Varanasi is the holy city of the Ganges of N India, where Hindu pilgrims come from all over to bathe in the holy water, be cremated at one of the burning ghats, watch the nightly Ganga festival, and participate in various other ceremonies. Its considered one of the holiest if not the holiest cities in India. It is also a complete shithole. My perceptions could be slightly colored because I was sick the entire time I was there, but really I think its just a fact of the town itself.
It is definitely a place to see and has redeeming qualities--but the tourist brochures and national geographic spreads don't tell the whole story. Varanasi is not for the faint of heart. Seasoned travelers only need apply...There is a magical quality to floating the river at dawn or dusk and watching the local go about there business. The views of the riverside multicolored buildings and the views of the Ghats in low light are spectacular. The Ganga festival is really something to see, with lots of trippy music from sitars, drums, bells, and chanting. But, this portion of the Ganges is highly polluted, and away from the river the entire town smells like a mixture feces and diesel fumes. Near the river you can replace the diesel with the mixture of burning sandal wood, inscense and Ghee (a buttery concoction rubbed on bodies prior to cremation). There is a constant haze in the air, which I imagine is conglomeration of burnt wood, burnt Indians, and dust from the riverbed. My hotel was located just above one the Ghats, which gave me a great view of the river, and got me away from the noise of town. When I first go there and looked down at the river I thought "oh look there are a few people making campfires". Wrong. I was right above one of the burning ghats. It was a smaller, secondary ghat, but still it seemed like there were one or 2 fires going on pretty much all day and into the evening.
As mentioned in prior posts, you must be on your toes when walking around in the streets of India due to the various obstacles. This is compounded in Varanasi by the random appearance of dead bodies. You'll be walking down the street minding your own business and bam here comes a dead guy on a stretcher parting the people out of the way. Or a truck pulls up towing a small trailer loaded with a couple of bodies and they just plop them off to the side of the road so that the people from the ghat can come and get them. Very Medieval. The people there don't seem to mind. They'll say watch out...another dead body. But I felt like I was in Monty Python's Holy grail. The only think missing was John Clease and Eric Idle yelling "Bring out your dead! Bring out your Dead!"
It is definitely a place to see and has redeeming qualities--but the tourist brochures and national geographic spreads don't tell the whole story. Varanasi is not for the faint of heart. Seasoned travelers only need apply...There is a magical quality to floating the river at dawn or dusk and watching the local go about there business. The views of the riverside multicolored buildings and the views of the Ghats in low light are spectacular. The Ganga festival is really something to see, with lots of trippy music from sitars, drums, bells, and chanting. But, this portion of the Ganges is highly polluted, and away from the river the entire town smells like a mixture feces and diesel fumes. Near the river you can replace the diesel with the mixture of burning sandal wood, inscense and Ghee (a buttery concoction rubbed on bodies prior to cremation). There is a constant haze in the air, which I imagine is conglomeration of burnt wood, burnt Indians, and dust from the riverbed. My hotel was located just above one the Ghats, which gave me a great view of the river, and got me away from the noise of town. When I first go there and looked down at the river I thought "oh look there are a few people making campfires". Wrong. I was right above one of the burning ghats. It was a smaller, secondary ghat, but still it seemed like there were one or 2 fires going on pretty much all day and into the evening.
As mentioned in prior posts, you must be on your toes when walking around in the streets of India due to the various obstacles. This is compounded in Varanasi by the random appearance of dead bodies. You'll be walking down the street minding your own business and bam here comes a dead guy on a stretcher parting the people out of the way. Or a truck pulls up towing a small trailer loaded with a couple of bodies and they just plop them off to the side of the road so that the people from the ghat can come and get them. Very Medieval. The people there don't seem to mind. They'll say watch out...another dead body. But I felt like I was in Monty Python's Holy grail. The only think missing was John Clease and Eric Idle yelling "Bring out your dead! Bring out your Dead!"
We enjoyed reading your blog and I know now India is a place I don't want to visit. We hope you are feeling much better and are out and about seeing things. Write again and let us know how you are doing.
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