Amritsar

Getting from Varanasi to Amritsar turned out to be a lot more difficult than we anticipated. We bought tickets a week or two in advance, but were put on the wait list. There was plenty of time for cancellations, but the morning we were supposed to leave we were still numbers two and three on the waiting list. We went out to the track to talk to the conductor and he told us there were no seats, we had to go and get a refund and buy tickets for another day. This was really not what we wanted to hear since we didn't want to wait two or three more weeks for a confirmed train ticket and we also didn't want to take a 24 hour bus all the way to Amritsar. We had almost given up hope but the last time we went back to him, he said "OK, get on. I'll find you a seat." And he did. I don't know why it was so difficult before and so easy the last time we asked him, but we were just happy to be on the train.

All was well until it was time for us to arrive. We weren't arriving. We looked out the window to see the names of the stations we passed and deduced that we were quite a bit behind schedule. We finally pulled into Amritsar almost four hours late. It's no fun spending an extra four hours on a train, but it's REALLY no fun starting to look for a hotel at 8:30 PM in a new city. We were very lucky though, there is no better place we could have been with these problems.

After leaving the train station we found a free shuttle waiting to take us directly to our destination. Within five minutes after we got there someone was showing us to our room which was no charge (except for our donation). One minute away was a dining hall where we could be served 24 hours a day, also at no charge. "Why?", you might reasonably ask?

Our destination was the Golden Temple which is the holiest site of the Sikh religion. One key thing you should know about the Sikh religion is that they don't believe in the caste system like Hindus do. They believe in treating everyone equally and that is exactly what they do. Their goal is to make the holiest site in their religion accessible to everyone, regardless of caste, religion, nationality, or wealth. This is why they provide a free shuttle and a free place to stay. Instead of just giving free meals to the poor, which they believe perpetuates the class system, they offer free meals to everyone - equally. Very equally. Everyone sits together, in lines on the floor and for at least the duration of that meal no person is better than any other.

It's sounds pretty cool, but really the scale of it all is nothing short of magnificent. They serve 60 - 80 thousand meals every day! And that's when there isn't a festival or a holiday or something going on. I really felt special just to be a part of it. Even more impressive than that is that everyone who works at the temple is a volunteer. The people who serve your food, the people who wash the dishes, peel the garlic - all volunteers. Many of the volunteers are Sikhs, but many or not. Really, anyone can volunteer. All you have to do is just start doing the job you want to help with. It's really wild!

The temple itself is really amazing too. The reason it's called the Golden Temple is because the entire temple is plated in gold. It sits in the middle of a lake and, during the day, houses the most holy book of the Sikh religion. At night they carry the book to its bed in a different building where it stays for the night. True to their belief in equality, anyone can go inside the temple (we haven't been allowed to go in most Hindu temples) and anyone can participate in the ritual of carrying the book to its resting place. We just witnessed this even last night and there was a crowd of people surrounding and helping to carry the palanquin used to transport the book. I would have jumped in to help myself, but I could see that participating in this ritual meant a lot more to some of the other people there than it did to me.

The Golden Temple is really the main attraction in Amritsar and we couldn't expect anything more, really. But there are some other interesting things in the area as well. Yesterday we took a shared taxi to the Indian-Pakistani border at Atari where they have a ceremony every day to close the border. While this might sound a little dull, it's anything but. The border guards are dressed in a uniform that I can honestly say is nothing short of ridiculous. Imagine someone in a military uniform wearing some kind of hat with a one and a half foot fan on top of it. Yeah. Then imagine these guards stomping around (sometimes almost at a jog), waving their arms back and forth at insanely fast speeds, and performing high kicks that reach within an inch of their forehead. At the end of it all they shake hands, lower the flags, and the gates slam shut. The Indians love it! They have stands built, almost like a stadium for the people (mostly Indians, but some foreigners) to come witness this ceremony. It's kind of unbelievable really.

