Varanasi = fucked Sept 5th-7th
I made it to Varanasi in the morning. I took a prepaid rickshaw and asked him to take me to my hotel. We went about 20 feet, he turned the motor off and said, why don't you consider Shanti guesthouse instead. I got my bags and started to get out to go back to the booth for another rickshaw. The guy started begging me to stay so I did and he realized I wasn't new to the game. I got to the main street area and they dropped me off out front with another 1/2 km or so of alleys to wonder through to try and find my hotel. A few kids started leading the way for me and I was glad that did honestly. I got to a guest house and checked it out....not great so I told them I was going to look around. I tried out a couple of more and eventually ended up at one that cost $8/night (which was a lot compared to where I had been staying). It was probably the nicest one that I had been to in all of India...the room was small but the terrace and balconies over hanging the Ganges river was awesome. This one was filled with tourists as well. It seems now toursit season has started and also the hotel offered nicer room with private bathrooms and what not so they attracted a better crowd. I had to use the shared bathroom which was fine, but I had to walk through the main resturant to get to it. Squat toilets which was suprising given the hotel was otherwise nicer than others I had been to. All in all a good place to stay. I met a guy from San Fran who was visiting a girl in India (she was native american, raised in Hawaii, but now working in S. India). We chatted about baseball/football while using the internet and I eventually ended up hanging out with them a few times (more on that later). My main priority was going to see the burning ghats in VAranasi. This is where they cremate 200-300 bodies per day. They are not allowed to cremate them if they are pregnant, children, have leprocy, are a priest, or were bitten by a cobra. Those bodies are tied to rocks and dumped in the river directly. The animals they also dump into the river...so occassionally one will come loose of its rock and end up floating. I did manage to see a bloated floating body one night so that was a highlight for sure.
The burning ghat (ghat are the steps where Hindus walk down to bath and what not) was not too far of a walk from my hotel...however I wasn't sure exactly how to approach it. The guidebook mentioned not to go up in any of the buildings as they tried to steer toursits in that direction so they can hassle you for money. I walked up and immediately a couple of guys told me I couldn't go further and that i had to go up in the building as any further was for families only. I didn't believe him as there were several shops ahead of me selling tobacco and tea so I kept walking past him. He stuck a finger in my chest so I took his hand off me and told him not to touch me. He started yelling at me. This was a guy in jeans/tshirt...early 20s and not a local Hindu loin cloth wearing guy. Another guy quickly joined him and I supposed with this reaction maybe I was crossing into somehwere I wasn't supposed to be. The real problem was that due to the river level the lower ghat was not being used to burn and instead they were up on this elevate platform that you couldn't get a good view from. I refused to go up in the building. I eventually turned around and threw out a few curse words as they guys were returning the favor and telling me to go back to Ausralia. I left and went way around the other side and found a balcony to observe from though it was not a real direct view...i.e. I could see the piles of wood and smoke, but no dead bodies. I made my way down cautiously and was told by a shop guy that I could go up, but I didn't venture far. I saw them carrying a body wrapped in cloth up to the burning area. I didn't want to be in the way so I decided I had seen enough for that day and headed back to the main street for some exploring. I wondered down alleys for a few hours while stopping along the way for coffee, internet, food, etc. I saw a few ghats and a few temples then made my way back to the room for dinner. I went to bed early that night as I wasn't feeling my best....I guess tired from the fact that I had like 2 hours of sleep on the train the night before and none since then. The next day I ran into Balboa (the guy from San Fran) and offered him my guide book as I was finished with it. He tore out the Kolkata pages for me to keep and thanked me. We