cobra

sean and i are finishing up our time in varanasi. we have been really busy because we wanted to see the ghats leading down to the ganges river at all times of day. we hear that the morning and the evening are the peak times, when most people gather to bathe in the holy waters of the ganges and sing and pray. now, we are happy to say, we have seen the full spectrum of activity at the ghats.

varanasi is a city of about 2,000,000 people. i am interested to see it in a time that is not monsoon, because now it seems like a very hard place to live. i don't know if my conclusions are accurate, but from what i have observed, it is a poor city. much poorer than anything i saw in the south when duff and i traveled there in january and february. the people don't look happy, no one smiles at me, and their clothes are really worn. the women, especially, look as if they have had very difficult lives. varanasi is a holy city, and has a long history. over the years it has been known also as kashi, and benares. the current name, varanasi, is from the varna, and assi river, with both join the ganges here. i hope i am understanding this correctly, the rickshaw driver who told me had a really thick accent and i realize that i have almost a complete inability to understand english with any accent other than chinese. i have only seen the asi river while here.

the city itself is a mess, the power blacks out frequently. i knew that i had been in asia long enough when it blacked out at dinner the other night, and without even stopping my sentence, reached into my bag and pulled out my book light and set it on the table.

sean and i spent our first day looking for anyone who would exchange chinese money at a fair rate. we haven't found anyone, so i guess i will hold onto my kuai for a while. we also went to surnath, which is held to be the birthplace of buddhism. this is where the buddha gave his first major sermon after attaining enlightenment in the deer park in 528 bc. we visited a variety of temples and stupas, including a chinese temple and a japanese temple. there was also a tibetan temple, but it was closed. on the gate, however, there was a information board, outlining the 'chinese atrocities in tibet.' interestingly, our boatman this morning was talking about the area of the largest countries in the world. he said something to the effect of, well, china is bigger than india, because they got tibet. really it should belong to india. what? i haven't ever heard a case for tibet being a part of india, but only for it to be an independent nation. interesting.

the ghats are amazing. the area is basically a developed riverfront with steps leading down to the water. i am not sure how the river level changes during monsoon, but with two or three exceptions when we had to climb up into the old town, we were able to walk the 3 km stretch of river front. most of the ghats have names, and some have statues, and buildings, palaces, or temples above the flood line (not that they are safe, our boatman pointed out some remarkably high places the water reached in floodtime). we visited all the ghats, but the ones that held the most interest, obviously, were the ones where funerals were taking place.

there are two funeral ghats that we saw. at the largest one, a man who runs hospice care spoke to us. he wanted money for his time and information, and we didn't have a lot to give, so we didn't speak to him that long, but he told us some interesting things. he is involved in running three houses for people who want to come and die near the river. the total capacity is 95 people, and i believe they are at capacity now. he wanted to take us into the houses, but we declined. he told us about the funeral customs, and basically went through a number of the steps with us. we saw the eternal flame, where rushes are lit and carried to the body. we say over 12 pyres while there. the entire area has wood stacked in huge 20 foot piles. i didn't know what it would smell like, but there was no aroma of burning flesh, just wood and incense and smoke. women aren't allowed down to the ghat because in the past, when women weren't allowed to remarry, there were cases of widows throwing themselves on the fires. also, people don't cry, it is bad for the funeral, or the person. people shave their heads and wear white, the hindu color or mourning.

the guide also told us that there are 4 kinds of people who don't get to be cremated. they are: children, pregnant women, people with small pox and other similar diseases, and people who have been bitten by cobras! yikes!! at the time, i digested the information, but by 2:00 in the morning, the cobra had revisited me a number of times in a nightmare. there are goats everywhere, and the long and the short of the dream, is that i had a baby goat in my bed, which attracted a cobra. i was with a bunch of people i didn't know, but in my dream, i ended up squeezing the cobras head with my hand and milking 2 garbage can-fulls of venom from it and then, while i was trying to throw it out the window, it swung around and grazed my arm and my wrist. i woke up, covered in mosquito bites. the mosquitoes here are bad, you can neither see them or hear them and yet i am covered in bites. i spent the rest of the night occasionally checking under the bed for snakes with my book light.

we are heading to agra tonight to see the taj mahal. things are going well, but i will be glad to be out of varanasi. it is expensive here, and difficult to get fair prices. the ghats were at times frustrating because there are so many people trying to sell you things, or get you to go in their boat, there was little opportunity to observe or relax.

sorry for the disjointed and rushed nature of this post. i have been trying to get it out a few different times at the internet and the power keeps cutting out. i am frazzled.

now, if i can only stop speaking chinese to these people!!