Varanasi

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Varanasi



The train finally rolled into Varanasi at around 11pm. We walked across the road to the hotel which wasn't too far. Crossing the road was again an effort in itself, luckily Raghu is not also a tour guide but acts as lollipop man when required (which is much of the time!) the hotel was lovely, really clean. Raghu handed out the room keys, I figured I would sleep through anything tonight so wasn't too fussed about sharing with Molly brown. Raghu did say that I could have my own room for the rest of the trip for an extra £200 for the week.

I did think about it. On one hand I hated sharing with Molly, but on the other, I was a bit peed off that that was money for my Everest flight and other optional activities in Nepal. I decided to ride it out. Like I said I was so tired today, surely I would sleep through a war?! Molly was moaning she had a cold so I had a shower and freshened up and left her to it. I even had a face pack and took the nail varnish off my toes. Where I'd sprayed DEET and later put my socks on, the socks had stuck to my toenails and all I was left with was black fluff-not a good look.

I headed down stairs to get something to eat from the hotel restaurant. There seemed to be a lot of Chinese guests, which must be a common thing as they also had really great Chinese menu. I was glad of a change from curry so I ordered chicken noodles and a cup of Reuben tea. It was so nice just to feel clean and relax and I was really looking forward to seeing the sunset tonight.

Later we all met in the lobby, and got a tuk tuk down to the Ganges. Varanasi was even busier (if that's possible) than anywhere we'd been so far. There were more cows and more motorbikes (a pair of cows were even locking horns in the middle of the road with vehicles swerving around them) it was the most insane place yet.

The tuk tuk dropped up off and we had to walk some of the way down to the river. We actually walked around a roundabout with more weaving and Raghu doing his lollipop bit. I wasn't liking this much! There were people begging everywhere and I saw a man with no legs dragging himself along on his front on a bit of cardboard-his face literally was in the gutter. Again it was such a contrasting place-there were people like this and round the corner we'd just driven past a Tommy hillfiger shop advertising the latest fashion.



As we approached the river it was amazing to see such a bustling place. It was so crowded, and reminiscent of a farmyard with the amount of cows and dung everywhere. We got on the boat and initially sailed up river to see the place where all the nightly ceremony happens, and the Hindu priests will stand. Raghu explained about the significance of the Ganges in that it gives life to the popel of Varanasi but is also so sacred that people come here specifically to die. They leave all their worldly goods to their children or family and head to Varanasi to wait for God (I don't know which one as the Hindus have so many) we then turned around and headed towards the Ghats where the cremations took place. My sister in law michelle had told me about these when she'd seen them in Nepal last year. This particular ghat on this part of the river was open all day except between the hours of 2-3am. Initially the bodies are raised and lowered into the river 5 times and then left to dry out before being cremated. The people who carried out the cremations were The lowest of the caste system. It was believed this group had done something bad in a previous life so now they were destined to do this work. I thought how awful this was, that from the moment of birth your destiny was written in that this job would be all that you would do in life. I wondered if any of them ever tried to get away, but with the illiteracy and poverty so prevalent, and their beliefs so strong, they probably never knew that other ways of life could exist for them.



On the sail back we had a candlelight ceremony, where you light a little candle amongst flowers and make a wish as you set if adrift in the river Ganges. Harry and Lloyd had bought a photo to put with theirs which turned out to be of Lloyds father who had passed away. I lit my candle and wished for (now come on, as if I'd tell you! Everyone knows it won't come true if you tell)



I made my wish and let mine go, and turned back to see lloyd sitting with tears rolling down his face. I don't know why but I got up and walked over to give him a hug, and then turned to hug Harry sat opposite him who by now was also crying.

I sat back down and noticed Shakira who was sat next to me was also crying-it seemed everyone must have had the same emotional train journey as me, and it was just catching up with them. I gave her hand a squeeze and smiled.

I didn't think I'm a particularly spiritual person, but there was something of a feel about this place that made something in me feel a bit, well, I don't really know. It just seemed peaceful and without sounding like a complete moron, it felt like there was a lot of positive energy about the place.

We stopped the boat to watch the nightly prayer service where 7 priests stood on the banks, ring bells and burning fires. There was a lot of oooooommmmmmmm going on. Shakira was still crying and thee wre kids jumping between boats trying to sell things. They couldn't have been much older than 7 or 8. Imagine our 7 year olds leaping between boats across a river??! Non of them fell in though. Good proprioception (that comment is for you DSJ ;-)



We had another emotional walk back to get a tuk tuk, Raghu was by now just grabbing the handles on the motorbike as they came towards us to make them stop, it was insane. We went to a nepalese restaurant where for the first time we saw steak on the menu. I was so tempted but it turned out to be water buffalo, so I had noodles instead.

Molly brown skipped food and went straight back to the hotel, so she was snorting like a pig by the time I'd got back in-urgh by now I was starting to think that ALL snorers should be put down (yes mother I know you snore!) but I had something better to listen to. I had a voice message from Daryl. It really put a smile on my face to hear a lovely Welsh accent as opposed to the grating Canadian I'd endured so far. Sleep didn't come easy, but it was another early morning tomorrow, so night night!

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