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Published: March 12th 2015
After the lack of sleep on the night train I was so tired I didn't think I'd have trouble sleeping. Turns out that a full afternoon of snoozing for Molly brown wasn't enough and she snored the whole night. I was sick of her by now so woke her up every time she started. Just as I was managing to drift off she'd start again, damn it, if only I could drop off first!!
My alarm went off at 0430 to which she groaned and didn't move. I showered and made my way downstairs for 0500 the time I thought we were meeting. Turns it it wasn't until 0530 but it allowed me time to have a couple of coffees before heading out.
We got a tuk tuk to the same place on the river Ganges as we'd been last night. It was a lot quieter this morning but was still very busy nevertheless. As we approached the river, I could see many people washing. Raghu had asked us if anyone wanted to use this time to go into the Ganges, and seemed surprised when nobody took him up on the offer. He said that out of
a group, he always had at least 4 or 5 people going into the Ganges. (My question was how many came back out?!) he said it was a once in a lifetime thing to experience a dip in the sacred river Ganges. I thought this was probably because that one dip would probably involve contracting some hideous infection that would effectively end your lifetime, so for me it was still a no thank you very much!
On the boat we sailed towards the burning ghats that we'd seen last night. There were still bodies lined up on the steps awaiting cremation. on the way back bobbing along the the stern of a couple of Boats were 2 triangular things protruding out of the water, as I looked slightly right of that I saw the triangular things were attached to something else-a torso and it was in fact the bent knees forming the triangles. I looked at Chanelle and she looked at me, we both looked back into the water and then at each other- is that....? Yes I think so.....
Raghu had said he had only ever seen about 5 bodies in his time coming here.
A little later on saw a big white thing that was also probably a bloated body that had surfaced, and tripled in size.
It felt a bit eerie, in fact I didn't know how to feel. It was almost strange accepting this is a part of the Ganges traditions, because if I was back home in a boat across the river Humber and saw a body floating by I think my heart would be in my mouth, but because it's expected here it didn't seem as shocking as I thought it would be. In fact what I found more shocking was that Literally meters away people were bathing and splashing the river water onto their face like an Indian Oil of Olay advert. I wouldn't dip a toe in there, not even if you paid me.
As we sailed and saw more people bathing, and men washing clothes on the banks of the river, the sun started to rise, and despite all the filth and death, those first Rays of the morning sun glistened on the water and it actually looked like a beautiful serene place. We got some lovely pictures and I was glad to
have experienced the two different sides of the day on the River Ganges.
We made our way through some narrow streets, and passed more mangey dogs.there seemed to a lot more dogs here that all seemed quite content sleeping amongst piles of rubbish. I thought of Bridgend Dogs Trust where I volunteer as a dog walker, and couldn't even imagine where you'd begin in rounding up all the dogs here for a similar vaccination and neutering programme. Even those homeless dogs in South Wales were a million times more lucky than their flea ridden Indian friends here. I hated seeing homeless people and begging. I especially hated seeing children with palms outstretched, and them motioning eating food. I thought of my own nieces and nephews at home who despite their best efforts, always had clean faces for bedtime, and someone to tuck them into a comfy bed and read them a story after a day of playing. What a completely different world these children were born into here, and non of them would ever know of Peppa pig.
We went to a cafe for breakfast where I had an omelette and hash brown with
a cup of earl grey tea. The food was lovely but it took ages and quite a lot of people's orders were mixed up. I bought a nice hand painted card of the river Ganges and figured with the filth of the place it was the only 'souvenir' I wanted from Varanasi. If it was so sacred why was it so polluted? Why was there so much litter? Another massive contradiction I find with india. The most sacred holy place-yet the filthiest. We went back to the hotel and had an hour to kill before meeting up again. I didn't want to risk going to sleep so I got some wifi and sent some messages.
At 10am we got a tuk tuk for a tour of the silk factory. Apparently the best silk clothing is made in Varanasi, and everyone wanted to see how it was done. The 'factory' turned out to be a series of rooms in people's homes dotted around a lot of alley ways. The first one had a man hammering holes into a piece of card that was eventually used in the machine for the patterns. It was painstaking work but he was so efficient
and sat around bundles and bundles of cards. Next, across the road was a room that housed all the bobbins of silk, in so many different colours. The man explained that silk was bought by the kilo from northern India and costs depended to the quality of silk, after that we weaved our way in and out of the winding alleyways (which by the way we're still full of goats, Children, men staring and mopeds) we saw the loom at work weaving all the silk into a garment. It reminded me of a history lesson from school, learning all about the industrial revolution where machines such as The Mule, and Spinning Jenny were invented, only one it looked like they were right I front of my eyes.
In the next house (and when I say house they are actually more like a garage, in size and decor) a man sat in the dark, hand weaving a sari which can take anywhere up to 1-4 months. The reason he was working in the dark was due to a power cut so he used the tiny bit of sunlight that came in through the shutters.
There were lots of children
playing in the alley and gradually as they saw us standing there, the numbers increased. They were all filthy but smiling and laughing and wanting us to take their picture. Before heading to the 'shop' where you could by the silk, we stopped by 2 more houses where people were hand stitching jewels onto the woven silk. It really was beautiful and very skilled intricate work.
At the shop, we were invited to remove our shoes and go upstairs where we would be shown lots of different silks. The man was really nice and explained to us the difference in quality of the silks, and how long it took to make each one. He said it was a family business which had been making saris for 3 generations. They shipped all over the world and could even arrange shipping of any items we bought today. He offered us tea and it was actually a nice relaxed environment with plenty of time to look and appreciate the product with no hard sell.
