VARANASI

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After the trials of the previous week or so we were in need of some salvation and we came to the right place..... VARANASI.

Varanasi is a highly significant town for Hindus. It is on the banks of the Ganges river and 60,000 Indians apparantly come here every day to bathe in its supposedly healing and holy waters. Somehow they turn a blind eye to the seriously polluted nature of these waters. The mighty Ganga has 50 sewage outlets in Varanasi region alone, and is so full of faecal bacteria that getting even a drop of it on you seems more of a health hazard than a healing dip.
This does not put off the Indians however, and morning, noon and night they are here in their thousands, scrubbing their souls clean in order to have better karma for their next life.

The river is lined with scores of "ghats", steps and temples where you come to worship, place offerings of flowers and candles in the river, and bathe, and each ghat is significant for certain reasons or for certain people.

Varanasi is a particularly auspicious place to die or be cremated, and there are 2 burning ghats, where dead bodies are carried to the river, given a final dunking in the holy water before having piles of wood and cow dung plonked on top of them and set alight in full view of everyone.

Varanasi is truly amazing and there is a very real "spiritual" feel to the place. The rituals and ceremonies are fascinating to watch and there are all sorts of people here participating. A typical scene might be to your left a mother washing her screaming child in the faecal waters (no wonder its screaming!), to your right might be a naked sahdu (seriously devoted spiritual men) chanting in meditation, and behind you is a boy washing his buffallo. Just down the way is a man offering flowers to the river, kids flying kites, goats running amuk, clothes being bashed against rocks as a way to clean them, guys playing 'ghat-yard' cricket, bulls trying to headbutt people, scammers trying to fleece you of your rupees, musicians playing devotional songs to the 3 million Hindu gods, and the obligatory cow poo, beggars, public urinals, "hello madam", "hello yes", "hello what you want" and throbbing noise that is India.

We have spent 9 days here just absorbing it all and watching the action around us. Has been a much better few days than the total duds before. We were even able to secretly scrounge up a beer or two to wash away our own bad karma from our previously pointless travels - although it was served in a teapot to hide it from the cops as the restaurant had no liqour license.

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Photos

Our guest house
Many hours spent on the balcony with awesome views of the ghats below