INDIA-BEYOND THE CHAOS

CREMATORIUM AT VARANASI

RISHIKESH IS ABOVE
RIGHT OF DELHI

INDIA: THE ROAD TO RISHIKESH -"LOOK OUT, "
Loraine shouted!  Cars and motorcycles headed straight for us with blaring horns (the lines on the road meant nothing), cows were crossing the street, and a group of angry Bandar monkeys charged at us as we drove to the yoga capital of the world-Rishikesh. Loraine winced again, and with a death grip on the car seat we witnessed our young driver, all of age 18,  break the land speed record to our destination. Adventure here we come!

ALLY BY HOTEL

THE GUARD BRIDGE OVER
THE GANGES RIVER 

RISHIKESH: Ever since the Beatles visited Rishikesh in the 1960s, to find enlightenment, (I think they wrote the "Sargent Peppers" album after this) the area has grown to be a world attraction for yoga teachers, studios, and Ashrams. We arrived bouncing on the dirt road to our hotel... appropriately named--"7th Heaven Inn". We were greeted by Charlotte - a Brit, and her Indian husband Kalam, together, they built and ran the hotel with their darling 9 year old daughter Piya (who is the boss when they are not around). The cool thing about Kalam he was like a concierge, suggesting interesting restaurants and setting up all our day trips.

THOUGHT THE BRIDGE WAS
GOING TO COLLAPSE

DODGING COWS AND
MOTORCYCLES

LADIES LIGHTING CANDLES
AND SENDING OUT
BLESSINGS

Strolling around Rishikesh was a combination of vehicle dodge ball and mind meditation rolled into one. Just getting across the suspended Guard Bridge was a challenge since they allowed pedestrians, motorcycles, bikes and animals of all sorts. No time to look around, you were shoulder to shoulder with the masses of people and the monkeys begging for food.  Once we crossed the bridge we ate lunch at the "Little Buddha" riverside restaurant, watching families from New Delhi taking their purifying dips in the Ganges River, they just took off their clothes and in their undies would jump in.

MR. FLEXIBLE :)

JOURNEY OF LIFE

We did a couple days of Yoga at the World Peace Yoga school. We practiced the Hat Ha form, turns out it is the basis of all the other yoga. Our instructor Rajeev guided us through the basic stances with a short explanation, and ended with some breathing exercises--great stuff-- I now do the sun salutation in my morning warm-up routine. There are a lot of massage studios in Rishikesh-- many people like the Ayulverdic style where they drip hot oil on you, that's nice if you know its coming, as for me when it hit my back, it almost lifted me off the table.
On the other side of the Ganges was a fantastic walk along a promenade next to the Prama Bridge. The area felt like the real India of old, isolated from blaring horns of the traffic, people were relaxed, strolling and smiling.

CATCHING UP ON THE NEWS

PROMENADE

You start to notice things like: Indian women wearing vibrant colored saris showing their bear bellies, but covered their legs. Or, a side river so full of trash the water could barely flow through it. Or, Bandar monkeys waiting to pounce if you drop something from your backpack.

RAPID MAP

RAFTING THE GANGES RIVER: Probably the holiest river in the world, we were close to the Himalayan origin near the foothills of Rishikesh, and this was going to be Loraine's first white water rafting trip. The Ganges is a class 2/3 level where we started. We had our own raft, guide, and support kayak for $22 bucks each. The one thing about India is that it doesn't cost much for tourist activities compared to other countries. Loraine was locked and loaded, paddling when instructed like a green sea turtle scrambling to the ocean after its first glimpse of daylight. Picturesque canyons shot up from the sides of the river with occasional Ashrams (religious buildings) lining the banks. At one point, we were allowed to jump in, Loraine couldn't resist and plunged over the side of the raft into the cool milky teal water.

SUNRISE THROUGH THE
HAZE AT THE TEMPLE

NEER VALLEY WATERFALL HIKE: Hiking-now we're talking! Kalam arranged a 5:30 AM pickup to take us to the top of a local mountain to watch the sun rise at the Kaunjapuri Temple. After the sunrise, we hiked 6 miles straight down the mountain following water channels.

LORAINE SHARING CHAI TEA 
WITH LOCAL FAMILY

What a way to see the farm life in India. We passed many turmeric and ginger fields along the way, and at one farmer's house was invited to share some Chai Tea. Afterward, we trekked along some water causeways and came face to face with a visually stunning network of interconnecting waterfalls.

DRINKING CHAI TEA IN 
THE WATERFALL

Our first stop was for a swim at a 2 tiered waterfall, as it roared over a precipitous. The next stop we drank Chai tea while sitting at tables arranged in the middle of some energizing waterfalls with our feet cooling in the water. As we enjoyed the babbling waterfall, (Anew) our guide, was blaming the travelers from New Delhi for the trash around the water pools- and yet there were no trash cans or signs.

