Jan 26 Indian Independence Day

I have to say that the last two days have been the nicest so far.
Delhi and Varanasi wer just too busy, too dirty, too chaotic. The whole scene of watching dead bodies being burned, while cows, dogs and people wander around was not overly dignified. It's funny, they get upset when you try to take a photo, but you have all the animals around, while other people are sifting through the ashes to find any jewellry left over. A bit too much.
I had trouble getting a train to Khajuraho, so I splurged and took a plane.
Khajuraho is a small town that is the site of the most beautiful temples I have seen. The setting is very peaceful, there is an actual lovely park. It is gated , no animals!!
The carvings are absolutely gorgeous, and there are hundreds. The other interesting point is that many of the carvings are quite erotic and very graphic. If you get a chance check the internet.
There are several groups of temples around the town, and I used a cab to see them all.
In addition to cows and dogs, there were pigs and chickens joining the crowd. I have never seen so many stray dogs in all my life.
My cab driver convinced me to hire him to drive me to Orccha, my next stop, on the 26th. A 4 hour cab ride for 40 dollars. It saved me a 7 hour bus ride, on a local bus.
Driving here is a continuous game of Chicken. I was absolutely amazed I got to Orccha without messing myself.
Orccha is another small village, which is on a river, and has a great fort, in addition to some large beautiful temples. My room is quite large, and I have a sitting room which overlooks the fort. Another splurge, 20 dollars.
I have discovered that getting a train ticket is not as easy as I thought it would be. I am heading to Agra, and the Taj Mahal, tomoorow, and could only get a seat in one of the cheaper sections. It's only 4 hours, so I think I will survive.
The weather has been great, high of 20 and sunny, if you don't count the smog. It does get cool at night, and there is no heating in any hotel I have been in. Thank goodness for camping gear.
Till the next time

Jan 24 Varanasi

Varanasi is laid out along the Ganges River. There is a steep bank along the river, and the town is accessible by a series of steps, called Ghats. Over a stretch of several kilometers there are about 50 of these steps, leading from the town to the river. These steps are adjacent to each other, and you can walk along the river, crossing these steps.
Every day hundres of Hindus walk to the river for a ritual bath. After they take the bath they atten a service in one of the many temples along the shore.
One of the tourist attraction is to take a boat ride up and down the shore, in a row boat. It is quite a colourful sight to see all the various people taking a bath, while the sun is rising. In addition there are other activities, like doing laundry. I can't imagine washing anything in this water.
I also walked up and down the shore. Lots of steps, and they are steep. For example to get from my hotel down to the river is 50 steps, steep and narrow. It reminded me of the steps at the Mayan pyramids in Mexico.
There are buffalos everywhere. Each cow has an owner, who milks the cow each morning. After that the cows are free to roam the city. You will meet cows everywhere, streets, ghats, along the river, at the funeral pyres. In the evening they all return home, where they are fed, and tied up. One of the fun games is walking without stepping into one of the many cow patties. Especially in the dark. Some locals actually collect the patties, stick them to a wall, and use them as fuel when they dry.
In the afternoon I walked through the town. The area between the Ghats and the main town is a warren of narrow lanes, no cars. More confusing than any old European town.
The traffic in town is chaotic. If you imagine driving through Dundas at rush-hour, and then you add an equal number of biycle rickshaws, motorcycle rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, there are no sidewalks, add the occasional buffalo, many dogs and a goat or so, and you have an idea what it's like. To add to the fun, everyone toots their horn every few seconds. It's actually worse than Vietnam. The only reason there aren't more accidents, is that evrything moves at a snail's pace.
In the evening I attended a Hindu ceremony at one of the Ghats. The ceremony is to pray to the gods so that Mother Ganges will always be there. It is very colorful, lots of singing, bells, and fires.
The river is quite magical at night; boats going up and down, and people floating candles in the water. From my balcony it looks like the night sky with all the twinkling lights.
Till the next time

Jan 23, Varanasi

Today was an interesting day.
I started out by taking the subway to the airport. It was chaotic, as usual. There is a security check, like an airport, and the line-up for the metal detector was a couple of hundred people long. Luckily there was a separate entrance for the airport express, no line-up!! The subway express is about on eighth the cost of a taxi, and its a lot faster.
At the airport the security was not once, but twice, once to get into the departure lounge, and then again at the gate. The one and a half hour flight to Varanasi was pleasant, they even provided lunch.
Varanasi is even more chaotic than Delhi. It is 3000 years old, and I think some of the streets are original. Very narrow lanes, you can touch both sides at the same time.It took me a while to find my hotel, but it is nice; I even have a balcony overlooking the Ganges. As you walk you will meet cows, goats, and a lot of dogs. Cow patties are all over the place.
Varanasi is one of the holiest cities for Hindus, and the belief is that if your funeral is on the Ganges you go directly to Nirvana. Hindus from far away bring the bodies of their loved ones to be burned, and their ashes thrown into the river. There are funeral pyres 24 hours a day. When I visited this afternoon seven funerals were in progress. It takes 350 kg of wood to cremate a body, and wood is expensive. It costs several hundred dollars for mango wood, and goes up to 10 000 dollars for sandalwood. Your social status also dictates how far from the shore you are burned, poor people are farther away.
I found the whole thing bizarre. While the seven bodies were burning, cows, dogs, and goats wander around. Several of the cows actually stood around one of the pyres to warm themselves.
Not everyone has to be burned; children, pregnant women, people who die of snake bites, lepers, and Holy Men are simply wrapped in special clothes, weighed down with rocks, and dropped in the middle of the river. This causes parts of decomposed bodies to occasionally to float to the top, and land on shore.
People wash in the river daily, and drink some of the water. They even collect some in plastic jugs to take home.
I am NOT tempted, even if it helps to get to Nirvana. I am sure contact with that water will speed your arrival at Death's Door significantly.

