INDIA

Uttar Pradesh

The Holy Journey started when I left the Institute of Dharamshala and decided to rove accross India, to realise a voyage through several sacred sites of Hinduism and Budism. A route that would end only in Beijing, in China, a few months later.

I've exclusively used overland means of transportation, in an attempt to see more and closer as possible the various Asian countries that I've crossed. I could have lasted longer, and seen more, but due to problems and unforeseens that always appear on the uncertain road, I had to jump scales.

I could also had gone directly to the destination, but it is necessary to see what it is intended, as I understood in Ladakh: if travel to see and live the places you cross, which seems to be the motive why you travel, or simply to get to a destination, no matter the way how you accomplish it.

haridwar

Haridwar is situated at the point where the Ganges leaves the Himalayas. It's a place where numerous superior forces converge, a power-place, as there are a few in India. And so, worshipped by Hindus, and a destination of constant pilgrimages, coming from all the subcontinent. Some say that Rishikesh, located at a few miles away, is more interesting being the capital of yoga, being cooler and more relaxed, but I think in my personal opinion that Haridwar is livelier, more human and more Indian. By the way, I've had some troubles with youngsters for taking pictures, the place being a holy and sacred site, and therefore extremely touristic. It is no more than a freak-centre where hippies and derivatives gather, coming from the whole world, in a symbiosis of peace, love and brotherhood. Oh! The Beatles also have been there.



Back to Haridwar, the sun is heavy inasmuch as India, and the Ganges rushing headlong. Thousands of pilgrims meet here to bathe in the river, the many religious Indian sects all worship the purifying Ganges, not so pure at some places.

The ghats are the stairs that enter into the river and where the devotees pile up.



Spring doesn't properly exist in India, in April, May, temperatures already climb up to forty and a few degrees, at nine in the morning, which can be terrible in some places.

I join the crowd, I can't resist, I dive.







At other spots of the city, the Ganges is fast, and at the end of the afternoon, people lay blankets down across the floor and sleep right there on the shores of the river, as rocked by the flux.



The houses with boat entrances and yards.