The Ghats of Varanasi and Goodbye to India

Well, here it is - the final entry of my India trip.

I arrived in Varanasi at 9:00 AM on the overnight train, on which I slept like a baby. I took a cycle-rickshaw into the old city near the ghats, where most of the guest houses are located, and quickly found a place to stay for the 2 nights I would be there - I've been more free with my money toward the end of this trip, because I've budgeted enough previously that I'm in no danger of running out. I left my stuff in my room and then had a breakfast at the hotel, where the manager whipped out a guestbook filled with positive comments left by people who had gone on the hotel's boat trip and city tour in the mornings, and then asked me if I'd like to go. It was only 250 rupees, and a boat trip down the river and a walk down the ghats were the only 2 things I had really planned on doing in Varanasi, so I agreed, and he said he would come wake me up at 5:30 before the tour at 6:00 the next morning.

Well, I woke up the following day at 7:30 AM and wondered what the heck happened to the wake-up call. I went down into the reception area, and asked about the boat trip. I didn't get a clear answer about what happened with it, but the manager apologized and said I could go the next morning instead - I wouldn't be able to do the city tour because my train left for Delhi at 11:20, but I still really wanted to do the boat trip at dawn, so the guy reassured me he would wake me up the folowing morning.

That day, though, I took a trip down to the ghats. Located on the Ganges River (worshipped as the personified form of the goddess Ganga), the sacred city is the beating heart of the Hindu universe. The city's ghats are its most distinctive feature - sets of steps and built leading down to the river, where Hindus come to wash clothes, hang out, do yoga, perform religious rituals, or scatter their loved ones' ashes in the current, thus liberating their souls from the eternal cycle of life and death. That day I decided to walk along the entire length of the river's banks near the city, going from ghat to ghat starting at the southernmost, Assi Ghat, and working my way north. The moment I stepped out onto the first stone shelf and saw the stairs going down into the sprawling Ganges as it slid by, I told myself, I am so glad I didn't leave India without seeing this. I strolled along the ghats for several hours, pausing for long stretches to sit down and take in the soul-soothing atmosphere, watch the locals at the water's edge or watch them cremate corpses at the special burning ghats. Walking along the ghats was a unique and beautiful experience, one I felt like doing again right after I finished.

I took a cycle-rickshaw back to my hotel after, then got some dinner and went to bed pretty early. I woke up in the morning and looked at the clock - 7:40! Gah! I could have punched a hole in the wall, I was so frustrated - no dawn boat ride for me in Varanasi, one of the experiences I had been looking forward to most. There was nothing to be done for it, though, so I decided not to make a fuss when I went down and had breakfast. Then I went and stuffed all my things into my backpack (now seriously overfilled because I bought stuff for family and friends in Kolkata), paid and checked out of the hotel and took a cycle-rickshaw to the train station where my train departed on time at 11:20.

I usually try to take night trains because it cuts down on hotel costs and it allows more daylight hours in cities, but I ended up taking a morning train to Delhi because I didn't book the ticket until two days before. I was extremely fortunate to get one at all. It actually wasn't such a bad thing, anyway, because the trip was a 17-hour monstrosity and I really appreciated being alone in the car for the first few hours. The ride was really quite a good way to spend the day, sunshine outside on the green countryside sprinkled with yellow flowers, the windows open and the wind blowing throught the car, and I listened to both Plans and Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie.

I didn't sleep that well overnight, but our train pulled in Old Delhi train station at 5:30 in the morning. I was headed to Paharganj, the area Michael and I had stayed 3 weeks earlier, and I had a between an autorickshaw or a cheaper, slower cycle-rickshaw to get there, and I chose the latter. I gave the driver a big tip after he dropped me off because it was a long way and he'd worked his ass off huffing and puffing up those hills. The moment I started looking for a guest house a guy attached himself to me and said he wanted to help me find a place just "for friendship, no charge" and tried pulling me away to a bunch of other hotels. I resisted, and every place I went into I literally had to close the door in the guy's face because if he came in he would say he brought me and the hotel would be tacking his commission onto my room rate. I tried 10 or 11 places before finding a good lodging, and most of them wanted to charge me a full day's rate from 7:00 AM until noon, but I told them that was bullshit and most of them laid off when I said that, fine, I'd just carry my backpack around and be back at noon to check in.

Anyway, my plane leaves tonight at 11:55, and I've just been wasting time around Paharganj until then, walking around, buying a couple things for friends, journaling, spending time in email cafes, getting laundry done, getting my disposable cameras developed, and thinking about what my trip has been. I'm going to take a taxi to the airport at 8:00 - I hope my laundry is done by 5:00 like it's supposed to be.

So, my adventure is now at an end, and what a splendid adventure it has been. All last year during my senior year at Van I was yearning, painfully, to travel on my own and get out of the US, but I was stuck. Then I went to New Haven to do a DTS, which was a very welcome change, a great town where I made wonderful friends. We were going to Pune, India to wor at a children's home, which I was so happy about, but I still felt that 3 1/2 weeks in the same cushy YWAM outreach apartment wouldn't be nearly enough to hold me over once I got back - as I wrote in my journal, "I need to do some seriously adventurous shit before going back to Texas." And now, after 5 weeks of trains and buses and mountains and lakes and crappy rooms and Taj's and rickshaws and Indian cities, I've done what I was dreaming about for so long. I feel that for now I've scratched that ever-loving travel itch, that I'm finally ready to be with my family in a static environment, to love them and hug them and kiss them, and to start thinking about where my life is headed from here and how I can get it there.

That's one of the things I'm taking away from this trip the most - "following your dreams" is such a cliche inspirational phrase and seems like it should be relegated to bookmarks at the public school's library and movies by Walt Disney Studios, but it's true. I didn't have much time to plan this trip at all - I just had my ticket booked 5 weeks after the rest of the outreach team leaving from Delhi instead of Mumbai, and I didn't know where I would go, what to do, where to stay, if I had enough money, or if I would be able to take care of myself, but I took a leap of faith, and it has ended up being by far one of the greatest experiences of my young life. I'm not saying that recklessness and self-deceit are the way to go, but looking back over my trip I can see God in every single moment protecting me, comforting me, preparing a way and showing me his beauty. My God is my shepherd and I shall not want. Praise him, praise him, this is a beautiful world.