The burning ghats

After breakfast, I thought to myself, "What should I do today? I guess I'll go watch the dead bodies being burned at the river." This line of thought is only possible in the context of Varanasi, India.

it begins with a funeral procession of the body to the Ganges river for a final bath in the sacred water (this sacred water is full of shit, piss, trash and industrial discharge). There is, literally, a line of dead bodies waiting to be burned at the ghats (ghat = riverside stairways). There are dozens of funeral pyres but since it takes a while for a body to completely burn, there is a queue.

There are men who tend the cremation fires, they are called "doms". They lay the fire wood down and then the family sets the deceased wrapped in white linen on top, a family member is given a burning brand to light the pyre.

you can tell how rich the deceased was by how many layers of colorful wrappings his corpse was wrapped in for the funeral procession and how much wood there is on the funeral pyre (the wood is sold by weight). sometimes the family will throw incense powder and other offerings on top of the body.

I watched a dead Indian man's tan face turn black, then shiny and glossy like a melted doll head as the fire slowly crept up, then charred black like charcoal, and then white as the skull was finally exposed.

Is there something beautiful about a burning corpse? the ragged outline of a charring body silhouetted against the orange and red flames...is it elegant? I don't know.

as the body burns down to the torso, the doms will take a long bamboo pole, bring it up to the 12 o'clock position and then whack the corpse. This is done to break up the torso, ribs and skull so it burns quicker.

Feet are a problem. they often stick out of the fire. A couple of times i watched an unsinged foot, with its charred shin bones sticking out, fall out of the fire and have to be shoved back into the pit by the doms.

i didn't see anybody crying, there were some sniffling and red eyes, but that could have been from the smoke and heat. there were no women there.

Watching the endless procession of bodies burn, i was waiting for some kind of epiphany insight, something. but nothing came. well, nothing original at least. I found the usual pessimistic and optimistic clicheisms about life to be completely unsatisfying. Yet i was unable to come up with my own witty and pithy insight. I am not a clever soul.

The kites! The answers are in the kites! I just have to figure out the kites.

Oh, what our lives are worth.

no pictures because cameras are not allowed at the burning ghat. foreigners with camera are met with hostility and lectures.

I love Paulo Coehlo novels, they are written for travel. But watching bodies burn and reading paulo coelho novels in India is a recipe for trouble. Add to that, the visit I made to the site of the buddha's first sermon and I am overwhelmed by volatile emotions and thoughts. poverty, life, death, karma, wealth, desire, health, meaning, happiness, sadness...what is all this?

so it goes.

On the lighter side of things: yesterday, I took my first real hot shower in two weeks and here is a picture of a (admittedly sad looking) puppy:

Onwards

Onward and onward

The Taj Mahal

meh.

Merry Christmas.

Recap: Jaisalmer

- I haven't looked in a mirror for six days now. there are no mirrors in the desert, nor in my hotel. A sneaky Indian could have drawn a giant penis on my forehead while I slept and I wouldn't know.

- I have showered only once in Jaisalmer.

- During the beginning of my trip, I feared I wouldn't be able to get away from India while I was in India, but I was wrong. I was able to get away from the crowd and noise, thank god I was able to get away.

- Back home, I may find a hair in my food once a year. Here in India, I find hairs a few times a week. I guess it makes sense that I'd find hair in my food here, it plays into the whole "dirty and unclean" reputation this country has (and rightly deserves), but I suspect they do it on purpose. It must be a willful thing because it's just not possible for that much hair to end up in food on accident. For all the years I've cooked at home and worked at a restaurant, I have never had hair fall into the food unnoticed (yes, I know).

- A good day now is a day with firm regular bowel movement. If I see or do anything interesting on top of that, that makes it a great day. Life is simple when you travel.

Jaisalmer: day six?

I've been sending out a postcard from every city I've visited. I am hopeful they'll make it to America but sometimes I think I'm just wasting my rupees.


