Ok, you get your good days and you get your bad days, I guess. Wednesday was good, as I said already, and actually so was Thursday, although I didn't do much that I can recall. I do recall that I went out for dinner with Andy. Anyway, the next day, I was feeling fine though perhaps slightly constipated and I took up station in the bathroom with my book. I didn't come out again for a couple of hours and when I did I had lost a liter or so of water, which I managed to shed simultaneously from both ends of my digestive tract.

Yummy, huh? Well, that's life here in the third world. Now maybe it would have cured itself and maybe not, but Andy procured some pills (without a prescription) which seemed to kick this bug's ass and I was feeling better, though very tired, by the end of the day. Today (Saturday) I felt good enough to go out for a boat ride in the morning, even though I hadn't eaten in 24 hours or more. I ate a little yogurt after that and it stayed down, which gave me renewed confidence.

I ended up hanging out with these Indian guys and an American girl I met. She's some kind of student here (Andy says it's a pretty good Hindi program that he participated in too when he was a youngster) and they're local dudes. It's nice having a local guide, though, since they know where all the cool temples are. I visited a Hanuman temple (that's the monkey god), a bunch of Shiva temples - it's the city of Shiva, after all - and a "step well" which consisted of stairs from three directions leading down to some water, maybe a hundred feet down or so. A guy down there was performing a fertility ritual under the care of a couple of priests. It was pretty interesting to watch.

After I got home, Andy and I went out to see "Out of Control", the hot new hindi movie. It wasn't that hard to follow and it certainly didn't feel like it was three hours long. It even had some English in it, to match the Baywatch actress who was guest starring. A first for Bollywood, I'm told.

Tomorrow, Sarnath!

- posted by Joachim @ 11:54 AM

 
It's my second day in Varanasi. Yesterday was pretty cool. After the internet cafe, Andrew took me home and I had lunch at the house where he's staying. His landlord's wife prepared and served to us a thali, which I guess is the typical form food takes around here. It's a plate with some dal (lentils), rice, two or three servings of some kind of vegetable, and chapati, which is a flat bread somewhat similar to pita. In my case I also got a dab of chutney and a couple of slices of very spicy pickled okra, for a little variation in flavor.

I kinda hung around for the rest of the day, mostly sleeping to try to recover from my miserable train ride yesterday. My hotel room is quite nice - the hallway outside is open and has a view of the river. Anyway, Andy and I got together again for dinner and had middle eastern food. It wasn't bad, actually, although it was a little strange and, of course, served up as a thali. I liked it though. So then we parted ways again and I headed home, but I decided to take a walk around some of the ghats, which are steps leading down into the river.

Just one ghat over from the one my hotel is built on (Assi Ghat) I encoutered an American-looking person, which are a lot less common than I'd been led to believe, and I asked her whether she knew anything about the area. Could I find anything interesting to see at night? She basically said that there wasn't anything interesting so I should hang out with her and her Indian friends Raj and Vishnu and drink chai. Which I did. Then they wanted to eat something and wouldn't hear of my leaving, even though I had already eaten. Raj especially seemed excited to speak English. They taught me a few words of Hindi over dinner at a tiny local restaurant, and we had some excellent food. I didn't eat much, though, because I was still full from the previous dinner. I guess Indians work until late so they typically eat around eight or nine.

I went back to my hotel and slept in. In the morning I took a walk to the Dasashwamedh Ghat, which is the largest one, and in the center of town. It was pretty fascinating seeing all the people along the way. Only a few touts bothered me. Oh, right, for those of you who don't read travel guides, a tout is some guy on the street who tries to rip you off by selling you something or taking you somewhere. India seems to be full of them. They're not exactly criminals, but they prey on the ignorance of travellers. Still, for most things here you will never get Indian prices if you're a foreigner so the line between tout and honest businessman starts to get blurry. You have to not trust anyone and at the same time, not care that you're always getting ripped off.

