Last but Not Least: Varanasi with a Touch of the Taj

Varanasi, India's holy city lying on the Ganges River was the end of the spice road for us. After one final 15 hour train ride, we rolled into my most anticipated stop of the trip. Varanasi has been a place I've seen pictures of and always wondered about, so it was time to find out. Leaving the train station and striking off across the insane chaotic traffic, things looked a bit grimmer than I had imagined. I guess I had conjured up images of serene holy men bathing in the Ganges, gurus floating around in robes spouting philosophy, cows adorned with

Errm...Nope!

flower garlands and The Beatles playing the sitar. After checking into our hotel and vowing that I'd taken my last cold shower in India, we struck out to eat. This is where morale hit an all-time low as I hastily ordered vegetable lasagna....In India -_- In hopes of bouncing back, Ty and I headed for the main attraction, the Ghats along the Ganges.

Annnnnddd, WoW! The energy on the river banks was impressive. It was quiet, bright, unimposing...all words I would not use to generally describe India. We stood in awe. While in Varanasi we became obsessed with what was going in the river, on the banks of the river and in the name of the river: The River Ganga is personified and worshiped as the Hindu goddess Mother Ganga and is considered the river of life. Besides being one of the most polluted, contaminated rivers in the world, there was life happening everywhere (ironic?..I will never know). People were bathing, doing their laundry and drinking the water, animals were grazing, snake charmers and Holy Men were dancing, and as death and a funeral in the Holy City means salvation, people were cremated and laid to rest in the river. As spiritually curious and open-minded people, Tyler and I were lapping it up. Lining the banks of the river are ghats, tall, once-grand bath houses, temples and private residences stacked on top of long sets of stairs that lead into the river. Ideal spots for a hot chai, intense people watching and some inner reflection-- With life and death literally all around you, it's hard not to gaze into the sunset and get a bit introspective.

As it is often the case, it's recommended that watching the sunrise on the ghats is the cat's pyjamas. As we rolled out in our Rajastani toques we were a bit disappointed to see the cool air had brought heaps of heavy fog and no hint of the sun at all. Although we didn't see the sunrise, we watched shadows of boats and ghosts of people wade through the morning mist and into the river. It was beautiful and eerie all the same.

Besides the constant hum of activity on the banks of the river, the old laneways, shops and buildings were an easy way to get lost. Varanasi is considered one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world (although I have heard this claim about numerous cities..) with a serious puzzle of narrow passageways and alleys. We spent hours haggling over jingle jangles, eating dosai, skirting cows and evading clingy salesmen.

Oh, and on the way to Varanasi we also hit up the ol' Taj in Agra, ordering an indulgent amount of room service on Christmas Day. Followed by days of rambling around the insane and intricate laneways of Old Delhi with butter chicken  perma-stained lips and nails...wasn't a bland moment!

A final homage to the best food on Earth!

Living like Rajas in Rajasthan

Next stop, a three day camel trek and home-stay in the Thar Desert. Following a 17 hour train ride, Tyler and I arrived in a small town in Rajasthan called Osyian. After coming from the sunny metropolis of Mumbai, stepping off the train in Osyian was a bit of a shock. Dawn was just breaking, and everything and everyone looked a bit dusty and weathered (ourselves included). As we did a 3/60, we were in immediate envy of those walking around wrapped-up in wool blankets, tuques and scarves; The desert is cold. Although we had checked the weather beforehand, our recollection of chilly weather has been seriously skewed by three years in the tropics. With temperatures dipping to 5°C , our Malaysian attire wasn't cutting it. We made our way through town on the hunt for warmth. We found it in the form of a seemingly second-hand tuque and a couple scarves that we would later fashion in every way possible. After getting our minimal kit, we wandered up to the town square to wait for our ride. While waiting, we began to get the mixed up feelings that accompany culture shock; Bug-eyed wonderment, curiosity and excitement...followed up by a touch of 'What the hell?' Luckily it seemed to be a two-way street that morning, as we were getting the hard stare from every man and his goat in town- Ever notice how freaky goats' eyes are?

From the town square we drove into the countryside where we would meet our camels. Sally and Joe Camel would be our faithful, seemingly spaced out and gluttonous steads for the next couple of days. The plan was to stay with one family the first night, and trek onto the next the following night. The first family we stayed with were living in a jhumpa home. This included four circular huts (mud floor, sand stone slab walls and thatched roof) with a central 'courtyard'-no electricity, no running water.The huts were situated in a circle and comprised of four different buildings; One for cooking, one for grain storage and two for sleeping. It was an amazing experience to see how the multi-generational family functioned and what their day-to-day looked like. After poking about the area, playing with the kids, passing the peace pipe with the elders,  getting a good nap in and catching a beauty of a sunset, the darkness fell and the stars shone bright. Come dinner time we all gathered in the cooking hut where Mom was rolling out the chapati over the fire and stewing up curried potatoes. As we sat on the floor wrapped in blankets it was interesting to see the order of things; Guests eat, men eat, children eat, women eat. When we are done, we go to bed. Tucked into our thatched roof hut, under a mountain of blankets, Ty and I felt pretty far from home. Nonetheless we were so appreciative of the day's experiences, our lot in life, and each other....mmaawwww, sleep tight Jagdish ♥