RAVI OUR GUIDE

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE: We flew back to New Delhi to meet our guide -Ravi, who 15 years ago was my golfing buddy's tour leader.
Ravi owns his own company and has a gentle smile, and nature. But put him in car with crazy traffic he turns into a master driver- coming within inches of other cars without blinking an eye. We had 6 days with Ravi touring and area in India called the Golden Triangle. Plus we added an additional train ride to see the ancient capital of Varanasi.

"I THINK OUR KINGDOM
IS SECURE"

ELEPHANT RIDE UP TO
THE AMBER FORT

PAINTED AND TAINTED

JAIPUR: (The OLD PINK CITY): The first stop was the city of colors; one section had massive pink facades to protect the "affluent ones". Jaipur is an ancient capital city with a variety of colored crenelated walls to keep out the invaders.
The painted Elephant ride up to the palace city at the Amber Fort is
pretty much a tourist trap. We climbed aboard our brilliantly colored stead with one strap around his tail holding us on, and rocked our way to the top.  I always wondered what it would be like to be royalty entering a castle through massive 20 foot high gates--pretty crazy actually. During his reign the emperor had a section of the fort that housed 12 wives with "peak a poo" lattice type chambers looking down to the courtyard, and they had 150 Eunuch servants. I guess you could say this was a massive misuse of power with a "happy ending".

AMBER FORT

EYES OF INNOCENCE

TAKING SELFIES 
WITH AMERICANS 

We did a night tour around Jaipur to one of its temples and snapped this picture of a little (Muslim) girl in the car next to us wearing her burqa and a look of innocence. Everywhere we went Loraine was quite the star with the locals, they wanted a selfie picture with her--the American! If you are wondering, nobody wanted a picture with me :-(

MAUSOLEUM FOR PAST
EMPEROR WIVES IN JAIPUR

GOATS MAKE GOOD
PASSENGERS

ROAD TO THE TAJ MAJAL:  On the way to the Taj we saw some great sights: A monkey temple that looked like Petra in Jordan, people dangling off the back of trucks at 60 mph, vehicles with exposed engines that had passengers sitting next to it and goats in side pouches.

HIDDEN MONKEY TEMPLE
IN THE CLIFFS

HANGING ON FOR DEAR
AT 60 MPH

EXPOSED ENGINES
PASSENGERS SITTING
 NEXT TO IT

SYMMETRICAL FROM ALL 4 SIDES

TAJ MAHAL:  Some places just don't live up to the hype. Not the Taj Mahal! It is one of the true wonders of the world and a "symbol of Love" for the Indian people. The magnificent mausoleum was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan,
(a Muslim born in Pakistan) for his 3rd wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child (wow!). Building started in 1632, and took 20,000 paid skilled marble workers 22 years to complete.

LOTS OF DETAIL

GRANDIOSE WITH
FITTING LANDSCAPE

INDIAN COUPLE
TAKING IT IN

THE SMOGGY HAZE BEHIND
THE TAJ IS EVERYWHERE
IN INDIA

Below the grounds lie 80 water wells that replenish the impressive gardens above. The interesting twist to the story was that Emperor's Jahan's second son, Aurangzeb, took the crown away and imprisoned him. It seems Shah Jahan was trying to take the people's money to build a Black Taj Maja across the river for himself. Dad died in prison after 8 years.

EAR SHAPED
AGRA  FORT

MOAT SURROUNDING
AGRA FORT-25' DEEP

AGRA FORT:  India is full of charming palaces and the Agra fort could easily be overlooked. A fine example of the Mughal Empire, built by the Muslim dynasty that ruled from 1526-1857, it has massive towering red sandstone walls. The fort protected the emperor and housed an entire city within its gates and is surrounded by a giant moat (filled with crocodiles at one point). There are wild stories of the Emperor having 150 harems inside fort (during his reign)-really! Seriously, one harem is enough!:)
TRAIN TO VARANASI: The last 2 days of the trip included an overnight train ride to the holy city of Varanasi. I always wondered about riding a train in India. I remember seeing pictures in National Geographic of 1000s of people crammed in and hanging on to the sides. Well it wasn't quite that bad, they did cram them in second class, but it was leaving at 12 AM.

HOUSE KEEPING :)

We on the other hand; had first class reservations, with bunk beds and a watchman conductor (quite nice actually). One unusual thing happened though. Another train was pulling out and a mother missed getting aboard with her child. The whole platform of people charged the train to get it to stop, yelling and screaming, "STOP the train"! The train finally stopped to reunite her with her                                                       child quite the scene, not sure that would happen in NYC.