arranged to go on a boat ride the next morning since neither of us was able to get out of bed at 5:30 that morning (we both tried). Since I wasn't satisfied with my burning body experience, I went back down to the cremation area and this time took the back route and got as close as I could. There were piles of wood 10 feet high surrounding the area and alleys around the cremation zone. There was ash raining down lightly everywhere and a thick smoke that would sting your eyes when the wind shifted. A few people tried to talk to me but I was ignoring everyone. Varanasi is the worst of people hassling you. I just wanted to look without oweing anyone anything. Soon a younger guy started talking to me and I told him I didn't have any money (I actually didn't bring any as I figured they couldn't take any from me if I had). He insisted he just wantd to help me take a look so I thought maybe I had found someone for a change that was just being nice. He took me up for a closer view and told me about the whole process. He dropped that his family had a shop if I was interested after we could take a look. He left me for about 10-15 minutes while I watched. They brought bodies up one by one and laid them on a bed of wood. Appearantly its an art having the right amount of wood an not too much. He came back and said that it was rude to stay longer because I was basically watching bodies burning instead of being there for some holy reason. I figured he was just wanting to take me to his shop but whatever, he was nice so I followed him back to the shop. I went through the usual process of being shown dozens of scarfs and sarees and stuff that I didn't ask to see. I kept telling him not to unfold them but he of course continued to do so. Eventually, I picked a few out and had him set them aside and said I would think about it and let him know the next day. They eventually gave up and said OK after quoting me ridiculous prices. I told him I was leaving at 3pm so if I was not there by then it meant no.The guy who brought me there gave me a card and said to let them know either way if I was going to buy them or not so they could not put them on hold after that. I said OK. I was still a little perturbed because I had wanted to hang out for a few hours and watch them burn bodies and instead I was wisked away after 15 minutes...I decided I would check it out later or something.
I found a good place to eat lunch with lots of white people...again, this was the most whities I had seen and I assume it was because of the season as well as the place. Good food and only $2. I ended up back at the hotel for a nap after some interneting. I made my way to the main ghat for the nightly ceremony which again seemed ridiculously touristy. There were literally boat loads of old people with big lenses there to watch these people hold candles, do chants, and bang on things. I ran into Balboa his lady friend (sorry, forgot her name) and we hung out in the back. AFter we went back for dinner at the place I had lunch. Some attractive French girls sat at our table, but got pissed off when Balboa told them not to smoke at our table and just ignored us the next 30 minutes. The 3 of us finished and went back towards the hotel. We stopped by and had a beer at this other guy's guest house. He was a straight up hard core Hindu and had married a german lady. They just had a baby and even had a kitten they were raising. He was wearing the orange loin cloth and had the long crazy beard and paint on his forehead. He got us a couple of beers and we sat on his balcony. This is when we saw the body floating by down the river. The guy says that he bathes every morning at 3:30am in the river. Balboa and I decided we were going to bathe in it tomorrow.
I couldn't fall asleep due to my nap, so finally did so at like 3:30am though I had to be awake at 5:30 for the morning boat ride we had arranged. I got up and we made our way down to the boat. We headed up the Ganges for about an hour and watched the sun rise and all the people bathe. We were debating where to have our bath at, but I voted we wait until back at the hotel where we could walk up and just clean off immediately. They wanted to go right in the maind ghat area with all the rest of the people. There was much talk, but in the end, we couldn't really decide and eventually ended up not doing it to much regret. I headed straight back to the room for a nap before my noon checkout. And they had to sort out train tickets for that evening.
