Into the Wilderness

Carol is supposed to write today's post, but she is busily repacking everything in the firm belief that this will create more room in our luggage for all of our recent purchases. BTW, this is the last time that I will mention shopping in any form. Carol says that it is no longer funny... OK, here she is:

Varanasi has a lot of pilgrims and holy men (thus the TWO photos of holy men included). They are different holy men, though Mike thinks maybe they just rotate from corner to corner. We spent yesterday visiting a bead factory (purchasing some items for Cathy B as well as xmas gifts) and then off to visit the inaugural Gandhi Arts and Crafts Fair. This mostly consisted of booths with assorted crafts from around India, though they looked fairly lonely and drab in the forced environment of booths as opposed to their natural setting of a street market. Of course the minister of Arts and Crafts was there to cut the ribbon and open the fair. some of our group were photographed shopping with the headlines "foreigners flock to the Fair" (though flocking was an overstatement-we came in groups of 3 or 5 at a time). there was a ferris wheel and some other children's rides, kitshy toys for the kids, food booths (dave K would have loved them) and of course the requisite porta potties (see photo of the cement cubicles freshly poured for the fair).

After dinner we had a birthday party for Donna Porter in the Kabob restaurant complete with a Japanese tourist that performed magic tricks with a string that he wrapped around the necks of females at our table. The waiters were all dressed in what looked like prison garb or plumbers uniforms, the group had a split opinion on that.

This morning I got up, got a taxi and went back to the Arts And Crafts fair only to find the merchants still asleep. So we wandered around the Muslim butchers quarter. Watched meat being cut into steaks, kabob and made into hamburger. Saw a string of hearts and one of livers. Even passed some goats feet that looked like they were on their way to soup. FORGOT my camera, so had a friend take a few shots. Mike would have loved the photo ops, but alas, he had decided to wander the streets around the hotell...boreing. But he did run across a snake charmer. I took all the above photo's except the top holy man. You are required to vote on which holy man shot you like the best...the donkeys and the dogs were all busy doing what they do best. Other photo's came out wonderful too, but Mike says I am not to spoil you all.
Tomorrow we have Pushkar and won't be able to post...tenting it a bit I hear. Having a wonderful time. Another great day planned for tomorrow.

Mike again: Today was another travel day (back to Delhi from Varanasi). Tomorrow we will be on the road again, this time to Pushkar which is eight hours away by bus. Pushkar is another religious center located around a sacred lake. I know this place is seriously religious because no alcohol or non-vegetarian foods are allowed in the area. I don't think there is a prohibition against wireless internet service, but since Pushkar is located in the high desert and we will be staying in a tented camp, I am not hopeful that we will be able to get online for the next few days. So, if you do not hear from us for a while, DON'T PANIC. Our next stop after Pushkar will be Udaipur on the 14th. I know they have the internets.