we are alive and thriving. the hostage situation in mumbai has given us all a bit of a scare, but we have zero intention of heading down there at any point and are always as cautious as a reasonable person can be.. so i suppose we are at the will of the world.. [in the 21th century that may be a scary thought?] but we're just loving life through it all.
sitting here in our hostel at varanasi i've had quite the afternoon. we started out for a walk around the area after dropping off our bags and happened to stumble upon the "burning ghat" (i can't remember the hindi translation).. which is where they cremate all the bodies after cleansing them in the ganges river.. there i saw things. things that i probably would have rather not seen, but i watched in a mesmorized sort of wonderment and dread.. death is something that i don't understand in the least and i suppose that is why it scares (?) me. it takes about 3 hours for the cremations to be completed, and they have maybe 25 going at a time in this one area.. a red saree means it's a woman and white or orange means it's a man.. i couldn't imagine having that job.
we spent last night on another train, as well as the night before.. passed through agra quickly as there is really not much to see besides the taj mahal.. [please note that i am in no way down-sizing it's wonderment].. our train was about 4 hours late getting into agra and so we headed straight to taj mahal after lunch. 22 years to build; 30,000 workers.. the marble work was unbelievable. and the size.. they did alright.
monkeys running rampant all over the place.. it's pretty crazy to see them free of cages, yet i'm sure they are quite the nuisance in the cities without any population control.. india has also finally received a back-ordered shipment of high rise bell bottom pants for men.. i feel like we're walking through the movie set of a 70's flick.. fantastic.
standing at the train station last night we got to talking about how funny it is when people's names match their occupation.. so then we started playing a game.. a few we came up with were: "gemma - the jewel maker".. "moe - the landscaper".. "phillip - the gas jockey".. "patrick - the magician".. the best one was "amanda --- the transvestite".. priceless.
we'll be here in varanasi for a few days. trying to get on the forum, but nothing yet..
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3 comments:
SO HAPPY to hear that you guys are far from the crazyness going on in India right now...woke up this morning and hearing on the radio about these terrorist attacks and everything and i had to get on here quick hoping you'd post and let us know how you are!! whew. glad to hear that you are all safe and sound!
well not too much going on around here, going to Wpg. this weekend to see dad, nana etc, so i'll get them on here so they can see how you're doing!
Hope all is well, talk soon,
love,
Ang xoxo
Just letting you know the forum should be up and running soon. I sure do miss that link with the whole family. Are you headed to Nepal next? Keep us posted. xoxox Mom
sounds rad.
Agra blows, but the Taj is ok. You didn't downsize its wonderment at all. its not great.
Delhi is great. i'd love to live there someday. Did you go to the Indira Gandhi museum? Because that wasn't The Gandhi. She was a female...
You hit up pretty much everywhere we did. nice.
cool.
I am dying reading these. Kill me and rebirth me as an Indian banana, so I can sit on the streets and smell the shit and curry.
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