So, after the nap and after checking out, I opted for one more visit to the burning ghats as so far I had only seen 2 bodies and 1 burning for a total of about 20 minutes. I also wanted to bring my camera this time even though its a major no-no. I figured my best bet was to go up to the top of the building quickly on my own before any of the people could hassle me. I had only $4 in my pocket so worst case scenario I would have to give up a little money. I walked straight up and ignored everyone. The guy from the first day who stuck his finger in my chest was in the stairway, the guy that took me to his shop the day before was shortly behind. I just kept walking. At the top were a few other tourists, all with a local person who was undoubtably getting a donation for taking them up for the view. I figured if no one brought me up there then I didn't owe anyone anything. The shop guy kept trying to talk to me and asked if I remembered him from the day before. I sort of ignored him but he continued. I finally said that I wasn't interested. At this point he asked why I had not gone back to the shop to tell them I wasn't interested. I told him that I had just woken up and hadn't had a chance yet (which was fairly true, though I had no intentions of actually going back there to be hassled more). At this point the guy became a bit angry and told me that I was going to go to hell and to fuck off and he got in my face a little bit. I cursed at him some and dared him to do something to me. Of course at this point we were sort of on our own on the rooftop as the others had left. Fortunately he left me alone, but I was slightly concerned for my trip down the stairs. I figured with the crowd he couldn't really do much but none the less thought it best to wait for some more people to arrive before making the trip down. Plus, I was interested in doing what I had bene trying to do for a while now which was just watching dead bodies burn. So I did so for a while. Goats kept walking up and eating the flowers off the dead bodies. Dogs were trying to piss on the bodies. Ocassionaly someone would bash a skull in (2 hours into the 3 hour burn they had to do this in order to release the spirit or something). After the burn, the eldest son would come pick up remaining bones with bamboo in chopstick fashion and go throw it in the river. This was what I had come for. I took the opportunity of being alone to sneakily bring out my camera and take picture from under my armpit. Of course they werent the best pictures as now the action was below me instead of in front of me. So, I held the camera as if I had my hands folded in front of me while I leaned on the edge of the building. This allowed several quality photos of the action below. I was pretty satisfied and figured I was due given all my hassles with people around here (plus, I'm not really religious so I couldn't see the harm in taking pictures of their ceremony). Just then, a guy came up the stairs behind me yelling. This was a new guy that I hadn't come across before. He was in loin cloth, fairly toothless, and long beard. He was yelling and acting crazed. My instinct was to run past him and push him over to make it to the stairs. Then I realized what he was yelling about...he had busted me taking photos. I immediately backed down and was legitimately scared. He said to follow him to the "office" and then explained that yesterday 2 people from isreal had to pay a $100 fine and had there camera confiscated and burned in the ghat and then were handcuffed and taken away, etc. His look, his tone, the fact that I knew I had done something wrong all freaked me out a little bit. I didn't deny taking the photos, but instead offered to delete them right then and there. He said he could take me down or I could make it go away right there. I offered up the $5 or so that I had free in my pocket said that was all I had; I igured that would be enough as it was certainly more than most things you spend money. He sat me down and asked what hotel I was staying at and of course I lied. I just wanted to get the fuck out of there. He said $20 (well, 1000 rupees, but I'm doing the exchange). I realized that since I had packed my stuff and checked out of my hotel already that I had my money belt on. I gave in and opened it in front of him and he asked for american money. I told him I didnt have any and all I had was rupees (which was a lie of course). I pulled out the 1000 rupees and he immediately increased the price to 2000 when he saw I had money. At this point I made him shake hands that that was the final price. He kept going on about how it was to be donated for the families and otherwise I would have to do the donating to the families myself as I walked down through the area and it would be much more money. I gave him the money (about $40 total) and figured I was busted so why the fuck not. I wasn't sure if there was going to be actual official trouble, but with the guys down below waiting for me, I figured to try and avoid as much trouble and problems as possible. In all likelihood the crazy old guy kept the money and there was no "office" to have taken me to but I imagine he would have yelled out to his friends and it would have caused me more problems than the $40 I was happy to give him. I hauled ass down the stairs and past everyone in a rush of adrenaline without so much as looking around. I quickly took several turns down alleyways in case someone was following me. I swapped the memory card in my camera as I walked. I found the nearest group of guys with guns (military or police or whatever) and stopped and turned around as I was otherwise going to tell them I was being followed and harassed by a bunch of locals telling lies that I had taken pictures on my camera. No one was behind me so bullet dodged. I'm really starting to hate Varanasi. I was fired up from the event, so I went back to the saree shop to at least tell them what the guy had done to me. I was kind of hoping he was there, but alas he wasn't and of course it was not his family's saree shop after all but he was just on commission to bring people there (which I figured). I told them what happened with my latest encounter with him and they were of course pissed. They told me thank you and immediately made a phone call. I walked away.
