We came. We saw. We left quickly!

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Veranasi is a holy city where people come to be married and to die or have their bodies burnt, and I can see no other reason to come – it is the pits.



Taxi from the airport should be about 400 rupees but you may have to pay 500 depending on how many taxi drivers have dropped people off and are looking to go home.



The centre places of tourism are the Ghats (steps) which, for about a 2 miles stretch, come down to the Ganges. There are several things going on; washing of clothes, men washing and most importantly the burning of bodies. Some are brought hundreds of miles to be burnt here. There are two burning sites, one can burn 50-60 bodies a day and the second one considerably more as bodies are burnt 24/7. Bodies are washed in the Ganges then taken ashore and laid on logs with more logs laid on top of them, then set alight. Most of the body is burnt but what is usually left are the hips of women and the chests of men, these are then thrown in the Ganges or taken by boat to the middle and then thrown in. There are exceptions to all this: Holy men, pregnant women, children under 10 and lepers (there may be more). These are simply taken by boat to the centre weighted down and thrown overboard, as these do not need to be burnt to reach Nirvana.



This is the interesting part of the Ghats and there is even a viewing platform where you can watch all the burnings taking place, no photos are allowed. I did not participate as none of this appealed to me anyway.



Now bear in mind that bathing and clothes washing goes on downstream from all the above.



Walking along the path below the ghats is a challenging experience. Cows and buffalo are in abundance. There is the constant smell of urine from dogs, goats, cattle, but mainly men who believe any wall is a toilet and most walls are uphill of the river. All this means that you are constantly finding ways of not walking in a stream. You also smell and must avoid, new cowpats (no, the owners do not carry large size doggie bags!) and spittle. Some of this is prevalent in most Indian cities but seems more in abundance in Varanasi. I have ignored flies and the other obvious smell which comes from the human funeral pyres. Maybe it has got to be seen but not for us, the sooner we left Varanasi the better.

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Photos

Children playing
Note the 'streams' from what I know not.

Look closely
Would you accept this towel as clean, just neen washed in the Ganges

Flying kites
With Japanese admirers

Another load of wood
arrives at the 'crematorium'

Comments

[chriscostigan]

we came..........!!
U G H !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jean]

Ganges
Happy New Year to u both.You forgot the washing of the cattle that also takes place in the Ganges & I,m surprised you didn,t swim in the river like John did !!!!!!!!! needless to say he wasn,t very well after.Just come back from seeing John he is considrebly better than the last time I say him,still not eating any solids just soup yogurt etc,talking more but still got a long way to go.Anyway take care best wishes Jean & John