Early to bed, early to rise; The next day we rode the camels for way too long- Them camels are wide, boy howdy! Upon regaining feeling in my legs and shaking our camel toes (Hehe), we spent a second night with a second family. This family had a similar set up, but a separate sleeping area and washroom for the guests. The second family spoke a bit more English so we had a chance to warm up by the fire and chat. We learned that the Thar Desert, or the Great Indian Desert is the most densely populated desert in the world. It becomes super lush and fertile during the monsoon season, growing crops such as mustard seed, wheat and castor oil.  The water table is currently sinking, which is a big challenge they are facing..... Again, a fantastic family meal of curried buffalo yogurt, chapati and potatoes, followed by early bedtime, on account of the lack of electricity- Another tidbit, the Indian government plans to have the entire nation accessing electricity within their homes by 2018. Bonne Chance! The beauty of an early bedtime, no excuse not to see the sunrise. The desert is a beautiful place!

From Osyian, we made our way to probably our favourite of the places we visited, Jodhpur (although  how can you really choose?!). Jodhpur was not really on our radar as it was meant to be just a quick stop-over in order to grab the train to Jaipur. What it turned into was a fantastic day of touring the most amazing fort, dodging the dodgy, taking in views of the 'blue city' and having the most romantic dinner- yep, all while wearing our desert filth.

Our Indian Orientation- Kochi, Goa, Mumbai

After sending our students packing for the holidays, one final poker game of 2015, a couple hours of sleep and a short but very early flight to Kochin, we had our feet firmly planted on Indian ground for the next three weeks. As catching a glimpse of India has been a life-long travel dream for me, we had our sights set on seeing as much of the country as reasonably possible within our Christmas vacation. With that in mind, we clocked in with three flights, eight cities, fifty-four butter chickens (a low-ball estimate), seventy-five hours on the train, a hundred cups of chai and just over 4000 km of land travel.

Hanging around Kochi and waking up in our little train nook!

We landed in Kochi, in the South of India, ready to get our first taste of India (figuratively and literally) before boarding the night-train bound for Goa. We had an amazing day strolling the waterfront, stalking the free-roaming cows and gawking at the gaggles of beautifully sari clad women. It was a good day. However, as we were wandering the quaint, clean streets of Kochi we found ourselves often alone, no throngs of people, no animals, no chaos. Had all the fictional books set in India that I'd read been wrong? Nahhh, patience young grasshopper.

 That night we spent 15 hours on the train (of which I slept an amazing 10) to get to the beach. We spent a few nights in a beach hut with intermittent electricity, no wifi, easy access to butter masala and an ongoing parade of yoga posing beach-goers. Agonda Beach in Goa is the perfect mix of nothing going on, tiki bars and simply watching the cows come home. Although we could have easily whiled away our vacation at the beach, that was not the plan....onward to Mumbai!

Nothing to do but squat in a boat!

 As we rolled into Bollywood in the early morn, we were feeling a bit nervous about what was to unfold. Mumbai is a huge city and again our imaginations were running wild with the sights and scenes that danced in our heads (along with sugarplums..tis/twas the season). We checked in, had some sort of meal that was served on the hallway floor and hit the sights by foot. Amazingly, unlike the South, Mumbai is an absolute perfect temperature so we were happy to stroll around town all day and night--the pedometre was bouncing off the charts. We mainly stayed in the southern area of Mumbai called Colaba, the old British part of the city where the colonial architecture was oh so grand, grand, grand!  Besides strolling the streets, hitting up the monuments, the hectic Crawford market and ....Madonna themed slot machines, we spent our time declining roles in Bollywood films and posing for pictures--We couldn't help ourselves-- It's been awhile since we've felt the pseudo-fame that accompanies being in, but not a member of a mono-culture.
One of the best things we did in Mumbai was visit the Hanging Gardens in the late afternoon. Although the gardens themselves are nice to walk around, they are not overly impressive. They are however on top of a hill offering a sweet view of the stretching coastline of Mumbai. After grabbing a walking-chai and samosa to see us through until our next curry, we meandered back down the hill to catch the sunset along the coast, followed by a beautiful stroll home on Marine Drive. It was such a breath of fresh air to be in a city where the temperatures and sidewalks were made for walking. We enjoyed ourselves and the views so much that the next night we hit a rooftop and splashed out a bit. What a view, and a perfect example of the stark disparity in India; Life is moving in a million different directions in the same space and no one seems to notice. Bravo, to the clean, cosmopolitan *side of* Mumbai- We'll be back for our Bollywood film cameo :)

We briefly took a break from eating to check out the sights!

After clean, big-city bliss, relaxing beach-time and what felt like a good orientation to India, we had become (somewhat) accustomed to the constant honking, and lost the fear of food poisoning (clearly); We were poised to head north into Rajasthan looking for new landscapes, people and scenes!