Post Varanasi

Varanasi (Benares, Kashi) is an ancient town with a rich spiritual history. It is said that if you die there you will not need to be reborn and a dip in Ganges there will earn you the same. But to tell you the truth, Ganges looks so much more inviting much further up, north of Rishikesh where we were earlier, than at Varanasi these days. On the whole we were not enchanted. The pressure on foreign tourists is just huge here, there isn't a place where you are left in peace for touts who want to take you to hotels or into their shops. Then the annual Mahaotsva music festival that we had been looking forward to. But we found it wasn't up to our expectations; mediocre musicians, singers and dancers. The quality was so much more better at the annual Soorya festival in Thiiruvananthapuram in Kerala the month before, from what we could understand. But that is only our poor understanding.

Anyway, after six eventful and momentous weeks in many parts of India we took stock -- and left for Malaysia where we are now; in sweet Ipoh north of the capital Kuala Lumpur (KL). Today we visited the Gua Tempurung cave, which is really awesome, the biggest cave in these parts of the world. It was a huge experience of what nature is able to create, an immense internal mountainous world. Try to see a video on YouTube or go to the homepage.

On Monday Nov 9 we visited the Batu caves outside KL. That was a big spiritual experience, a fantastic natural temple in the form of huge caves with various internal domes. Most probablyHindu mystics have meditated there since ancient times and these days there are South Indian temples and observances there. Breathtaking! Once upon a time the India Reich stretched down South East Asia to include Thailand (Siam is a localized form of Shyam Desh which means "The Land of Krishna"), and all the way down to Singhapur ("Lion City") and beyond. All you people who travel to Thailand, beware if you meet the king there because he will speak with you only in Sanskrit. Now, today the Chinese have made their definite stamp on Malaysia, where they conduct much of the business of everyday life, while the Malay people are taking care of govt. and municipal administration; that's what we've been told anyway.

Malaysia is soooo green and fresh and well kept. The roads we've seen are better than Scandinavia's and it is a pleasure to travel here -- so much less stressful than in India, which is really a difficult country to move in mostly due to the acute overpopulation and lack of govt. control, or should we say interest, in ordinary peoples life and circumstances, most probably.

Tomorrow we will visit the island of Pangkor, which is a coastal resort, and stay there a couple of days before returning to Singapore, where we flew in from Delhi, to return to India next week.

Oh, for those of you who are interested in pure vegetarian food we forgot to mention one thing: In these parts of the world we get delicious pure vegetarian food at Chinese Buddhist vegetarian restaurants. They are everywhere and they don't mix onions, garlic and eggs into their preparations. We only have to choose dishes without mushroom -- and it is a feast every time! With lots of lightly woked greens and other veggies, steamed, fried and what not tofu, mock duck, sweet and sour pork, fish, etc., everything vegetarian and very TASTY in all sorts of sauces of various colors and hues! The selections of fresh fruit drinks and other delicious sentient fluids are also overwhelming. Nice kitchen! The Indian restaurants here in Malaysia and in Singapore are also much better at our kind of food than those in India itself, we find. Here the Indians really listen and prepare properly, while the standard in India has gone down much in recent years. Most restaurants in India who advertise "PURE VEGETARIAN" are not at all pure and offer non-veg as well. The lowest point came in Chennai where we were attracted by a posh looking establishment advertising "Jain food" which is really the epitome of pure vegetarian food in India. But what we were served there was full of onion and garlic. So we had to scold them for both degrading the noble Jain tradition as well as not respecting our humble wishes, and ended up with something a bit poor after having had to wait for some time more.

So long.