It's time to share. These photos were taken on the floodplain opposite the Varanasi ghats on the Ganges River. Varanasi was one stop on a two month tour around India which as a whole was incredible. It was completely overwhelming, endlessly fascinating, a shitload of fun and generally the most photographable/photogenic place I've ever visited (srsly, I took 2000 photos). Apparently the desert-like sand flats get completely flooded during Monsoon and the people that live on the floodplains only do so for part of the year.
I have mixed emotions about the first photo. On one hand I'm happy that I took it; these beautiful children with their decorated horses in the middle of nowhere was one of the most stunning sights I'd ever seen. But (and it's a huge but) I ended up having to pay them. Which according to responsible tourist guidelines is a pretty irresponsible thing to do. Mainly this is because it can encourage begging and a better way to contribute to local economies is to pay for a service or buy a product. Also, more personally, one thing I picked up on and felt throughout India is that this kind of exchange necessarily reinforces another kind of duality between tourists and locals. It's a really huge topic and I don't know enough about it but I think because of the (huge) financial disparity between us and some locals we met it was extremely difficult to always act within ideological boundaries. Which also led to a little bit of guilt. But, that's just part of traveling I guess.
I've uploaded some more photos to my
flickr and will share some more on here soon. If anyone is planning an Indian adventure feel free to get in touch, any excuse for me to talk about the trip is a good thing.
