What Next?

Wandering the Earth. Varanasi has been a serious journey. Perfect to follow up after visiting Bodhgaya and the place of Buddha's awakening. Varanasi is the awakening fast track.

It seams that I am settled in here. That means I must move on. Don't want to loose my ability to be the only coconut (that's my new name "the coconut" because the kids think, well you get it, my cabeza is a freaking coconut) at train stations and buying tickets and going to 17 different only to manage to miss my train anyway; jostling through autorickshaw row exiting any bus or train stop; getting used to the new scams in a new place. It's all good. Frustrating as all frack...but good.

I've been patiently waiting for the mountains and now I am going to inject the mountains into my being. I leave Sunday to Delhi. Then spend the night at the airport - hopefully security is down with that. On Monday fly to Dehra Dun's Jolly Grant Airport. It's the bestest name ever for an airport in the Himilaya foothills?

The plan is to explore some of Dehra Dun, Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Rajaji National Park, Corbett Tiger Preserve, and Haridwar. The final step is the Shatabdi Express from Haridwar to Delhi. Explore Delhi a few days then fly to the USA.

You know in Pulp Fiction when Vincent is talking to Jules about going to Amsterdam. He says, roughly paraphrased, "it's the small things that are different." "For instance?" "Well, they like their fries with mayonaise. They drown them in that shit." "Yuk." "And when you go into (was it a movie theatre?) they serve you beer. And I don't mean no beer in a paper cup. I mean a beer in a glass."

India has no small things that are different.

I'm looking forward to the mountains. Small things indeed? India has to do everything in superlatives. USA has 14ers (feet). Uttarakhand has the "lower" 7,000 meter Himalayan peaks - especially well-known is Nanda Devi (7816m) - ok, so it's not a lower 7,000m peak, it's an exception, an "outlier." What? What?

Cheers, love, peace, Target beer to all.

ps - thank you all for any and all comments. Those are much appreciated links back to my friends and family. That is another constant topic of Indian discussion - importance of family and friends. So thanks you wankers! Ciao.

Burning is Learning

I have no pictures for this. Only mental images. Only what I can paint divided by 1,000 words. Varanasi is a place to become lost, yet strangely you find out about what you "think" (which is another construction), what you own, what you did with your life, whatever karma, sins, goodness, job, loving, hating.

I've seen at least three dozen human body cremations. It's just supposed to be carbon and water, but it makes what we are and how we live and breathe and communicate. Then your physical body ceases to live. It's wrapped in cloth, dipped in the holy Ganga (not misspelled), wood is carefully weighed out, a fire that's been burning continuously for thousands of years is used to light the individual pyre. All you are goes to smoke and ash. It's open for the public to view. Tourists alike can stop to gaze, gander, pray, whatever motivates them.

Last night, and the night is the most spiritually tidal and head clearing, yet surreal. The fires are set against the dark ghats - Manikarnika is particularly smoke-stained black. I spoke to an Indian gentleman for about two hours. At first I was all porcupine-hair raised waiting for the rupee-vortex to form. It never did. We spoke about this 4,000 year old Hindu tradition taking place at select places on the Ganga. I was able to contrast that with our Western traditions of death and burial/cremation. I can't go into all the details because I was transfixed by the scene and the mere conversation taking place by an Indian Hindu who was there cremating his grandfather. Not once did he express the usual grief we do. I had complete emptiness - a good, cleansing emptiness - that after all I've seen in India, here in Varanasi, with death (and death is curiously never mentioned), this is finally the Incredible India that I thought existed. Just some small town somewhat isolated from major population centers. There is no Taj Mahal here. No Ajanta rock carvings. Just watching the reality of flesh burn away and the remainder of the big bones, the pelvis, sometimes the ribs, are placed into the Ganga.

I have heard from one vendor that when he can't sleep, he wanders to the main burning ghat and meditates for a time. Then worries vaporize and perspective shift - it's called "Burning is Learning."

Weirdest City on a River

Varanasi wins the award. And I love it. This is the most relaxed I've been the entire trip. I would never have thought that some city taking 2nd or 3rd place to Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Kerala, etc... could be so interesting.

I've been wandering the arms' width alleys, the ghats, the vendors' shops that line the alleys, eating food from various restaurants just because they are there and menu's fare sounds delectable.

I had first real Indian yoga class here. No Western brand. I guess you could call it hatha for lack of a better descritption. Today I am feeling like iron thrown against the wall and turned to putty. Sooo good.

I've seen the two "burning" ghats where families' take their dead to be creamated on pyres near the holy Ganges. After the creamation, the ashes are let into the river. This is perhaps, for a Hindu, the most auspicious way to pass into the next life.

Tons of offers for boat rides on the Ganges. I've been laughing because the offer is "cheap for you my friend, only 100 rupees." But my wacky humor knows it's 100 rupees to the other side and 600 rupees back.

