Sunday am 8:00 Cont. from Saturday 8th, I think. Most of the group slept in and chose not to go out in the cold to try and see a tiger. the 4 who went did see one and had about a 20 minute vist with it. It was cold and foggy again. Left for Agra around noon. A 6 hour bus ride. Still chilly and mostly cloudy. Dinner that night at our hotel: Pushp and in their revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel. Everyone is getting colds. 8:00 am Sunday bus to Taj. Hazy foggy and chilly but still a spectacular structure that would stand out in any conditions. Indians video-ing us with camera, waving, saying hi, everywhere we go. Feel like we are on a rock tour!! Then to Fatenpur Sikri, ghost city about 1 hour south of Agra. Brillian architcutrally but had to leave in 1585 due to lack of water. The ruined city spreads all around Fatenpur. Afternoon Agra Fort built 1565. Built as a military structure, upgraded to a palace and then became a prison in 1658. Can see the Taj at a distance. Amazing two such structures so close to eachother. Lunch in a roadside place. Got to "tour' the kitchen. That inviolved standing in one place and watching them cook! Very clean by Indian standards, but no screen doors, aprons, a monkey at the doorway... Pizza hut for dinner, kids love it. Train station at 10:00 for our first overnight train ride. in a 3 tier compartment coach. Train 40 mins. late waited on platform cold. Finally into train. So imagine 8 people with luggage trying to get settled in an area not larger than about 2 feet wide by 8 feet long, some Indians in the mix so a language barrier to add into it. CRAZY!!Beds are just a small step up from a sheet of plywood with a thin thermarest on top, covered with the oldest thickest vinyl you can imagine!! Were supposed to arrive Varanasi at 7:30 am but didn't get in until 11:30 were w/in 10 miles of station the whole 4 hours. Spent afternoon in room huddled next to a space heater. Very cold So, a man comes to bring us our space heater. At the end of the cord where an outlet is supposed to be, there are two bare wires.... he takes those and puts them in an "outlet" in the wall
zzzzzttttzzzzzttt sparks fly, a bit of flame and smoke....ooooooo, no work, he says.... fiddles with the wire, outlet, tries again turns on heater...oh good now work and rubs his hands like he has just turned on the Rockefeller tree in NYC!!! What a hoot.
Went to 3 silk shops that night. Saw actual old style weaving being done Most is outsourced to villagers though.
Tues. Boat ride on Ganges at 7:00 am. The ganges at Varanasi is basically a sewer, it is beyond description, yet people
still come to take their holy baths. Left the boat ride and back to the hotel via the narrowest of "street's I've even been on. Filled with human and animal waste and garbage., walking in and around all of it..Needless to say, we were all pretty green, something to smell at 8:00 in the am.
To Sarnath in afternoon. It's where the Buddha preached his message of themiddle way of nirvana after he acheived enlightenment. Buddhist emperor Ashoka erected a magnificent stupa (religious monument ) there.Tuesday night another overnight train due to leave at 8:30. Didn't leave until 12:30 am. Spent a couple hours in Comesum restaurant where it was
relatively warm. Guide ordered food but no one was hungry. CAtherine began packing it up. Took some out to a homeless man, no response. Another load to a man in his20's behind a post, no response. then to a boy standing right outside the door. He sat down and when we looked back he had the biggest crooked tooth smile and wave for us. This began about a 3 hour friendship with "Sunny." Sunny is one of the untouchables- the lowest class in India. But Sunny has more class than anyone...He won all of out hearts. After he ate, he asked Catherine and me to come out of the restaurant, he held our hands and said a prayer, all the while, pointing to his heart and sky and the only words I could pick up were Babba Ji, so that must be his god. At the end,
"Amen.." We found someone who spoke English so he helped us interpret all evening. I told the interpreter to tell Sunny that he has a wonderful smile.. Sunny told him "God has told me always to smile." I just began crying and so did Catherine....
Then he sang for us. We sang Silent Night, Jingle Bells... which he knew and loved the part at the end... ....jingle all the way...
HEY and would put his arm in the air and just laugh!! He has no parents, left when he was young and he has lived near the railway station all of his life. I would say he is about 15 but unsure. Then we danced in a circle with him. All the while we drew quite a crowd of Indian men. The interpreter said that they were watching because they couldn't believe we were touching him and spending time with him. Then at one point he got me to lead a prayer, holding my hands.. I asked God to watch out for him, keep him safe and health and ALWAYS smiling.... He was shaking he was so cold. Cathrerine gave him a t-shirt, (Dartmouth one!) pair of flip flops (as he was barefoot and it was about 45 degrees) and a pair of socks. I gave him a pair of pants. He put all of it on and I thought is his smile was big before.... it was even bigger now.... Sadly we left Sunny..
Both Catherine and I in tears....
Wed Arrr. Kolkata. I stayed in room and slept, getting a cold and felt horrible. Rested all Thurs am while they went to a botanical garden and flower market. Dinner at hotel Thursday. Friday saw Sun Temple in Bhubenswar about 2 hours south of Kolkata. Stoped in a small village on way down. Rice village. Villagers just crowded around us, it was great being able to be in a small roadside place. Stopped an hour later in a village that did applique work. Then to another overnight train from Bhubenwasar to Chennai.... 20 hours!!! It was a 2 tier so only 4 in a compartment. C and I with the 2 chaperones. I slept pretty well and slept all day until 4:00 Cold is feeling a bit better now... Got off the train and got mixed up in some traffic from a huge festival in Chennai. Hotel about an hour south of Chennai but took 2 hours because of traffic. Nice dinner in an outside restaurant on the roof of the hotel. We are close to the ocean on the west coast. Chennai looked like a great city but we are on to Pondincherry today. Visiting yet more temples on the way.... More later, sorry internet is hard to comeby so updates are difficult to do. Very hot here!! Love to everyone!