Travel in India

Being away from hot spots to write and post along the way is a great disadvantage, but let me tell you a little more about our trip in retrospect. To start off, three things stand out:

(1) Traveling with a 13-year-old is very different than traveling with a 0-12 year-old.
(2) Travel in India can be challenging.
(3) The Ganges River is a god.

I.
We got a taste of this in Washington, DC, in April, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but John was absolutely uninterested in anything outside the resort/hotel room beyond the beach or an internet cafe. The occasional shopping for snacks or skin care items sometimes motivated him. He was happy to order room service while Widi and I went off on our excursions visiting various historical sites, temples, and craft villages. It was a difficult balance between Widi, who was happy to leave him in the room, and me, who wanted not only to share the time together, but also to not let him miss the rich cultural experiences. After all, this is part of his international experiential education.

We did some negotiating and the first two outings that John reluctantly participated in, the Wednesday Bazaar Panaji River Cruise in Goa and the Jauggernant Temple in Puri, Orissa, were not very pleasant. In Goa, we left late (guess who the late sleeper is?), close to noon in a non-AC taxi, hit a tribal protest march, and got stuck in suffocating traffic, had only had about 15 minutes at the bazaar and got on a tacky, loud river cruise, which wasn't anything like what I had envisioned. John actually enjoyed the cruise and we had a fantastic lunch after the traffic debacle, so the day was somewhat saved.

Then, in Puri, the taxi dropped us about a half mile from the temple, which we couldn't get into as non-Hindus, but wanted to photograph from the library across the street. We couldn't find the library and were wandering along some narrow streets filled with vendors, pedestrians, bulls and goats--some moving rather swiftly in our direction, brushing up against us. We didn't know where we were going and John and I were beginning to panic because of the crowd and the animals. We finally got out of there without our rooftop shots of the famous pilgrimage site to the common refrain of these outings, "Can we go back to the room now?"

Little by little we learned but never gave up on enticing John to see a little of these exotic places. Much to his credit, he got up at 5:00 AM for the freezing sunrise boat tour of the ghats in Varansi and even took some great photos of the sunrise.

II.

It takes a lot more energy to travel in India than other places we've visited. It was harder to find Western food and a shower that didn't get the entire bathroom floor wet. The traffic, crowds, and insanely risky driving chaos can be draining. We loved Varanasi because our hotel was right on the Ganges and we could go most places by boat. Widi is great about negotiating the unknown for us, but I realized that even though people sometimes think he is Indian, it's not as smooth sailing as in Indonesia where he knows the rules.

III.

Varanasi, the old Benares, was the most fascinating place. The oldest city in the world, it was the contemporary of Babylon and Nineveh. There were so many things going on along the ghats to the Ganges, which we both walked and boated by daily. There will be more about this to come and a slide show for those that are interested. The river itself is worshiped as a god, and bathing in it gives great healing, forgives sins, and brings great spiritual benefits. As is customary, we set our intentions afloat with flowers and candle.