Oops, I mean Varanasi and Agra. Haha, just a little running joke, due to the uncleanliness of India's holiest city. Despite the dirtiness, Varanasi was really really cool, we stayed in Old Town at a guesthouse hidden within the maze-like alleys, with a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Ganges next to one of the two burning ghats (where cremations take place). Cows, piles of cow poo, dogs, bikes, motorbikes, Hindu pilgrims, kids playing cricket, and lots and lots of other people share the tiny alleys, where taxis and autorickshaws can't fit... we had to walk 1 kilometer from the main road to get to the guesthouse, which was none too easy for Becs and her rolley suitcase, particularly due to the cow poop. I was exhausted and slept through the sunrise over the Ganges, but we did a sunset boat ride, saw the remains of a dead body on the opposite shore (6 categories of people are tied to a slab of rock and dropped into the river, rather than being cremated: sadhus (holy men), pregnant women, children, lepers, people with smallpox...and one other I can't remember...) watched a couple cremations (couldn't see the bodies, just the fire), realized I'm not really comfortable with death (everything I saw bobbing in the river I was afraid would be a dead body...), but in Varanasi it's just a part of life.
Then to Agra, and let me just say, the Taj Mahal is amazing. This time I didn't sleep through the sunrise, we got to the booking office at 5:15 am, I tried to pretend I was Indian so I could pay 20 rupees instead of 750, but alas, I'm just too white. Or Japanese. We were the first to enter for the day, so we got some amazing photos without the throngs of tourists. It really is an incredible building, almost surreal, I've seen so many pictures of it in books and on TV, and then to be standing right in front of it with the sun rising...very cool. Now it's off to Jaipur for a few days before our final destination (for this part of the trip) in Delhi.
So yea, North India is pretty cool...except for the temperature, which is ridiculously hot.
