Varanasi

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Up early this morning to watch sunrise activities on the ghats from the same boat as last night. Throngs of other tourists, Indian and foreign, were doing the same thing. All kinds of things going on- bathing and swimming, toothbrushing, laundry, a number of funerals and cremations even at that early hour.

One old gentleman swimming energetically towards us called out "Hello everyone! Welcome to Varanasi!" Even though it looks like it would be bad for your health to swim in the Ganges every day, maybe there is something beneficial about it. One European-looking man obviously thought so as he was joining in the bathing.

The laundry is done by dhobi-wallahs, usually men who stand thigh-deep in the water and whack the hell out of the clothes and sheets on stone "washboards" set on an angle on the river bank. I had to wonder if the clothes we had put in for washing at the hotel reception were being washed like that- they usually come back slightly stretched out of shape but not too much worse for the treatment.

I don't have any photos of the cremation ghats as out of respect you are not supposed to take photos or film the funerals.

Disembarking at one of the main ghats we went into the total labyrinth of the old city- some of the passageways are less than a metre wide, and as in Old Delhi you have to dodge porters carrying large heavy-looking sacks to avoid being bulldozed. After chai Toru and two of the guys went to a barber for a shave with a straight razor and I went shopping. All came out looking very smooth- Toru with a slight nick on his upper lip.

After taking a cycle rickshaw back to the hotel, shedding a lot of now unnecessary layers of clothes (temps range from about 8 deg in the morning to 25 at midday) and having lunch we started walking from Assi Ghat back to the main ghat- a distance of 3 km or so. We spent a lot of time dodging water buffalo, cricket games, waterfalls of sewage, boat ride touts and kids selling postcards, many of which (the kids) have learned quite a bit of Japanese. One of them refused to believe that I could speak Japanese even though I told him I lived in Japan- not sure what the logic was there!

Towards the evening large numbers of people started to arrive at the main ghat for the Aarti, a kind of fire ceremony involving huge multi-flamed oil lamps which are waved around by priests and splash oil everywhere- spectacular to watch but you wouldn't want to get too close.

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Photos

Dawn in Varanasi
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world

Keeping very still...
Toru at the barber's

Cricket game
The level of the Ganges was very low so even the mud on the bank is exposed. During the monsoon the water comes right up to the buildings and it's impossible to walk from ghat to ghat.