I was watching the sun set over this dusty desert town when a group of young beggar girls came and tried to sell me cheap bracelets. I wasn't going to buy any, but I eventually gave in and decided to see what I could get for 50 rupees. Apparently 50 rupees gets you one incredibly cheap and flimsy, but shiny, bracelet. I didn't even haggle the price, I just decided I was willing to give them 50 Rs as charity, so I bought it at asking price.

I haven't been able to figure out this particular class of people. I think they are some sort of "untouchables" but I'm not sure. They are definitely on the lower end of the caste system though. Because despite their always colorful and distinctive dress, they are always poor, dirty and begging or hustling souvenirs. But the younger women and girls often having striking and beautiful features. Of course, the life they were born into is not a gentle one and all the older women look worn out and tired of life.

In the desert...

...the air is dry and dusty. The sun hurts my skin, but underneath a tree my body will shiver. My lips are hard and cracked. My brow is furrowed from the glare. At night, a cacophony of stars and cold silence, more stars than I ever expected and I expected a lot.

In the desert discontent seems frivolous. Or maybe just far away.

In the desert, I realized I needed to formulate a question before I can look for an answer.

In the desert I read, "If you can't find enlightenment in a situation, at least get some fun out of it".

Camel safari

The camel safari guides cooking us dinner.


Can you tell the difference between a sunset and a sunrise?



morning in the desert.

In the desert...

it can get cold.

One day I will find a hotel that follows through on their promise of hot showers. One day, but not today.

A perfect summary of my life: Tom Waits

The Desert

It never ceases to amaze me when I end up where I am going. When I feel lost and unsure of where I am or how to get to my destination, it always suddenly appears. one way or another, i always get there.

Cold showers that shock and electrocute. Now I know i am traveling.



This is a bhang cookie. Let's just say I should have been more patient and not eaten the whole thing in less than an hour.



Safari Me.

Jaisalmer: "We were somewhere on the edge of the desert..."

I turned a corner in Jodphur. I began to see the India I expected when I got lost in the back alleys of that blue city. I received more acts of kindness and welcome in one day there than I did in weeks in dharamsala and delhi.

Now I am in Jaisalmer and I think I am where I need to be. Bhang shops, motorcycle rentals and camel safaris are all possibilities here.

jodphur thoughts and such

- Today I saw a man cleaning garbage off the streets and alleyways by scooping it with a metal bowl. His shirt read, "being human". He sure was being human. speaking of being human, let's talk about poverty and the meaning of life for a moment. On a planet with 7 billion people, about half of them live chest deep in flithy poverty, another billion live in regular poverty, another billion in their respective country's definition of "middle class", then about a billion and a half are considered upperclass &/or live in western countries with high standards of living. out of those billions of people, only 1.3 million have the heavenly luxury of living in Hawaii. that is .0001% of the people on the planet. you'd sooner win the lottery than end up in hawaii. the more I travel the more I appreciate hawaii, home is something special. So, why am I here?

- on a similar note, I now can't help but condone the US foreign policy that protects our way of life. Highways, strip malls, flushing toilets, the EPA, the FDA, government regulations, refrigeration, birth control, etc... God bless the united states...?

- If you have traveler's diarrhea and you need to take a piss, make sure you sit down when you relax your muscles to pee. trust me on this.

- India. I don't know. it's hard to trust a country that makes you sick twice in two weeks.

- I am lost and confused.

No more street food.

Udaipur

I feel like I am traveling again.

Haggling

There is nothing I hate more than haggling. I'm too soft spoken and thin skinned to be good at it, but at the same time I feel compelled to use every trick in the book to deprive these poor local merchants of my gringo dollars.

Haggling is such a crazy activity, it's incredibly complex if you think about it. The basic context of two human beings with conflicting motivations of desire and greed for monetary and material wealth is difficult enough.

