Holi, those kids have good aim!

I spent Holi, the Indian festival of colour, in Varanasi. Varanasi is said to be the cultural/religious center of India. There have been people living in that location for 5000 years. Its streets and buildings seem to be built on top of each other, and the winding alleys are something to behold. Kudos to Veena for pointing me in this direction.

Getting to my hostel in Varanasi, I took an auto-rickshaw from the train station which led to a point where auto-rickshaws could no longer pass, then I got on a cycle rickshaw, until it, too, was too big for the narrow streets. Then I had a porter (just so that someone would show me where to go) carry my bag the last few streets to my hostel. And I thought there were narrow streets in Delhi.

The place where I was staying no longer had internet, because the monkeys had gotten in and chewed through the cords. In fact, the monkeys were regular fixtures as we were eating meals in the open-air rooftop restaurant.

I arrived the day before Holi, and took to the streets. I joined forces with a wee boy called Guru (or at least that's what I think he said) to get myself some ammo for Holi (powder and a water pistol). We got a little carried away, and had a preemptory Holi, with him acting as a sight, and me as the sharp shooter. Later we switched roles.

Guru also took me to a local kids' cricket game, where I batted an over, well aware that the honour of New Zealand, and women everywhere, was at stake. I was clearly the only female in the game, and perhaps the ony who had ever joined in. I don't think I completely embarrassed myself, but I definitely was bowled slowly to :) The teenagers hanging around that area reminded me of hoodlums from the 70s. Great fun.

I had been told very explicitly from our hostel owner not to go out that night, or the next morning, as the men get drunk and rowdy in the streets during Holi.  That night, I had dinner on the rooftop with two American girls who were travelling circuitously on their way home from teaching English in South Korea. We decided not to go out that night, but that the morning of Holi we would brave the craziness.

In the morning, I watched from the balcony (checking out the strategies of five urchins on the neighbouring building, pelting those below with water balloons). That is, until they caught me watching and started throwing them my way. If you do ever visit India during Holi, watch out for your camera, because not only does not it deter kids from getting you wet, they actually aim for it.

Carrie, Tara, and I loaded our water bottles and water pistols, and ran out of the building quickly and turned the corner. Luckily, we stumbled on another kid, Baday, who led us through the streets, avoiding the men, and leading us into the fray with local kids. Suffice to say, we were completely pulverized. Little girls with supersoakers filled with blue paint, no mercy in their eyes, laughed and sprayed us directly in the face. Boys from rooftops dumped entire buckets of orange paint onto our heads as we unknowingly walked beneath their traps. It was amazing. The giggles of delight as they sprayed us with rapid fire purple stripes as we ran for dear life, and the calls of "come back, come back" made me laugh out loud. I've never felt so dirty and disgusting in my life, but it was so much fun. I'm still getting pink out of my hair, and blue from beneath my finger nails. Luckily we avoided the silver paint that reports say can cause blindness.

The following morning the two girls and I went on a dawn boat ride on the Ganges. It was beautiful to see the sun come up, and amazing to see the architecture, and human happenings along that holy river. The area where we were staying was near a ghat in which people are cremated to be spread on the Ganges. Regularly processions of families carrying their deceased loved ones passed us in the narrow alleyways, and from the water, we could see the funeral pyres along the edge of the river.

Varanasi was amazing, but I guess that travel itch starts to take hold, because I have decided to move on already, to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

Angkor

The area of Angkor has a plethora of temples and ancient cities. Angkor Wat is but one of these, built in the 12th century. Some of the sites date as far back as the 8th century.

I was lucky to stumble upon two new friends on the taxi ride into Siem Reap from the border. I wandered for three days with Laura from Massachusetts, and Pedro/Kim from South Korea, and our tuk tuk driver, Pip. My ambitious idea of bike riding solo around the temples was quashed pretty quickly, as I saw the traffic. I managed to discern two road rules: keep right when you can, and bigger vehicles have right-of-way and win in all one-on-one encounters. There was a crash near our hostel the first evening I stayed there that resulted in a fatality. Definitely one of the more dangerous systems I've seen, what with the interactions between buses, cars, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, and livestock. Also, the people seem to be able to load their vehicles up with more than you'd ever think. So far we've seen three live pigs strapped upside down to a motorcycle (sorry, PETA) and two women with three babies and four big bags of produce on a single motorcycle--no helmets to be seen.

This was our first view of the entrance to the main temple area.

Sometimes it was a little overwhelming choosing where to go and what to look at.

 The carvings throughout the Angkor complex were beautiful.

I like how the lichen grew politically correct on these Apsara dancer reliefs.

Bees are alive and well! They were a little scary to walk under.

Poverty was pretty desperate and sad around Siem Reap and Angkor. Some of the kids trying to sell things to us were only a little older than this wee one. I was happy to see that from Sunday to Monday there were many fewer kids, hopefully meaning that they were in school.

 Laura and me, struggling up the steep steps of a temple. We look a little hot and tired, I think.

Introducing Laura and Pedro.

At the end of our first day wandering through Angkor, Pip took us to a local street carnival for a beer. It was the one place in Siem Reap we weren't hassled to buy things, as it was all locals. We didn't stay for long, because after a day at the temples we were pretty dusty and tired, but the ferris wheel looked like it was spinning quite quickly. Could have been an interesting experience. Apparently everyone turns up just after the sun goes down, so as to be a bit cooler.

Elephants were present in carvings, sculptures, and as part of the tourist experience.

Like many, Ta Prohm was one of my favourites. I took as many pictures of the different trees and buttressed roots as my camera would allow. I just love how it looks when nature takes back the land.

The second day we got up early for the sunrise. Not a great one, but nice to be up in the cool of the day, and the view from the top once we climbed into and up Angkor Wat was beautiful.

Sometimes we took a break and just sat in the temples/buildings, as they retained their coolness throughout the day. Good thing D.C. prepared me slightly for this heat and humidity!

On our last evening in the temples, we went up to a temple on the top of a hill, and waited for the sunset (as recommended to us) . . . but as the climb was quite harrowing (standardly harrowing) we wondered what everyone was going to do to get back down in the dark. But, we were kicked out before dark, which makes me wonder how someone is supposed to see a sunset, yet come down before dark? Seems like the "sunset tour" might be a bit of a misnomer? As with the sunrise, it was very cloudy, so I'm not sure our sunset would have been anything to write home about anyways, so we weren't too disappointed (and perhaps slightly relieved, as I was the only one with a headtorch--thanks, Janet!).

 There were monks at the top, I think trying to practice their English. I haven't quite figured out the rules of monkdom in this part of the world, but it's definitely not what I expected.

Today I have to decide where I'm going next. I'm thinking to an island called Russei off of Sihanoukville. I got some insider's info from a Mr. Ken Ryan that Sihanoukville itself can get pretty sleazy, so I'm attempting to find a nice place elsewhere (yet still beachside) to relax before going on to visit Phnom Penh and make my way to India. So far, so good.

The Numbness Was Worth It

Having been told I was silly for trying to go overland to Cambodia, when there are perfectly reasonable flights from Bangkok into Siem Reap, I feel justified. Yes, my butt was ridiculously sore. Yes it was crowded and dusty and smelly at times. But it was beautiful, and as a geographer, very grounding to see the landscape change. I only wish I'd taken more photos.

But, here are some beautiful ones for you, with the mist rising in the early morning (did I mention the train left at 5:55am?).

This wee baby and his family kept me entertained for many hours of this journey :) 48 baht (2 NZ dollars) well spent.

I say "bah" to those who told me to fly.