The Alaroni Big Trip: Holy places

For the past 10 days we've been exploring two very spiritual places in India. First we visited Amritsar in the Punjab region, which is the holiest place for Sikhs and home of the Golden Temple (375kgs of solid gold, plated over thin sheets of copper and wrapped around the temple). The temple has a huge pool where devotees come to bath and pray. There is also a communal kitchen, staffed by hundreds of volunteers feeding 40,000 people free of charge every day. People's sense of 'giving back' is very strong in Amritsar and quite moving. In addition to visiting the temple and taking a walking tour of the old city, we also traveled to the Pakistan/India border where we watched border guards conduct a surreal, end of day - closing of the border crossing ceremony (lots of British type pomp and high kicking), which dates back to when Pakistan and India became independent countries.

Now we're in the ancient city of Varanasi, along the banks of the Ganges River, where pilgrims from all over India come to bath in the holy river. Many come seeking cure from ailments or sickness while many of the old and poor come to die. We started our visit by taking a sunrise boat trip on the river and watched as the sun came up and people congregated at the river to bath and pray. The early light off the temples, Maharaja palaces and mosques was incredibly picturesque. We also saw funeral piers where bodies were being cremated in the open on large piles of wood. Varanasi is an iconic, ancient city that looks like one big photo-shoot for national geographic. The buildings are very old, there is a never-ending labyrinth of narrow alleyways lined with very old heavy wooden entrances to houses and temples, sacred cows roam the streets everywhere unmolested, monkeys hang off the telephone wires, half naked holy men are a common site and transport is mostly done by pedal rickshaws and 3-wheel took-tuks. It's an adventure just walking the streets everyday.

For the past couple of days we've been volunteering at a girls shelter which is home to 26 wonderful girls ages 6 -17 years old. The girls are orphans or come from very poor families and have no place else to live. We've spent afternoons at the shelter, and the small school attached to it, doing art work with the kids, playing games, eating food, and just having fun. Maya and Mira have really enjoyed volunteering and making new friends. On Saturday night we've organized to take all the girls and the staff for pizza and ice cream at a local pizzeria along the river. It should be fun.

Cheers, Rob