By the way, the ghats, what are "ghats"? Well, they are like piers but they run parallel to the river. each ghat has a somewhat distinct flavor and design. Some are more grandios than others - the ghats built by maharajas have spectacular temples and shrines.

Many Indians do bathe in the Ganges regardless of the water condition. And working in that particular profession, and even if you don't, I am amazed at the willingness with which people enter the water. There is absolutely no sewage control, trash control, water buffalo control, nothing. It struck me funny the contrast that when in CA, if we have a heavy rain, the beaches are closed due to 0.001 ppm of methyethyl death. We are truly blessed to have the environmental controls we have - sometimes I wonder about the excess we freak out. But, that's the way of the world of my friends. Now, the Indians see foreign tourists (department of redundancy department) as walking dollars, I see Indian pollution remediation as serious dollars.

So as Varanasi goes, it is a town that now I understand Dawn's description - "you are just so happy to actually make it back home to bed that night. That's the day's accomplishment." I now have lived that. Almost been crushed by a water buffalo in the alleys, or run over by a motorbike, or lost for ever into the black hole created by the Super Conductor below Switzerland - it is in Varanasi.

Bodhgaya

Siddhartha Gautama became no longer. He became Buddha.

This, nothing can negative can be said. The dust, dirt, and craziness was worth it again. I would need to outrun my smokers cough first.

All I say is: Devotion.

It's not often that someone can visit the exact location where a major spiritual transformation occurred. There are few places on Earth where you can feel this energy. I would say that once in a lifetime, experience the birthplace of any spirituality. At the time I was there, there was some Buddhist "convention" or gathering of some type - the name of which escapes me. That is not the point.

However, Bodhgaya was awash in the real maroon robes of life-long devotees of Buddha from around the Asian world. I visited their monasteries: Japan, Thailand, Tiawan, Indian, Bhutan, Indonesian, Nepali, Vietnam. If there was ever a Major Cool in the Army, this is where he served.

I have two photos: One is where Siddhartha sat for six years without food or water. In a little cave. In the middle of the desert. In the middle of a rock cliff.

The second photo is at the Mahabodhi Temple. After six years in the cliff cave, Siddhartha emerged (this is a greatly simplified story because I think 15 people want to use this computer) and sat under the Bodhi Tree and became enlightened. A descendent of the original Bodhi Tree grows at the exact location behind the golden Buddha. I was there at night so the photo did not turn out - but the video was perfect, especially with the chanting.

Where's Sponge Bob?

I feel like Sponge Bob Square Pants. One exception: Instead of little sponge holes, I have little rupee and USD signs printed all over me. Well anyway, such is the way of the way of the world.

I have no idea where I last left off. But I don't think you've heard of my typings of Goa. I'm talking "THE GOA" of hippies, free sex, drugs drugs, and rock and roll. Except with the latest spate of terrorism, the Goan government has cracked down on the hippies, clubs staying open past 10pm, no drugs or you get seriously screwed, no free sex anymore (gotta go to other countries for that now - the USA is your best bet). It's mostly a nice place to vacation for families and foreign couples looking to hide out under the beach umbrellas and get ayurvedic massages. Hey, not to bad.

The ironic realization? You, sitting there right now, can have the (almost) exact experience! No $2,000 airfare or breathing liquid dust for weeks. Just hop into your car and speed on over to Santa Cruz. I was amazed at the similarity - a bit Santa Cruz mixed with a bit more Caribbean and this is Goa. I liked it. Now, some experiences you can not get in Santa Cruz: My biggest enjoyment was floating in the sea. Wait. This is the Arabian Sea. Waaaay Awesome. The Arabian Sea. I thought of all the craziness and tragedy that has transpired in these waters. Yet these same waters, at that moment, were providing enjoyment for a few thousand people.

The other very Goan experience are the bamboo restaurants that are built to within 500 or 1,000 feet of the surf. I can have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lots of beers while watching the waves and tides flow in and out. And really, that's mostly what Goa has up its sleeve. Oh yeah, I had a very tasty burger at this on joint (hahahaha) on the cliff. In Goa, apparently any food is not off limits.

That's Hot. Paris is my binkie

The way of the world my friends.

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Where next

The past first:
Mumbai
Pune
Aurangabad
Ellora
Ajanta
Aurangabad to get to...
Pune to get to...
Mumbai to get to...
Goa
Bangalore to get to...
Mysore
Bangalore to get to...
Delhi to get to...

Then I said "I've had enough of the south, I'm going north, CA doesn't have the Himalaya.
Patna to get to...
Gaya to get to...
Bodhgaya
Varanasi
Agra
Jaipur
Haridwar to get to...
Rishikesh for a long time
Delhi to get to...
USA to get to...
In-N-Out