A Realisation

I'm lying in our improvised three man bed with two other genuwine (not a spelling mistake) dudes right now. It was the cuddliest sleep of my life. Anyway, Varanasi, this was a lovely time of rest and relaxation, however yesterday a small group consisting of myself, Patrick, Cal, Angus, Aunty Candy, and of course Captain Jordan, embarked on an improvised trip to the Ganges that would change our Varanasi experience completely. Once again Jordan showed his directional worth to be equal with that of a compass that doesn't point north as we walked aimlessly through the markets for an hour only to emerge at the place we were dropped by the rickshaw drivers, if not slightly closer to the hotel. However after us capable strapping lads took the lead, as well as Candy's skill in asking for directions shining through, we slowly migrated to the river on the way being attacked by two raging cows. During this this Captain Jordan SHANELESSLY proved his courage in being the first to flee, leaving the rest of us in the line of fire; the locals found this extremely amusing and laughed at our fear with glee. Our group was saved only by the bravery of Tim Burns and Patrick Jung as they stood up to the cows and told them firmly to stop their dangerous actions commanding respect from all the surrounding onlookers. The first half of this trip was not all hilarious and dangerous occurrences though, after reaching our destination we observed the numerous cremations on the bank of the river as a new friend proceeded to give us an explanation of what we were seeing as well as unsubtle insults of poor Mr S Jordan. This was a particularly deep and dark part of our exclusion as he insisted to take us to see some cremations up close. Unaware of what we were getting ourselves into some of us walked up some stairs to the platform on which the Brahman cremations were being carried out. Earlier that morning our hotel guide, Tripathi, had told us all about the cremations being a celebration of one's good karma and life in what sounded like a very positive manner and I can not speak for the others but it was not until I got up the stairs and our friend ushered us into spaces right in front of the fires claiming we were family that I realised we were intruding on a family's funeral. The sadness in the air mixed with a blazing heat and the picture of the burning was something I will not forget for a long time and although it wasn't an easy thing to bear, I'm appreciative of the experience. It feels like a realisation I shouldn't have had to see right in front of me to understand, but I feel it is an
experience I think may have been quite common among our party. This was something deeper to reflect on in one of top excursions on the trip so far for me. My associate Patrick Jung will continue with the rest of the trip, it promises to be a top notch read.

Tim