I think my numbering of days is all cockeyed at this point - today is definitely day 10. Up at 5:00am and dragged ourselves downstairs and onto the bus before dawn to see the Hindu devotees from all over India who come to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges. Fascinating. And the streets are pretty busy before dawn, then become chaotic in the late morning, morphing into full tilt intolerable insanity in the evening. I stopped looking at monkeys, dogs, cows, goats, and water buffalo because you see all of the above in great quantities on every street just doing their thing. There is an increasing awareness of the concept of animal welfare and a correspondingly increasing number of AW and AR organizations, but no evidence of any of that to date.
Jim and I both bought wooden Indian flutes for 100 rupees ($2). We'll figure out a duet or two before the trip is over.
After breakfast and, hopefully, a brief power nap, we're off to the site where the Buddha sat under a banyan tree and became enlightened (i.e. Buddhist #1). Tomorrow we say namaste to India and fly to Kathmandu where I will hook up with an Esperanto speaker or two.
