A taste of Estonia in Quebec

Just like that, for fun, let's take a picture break. It's crazy how a walk in Johnville ecoforestier park, near Sherbrooke's downtown, the bog reminds me of the same kind of walk in Lahemaa National Park, in northern Estonia. See for yourself.

Lahemaa National Park, Estonia

Parc écoforestier in Johnville, Quebec

Puppet show in Udaipur

In Udaipur, a traditionnal puppet and dance show is offered to the tourists. Here is a short preview of the puppet show..

A video of Jaipur's kite festival

Because a picture is not always enough to explain a phenomenon, here is a video of the kite festival un Jaipur.

Varanasi's rituals

Since I didn't know my plans would change, thanks to the unexpected troubles with the train schedules, I took all my time to explore Varanasi. It was my first of two days in the city. Unfortunately, I would soon discover that this exploration would be all I would see from Varanasi.

Good news, though, are that instead of visiting seconday places, I ended up on the ghats, near the Gange river. Just by getting lost, I found the most important of them all, where more than 300 burnings (of bodies) are organized every day. You can see piles of wood everywhere in that area.

Again, being white garantees some hassling. A french speaking Indian told me he would not ask for any money but that he would tell me the story of the place. We can see people bathing in the sacred Gange while others are getting onboard boats from which they will throw their loved ones ashes in the middle of the river. 

The most interesting part is the cremation itself. Lots of smoke. Lungs filled with it for sure.

Incursion in Amsterdam

Let's take a little break from India to go back in time a little. Last June, I was leaving suffocating heat in Istanbul to catch my flight at the last minute. I was worried I would miss the flight to Amsterdam on Turkish Airlines.

I must say the agents in the airport were very slow. I still could make it and landed at Schipol Airport in the evening, as planned.

In Amsterdam, it is super easy to get downtown by train. About 15 minutes, 30 max, and you're there. And from Central Station, lots of trams are available.

I thought I might get lost, but everything was easy until I found my hostel, Van Gogh Hostel, right in front of the museum dedicated to that painter.

If it is known the hostel of the Netherlands capital are not the best in the world, mine was very acceptable. It wasn't a place to go to get drunk, as I was worried about at first.

The town itself is easy to explore on foot when one has a little time. That is what convinced me to walk to get to the Dam to get into one of the free tours they offer in the morning or in the afternoon. It is necessary to book ahead or to get there early, since they denied me access to the tour on my first attempt.

First contact with Varanasi

At the Mughai Sarai train station, where I disembarked the train, my indian friends were sorry to see me go. They had to help me to find the right place to go down, since there are no announcements. When you know the time you're supposed to arrive, you can look carefully at the name of the stations. But when you're as late as I was, there was no way to know.

Goodbyes were hard, as always. But it's impossible to do them in calmness. A white guy? All the taxi drivers, all the rickshaw drivers are trying to lure you in their vehicule. Fortunately, my friends could tell them to go see somewhere else if I were there.

Apparently, I had to go for 28 km to get to the hotel. It took more than one hour. I was supposed to get there in the morning, but in the end, I got to Varanasi while the sun was setting.

There was the traffic jams, the buses, the bikes, the rickshaws we needed to go around while honking as much as possible. And after, we drove on small dirt streets which were testing the suspension of the car.

Good to know : if the hotel has hot water, you may need to ask at the reception for them to turn it on...

Varanasi is just an endless maze of small streets, a labyrinth where even some locals can get confuse sometimes. At the hotel, they sent me to the Brown Bakery, a restaurant belonging to the owner of the hotel. They gave me a handmade map. What seemed to be a big street on the map ended up being a small alley. Needed to guess. But getting lost was part of the fun.

After some confusion, I found the infamous restaurant, where you can find anything on the menu. But if you ask for anything special, you might hear the words "don't have". That's the way it is.

In the evening, after 10 PM, the lights go off in most parts of the city. Finding one's way back in darkness is... hard. But I made it...

The train... to make new indian friends

One night on the train is... the unexpected . I found my bunk in a compartment that has technically eigh . There are two superposed against a wall, which follow the width of the compartment. Then, there is a hallway. Perpendicular, there are three bunks on each side of the compartment. Mine is... in the middle.

Rapidly three young Indians are approaching. "Where are you from?"asks the first. Immediately, the second asks if I'm on Facebook, handing me his phone so I type my name. And he adds me eight away.

They ask lots of questions, Indians, so they practice their English. One of them, a cricketer, explains the rules of his sport... with a video game created by EA Sports. We have NHL 2014. They have Cricket 2014... At least I understand the principle.

"Tomato soup", shouts one of the vendors that walks accross the train all the way round. My new friend Arzoo hails, takes two and hands me one. The advice not to consume anything in the train just went to hell. At the very least, I knew that nothing had been added in the small container of soup. I worry especially for cleanliness . But these young Indians are filled with good intentions.