Sunday, was a nice relaxing day of food and sight seeing.
To start I sat in a cafe to have a spinach omelette with garlic naan. This naan was the best naan I have ever had. I love garlic and each bite I took was packed with buttery pieces of garlic that was cooked inside the layers of naan. After I finished my food I stayed in the cafe to leisurely drink my coffee as I read a book. It was nice to take in the morning slowly but I was now ready to explore.
Before heading out, I was able to witness my host Rajan participate in giving her brother, Jagdish, a special bracelet and sweets to celebrate being siblings. In India, on this holiday, sisters put a special bracelet on their brother's wrist and then feed them special sweets. The brother will also feed their sister sweets and then gift them with something like money. I did not participate in the festival ceremony but Rajan still had a nice plate of four different sweets for me to enjoy.
Thankfully my hosts allowed their youngest daughter Rosy to be my tour guide today. We went in a rickshaw to the heart of Sarnath, Varanasi to visit a beautiful Buddhist temple. Inside the temple were paintings of the story of Buddha's life. Just a few step from the temple was a park with a beautiful tree that Buddha sat under when he spoke to five disciples. Inside the temple and near the tree we had to remove our shoes out of respect.
Since today was a holiday there was a little carnival not too far from the temple. Even in the states I am afraid to go on carnival rides because I always get the feeling that if the rides are always being taken apart and put back together that pieces might go missing. Here in India, the carnival rides were very old and shaky but we decided to ride a few anyways. It was interesting to me that women and men are put into separate lines for the rides and also not sat together on the rides themselves. There can only be mixed gender sitting with women and young children but not women sitting with men.
Before heading back home we walked around an open air market outside the temple so we could find a rickshaw to take us back home. All over people were singing, eating food, children were playing, men were praying, couples were fighting and lots of dogs, goats, chickens, & cows roamed the street among the people.
To start I sat in a cafe to have a spinach omelette with garlic naan. This naan was the best naan I have ever had. I love garlic and each bite I took was packed with buttery pieces of garlic that was cooked inside the layers of naan. After I finished my food I stayed in the cafe to leisurely drink my coffee as I read a book. It was nice to take in the morning slowly but I was now ready to explore.
Before heading out, I was able to witness my host Rajan participate in giving her brother, Jagdish, a special bracelet and sweets to celebrate being siblings. In India, on this holiday, sisters put a special bracelet on their brother's wrist and then feed them special sweets. The brother will also feed their sister sweets and then gift them with something like money. I did not participate in the festival ceremony but Rajan still had a nice plate of four different sweets for me to enjoy.
Thankfully my hosts allowed their youngest daughter Rosy to be my tour guide today. We went in a rickshaw to the heart of Sarnath, Varanasi to visit a beautiful Buddhist temple. Inside the temple were paintings of the story of Buddha's life. Just a few step from the temple was a park with a beautiful tree that Buddha sat under when he spoke to five disciples. Inside the temple and near the tree we had to remove our shoes out of respect.
Since today was a holiday there was a little carnival not too far from the temple. Even in the states I am afraid to go on carnival rides because I always get the feeling that if the rides are always being taken apart and put back together that pieces might go missing. Here in India, the carnival rides were very old and shaky but we decided to ride a few anyways. It was interesting to me that women and men are put into separate lines for the rides and also not sat together on the rides themselves. There can only be mixed gender sitting with women and young children but not women sitting with men.
Before heading back home we walked around an open air market outside the temple so we could find a rickshaw to take us back home. All over people were singing, eating food, children were playing, men were praying, couples were fighting and lots of dogs, goats, chickens, & cows roamed the street among the people.
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