy journeys!

Monday, March 23 @ 8:52

Kevin

The Exodus

For one last time we would catch an Indian train. It would be a first class, three tier sleeper headed to Gorakhpur, India, a city about three hours, by bus, from the border shared with Nepal. Our train was scheduled to arrive in Varanasi at 12:30PM to pick us up. It finally arrived at 1:45AM. We boarded to find that our ingenious strategy of choosing the end bunks was defeated, as in this particular coach, the end bunks were three tiered and not two tiered, as usual, leaving us very little head room. In addition, our bunks were not adjacent as ordered on line. Thankfully, a kind gentleman agreed to trade bunks so that we could be together. The additional bunk also seemed to mean additional baggage, which had filled up every available space before I could get my pack settled in. So, I ended up having to sleep with my pack on my bunk with me. Needless to say, we have become very close, my pack and I. We both managed to fall right to sleep and awoke at 8:00AM to the sound of the shuffling passengers preparing to disembark at our final location. One thing that was not different about this train ride was the touts awaiting the arrival of the unsuspecting tourist. Little did they know that our, now, four months of experience would see us breeze right pass them in search of our final Indian bus ride, which would take us from Gorakhpur to Sunauli, our point of exit from India.

Once again, India did her best to throw us another curve as a consolation for leaving her country. We boarded our bus and were disappointed to find that we were assigned the last two seats at the end of the bus and in the corner. Our disappointment continued as they steadily began to pack so many people onto this bus that there were body parts tucked and squeezed into every available air pocket. The ride started out slow, making several stops but eventually sped up to a furious pace dodging everything that attempted to enter the periphery of the road. The ride was hot, dusty and steamy. So much so, in fact, that a little old Nepalese lady sitting next to me began to faint. We immediately began to try and clear the area of all the bodies allowing for space to move her over to a window seat where she could get fresh air. I then proceeded to check her pulse and though weak, was happy to find that she was still alive. I asked one person to fan her face, and another to slowly start to introduce fluids (water) to her system. I poured some water on a rag and placed it on the top of her head in an attempt to cool her down. In all of this chaos, we managed to bring her back and she slowly seemed to return to normal. We also managed to make a friend, Michele from Italy, who also assisted in her revival and then joined us for the melee that would be the border crossing.

After finally arriving in Sunauli, it was another attempt to dodge the cycle rickshaw drivers that wanted far too much to take us a couple hundred meters to the border, most of which would have been spent sitting in traffic. We three made it to the small picnic table that served as the Indian customs counter. We filled out the necessary documents, changed our remaining Indian rupees for Nepalese rupees and for eighty US dollars that we would have to pay on the Nepal side for our visas. They don't accept rupees, go figure. As one might imagine, our exchange fees were miserable as there was only one “official government” money changer, who happened to be sitting in a phone booth. Nonetheless, we were happy to pay to finish this process and get over the border. We grabbed a bottle of water, a few oranges and a bag of masala chips and headed across the border to a whole new world, or so we thought!