Aaah, India! Concentrated, ecstatic, congested, aromatic, colorful India. We arrived in Delhi and to our hotel to sleep for a full 5 hours - good amount for the first night in India - I used earplugs, Michael used melatonin. Awoke and had enough time for a perfect indian greasy breakfast with lots of sugary caffein and off to the airport for our flight to Kashi.
Only in India can they fill a 60 minute flight to the brim with service, kitch and delicacy from take off to landing. First we were given lime water - a sweet, salty, sour drink (more than we can handle yet on the first day in India... give us another week to acclamate and we might love it). Then they came around with a "snack" - which was a hot meal. Then they came with tea and coffee and "after mint" (a post meal digestive and mouth freshening mix of fennel, candy, and perfume for chewing), finally they came around with literally... a basket of candy!! A basket of candy. We were cracking up.
We arrived in Kashi and were picked up by Narayan... a close, family-like dear one of Nirmalananda-ma (the swami previously known as Rama Berch). An hour drive through open great land spotted with families and bicycles... toward more congested area of the city. On the outskirts, the city is more polished - with even a mall and large movie theaters. As we get closer to the ganga (ganges river) we meet the edge of the old city, where the streets are very narrow, and can't be attempted by four-wheel vehicles. We walk the rest of the way through winding, narrow, brown-gray pathways to the guest house, and up a narrow, brown-gray staircase to our lovely room. Small, but airy and clean with a delicously firm bed, almost as hard as the floor. Our heads lean south to sleep - a good direction according to vastu shastra (the ancient indian teachings on design and arrangement). A single turquoise wall meets a pale lavendar ceiling. Outside our door a veranda overlooking the Ganga where we take tea and breakfast every morning. Below, outside our window and down two stories a serious game of chess is happening... not between two, but amongst what appears to be teams of young men, crouding around. To the left of the veranda, two boys play cricket on their porch. And below, floating in the water are the wooden row boats that we will sit in every sunrise and sunset that we are here. Every morning and evening we quietly coast along the river and peer at the weaving of ancient mysteries with modern curiousities that unfold before our eyes along the water and land.
This city is known as Kashi to pilgrims and locals, Varanasi to tourists, and Benares to officials. Or so we've been told so far... more to come with hopefully photos!
Love, M & K
Some photos from our visits to Ram Nagar - the palace of the Maharaja (King) of Kashi (Varanasi) and the site of a fort... and most importantly to locals, the site of the most famous and delicious sweet lassis (a thin yogurt treat). Inside the palace is a museum, mainly filled with the vehicles of Maharajas past - vehicles means carriages that would have been horse-drawn, automobiles (including old Fords and others from Detroit, Michigan), and palanquins (I was never sure what these were, in my readings of Indian stories, but now I know - they are human-carried carriages. Some of the palanquins were silver, gold, and ruby studded. Inside the museum were old articles of clothing, cooking ware, chandaliers, childrens toys, all kept in terrible, dusty, moth-eaten condition. They are old, and they look it. There were also weapons from many generations - from ivory encrusted swords to rifles. And some very scary looking weapons indeed - swords and knives that look like they kill on the way out rather than on the way in! It turns out the current Maharaj actually still lives here, above the areas we are allowed to puruse. The palace was full of school children while we were there... staring at us unabashadly and grinning back only when we smiled first.
One very small portion of the family at kedeshwar guest house. Tried to load more photos but it wouldn't work, slow internet connection right now! We'll try again tomorrow. 
Our "family" boats... we are staying in the guest house run by Gopal and his family - brothers mintu, pintu, and cousin narayan. Their family owns 10 boats for coasting along the Ganga river. The youngest part of their team, Sonu, calls us Chachi and Chaha (aunti and uncle). He's 20, which makes us old enought to be aunti and uncle. And the whole family insists we are part of the family as well. They call Rama, "mama". 
