Varanasi is why I wanted to come to India. I could spend all day hanging out on the ghats. The hotel sunni booked for yesterday was terrible. It was in the old town and felt very unsafe. We were offered drugs way too many times to be comfortable. "Would you like some tea, hash, opium?" People come here to die. It is my understanding that if you die here you escape the reancarnation cycle, so there are lots of old people just hanging out waiting for nature to take its course. We saw several burning bodies on the main cremation ghat which was surprisingly uncomfortable even for a morbid guy like me. Some beggar told me I had no heart because I didn't give him any money. Nothing like simultaneous burning bodies and beggars to creep you out. I wanted to bathe in the Ganga, but it is basically a really dirty toilet. The guidebook strongly recommends not bathing in the poop water, but I did get up the courage today to sit on the ghat with my feet in the water. It felt great once I put the percent of fecal matter out of my mind.
dude waiting to kick it
Sacred bath in the Ganges (i wish i had the guts to do it)
Around the ghats
nothing says India like child labor (our ten year old boat man)
the smoke in the distance is from burning bodies!!!
poopy feet
the monkeys liked our crappy hotel better than we did!
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