We arranged for our taxi to take us from the Golden Temple to the ceremony and then back again after the ceremony was finished. We didn't expect our driver would want to take us to a couple more temples on the way home, but we were excited to see them since it isn't always so easy for us to get to these places and hiring taxis isn't normally in our budget. We weren't prepared for what he had to show us.

The first temple I can only describe as some kind of bizarre Hindu fun house. I don't mean to be rude by calling it this, but there is simply no better way I can describe it. This place had many of the things you'd expect from a Hindu temple like statues of Gods, places for offerings, and things like this. But it had other things as well. First of all, you had to travel along a very circuitous route. Up stairs, down stairs, through little alleys, etc. Many of the rooms had broken mirror mosaics as well as a variety of other things we didn't understand. At one point we had to crawl through some sort of artificial cave. We looked up to see a cow's udder on the ceiling that was dripping like a stalagtite. Another time we had to roll up our pants and walk through ankle deep water for some purpose that was beyond our understanding. At the end of it all there was a man sitting who told us to kneel as he put a necklace of marigolds on each of us, gave us a mark on our forehead (the third eye), tied some kind of shiny, glitter cloth around our heads, and gave us a sweet coconut treat, then said thank you and goodbye. At the end of it all we just looked at each other trying to comprehend all that we had just experienced and completely failing to do so. But the night wasn't over yet, there was still time for one more stop!

At the next stop we got out of the taxi and just did a double take. The temple we were looking at looked exactly like the golden temple. Completely plated in gold, sitting in the middle of a large lake, and everything. But it wasn't the golden temple. It was the Hindu version of the golden temple. I guess they liked the Sikh's idea so much, they built their own! Even though this temple looks golden just like the actual Golden temple it is instead called the Silver Temple because of its silver doors. The whole time we were walking around it we were trying to figure out why the Hindus would build what was almost a replica of the Sikh's holiest site just a few miles away. It's something for us to think about.

It's been a really eventful last several days, I'm really happy to get all this up on the blog. We're planning now to do just a few more things here and then tomorrow we will head to Mcleod Ganj, the residence of the Dalai Lama and many refugees of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Holidays

The holiday season is always different when you're far away from home. It's a little sad for me to say that we're becoming experts on spending holidays in foreign countries, but it won't be that way for so much longer. Nothing is like being with family, but at least I can say that we usually don't spend the holidays alone. In Ukraine it was easy to meet up with our Peace Corps volunteer friends who were in the same boat we were. It was nice to have each other and we got together for Christmas parties, Thanksgivings, and the like.

Because we are always traveling, we don't have too many long-term friends and so things are a little different. The other side of that coin is that we meet new people all the time, much more often than we did in Ukraine. It can be a lot of fun meeting new people, especially when you click! We spent Christmas Eve with an Australian woman we met at breakfast the day before. We took a trip to nearby Sarnath. This is the place where the Buddha gave his first lesson and also the final stop on our Buddhist pilgrimage tour (All four major sites, yay!). We shared the rickshaw fare and also the company, which was great. Her last visit to India was 30 years ago, which is amazing! She told us a few stories, but didn't remember much (it was a crazy time!) It reminded me of my dad who was also here about 30 years ago and he is coming to meet us soon, maybe sometime in the next few weeks.

In the evening we returned to Varanasi and went to a nearby cafe that was having a Christmas party. It was fun. To be honest, it's nothing like being back home, but in some ways that makes it more interesting. We sat down and listened to what I can only imagine to be "The Greatest Christmas Hits of Country Music" while we ate spinach ravioli, pizza, and apple pie. An Italian guy came and sat down with us, so we chatted with him for a while about our recent trip to Italy. Later, the live music started. We got to listen to an Argentinian duo play some self-composed music, some in English, some in Spanish. So we had a very multi-cultural Christmas Eve.

