Day 79 - Varanasi, India

Day 79 – Hers

Up at 4:30. Ugh. But we have still been a bit spoiled here – a huge bed, soft pillows for the first time in a month, air conditioning, HOT showers and a swimming pool.  We assembled at 5 and loaded into the mini vans for a drive through the predawn light, passing an all-night singing competition (part of the festival) to the square by St Thomas’ church, only about 500 yards from the Ganges.  We walked down to the main ghat (A ghat is a set of steps leading to the river – there are 84 in all, one for each 100,000 beings in existence, according to Hindu belief) with hundreds of other tourists. Only a few of the sadhus, hawkers and market traders were up – those particularly keen to sell their flower petals, neem medicine sticks, postcards and memory cards (these seemed a bit of an odd thing to be selling in such abundance) - many still slept in metal shuttered doorways, awaiting a more civilised hour.  However, when we reached the river, the ghats teemed with people – tourists, locals, Brahmin priests, sadhus, families awaiting cremations, boatmen, hawkers, bathers, etc. etc. etc.   We climbed into a boat and were rowed upstream as the sun rose and we all photographed the scene like things possessed (maybe that’s why so many memory cards are for sale....).  Every once in a while, a boat would pull alongside ours, selling trinkets, containers for holy water, postcards  - and, in the case of one very enterprising soul, DVDs that he was advertising on a player he had set up in his boat.

Our local guide tried to convince us that despite 600 cremations per day (ashes straight into the river), several other river burials for those not allowed to be cremated (sadhus, pregnant women, lepers, children under 10 and snakebite victims), assorted daily ablutions and rituals, the water is bacteria neutral.  Only Rob was brave enough to deliberately splash himself.  I had 3 dots of spray land on my arm – that will have to suffice for my ‘purification’......

Apparently, purification in the Ganges and cremation in Varanasi releases one’s spirit from the cycle of reincarnation.  Every Hindu who can afford it wants to come here at least once – and wants to die here.  I took a few photos to send to our Nepalese family. I am certain they would love to come.

As the sun rose, we were rowed back downstream, past the main ghat and the largest crematorium where several cremations were taking place.   We disembarked and then walked through the narrow, medieval alleyways encountering, temples, cows, chickens, dogs, goats, children, shops and a lot of poo back to the main road.  We told not to be disconcerted by the large police and armed guard presence.  The area between the temples and the mosque is well-protected, ensuring everyone’s safety.

Back at the hotel, we had breakfast and then our Northern India pre-trip meeting.  Many of the others then went off to a silk factory.  We have been on so many of those tours that we decided, instead, to get a few more hours of sleep  - so hit those fluffy, soft pillows.  We got up in time for lunch and a swim in the hotel pool before sorting ourselves out for our evening adventure- back to the ghats for the sunset rituals  - the whole place much busier when the shops are open!

 

Day 79 – His.

 We went down to the old town again and took a boat out onto the Ganges as the sun was sinking. To be honest, apart from that, Varanasi is a dump. It is the world’s oldest living city – about 5,000 years of constant habitation – it is the centre of the Hindu world and our guide told us it is the only place in the world where a river runs from south to north (Note from Patti: The Nile?). But apart from that it is still a dump. The streets are filled with beggars, hawkers, rubbish and cows and none so much as the streets going to the Ghats as we discovered on our evening trip. It was very different to the morning trip and filled with the faithful and tourists going to watch them and the seven priests who give a prayer to Shiva and the Mother Ganges every night from seven podiums above one of the Ghats. We took a boat down to the crematorium and then back to the main ghat in time for the priests to start. We sat for almost an hour as the service went on and floated candles on the river before getting back into our bus and heading for the hotel. The streets of Varanasi wear you out very quickly – there is such a press of people it takes your breath away but we have decided that is india. We leave tomorrow and I get a sense most of the people here can’t wait to get away – me neither.