Written December 11, 2009

Hello friends,So much to write, but not much time to do it, as I just checked out of my hostel in Varanasi, en route to Darjeeling and the Himalayas.Varanasi is the holiest Hindu city in India. I've been staying in a hostel right on the Ganges, where people bathe and put floating candles on the water at night. I hung out with a "holy man" who lifted a giant rock with his..."unit", saw dead bodies burning on funrral pyres, and watched large families of monkeys run around a few feet away while ate on the rooftop restaurant.It was a good experience, and I'm told by other backpackers that Varanasi is a very culturally hard core way to start your trip. I thought Dehli was crazier, since I've seen dead bodies before (that weren't wrapped up in ceremonial clothes). Speaking of which, it's hard to take the rituals seriously. For example, you're not allowed to take pictures of the burning pyres, but as the families or whoever walk around the body ten times saying prayers, some of them are on their cell phones. And there was a big ad for a Pizza Hut right nearby. And everyone who wants to tell you about the proceedings then asks for money because you'll have bad karma if you don't contribute to the burning of already dead bodies (of course, you don't know if your money is actually going toward that or not). I'm getting sick of hearing "karma" so much. It's no different from priests saying you'll go to Hell if you don't put more in the collection plate.I took a cool boat ride on the Ganges yesterday, which was peaceful, but I'm having trouble perceiving it as a holy river. Anthropologically, I understand why these people worshipped here for thousands of years, because people tend to worship bodies of water since water means life. But now the life is drowned by over ten years of pollutants dumped by factories and sewage dumped by people. But they still bathe in it...we all gotta believe in something, I guess.Lots of kids fly kites here and play cricket. Overall, everyone seems happy except, of course, the beggars. My second night I was treated to a private sitar and tabla concert in a music shop, which was awesome. My third day I spent in bed with a fever, aches, chills, fatigue, and trips to the bathroom. But I felt much better each day afterward.Last night I hung out with a fellow American who I met on the train over here. He also has a red beard and loves Phish and Tom Robbins. He's been traveling the world for almost 3 years, getting whatever kind of job wherever he can when he gets low on funds. He started in New Zealand too. So it was great to commiserate with a more experienced drifter on what it's like to constantly be an outsider.So far, my favorite part of the whole trip has been the train ride from Delhi to Varanasi. I think it's the motion that gets me going.Peace,Ben