What's a Ghat, Anyway?

For a while, I thought it was one of these...



Turns out it's actually also one of these...



Wikipedia told me it's city in Libya.

Dictionary.com says this: ghat 1.a wide set of steps descending to a river, esp. a river used for bathing, 2. a mountain pass, or 3. a mountain range or escarpment.

My only point is, when a Westerner comes to India, it's sort of assumed that we know what a "Ghat" is, but I had never heard the word before. There are two main "ghats" in India, when you're talking about mountain ranges. The Boondogglers crossed both of them, the Western Ghats between Goa and Hyderabad, and after I joined up, the Eastern Ghats in Orissa. They're very pretty, and look a lot like the southern Appalachians, in West Virginia and places like that.

Around this time, the weather started getting pretty cold. Especially in the mornings. Here's Rogier and Benji bundled up. Notice Benji's absurd get-up. He was usually in a sleeping bag, too.





Also, I was thinking about the song that I mentioned in my previous post, Charles & Eddie's "Look into My Eyes," in my opinion the best song on Rogier's iPod and undoubtedly my personal Rickshaw Run anthem. I recently saw this, the music video for the same song, and it's amazing. Especially when the white guy with all the hair products (is he Charles? or Eddie???) whirls around and shouts "Oh yeah!" into the camera around 2:10. Watch this video, and you'll understand the Rickshaw Run. Or look at these photos of Rogier dancing to "Look Into My Eyes," and you'll get the same sensation: