Agra & Varanasi: Indian- the emotional rollercoaster

The girls and I had each bought Indian outfits to wear at the Taj Mahal. We woke up early to catch the sunrise, but unfortunately the line up was so long that we missed it. We approached the Taj to see it in all its glory- unfortunately, our view was obscured by the Indian 'fog' (We call it smog in Canada). 2 of our Camera's weren't working, and we could barely see the Taj Mahal through the 1 that was. We were not pleased! However, as the sun came up, the 'smog' cleared and our cameras decided to work again. The Taj Mahal is the ultimate dedication to love, it was built for some Emperor's favourite wife and took years to complete. Its amazing, it exceeded my expectations. We really enjoyed walking around and taking pictures..Many tourists both foreign and Indian wanted to take pictures of us as well dressed up in our Indian outfits. Our great day only got greater as we stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch (haha I know..) and filled ourselves with stuffed crust Pizza's and Pastas. Of course, in true Indian fashion, our wonderful day had to be ruined somehow (well not completely ruined but still)..We asked our driver Hookum to take us to this market. He told us that he had to drop us off about a 10 minute walk away from the market so that we must 'go there by walk.' Okay fair enough we said, cars weren't able to drive that close to the market so we decided to walk. On our way we were approached by a gang of kids asking us for money.. "10 rupees, 10 rupees, Chapati chapati" they cried. We said no, and continued to go on our way. They followed us, and as we walked faster and told them to go away they began to pull at us and grab us. These street kids were between the ages of 3-12 and there was about 6 or 7 of them. They began to get violent, and scratch and pinch at us, even piercing my skin. They laughed wickedly as they threw bottles at us, thinking it was a big game or joke. It was horrible, and although I felt bad for the street children and the way they have to live, I seriously wanted to smack the little brats. To make matters worse, as I was walking some Indian man grabbed my butt. This was the last straw- after being harassed repetitively by Indian men (whether its has been cat calls, making disgusting faces at us with their tongues, or 'accidently' bumping into us) I turned around and screamed at them like I had never screamed at someone before. I'm pretty sure they were scared of my threat to 'kick their asses' because they ran away as fast as they could. It was quite upsetting for all of us- we have come to India to experience the culture, learn, and meet the people- but we had had it with all of the negative experiences we had (even though we have had many great ones as well). We told Hookum to drop us off at the train station where we had to wait 4 hours to catch our train. Our moods turned positive again as we met three British backpackers 'Becky, Matt, and Jasmine.' Having a driver and a schedule has made it difficult for us to meet other backpackers- the majority of the other travelers we have run into have been middle aged-retiree Europeans. We laughed and joked together until it came time to board the train. We had reserved 2nd Class A/C...When we got on the train we found 2 Indian men in 2 of our beds. They got out and moved to their proper places. However, we still felt a bit uncomfortable on the train- Alex and I both didn't have curtains and we were both sleeping across from some men. I decided to just make the best of it and put on my Ipod and fall asleep until we would arrive in Varanasi. Once we arrived in Varanasi we took a rickshaw to  this hotel I had found in the Lonely Planet in the Old City near the ghats. Our room costs $4 a night between the three of us. Its pretty disgusting, it looks like a prison and it emits a strange smell. However, its a great location, and has a fabulous 24 hour restaurant. Regardless, we are checking out today to find somewhere else- Its not worth it! Yesterday we went down to the ghats and went to the main burning Ghat. I have never seen anything like it. We watched as a woman in a blue Sari- around 30 or 40 years old, completely uncovered, was dipped into the Holy Water of the Ganges and than placed on the fire to be cremated. We saw her face, and her skin..and looked on as the fire burned through her Sari. I couldn't handle it, I had to walk away..All I know is that I will never forget her face. After exploring the other ghats where people bathe, we met up with our British friends to watch this ceremony on the Ganges (I think it had something to do with the Full Moon) but it was quite fascinating as hundreds of people watched these 6 men make movements with fire, chant, sing, and perform different prayer rituals. We ended the day by having dinner at our restaurant and drinking a large Extra Strong Kingfisher beer- We really needed to. Today we will explore Varanasi some more- We are going to take a Yoga class with our new friends, and than go on a Sunset boat trip on the Ganges.

Hope everyone is well at home,

Love Krista

Our driver and me :) 

At the Taj Mahal