We had met an Israeli guy a few days before that told us about a Christmas lunch at the River Ashram (or as he called it, the Jesus Ashram). Everyone was invited and so we showed up (a little late) to check things out. Apparently the food was amazing! All the other travelers told us about the lasagna and Mexican food they had and how amazing it was. Unfortunately, it was almost all gone by the time we arrived. The good news is there was plenty of dessert left! I ate all the sweets I could handle while we met travelers from Denmark and Colorado. We always get great tips from other travelers about our future destinations.

For example, all the holiday gatherings were passed along to us through word of mouth of travelers. Other things too, "Oh, you have to go on a camel safari in Rajistan!", "Check out the hot springs in Manila!", and "Get to the river early in the morning to see the Ganga river dolphins!" Some people are able to give us better tips than others though. We talked to a guy that had been to Laos about stuff to do there to learn that he spent an entire month on one tiny island dazed and confused. He did say it was the most relaxing time in his life though, I believe it.

For now we're just hanging out waiting to catch a train to Amritsar. It's another long one, about 20 hours, but it's a good jumping point to get to Mcleod Gang, the home of the Dalai Lama and where we may spend New Year's. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!

PS Heather posted some pictures of our travels thus far on her flickr website. Check them out! www.flickr.com/heathercaturia She's only started posting the pictures we've collected so far, there are more to come soon so check later for more!

Varanasi

We made it safely to Varanasi, although not how we planned. We got up before dawn to catch the bus and went to the stop where the touts tried to sell us advance tickets (with commission). We've never needed to buy bus tickets in advance before, and we probably wouldn't have needed to this time either except that after the bus didn't show up the touts informed us that the real bus stop was 2 km away. Nice.

Since the only other bus that day would have put us into Varanasi late in the evening (no good if you don't have a hotel booked) we took an autorickshaw to the next town over which had a train station. Thanks to a bit of luck we ran into an Indonesian guy there who was also traveling to Varanasi and told us which train we wanted and all that good stuff. He also knew a great (and cheap) hotel to go to in Varanasi. So we ended up taking a 3 hour train instead of a 7 hour bus and didn't have to go from hotel to hotel looking for a room. This is the kind of thing that happens all the time, luckily we learned a long time ago in Ukraine that even though things don't always go according to plan, there is always another way.

We always negotiate on the prices for our hotels, especially if we plan to stay several nights. Since the place we stayed the first night wouldn't budge on the price we went out looking for another hotel the next morning. We ended up at a much nicer place that was double the price, but we managed to get them down to the same price as our other hotel. You know you're getting a good deal when the manager begs you not to tell any of the other guests how much you're paying! And you know you're staying in a nice hotel when they give you a free bar of soap and roll of toilet paper (yeah, we're roughing it)! Even better than that we have hot water and a balcony view of the holy river Ganga (Ganges).

At many places along the river are large steps that lead down called "ghats." These provide access to the river for many purposes including drinking the water, bathing, laundry, offerings, and cremations. Our balcony overlooks one of the cremation ghats which is a little intense, but also fascinating. Hindus come to Varanasi from all over India to die and be cremated on the Ganges. Hindus believe in reincarnation and also that being cremated on the Ganges will free a person from the cycle of death and rebirth. We've witnessed the process several times.

Bodies are completely wrapped in cloth and are brought to the river on a stretcher-like device made out of bamboo. The family accompanies their relative and may play music and possibly make lots of other noise with shouting and maybe dancing. Sometimes it really looks like they are having fun! The body is then dipped in the river and placed on stacks of wood. These are then lit and burned completely. It's not unusual for us to look out our window and see three or four fires going at once down at the ghat.

The first time, I have to admit, it was kind of difficult to watch. It's becoming more normal for us since it's happening all the time and not once have I seen any of the family members crying or be visibly sad. This may be because they are confident in the well-being of their loved one. I think this makes it easier for us to get used to and we now just accept it as the way of life in Varanasi.

Sadly the river is terribly polluted. Heather and I have decided not to go for a dip. As you would expect, part of the problem is the cremations and also all the bathing and washing that happens there (including the cows). By far the biggest problem is the sewage though. Not only from Varanasi, but also from more than a hundred towns further up the river, sewage flows freely into the Ganga. This knowledge is enough to keep us at a safe distance.

