Varanasi - One Big Smelly Colourful City of Dogs, Cows, Monkeys, Goats and Humans

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We woke up bright and early the day after my birthday and decided it wasn’t worth moving rooms again - we had originally told Shiva we were moving to Jill and Richards when they left as it was slightly nice and had an aircon, but decided we were happy settled where we were… We told Shiva on the way out. By this stage I was back to my usual Reety happy self. and Shiva promptly told me that I was really nice NOW and good looking when I was happy and smiling lol (I really had been a surly bitch).



We headed down to Open Hand Cafe for breakfast only to find it was shut on Sundays so decided to find OM Cafe which was close by… we found the sign leading down an alley way and spent the next 100 meters dodging cows and cow poo! Right near the door of the cafe, it was almost impossible to avoid the sludge!



We had a nice brunch at OM then headed back to the hotel to get organized for a walking tour we had arranged with Varanasi Walks. As we were walking towards the Ghats I heard Brandon behind me yell out and felt like he was pushing me. I just assumed he had slipped on something. I tried to keep my balance as he pushed me until I saw a cow charging past me and into Taylor! We had all been bowled over by a bloody cow that was obviously in a rush to get to the Ganges for his morning swim! lol



That afternoon we met up with Pappu of Varanasi Walks. We did one of their walks they called Northern Bazaars and Hidden Alleys. We spent the next few hours walking and weaving through cows, traffic, faeces and alleyways. We saw a local flower market and a couple of temples.



Pappu then took us to the Kali temple. It is a temple that comes to life each sunday when people go there to be blessed (and given permission) to be in Varanasi. We were told to leave our shoes in a small alleyway at a little shop and to walk a short distance to the temple. We were horrified that we were going to have to walk barefoot through the alleyways knowing how dirty they are, but figured it was all part of the experience. We gingerly tiptoed through the alley until we reached a mass crowd of people lining up to get in a small temple door.



We were grabbed by a security guy who led us to the front of the line… Western tourists clearly get special treatment there! We walked in and it was loud and extremely crowded. There was music, and drums being clanged really loudly and all around this temple were holy men doing blessings on people.



Our guide told us he would take us to a specific Holy man that would not try to rip us off and ask for money. On the way there, one Holy guy grabbed me and wiped ash on my forehead before doing some weird blessing where he was hitting my shoulders with a stick. He then put his hand out so I handed him 20rp. He then went OFF at me and demanding more money. I just walked away but I had a feeling he was taking his blessing back and cursing me instead.



We then went to the Holy man the guide had recommended and were blessed with orange paint on our foreheads and bracelets on our wrists. After the blessing we left the temple and temporarily lost our guide. After we located him and our shoes we headed off to finish up the walk.



We were taken at the end of the tour by the guide to a restaurant called Keshari. He had recommended it earlier that day and said it served really good food. Taylor was excited as she had read about this place in the Lonely Planet and had it on our list of must dos. We ordered up and Brandon was dismayed to see that it was a Vegetarian restaurant. I ordered a garlic naan and couldn't believe my eyes when it came out and it was literally imbedded with pieces of garlic all over it!



We walked around to Keshari’s second restaurant for dessert just around the corner after we were told they served Kulfi (our favorite dessert). We were a little disappointed as it wasn't as good as previous ones we had eaten and we had really talked it up to Brandon who wasn't impressed with it at all!





The following morning we headed to Open Hand restaurant for breakfast. We ended up sitting at a table with a couple of other Americans as the place was extremely busy. Unfortunately one of the male staff decided to become infatuated with Taylor and made it extremely uncomfortable to the point she didn't want to come back there after that …. We didn't have much planned for the day so we decided to just wander the back streets and do some shopping for scarves. Varanasi is renowned for its silk scarves.



We found our way to Ba Ba Black Sheep - a silk and pashmina scarf shop recommended for its quality. We were given a lesson in how to tell the difference between real and fake pashmina before settling on some scarves. We decided to try find Blue Lassi after this for a Lassi craving, but got completely and utterly lost and when we eventually found the Ganges river to get our bearings we weren't even close! We gave up as Taylor was starting to feel ill and went back to the hotel.