WORMING OUR WAY
THROUGH THE CROWDS
HEMAN OUR GUIDE-FRONT LEFT

LIGHTING CANDLES
FOR SOMEONE THAT
HAS PASSED

VARANASI: THE ANCIENT HOLY CAPITAL: There are not too many things that can prepare you for the epic "Sensory Blast" of Varanasi. All the people in India want to make the journey here at least once, unfortunately many come when they have passed and are cremated by their families beside the Ganges River.

ON THE SHORES
OF THE GANGES-PEOPLE
IN BOATS WATCHING TOO

This has to be one of the craziest places I have ever been, with every possible sensory overload you could imagine. As we drove to the river for the nightly cremation celebration, we were bumped by another car- and the driver said, "we don't stop for things like that, just big accidents."

INCENSE CEREMONY
ON THE GANGES 

We couldn't even get close to the ceremony, so we were let out into the streets and followed our guide, Heman. We walked for a good 1/2 mile through a barrage of people flying at us in every direction...concerned that  if we didn't keep up with the guide we would be lost or worse yet hit by something. Cars and motorcycle horns blasted as they swerved around us, bicycles, carts, cows, you name it. At one point we had to cross an intersection where "(NO RULES applied)"; I did learn later that pedestrians are low man on the totem pole. Heman seemed to know when to cross the intersection, we just held our breath and stayed close to him. Once we arrived at the river bank and found a seat, and we were treated to a mesmerizing ceremony with brightly dressed monks holding incense torches. The crowd seemed to be entranced as bells rang out and the monks waved their torches through the air like magic wands. As the ceremony concluded we had to walk back through the masses to find the car when something weird happened, all the sudden I felt like I was walking in a "hypnotic state" floating through the chaos, pretty wild, but that is how I remember it. Religion is all around in India where more than 72% are Hindu and have mythical gods that give them guidance for life and believe in Karma. Maybe this is why they are so tolerant of the masses of people.
OUR FINAL DAY: A 5 AM wake up call set us in motion for a morning boat trip. We were going to witness the burning of the bodies on the Ganges river. I kept asking myself if I was ready for this.

MONK OVERSEEING THE
CREMATION ON THE 
GANGES RIVER-VARANASI

INDIVIDUAL
CREAMATORIUM

This turned out to be a transforming insight into Indian culture, life and death right before our eyes. We were on a small boat off-shore, so the smell was bearable. You still had a pretty good idea what was happening without being submersed in the trash and the filth. We cruised along the river with our paddle man, and stopped at several crematoriums along the way. My most vivid memory is the monk surveying the smokey site below as the families burned their loved ones after they submerged the bodies in the river. Quite the moving experience... following the cremations though, the poor were already picking through ash remains for missed jewelry and other valuables.

MY TAKE ON INDIA:  A once in a life time experience! Would I do it again? Probably not, unless Kashmir (with the reputation of being "heaven on earth") finished their political unrest. India is a place of dichotomy--on the one side you have kind caring people, looking out for each other, on the other, it is all about "me", especially when they drive. OVERPOPULATION: The government is attempting to solve this problem, but needs to be more aggressive in the poorer states. Even though they are presently having less kids with 2.6 children per female (1/2 the rate in the 1950s) they are still above the 2.1 child replacement rate per female, the US is at 1.86. Because the base population is 1.3 billion, the country is still growing exponentially and will surpass China (= 1.3 billion -2018) in the near future.

TRASH IS EVERYWHERE!

The other major concern is the TRASH... Here is a country that is in possession of nuclear weapons and one of the leaders in the battle against Climate Change, and yet they throw trash everywhere. Maybe in the past the animals ate it, but nowadays with the arrival of plastic products it is everywhere and disgusting. That being said, .....INDIA is the kind of adventure that touches the heart of all your senses, and is a unique experience into the extremes of humankind!

HI.. NICE COBRA

TRAVEL TIPS:
Once you get there India it is pretty inexpensive place to travel.
Yoga: If you like yoga--Rishikesh is the capital of the world
           Accommodations in Rishikesh: "7th Heaven Inn": Contact Charlotte Suthrell: $ (inexpensive) reservations@seventhheaveninnrishikesh.com or http://seventhheaveninnrishikesh.com/
Kamal will arrange white water rafting and hiking tours-- this is also the gateway for any Himalayan treks. There were tour offices all over Rishikesh.
RAVI INDIA TOURS: Great guide: $$ inexpensive. We had his services for 6 days that included a private guide and a car. We covered the Golden Triangle (Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Jaipur) + added on a train ride to Varanasi (a must visit). I suggest asking for 4 star hotels with the guide--Ravi
 contact: Ravi Kumar Sssmal (ravikasamal@gmail.com) or http://raviindiatours.com/about-us.html