Varanasi
Varanasi sits on the Ganges River. This is where we land after a month of trekking in Nepal and it is culture shock.
We are staying at the Shiva Paying Guesthouse, and they send a driver to the airport to meet us. On the drive into the city we are in three accidents, one with a motorcycle, one with a cow and another one I barely noticed. We didn’t bother to stop,but our driver had words through the window. It’s really, really hot. The road kept getting narrower as we drove. At one point we heard a strange language bellowing out over the noise of the traffic and the busy street. That was a Muslim prayer service being broadcast, a daily occurrence. Finally the driver stops and this is as far as he can drive. A little boy is there to guide us the rest of the way that we must walk. Thank goodness for backpacks, you would not want to roll anything through these streets. We jostled our way through the narrow streets, squeezing between cows and motorcycles, street vendors, dogs and children playing soccer. It’s almost 40 degrees now.
When we arrive at our hotel, the young boy brings us to the office of a man who says to us “Please, sit down, rest – you have arrived”, and indeed we had. Our room is on the third floor, overlooking the Ganges River. We have air conditioning, a beautiful 4 poster bed with mosquito netting wafting romantically in the breeze, a well equipped private bathroom with both a western and squat toilet, a shower – and cold beer. Ahhh …
Varanasi has been India’s spiritual city for thousands of years. The waters of the Mother Ganga (Ganges River) is holy, and Hindus cremate their dead on the riverbank here. There are three crematorium pyres in use here all day long, every day. Funeral parades through the streets are a common site. The few people that cannot be cremated, priests or young boys, for instance, still go into the river. Water buffalo come every night to swim. The entire cities laundry is washed in the river. People travel from all over India to swim in and drink of the waters of the Mother Ganges.
There are many ancient palaces built along the river, abandoned now but still belonging to other cities and districts in India. These were where people near the end of their lives would come to stay, so they could die here.
The main Hindu Temple is located near the cremation area on the river, and a Muslim mosque has been built right beside it, almost touching. There is clearly tension between the two religions here. As you near the temple at prayer time, crowds in the narrow streets thicken. When you get close enough, there are soldiers, with dogs and machine guns on the streets. It would be unimaginable bloodshed if a machine gun were used on these crowded, claustrophobic streets. I don’t know what situation has led to this tension.
One day we stopped at the famous Blue Lassi, for a refreshing yogurt drink. While we enjoy our treat, with other tourists that have wandered in here, we watch body after body carried down the street to the cremation site. You can watch the cremation, but you cannot photograph them. Varanasi is also famous for silk, and I get to tour a warehouse, and meet with a silk man.
Every night in Varanasi there is a huge Hindu celebration. Thousands of people attend, having traveled from all over India. The celebration takes place on the shore of the Ganges River, and many people are watching from boats. It’s a celebration complete with fire dancers, chanting and street vendors.
Sarnath, a town not far from Varanasi, is whereBuddha delivered his first sermon in 528 BC. We were able to hire a tuk-tuk to take us there. This is where we first noticed that I am rather famous here. A group of young men fall in love with me and we take many photos together. At one point Ray wants to get in the photo and it becomes clear its me they want.
Before leaving Varanasi we take in the sunrise boat tour of the river. If we thought the river was busy during the day, the crowds at sunrise were amazing. We lit a candle and let it go into the river in a little tin cup. Normally I would consider this littering, but I couldn’t see that it mattered here.
After three wonderful days in Varanasi we begin our Indian train adventure.
