23-24/jan the baby & the temples

After saying good bye to sailesh, we took the bus, the supercrowded bus, to balasore. We were leaving baripada. We both (zac and me) wanted to seat by the window because they allow too much people to get on the bus, so everyone is standing at the corridor, with the seating people as a limit. This gave me the chance to seat besides a young woman, she could be 22 years old, from a small village, surely very poor, but extremely dignified, with her red sari, elegant like only indian women can be, her red spot in her forehead, and a very dark and dry skin. She was using a handkerchief as a wallet, one knot for the coins, and another for the banknotes. I don't know if this is a normal sistem in india. On her arms, a baby. He was 1 or 2 years old, difficult to say since he was quite small, and with a big belly. He was sleeping in that crasy, dusty and noisy bus. His mouth was disfigured. A part od the nose as well. Aftre a while, he wpke up, and started smiling at me, with those huge eyes, and those super white teeth. I was playing with his hand, his feet. And the mother never looked at me. After 1 hour and a half of thinking if there was something for me to do, I left a banknote in the baby's hand, and the mother gave a very nice smile, very shy. I saw her having problems when he was paying the bus ticket. She had to pay also for the baby, even if he was in her arms. After a while, I refilled the baby's bottle feeding. I was afraid about her being offended by me giving some money. But she wasn't. So with all the different stages of the trip, and with the sights, smiles... it was a special trip for me.

We took a train to bhubaneswar, orissa's capital. We arrived at night, found a guest house (RS 75 each, less than 1,5 euro) and slept. Zac kept the light and the fan open the whole night because of the mosquitos. So I could hardly sleep. I didn't really understand why he didn't wanna use the mosquito's repelent. But it's ok.

The day after we visited a few hinduist temples, and a tantric one. Quite impressive. We couldn't get into the biggest one because we are not hindus... The outside part of the temples is full of work, with scupltures, and 1000 of different forms. Images from their gods, from the sacred animals, maybe about stories... The insides are just plain.
We arrived in puri at 20 h o'clock, and after searching a little bit, we found a nice and cheap hotel in front of the beach. We could see the bengal bay from our the bed!!! Less than 2 euro each, RS100.
It's great to sleep with the sound of the sea again. Everything it's moch more peacefull here.

29/1/05