How to Be Less Cold

Hi everyone. We're on to our second week in India. It already feels like we've been gone for months. We spent three days in Delhi then were on to three days or so in Varanasi. You've probably seen pictures of Varanasi (hopefully you'll see some of ours later today) - it's the most holy city in India for Hindus, where people make pilgrimages to bathe in the Ganges at the ghats (steps) along the river, and where bodies are cremated at the "burning ghats". We did a bit of walking along the ghats and took a boat ride in the early morning one day to see all that was going on along the river. If you've read The Kite Runner you would have loved. Dozens of kites in the air at any time - it seems to be the favorite hobby of Varanasi boys - and some of them kite fighting. There was also a lot kite debris in the electric wires! One night we tried to locate a restaurant we'd heard of in the Old City. The Old City's streets are more like a maze of alleys - obviously this area was built centuries and centuries ago - no cars, for sure - but they got a bit clogged up with people walking, carts, motorcycles, and cows. It took quite a few turns and a lot of asking directions from shopkeepers and the unsettling number of policemen with rifles to get there.

We also took a day excursion to Sarnath, about 20 km from the city, to an excavated site of a number of old Buddhist monastery where the Buddha himself taught. It was a nice, peaceful break from the city, which was slightly less crazy than Delhi, but still a million things going on. I had thought the 20 km ride out to the site meant we'd be out in the countryside, but it was built up nearly the entire way. I was thankful for that later, though. We stayed until the site closed at dark. So, we're riding our autorickshaw back along one of the few quietish roads, and.... one of the back wheels flies off! Our driver tried to flag down another auto, but since the site was closed most of them had already given up on getting a load of tourists and had headed back to town. So we ended up walking to the nearest intersection and flagging down a ride from there.

So far we haven't done a very good job in escaping the Canadian winter. We were freezing in Italy. In Rome, I said it was the coldest I'd ever been in a place that has palm trees. Delhi was also very cold. The Delhi-ites are obviously not used to it. They were all freezing. So we kept saying we were ready to be warm. So, where did we go... the Himalayas!

(it's Ashifa now, as Jen had to run off for a bit) We then took an overnight train ride to a town near Darjeeling, and then boarded this tiny "Toy Train" to get up to Darjeeling where we are now. The Toy Train is a tiny tiny little train, which was built in the 1800's - it's mainly used now for tourism purposes. The tracks are only 2 feet wide! It travels at a painstaking 10-15 km/hour, and teenaged boys from towns/villages along the way have fun running up along side it and jumping on, and hanging onto the outside of the train for a short ride, until the conductor yells at them and tells them to get off. a beautiful way to see the hills though...(okay, Jen's back now so i'll give it back to her!)

Hello... I'm back. I've been desperately trying to find a place to make phone calls to Ohio before everyone there is in bed! No luck - this doesn't seem to be an early-rising town. Darjeeling was one of the "hill stations" built by the British so they could escape to the high altitudes (we're between 6000 and 7000 feet) during the hot summers. It has about 100,000 people now - many of them Tibetan and Nepali. It's definitely much more laid-back than the big cites. And it has a great view of the Himalayas. The Toy Train ride was really cool - great views of the mountains, the foothills (which are now largely covered by tea plantations), and little villages.