Playing postman in Varanasi

Leaving Lumbini early and heading to the Indian-Nepali border, and on to Varanasi, we drove along what has to be the best road in the country. I am guessing that it is supposed to give a good impression to people coming to Nepal, but for Bob and I it was a good send off. Much like the border with China, where we could have easily gotten in without getting a visa, we could have just as easily walked across into India without getting an expit stamp, but we did the right thing and got propperly processed.

We had been in the country for less than five minutes before we got into our first traffic jam. Welcome to India! Three trucks were parked along a two lane road (two without drivers in them) and so we sat and waited until one guy got back from breakfast or whatever he was doing that was so important. The drive to Varanasi took us about nine hours and we covered about 300kms, effectively all through rice fields and other farms. Even though the countryside we drove through was dead flat I would be surprised if the total elevation change was more than 10 meters all day, the crawled along. About half the time the road was great but traffic was a nightmare and the other haft the time the road was heavily potholed and traffic was OK. Below are some random thoughts and first impressions of India:

People in India carry bundles on their heads rather than on their backs using a sling, ala Nepal.

Most of the rural house in this part of India are made of brick, unlike the other side of the border where they are all wood / adobe. Raj tells us that bricks can be ten times as expensive in Nepal, though I dont know why.

Because the land is flat, and seemingly drier, the rice fields are larger and are plowed and harvested using machinery, rather than by hand.

Apparantly all the trucks that belch black smoke have been sent to Nepal. The trucks in India are cleaner, though still far dirtier than in the U.S. or Europe.

It is bloody hot here, but there was nowhere near the humidity of Chitwan. thus if you are in the shade or there is a little breeze, it can be quite pleasant. But the sun burns quickly and when it gets overcast it gets very sticky, very quickly.

No matter where you are on a road, you will never walk alone as there is always someone else walking or riding a bike.

Public urination is as common as in Nepal or China. Jim, take note.

There are quite a large number of Muslims in this part of the country. We even saw a number of women wearing burkhas.

Arriving in Varanasi around 4pm, it was looking like it was going to pelt down with rain and so we decided not to go out onto the river for a puja ceremony (more on this later) and instead just take it easy. My first goal was to deliver the postcard that Zsoka had given me in Kathmandu for a friend of hers that worked just around the corner from our hotel. I went in a dropped it off and the guy behind the counter looked quite confused and I just hope that it got to the right person.

Our hotel is situated right at the southern end of the ghats and since I really needed a good stretch after so long in a car I figured that I would jsut walk along them and take in the sights. As an introductory side note, for those who dont know, ghats are really just a series of steps down to a river. People typically go down to the ghats to bathe or perform certain religious rites. Varanasi, being situated on the Ganges and a city that has been inhabited for over 5000 years, is especially famous for its ghats, as they run uninterrupted for the length of the city and the main ghat, Dasaswamdh Ghat, is one of the holiest sites in Hinduism. It is here that people from all over India make a pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime to be cleansed. It is like making the Hajj to Mecca in Islam. Check out the photos below for what the river side looks like.

Taking off from Assi Ghat, the southernmost of the major ghats, I almost immedaitely struck a problem in that even the highest steps on some of the ghats were up to a foot deep in mud. While the mud had partially dried, it was still sticky and very slippery in parts. The cause of this was that the monsoon had just finished and the river is still receeding to normal, summer month levels. Raj tells us that just two weeks before, when he brought a group through, they couldnt even walk along from ghat to ghat as the water level was so high. Since that time the water has receeded and in the process deposited massive amounts of silt on the steps. The city is waiting for a another coule of weeks, to ensure that the water doesnt rise again, before scraping the mud away. After slipping and sliding along three ghats I decided that discression is the better part of valor and gave up and decided to walk down the main street into the center of town.

This decision, while the right one, was also the niosy option as I was exposed to the full force of Indian city traffic. The main road runs parallel to the river and is ilned with sari shops, tailors, schools and all other manner of businesses. The streets are crammed with bikes, rickshaws (both auto and peddal), cars, people walking, and bloody sacred cows. Everytime there wa a snarl intraffic, you can be sure that there is cow standing in the middle of the road and no one is willing to move it along. Over the four kilometer stretch to the main ghat, I must have passed a hundred of the damned things. I inderstand that Hinduism doesnt kill them and that they are an incarnation of a god, but wouldnt they feel better in the countryside, rather than eating garbage on the street?

