The Holy City

We found cheap accomidation in Varanasi and decided to book a few tours with our hotel. We only have 1 night and 2 days so figure its easier to book tours and be shown around quickly.

We took a rickshaw around the city for 4 hours and saw the temples and Universities and mad traffic as usual.

That night we took a boat ride on the Ganga river to see the sights a night where they cremate loved ones and let the ashes flow down the river. There are a few sights on the Gahts where they burn bodies and we saw the 2 main ones.

We also saw a big ceremony where the Holy men lit 7 thousand candles and sang and chanted etc...
Cool to see but we left early because it was all in Hindi so it made no sense to us.

In the morning we got up and went down to the Ganga for sunrise to see the opposite side of the river. People of all faiths come from all over the country and probably the world to wash in and drink the holy water from the Ganga.

All the kids were swimming and laughing whole families come down to wash and bath. The burning still continues 24 hours a day while this goes on. And stranger still is the amount of pollution in the river; there is waste and rubbish everywhere. We heard a story that while a family came to worship and clense themselves in the holy river one of the kids threw his empty bottle in the river and no one in the family batted an eyelid, eventhough its the most holy river in the country.
Its just a different culture and it takes time to get used to...

Back to the train again tonight and off to Dehli again....

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