Varanasi is intense. The traffic makes Jarkata look organized. The pollution makes Kathmandu look like a biodome. The wheeling and dealing makes Trump look like a chump. But all-in-all it is an incredible experience.
One of the big jokes at Wildman Whitewater Ranch is: Why don't Indians know how to swim? Because there's no whitewater on the Ganges. You have to do it in a good Indian voice to get the full affect...and the laughs. (Related sidenote, no Indian here who speaks English sounds anything like the Indians we make fun of in the U.S. Go figure.) Anyway, the truth is, there is no whitewater on the Ganges. I know, because I got to paddle down it the other day. It's the best way to see all of the fabled ghats as well as the cremation areas where they burn their dead and make offerings to the river. People also bath and wash their laundry along the shoreline. As do the water buffalo...sans the laundry part. Sewage from the city also dumps into the river and married couples come down to get blessed in the waters as well. It's a jarring spectacle of beauty and...well, I'm not sure there's a word to describe the apparent insanity...but it is something to behold.
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A bath in the Ganges undoubtedly absolves one of all sins;
but what does that avail? They say that
the sins perch on the trees along the banks of the Ganges.
No sooner does the man come back from the holy waters
than the old sins jump on his shoulders from the trees.
The same old sins take possesion of him again.
He is hardly out of the water before they fall upon him.
-Ramakrishna
Be careful no Indians jump on you from trees my friend.
-Seb.
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