What else is interesting about Varanasi?...the monkeys! There are lots of monkeys in Varanasi, particularly near our new hotel. In fact, I think a large extended family lives just below us. You might think that monkeys are cute and cuddly, but that's just because they don't live in your neighborhood! We see/hear them there every night, sometimes jumping on the tin roofs or onto the balconies below us. We've seen them go inside peoples homes looking for food. Last night they even came onto our balcony on the third floor. They were throwing our chairs around and they also left presents which we found the next morning. We noticed today that our neighbors hung their laundry to dry on their balcony and I suspect they will have an unpleasant surprise by tomorrow morning if we don't find them and warn them first.

More soon.

Calcutta - Bodhgaya

We had a great time in Calcutta, but I have to admit we spent as much time relaxing at cafes and our hotel as we did going out and seeing the city. We needed it though, traveling can be really exhausting after a while. One of the nice things about being in a city that has a lot of tourists is that it's easy to get western style food. Now, I know what you're thinking, I should be sampling the local cuisine. I have and although much of it is too spicy for me, some is very good. I've come to realize that you can enjoy local food, but sometimes also eat familiar food that doesn't make your stomach grumble, growl, or cry out in pain. Yes, I got Delhi belly one day after arriving in India and have been more selective with my food choices since then. (Heather was smart enough to avoid it, I like to learn my lessons through experience).

The most notable thing we did while we were in Calcutta was visit Mother Teresa's mission. There is a small museum that tells about her life story and has some of her personal effects such as letters, a toothbrush, her Nobel Peace Prize, and even a piece of a tube that was used to help her breathe in her final moments. You can also visit her very modest room at the mission and the tomb where she is buried.

It was fascinating to learn about her life and it was very clear that she devoted herself completely to her mission and did a great deal for the poorest people in Calcutta. It wasn't easy for her to spend her life with the destitute, sick, and dying and the "darkness" she experienced is frequently mentioned. She gave everything she had and accepted other people's suffering as her own. She believed she was doing the work of Christ who took on the burden of others' suffering in the same way. All that she did for others was very inspiring, but at the same time I felt sad for her that she did not derive more enjoyment from her life. Even when she was smiling on the outside she still suffered. I only wish that a person who gave so much experienced more personal happiness.

It was with these thoughts that we left the mission. As we did we stopped to chat with some nuns who lived and worked there. The first question they asked us is "Are you Catholic?" I answered them honestly that I was not a Catholic, I was a humanitarian. I know I should not be surprised, but I have to admit that I was hurt a little that they were not satisfied with this answer and immediately began trying to convert me. I know they are Catholic nuns and they were just doing what Catholic nuns do, but it still surprises me that they were not accepting of others who do not share their specific beliefs, especially when there are so many things we can agree on (like their humanitarian mission). It makes me a little sad, but what can I do but accept them for who they are?

We left Calcutta two or three days ago for Bodhgaya, which is the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. We previously visited Lumbini (his birthplace) and Kushingar (where he died). We went to Kushingar as a day trip from Gorakpur, I might have forgotten to mention it. Anyway, I think we came to Bodhgaya at the right time because right now is the Buddhist festival of Karama Pa. There are monks EVERYWHERE. We went to the Bodhi tree yesterday where the Buddha became enlightened and we saw just a sea of maroon and gold robes. We were lucky enough to hear some Tibetan throat singing during a ceremony which is quite unique. If you've never heard it before you should listen sometime.

Originally, we planned to stay at one of the many monasteries in town, but they were all completely full because of all the monks that are visiting. After a little searching we found a nice little guest house (and cheap too!) Really, it was just as good as staying in the monastery because it was full of monks too! I made friends with a monk that was staying in the room next to ours. He was just sitting on the balcony and wanted to chat. He was from Nepal and he told me about his monastery (he is the head monk!) It is very difficult to get to. He said first you have to take a car from Kathmandu, then an airplane, then walk for two days. It sounds really cool, I'd love to go there someday. He gave me all of his contact information including his monastery's website in case I ever make it there (http://www.namkhyung.org/).

