Varanasi

　
Varanasi is a crazy city, everything is full on smelly and dirty. Later on the day that we arrived after a couple of hours sleep we headed out into the madness. Varanasi is most famous for the Ghats. Ghats are embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. Ghats in Varanasi are an integral compliment to the concept of divinity represented in physical, metaphysical and supernatural elements. All the ghats are locations on "the divine cosmic road", indicative of "its manifest transcendental dimension". Varanasi has at least 84 ghats. Steps in the ghats lead to the banks of River Ganges, including the Dashashwamedh Ghat, the Manikarnika Ghat, the Panchganga Ghat and the Harishchandra Ghat (where Hindus cremate their dead). Most of the ghats are bathing ghats, while others are used as cremation sites sites. The Manikarnika Ghat is the Mahasmasana (meaning: "great cremation ground") and is the primary site for Hindu cremation in the city. Adjoining the ghat, there are raised platforms that are used for death anniversary rituals. With all this is mind we headed down to find the Glats, on our way we got a good introduction into life in Varanasi

Yes that is a dentist on the pavement

We finally made it the Ghats, and the first one we came across was the burning Ghat. Now a couple of weeks before our arrival Varanasi had some really awful floods, so the mud had come up onto the banks. In some places it was about 4/5 foot deep, this meant that we were not able to walk along the river. Also some of the cremations had sort of been shifted along and it was not easy to get a good look at them. We very quickly got latched onto by a very knowledgable man who reckoned he worked at the Ghats.

When the families bring the body down to burn, they first have to buy the wood.

Then they make a pile of wood and place the body on top. Varanasi is known as a very holy place to be cremated and apparently many Indians come to Varanasi to die, so that they cae be cremated here. As with the other cremation sites we have seen, once the burning is over any remains are swept into the river. The guy told us that when a person cannot afford to buy the wood, the people donate it, and then rake through the ashes afterwards to try and pick up any jewellery or gold teeth to cover the cost. Although this is a very holy place to be cremated there are some people that cannot be cremated here for varying reasons it would seem. These include pregnant women and children as they are believed to be pure and do not need burning. Also people with leprosy and snake bites for varying reasons depending on who you believe. These people are thrown into the Ganges whole with a few rocks to weigh them down, mmmmm nice. 

Varanasi is often referred to as "the city of temples", "the holy city of India", "the religious capital of India", "the city of lights", "the city of learning", and "the oldest living city on earth." In 1897, Mark Twain, said of Varanasi, "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."

Now despite the very knowledgable man assuring us that his guide services were free, we are not silly. So true to course after he gave us this knowledge we were then frog marched to see a silk looming factory. It actually was pretty interesting and as it turns out there are 700 people employed behind the ghats in these silk looming houses.

Next stop was another one of the Ghats and here you can really see how much the mud had come up onto the banks

Just along from here we found a place to sit a rest our weary bones. Believe me when i say that India is a hugely tiring place, not only is it 35+ most days with humidity of god knows what, people are on you constantly to sell you everything from tuk tuk rides, to drugs, to silks to just about anything, but it is non stop. So of course as soon as we sat down we had a little girl and her gang selling us a offering to the Ganges. They are petals in a little dish with a candle in the middle and it is supposed to give you good karma, when you float it down the river. The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus and is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs. It is worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. So of course never wanting to turn down a bit of good karma, we bought a couple. But only on the condition that they wade through the mud to put them in the river for us, well you gotta make these kids earn their money.

This woman and man, I have no idea what they were doing, but it was pretty funny to watch

The following day we returned to the same spot and they were making a valiant effort to get rid of the mud

That afternoon we made our way to one of the most famous sites in Varanasi, the Golden Temple. Located on the outskirts of the Ganges, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple – dedicated to Varanasi's presiding deity Shiva (Vishwanath – "Lord of the world") – is an important Hindu temple and one of the 12 Jyotirlinga Shiva temples. It is believed that a single view of Vishwanath Jyotirlinga is worth more than that of other jyotirlingas. The temple has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. The Gyanvapi Mosque, which is adjacent to the temple, is the original site of the temple. The temple, as it exists now, also called Golden Temple. Well that all sounds lovely doesnt it, so we traipsed back to the hotel to get our passports, because you need them to get through the massive amount of security guarding this temple. By this time Craigs back was starting to really hurt and we both very hot and tired, but we soldiered on. So first you have to make you way through the maze of alleyways than run around this temple, full of hawkers selling literally everything. There are about 30 gates and each time you reach one, 1 of the 10 policemen sitting there, will say no and direct you onto the next gate. About an hour later we finally reached a gate we were allowed through, through a metal detector and then a bag search. Seemingly happy that we were not terrorists they let us in. Well we were well aware that we could not enter the actual temple, but the whole thing is surrounded by a 15 foot brick wall. So you can see precisely nothing, it was a complete waste of time and a big dissapointment.

