Ganges Cremations

Just came back from watching cremations at the edge of the Ganges river. It was really interesting to witness. Firstly, there is no emotion shown at these funerals. Women are not allowed to attend as they are too emotional. The body is carried through the narrow streets on stretchers followed by their male friends and relatives. They take it down to the ghat where there are about 10 fires burning all the time. They burn about 200 hundred bodies a day at this particular ghat. You can stipulate which type of wood should be used on the fire and the cost varies accordingly. The body is placed on a stack of wood and it is up to the son of the deceased to set the fire. It takes about 3 hours for it to burn until the point where they lift the rest of the corpse into the Ganges river. The lower caste people are burned in public while there are special places for those of higher caste, politicians, and military officers.
It is an odd ritual to watch since it is so public, but not emotional. The shroud covering the body burns off quickly so it is obvious what you are viewing fairly early in the process. The ash falling from the air and onto your hair and clothes is that from dead human bodies, but it doesn't really evoke any emotional response. Of course, it is not PC to take pictures so none of you have to worry that I am going to show you the process.
Tomorrow morning I am going on a boat ride to see the morning cremations.

A note on the Ganges river. The MOST polluted river in the world. The Ganges has 1.5 million faecal bacterium per 100 mL. Water that is considered safe for SWIMMING has 500 bacterium per 100 mL. Indians not only swim, bathe, and do their laundry in the river, but they also drink it and worship it. It has Kate and I scared to brush our teeth or shower. I look down and think, "Is the water running into the drain brown because I am dirty or is it brown because. . ."

This is not a fun thought.

Other than that. I love India! It is crazy crowded and super dirty, but it has a charm. Maybe it is the reminder to be grateful for where I was born or maybe it is the will of so many people who physically struggle just to survive a single day, but for whatever reason it is an inspiring place and you can get pants tailor made for $5. I got 3 pairs! I may get more tomorrow or maybe shirts. . .

Welcome to India!

Kate and I left yesterday to go from Pokhara to India. The man said it would take 6 hours, it took 8 to get to the border with India. It could have taken 4 hours except we were apparently on the scenic bus with seats that not only didn't recline, but actually made you sit at a slightly forward angle for EIGHT hours. Not so scenic when you have to stare down at your feet. We get to the border at about 3:30 pm and go through Nepali customs and then India customs and then get ready to take a shared jeep to the train hub in India. The man says that the ride will take 2 hours, the ride takes 5.5 hours. We pile in a jeep type vehicle with 1 Canadian girl, 5 Israeli guys, and 5 locals. This means that everyone is actually slightly sitting on someone else's lap. Kate is sitting up front with two locals who are sharing the drivers seat and the Canadian girl sharing the passenger seat with Kate. The drive starts off bad and never gets any better. First off, we have to keep stopping so that the locals can get out of the drivers side and shift into the proper gear. Since he is shifting into his friend's crotch, he keeps stalling the car. Then one of them gets out of the car and gets it back into first gear and then the driver hops in again. This happens at least 4 times. Then bags start falling off the roof of the jeep. So we have to stop and adjust the rope. This happens at least twice. Then we have to stop at a bunch of check points. The co-driver has to get out of the car 400 m away from the check post and walk to the gate and talk to the police for at least 20 minutes. This happens at least 4 times. Everytime we stop the israleli's want to be let out of the trunk of the car. They have nominated me as the guardian of this task. I am not happy with my assigned job. Mainly because every time we stop and they get out it takes another 5 minutes to get everyone back into the car. It is not easy to pack a clown car. 3 hours in to the 2 hour journey, we are finally getting somewhere. Then the driver decides that it is time for chai. He pulls over the car. All hell breaks loose! We all start yelling that we are not going to pay if he stops for chai. Kate is vigorously giving the horn a workout. The Israeli's are yelling as much as we are. They want to catch a 9 pm train and it is already 7:30 pm. The driver collects the co-driver and we are about to start moving on without chai when we realize we have a flat tire. The Israeli's start trying to flag down another vehicle. I check for the spare. The spare is merely for decoration as it is the BALDEST tire I have ever seen. At this point mutiny breaks out. A couple of us get on top of the car and start undoing the tie downs for the luggage. The Israeli's start negotiating a new price for the rest of the ride with the new vehicle. Then the real hassle begins. The 3 guys in our car who appear to have an interest in the taxi service start getting aggressive that they want 70 rps for the ride they have given us. We estimate that we have gone less than half way on a 100 rp journey. The men start to man handle everyone and trying to forcibly put their luggage back on taxi 1. A shoving match breaks out between the Israeli's and the taxi men, the Israeli's have just finished their 3 years compulsory military service, the Israeli's lose. Everyone is yelling. People are staring at us. Cars stop on the road to watch the spectacle.

The 2nd taxi driver and the 1st taxi driver have an earnest discussion. They decide that the 2nd taxi driver will drive into town and buy a tire and drive it back. In the meantime, we all have a coke and discuss our failed mutiny. After an hour, the 2nd taxi driver returns with a tire. The tire is fixed and the luggage is reattached to the 1st taxi. We all pile back into the clown car and the driver announces he needs 50 rps from someone as the emergency fee. We all refuse to pay. He doesn't have enough money to pay the 2nd taxi driver for repairing the tire. (just a little side note: 50 rupees is about $1.25 USD. It is seriously cheap to have a tire fixed in India). Now the 1st taxi driver and the 2nd taxi driver get into an almost physical yelling match. After 2 minutes, it is decided the 1st driver will pay the 2nd driver down the road. Now we are finally getting on the way. The rest of the drive is filled with animals who have been hit by cars. Goats, limping dogs, and cows with holes in them. It isn't pretty but we finally make it to Gorkhapur at 10:30 pm. Kate and I find a hotel room and book our train tickets to Varanasi for the next morning. Mosquitoes also find our hotel room as well. A lot of mosquitoes find our hotel room. I don't get much sleep. Kate sleeps like a baby while the mozzies silently feed on her flesh. Speaking of flesh. . .

The man says the train takes 6 hours, the train takes 9 hours. It is long and hot. Very hot. 100F in the shade hot. We are starving. We have eaten both of our snickers. We finally make it to Varanasi at 3:30 pm and get to our hotel. Varanasi is the holiest Hindu city in India. It is where many people come to die, believing if they are cremated in the Ganges river they will be free of the rebirth and death cycle. You can watch cremations, public cremations. We are not doing that tomorrow morning however as we need one day to recuperate from all the traveling. Never-the-less I am VERY excited about this.

5416 meters!

After 17 days, Kate and I have finally returned from the Annapurna circuit. It was 300 km (180 mile) round trip through the highest mountain range in the world. At times it was grueling and resembled the news pictures of Afghanistan more than anything else, but the mountains are just majestic. The food was the traditional rice and lentils with the daily Snickers to boast our morale. The showers weren't warm and we had to do our laundry every other day by hand. It takes forever!!!! I have a new found love of the washing machine. At higher elevations, all my socks froze so I stopped doing laundry at all until we got over the pass and came back down. At the pass, the mountains on either side of us were 7500 meters tall, not that you spend much time looking when you are trying so hard to get up the hill. Some people were suffering from altitude sickness and actually rode yaks over the pass. We made a lot of friends on the way with the kind of camaraderie that not bathing for long periods of time brings. We are now in Pokhara relaxing, feasting, and getting our clothes laundered. Kate ate about 3 pizzas last night. It is kind of scary how much food she can fit in her stomach. We should head out to India in the next couple of days, but you never know. . . for now, it is simply off to breakfast.