It's not every day you get to see a dead body being burnt before breakfast...
Walking along beside the ganges is soooo India - you could not possibly be anywhere else in the world and get this combination of noise, heat, smells, religion, dress.
Because we have a computer geek on the same tour as us, you can see heaps (over 600 I think) of photos of us in India at www.flickr.com/photos/anntrak/sets
Especially if you have broadband!
Things that stick in my mind:
a woman on the ghats pressing cow poo into nice round shapes to use as fuel for her fire WITH HER BARE HANDS
water buffalo being herded through the streets among a billion cars, cycles, scooters etc all going different ways
putting flowers and prayer candles into the Ganges river on a little wooden boat at sunset
cow diahorrea splattered over the clean (by indian standards) washing and trickling straight into the river
human faeces in the river with kids happily sliding into it and swimming
crackly loud speakers blasting bollywood music in the town
standing on the ghats with the ashes of a burning corpse raining down around us
a constant flow of beggars, shopkeepers, rickshaw drivers calling out their catch phrases "Rickshaw madam?" "Hungry" "School pen?" "One photo, one photo" "Come to my shop" "Just looking, no have to buying" "My shop is waiting for your money" "You come back maybe later?"
being so sweaty that it feels like you're constantly in a shower!
This is just an incredible experience - which is why I'm spending all my time experiencing it and not writing it on the computer for you to read!! We're doing our best though :) Lots of love, James and Catherine XXX
