The Holy City of Varanasi

From Agra, and the Taj Mahal, we headed to Varanasi, the Holy City of the Hindus, formerly called Banares. It's here that people come to cleanse themselves in the River Ganga (Ganges), especially first thing in the morning. Also on the banks of the river people cremate the dead, there's a special site where there are 24 hour burnings. When we sailed past on a boat we had hired at sunset we counted about 16 fires at the one time. Understandably, We were not allowed to photograph the cremations.

Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world, and much of it feels like it hasn't changed in hundreds of years. For a couple of days we stayed in a guesthouse overlooking the river, with fantastic views from one end of the city to the other and right across the surprisingly wide river. Unfortunately right outside our window was an incredibly brght light which attracted every flying bug in Varanasi and our room proved to be anything but bugproof. I spent the night jumping out of bed every two minutes to thwack some low-flying buzzing interloper, Denise couldn't work out which was the more annoying, me or the mossies! Behind our guesthouse there was a labyrinth of narrow Dickensian alleys, filled with little niches (it would be an exaggeration to call them shops) of traders, repairers, cleaners, and craftsmen, each lit with candles or oil lamps as the tall, dominant buildings blocked out the light at street level.


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The rest of out time (4 or 5 days) we stayed in a lovely, clean hotel (Hotel Surya) which was an oasis of calm and serenity amidst the madness and bustle which was the city of Varanasi. The Hotel owner has bought and is in the process of renovating an adjoining magnificent old palace, which was once occupied by the King of Nepal, and is over 200 years old. It will become a sauna and Yoga centre 'for the Swedish tourists' when its finished in about 6 months!

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