Advertisement
Published: January 12th 2007
Sorry about the repetitiveness repetitiveness of lastr blog. It was written over a period of a few days so things got a little confusing!
Varanasi was dfinately not what any of us expected. Our 2 days in this city were so different to anything else we had experienced while in india. For me Varanasi was dirty, polluted and not welcoming here the thousands of eyes staring at you felt like daggers not warm and welcoming like their Bengali counterparts.
We arrived in varanasi off a 15hr overnight train trip which to our surprise was fairly comfortable. The presence of strangers and the length of the beds though were alot different to whaqt youd experience at home in australia - one thing we've learnt about india is tht the country is not tall freindly. Even all the guys at 5' 11" have to duck in many places.
We arrived in varanasi in a swarm of beggars the beggars at the station were numerous mainly children although there were some older adults who appeared to be lepers. We were whiked away to the Hotel which to Mick Elphick (trip organiser and consultant) 's dissapointment was an upgrade as the hotel of choice was full. The Hotel Hindustan Intenational was definately one of the highlights of this part of the trip as massive building with an expansive lobby that looked up 10 or so stories through a glass sunroof to the grey smoggish sky above. The western food served actually tasted western and the juice wasnt watered down. You could tell that the place generally catered for the heavy pocketed traveller not roudy school groups like us.
That afternoon we met Jaydeep our guide to the city who showed us a few sights of the city. The method of transport was bicycle pulled rickshaw which was a fun experience for all. Being pulled around on a "pushy" by a man with no teeth who made cat noises was quite obscure for ania and gerard but later they were explained to that he was the resident "joker" of the rickshaw fleet.
The first stop was a monument built in an attempt to unite the indian race during the overthrow of the British raj. This monument was a giant map of india and surrounding countries built to scale entirely from marble. The sheer size of the map was astounding and the craftsmenship was precise and detailed. After a brief chat about various landmarks and locations of cities in india we jumped back on the rickshaw and rode to the banks of the Ganga where we were harassed by postcard salesmen and men trying to sell coloured dyes which were "very fashinonable and cheap". later we were told that varanasi salesmen were the most brutal and abrupt of the lot and we did very well to deter them.
As we got on the boat we bought small flower arrangements with candles in the middle to release in the middle and make a wish. Cathy also found her sister at the banks and invited her onto the boat after lots of crying in surprise. On the boat we rowed down to watch the happenings at the buring ghat where we counted 17 bodies were being burnt. No women were present here as the burning of the bodies is a male thing as emotions should not be shown. To witness such a personal and emotional event of someone elses family was rewarding but you did feel as though you may have been encroaching on personal space of the family. It was also strange that this was a mass burning as such becuase there were rows of fires all belonging to different families next to each other. Im sure this experience will never be forgotten either. Every so often there was a distinct Bang sound to which we were informed was the skull of the bodies exploding in the fire. This eerie sound also im sure will never be wiped from our memories. All this and no crying from he onlookers provided a very strange scene. At 6 30 we rowed back up to the main ghat to watch evening puja or prayer performed by the Brahmin priests. The power of the prayers being chantedby thousands of Hindus was something that is hard to put in words.
The next morning we woke very very early and were taken once again down to the river with Jaydeep and once again went down to the river this time to watch mrning prayer and ceremonial bathing of Hindu devotees in the Ganga. Men and Women young and old offerend water to the sun as it rose as they cleansed their sins away in the cold waters of the river.
Afterwards we visited the city oif Saranath, the birthplace of Buddhism. Here at first we visited a Malaysian buddhist Shrine which was internally decorated by Japanese paintese 2 centuries ago. The artworks were amazing and so was the number of tourists opacke into the temple. Afterwards we went to the archaeological site of Saranath. The city had been uncovered and is still being dug up over a period of 100 or so years. At the site was a massive stoopa probably 50 metres in height which protects the site that is believed to be the place where Buddha said his first sermon.
After taking in the complexity of the dig site we visited the archaeological survey of india national museum. After confusion of storage of cameras we sore artifacts and relics from saranath that dated to 4 BCE. So some very very old stuff. We sore the actual statue that is the symbol of inia and the actual wheel that appears on the indian flag.
After our trip to saranath we visited some houses of silk makers and viewed how this trade was operated. This really is an artwork and some of the detail that goes into some of the pieces is amazing.
In Varanasi muslim india really became apparent. To see women walking down the street completely covered in black not even any part of their face showing was definately a different experience for all of us australians. It must take great devotion to ones religion to completely cover you body from the outside world and we saw this and acknowledged this.
All in all Varanasi was a strange place. It was polluted like Kolkata but lacked the friendliness. For such a Holy city you would expect that the city would be a friendly warm place. This was not the case in Varanasi. My next blog is from our final destination Delhi. It is sad that this trip is winding up so quickly but im sure some of us are missed greatly at home.
Untill next time keep safe,
gerard.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0347s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
G+J+Gma
non-member comment
varanasi
Hi everyone - blog is great + look forward to next. Hope u r all doing well - take it all in + enjoy. Look forward to seeing u all soon. Take care. Janet