He also told me about his trip. He was granted a short audience with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. He was understandably thrilled about that. I laughed at how he described the meeting. He said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama was like a monkey - in terms of the amount of energy he had. He was able to go from a standing to sitting position (on the floor) in the blink of an eye! My new friend had only the most wonderful things to say about him. In the Dalai Lama's presence he felt only peaceful and happy. We will also go to Dharamsala, but we won't get to see the Dalai Lama. He's busy traveling all over India right now.

We also talked a little about Buddhism. He told me about some of his beliefs and his reasoning, but in contrast to our experience in Calcutta he said that different belief systems work best for different people. The same one isn't right for everyone. I think this is something that makes Buddhism unique, it is more of a philosophy or way of life whereas many other religions claim to be the one true faith. I enjoyed my time with him and I hope to see him again someday.

We've really enjoyed our time spent in Bodhgaya. Besides new friends and the sights (so many temples!) we've thoroughly enjoyed the Tibetan cuisine. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner - it's been great. Since the food and lodging is much less expensive than in Calcutta, we've really been able to indulge a little and eat lots of good food. Maybe we should be saving more for when we're in another big city, but it's okay to eat well once in a while. I'm running out of internet time, but I'll write again from our next stop in Varanasi!

Route

Just a short update here of the route we have taken so far on the trip. I'll try to add to this as we travel.


View Asia route in a larger map

In India!

We spent the last of our time in Nepal in Lumbini. This is the birthplace of the Buddha and pilgrims from around the Buddhist world come here to see this sacred spot. They come and leave offerings of money, silk scarves, incense, etc. It was a really special place and the first place since Kathmandu where we saw a lot of international tourists. Just as interesting as seeing Buddha's birthplace was seeing all the temples and monasteries nearby. Many countries with significant Buddhist populations have places of worship in Lumbini including Japan, China, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, even France and Germany. We spent an entire day just walking from temple to temple which was absolutely incredible because the architecture and the people at each of these temples was from its own country. It was like taking a tour of the entire Buddhist world in a day. You can think of it a little like the "it's a small world" ride at Disney World, except instead of dolls and little houses for them there are real people and full size, traditional buildings. It was kind of surreal!

After a few days we left to cross the Indian border. It turns out we stayed in Nepal one day longer that we were supposed to....oops! Lucky for us the customs guy didn't notice or didn't care and just stamped us through. We each avoided a $34 fine which is a lot for us on this trip. We caught a four hour bus from the border to Gorakhpur which is the first major city from where we crossed. Let me take this first opportunity to tell you that Gorakhpur is a very poor introduction to India. It's a busy city and there is garbage everywhere. Then there are the cows that seem to eat exclusively garbage because there is nothing else around. The only hotels around were expensive and gross. It seemed like there was nowhere to walk that you weren't stepping in trash (or worse), in the mud, or dodging traffic. Most of the places to eat had flies all over. There was also no internet cafe nearby so that's why you haven't heard from me for a while. After spending a little time here we were beginning to rethink our entire trip.

Even though this was only our first stop in India, we knew it could not all be this bad. Everyone we know that has gone to India has loved the experience so we knew there had to be more here. The solution was simple. We had to get out of Gorakhpur! The only problem was that the train was all booked up, so we got on the waiting list for a train three days later. The man who sold us our ticket told us that we were number 5 and 6 on the list and there would be no problem. There would definitely be a seat for us. We came back the morning the train left so he could give us our seats and there weren't any. He said we could stand, but that was no good. Our destination, Calcutta, was 24 hours away. So he said go to the train, get on, and the conductor will find a spot for us, hopefully someone will not show up. We were pretty worried, we didn't want to stay longer in Gorakhpur and we knew that we would have to wait another week to get a confirmed seat if we didn't get on this train.

