VARANASI

We finally make it to the end of the journey and appropriately it is Varanasi, the ancient and holy city on the Ganga, where the devout want to die as it is closer to heaven. It Is one of the Oldest living cities in the world, where Mark Twain said it was "older than history, older than tradition, older than even legend, and twice as old as all of them put together"

There was so much to see a do here. After our long day of travel we enjoyed the peace of the hotel and got ready for some more adventures. The locals call Varanasi : Benaras. One sees that name on all signs, etc. Even more local vernacular calls it Kashi ( like our cereal). That is what I preferred.

I may have mentioned that this trip to India coincided with the "wedding season". In India, weddings are on steroids. They coincide with the lunar calendar, because of all the mumbo jumbo astrological beliefs of the Hindus. They are full blown garish affairs where everyone is excited and titillated to watch the bride and groom meet for the first time. Guest are invited in great numbers by the groom's family who usually pays for the rooms in the biggest nicest hotels in the cities. Guess where we were staying? The night we arrived at our hotel, there were 2 major wedding planned. Music is loud, pageantry is over the top. People are dressed in the fanciest clothes, and the groom is lead in by a wedding coach pulled by horses all decked out. Did I say it was noisy?. Did I say I Happened to have a room directly facing the festivities? Did I say these wedding were virtually at every hotel we stayed at? All were elaborate. All were very colorful. All were noisy and used gigantic sound systems. We enjoyed them....up to a point...and then it was,oh  no...another wild wedding where the bride and groom have never met! Titter titter. Indians are extremely hospitable and we were actually welcomed to the weddings if we walked around to see the decor. We even crashed a few, and it was wonderful. We were a novelty, dressed in our exploring clothes and smiling a lot.