The temperatures in Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia were like training camp, preparing us to handle the heat of India - and a good thing, too, since India in late May and early June is about as hot as either of us has ever been...
Our first few days, in Delhi, were misleading - rain brought dust down out of the air, and kept temperatures at a comfortable cool. Ushi, our hostess at the guest house was perplexed: "Is this the beginning of the monsoon, or just an eyewash? We don't know."
Agra offered us a taste of reality: 107 degrees F as we walked around the Taj Mahal, the Agra Fort, Jamma Masjid and the broad, peaceful vistas of Sikandra. Heavy rain on the way back to Delhi slowed our journey to a seemingly endless 5.5 hours.
And Varanasi. Given the temperatures at midday (even at 8 AM, the mercury was rising fast), we aimed to explore in the early mornings, walking along the ghats, or, one morning, taking a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges to see the bathing and rituals around which life in Varanasi centers. Fascinating and lovely, new and strange - and a bit worrisome, given the levels of pollution in the river. Belief trumps reason, for the faithful!
In the afternoons we took shelter in cool and shaded places, reading or meeting with Allen's small teacher or my French student, or taking a long lunch at our favorite cafe. In the evenings, we'd again walk along the ghats, watching, talking and (mostly) fending off offers from boat touts and "tour guides" only too happy to tell us about the burning rituals ("education to cremation, learning to burning," they all said) in exchange for 100 rupees for "wood for poor families" who couldn't afford a cremation (a well-known scam along the ghats). One evening, we took another quiet boat ride that took us downriver past both burning ghats and upriver again as the evening pujas were beginning: light and music, bells and flames, and hundreds and hundreds of people gathered to pray. Even at 8 PM, as we left the main ghat to return to our guesthouse, the steps and walls of the ghats continued to radiate heat, soaked up in the blazing mid-day sun, out onto the water.
Heading north to Dharmsala, we felt like we were coming closer to home - not just in terms of time, as we neared the end of our trip, but in terms of topography and climate. The green foothills of the Himalayas, though steeper and more dramatic than our Cascade foothills, were reminiscent of home; the air, just touched by the beginnings of the monsoon, was cool and moist. The relief from the heat of central India, made for pleasant walking, in a few short hikes around Dharmsala, and enjoyable travel to Tso Pema, Manali and up into the Himalayas to Rohtang Pass.
Back in Delhi, now, we are sweating even as we sit - it is hot and humid, and spots of sunshine are interspersed with periods of heavy rain. The monsoon seems to be tightening its hold...