With that, I headed back for a little internet and ran into Balboa again. He gave me a list of places to go in SE Asia and we swapped emails. I had to take off to the train station and not realizing it was so far away, I was starting to get worried about being late. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare, but of course the train was delayed by about 1.5 hours.
I paid the extra $8 or so for the A/C car as it is much nicer. Of course, I got stuck in a group of bunks with 3 young kids and 1 mom. Through an intermediary I was able to negotiate the top bunk instead of the middle one and thus escaped up there and watched Terminator Salvation and Trainspotting on my laptop before taking the xanex time machine the remaining 10 hours.
Kolkata Sept 8th:
Kolkata is noticably more urban and you can see the british influence (it was the capital of the British Empire there for a few hundred years) in the cars, parks, buildings, etc. It was a welcome change to Varanasi which was by far the worst place I've been in India. I'd say that Kolkata was the best between it and Delhi, but I was staying in the slums in Delhi and didn't really get to check out the modern area as much. I managed to avoid a dozen or so taxis and made it to the prepaid line outside the train station which only saved me about $0.40 and probably wasn't worth the wait in line. I got dropped off a few blocks from my hotel as the driver didn't speak good english and on top of that couldn't read a map of the city he lived in (I suppose it was in English, but still). I found it soon enough. I put my bags down and tried to find a decent place to eat...it was surprisingly difficult so I ended up at a chinese/indian sort of place and there were only 4 menu items for breakfast. The noticable difference between here and the rest of india is the presence of meat on the menu. I was interested in that so I had mutton dal for breakfast. After it arrived, I just ate the Dal (lentel soup) and didn't bother with the mutton. Good enough. Went back to the hotel, hung out in the lobby for a bit with a british and a german guy as our rooms were not yet ready. We chatted a bit about India travels and I eventually headed up to my room. I took a nap for a few hours in spite of having slept on the train...just seemed like a good time.
The room was Ok, you can definitely appreciate the humidity in every aspect of kolkata. The air felt sticky and the room was musty. It had a proper toilet and excellent hot water so that was a plus at least.
I woke up around noon and wondered to the India museum which was largely unspectacular (as much of India musuems are). About 1/3rd of the place was closed for "renovation." There was an entire 1/3rd devoted to geology and it was incredibly boring. A very long hall full of rocks that basically looked like it was put together for a junior high science far with the little typed out names glued down in front of the rock. The best part of the museum was in fact the natural history part. They had several whale skulls, a mammoth skeleton, and a few other beasts. There were numerous taxidermied animals that were rather lacking in their portrayal (smiling monkeys, ackward poses). The highlight though were 2 dead babies in jars. 1 healthy, the other deformed. No real reason they were there...just dead baby exhibit.
I wondered from there through the central park (Maiden) down to he Victoria Monument. The park was of course soggy and I was wearing flip flops so I rolled my pants up and wondered as if it was a normal stroll through 2 inch deep water in parts. I came across a flock of sheep, several cows and a few horses just wondering the grasses. There were also a few Indians trying to fly little crappy kites. I chatted with them briefly. The sheep were all painted pink on top, I assume to signify who they belonged to or something.
I made it to the Victoria memorial which is the kolkata equivalent of the taj majal but on a much smaller and less significant scale. Of course I realized that I didn't have much money left, so I had to make my way down the street to an ATM. I found Kolkata again to be a rather pleasant break from other areas of India I had been in. It was still a crowded city and crossing the street took some effort at times. I got the cash and went back over to the memorial. It houses a small museum on the history of kolkata and basically how the British came in and took it over for a couple of hundred years before leaving. The rest of the memorial was pretty much just to look at. It did have a nice reflecting pool and made a decent photo op but otherwise not all that impressive compared to the places I have been the previous month or two. I walked down to a little modern arts museum recommended by the guide book. It was 1 floor and about 5 rooms but had some good pieces...again, anything is good compared to the rest of India I had experienced.