Speaking of garbage, the streets themselves are quite dirty, but not as bad as I was expecting. There are guys with shovels and rickshaws constantly cleaning up the streets and each morning the streets are reasonably clean. You do have to be on constant guard, however, not to step in a fresh cow pat. the other great annoyance in the city is the guys that are always coming up to you trying to sell you stuff. It is not that they have a hand full of junk that they want you to buy, it is that they want to take you to a silk shop where they get a cut of whatever you buy. Or they want to sell you hashish, opium or any number of drugs I have never heard of. I will walways respond in kind if someone says Hello ro Nalmaste but then I get selective hearling loss and just keep walking. They just dont seem to get that I am just out for a walk and really do not want anything. The one great advantage of being six foot two and reasonably fit is that I can outwalk pretty much anyone and even the most persistent hawker will give up pretty quickly.

I walked the four kilometers down to the Dasaswamdh Ghat and a great view of the Ganges and the thing that struck me was that there are almost no foreign tourists here. I probably passed a dozen white people over that entire stretch and this is the main tourist attraction of the city. Right near Dasaswamdh Ghat there are a ton of shops selling stuff but they are all aimed at Indian pilgrims, with almost no one selling postcards or typical souvenirs. I could never find a single fridge magnet in the city. Arriving at Dasaswamdh Ghat and immediately being besieged by people wanting to give me a shave / haircut / head massage, I didnt hang around long and headed back to the hotel. It quickly became apparant that this was going to be an exercise in stamina to see the city and after an early morning and long drive, I just didnt have it in me. The 8km walk in the heat, however, had done me wonders and I felt great upon getting back and was looking forward to tomorrow.

I have been travelling for so long that I had completely forgotten that as part of this trip we were going for ano overnight cruise down the Ganges and so at mid-morning we drove 45km south of Varanasi to meet our boat. As a side note, the only thing of real interest on the drive was the unbelievable amount of trucks (all Tata) parked on the side of the road. There had to have been thousands of them. Neither Bob nor I were realy quite sure what to expect for an overnight boat trip up the river and I was certainly surprised to see our boat for the first time. It is a wooden boat, with a tarp for a cover, a single mast with no boom and the deck of the boat covered in mattresses. Raj, Bob and I climbed into the boat and lay down, while two guys proceeded to row us downstream. We boarded at about midday and the guys rowed, with the occasional break until just after sunset, at 5.30. They sat in the direct sun the entire time and I have to say that I felt bad for them. I also admit that I felt like royalty.

After about ten minutes I was getting really bored with the whole thing, but over the next hour I started to relax and enjoy watching the whole world go by. With the ater level having dropped from the monsoon levels, the banks of the river were typically ten or so meters above us and we couldnt see much beyone the banks themselves. But there was always something to watch as we drifted by, be it people doing laundry, a dead water buffalo floating by, cows keeping cool in the water of fishermen out tending their lines. While Bob and Raj spent much of their time napping, I caught up on my blog, read my book and did a couple of crosswords. My it is a tough life.

For the whole day we were paced by a cooking boat, crewed by seven guys, that would pull up and serve us a meal at the appropriate time. The food that the cook managed to put out was absolutely amazing. It was all vegetarian and each meal had at least five dishes. Right after lunch, just as we pulled away from the other boat, a black dolphin lept almost fully out of the water right off our bow. These dolphins have a long snout, more reminiscent of a freshwater crocodile than a typical dolphin, and are almost blind due to the silt in the river. There are not a lot of dolphins left in the Ganges and we were lucky to see them (see the photo below, just trust me it is the back of a dolphin). We also did high tea right before yet another beautiful sunset. As a side note, the guys rowing us drank straight out of the river, which almost made me sick the first time I saw it. Sarah lent me a great filtering water bottle that I have been using to drink tap water and can be use for river water. But I was taking no chances with the Ganges as I am crazy but not stupid. to be fair though, both Bob and I were surprised how clean (silt and one dead buffalo excepted) the water was, as we saw almost no garbage at all.

Right after the sun set we pulled up to a small sand island in the middle of the river for the night. the crew erected a tent for us but we decided to sleep on a tarp out under the stars as it was warm and the sky was clear. Even better it was the full moon, so we ate by the moonlight and then talked as we watched shooting stars and sattelites pass overhead. As a side note, I cannot believe that it as been four weeks since I sat on the top of a hill and wached the full moon with Verena. My time flies when you are having fun. It was so warm at night that I didnt need a blanket at all, and awoke just as the moon was setting (and it changed a brilliant orange, which I have only ever seen as the moon rises, never as it sets), and not that long after, a sunrise over the river.