But then throw in the tricks and strategy of haggling and you have an incredibly intense game of wits.

as a foreign buyer you have to best-guess what the appropriate price is for a product, and the same product can be priced entirely differently based on the region, the shop owner, and even which street you happen to be on at the time. You have to wonder if the merchant is really not making money when he doesn't go lower or if he's just playing hardball or refusing to sell low. You have to consider the fact you are a rich foreigner and it wouldn't kill you to give him an extra one or two dollar in price, but at the same time, it's a matter of principle that you don't let yourself get boned. then there's the quality of the goods to consider,...etc...i could go on and on.

the strategies for haggling are numerous as well, straight take it or leave it offer (but you have to be willing to walk away), the solicitation of bids from different vendors, the ability to walk away, buying more than one item for a discount, etc... i could go on.

Supposedly, foreigners pay less than they would back home, the merchants make money and everyone is happy. But for me, I always wonder...what if I could have gotten it for less? what if...?

nope, don't like haggling.

How do you keep your mind off things that are bothering you?

I travel around the world. It's a little extreme and expensive, but it works.

Update: To His Noodliness

I guess what i was trying to communicate in the previous post was how traumatizing and demoralizing that bout with food poisoning was. I can deal with acute stomach pain (the sharp stabbing kind), but the vague dis-ease and enveloping malaise I experienced took a heavy mental and emotional toll. It was as psychically draining as it was physically draining. Despite the fact I expected to get sick in India, I wasn't prepared for the adverse effects upon my psyche.

To His Noodliness

When your entire world gets reduced to one toilet and bottles of water, everything else loses meaning. Himalayan mountains, Starbuck frappucino's, Mercedes Benz's, Facebook, houses with white picket fences...these things don't mean much when all you desire and all you need is a western-style toilet and toilet paper.

And I've never been more grateful to Vishnu/Buddha/The Flying Spaghetti Monster for anything than for the blessing of having access to a western toilet these past few days.

Let us all take a moment and bow our heads to our respective gods and give thanks for good health, regular bowel movements and firm stool. Because it's these little blessings you take for granted and don't appreciate until it's not there.

Forgive me if I sound irreverent and a little flippant, but my gratuity is sincere and humble.



Ramen

Recap: Dharamsala

Dharamsala is interesting in the sense of life in a spiritual community. there are monks everywhere, mantras and "om mani padme hung" mantras being played on stereo's, lots of people walking around with prayer beads. Pictures of buddha's and the dalai lama are everywhere. There are lots of classes and lectures here on buddhist philosophy, meditation, yoga, tibetan cultural arts, meditation retreats etc... it's interesting because everything is a constant reminder for you to practice.

having said that, dharamsala is a bit more dirty and grittier than i expected. I was hoping it'd be different from the rest of india but it's still pretty dirty and noisy and crowded. however the people here are much nicer than the rest of india.

And although it is a buddhist community, there is a definite sense of westernization. There is a new-age hippy vibe to this place. There are so many westerners walking around dressed in local shawls and jewelry, carrying around prayer beads...It's hard to take them seriously.

But I can see the benefits to living in a spiritually oriented community, everything and everyone is on the same page as you.

Also, it is very cold up here.




This is the dog I befriended. I call him "Slice" for the pizza slices I fed him to win him over. I like him because he's a very bashful dog. He has a really funny way of holding his head down (you can see it in the picture), and he won't really look you in the eye even though he's happy to see you. I like him because he's been guarding the door to my room every night, his presence oddly makes me feel a little safer.

Delhi Belly

Six days, I made it six days. It started off with simple diarrhea. The pain wasn't even bad, I thought I got off easy as I went to bed that night. Then the fever, body aches and general sense of malaise set in. This wasn't just a case of travelers diarrhea, this was straight up food poisoning.

Luckily, it ran it's course over the night and by morning I felt less sick. I spent the whole day in bed to give myself time to recover and because I still felt pretty wasted.

edit: Travler's Diarrhea has a mean recovery time of 3.6 days.

Bucket List:

item #27: See His Holiness the Dalai Lama. check

Day three?

Everything coming out of my nose is either red or black, blood or pollution.

I wanted to leave New Delhi two days ago, but I have to stick around to see the Dalai Lama speak tomorrow.

I do not like this city. not at all.