So we went to the station and the train was two or three hours late. This is bad enough, but we were sitting there staring at an empty track uncertain about our future. We really didn't want to stay. The train comes and we find the conductor and he says "Go three cars back wait for me. I'll come soon. I'll see if there are any seats for you." We do and after waiting for a while we start to get nervous - then the train starts moving. Then it starts moving really really fast. Eventually I decide to try to find the guy and I start walking from car to car through crowds of people trying to find him. I never do. By the time it starts getting dark we decided we needed to fend for ourselves and when a few seats opened up we grabbed them. It was still pretty stressful though because we never knew if at the next stop someone would get on with a ticket for those seats and tell us to move. But what can you do? We made the best of it.

After a while we made friends with a local across from us. He was very kind and generous he shared his food with us and we taught each other card games. As it got later he could see that we were getting very tired and he got up and left. Ten minutes later he came back with the conductor who assigned us some seats. He isn't the only person we've met that has been so nice to us. More than once we've heard people here tell us that we are guests in their country and they have shared their food with us, bought us tea/coffee, and more. Sometimes it's really too much and I feel guilty accepting their generosity but it really seems to be their pleasure.

Eventually we arrived in Calcutta (24 hours is a really long time to spend on a train). Now Calcutta is known for its problems with homelessness, begging, and garbage, but after Gorakhpur all we can think is how nice it is. That was really surprising to us, but it's true! Maybe the government has done some work to clean up the town and its image. In any case, we are very happy to be here. In addition to being India's third? largest city it was also the capital when India was a British colony. There are many historical buildings here, some beautiful parks, etc. Also in Calcutta is Mother Teresa's mission. We haven't had a chance to look around and explore very much yet, but I'll write more when we do.

Leaving Kathmandu, into the mountains

We've left Kathmandu now and have been spending time in some of the small towns in the Himalayas. It's so much quieter here than it is in Kathmandu! It's really like being in a different country. While we were in Kathmandu we stayed in Thamel which is where the cheap hotels are and where all the tourists stay. There was traffic, bicycle rickshaws everywhere, and no sidewalks. Lots of noise from horns, etc. I don't mean to get down on Kathmandu, there's lots to see there and in between all the tourists, banana pancakes, and people trying to sell you things there is real Nepali culture there. But we were happy to have a change.

The smaller mountain towns are more off the beaten track. To get to the town we're staying in now we had to take a small jeep from the valley into the mountain town of Bandipur. We shared the back of this jeep with about 12-15 other people, a goat, and a spare tire. There were always about four or five people standing on the tailgate and holding onto the roof where our bags were as we twisted and winded around the small mountain road. We found an inexpensive hotel that is one of the nicer one's we've stayed in so far. There's no hot water, but the view is incredible! Snow capped mountains in the distance which seem to float in a sea of fog in the morning. The fog lifts in the afternoon and then you can see all the way down into the valley. It's going to be hard to leave, but the other stops on our route will be just as wonderful, I'm certain.

We are very tired though. Since leaving Kathmandu we haven't spent more than two consecutive days in the same place. Lots of traveling. The good news is we've been getting to sleep pretty early. Power outages are a daily occurrence in Nepal. Hotels in the bigger cities have generators, but places like we are right now do not. When the lights go out, they're out. If you don't like it you can buy some candles. We brought our cell phones with us from Ukraine. They don't have service until we get new sim cards, but they do have flashlights built in which have served us well.

We have only one more week in Nepal before our visas expire. We'll cross the Indian border and head for Varanasi, a holy city on the Ganges. There will be lots to see there, but we will have to adjust again from the quiet mountain towns to having people everywhere! Really, EVERYWHERE. India has well over a billion people so it gets pretty crowded there. I'm sure we'll continue to retreat once in a while to smaller towns so we can clear our heads and take time to absorb all we're experiencing. More updates soon, bye for now!