Boom Chicka Bow Wow

Hey peeps!  I know you are pumped up for some Kama Sutra sculptures and I promise we’ll get to those, but first we must visit a small village on the way to Khajuraho.  I’d like you to met the guard who welcomed us to this beautiful residence where we enjoyed a delicious lunch and stunning views.

Here is an aerial shot of one of the neighboring houses. 

OK, now it’s time for the sculptures.  Warning: the images featured below are sexual in nature and meant for mature audiences.  Wait, does that include anyone I know?  Ha!  Just kidding. 

OK, we’ll start slowly and ease into things.  G Rated. 

PG rated. 

 PG 13?  NC-17, maybe? 

And it’s on! 

Oh no he didn’t? 

Yes, he did, but notice the shame on the face of the person behind the horse.  Even the Kama Sutra has lines that shouldn’t be crossed.      

BTW, our guide pointed out all of these poses, providing an enthusiastic explanation of each pose, complete with hip gyrations and an occasional thrust.  Wow! 

The temples are huge and contain hundreds of sculptures.  There are so many it’s hard to pick a favorite.  

Initially it seemed like we were getting ready to see a full reenactment by the monkeys on the temple grounds, but it turns out that they were just removing some fleas.  I guess we need to get our minds out of the gutter, huh? 

My visit to Khajuraho also included a bicycle tour of the town.  

This is compressed poo that is used for fuel for cooking.  Innovative, don’t you think? 

Here are some of the sights we took in while on our bike tour.  It’s such a lovely town.

This is the local Jain temple.  Lovely. 

 Bike-O-Rama! 

Khajuraho was great.  Now it’s time to board the night train and head to Varanasi. Comfy, no?  Let’s just say that Ambien was my BFF.  

To me, Varanasi is the most culturally rich and interesting city we have visited in India thus far.  It is probably best known as a holy city, but it’s also famous for it’s stunning silk weaving.  Our tour of Varanasi started with a visit to some of the local shops where the silks are made.  

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Varanasi, but I thought it might be a little less chaotic and hectic since it is a holy city, but I was mistaken.  Like most big cities in N. India, Varanasi is crazy, filled with tons of vehicles and incessant honking horns.  Here’s the view from my tuk tuk.  

At last, we reach the river Ganges.  I knew we must be getting close to the river banks, as the smell of incense was strong and the sounds of bells, drums, and chanting filled the air.  Unfortunately, the nagging voices of persistent touts were also part of the picture, but once we got on the boat, it was just us and the Ganges….and hundreds of other tourist boats.  Remarkably, the other boats didn’t diminish my experience.  I think the scenes unfolding on the ghats are so powerful that it’s hard for anything else to capture your attention.  

Later in the evening several monks performed rituals under these umbrellas.  

This lady is selling offerings for a candle lighting ceremony.  

This is my offering.  More on that later.  

Here is a view along the Ganges river.  

The fires in the distance are the burning ghats where bodies of the deceased are being cremated.  For obvious reasons, we were asked to refrain from taking pictures as we got closer to the ghats.  As you can imagine, this was pretty intense.  

After viewing some of the cremation ceremonies, we had our own candle ceremony. The offering is for our ancestors and we were instructed to mentally say their names and think of them as we placed this offering into the holy river.  Sadly, my list was pretty long.  I’d be lying if I said that this didn’t make me sad.  

Here is a pic of those umbrellas that we saw earlier.  It’s hard to see what is happening because we were pretty far away, but you still get a sense of things.  

What an interesting evening.  The next morning we woke up early to take in the scenes at sunrise.  

Notice the candles floating on the river.  I miss you, mom!

Here are some scenes from the Ganges.  Everywhere I looked there was something incredible to see!  

This priest was performing a morning ritual.  He was covered in ash.  

Each morning the river is filled with people washing their clothes.    

To the right of the priest and in front of the clothes washing were these holy men and women who were chanting and singing to inspire and instruct their young students who you will soon meet.  

Of course the clean clothes need to be hung up to dry.  

Hindus believe that bathing in the river Ganges washes away sins.   

We made our way down the Ganges to the sight of the cremations.  It’s easier to see what is happening during the day.  Before cremation, the body is to be bathed in the river and then it is set on the ghats until the pyre is made.  Once the pyre is complete and it’s their turn in the long queue, family and friends place the body on the pyre and then the oldest son is to circle the body five times before lighting it. The bodies are wrapped in brightly colored robes.  You can see some of the remnants in the following shots.

After an incredibly interesting morning on the river Ganges, we took to the streets of Varanasi to check out some temples and of course shop.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, cows are holy animals in India and you see them everywhere.  This cow is chilling on one of the narrow streets.  

Yep, more cows.  This shot was taken on a walking tour of Varanasi and moments before we had a sketch encounter with some freaks in an alley.  Our tour guide took us down this alley to show us a body of water that is important to local families and we happened upon these 3 guys who were in the middle of catching a serious buzz.  We paid them no mind until one of the guys, who at this point was sporting an insane glimmer in his eyes, whipped out a syringe and began walking closer to us as he stroked said syringe.  Our guide had his back turned to Sir Sketch-a-lot, but we were watching his approach and announced our desire to bail and we hightailed it out of there.  How does that Alanis Morissette song go, “Thank you India, thank you terror, thank you disillusionment…”  

A few hours later Lorne (you remember the birthday boy) was approached by a young boy who asked him for money.  When Lorne refused the boy pinched him with an empty syringe…no needle.  Of course, Lorne was totally freaked out because all he felt was a pain in his arm and all he saw was a boy holding a syringe.  I had actually seen this same boy a few minutes earlier and noticed that he had an empty syringe.  Much to Lorne’s relief, the pain wasn’t from a needle, but from being hit with an empty syringe.  We later found out from a local Varanasi tour guide that the empty syringe was to be used to spread color for the upcoming Holi festival or Festival of Colors where revelers throw brightly colored powder and water on each other.  Holi was about a week away and we had already seen school children covered in brightly colored powders as we walked the city streets so this set our minds at ease.  Sir Sketch-a-lot’s syringe was definitely sporting a needle because we could see it through the cap covering it, but I think that was just a freak coincidence.  Phew.  

Sadly, our tour of N. India is coming to an end.  It’s time to leave Varanasi and head back to Delhi where we’ll say goodbye.  

Manoj, our tour leader, invited all of us to take the microphone and say some parting words on our final bus ride in Delhi.  Thanks for a great tour, Manoj.  We had a ball!  

Now it’s time for our farewell dinner.  Hmm, what should I order?  The item below sounds interesting.  

Meet my fellow travelers.  We had such a wonderful group!  Everyone got along great.  Thank you all for such a fantastic trip!  I loved experiencing the mania that is N. India with you and I truly hope our paths cross again.  

Look at the lovely ladies in the saris!  You both look stunning.  Sadly, I didn’t get a sari, but I did get this sweet necklace.  Love it!!!!

Of course we couldn’t leave India on the eve of Holi without having our own little celebration.  Manoj provided the powder and we had our own little Holi celebration. We kept it pretty tame since several travelers were headed directly to the airport and didn’t want to have their clothes covered in wet powder for the long flight, but we still had fun.  

Here are Joy and I reenacting the scene with Sir Sketch-a-lot.  Peace out, dude. Tiff and Joy….OUT!  

Happy Holi!  More from S. India to come.