Journey to Varanasi

I am finally back on-line after a busy few days. Among other things, we went to an old mosque and walked around. Part of it was in ruins and really cool looking. (Yes, I am sure there are better ways to describe it aside from "cool looking" but I am still tired right now. I thought my mom and her scrapooking buddies might like this photo as a background.

Today we traveled to Varanasi. It has a very different feel to it than Delhi since it is very old...very, very old (especially compared to our "old" cities in the US.) Among ofther thngs, many of the streets are narrow. Driving to the hotel from the airport was quite an adventure since many times cars/buses/bikes/cows were coming strait towards us in our "lane". Somehow the people here know the local traffic patters and we were able to get to the hotel safely. (If I had to drive, I would still be at the airport, paralyzed wth fear from the traffic since I would be concerned I would hit something...or something would hit me.)

The hotel was hosting a wedding last night and it must have been quite the event. The elevators were crowded with men and women in incredible clothes with inricate stiching and beads. My roommate wanted to sneak and see what the ceremony was like but we didn't want to give Americans a bad name of being too snoopy. We were excited with we heard a band (complete with drums) outside the front of the hotel. From our window, we could see a crowd of people gathering to see off the newly married couple. Huge fireworks were set off for the celebration that appeared around right outside our window. We finally saw the crowd start to move and could tell the wedding videographer had a huge light shining on the couple but just as the couple came into view for us, they turned the light off and we could not see them any longer. It looked like the couple was on a camel from our window...but it could have been another animal - like a horse with a really long neck. Oh well, at least we got a small glimpse of the celebration without disturbing the newlyweds.