Allahabad - December 31st

Once the train arrived in Allahabad, around 2pm, we drove three hours to Batoli Ghat. After freshening up we boarded our boats and sailed a few hours down the Ganges. We sailed to Chunar where we set up camp for the night on the sandy river bank. Allahabad city is situated at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna. The ancient name of the city is Prayāga (Sanskrit for "place of sacrifice", Prayāg in modern Hindi) and is believed to be the spot where Brahma offered his first sacrifice after creating the world. It has a position of importance in the Hindu religion and mythology since it is situated at the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and Hindu belief says that the invisible Sarasvati River joins here also. An annual fair is held at Allahabad at the confluence of the streams on the occasion of the great bathing festival at the full moon of the Hindu month of Magh. It is known as the Magh-mela, lasts for a whole month, and is attended by as many as 250,000 persons in ordinary years, either for religious or commercial purposes. Every twelfth year it is one of four sites of the Kumbh Mela, which is attended by a million of devotees at one time. the others sites being Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik.

It was dark by the time we arrived to our camping site. We set up tents and and had dinner and drinks before bringing in 2009 on the banks of the Ganges river!

Varanasi - January 1-3

On New Years Day we woke up and had breakfast at the campsite before boarding our boats and continued to sail towards Varanasi. We had lunch on board before we arrived at Asi Ghat and took private transportation to Varanasi.

We arrived in the afternoon into Varanasi, the quintessential Indian holy city where millions of Hindu travel, for pilgrimage, to worship, to mourn or to die. During our time in Varanasi we got to see rituals of bathing and burnings as you float past the numerous ghats of the River Ganges. Varanasi is also known as Banaras, Benaras, Kashi, and Kasi. Varanasi has a unique culture, quite different from other places in the region. This culture has developed through thousands of years during which it has been one of the major cultural centres of northern India. Everything revolves around the river Ganga, which is the heart and soul of the city.

The legends, myths and aura surrounding Varanasi led Mark Twain to famously remark. "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together". Varanasi is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, dating back thousands of years. Varanasi seems to encapsulate all of India within its boundaries. Life and death go hand in hand in Varanasi: in among the bathing ghats, smoke rising from the cremation grounds signals the final release of tormented souls from the earthly round of samsara, the unceasing cycles of death and rebirth.

The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the river Ganges, its reigning deity Lord Shiva and its religious importance; the city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for thousands of years. Varanasi is a pure vegetarian town – NO eggs, NO meat or fish and NO alcohol (within a certain distance of the river Ganges).

There are about more than 100 ghats altogether, they cover 6km of the river from Assi ghat as far as Adi Keshava Ghat near the Malviya Bridge. They are a celebration of life and the time -honoured rites of passage.

We stayed in Varanasi on January 1st and 2nd. We were supposed to take an overnight train back to Delhi on the 3rd and arrive early morning January 4th but there was intense fog all over North India, which caused the train to delay over 13 hours. Since I had a flight from Delhi to Bangalore the following day I had to hop on a plane to take me to Delhi so I wouldn't miss my flight to Banalgore. So I said goodbye to Varanasi, my traveling companions, and my three week trip through North India on the afternoon of the 3rd.... What an amazing three weeks! I hope you have enjoyed the photos!

Randoms

Hello and happy friday! I am now settled back in good ole Mysore and I couldn't be happier to be 'home' - arrived early Monday morning and started practice at the shala again on Tuesday. There was no better feeling than arriving in town at 3am in the morning and pulling up to my house and merely unlocking my door! So sweet!

I was a little disappointed to find that my house wasn't in the same condition I left it in back in September - the tenant who rented my place either ran off with or threw away all my cleaning supplies, ALL my bath and dish towels, and dishes were missing. On top of that there was a leak in my bathroom, no gas in my cylinder, and my internet was out....but aside from that it was home sweet home! After two days I have internet and gas again but am still waiting to get my leak fixed. Now the leak shouldn't be such an issue but it has become a bit of a hassle because I have to go outside and turn the water off whenever i'm not using it (and you use water randomly throughout the day to wash your hands, dishes, use the bathroom, shower) - but wait it gets worse: my landowner came down this morning to 'fix' the facet, but didn't realize it needs to be replaced...so he took the whole thing off and told me he'd be back this afternoon to replace it - leaving a gapping hole in the wall....so I could not turn the water on at all or I'd have a flood in the house...Guess what? It's 10pm and he still hasn't shown up...What to do?

In any event, I spent all of monday shopping for cleaning supplies and new towels and whatnot, scrubbing my place from top to bottom, registering at the shala, and getting unpacked ;) The last few days have been a nice re-acclimation to Mysore, along with playing catchup with emails and paying bills, etc. So now its time to catch up on zee blog! I've spent a lot of time today organizing pictures from my North India trip and I'll be posting them up tomorrow for your viewing pleasure.
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On a side note my friend Ethan - from WHAT DO YOU KNOW - has a new online educational/entertaining venture that is very worth checking out http://www.thewaytobuildwealth.org/
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I just joined Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ - join me here guys its tons of fun ;)
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For any and all estate planning know how check out Sasha's blog http://sashaaklein.wordpress.com/ - so proud she is finally becoming an internet dork like me and Ethan ;)
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I'm gonna leave you with a snipit of an email from my sister Kimberly regarding her Christmas gift from her partner Jason.....I seriously wet myself reading this so please be forewarned!
"Oh- I don't think I've told you about Jason and my present to each other... We bought a new storage shed. Now he and the boys have room for all of thier toys- dirtbikes, 4-wheeler, wave runners, jet ski... and I get the old building for my arts and crafts and my exercise equipment. The new building is huge- 14x36 ft -I can't get a new house so I had to make more room somewhere. However, you might be a redneck if the combined square footage of your sheds is larger than your house. And you might be a redneck if the toys you store in your buildings are worth more than your house. Oh well- HaHa"

Happy New Year

I'm sitting at an internet cafe in varanasi...I'm a few hours from the overnight train ride which will take me back to Delhi...from there I'll fly to Bangalore and drive to Mysore....It has been a wonderful two weeks of travels through North India - spent Christmas in Dharmasala, New Year's camping on the Ganges, and a whole lot of fun and excitement in between. I've taken tons of photos and will post many of them up next week once I get settled back home in Mysore. I want to send my wish to you all for a prosperous 2009!