Varanasi

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Thursday evening our group went out on the River Ganga. We went upstream a little ways, went out to the middle, and floated back. While on the river we released candles into the water as a prayer ceremony. They were in little leaf bowls and the candles were in tiny wooden bowls surrounded by flower petals, so it was all biodegradable. For the ceremony you have to release at least 100; I think we released 108 because that’s a significant number. So it took a while. We didn’t get to go very far up the river because the water level was too high. A dam was released upstream somewhere so the river is rising and rising. We were only out there for about 50 minutes instead of 2 hours. We didn’t have to pay, but we didn’t get the full experience.

So when I last left you the plan was to go to Sarnath on Friday and then take the overnight train to Kolkata, arriving Saturday morning. I was going to try to meet my dad for dinner in Varanasi on Friday before we left since our time slightly overlapped before meeting him in Kolkata on Sunday morning. So I left a note at my dad’s hotel for them to give him when he checked in to see if he could meet me. They called the company he’s travelling in to find out what time his train arrived and then told me he should be at the hotel by 11 am (on Friday). At about 10:50 I checked at the hotel before we left to Sarnath. No luck. About 20 minutes later when Anita, Ana, and I were bargaining with tuk-tuk drivers to get to Sarnath, this tourist car stopped in the road and this tall white American leaned out and said “hey, get out of the road”. It was my dad. Apparently he was driving past and recognized my “Eryn stance” as he put it even though he wasn’t expecting to see me because he thought I had already left for Kolkata. So I got to see him early! It was really exciting! After being gone from home for 3 months (4 if you count June in D.C.) it was really really good to see my dad! He told us that the main museum at Sarnath was closed on Fridays so Ana and Anita decided to go to some temples in Varanasi and I went into my dad’s hotel with him. We decided I might as well just leave my tour a day early and travel with him from here on out; we just had to see if we could get a train ticket. While we waited we went and got breakfast at the English café that I told you about and I loaded some pictures using his laptop because they had free wireless. Within the next 2 hours we got my train ticket, I signed the forms for leaving my tour early, said goodbye to my group, and moved my bags across the street to my dad’s air-conditioned hotel room. Yay! The only thing is I have a third-class ticket to Kolkata and he’s in second class so I’ll be sitting with 5 random people for 14 hours but the extra time in Varanasi was worth it!

From what I saw of Varanasi with my tour group it seemed to just be another city. The whole sacred, bathing on the ghats, spiritual thing seemed to be more talk than anything else. But we just weren’t doing the right things. In the afternoon we went to Shri Vishwanath Temple on the University campus. I had been to the University yesterday but not to the temple. And this time I was in an air-conditioned car with a guide. We also went to another Hindu temple and walked around a little. Then banana lassis, cheese naan, and pakoras as a snack before our evening boat ride. The boat was just the 2 of us and 2 oarsmen. We floated downstream as the sun set, ending at Dasaswamedh Ghat, the main ghat, in time for puja, the evening flower ceremony prayer. I had thought that the releasing of the flower candles that we did from our boat the evening before was the flower ceremony but I think I was mistaken. The puja was way cool! There were a bunch of people crowded onto the steps and then in the shallow water were 5 low platforms for the priests. They actually conducted the ceremony, the other people mostly just observed; it wasn’t a very interactive prayer except for some clapping along with the bells. The priests did a bunch with incense and candles, all to do with the 4 directions. Someone else was ringing a bell and another person was chanting/singing almost. It’s hard to describe exactly what they were doing; you kind of had to be there, but it was definitely the highlight of Varanasi. Then we took the boat back up the riveragainst the current. The oarsmen had to work pretty hard! Part of the way they got out and walked along the ghats, pulling the boat.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to leave our hotel at 5:45 to go on the Ganges at sunrise. The morning is the time when most people bathe in the river. Our boat went upstream a ways and then back down. There were lots of people bathing. The men wore hardly anything, often along the lines of a speedo, but the women wore their whole sari. Cultural customs.
After our boat ride we walked with our guide through part of the Old City, little winding pedestrian-only streets. We also went to the Golden Temple but we only got to see the spire from outside of the wall. So many people go there that you can’t go in unless you are a Hindu going to pray. The whole spire is covered in gold, hence the name. It’s the main temple in Varanasi out of the 5,000 that are there. Most of them are just small holes-in-the-wall, more like shrines than actual temples.