The one thing that really amazed me about the Ganges is that there is almost no water traffic. With the exception of a few small fishing canoes and the occasional ferry crossing the river we almost had the place to ourselves. I really would have thought that there would be some sort of commercial traffic on such an important river system. We continued to row up the river, right to the Assi Ghat, and arrived not long after midday. By this time is was a blisteringly hot day and I had well and truely had enough of the sun, which came in under the canopy. I had put suncream on my head and arms but forgotten my legs and so my right thigh was pretty burned and would end up hurting for the next two days. The boat cruise was a great experience, and I have now done a cruise on the Nile, the Ganges and the Yangtse. I guess the Amazon is next.

After cooling off for a while, believe it or not, Bob and I went shopping. Bob wanted to buy some cotton pjyamas for two nieces and I wanted to get some long cotton pants for next time I had to be in the sun. Jeans are just way too hot for this climate. Raj knew a guy in town (it seems every Indian knows a guy for everything) and so we took cycle rickshaws right into the center of town. We then walked through a series of alleys and jsut before I was sure that Raj was going to have us robbed and left for dead, we ducked into a store full of bales of cloth. Much like buying a rug in Morocco, buying clothes in India can be a real experience. The first twenty minutes we were in the store we were given drinks and sat quietly, while Raj and the owner caught up on the last couple of months. Then Bob was shown some samples of pyjamas and after picking out a style, flicked through about 200 different types of print until he found the one he was looking for. After that I tried on two types of pants and ended up selecting one with a drawstring and no elastic. I then chose a nice green color of cloth. On the spur of the moment I decided to get two shirts in the Indian style, with the low collar. they are both very light and look somewhat dressy, so I can hopefully wear them back home without looking too silly. At least in the heat here, I will be able to wear them around. The real beauty of these clothes was that the pants and two shirts pack down to about the size of a normal pair of socks. We left, with promises that they would be tailored to perfection and delivered to our hotel before departure tomorrow.

After shopping we headed back home, once again in rickshaws and rested until sunset when we were, heading out the the nightly Puja festival. The Puja festival primarily involves the lighting of candles, which are resting amonsgt flowers and in a leave, which are then placed in the river and allowed to float away, as you make a wish. We got into a boat at Assi Ghat and were rowed up towards the main ghat area, as we watched the sun set behind the city, which was a very nice sight. We then stopped in the river to perform out own Puja, with several dozen candle boats. Unfortunately, it was quite windy out on the water and so we had a fair bit of trouble getting the candles to stay lit before we put them in the water. Both Bob and I ended up floating about 10 candles, of which only one stayed lit for more than a few seconds, but at least I got the one with my real wish to stay lit for a minute and I am sure that it will come true.

We then had the boatman row us down to the Dasaswamdh Ghat, where the main Puja ceremony takes place. I am not quite sure how, but we managed to get our boat right at the front and so had the best seats in the house for the festival taking place on the steps above the water. For about 45 minutes seven priests performed a ceremony, which involved cymbols, drums and the synchronous swinging of incense censers, candle sticks and torches. All the while, the devout would come down to the water and float their own candles on the river. It really was a great sight to see, though I was glad that I was not stuck in the middle of the crowd onshore, which was a packed seeting mass of humanity. we did, though, get dropped off right in the middle of the ghat and walked through the crowd, before heading to dinner and then bed.

The next morning I was up by 7am and out on the road by 7.30 as I really wanted to try and appreciate the city. The twice that I had been down to the main ghats there had been so many people trying to sell me stuff that I had been unable to really enjoy the place. It wasnt that I was overwhelmed by the number of people at all (it is way worst in Thamel) but that I could never get a second of peace to appreciate what was going on around me. So I walked into town down the main road and to the Dasaswamdh Ghat, while the town was still stirring and relatively quite. I love walking a city while it wakes, as you see kids go to school, people eat breakfast and stores open. When there are no tourists, the guys trying to selling stuff to them are still in bed and you can enjoy everything the way it should be. By the time I got to Dasaswamdh Ghat, the day had well and truely started and while the number of touts was down, there were still too many to allow me to enjoy myself in peace.

I decided to head north along the ghats, and within two ghats, no more than 100 meters, I almost had the place to myself and I really began to enjoy Varanasi as it should be. Even the steps here had been cleaned of mud and so I could walk easily. There were men and women down bathing in the river. Groups of men were sitting around having either their faces or heads shaved (but not both at the same time). Women were doing their laundry in the river. Holy men (true holy men in my opinion) were sitting and praying or performing services. The sights and sounds were exactly what I though India and Varanasi would be about and I was truely content.

