Varanasi 12/28 – 12/29

I was feeling a bit better the next day and had slept for most of the night...although there was quite a monkey ruckus during the night. Sounded like the monkeys were having a civil war. Also, there was very loud chanting around 5:00 in the morning.

We started out by exploring Varanasi along the ghats....which were full of touts asking us to go on a boat ride, buy flowers, puja (offerings), jewelry, etc. We could not walk more than a few feet without being approached by someone asking us to take a boat ride. It's understandable because those people are just doing their jobs, but it can be very tiring after hours of travel or being sick. You want to help but you can't help everybody and it seems like everyone wants a piece of you. But, the ghats were interesting anyway. Ghats are basically steps that go down to the river. People bathe here. They do laundry. And most importantly, they cremate people at the burning ghats. The entire ghat area is constantly filled with smoke as they burn people 24 hours a day every single day and the smell of burning bodies is a constant presence. The bodies are wrapped in white cloth and placed on a stack of wood. It takes several hours to reduce a body to ashes. Once it is done, a family member (males only) will throw the leftover fragments into the river. Hindus believe that if you die or are cremated in Varanasi, you are guaranteed release from the incarnation process.

We made it to the main burning ghat quickly as it was very near our hotel. As we got closer, a man approached us and told me that it was forbidden to take pictures at the burning ghats. He told us he was an untouchable, the lowest class, and was one of the preparers of the bodies. He told us about the burning ghat and about how there are people living in the tower at the main burning ghat awaiting death. These are people with no families and hope for donations of powder (?) used as offerings during their burning ceremonies. He, of course, wanted us to make a donation. We told him that we had just arrived, we would think about this, and come back later. This, of course, upset him and he called us selfish people. We later learned from our guidebook that this is a typical ocurrance one should try to avoid at the burning ghat.

In the afternoon we headed inward past the old city to visit Monkey Temple when we ran into an Italian girl asking about a hotel recommendation....we tried to help and ended up following her to her homestay and then going off to explore the city with her and her companion Fernando. We spent the rest of the day with them hanging out in the city.

Varanasi is very strange...said to be the oldest city in the world. Its so old and filthy it feels like you are in medieval times. People seem to live in close relation with animals, there is crap and urine everywhere, cows and bulls walk the streets just like the tourists, the streets in the old city are tight and cool and smelly, there is a fog that hangs over the city, and of course there is the ever present smoke. Then there are the nightly noises. There can be chimes, bells, chanting, and people just yelling strange things in the night. Since there are so many small temples everywhere, it can be pretty loud due to all the ceremonies that take place day or night. It is quite surreal.

The Burning Ghat.

Lunch Time.

Sunset Cruise.

Puja Ceremony.

Bulls on Parade at the Ghats.

Peter explores with fellow travelers.

Downtown Varanasi.

Me at crazy bamboo construction site.

Locals relaxing.

The next morning I awoke to find out that Peter broke the internet USB driver! He was up most of the night because of dogs howling outside our window and had apparently dropped the computer directly onto our internet stick!. We were going to have to somehow find a new one in this ancient town. We wandered around the streets until we found what were looking for...which of course meant having to jump through some hoops involving documentation on our hotel's official letterhead and some special stamp. In the evening we took a sunset boat ride to observe the city from the river and went back to the ghats to watch the Puja ceremony. This is a ceremony that occurs daily at the ghats in honor of the gods.