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I say yes. Yes to Varanasi.  Yes to many things.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “it’s not the things I did that I regret, it’s what I didn’t do” (or something to that effect).  I’ve always thought that saying was hooey.  I think it’s more like “say yes and things will become interesting”.

Before I continue, I must apologize. I left you hanging in Delhi a month ago.  Terrible me.  I realized I was going to hell when I let a 100 pound barefoot Malagasy man parade me through a city in his pousse-pousse as he painfully clutched to his masculinity and male pride trying not to look like he was going to keel over from the weight of me and my 40 pound backpack in his tow.  They do that on foot there – not as part of a bicycle or motorized contraption. It was at that instant I knew with no uncertainty that at the end of my days the flames of hell awaited my arrival.  Nonetheless, I can also be sorry for making you wait so long for the remainder of India.  Such a marvelous country, this India.

From Delhi to Agra by train.  They try many up-sells to Agra (they = tour books and of course travel agencies in Delhi) but there is really no need.  It’s a short train ride – something like 2 hours.  I chose to save the 50 cents and travel in 2nd class.  The train station personnel are always concerned about foreigners choosing something other than 1st class, but I decided to throw AC to the wind and let the open air breezes sweep through my ravishing hair.  Many people have asked me how to get train tickets in Delhi. There are several train stations and the lines can be confusing.  If you’re going someplace near-ish by, just go to the train station when you’re ready and look/ask.  If it’s somewhere farther away where trains might not go as often go ahead and try the train station or let the travel agent (and I use that term loosely) at/near your hotel book the ticket.  Maybe they make a few cents on the ticket, but it saves heat and hassle.  Tourists make a much bigger deal of this than is necessary.  Everything eventually happens in India and at no point in time will you have any control over the process.  Just accept that.

Once I arrived in Agra I saw what appeared to be a tour bus loading up and decided what the hey and asked what their dealio was.  Something like $10 and they would take me to the sites.  Would I normally do this?  No.  Quite simply because I like to decide my own time for visiting places, departing and arriving.  In this case I already heard all the tuk-tuks and taxi’s had fixed prices and they were higher for 1 person than just taking the tour bus – plus the idea of haggling fixed prices was not what I wanted to spend my day in Agra doing.  I hopped aboard the air-conditioned dream cruiser and set sail first for the magnificent Agra Fort.  Very big, impressive, daunting, imposing, regal.  I was impressed enough, but wait, there’s more.  Then we went on to (insert: trumpets trumpeting) the Taj Mahal aka “the Taj”.  The Taj is just one of those places, in my opinion, like the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall. No matter how often you’ve heard about it, what you’ve read or the movies you’ve seen, nothing can compare with seeing it in person.  It blows you away.  No matter how high your expectations are, you’re sure to be impressed.

You can read all about the Taj Mahal (eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal), but there’s nothing like seeing it in person.  The intricate details, the size, the beauty.  It’s definitely on my Things Everyone Should See Before They Die list.  It’s just one of those perspective-changing places.

Next, on to Varanasi the holy land.  But what fun would a trip to a holy land be without Mimi?  A question I frequently used to ask myself.  The answer is no fun at all (duh).  You may have read about Mimi in the Cast of Characters.  She’s the international traveleuress a go-go.  We bump into each other in the darndest places usually involving rivers and beer.  Vienna, London, Paris, Prague, Kirkland (eek), and in this case Varanasi.  Mimi was hanging out in India with her friendly cohort Seetal.  We of course did the sunrise boat cruise down the Varanasi.  I don’t have video ready for this site, yet, but one day it shall come.  I have the absolute coolest footage – we’re paddling along the river watching everyone bath in the holy water and come across a group of friendly men swimming madly towards us shouting “I love you!  I love you!”.  Clearly these very smart men knew a good thing when they saw it, but how funny it was to have this passionate group approaching through holy water.  Oh, and I could go on about what I’ve seen all over the world taking place in the name of holy/religion.  But that’s for another post.

Varanasi is more than just the Ganges.  It has a great Buddhist temple and some crazy nightlife, too.  One evening we were walking through a market area and for whatever reason we asked a ‘police’ officer something or he was pointing something out.  Anywho, we were following him as he was leading us through the market and we noticed that as he moved through the pathway of people and bicycles he would what seemed randomly (because who could tell what belonged to whom among the many) puncture tires with a small knife he held between fingers in one of his hands.  That seemed the strangest thing.  He was dressed as an officer, and I have no reason to believe he wasn’t an official something or other.  There he went exercising his power and puncturing tires whenever he seemed to feel the urge.  Could this be a method of exercising authority?  Punishment for not paying a sufficient bribe?  Simply random deviant behavior?  This sticks in my head because of its oddness, but I knew it was just a hint of what was to come in the international world of corruption.  More on that later.

What I should say about Varanasi to those who are planning a trip – wear a mask.  The fires really are a strain on the ole lungs.  And of course sucking on exhaust pipes is all one can do when getting around.