The second "V"

Hi there from Varanasi...a city which is a 14-hour train ride from Delhi. Our trip here was fantastic (i know it sounds hard to believe that 14-hrs in a train can be fantastic, but it was!). We were sharing a section with some very interesting people and we had some great discussions about politics, economic development, and other in-depth topics which one would never discuss with strangers in Canada, but which in India seems to be commonplace! The thing that i love everytime i come here is that people don't have the same sense of personal boundaries that we have in the "west". Almost as soon as we pulled out of the train station, complete strangers were engaged in conversation with one another, just chatting away. Even just sitting in a (casual) restaurant, it is not entirely unusual to chat with people at the next table.

Before coming to Varanasi, we were in Delhi for 2-ish days. One of the days, we rented a car/driver and went around delhi to different sights. We had a big lunch at a small local shop..in my opinion, our best meal yet and it cost less than $5 bucks together! we were near Jammu Masjid at that time (a big famous mosque) which is a muslim area so there were alot of goats around, which Jen found quite amusing!..Jen even saw a rickshaw (3-wheeled vehicle with a roof but open sides) go by that had 2 goats and 1 person in it! how they all fit i have no idea! we saw a baby goat being carried by a little boy too. we sat on the steps of the mosque and watched a cricket match in the field below, while the call to prayer was sounded, and cows grazed below.... Jen has been amazed at the diversity of things going on at any one time...for example: cars, taxis, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, people hauling piles of sacks of potatoes on a trailer with their bicycles, cyclists, cows, goats, stray dogs, all share the road at any one time. Traffic lanes mean nothing, and there is an unwritten code of communication that people use to navigate the multi-purpose roads...it usually involves "might is right", and alot of swerving around and honking to let others know that you are coming and swerving...it is really an amazing use of shared-space without the same need for rigid rules and personal space boundares we have in North America...it looks chaotic at first, but if you stand a watch a bit you notice a highly evolved method to the apparent madness.

We stayed in Delhi with an Indian lesbian couple who run a casual guesthouse in their home... so we were basically living with them for the past few days. they run a small grassroots organization supporting and providing safe housing for women who have been kicked out of their homes for being lesbian, etc. They lived in a nice suburb of Delhi...so we also spent some time just been hanging around, relaxing, and enjoying life in the quiet delhi suburbs...so different from downtown.

Since the last time i was in Delhi (3 years ago) things have changed a bit ...it's a bit less crazy in downtown than before...definitely more infrastructure...you can see the signs of India's economic boom that is in the midst.... still cows on the street whether you're in old delhi, new delhi, or even the swanky suburbs! it's definitely more expensive now than it was a few years ago...though as you can see above, it's still pretty cheap! it has been very cold here too! we are freezing at night b/c it goes down to around 5 degrees C, but it's a wet cold, and there is no heating inside...so we're thinking we didn't pack for this weather and maybe we'll reorganize and head to south India first and then finish up the other northern India stuff we wanted to experience in february when it may be a bit warmer at least. i can't believe how cold it has been. we've been wearing 3 layers to bed and a thick blanket!

We'll write more in a few days about Varanasi...so far it's been very interesting...it's an ancient sacred Hindu town with lots of temples, and people come here on pilgrimage to bathe in the Ganges river and to cremate their deceased. It's thought that if you die here then you are liberated from the cycle of rebirth (Moksha). We went to a Puja (Hindu religious festival) tonite on the Ganges river...then we had dinner in a restaurant which had a classical music concert going on - it seemed to be a bit of a tourist-trap restaurant, as the food wasn't great and there wasn't a single Indian to be seen in the place, but the music was great anyways!

and now, off to bed! :-)