The city of Shiva

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Once again the current city is a totally new experience. The main attraction is the river Ganga, the mother of the hindu people. The city of Shiva rests on the west side of the river and the river bank is covered in concrete ghats (steps down to the river). The various ghats have different purposes such as bathing, cremation grounds, body drop off points, boat landings, shopping, and prayer shrines. The streets of Varanasi are either extremely crowded or extremely narrow. It is very easy to get lost in the winding alleyways, as we have done several times. The city is very fun and there seems to be a hindu shrine or temple every where we look. We also visited the nearby area of Sarnath. This is the place where the Buddha first taught the four noble truths sermon. The area has several buddhist monasteries and a plethora of monks wandering around. This is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists and they come to do prostrations around the stupa marking the place of the first teaching. This was quite amazing to watch. Men and women lower themselves flat to the ground to touch their forehead to the ground and continue doing this every step around the stupa. Nearby there is also a transplanted part of the Bodhi tree that the Buddha became enlightened under. We are staying at a great place called the Yogi Lodge. We have met many other youngs travelers like ourselves here, along with several people from the US. We have a few more days here and then we will make our way to Bodhgaya, the place of enlightenment.

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Comments

[anonymous]

Sounds like you are having a great time. Keep the journals coming this way. It is so cool to read about what you are doing. - Karen

[anonymous]

Awesome
looks like you having so much fun man - wish i was there! Anyways, keep posting and i'm really enjoying reading this. - Karan - Indian guy in Va Beach