So I walked up to Dasashwamedh Ghat and a little way into the city from there, through a market. I found a shoe salesman there and bought a pair of sandals. My guide book tells me sandals in India are incredibly comfortable but mine definitely are not. Maybe when they're done wearing away all the skin on the top of my feet they'll fit better. I walked back in them and it was a very long walk. But a lot of places want you to take off your shoes when you go in and with hiking boots that's a very time-consuming process. I think I may just chalk these shoes up to experience and go buy another pair, maybe some flip-flops or something. They were only Rs150, which comes out to like three or four bucks.

- posted by Joachim @ 2:57 AM

 
Today I am in Varanasi. Getting here from Agra was an adventure. By "adventure" I mean of course a chain of events which, while enjoyable in the retelling, will hopefully never, ever happen to me, ever again. It certainly could have been worse but I got a good feel for how difficult, and sometimes traumatic, travel can be in a foreign country with a limited information infrastructure.

The train from Agra to Varanasi was full, so I booked myself on a train from Tundla to Varanasi. Tundla is a town just 30 kilometers from Agra and everybody told me it would be no problem getting there by bus. When I got to the bus station I quickly realized there would be at least some problems, though. There were perhaps twenty or thirty busses crammed into this parking lot, from which perhaps two could leave at a time. And the two weren't leaving so the entire bus station was just a big angry traffic jam. My bus driver spent about twenty minutes flashing his lights, honking his horn and swearing in a futile effort to get the bus ahead of us to leave.

We did finally get underway and that was when things got really scary. Riding in an autorickshaw in India is very scary, as you dart between cars and drive on various sides of the street. Riding in a bus in India is basically the same thing, except the bus is huge and really can't get out of the way of the other traffic. So for an hour an a half I got to watch in terror (I was sitting right behind the driver) as we miraculously survived one head-on collision after another, swerving at the last minute to put a couple of wheels on the shoulder, miss that cement truck by four inches and then swerve back again just before we murdered a cyclist. All of this was happening in the pitch-black Indian night, illuminated only by the angry flashing headlights of the oncoming traffic trying to get our driver to dim his own lights.

At Tundla, a random guy poked me in the shoulder and shouted "Tundla, Tundla". Had it not been for this saint, I would have spent the night in a ditch in whatever town this bus was headed for. The autorickshaw took fifteen minutes to reach the Tundla train station from the bus stop. It took me another fifteen minutes to find the schedule, and when I did it incorrectly told me the train would arrive on track 3 instead of track 4. But finally I was ready to relax and get some sleep. My ordeal was over, or so I believed.

I approached my seat and smiled at the white guy sitting in the berth below. He didn't seem particularly pleased to see me. When I told him I was in berth 35, he seemed to disagree. I showed him my ticket and he immediately said (mind you I've been reading this ticket all day) "this is for tomorrow". I looked. He was right. I'd booked my ticket for the wrong day. The thought of spending the night in a hole like Tundla (well actually it's really hard to tell here what a place is like from driving through it) was pretty scary. I humped my pack over to the station master, hoping to find someone who spoke english (I didn't) and he indicated that I should try to get a ticket from the conductor on the train.

Well I couldn't find the conductor but I was extremely lucky to run into an English-speaking Indian guy, Chandrasekhar, who told me to get in. I got in. When the conductor came through, there was no space but he took pity on me since I was a stupid tourist and kicked some guy out of the jump seat next to the door. I spend the night sitting there, with Chandrasekhar sitting on the edge of the seat, or sitting on the floor with the door hinge in my back trying to sleep. The remarkable thing is, I did sleep! A little.

This morning I arrived at Varanasi (somewhere - I think I got off at the wrong station but there's basically no way to tell) and quickly reached the hotel Andrew had booked for me, travelling as always by autorickshaw. They couldn't check me in but they gave me a bed to sleep on when I told them about my train adventure. Eventually my room cleared up and just then Andy showed up and brought me to the local internet cafe. Things are looking up again!

