Hi All!

FYI- You all sitting at your happy computers reading this blog…feel sooo blessed.Without air conditioning life blows! So Emily and I took a little trip to Varanasi where the "Mother Ganga" or the Ganges River is worshiped and considered the holiest river in the world.It was pretty interesting TO SAY THE LEAST.So let me take you on a little trip and small taste of Varanasi.In order to do this properly you must do one exercise for me.Think about a time where you tasted something so wrong it made you gag and think about something so stinky you thought your nose hairs were scorched and finally think of the dirtiest your body has ever been- now stick your head in the oven.Ok that is Varanasi.Good intro huh?Ready to take a quick trip to Varansai in the comfort of your own home…OK here we go.Here are some highlights.Strap in and keep all extremities within the car and the baby wipes and the disinfection gel close and welcome to Varanasi!!

1."The Kingfisher Experience"we left the airport and little did we know we were embarking on a craaazy trip.We were dropped off at the wrong airport terminal and had to quickly jump in a rickshaw and have the driver take us to the right place.Then we were running late so we cut in fount a line of India people and begged and pleaded for them to let us.So that worked out.Then we had to jump in the next line to get our boarding passes.The lines were so long I knew there was NO way.So I cut in the first class line and begged the lady to let us in…we totally scored!Next line- the security where they questioned why I had 2 cameras.We finally made it! Yay!The Kingfisher experience on the plane rocked good food and tv!

2.Getting to our hotel of appending doom!After a 45 min hot cab ride the driver drops us off in the middle of a busy street.We were like OK?!!Luckily for us a guy that claimed to be a guide for the hotel takes us there.Our view from our hotel window was awesome!Good people watching and right next to the Ganges!Our room was totally nasty- but more on that later!

3.We took 2 boat rides on the Ganges one the first night and the second at dawn the next day.Our boat driver "Bananna" yes…that's how you say it not sure if that's how ya spell it.We watched from the river a sacred ceremony performed by Brahmin Priests it was called the "Ganga Fire Arti".We sat and watched as hundreds of people chanted, clapped, and watched these priests hold burning braziers, incense and turn in four directions.A lot of cute kids sold us floating bowls with candles and marigolds.They showed us how to recite the mantra "or prayer" that all the locals and pilgrims were using as they released their candle to float in the Ganga.We also saw the cremation site on the river.Burning bodies 24/7 and they push all the remaining body parts and ashes right into "Mother Ganga".If you are put to rest here you are more than likely to move up in your next life.With that said you see people swimming, bathing, drinking, carrying this water 24/7.As Brenton put it- "So they won't eat a hamburger, but a dead body smoothie is just fine"!! ha.Totally right!

4.Our first and final night at Hotel Akla.I am naming this experience as "Dawn of the Dead".Let me put it this way.Jump into my world-

-waking up at 2am

-not being able to breathe due to a cloud of humidity surround my room and suffering from severe dehydration.

-Being so hot that you stick to all the covers and do NOT by any means want any of your body's extremities to touch.

-Opening the windows but still no air flow (The Ganges did not give us a breeze- I guess we had bad Karma-ha!)We were in a concrete box of sweat and doom!

-My mouth was so dry I felt like I ate peanut butter with no drink and then dumping sand in my mouth.

-Having no power and the air conditioning was so high that I had to stand on a cheap plastic chair with a flashlight (luck I had one!) to try to fix it but who are we kidding I'm no repair woman!

-So what would you do?I suggest that if you are ever in this situation (poor you) do what the locals to- that is grab a blanket and pillow and sleep outside.It was seriously 20 degrees cooler.You can see people sleeping on the streets at all time of the day so why not embrace that too?My new friends and sleepover buddies- the lizards and sound of mean barking dogs in the distance.I fell asleep for a couple hours smelling the stinky river and a faint breeze of burning bodies.Some how Emily slept in the room the whole night (I don't know how much sleeping) wow right! FYI- great vacation spot- Brenton and I may now be coming back here for our honeymoon! Ha!

-So basically we stayed in the hotel with the best view of the Ganga however the concrete box of doom was not a happy experience especially when the temp was 105 degrees!Aren't you all jealous of Em and I?!

5.Based on this experience I created a little rap song to boost our spirits.Thanks to the beat of the Fresh Prince of Bellaire theme song! And it goes a little something like this- "Southern Illinois born and raised day dreamin' and country hoppin' how I spend most of my days.Then the country of India - she is typically up to no good- started makin' trouble on my livelihood.We go in one little fight and we got scared and moved from the Ganga- now sittin' on our thrones- the "Princesses of the Radisson"! As you have guessed we move to the swanky Radisson from the sweltering seat pot!It was our happy place- our oasis- our heaven in the filth- our first hotel without bugs- with a real draining system- a real shower- room service- clean pool- its fancy and the first thing we checked out was….ya you guessed it the AIR CONDITIONING!We are now true devis of the Rad!

I'll post pictures soon!Hope this all makes sense because I'm not proofing it…deal with the all the run-ons and grammar errors!! Ha.We are back at Julie's and happy! Love ya all thanks for all the posts!Special shout out- this time to Hannah Jo Chitty- thanks for checkin' in!xoxo