I continued my walk up to Park street which is the modern area. There is KFC, McDonalds, etc. There is even a coffee shop that serves proper coffee (which I hadn't had in a while). The people all wear western clothes, but there are still the street beggers and what not (I guess you get that in America and Europe too, but these people look way more destitute). I opted to eat at Peter Cats which was in the guide book. I hadn't eaten at a resturant in a very long time, and of course I had to endure the table for 1 ackwardness. It was well worth it though. This was the best food I had in India and more like what I was used to getting in say London. I had grilled kebabs of chicken/veggies, rice, sausage, and Darjeeling tea. The place was dim lit, had candles, served wine, and had guys dressed up in classic indian servent outfits. At the end, my bill was $5 including water and tea. This was the India I had pictured when I came here. I wondered over to the internet cafe for a few hours, then headed to a bar. There is one hotel that is sort of the hot spot for people with money to go to in Kolkata...the Park Hotel. It has a pub bar that plays only rock music and has a live band nightly, it has a swanky scottsdale like bar called the roxy, and it has a proper night club with DJ, etc called Tantra. I opted for the pub. Pint beers (on draught!)were $3 which was reasonable. I had 3 or so and listened to the indian rock band play cover songs of American music. I didn't see any other travelers and the crowd had turned 95% indian male so I opted out of any further enjoyment and headed back to my hotel...walking at midnight. I thought about taking one of the hand drawn rickshaws but I felt bad for them and am not so lazy as to have someone esle walk me to my hotel at the same pace I would walk myself. Of course, they probably don't see it that way and would in fact been glad to have my buisness since they will likely be sleeping underneath their carts. Several families with naked little kids were sleeping in the streets as I walked by. I'm pretty immuned to it but still its "wow" when you stop and think about it.
I slept off my slight hangover (yes, hangover after 3 beers!) and opted to head North today to see whatever the guidebook recommended. I walked along and was certainly the only white person in a sea of people, but I didn't get the stares that I got in other places. The sights were pretty lame in this part of the city. All the little dots and things in the guide book turned out to be run down buildings or small statues. I was in the mood for a walk so I continued up to the Marble Palace which was the only thing I did that day that was at all worth while. It is in the middle of some shit neighborhood but was free to get into. I had to get a pass from the tourism office the day before. They were very weird at this palace. Several guards were just sort of hanging out. They kept pointing for me to go away when I walked up....turns out there was a garden with a small "zoo" of caged up monkeys and deer and birds across the lawn. Fairly unimpressive. I went back to the entrance of this white marble building and was allowed in this time. They won't let you explore it on your own, so instead they send a guide who doesn't speak english to follow you around (whether you want him to or not). There were 3 other white people there looking similarly confused as I...each having a small indian guy in tow behind them. Occassionally they would point to a vase and say "vase" or something but offered no real insight into what I was looking at. None the less it was as good or better of a collection of things than the Indian Museum I had seen the day before. I found myself wondering the streets and came across a few places making these paper mache effigy things for the upcoming festival just a few days away. It was compared to mardi gras floats in the guide book. Basically they make a bunch of them and bring them to the river in a parade and burn them or something. You could see the whole city getting ready for it, as it was only 3-4 days away, but unfortunately my flight was the next day. Still, it was cool to see people walking these things around the streets. Pretty soon I noticed several indian girls standing alone on the sidewalk and staring at me. I realized that I was passing by the redlight district. This wasn't your Amsterdam type place though...it was pretty rough. Melinda Gates had recently donated $200million to help the women of the area, many of whom were trafficked from Nepal, Bangledesh, and other parts of India. There is a high rate of HIV infection as a lot of the men refuse to wear condoms and the women need the money so bad that they just do it anyways. I read somewhere that there were 10,000 prostitutes in Kolkata and most were based here. There were pimps on the corner and Indian pimps aren't like the ones in America...they are wearing stained tshirts and underwear standing at the gas station hasseling you as you walk by. Needless to say, I kept walking and avoided eye contact with all but a few of the saree wearing indian girls as I pass the street.
