river ganges

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I didn’t really know what to expect of this place to be honest, you hear so many stories about body parts floating in the river and stray dogs dragging rounds remnants of legs and things. The river Ganges, the holiest river in India where people bath and swim to wash away their sins, the place where if you die in Varanasi it is very special so you do not get reincarnated but go to god to spiritual enlightenment!

On the Ghats by the river this is where for 24 hours a day the bodies of the dead are washed in the river and then burnt, it takes about 3 hours to burn a body. If the deceased ware pregnant, under the age of 10, a leper or bitten by a cobra (as this snake is holy and can be seen around Shiva’s neck) then you don’t get burn but simply thrown in with a brick attached to your body and into the middle of the river you go....after that who knows.

The first trip was on a rowing boat at sunrise, however I was far too tired and had to take a nap half way through the journey, the 2nd trip was more fascinating, I saw a whole dead dog with only the whites of its eyes bobbing right past me. You can watch the burning of the bodies and the nightly rituals where the boys dance and pray to the gods. It’s a very peaceful place and there are not millions of people near the river like I imagined.

We stayed here a week and made some good friends (sophian, Dan, Jackil, Marcus, Brent, Gail, and Mickeal)over a new game the Israelis play called "murderer", the game gets a bit obsessive and carried on for a few nights, you learn that your mates can be really good liars! Also have I been adding to my Hebrew vocabulary... ech koim leha, koim le Kate (what is your name my name is Kate)

We stayed at a nice little place called Elvis guesthouse, It was far too hot all of the time in Varanasi so spent allot of the daytime either in the cold shower, lurking in the corridor as it was the coolest place or in cafe coffee that that we discovered in a mall ..Complete with air con and a MacDonald’s...perfect!

Had a day volunteering at mother Teresa’s with the old people. Jade me and a Chinese girl helped wash all the clothes, peel some veggies and make chapattis. The old people were really lovely and the sister promised us none of the crazy people would bite, so that was very nice to know.

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Comments

[patricia cori]

permission and file - to use for publication
I love this photo and would like to get in touch with the photographer to ask for the file and permission to use the image in my current publishing project. Please can you put me in touch thank you