Varanasi Day 1

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Well, we both ended up getting about 4 or 5 hours of sleep. We woke when it was still dark and hardly anyone else on the train was up and about. Soon enough, everyone started to stir, except the two ladies staying near us. Apparently, at least one of them had taken some sleep aid! We watched from the bathroom area as people came and went, using the bathroom and brushing their teeth. One guy must have spent 30 minutes brushing his teeth, rinsing his mouth, and hacking. By this time it was light outside, so I could watch the countryside near Varanasi as it went by, sipping the chay I bought from a train vendor. When the train pulled into the station at Varanasi, we eventually got our gear together, having to deal with lots of folks coming and going. We finally got off the train with our luggage and our guide recruited a number of tuk-tuk drivers to take us all to our hotel in Varanasi for the next 2 nights, Hotel Haifa. Although the traffic wasn’t as bad as Delhi, it was still pretty chaotic and the ride was longer that I’d figured. Varanasi is considerably smaller than Delhi, but I guess the station is still quite a ways from the hotel.

Hotel Haifa was okay, but not quite as nice or clean as the hotel in Delhi. We went to our air-conditioned room on the 3^rd floor, unpacked a little, learned what switches did what, and then headed down for breakfast. The hotel offered 4 different types of breakfasts, plus individual items. Manoli had the American breakfast, which is just toast with jelly and tea or coffee. I ordered the Haifa Special which included juice, a salad, hummus, bread, eggs, coffee or tea, and warm milk. Both combined were only about 300 Rupees or $4.50. After breakfast, we all went for a long walk down to and along the Ganges River. It was pretty cool to see the variety of buildings along the river, and the variety of things people were doing. Some folks were just strolling along, others were washing clothes, and some were swimming or bathing. The river looks quite filthy, but apparently, water tests done show it to be much cleaner than you’d imagine. The Hindi people believe the river is the living embodiment of Mother Ganges, one of their principle gods. Bathing and drinking the water is supposed to cleanse your soul, among other things. You can buy empty water bottles from many little vendors along the way to take home for use. Could you imagine folks taking bottles of the Mississippi home to drink?

After getting a good sense of the Ganges and the people of Varanasi, we went through some of the market streets to a famous shop called the Blue Lassi Shop. They supposedly have been making the best lassi for 75 years. Lassi is a fruit and yogurt drink that is so think I doubt you could drink it. They load it up with any variety of fruit from mango, to pineapple, orange, pomegranate, etc. I ordered a mango with cashew nut and chocolate and Manoli had a simpler papaya lassi. Mine was full of fruit, cashews and some chocolate, and very tasty. I think it was about70 Rupees for the normal ones and 105 for the full of fruit varieties. After our so-called lunch, we all went to see a demonstration of silk products. I can’t remember the name of the place, but they explained to us, in detail, the difference between the fake silk products and the varieties of real silk, including cashmere, pashmina, and two other silk/wool combinations. Basically, if you try to burn the real stuff, it barely burns, gives off a smell of human hair burning, and only leaves a powdery residue. The fake cotton products flare up in flames and leave no residue, while the synthetic stuff melts. The demonstration and their products were quite impressive, but we weren’t sure just how reasonable their prices were. Manoli liked their silk/wool combination blankets, but at $200 wasn’t that sold on them. I think she’d buy one if she was sure it was a good deal. I’ll have to admit that the blanket was the thinnest but warmest blanket I’d ever seen or felt.

After leaving the silk shop, we all took rickshaws or bicycle tuk-tuks back to the hotel to rest and get ready for an evening boat ride on the Ganges. Around 6pm we walked down to Assi Ghat where our boat was waiting. We all piled into a long rowboat and were taken up the Ganges towards the sight of the evening prayer ritual. We stopped along the way to light floating candles to put in the river, supposedly granting wishes by doing so. After lighting all the candles, we continued up to join a host of other boats sitting off shore of the big evening prayer ritual, where 5 colorfully dressed priests did a song and dance routine, often with flaming candles or pots. It was quite impressive to watch and hear. After 20 minutes or so, we left and our boat guy returned us to Assi Ghat, which was by the way quite a distance back. I really felt sorry for the guy and the amount of effort he was obviously putting into rowing us.

When we returned to Assi Ghat, we all walked up the river a little bit to the Vaatika Café and Pizzeria for dinner. Manoli had a fruit salad and I ate a mushroom and veggie pasta dish. Both were excellent and not very expensive. By this time it was almost 10pm, so we walked back to the hotel to retire. Another full day of extreme heat made most of us quite tired and ready to turn in. The temperature was probably in the 90s or more all day, but at least it was a dry heat. I was able to finish my blog from Delhi, but then ran out of steam.

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