Back to the hotel for an included buffet breakfast and then to Sarnath. We went to the main temple where we heard a bunch about Buddhism and then to the archaeological sight. Sarnath is one of 5 most holy places for Buddhists. It is where Buddhism was born, where Buddha gave his first sermon to his first 5 disciples after he gained Enlightenment. The archaeological sight used to be monasteries and a bunch of stupas. Now it’s basically just the bases, most of it is gone. We also went to the museum.

Then we had a couple hours before our train departed for Kolkata so we were dropped off at a 5-star hotel to relax and eat. It sounds lame to sit in a 5-star hotel when you’re in India, I know, but we had already been sightseeing for over 6 hours and had done all the main stuff in Varanasi. Plus when it’s hot it’s nice to relax in a swimming pool and air-conditioned lobby and restaurant. And while restaurants at 5-star hotels are more expensive, they still aren’t even as expensive as a normal Indian restaurant in the States. And the food was delicious! We had 2 different chicken dishes. One was in a cashewnut gravy which was alright, but the really good one was in a tomato-based sauce and was spectacular! It was called Murg tikka lababdor (I think, something like that). One of the best meals I’ve had in India! That and the navratan korma in Bharatpur. And the Rajasthani gatte in Jaisalmer. It was weird though because when they brought our food they served us; they actually scooped it from the curry dish onto our plate. It was kind of weird. I like serving my own food because I like to have the rice with the curry on top instead of beside it. But I guess at fancy restaurants they do everything for you!

My dad and I were in different cars on the train; he was in 2nd class, I was in 3rd. However, in his compartment of 4 there were only 2 Spanish women so after a little bit I moved up there to sit with him, intending to move back to my own seat if a fourth person showed up. We lucked out though and no one ever came.

My tour guide really failed us when it came to Varanasi. I’m really glad I stayed the extra day because it completely changed my perception of Varanasi. The evening puja and early morning boat ride to see the ghats are what everyone goes to Varanasi to see. I thought we were doing to right thing by doing the evening boat ride/ceremony but the flower ceremony that everyone talks about was really the one that my dad and I saw. Our tour guide should have known about that one and told us to make sure to go see it. In every city we’ve had to kind of find the important stuff on our own and for the most part I think we have, just not in Varanasi. Intrepid did a pretty lousy job of preparing our tour guide. We were his first group and he hadn’t even been to most of the cities that our tour visited so he couldn’t give us the local insider advice, which is the whole point of having a local leader from the country! Kind of disappointing.

My dad’s India experience has been quite different from my own. I’ve been doing it the basic way: riding on local buses, staying in hotels with only ceiling fans and cold water, exploring the cities via tuk-tuk. He’s been more pampered: air-conditioned hotels, air-conditioned cars, his own driver and guide and organizer in each city. His way is how most non-student tourists travel through India because while it’s more expensive than what I did it’s still not that expensive. It would be nice to have a guide in the cities to learn more and to make sure that none of the good sights are missed, but for people my age I think the tour I did is the better option. We get to actually experience more of the real India, everything from the dusty crazy-swerving driving of the tuk-tuks to the hot, packed local buses. We have more independence, we talk to more local people, and we become experts at bargaining. We walk around more and are constantly exposed to the elaborate patchwork of sights, sounds and smells. Yes that can get tiring and stressful, but for a couple weeks it’s good. Even just in my short time in Varanasi I felt weird driving up to places in an air-conditioned car, almost like royalty. But it’s what most tourists do and it is nice to have an air-conditioned place to escape back into. And you still get to see India. Different options for different-age people.

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