I had enough of that and was debating what to do next...botanical garden or temple with potential to see a goat beheading....hmm. Unfortunately it was getting to be a little bit late in the afternoon. I hopped in a cab, it went maybe a mile in 20 minutes. Every time traffic stopped they just turned the taxi off and you just sit there...you can't really open your door even because there are other cars close beside you. There are no traffic lanes as usual in India. They did have police there directing traffic, but only so people would not cross over and drive against oncoming traffic...otherwise they weren't much help. So I paid the $.80 and got out at the next metro stop. I paid the $0.08 to get a metro ticket but upon getting down to the trains, I refused to actually get on when I saw how crowded they were...people litterly jammed in past capacity...no place for me. So, without other options I had to repeat my entire day's walk back to where I came from. This time though, it was crowded almost as bad as the traffic. I was shoulder to shoulder with people in certain areas. I got hit in the face with this rope that was sort of a baracade from some shop (someone lifted it up real quick to duck under and hit my face with it). I got out of the main madness and headed down a side street. I saw a begger guy who had lobster feet...each foot came to a toe-like point but had a thumb like appendage on the inside. I offered him $.20 to take a picture but he declined and gave my money back to me...of course I let him keep it, but I sure would have liked a photo of lobster feet. That's the one thing about India I regret is not having more pictures of the fucked up people. Around every corner is a guy pissing, a guy laying down with nothing but a loin cloth on and his junk hanging out, women sitting in the streets with no teeth, people walking on their hands and scooting around on the ground and other various deformities that you just don't see elsewhere in the world. I always felt bad taking pictures, but I wish I had maybe offered more money to them for a win/win situation. Hell, plenty of people took pictures of me while I was there...I was as much of a freak show to them as they were to me.
At this point Kolkata had defeated me so I went back to the hotel and laid down. I took a power nap and headed back down to Park street for a repeat of the night before. This time I tried to go into a resturant but there were no tables available as it was 8pm on a Saturday night. I ended up at KFC and it was a welcome change from the street vendors. I think I ended up paying the same as I had in the nice resturant across the street the night before.
I wondered back to the same bars as the night before and had a few beers at the pub. This time there were about 4 white people and a few more indian girls than the night before...but most or all were with guys. So, I opted to try some of the other bars instead. I walked over the dance club and they tried to charge $15 entrance fee and said that I could not dance as that was for women and couples only...whatever. So I went to Roxy and it felt like I was in scottsdale which again was a welcome change (never thought I would say that about scottsdale bars...). I had 1 beer and it cost $9 though so I left. I headed back home.
The next morning I was packing and discovered I was missing my debit card...most likely left it in the ATM the night before when I was drunk. An annoyance, but I had enough money to get me through the next 2-4 weeks (I hope). I found a skype and cancelled my card through an automated process, but could not get ahold of anyone on the phone to tell them where to send it. Hell, I didn't even know where to tell them where to send it...I was on pace for 5 countries in 3 weeks. I figured I would have it sent to Casey in Taiwan and I would be there in about 18 days. I got into a taxi and of course traffic was ridiculous to the airport. In the end it took about 90 minutes but only cost $6. I gave the rest of my change to the driver as its not realistic to try and change it over (vs bills).
The craziest part of Kolkata was crossing the street. Buses don't stop, they just slow down and people (even kids) run along and hop on. Its just like frogger. I usually just waited until some other people started to cross and followed behind them closely. Taxis sometimes just put their horn on and leave it on as they sit in traffic. And of course, the motorcycles don't feel as if they should yield to anything or anyone and have to obey even less order as they go onto sidewalks, between cars, cross intersections at red lights, etc.
So, kolkata was probably the most impressive city in India in terms of modernism, but that amounts to a polished turd. I'm glad to be leaving India at this point. I had the experience I wanted, but missed out on a few things I would have liked to have done given my time (see the himalayas). I suppose I could go back at some point, but it won't be in the near future. Varanasi was the worst and Udaipur was the best in terms of cities....
Off to KL and ready for a dose of Asia.
