Haridwar, the Kumbh Mela.

We finally left on a bus from Delhi somewhere around 11:30pm though our tickets were booked to leave at 9pm and we crammed into the front section of a tourist bus “family compartment” with 2 small Indian guys and the bus driver. Our original bus had been canceled – at least that is what we were told. Our seats, now non-existent. We took the option for the family compartment, only to find that we would be spending the next 8 hours shoulder-to-shoulder, heads up, engaging the night traffic head on.

The Bus ‘s horn was loud. After a few hours that had stopped. Our driver had no headlights or horn for nearly half the journey. I could hear the others concern – and crazy it was indeed, but I let my eyes close and tried to enjoy the caresses of the random guy next to me along with the stiff metal bar that pierced through my shoulder blades. The ride shook me awake at every grinding halt as the driver tended to nod off and nearly smash into the oncoming traffic.

This was their first trip into the wild abyss of India.

With no sleep, 8 hours later following the sunrise we landed in Haridwar. We took a gaze at the Ganges river and explored the city looking for hotels and bus tickets for the following night. Took a stroll through where the naga sadhus reign and met this guy…

He is Baba Narayan of some sort. Here he proceeded to remove his clothing, wrapped his penis up with a pitchfork (as if it was a rubber band), rotated it once and stepped over it providing a sort of step ladder for another to stand on.

This man, Baba Hath Khada (not sure if this is his correct name) has kept his arm in the air since 1973. 

And when the weird is not weird enough, we have Aaron Hibbs (hula hoop champion of 2009) breaking out the hula hoop and making loud noises in an impromptu performance. At first the Babas seemed to enjoy it, but after a crowd appeared their calm relaxed faces turned to worry as they could not make Aaron stop. He kept going while more and more people were arriving at the scene. As perplexing, weird, and self proclaimed holy men, these Sadhus oddly enough were outdone and out-weirded by the Hula master.

Ice Cream anyone?