Ali's Global Travels

Hello everyone, My name is Alexandra (Ali) Voss. I have decided to take a year off before starting school in NYC to travel the world. My trip will take me from Boston to Hong Kong to India to Europe and more. I will be posting all of my emials and pictures right here. To follow my journey, this site is all you need :) Enjoy!!!

PS. to get EMAIL updates (much more current) email me- alivoss2@yahoo.com

Latest photo album

Versailles

Updated 11 Jul 2007

Author	Alexandra Voss
Home country	United States
Joined	15 November 2006
Blog posts	36
Photos	446
Albums	28
Videos	0
Reviews	0

My journey

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Varanasi, India

Tuesday, 10 April 2007

Hello everyone,
Maybe it's the suffocating lack of space. Maybe it's the smell of burning flesh that smolders the city. Maybe it's the daily bath in the black Ganges, where the factories up stream dispose of their heavy metals. Maybe it's the rampant heroin and opium addiction. Whatever the reason, the people in this city seem a bit crazy. This is the only city in India I have ever been scared. The tiny streets, with towering building on both sides, twist and turn whichever way the cows wandered. They have no sense, no direction. As you walk, the streets shrink, twist, and end. A maze of canals, where being lost is commonplace and the oxygen starved air pollutes your lungs. Glazed over eyes and haunting whispers follow me around ever corner.
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Welcome to Varanasi- the City of the Dead. Varanasi is arguably the most holy city in India and the oldest city in the world. Hindus from all over come here to die and to be cremated on the Burning Ghats of the Ganges River. The city, probably built for 3,000, now houses 3,000,000 year around and more than double that when pilgrims flock to this city at holy times. No cars penetrate the Old City, where some streets are hardly arm's length wide. Still, the hot air is extremity thick with the filthy smoke of the fires that forever lick the bones of the deceased. It takes three hours of rampant bonfire to fully consume one corpus. The remains are then pushed into the black waters of the Ganges where the waters silently, slowly complete the burial.
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The most intense place in India, Varanasi is my last stop before I head north to Nepal. The insanity of this city begins where words fail. My visit here could not have been short enough. Some people love this city. I am not one of those people.
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Lots of love,

Alex

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