- posted by Joachim @ 2:34 AM

 
Agra. Today I went to see the Taj Mahal. I'll be damned if it isn't actually the prettiest building in the world after all! At first glance, it just looked like the pictures and didn't seem like anything too special, but it really grew on me. I spent a couple of hours sauntering around the grounds and every time I happened to glance at the Taj, it looked a little prettier than the last time. It's a truly remarkable building.

After the Taj, we (myself and my buddy-for-the-day Endre) went to see Agra Fort, which is a huge fortress filled with the remains of fancy palaces. I guess all the stuff in the palaces was hauled off and sold by the British but the architecture is still pretty impressive. Plus there's a great view of the Taj Mahal.

After a bite to eat, Endre guided us to the Taj Mahal Nature Walk, which is this park and forest preserve inside Agra. They're trying to keep pollution away from the Taj. As with all Indian parks (so far), it was quiet and peaceful, except for a brief bull-tresspassing incident. Some indian guys were there modeling in front of the Taj view (which is really nice from the hilltop there) and they came over and talked to us in halting English. Nice guys, really.

- posted by Joachim @ 8:08 PM

 
It's my second day in India, and I have to say things are getting better. Yesterday I was very tired and, I think, rather shocked by my first sight of the country. Just like they say in the travel books, it's difficult to handle at first - especially Delhi is. Today the streets were just as busy, the touts just as annoying and the fumes just as thick, but I'm in a better mood.

I took a voyage to the train station early today, before breakfast. I grabbed the nearest autorickshaw (a motorized tricycle with room for two passengers) and we went racing through the already congested streets to the station. After a moment of foolish gullibility I resisted the overtures of a tout who had informed me that the tourist ticket office was closed, and I proceeded there to get my ticket. I got it, although purchasing it so late meant I will have to take a bus tomorrow. I am to depart at 0600 for Agra, where I will see the Taj Mahal (and likely little else), then catch a bus to Tundla and take an overnight train from there to Varanasi. There my friend Andrew has made me a weeks' reservation at a local hotel so with luck I'll be able to hole up there and just relax for a while. All this travel has tired me out.

This morning I could see the sky (it quickly clouded up), and we did a little sightseeing. The Red Fort was closed so we couldn't go there, but we headed instead for the the Jaya Masjid (I'll have to spell check this post after I get back to my room because I forget these Indian names so quickly). It was about the first pleasant surprise I'd had in India. Inside the courtyard (entrance is free) there were few people and it was quiet. There's a fountain and pool in the center of the courtyard. It's really quite nice and just a remarkable contrast from the incredible bustle outside.

We also checked out a Jain bird hospital nearby. It was full of birds. The brochure talked about some kind of "grand hall with room for a thousand birds" but this turned out to be a cage. Nevertheless it was cute and it's nice to see some people trying to help out a little in the world. I don't think it's going to do a lot of good though.


- posted by Joachim @ 9:25 AM

 
Today, very early in the morning, I made it to Delhi. Well so far I can't say I'm too impressed, but then it's only been one day and I haven't seen any sights. I guess I'm just mad at that guy who threw shit on my shoe and then offered to clean it off for two rupees. Lucky Andy warned me about that one in advance or I might have been in trouble.

It's dusty here. The hotel is dusty, the street is dusty, the plants are dusty and the people are dusty too. I haven't seen much of the city, just the area right around the hostel, which is thick with beggars and, probably, thieves. We had some indian food at a local restaurant. It tasted just like it does back home!

My room is in poor condition but perfectly adequate. There's a bed, a toilet and a shower, all of which work. The place is a little dirty but what do you expect from the YMCA? There are guys hanging around in the hall who will take your laundry away and do it for you. Nice. The weather is good but there's a thick cloud of haze over the city from all the two-stroke vehicles.

Ok, I'm exhausted so I'll go take a nap. More later!
- posted by Joachim @ 4:38 AM