I got to Varanasi and it was actually not as extreme as I was expecting.
Yes, it is really spiritual, and yes, you do have to put up with some fairly annoying people hassling you about giving them money or whether or not you want hash (!), but overall it has been quite a pleasant experience!
The train here was lovely because, even though I had to leave at 10.30pm and waste a whole day just lounging around, I ended up on the train with some lovely people! Its always great when you can just chill out and relax when traveling long miles.
I got to Varanasi at about 11 am on Monday (19th November) and very quickly found a hotel: ‘Hotel Mishra’ which has lovely clean rooms and a balcony with a sort of clear view of the Ganges. It is in the Old City which isn’t really that old, only a few hundred years according to the Lonely Planet!
Once I had got settled in I took a walk: I am right next to the ‘Lilita Ghat’ and one of the ‘Burning Ghats’. I headed towards Hotel Puja which has a really high rooftop restaurant with almost 360 degree views of the city. I was famished by this point as I hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch and by now it was past 3pm! I tried Momos and Mashed Potato, a very good choice.
There was a really grumpy man on one of the roof terrances below me who kept looking over at me and shouting, ‘…no photos…’ I can understand that, yes, it must get very annoying with all the tourists who keep taking photos of you, but I had neither a camera out or the want to take photos of him, so I was slightly miffed.
At the Ghats I saw what seemed to be a million people chilling with little baskets of fruit and incense sticks, singing and praying. I know now that there was a festival, but I just thought that this was a normal day at Varanasi!
I ended up walking along the very busy main road from the main part of town down to the Main Ghat and buying yarn for me to knit a hat for myself, also getting passport photos taken for the imminent border crossing. The man in the camera shop was an absolute loony.
For dinner I decided to eat in my hotel, as that too has a rooftop restaurant with great views, I went all out and had ‘Egg and Chips’, something that I would never have dreamed of eating at home 🙂 So clearly you can see that I am branching out!
I was woken up this morning (Wednesday) to the sound of what appeared to be bombs going off outside my balcony! Really it was people setting off fireworks…at 4AM!
I was due to get up at 5am anyways to go on an early morning boat ride down the Ganges, but I did not appreciate being woken up an hour early.
The boat trip was slightly random; I went down to the hotel reception and sat down with one of the hotel men, he looked of the random cleaner/cooking/handyman variety and told me that I should wait there. After a short while he suddenly got up and told me to follow him. I followed him down to the river where he quickly told me to wait there for the boat, and then walked off! This led me to believe that he was going to go off and get the boat driver, but no, along he came after a good ten minutes, rowing his heart out!
It was just me on the boat, which was nice because I could move around. I didn’t very much, but I could have if I had wanted to!
As I traveled down the river I saw a lot of different Ghats and every single one of them was packed to the rafters with people, most of whom were at least ankle deep in the Ganges. It was crazy to see so many people. Most of the people there was fully clothed and they looked freezing!
I was wearing my trousers, a vest top and was cocooned in my pashmina and was still bloody cold, these people must have gotten a right chill!
As the sun came up it was the most fantastic thing and I can say, even though I am not a spiritual or religious person, that it was really special. As the sun began to be visible above the horizon all the people along the river bank and on the Ghats began to shout and cheer, some throwing their flowers into the air, some pouring an unidentified liquid into the river, all in complete exhilaration about the new day. It was lovely, it really was 🙂
Following this trip I promptly went back to bed but unfortunately I awoke again an hour later with a really bad stomach ache. So I did what any normal craftster would do, and took my mind off of it with a good knit and crochet. I am currently knitting a hat and crocheting some gloves for myself for Nepal .
After I felt a little better, the rest of the day was spent having a good mooch around the Old City and running errands before I leave tomorrow (MUM, you should be getting my Lonely Planet at some point).
I also stood and watched the ‘Burning Ghats’ today.
I don’t really know how I feel about them. I know that its supposed to be a sad but happy celebration here, but I just think that because we are so sheltered from it all back home in England that its just made me feel weird.
The bodies are walked through the streets on bamboo stretchers, covered with a thin cloth and adorned with flower garlands and candles. Once they get to the ‘Burning Ghat’ they are weighed and enough wood is arranged underneath in a funeral pyre so that the body will be completely consumed. It is very interesting and, like I said before, I feel strange about it, but also with a morbid fascination as to what happens.
I did also watch the sunset praying celebration at the Main Ghat and this was very interesting. There was seven men dressed in bright gold traditional dress and they was doing a sort of dance with massive big jugs that was on fire and with flowers that they ended up throwing over me all. It was actually much more impressive than that…
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