But as we finally made our way out of the maze of alleyways the sight that met us more than made up for it. There was a massive parade of people on floats and horses and best of all an elephant. Now of course as no cameras are allowed in the temple we did not have ours with us. But knowing how much i love elephants Craig limped an i sort of ran/ walked back to the hotel to get the camera.

Noone seemed to know why the elephant was there but he was just wandering on his own by the time we got back, with a huge amount of security around him, and he was collecting money in his trunk.

After all the travelling and a couple of days of Varanasi we were both pretty tired, over hot and Craigs back had been hurting. The guy in our hotel Santos, who by the way had some of the best stories I have ever heard. He spent both evenings sitting on the floor of our room in only his sarong regaling us with some of the funniest and saddest stories about India I have ever heard. My favourite description of India came from Santos, who so nicely described it as a twisty country.

Anyway slightly off topic, well Santos told us that there was a hotel with a pool not to far away, that we could use for £3 each. Well we were straight there, and what a lovely afternoon we had, and it was really quiet. 

Well until the Rickshaw run arrived, this consisted of about 50 people from all over the world. All of whom had paid out £1800 for the chance to drive a tuk tuk from Shillong to Jaisalmer, with no back up support or maps. it sounds like a pretty crazy adventure and the website even states that people have been killed and permanently disabled doing this, they are a pretty crazy bunch

 
We trudged our way back to our very hot, quite noisy hotel, not really feeling ready for the overnight train to Agra. So after checking my trusty friend Agoda, we found out that the Hotel Surya, where we spent the afternoon was only $20, so we decided to check in for a couple of days.

Although i was sorry to say goodbye to our monkeys that hung around the rooftops

It was so lovely, really quiet, the air-con worked, the pool was there and best of all they had a spa. So we spent the next couple days around the pool, which did really seem to help Craigs back

During our time here I spent some time at a womens detention centre, this i will talk about in another post.

Our last thing to do in Varanasi before moving onto Agra to see the Taj Mahal was a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges to see the Ghats. So at 5.15am we were ready to go, when we arrived down at the Ghats it was still dark.

Despite our boat man getting far too close to some of the bathers it was a really lovely way to see Varanasi wake up.

 

Now I think Varanasi is one of the most polluted rivers in the world but I have been realiably told by mum that they have found it contains some sort of antibacterial qualities. And to be fair it must because they do everything in it, bathing, drinking, washing clothes, toileting, washing food, and burying the dead. Although mum did follow this up with dont take my word for it, and no dont bathe in it because i dont want to get the blame when you get sick. So suffice to say neither of us leapt in, or drank any, but Craig did dunk his hair in and dunked my hand. To be fair the water did not smell at all, but then about 5 minutes after that we saw the bloated body of a child stuck between two of the boats, so that was enough for me.

On the way back we did see in some of the houses how far the mud had come up in the floods, you can see here up to the first set of 3 windows.

And here you can see why the hotel sheets in Varanasi are all sooooo clean....

When we landed we got a lovely street breakfast

On our way to get dinner on the last night I saw a bead wharehouse, imagine Craigs despair, but in we went. Not only did they have loads of broken beads just thrown out on the street, of which we now have about a kilo, because they will be perfect for mosaics (dont worry I am carrying them, not the injured one, I'm not that mean!). They also had the workshop downstairs where the artisans where making the beads, it was really nice to see especially as they use a virtually identical method to me.

Oh and they had some really lovely bead curtains

The plan was the following evening to get the night train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. But as you will see from my next post I have been spending some times with victims of rape. Added to this that morning there was a story about a woman being dragged off her bed on the train, dragged off the train, raped and dumped off the tracks. And as much as i trust Craig to protect me with his life, one, i dont want to put either of us in that position, and two, I cant expect him to stay awake for 13 hours to watch me.

So call me a drama queen but the morning of the day we were due to get the train i woke up just feeling sick. I was completely dreading it, we decided in the end that the stress was just not worth it. I managed to negotiate a private taxi for about £100, this sounds a lot but a small price to pay i think for me not to be molested or worse.

So off we go at 2pm in the afternoon, on a journey that is supposed to take 6 hours, to Agra to see the Taj Mahal........