I thought everyone would enjoy seeing these photosets by Ben and Marin which are up on Flickr. Plenty of “WOW!” moments to be enjoyed:

photos by Ben Mortimer:

photos by Marin Tockman:

Dear Nick,

We’ve finished packing the boats up across the river from Varanasi in Ramnagar. The facility is just a spare room in a family home/business and the room is crammed up to the ceiling with pontoons, wood, oars, motorcycles, trunks, cots, etc. We’re going to have to cut the door off when we return because after pulling it shut for the last time, the pile of stuff slid down to fill the empty space behind the door. There were so few of us left by this time–Marin, Satbir, John, Zack, Orien, and me by the time we were at the beach disassembling, and then just Zack, Orien, and me when we were wrapping up at the storage unit… but we got it done FAST. There are four generations living in that house, with a big garden/orchard in the back, and all eleven of them were involved in helping us complete the job–carrying things, making us tea, forcing us to bathe in the morning before starting work, picking amrut (guava) from the orchard…

Back in the city, we are returning to our regular schedules and ways. Missing the river–waking up at dawn covered in dew… driving past small groups of people doing their morning puja, washing their cows, beating their laundry… taking a dip when the heat gets unbearable… washing the decks… following the river dolphins… driving the motorcycle! But Varanasi is quickly growing on me, too. For the difference of 100 rupees, we’ve moved from the worst room at Alka Hotel on the waterfront to the biggest room at Golden Lodge, an older, cheaper, emptier establishment on a random squirrely alley near the very holy Golden Temple.

Coming in from the scenery we were used to–small farming villages, endless flood plains, highway cities–Varanasi is a zoo. Two miles or so of waterfront temples and ghats and hotels with tiny alleys zigzagging and radiating out. Amazing boat scene–with motorboats powered by the same diesel motors we’ve been seeing all trip applied to boat technology, plastic bottle outriggers and sound systems, houseboats, a funny above-water cartoon submarine boat, Michele Baldwin’s standup paddleboard (which the kids LOVE)… The spectacle of the radial blended right in and it was a relief that people respected our space and we were free to stay on the ghats for a while without much hassle. Shanti, shanti.

Look how well the radial fits on this ghat! That's Baro sleeping on the octagon. He looked out for us and is the friend of Ganesh Baba who stayed under the Disneyland mushroom umbrella sitting area closest to us at the top of the ghat steps.

You know I didn’t realize what a toll the trip had been taking on me until just before we reached Varanasi… we were all so mentally and physically exhausted. Then as we rolled in I was driving for a while and painted on a patch of concrete on the bank so that only passing boats could see was: “Blessed are those who live on the banks of Ganga”. Wow. Yes. Thank you.

I wish our crew didn’t have to leave as soon as we arrived to Varanasi. It’s such a beautiful, old, magical little city. Shiva’s city. It takes time, of course. At first it was all scammers and hash dealers. Kids here seem to get wise fast and everyone is very keen on what foreigners want. We learned you can’t trust all sadhus/babas. Doesn’t mean they’re bad, but their purpose here is not to be trustworthy.

Part of their service though, as we saw yesterday when we were taking chai, is to appraise the sound quality and value of conch shells purchased by pilgrims. We were sitting with two sadhus who were busy trying to get their parrot to talk to us when two ladies came up to them and took out a package that took several minutes to undo. The whole interaction was in English, which was interesting. After washing and blowing three long notes into the conch, the sadhu assessed that it was a good quality sound that would please the gods, that they purchased it at a good price, and told the ladies to wash it after each use. After they walked away an onlooking man hailed them back for a ten rupee baksheesh.

Anyway, it’s a hard city to make friends in, as we learned in the first days.

Then just a couple days ago we met Sadibul the helpful rickshaw driver and Frank a retired professor of World History, who live together with Sadibul’s family not far from our hotel. They took a group of Americans around India and also to Bhutan and Nepal recently. I was reading the packet they put together for the group, full of helpful information on India, their itinerary, and readings. There’s a really interesting list of what Indians can teach us, including “non-dualism”, “getting up slow in the morning”, and something about non-ownership of space as can be observed in Indian traffic. I’ll have to ask him for the full list. Also a really interesting excerpt about Varanasi as a cosmic city which got me thinking about the performance a lot.

We’ve been meeting a lot of people who I think are good leads on helping us with the performance when we return next year. A merchant near the hotel who deals in metal works and runs an art gallery, including contemporary lost wax cast sculptures; local people who work in the textiles industry (mostly weaving, but their way of screenprinting involves poking tiny holes in the screen to make designs)–the local craftsmen and artisans we have been dreaming of meeting. We should meet with Shuresh from Banaras Hindu University Visual Arts department this week.

It’s funny, our tendency is always to go over the top, but we can’t top India. I mean, they have festivals like Jagannath where they roll a 45 foot effigy chariot god that takes months to build through the streets and it crushes people to death, or the one that passed while we were in Fategarh where they fill a larger-than-life paper mache effigy with fireworks and shoot it with a flaming arrow. It’s both intimidating and reassuring to know that’s the standard we’re working with.

When we first got here I was astounded at how old this place is and wondering what we could possibly have to show them. I hope you can be here for the performance next year (you would LOVE the pattern-clash, sound-clash, smell-clash cacophany) . I’d suggest everyone arrives at least two weeks before our build date to let India sink in a bit. All the foreigners I meet and I think even Frank, who’s been here in Benaras since the 50′s, seem to agree about India that once you start breaking the surface, you realize there are oceans underneath.

So, onward and upward. From Benaras on the Ganga to the Hoogli River and on to Kolkata, Kali’s city. I’m excited to read the Ramayana and learn some more Hindi too. I’m slipping here in Varanasi where everyone speaks not only English but Japanese, Spanish, Korean, and German as well. After that, who knows? Continue going East I guess. Oh, don’t miss Ben’s photos, he’s got some great radial shots.

After three days of looking, we found a place to store the boats. It’s a concrete warehouse on the other side of the river, we will start moving the boats today and loading them into trucks tonight.

It’s been nice not moving for three days. Most of the crew has a new wardrobe. We’ve showered and eaten restaurant food for a few days. We have some new friends including two boatmen and their families and a sadhu who likes to come on the boats and dance to our music at night. Last night we met a boatman who had just rowed a woman on the Yamuna – 25 days from Delhi to Varanasi in a canoe. She has stomach cancer and 6 months to live, always wanted to float the river…

Three more crew fly home today, leaving 5. Looking forward to a soft bed and turkey dinner!