Varanasi and the burning ghats

Varanasi was the first place that sparked my interest in India. It seemed the epitome of all that was Indian: religion, ghats, friendly people and a generally interesting culture and place. It is supposedly one of the oldest cities in the world and was founded by the Hindu god Shiva. Let's just say, it did not meet our expectations.

Of course, an experience is always influenced by the arrival in the new place and our was pretty tiresome. The sleeper train itself was fine - in fact the best night sleep on a train we had achieved across the whole of our journey - but getting to our chosen hotel was something else. We had read up on the city and knew all the scams, including hotels 'borrowing' names form those named in tourist guides to confuse tourists into staying here, aided by rickshaw touts. Armed with this knowledge, we had chosen a location near our hotel as a destination to avoid any 'confusion'.

Amongst a deluge of offers, we chose a man who - having looked at the map and agreeing he knew the place - said he would take us for Rs50 - a reasonable price. A short ride later we were surprised when we stopped (the destination being some distance away) and were asked to reaffirm where we were going. The driver (who was sitting next to the original guy) did not seem to understand and we pointed out a couple of other features near our desired point, including the name of a hotel. He suddenly 'got it' saying “ah, Old Town” and off we went again. We did indeed arrive at a destination - but once the driver had disappeared we soon discovered it was the wrong one (crappy hotel) and that we had no idea where we were despite having map: no signs for road names in India.

After spending 20mins wandering around desperately trying to identify ANYTHING on our map and being pestered frequently by cycle rickshaws, we went into the local police station and asked for help. One man gave us garbled information, but we were certainly of convinced of its accuracy and after another 10mins we gave up on that also. Now, in the guide book it say if you get lost, just head for the river. Yeah - wonderful - if you could SEE the river, but tall buildings and narrow streets make that impossible. In the end we resigned ourselves to getting another ride out of the mess we were in. Thankfully, this guy was very helpful and honest and not only took us to the correct area (some 10mins ride away from our previous location - we would never have found it) but then got out and walked us through the narrow, maze-like streets where his rickshaw could not go directly to the hotel we wanted to be in!! We were so grateful we gave him a tip :-)

Once we had settled into our room and had breakfast at the rooftop restaurant, we decided to head for the ghats, one of the main reasons we had come. Despite the hotel being close to the river, it took us 15mins to find it after wandering aimlessly in the crowded passageways and even then we were quite a way down river to where we wanted to be. However, the ghats were named both on the map AND on the stonework so we could navigate from this point with ease. We saw many people washing their clothes and drying them on the stone steps, while other were having a full on bath! Apparently, if you take a boat along the river at 5am or at dusk the numbers of people washing and praying in the water in enormous - very dedicated people.

Each ghat has a specific purpose and history, although not all of these are evident as you are walking along in the heat of the day. Many are dedicated to certain gods, and this religious element is shown through the hundreds of shrines and temples that run alongside the ghats. Lots of holy men wander around trying to give tourists blessings and then charging huge fees - we escaped this; we really did not need another annoyance. We walked quite a distance along the river (about 2km) from one ghat to another as they are all joined at the top, just alter in angle or height they meet the river. The only obstacle are the cows: everywhere and dangerous! You have to give them a wide berth as the will turn their head suddenly and side-swipe you with their horns. I had the misfortune of suffering this mishap and had a sore forearm stained with red dye (from the painted horn) for a couple of hours after. I had been fine with the cows until this point then suddenly all of them seemed to make a beeline for me or nod threateningly as I passed. Weird.

It was interesting to see people pray, wash, and drink the water (it is a holy 'purifying' river) considering its colour and composition. Greyish-green it was, with detritus of al descriptions floating on it. Not the kind of water I would choose for my ablutions. Even he cows get a dip there!Some of the ghats - including the one nearest our hotel, are designated as 'burning ghats' where cremations of human bodies take place. The ceremony takes around 3 hours, with the body being first washed in the river, then burnt on a pile of logs (tons are stacked up on the ghats ready for the constant stream on these ceremonies) by only those qualified. However, pregnant women, children under 10, holy men and people with certain diseases are not permitted this rite, and have to be laden down with stones and placed into the deeper part of the river. We were lucky not to witness a dead body floating down the river, as apparently this is a common sight due to the gases in the body causing the bodies to rise. Creepy! As we walked along we did indeed see two of these ceremonies taking place. It was strange to watch a body being consumed by flame like that; almost unreal and accompanied with a feeling of detachment. We did not stop for long. Instead we headed for the 'floating' temple - more a temple half submerged in water at an angle. Quite a sight, but not really practical for worship!

By this time we decided we had explored enough and headed back to the hotel, but not before several wrong turns and slight annoyance at the labyrinth of the Old City. Why not have signs?! Although Varanasi is considered a religious mecca, it did not have much charm or appeal other than having a vast amount of ghats - and those we had seen nicer examples of elsewhere in India. Having seen all the shrines, temples and river we wanted, we decided that 1 day was enough in this particular city and began arranging moving on to Nepal. It was good fortune that we had met up with a couple of other travellers on the rooftop restaurant who were also going that way so we spent that evening and the next day chatting and getting ready to leave the following night on the bus..

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