He showed us, bedspreads, table cloths, table runners, silk scarves, pashminas, and finally saris. It was all so beautiful but the cheapest scarves were about £30 admittedly
still cheaper than back in the UK for the quality of them, but figured I'd be buying for buyings sake.
He did show us some scarves made from a cheaper silk which was more our price so we bought some of those as gifts as they were just as nice.
I would have loved to have bought a sari. They were beautiful and so colourful. The man even said he could tailor make the tops and drop them off at the hotel later-what's service. But they were about £45 and I figured I've reached 32 without ever needing to wear a sari, so again, pointless buying for buyings sake. A couple of the girls were measured up though and looked lovely in their new silks. The bedding and table clothes started at about £60 up to about £600, and after seeing how much effort went into making them, I'd say that price is justified-it really was good quality. If I had come to India without being part of a group (which I highly doubt I would have done) I would have had no idea where to find these places or how to go about seeing them, so this
was just one of the many reasons I was glad to be a part of an organised trip.
We thanked the man and some people wanted to stay in Varanasi and have a look in the shopping mall. I wasn't too fussed for this but thought I'd go to see if I could find a cheaper sari, or one that I could bring back for Isabelle. We had food in the mall, and my stomach felt a little bit crampy. I was so pleased that up until now I had managed to survive india without the dreaded Delhi belly, but maybe I was getting a case of VaranASSi......?
The shopping mall consisted of around 3 floors of 5 shops, all mostly clothes shop for men, 2 sports shops and eating places. I had a wonder around with Chanelle, the Aussie bird who had survived the trip so far with no luggage. She too had flown Malaysian airlines but her bags had gotten lost when apparently there had been a baggage strike somewhere between Australia and India. We were in jaipur when she found out her bags were actually in Delhi but were being held by customs, and she
would have to physically go there in person to collect them (all at her own cost) since we weren't heading back to Delhi she'd decided to just go without and collect her bags on her way back to Australia. I'd like to think she'd bought some clean underwear since Delhi, but she seemed happy to cut about in the same trousers and was more upset that her better camera lens was in her bag, especially now that her original lens had been ruined by taking pictures of Holi.
We stopped by a camera shop and asked if they had Nikon lenses. He said not, but after a bit of good old Google, wrote the directions down for somewhere that might. Not wanting to trapse around crazy Varanasi to buy a camera lens, I headed back to the mall where we had agreed to meet at 3pm. I found a shop selling saris that were much cheaper (about £25) and tried to find ones to fit. Unfortunately the only sizes that had were medium. XL, and XXL. I asked if they had any smaller as the medium were still quite big, but the man told me 'no, in
India women are fat' if there had been one that I liked that fitted better I really would have been tempted to get one, but I reckoned I could probably pick one up in Aldershot for the same price given that there is a huge Nepalese population in the town, but it was fun trying them on all the same.
We got a tuk tuk back to the hotel where I was looking forward to having an afternoon snooze. No such luck. Molly had beaten me to it and was laid snoring away. I decided I wasn't even going to try so I started packing instead. I didn't go out of my way to be noisy but all the same, no longer would I be going out of my way to keep quiet-I decided to take a leaf from Molly Brown and do what I would be doing if I had a room to myself, and sod anyone else. I had a shower and I wasn't best pleased when I noticed she hadn't cleaned the toilet and used my facecloth that was on top of my wash bag, so I didn't feel even slightly guilty using the
hairdryer to dry my hair. That seemed to wake her and after moaning about her cold for about ten minutes she said she was getting up. Great, I thought, so I got into bed. I had my eye mask and earplugs in but she still insisted on talking to me. I ignored her and a miracle happened-I fell asleep!
The damned phone woke me up an hour later. It was Shakira asking if I was coming to dinner. I told her to go ahead without me. I really wanted to stay in bed but thought I should eat as we were having such a long day tomorrow, and I would be hungry. It was 6pm so thought I'd go eat in the hotel restaurant. As I was walking down the corridor I heard Sue and Chanelle so thought I'd stick my head around to see if they fancied coming for food.
Chanelle had been on the vodka and cokes since late afternoon and was starting to get a bit tipsy. They said that they were ordering room service and as no one had gone out for dinner in the end, they had invited everyone into their
room to share the booze.
I thought I'd just get some food then try to head back to bed. I ordered the noodles I'd had yesterday seeing as they were so nice. I wasn't too bothered for drinking but figured a cheeky vodka might aid a good sleep. Keiran got out her selfie stick and started taking loads of photos, which led to Chanelle whipping out her new camera lens and proudly showing it off to everyone. Considering she'd gone for so long without her own clothes and toiletries, I would of thought that would have been a more exciting thing to buy, but no, the camera lens was her new toy and she said she was sending her old one into the river Ganges to bid it farewell!
I headed off to bed a little before 10. We weren't going to get much sleep as it was, but thought I'd at least try. I don't know why I bothered, as the snorting pig was her usual self. I text Daryl and congratulated him on his exam results, he'd messaged earlier to say they were in. I also had a message from Sam empathising my night train pain
and saying she missed me too. How I loved hearing from those back home, it really made me smile.
I'd downloaded a film earlier thinking at least I could nod off watching that. I ended up watching it all and then laid reading for a bit. I finally got to sleep 2 hours before we needed to be up again. At least my stomach seemed ok-would I really make it out of India with no upset stomach?
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Dolly
non-member comment
Tolerant
Eeeeeeemmmmmmssssiiiieeee ! I would have flashed big time at that Molly bird u've been very tolerant. She's be been one if those bodies floating in the bloody river if I'd been there!! Haha.