baking on the banks of the Ganges

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Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India. Located on the banks of the Ganges River, it is one of the most auspicious places to be cremated for Hindus. It is also a place that Hindus come while they are still alive to bathe, worship and bring their ill for healing.

At first glance, it would seem that Varanasi is a town built on scams. First a taxi driver took us to hotels that we didn't want to go to. Instead we insisted on being dropped off at a central location and walked another traffic-ridden, dusty, noisy two kilometers to the part of town we wanted.

Around sunset we picked up a "friend" who very unhelpfully walked along side us, (packs on our backs trying to find a place after a long days travel) claiming that there were not any hotels in the direction we were going, trying to direct us to certain hotels, warning us of thugs and thieves...ever hear of whoever smelt it dealt it, pal?, even when i told him that i had been hear before and knew that there were hotels ahead.. called him on his lies, he still would not go on his way. When that failed, he simply ran ahead of us to hotel receptions to claim his commission that would be added (supposedly without our knowledge) to our bill for bringing us there. In some cases this would nearly double the cost of a room.

We tried requesting that he leave us alone, ignoring him, telling him to get lost, really telling him to get lost, short of punching this guy out, we ducked into a restaurant where he did not follow. He waited outside, however, circling back and forward while we bathed our parched throats in cold water and ordered thalis (a mixed dish of Indian curries with rice and/or chapatis).

The ordeal ended with me saying to Laura (as my back was facing outside) "the next time he goes by tell me and i'll sneak out while his back is turned!" Might as well have a little fun with it now, anger won't do me any good, and there i went sneaking out of the restaurant and ducking down a narrow alley with the mission impossible theme song in my head. Ha! the joys of travel! I returned to a hotel that we had earlier visited with the commission man, and negotiated a lower, reasonable room rate. By the time we had finished our meals (which happily took ages to prepare), the man had given up and disappeared.

And that was just the beginning. Varanasi is a hungry town. Rarely did we have peace for more than a few minutes or seconds at a time before we were making another "friend." I'm sad to report that without exception every "What country?" (which means "Where are you from?") or "Where are you going?" sometimes-lengthy conversation ended in an invitation to visit a store, buy postcards, take a boat ride, hire a guide or a "give me money" demand with a sense of entitlement.

Maybe 1 out of 50-100 encounters is just genuine friendliness. This is not the case every where you go in India but ironically the holiest cities are often the most corrupt, dangerous, in-your-face stressful places to be.. what a crime. Although this time around i must admit things were a little better. maybe it was that i was a little wiser, more savvy on the does and don'ts, but also, mystifyingly there must have been some kind of crack down on the outright banditry that has been known to happen here.

For example the last time i (Matt) was here, i was surrounded by some thugs demanding some dough for my alleged taking photos of the wrong place. Even though i had asked some locals if it was ok and everyone said it was no problem, what i had not noticed was that one of these guys waited for the locals to leave and then approached me and began to tear a strip out of me. As he goes through a litany of offenses that i have committed, my confidence wavers, did those people misunderstand me? have i committed a deep social fauxpas?

Foolishly I agreed to go with him to make a "donation" to a home for the infirm. He leads me into one of the holiest ghats on the Ganga. At this point i come to my senses as to what is going on. So i give up five rupees (12 cents) figuring i'd get wide with him a little and he would take it as a mild insult as i intended. well.. that might have been a little bit provocative. He starts to inform me of all the English swear words that he knows.. and i have to admit it was pretty impressive, up until this point his English seemed good but not this good. As his voice rises i notice some of his buddies come out of the shadows.. well would u look at that i'm surrounded, real smart Matt.

So the pressure is on; "you want trouble?", "whats your problem?", "you want to get out of here?" yep these guys have done this before.. jerks. Fortunately these guys were a bit small and skinny, and i think they knew it, so with a little bit of a stand off and making it clear that they were not going to get another rupee out of me i backed my way out of there. Fortunately the thugs seemed to be thinner on the ground this time around.

