a monkey stole my chapati

All the craziness and intensity that I expected in Delhi, I found in Varanasi. One of India's holiest cities. Birthplace of Shiva, so it's a really really big deal to the hindus. This is one of the most challenging places I've ever travelled to. I few from Delhi to Varanasi, took a bus to the train station and then a rickshaw to get to the city. I befriended yet another 23 year old traveller on the bus and thank god for Paul cause the journey to the city by myself would have been awful. Varanasi is located on the Ganges and to get to where I wanted to stay we had to walk about 1 km with all our stuff (not that i have much) through crowds and traffic and madness. Poor Paul who has only been in India a few days was a bit freaked out. But we made it to the main ghat and eventually found Sita Guest House. After wondering for a few hours what I am doing here, when we went to see the evening puja on the river it started making sense. The spirituality here is so thick in the air that it's even too much sometimes.

I met up with my beautiful Mexican friend Lizette the next day. We met at the ashram last year and she arrived on a 30 hour train ride and had just spent another month in Nasik doing the advanced yoga teacher training course. Her friend Samantha from Philly was with her. I am very very thankful for them as this is not a place I want to be alone. And Paul from Poland turned out to be somewhat of a downer, though I think he just couldn't handle it here. My guidebook says Varanasi is not for the faint of heart, and it's taking its toll on me too. But I've done cool things like sunrise boat rides on the river (I've gotten up for sunrise everyday here, it rises over the ganges and is so pretty), eating in cool bakeries, and hanging out with friends. Today I went to the Golden Temple which was a madhouse of activity and yesterday we took a walk up the river to see the burning ghats.

Varanasi is supposed to be an ausicious place to die, and the burning ghats here is where they burn dead bodies. These bodies are said to go to nirvana. Other bodies are not burned and put into the river to be reincarnated. I did see these burning bodies covered with wood. Intense. And you can't cry. I didnt feel like I was going to but if you cry there supposedly it keep the soul from moving on. So that's part of what's going on here. I feel like Singapore was years ago. This is the opposite. It's dirty, crowded, stinky, and really draining my energy here. And I wear the same dirty clothes everyday and my #1 coping skill I left in Bali. But I didn't come to India for a nice easy vacation. I've been told over and over that the north will be harder than the south. So here it is. It's tough and I will admit difficult enough to make me consider just flying back to good old California but it all fluctuates. I do know that this will make me appreciate the place I live soooo much. And this is what we came for. When Liz and I decided to meet here she said, "let's go to Varanasi to get some life experience. I hear it's the real india." I agreed.

Funny thing is as crazy as it is here there are lots of tourists. I've never seen so many japanese tourists or old white people anywhere else in india. Oh yeah and one night eating dinner a monkey jumped on our table and stole my chapati! And I am glad for the weather. Both Delhi and here has been perfect- cool and dry. Much better than the hot India I did last year.

Liz and I are leaving tomorow night and heading up to RISHIKESH. I cannot wait to get there and do some yoga.

Anyway be thankful if you are wearing clean clothes right now.