Jan 22, still in Delhi

Delhi, so far, has been surprising. On the positive side I expected a lot more hassles walking the streets. There have been some touts, and I did get taken in once, but generally speaking it hasn't been bad. I haven't seen a lot if street kids...not yet anyway.
On the down side it is very dirty. The garbage on the streets is hard to believe. One solution is that in the morning there are many groups of men, homeless as we would say, huddled around small fires, at the side of the street. The fires are just burning garbage.
Another thing is a huge amount of military presence. I took the subway today, and there are security checks, like at an airport, at every station. You don't have to take off your shoes, but you get scanned, and so do your bags.
There are also several pill boxes. These are like sandbags "forts", each manned by a soldier with a machine gun. This is inside the station.
I also went to an indoor mall, and there were metal detectors at each entrance.
They take their terrorists seriously.
Next week is India's Independence Day, and as a precaution the army has closed, and manned several big tourist attractions. One of these is the Red Fort. I was quite disappointed.
I did visit a couple of temples. You have to take off your shoes, but in one you also had to take off your socks. I have to say that marble floors are very cold in 10 degree weather.
These Hindu temples are very colorful and garish, and the idols are even more so. It reminded me of some of the outlandish churches in Mexico.
My one experience with a tout was also "fun". I took the Metro to Connaught Place, the upscale shopping district in central Delhi. As I exited the station, a man approached me and as we talked he told me that all the stores were closed, it's Sunday, but there was a mall which was open, and a "tuk tuk" could take me there for 20 cents. I took his word, a mistake. The cab took me to a mall, which turned out to be a place where they sold Indian garments, jewelry, and carpets. It's one of those places, where, as soon as you enter, you get a salesman, who never leaves your side. It is similar to the "carpet factory tours" in Turkey and Morocco. High pressure salesmen. I finally escaped after half an hour, still carpetless, but I had the guy down from 535 dollars to 275.
Afterwards I took another cab back to Connaught Place, where everything was open.
Live and learn.
Tomorrow I am off to Varanasi, which should be an interesting experience.

Jan. 21, 2012 Delhi, India

I have finally arrived in Delhi. I landed in the evening, and it was quite cool,damp, and foggy. The airport is only a couple of years old, and it is very modern.
Saturday started out foggy, but, by midmorning it was clear and sunny; a gorgeous day. I am actually very surprised that there isn't a lot of smog. The sun was beautiful today.
Delhi is a large city, and the main tourist sites are far apart. It would like trying to see the Science Center, the Toronto Zoo, and the CN Tower, all in one day. So, rather than trying to find my own way I hired a car, and guide for the day.
It was a worthwhile day and I saw some great sites.I took a lot of pictures!!
The traffic is pure chaos. The principle seems to that if you can get three cars across a road; that's what you do, even though there are only two lanes marked.
The other surprise is that they drive on the left. That makes crossing the road trickier for most of us. It is absolutely amazing that there aren't more accidents. I didn't see a single one today.
There are a lot of stray dogs. They are everywhere. I only saw one cat. Maybe thee is a correlation between those two facts.
All in all so far so good.

Lost days in Cuzco

There are certain words that take on a significance only when they are experienced.
"Portaging" doesn't mean too much, until you've schlepped a canoe for three km to Lake Louisa.
"Altitude" is another such word. Two, three, four thousand meters don't seem so different. My body has discovered the difference. After almost two weeks at altitudes between three and four thousand meters it has learned the hard way. I never got the usual symptoms of altitude sickness, namely head aches and nausea. It did hit me hard, lack of appetite, difficulty breathing, lethargy, and worst of all, the "runs".
During my last four days in Cuzco the TOTAL food I ate were two scrambled eggs, a tin of tuna, two mandarins, and half a small chocolate bar. In four days.
I had to rest half way when I went the twenty steps up to my room.
The cold also got to me. The temperature in my room never reached ten degrees. It was freezing.
I blamed a lot on the cold I had, but the change was amazing once I got back to Lima, and sealevel. After I arrived back in Lima I slept for six hours, and then went out to actually eat a meal, all of a six inch pizza, but I did eat all of it.
The difference in how I feel is phenomenal.
As I said the word "altitude" has a complete new meaning for me.
Two more days, and some home cooking. I haven't seen a green salad in almost a month.

Moray and Maras

After a low there is a high, and yesterday was a high. I visited a couple of very interesting sites near Cuzco. The first one was Moray, which was built by the Incas. They built a series of concentric terraces in a hillside, 120 meters deep. The location gives a temperature difference of 10 degrees Celcius between top and bottom. This creates a series of micro climates. The theory is that this site was like an agricultural laboratory that allowed the Incas to experiment with what types of crops were best suited for different climates and elevations.
Maras is a much older site. It was the principal source of salt for the entire area. Again it's a series of terraces, with almost 6000 pools of salt water. The process of obtaining the salt hasn't changed and everything is done by manually. Tough work.
It is one of the most stunning sites I have seen on this trip.
We also stopped in a village to see a demonstration of the Peruvian textile production. The most interesting part was to see how the different dyes are produced. Everything natural. I found it very interesting.
Another positive part of the trip was some of the most beautiful scenery in Peru. Green valleys, surrounded by snow capped mountains, brilliant blue sky. Absolutely stunning!
The entire 6 hour tour, with an English speaking guide was 10 dollars.

Things are starting to wind down. I am going to visit a couple of museums, and then do some shopping. The end is in sight.