But as you might imagine, these sorts of things are rather exhausting after a while.

Having said that, it points out a sorry situation. All of the these people wandering the river ghats with postcards to sell or trying to lure us into handicraft shops (in hopes of a commission) are jobless. Many of them are children under ten and as young as six or seven. Many of them are sleep in the streets. They are creating income for themselves however they can.

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The town of Varanasi itself is located above the steep, stone-paved west bank of the Ganges. A large, muddy floodplain extends eastward on the other side.

So a visitor's day in Varanasi begins early with a sunrise walk along the banks (or ghats) of the Ganges or a row up and down the river.

At first it looks so peaceful to be out on a rowboat on the water away from constant hassle. But we soon realized that there were even souvenir boats that ply the tourists with trinkets. Sometimes one man would be trying to sell souvenirs while rowing to try to keep up with the boatload of tourists. Kind of sad and yet funny at the same time.

So there is this frenzy of pre-sunrise activity along the river and ghats. Once the huge red sun climbs out of the dark haze, however, it very quickly gets hot and most of the tour groups and tourist scurry off for breakfast, shopping or a wander around the old city.

The pilgrims (Indian tourists and locals), however, keep arriving and the bathing, clothes washing and swimming continues all day. It's a bit hard for us to grasp, all this excitement over bathing in a river that contains the sewage, garbage and street runoff from 100's of millions of people and animals upstream. With an e-coli count that is hundreds of times higher than safe swimming levels, it's basically a sewer and looks and smells the part!

At one point we saw a floating dead cow's body, caught against an edge of a ghat, while a group of men bathed only metres away downstream. It is not uncommon to see human bodies, usually babies, since they specifically are not cremated.

Varanasi feels a little like a medieval holy beach resort. There are men wandering around barefoot in sarongs. People selling jewelry, incense and trinkets.

While we were there, the river was still slowly receding and the ghats were gradually being hosed off of the mountains of muck and garbage that were deposited on them during the monsoon flood season.

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Different ghats have different purposes. Many are for bathing and washing clothes. There were two cremation ghats that were active during our visit; one for the upper-caste Indians and the other for ordinary folks.

Activity around the cremation ghats is swift. There are men that work in the hot sun and smoke all day carrying heavy pieces of wood to build the funeral pyres. Every 10 or 15 minutes, a body, covered with numerous layers of appropriately-coloured covers based on caste and/or age is brought on site. It is carried in on a simple wooden pallet, taken down to the river and submerged, then carried back up to a pyre and set to light.

Relatives gather around. Tourists look on. If you are prepared to give a donation, you can even get a bird's eye view of events from a balcony of a building that overlooks the cremation site. But whatever happens, don't take a photo without the express permission of the relatives or who knows what trouble you'll get into! (any questions, ask Matt)

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The old city is the area immediately adjacent to the ghats. The shady, narrow alleys that wind through this part of town are a cooler place to hang out while the sun beats down on the ghats.

The alleys are home to many markets, shops, hotels and restaurants and bustle all day with activities. It's tricky work trying not to step in crap while navigating around cows and stray dogs grazing on garbage, motorbikes and bicycles tearing heedlessly around corners and crowds of people going about their daily business.

Overall, we were glad to visit Varanasi. Despite certain drawbacks, it also had its charms and was a good place to deepen our understanding of Indian culture and society.

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Photos

water buffalo
domestic buffalo bathing with the pilgrims

young scavenger
the daily gathering of any bottles and other reusables/recyclables from the muck

boat of dedicated pilgrims
unusual to see Indian women with shaved heads - generally only done as part of important ceremony

BIG bull
it may be hard to tell, but this animal is massive. imagine walking down a 6' wide alley and a 3' set of horns comes at you! you can stand with your back against the wall but that won't help much when he decides to shake his head to clear the path.

veggie market
scales like this are used in fruit and veg markets all over India