Varanasi

---

Varanasi

29/01/11 - 31/01/11

Holy Cow!!!

Where to start? Well lets start with cows. This place is even worse than Siliguri for cows. They are everywhere, not one place is appropriate! We even saw one walk up and down the train station platform (5 platforms not a tin pot station). They walk down the little lanes, sometimes charge, they appear to have acquired their own ghat, they sit in the central reservation of roads, the roads could be made of their dung and they can even walk down steps (I thought they couldn't do that sort of thing! I'm going to start the cow diaries!

Anyway as for Varanasi, it is not as bad as the LP makes out for touts but you do get asked if you want a boat about 20 times per day. If you politely ignore they soon get bored! The worst bit is if you venture away from the river into the roads where it is just hell on earth for traffic.

The Ghats

We really enjoyed walking up and down the river along the ghats (an opening / bank / steps to the river). Varanasi is a very special place for Hindus and many come here to worship, swim, drink, wash and to be cremated next to and ashes put into the holy Ganges. There are washing ghats, laundry ghats, ceremonial ghats and cremation ghats some of them backed by hindu temples. At the cremation ghats the public can actually watch a cremation which is quite gruesome. The body is laid out in cloth on a pile of wood and set alight after a short ceremony. You feel a bit bad about watching but it's ok as long as you act respectfully, it's their culture. Depending on how much money you have determines how your body is put into the Ganges on your death. It costs a stupid amount to be cremated on the banks of the Ganges apparently and the wood is carefully weighed to cost. If you cannot afford the wood you can chose to be placed in the ganges weighed down by bricks as is what they do with cows. We fortunately did not see this on our trip but i know of people who have during their Ganges boat ride. So you can see how polluted this river must be and people drink this 'holy' water which cows bathe, poo and decompose in. This place is described as not for the faint hearted and we believe this is true!

Apart from the ghats it is nice to get lost wondering through the narrow alleyways 'Galeys' just back from the ghats. We particularly enjoyed sitting at a rooftop bar or restaurant in the late afternoons watching all the kite fighting. There would be literally about 50-100 kites dotted around the skyline desperately trying to cut the wire of other kites - fun to watch!

Our guesthouse offered a free sunset Ganges boat trip which was lovely. Really worth it, lasting about 2 hours stopping at the large cremation ghat and watching a ceremony from the boat. A little girl (who was obviously related to the boat man) got on and forcefully sold us these flower baskets with a lit candle inside. To let one go in the Ganges is supposed to bring you luck so we bought one between two! She was charging 50Rs - thus paying for the 'free' boat ride! Oh well only a dollar!!
Places we enjoyed eating /drinking at:

The lotus lounge (near Hotel Shiva Ganges View) - good food, comfy cushions on the floor and good view.

There was also a little coffee place behind the lotus lounge but I can't remember the name - really peaceful rooftop. Best for kite watching!

The Dolphin Restaurant (Rashmi GH) good views of Ganges, good food but patchy service and expensive.

We also visited the Ramanaga Fort which is just over the rickety pontoon bridge. It's worth a visit, the buildings are dilapidated but endearing and it has a peaceful garden to sit in. But the museum is terrible (150Rs each-waste of money). Full of old guns with no explanation, mouldy textiles in the textiles room. You have to pay for the museum to get into the garden though!!

Accommodation

We stayed at Rahul's GH, it's a 10-20minute walk to Assi Ghat to the south of the city. We really liked it and recommended it to friends who felt the same. We payed for a standard room - 1400. There are more expensive ones with a view but we ended up getting that anyway! The view rooms mean the view is outside your door! There are cheaper ones too where i think it is shared bathrooms. The rooms are simple but clean, showers are hot once the electricity has been on for an hour or so!

That was the problem with Varanasi / our area. They only had power from 7pm - 9am. The power would be cut off at all other times in addition to other random times! The reason for this is that people connect makeshift wires from the electricity cables to their homes and therefore are not paying for their electricity! Hardly fair on the honest payers!! Very annoying when you are half way through the 9 o'clock movie!!
 
Rahul has a really lovely rooftop terrace and restaurant with colourful lights and big flowers in pots!! The guys that run the restaurant are also really fun and the food is good and cheap! I think we ended up eating there every night unusually- we ate out mostly at lunchtime! This was probably due to it being a bit if a walk from town.
There is also free wifi but it was as unpredictable as the electricity at times!

Off to Delhi
We actually managed to book a tourist quota ticket at the station a couple of days before! At the same time we booked our Delhi - Agra and Agra - Jodhpurs tickets as well!!

---