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Published: January 18th 2007
Hey guys
We’ve been in Varanasi just over a day now and it’s not been anywhere near as intense as we thought it’d be, in fact it’s pretty chilled out. We’ve been taking it really easy, no guides or anything just wandering around and taking it all in. Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities in India and also one of the oldest (1400 BC). It sits right on the Ganges River with ghats going down to the waters edge (big steps) all the way along. The Hindu pilgrims believe that all your sins can be washed away in the Ganges and consequently it’s a rather popular bathing spot! There are also a number of burning ghats where you can essentially go and watch people being cremated on small pyres….sounds pretty grim but its fascinating (Hindu’s believe that if you ‘expire’ here you are liberated from the process of reincarnation). The burning ghats run 24 hrs a day and we’re told that it’s a very fine art, calculating exactly how much wood to use for each individual. I’m probably going into way too much detail but it generally takes 3 hours to cremate a body and if you use
the cheapest available wood its 4000 rupees (50 quid) or at the other end you’ve got sandal wood which costs 40,000 rupees. We spent quite a bit time at one of the burning ghats yesterday watching the various rituals unfold at the different stages of cremation.
As for the river, its pretty dirty but the people use it daily for washing their clothes, bathing, drinking etc and they all seem pretty sprightly for it, though I doubt it would do us any good! We took a boat ride this evening at sunset which gave us an awesome view of the city. While rowing along our boatman pointed out a body that was being taken out into the river for dumping because the individual couldn’t be cremated (not sure if its through lack of funds or tradition that certain people can’t be).
One of the highlights of our visit here has been seeing the gangetic dolphins. They’re not quite what you’d think of as dolphins but really interesting nevertheless (I’ve set dani the task of photographing one…not easy!). They’re about two metres long, blind and have a 2-3 ft long snout with rather sharp teeth!!! The waters so murky
that they use echo-location to detect their prey (small fish not humans….hopefully!) but obviously being mammals they have to come up for air quite regularly which is Dani’s chance to snap them.
Dani’s had a bit of a dodgy tummy for the last few days and so we went to the hospital this morning to get some antibiotics which was an experience in itself! Makes the NHS look positively awesome! Having said that we did locate the pharmacy without too much difficulty ( despite people laying around all over the place) and they were happy enough to hand over some norfloxacin (as recommended by LP) which was a result (or at least we hope!). Dan being the wimp that he is, tried to hold his breath the whole time we were inside the hospital as he was convinced that he’d catch something far worse than a stomach bug…..we’ll keep you posted!!
We’re staying at the Hotel Alka which is pretty decent and has excellent views of the river.
We’re off to Kanha Tiger reserve tomorrow night. It’s a twelve hour train ride and then 6 hour car ride..should be fun, especially with Dani’s tummy!
Take Care
Dani and Dan xxx
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Dan and Dani
Dan and Dani
Boat Trip
Not exactly! I think we were lucky that it had a bottom!