Our first hotel in Delhi was pretty fancy and the guide says it will go downhill from there. The bathroom was interesting and the shower and toilet were both all glass enclosed and right next to each other - not much privacy no matter what but pretty fancy.
Up at 4:30am, bags ready at 5:15am, breakfast, head to Delhi Airport at 6:15 am to catch our IndiGo Air flight to Varanasi - northeast and on the Ganges River where all the rituals are performed in the polluted water every day - cremations, ashes dropped in the river, taking some home to save to drink later, bathing and who knows what else but I must read more about it.
We visited Sarnath historical grounds which is the site of Buddha's first sermon.
I love signs!
These are Tibetan letters of prayer - somewhat similar to the lovelocks on the bridges of Paris.
And Stupah -this is solid all the way through and very very old and probably erected 500 years CE so somewhere between the 4th and 6th century. It was huge. The grounds are ancient discoveries of ancient monasteries and burial grounds and they are still digging. It was originally a "deer sanctuary" but evolved.
More of the grounds and we are here in spring and these were red poppies which always reminds me of Poppy Day to honor WWII poppies in Flanders Field, Belgium.
This was just on our walk through the town on the way to the site.
The town has 60,000 cows and maybe 10,000 bulls and they are sacred and free to roam and I don't think they eat beef - chicken, lamb and lots of vegetarian.
Another Buddha museum and there were Buddha statues all over the place and our local guide explained the four different hand positions you will see on Buddha statues. I have learned way too much to remember so will need to do a little more reading.
The black Buddha:
The very tall Buddha statue which was just erected in 2012 so pretty new.
We can still smile even with not quite enough sleep, different food, air pollution and interesting transportation - it's quite the life experience.
There are stands all over selling tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. This area is known for mangoes, eggplant and many other things.
Another cow or is it a bull - anyway they are roaming all over in Varanasi
Yes - this is a meat market or "butcher shop" but as the cow is venerated and honored this one only had goat and rooster. Pretty sure that is fresh goat hanging from the rafter and I did not want to try it but have had lamb here a couple times - and fish, chicken and other stuff.
This typical haze and street scenes and yes those are electrical wires.
It is really hard to believe this is real but it seems like this is everywhere. Where are the rich folks???
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