theboonedoggle

Namaste, So.....After a few days in Delhi, we took the overnight train to Varanasi , one of the holiest places India, and one of the oldest cities in the world. Bordered by the river Ganges, multitudes migrate here near the time of their death to be cremated on the river's banks and laid to rest in the river itself. We spent an hour one afternoon watching cremations (which consist of laying a body across a stack of wood and setting it afire) from the balcony of a hospice, where the aged waited patiently, collecting donations for the wood of their own pyre. The source fire for these cremations, we were told, has been burning non stop for thousands of years. Hundreds are disposed of this way at these "burning ghats" each day. After a few hours each fire dies down and the remains are collected and transported three meters or so to the river, where a boat dumps them a few meters off shore. -Not everything burns completely: rib cages and hip bones make up the bulk of what is t...

NEPAL After Bhutan we spent another week in Kathmandu waiting for our Indian visas. It was nice coming back for round two -Kathmandu seemed much more manageable the second time around. Our first full day back was great -the Maoists were protesting (as they do about once a week) and the party was forcing businesses (whether they supported the cause or not) to shutter their doors. Moreover, all vehicles, including public transportation and even bicycles, were forbidden from operating within the city. This made the otherwise lunatic streets of Kathmandu pleasantly palatable for an entire day.... we enjoyed a full day of walking about town, with thousands of others, free of the ever-present danger of being run down by a bus or auto rickshaw. As long as we gave the protesters a wide berth as they marched down the major thoroughfares, we were at no risk whatsoever of violence against our good selves. Five days of bumming around Kathmandu earned us our visas, and we made for the Indian border...