While Taylor slept I collected our train tickets and then decided it was time to buy more Nutella. I then went back to the hotel and ate Nutella for dinner! We had another tour planned with Varanasi Walks for that night but I was starting to feel a little tired and Taylor was still sick then I couldn't find Brandon so I cancelled.



I went down to reception to speak to Shiva about arranging a sunrise boat tour of the Ganges for the following morning and there was an American guy, Travis checking in. He overheard me talking about the boat ride and asked if he could join us. Of course I said yes (it helped that he was EXTREMELY easy on the eye and had a hot accent). I then called it a night and went to bed. Prior to going to bed, I did play Mum with Taylor and make her ginger tea and arrange some plain food from the Guesthouse kitchen to try get her feeling better.



The next morning we started super early at 6am for the sunrise boat ride. Taylor and I were both walking grumpy zombies as we had barking dogs outside our window ALL night. At one point, Taylor had got up and opened the windows contemplating throwing something at them then realized it wasn't such a great idea… it was seriously the worlds worst torture!



We met Travis and headed off for the boat ride. It was nice but the sunset nothing to write home about as the clouds dampened the sunrise unfortunately. While at the burning ghats we watched an Indian man go off at another tourist who was taking photos. It is extremely disrespectful to take photos of the burning bodies and everyone is told that, but this guy just kept snapping photos… Its people like him that give tourists a bad name.



After the boat ride we were starving so we headed to the rooftop of our guesthouse for Chai and breakfast but they weren't open. We decided to head to Brown Bread Bakery instead and ordered up a feast (way too much food). While we were eating, the monkeys came by for some leftovers. BBB have their rooftop fully enclosed in a cage so the monkeys can’t get to you but some naughty people including Taylor were feeding them through the cage!



After breakfast Taylor went back to bed so I went walking with Travis. We headed to Open Hand Cafe for coffee then walked along the backstreets trying to find a suitable fabric for him to get a table runner made for his mother. Unsuccessful we made our way to Keshari Restaurant for lunch meeting Taylor there and then we decided to try one last time to find Blue Lassi for a Lassi… these things are famous so we couldn't leave Varanasi without one! We found it and I ordered a chocolate coconut lassi… wow! I can see why they have a good name.. this thing was to die for!



After Blue Lassi we made a dash back to the guesthouse to pack our bags and get to the train station. We had an overnight train to Agra to catch. When we got to the train station it was filthy… we saw that some locals had bought newspapers to sit on the ground on, so when in Rome! We curled up on the newspaper and waited for our train to arrive… Not long before the train turned up a lone cow meandered past slowly on our platform, not a care in the world… yep this is India!



Once on the train we settled in to our bunks…. a couple of hours into the trip, the random Indian man that was sleeping in the bunk underneath me caught my attention. I looked at him and he pointed at my thongs, basically asking me if he could use them to go to the toilet… I was horrified but as usual good mannered and said yes. I just didn't have the heart to say no! When he got back he flicked them off and they were covered in spots of water (or something else) all over the toe area… URGH! I left it 10 minutes and when I thought he wasn't looking I got down, sat on Brandons bunk and complained miserably to him. Brandon grabbed my thongs from near the mans bed and I used antiseptic wipes to clean them - I then hid them under Brandons bed for the rest of the trip lol



The rest of the train ride was uneventful and it ran late by about an hour arriving to Agra. I was pretty deep asleep upon arrival and it took Taylor a few go’s to wake me up… I stumbled out of the train sleepy eyed and carrying my 17kg backpack, ready to see the Taj Mahal….

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Comments

[kristina]

wow. again!
I love your full written descriptions....and your photos...esp the flower mkt, the bookstore and ganges at sunset. Very National Geographic!! :} Who is the girl you are travelling with? Did you just happen to meet her there...and starting travelling together? I am very happy you found someone to travel with! Hope your tummy feels better!!