Varanasi has one major attraction – the Ganges River – and the rest is a mess. Oh well, the Ganges River is a mess too. A common measure for safe bathing water is that it has less than 500 faecal coliform bacterias per 100ml. Ganges has 1,5 million. No dissolved oxygen exists. The water is septic. By the shore some people pray, some beg, some take a bath, some do laundry, while others set their departed relatives on fire. Suffering animals are everywhere, and in between you see an occasional western youngster seemingly caught in a promise of spiritual enlightenment. It beats me how they can find a meaning to life where life seems so easily broken. But perhaps that is just why.Varanasi has one major attraction – the Ganges River – and the rest is a mess. Oh well, the Ganges River is a mess too. A common measure for safe bathing water is that it has less than 500 faecal coliform bacterias per 100ml. Ganges has 1,5 million. No dissolved oxygen exists. It’s septic. By the shore some people pray, some beg, some take a bath, some do laundry, while others set their departed relatives on fire. Suffering animals are everywhere, and in between you see an occasional western youngster seemingly caught in a promise of spiritual enlightenment. It beats me how they can find a meaning to life where life seems so easily broken. But perhaps that is just why.
Ganges River: Good idea boys, let’s do the laundry by the sewage drain

I do not know why, but to witness hard core worshiping sickens me. It happened in Poland, and now in Varanasi. Really, it makes me wanna vomit. Literally. So I fled to Bodhgaya, a small town further east which is the most important pilgrimage site in the world for Buddhists. Buddhism is said not to be a religion, so I had an open mind for learning more about it. But the Buddhists were crawling and chanting and it pretty much looked like worshipping to me. So I fled again, this time to Rajgir just 70 km northwest. Allegedly this small village harbors the finest sushi restaurant in India. Now, that kind of worshipping I like.

The Buddhists were having a good time under the Bodhi Tree

But the restaurant was closed, so I decided for a 500km ride east through the seldom visited region of North Bihar. I asked the guest house manager about highway 31. He assured that it was an excellent four lane motorway. But, as he added, I had to go through in one day because the Maoists were very active in the region. But with such a thick red line on the road map it would be no problem. Yeah right. Flood had taken the tarmac, leaving just dust and an unbelievable number of potholes, and as I entered West Bengal I called for the Phantom (Fantomet) more than once. By the way, I heard no drums and he didn’t show up. That leads me to believe that the cartoon stripes in Harstad Tidende were just fake stories.

This is the so-called four lane motorway through Northern Bihar to Siliguri

To my relief there were few touts in Siliguri. But the bike was still a major attraction. Just after arrival and through the hotel window I discovered a guy in blue jacket and black cap sitting on Balto in the hotel parking lot. Obviously he was checking the suspension and how far he could twist the throttle without breaking it. I went out, told him to back off, and covered the bike. Then I went to make a phone call. I was away for ten minutes. When I returned the bike cover was off and a group of men, among them the guy in blue jacket and black cap, were fiddling with everything. So I went to the hotel manager and requested that they tightened the parking lot security. Yes, of course, he would tell the hotel guard. And he did. The problem was that the hotel guard happened to be the guy in the blue jacket and black cap.

Siliguri: What is that thing doing in the exhaust pipe?
Hopefully the answer will be in the next blog post