Varanasi
Our next stop in India, was the famous city of Varanasi, which is one of the holiest cities for the Hindu and Bhuddist religions. Not so famous for the Jewish religion. When we got to our Hotel in Varanasi, about a block away we saw the word "Chabad" spray painted on the wall with an arrow pointing down an alley. So of course we explore this mysterious alley, but only to find out that Chabad in Varanasi closed in 2008. We did meet an Israeli couple who seemed to be settled in their hostel room that was only costing them 7 bucks a night! We were happy paying a little more for our room just to avoid the amount of mosquito and flies they had. ( a million!)
Unfortunately, two days before we landed in town, there was a terrorist attack at the Main Ghat (temple) that killed several people and injured dozens more. The bomb happened during one of the popular night ceremonies - and a popular tourist attraction as well. Because of this, the Main Ghat was closed and Joey and I did not go to that part of town at all. It is too bad, the Temples on the Ganges and the Hindu pilgrims and worshipers who use the Ganges for literally everything (bathing, laundry, cremation services etc.) is the primary reason Varanasi is such a special place to visit. We did not have a chance to get the real feel as the bombing put a halt on regular daily life.
So our plan in Varanasi changed its focus from Hindu to Buddhist and we went to see Sarnath, a holy site where the Buddha gave his first sermon after receiving enlightenment. Sarnath should be about a 15 minute drive, but when you combine a tuk-tuk with the Indian traffic nothing takes fifteen minutes. This was our first ride in a Tuk- Tuk, which is like a cross between a dirt-bike and a smart car. Even though this is a standard form of transportation here- we felt like we were on a Disney ride. The only difference here was that there was no friendly, overly happy ride attendant buckling us in! We held on tight as we flew around corners and weaved in and out around bikes, rickshaws and cows. The traffic and general behavior on the streets is plain shocking. Dirt, garbage and people are everywhere. The other shocking thing is what is carried on these rickshaws to begin with. In a word- everything. There was construction on a new road through town and all construction materials are brought in by rickshaw. All vegetables brought to roadside stands are brought by rickshaw. We even saw a modified rickshaw with a bigger back seat that served as a school bus for young kids. But, just when you thought the ride could not be more interesting, the driver asked us if we want to try driving! I jumped at the chance and once we got into a little bit of clear road - I jumped into the front seat and tried my hand at Indian driving. Joey says that I have been driving like an Indian for years now so this was not that big of a challenge. Even better, the driver did not give me control of the brakes so I was free to gun this little tuk-tuk as much as I wanted. We thought I would drive for like 30 seconds or something - but he let me drive for a solid 5 minutes. Joey got a chance to drive on the way back. He incorporated his calm driving demeanor beautifully throughout the streets of Varanasi. I am sure the locals appreciated one person driving safely on the road.
At Sarnath, we met with our guide Ashok to take us on a tour and teach us a little about Buddhism. The temples were interesting and there is even a tree there that is supposedly descendant from the original tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment. One of the interesting things about the history of Buddhism is that in its purest form, it is not actually a religion. The Buddha was a man - there is no supernatural part of his story. What he does is create a philosophy for his disciples to believe that will lead them on the correct path in life. As the philosophy spread and proliferated into cultures that believed in idols (Hinduism) that is when you first started seeing the Buddha statues appear in history - hundreds of years after his death. Also, semi-disappointingly the ancient Buddha statues in this part of the world - he is not a smiling chubby man. He is a slim young man - not nearly as cute.
As we finished the day over a cup of Masala tea, Ashok mentioned to us that it was his birthday the next day (Saturday) and that he was having a party at his school and wanted us to attend as his guests. Ashok lives outside Varanasi and has a primary school that he started which now has over 300 students in it. Since we never turn down a party invitation- we said we would like to attend. On the way back to the hotel for the night we stopped in the craftsman village to see how they hand make silk items like scarves and traditional Indian garments. A fascinating thing to see how all of this is still done by hand and the methods have hardly changed for generations. The productions that come out of these back alleys and dark rooms are absolutely beautiful.
Varanasi is just an absolutely crazy place. The culture shock that we expected hit us in full force. We spent Shabbat in the hotel and on Saturday night took the same Tuk-Tuk driver to Ashok's house/school/farm in the suburbs of Varanasi. Needless to say, if driving in the daylight is scary, an hour ride to the outskirts of town was downright terrifying. We stopped a few times for help with directions, there were no lights or street signs to speak of. But, we did get there - and they were waiting for us.
We were ushered into the building and into a room with Ashok and about a dozen of his closest friends... all middle aged men with serious but welcoming expressions. We sat at the head of the table as honored guests. It was a dinner party after all. Ashok had mentioned to us the day before that his family has been strict vegetarians for generations, so we were not worried about that. But, eating a home cooked meal from a Varanasi family might be an issue. Joey (always the adventurous one) said "Ashok will not serve us something he thinks will hurt us - he knows we can't drink the water and stuff like that...I'm sure its fine." So we ate - we had to. They literally piled food on our plates and waited to see how we liked it. When I tried pushing the food around my plate - they thought that meant I want more! For the record, the food was very good but I knew we were in trouble when I saw the server passing out these pancake things with his hands.
It was at this point in the meal when Ashok turned to Joey and introduced the patron of the school and said "he will talk to you now." The man spoke in broken English with a heavy accent, which made it very difficult to understand. I am still not sure, but I think he was talking about how there is a lot of corruption in India now...actually all I could understand was the word "corruption" - he said it like forty times. I figured that it was okay to just look interested and nod my head. But then he turned to Joey, and said "What about corruption in your country?" Everyone was quite, and turned to look at Joey, waiting to hear what he was going to say, including me! What was he going to say??
Joey, being the salesman that he is, starts off with quoting the headlines from the paper that he apparently saw somewhere this morning, then tells a joke which everyone laughs at and gives a whole speech on democracy, corruption and other stuff that left me both impressed and relieved! Everyone else seem to like it as it ended up with Joey making a toast to Ashok's birthday and all the men drinking whiskey. It was one of the funniest most ridiculous things I have ever seen.
We finished the night with a tour of the house/school/farm. We saw all the classrooms, his 3 cows his blind cat and his monkey. We then saw the house, met Ashok's 83 year old mother and his wife and daughter. We also saw the kitchen where all of tonight's food was produced - then I really knew we were in trouble.
On the drive back to the hotel we were very proud of ourselves for taking advantage of the opportunity to be adventurous in learning about Indian culture. The morning was not so good. Switching off between desperate dashes to the bathroom and spending the day folding over in pain made us question if we were just a little too adventurous!
Sunday morning we were planning a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges but in our condition there was no chance of that happening. We left Varansi recovering nicely and started the long trek to our next destination in Kaziranga National Park.