As I walked north I came upon one of the two burning ghats on the river, where cremations take place. The fire that is used to start the cremation, so I am told, has been burning for over two thousand years and is never allowed to go out. The temple buildings behind the ghat are by far the most ornate and spectacular along the river, while massive piles of wood lie around everywhere. You are not supposed to take photos of the cremations (for obvious reasons) and so I have only one photo of the ghat, which I have attached to show how spectacular the place is (no cremations were taking place at this time, but I did see one as I walked back).

I continued up until pretty mych I ran out of ghats and turned around and walked back along the water, loving every minute of it. After my first two days here and having such a low regard for the palce, to have such a wonderful morning was so refreshing. Getting back to the main ghats I fought my way through the crowds and once again, two ghats away I was in peace and quite. I was continually amazed by the diverse architecture of the buildings behind the ghats and the people that frequented them. I saw a guy with the longest dreadlocks I have ever seen sitting right next to a bald guy doing yoga. Even in the Muslim section there were a ton of people using the river, so it is not a strictly Hindu act.

Passing the southern burning ghat (which was much smaller than the norther one and had a cremation going on) I ran into four guys playing cricket on a flat area amidst all the steps. One of the two or three main things that I wanted to do while I am in India was play street cricket with some locals and here was my chance on the banks of the Ganges and I have only been in the country three days. I stood and watched for a couple of minutes and fielded a couple of balls that were hit my way. The guys came over and we started talking cricket for a bit. They thought that I look like Daniel Vettori (captain of NZ) as I have a beard, even though he has black hair. The big game between Australia and NZ was on that night and they wanted to know who was going to win (Australia, bacause they have better batting is my theory). It also turns out that my favorite cricketer (Adam Gilchrist) is the favorite of one of the guys playing. It was a really cool experience and I hope to get into another couple of games before leaving in eight weeks.

By this point I had walked probably 10kms, and it was getting bloody hot, so I was happy when I got down to Assi Ghat and through all the mud and had completed my goal of walking from end to end. After a lunch of delicious salad (the first in two months of travelling) I decided to take it easy and head out to an archeological museum located on the nearby Benaras Hindu Museum. the university itself is one of the largest and most prestegious universities in India, with over 15,000 students, of which 2,000 are foreigners. Founded in the early 20th Century by the British rulers, it is located just south of the center of town. The campus itself is beautifully laid out, with tree line boulavards, pretty (if old and not not particuarly well maintained) buildings and a couple of art filled parks. There are students walking everywhere and to me it seems quite a nice place to study.

The museum, Bharat Kala Bhavan, has a wonderful collection of Indian artifacts, from the Stone Age up to modern times. Given India's current status as a developing nation it is easy to forget that this is one of the most ancient civilizations on the earth and has a rich history going back 5000 years. The museum has a wonderful collection of carvings from the 10th to 15th centuries, alongside stone and bronze age tools. There are also good examples of textiles from the neighboring areas in India and some intersting traditional weapons that I have never seen, or even heard of before. One room is dedicated to the founder of the university, including his efforts to gain independence for India and correspondence with people like Mahatma Ghandi. My favorite room, however, is hidden right at the back and it contains a collection of coins from throughout the history of India. The collection starts before 500BC, when coins were typically stamped with animals. Then Alexander invaded and for a time coins looked very Greek or Persian, with heads of rulers stamped on them. Then, after the Muslims invaded and with it their prohibition of lifelike imagery, Indian coins for centuries had words or geographic symbols stamped on them. Then the British influence came and the coins all had English Kings or Queens on the reverse. And since independece images of Ghandi appear everywhere. If someone knew nothing of the history of India, and only had five minutes to get an overview, they could not do much better than spending five minutes in this room.

One odd moment occurred in the museum and it is what I will leave you with from Varanasi, as we to soon boarded an overnight train to Orchha. While in the museum, which was almost deserted, a local student came up to me, and with American accented English asked me my name and then where I was from. I am pretty used to these two questions by now from locals, so my mind was only half with my response, when he asked me a question that completely threw me and left me stumbling for an answer and that was : "If you don't mind me asking, why did you come to India?". I guess being asked such a direct question for the first time and when you dont have a lot of time to think about an atricualte answer can make you sound stupid as you stutter out something. Since baing asked this I have thought about it a lo, since I will be here for nine weeks and, oddly enough, I dont think that I can do any better than I replied to the student at the time. "India is a big country with a lot of people, so I am sure there is a lot of cool stuff going on. And I want to see it".

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Part of trip: The Big One

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