Varanasi – Kolkata – Nepal…

• Posted by: Geo Kearley
• Comments: 2

Hello friends!
We are currently in Nepal, and loving it, but I’ll back up a bit to give some general impressions of our last few days in India.

Varanasi was what we expected all of India to be like – distinctly Hindu, with temples everywhere; full of cows and water buffalo on the streets; hot as hell; outrageously poor, and smelling of animal and human excrement everywhere. It is a place that makes you recognize how lucky we are at home, but it also makes you conscious of things about yourself that you do not like to admit are part of your makeup – we can not live like the people of Varanasi. They are miserably poor, yet they are not miserable. They have very little education, but they know how to do things we have forgotten – like how to grow crops, how to build your own house, and how to survive on the necessities of life and be thankful. Our Western ways have made us weak – we can not live the way these people live every day. The actions of daily life are carried out in public everywhere here – going to the bathroom, finding food, killing your meat, cooking your meals, washing your body, worshipping your Gods, and finding somewhere to sleep is all done on the streets or the ghats.

The ghats are the stairs that lead from the Hindu temples down to the banks of the Ganges River. People go there in the morning and evening for prayer services, and at all other times of the day to bath in the Holy river, to do their laundry, and to find their water buffalo. They are the gathering place of the city, and the most public display of life’s intimate moments goes on their at all hours – the burning of bodies on the funeral ghats. At any given time there are 7 – 12 burning bodies on the funeral ghats. It takes a significant check of your Western ways to walk past several burning bodies at night and think it is normal… Hindu’s beleive that once the skull has cracked open in the cremation fire, the spirit leaves the body for reincarnation, and the ashes of what is left are put in the Ganges, so the deceased may be united with their God. Varanasi is a challenge well worth putting yourself through.

Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) was not at all what we expected it to be… We expected it to be the impoverished city of Mother Theresa, and in some ways it is, but the British imprint left here laid the groundwork for it to now be one of the most Westernized cities we visited in India. We were amazed to find that there were virtually no tuktuks or cyclocabs – they have all been replaced by the ubiquitous Yellow Cab. What this means is that Kolkata is one of the most congested, smog filled cities we visited, but it had the most Western conveniences – there were actually shopping malls and movie theaters there (to escape the lung and throat searing smog one day we went to see the latest Harry Potter movie!).

India is not a vacation, it is an experience. We are glad we have had the experience, and we learned a lot from it about ourselves. The country has a way of bringing out the best and the worst in people. We were very fortunate to travel with a fantastic group of people who found the humour and the interest in everywhere we visited. India teaches you to forgive in others things you would not so easily forgive in yourself. I think that’s an amazing thing for a travel experience to do…

Having said that when we arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, it finally felt like we were on vacation! As soon as we stepped off the plane, we could breath the air, there were no traffic horns blaring, and nobody was pissing in the streets! We were greeted by our guide with flower garlands made from marigolds (I half expected someone to say “Welcome to Fantasy Island!”) and taken to a hotel with a clean bathroom! It was amazing. There are mountains everywhere you look, and the local artisan shops could do in any traveler’s budget.

Our second day in Nepal took us to Barahtpur Eco Resort in Chitwan National Park (we drove 150 km down a mountain for 5 hours to get there – no joke – downhill the whole way), and we had the most amazing experience in the jungle there. We were poled down the river in a dugout log canoe (in the middle of a monsoon rain downpour) to be let off at the elephant breeding center. There we got to see many mother elephants with their babies, but most amazing of all were the 8 month old twin elephants. There are only two know twin elephant births in the world – one in Thailand, and these two beautiful baby boys. They acted just like you would expect twin siblings to act – they play fought, vied for their mother’s attention, rolled in the dirt, and generally made entertaining nuisances of themselves. They came right over to us and checked us out with their curious little trunks – what a privilege to actually get to touch twin elephants! Apparently the day before we arrived at the breeding center a wild male bull elephant came and took one of the females away – he broke through the iron fence, broke her foot chain, and led her over the river after pushing down a few hydro poles. The guide at the breeding center told us wild males do this on a fairly regular basis, but they bring the females back after a couple of months when they’re sick of them… pretty funny.

The next day we went for a trek through the jungle on elephant back to look for rhinos, and didn’t we actually see them! I had to keep putting myself in that surreal moment by saying out loud “We’re in Nepal, on an elephant, in the jungle, 10 feet away from two wild rhinos.” It was amazing. We also saw one crocodile, several different types of deer, and several wild boar, peacocks and something that looked like a mink. It was a fabulous experience.

Now we’re in Pokhara, ready to leave for a 3 day trek in Annapurna Park tomorrow. It’s beautiful here. There are mountains all around us, there’s a lake in the middle of town, and we’ve been out to a cave temple, a natural waterfall gorge, and a Tibetan refugee village. Hopefully the monsoon rains will hold off for a few days so we can hike in the mountains without getting too soaked.

As always, we miss our families, friends and doggie. Happy belated birthdays to Laurie and Morganne. Happy official retirement and birthday to Garth. Take care – we’re off hiking…
Noel & George

Post Information

Date posted :	Jul 28, 2009
Last modified :	Jan 5, 2010
Categories :	India, Nepal, Uttar Pradesh
Tags :	Chitwan, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Pokhara, Varanasi