Varanasi and the Ganges

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After enjoying Agra we were ready to catch the train to our next destination… Varanasi. The story of how we even got the tickets is long and I won’t bore you with the extended version but it includes being shuffled through 5 different ticket lines at the station before still leaving empty handed, then eventually getting them through another ticket office… only to find out that we were overcharged for them by about 1000 rupees. I guess I should just look at the glass as half full in that we even got the tickets. We made it to the Agra train station late for our train (not my fault), but luckily the trains in India tend to run late so our train had not left yet but we had to hustle or we would have been stuck spending another night in Agra another night. Because of the distance between Agra and Varanasi the only trains available were overnighters (13 hours) so we found our seats and settled in for the long haul.

Overnight trains in India aren’t that bad but if you plan on taking one be careful with your bags as a couple across from us woke up the next morning minus one bag and they weren’t too happy about it. After they kept looking around for their bag and announced it was missing I thought back on the night and realized (although I didn’t say it to them) that I might have seen the person that took their bag. I am a light sleeper when in any different kind of setting (trains, planes & automobiles) and I sat up for much of the night and only slept intermittently. Throughout the night a procession of vendors and random people came though the car and the train itself seemed to stop randomly (not at stations). While awake an Indian guy stopped in front of my bunk, pulled back my curtain… saw I was awake and then motioned toward a light switch in my bunk and hit the switch… which turned off the light in the main hallway. I assumed that he was sleeping nearby and the light was keeping him up but he was not on the train in the morning so maybe he just needed some privacy to snatch a bag... who knows.

We arrived in Varanasi in the morning and it was already blazing hot as we set about getting a taxi to our hotel. Getting to our hotel presented a bit of a problem because it was located in “old” Varanasi, which was built before the invention of automobiles and the surrounding streets (more like alleys) are too narrow to accommodate car traffic. Our taxi had to drop us off about 20 minutes from the hotel and we would have to walk the rest of the way… the only problem being that there are no street signs in the alleys so we would have been wandering around trying to find the place. Thankfully the taxi driver got some locals to guide the way (for a fee) which was great because it would have been brutal wandering around in the heat trying to find the hotel while carrying luggage. The route through the alleys wound on and on as we turned left right and around past shops, locals, dogs, cows and even a funeral procession carrying a body (wrapped in cloth) past us to the “burning ghats” of the Ganges river for cremation (more on that later). By the time we made it to the hotel we were tired and sweaty and checked in before making our way to the back courtyard to take in the hotels awesome view of the Ganges. The hotel is basically built right on the riverbank and has an unobstructed view of the river’s ghats (steps leading down to the river) going in both directions, as well as the river itself.

The Ganges
The Ganges river is one of the main attractions for visitors considering traveling to Varanasi. People come from far and wide to witness the cycle of life and death on the river and to watch the river’s ghats come alive at dawn daily as Hindu devotees visit the river to bathe, pray and (for some) to cremate the dead and spread their ashes in the river. Devotees (who sometimes relocate to Varanasi when nearing death) are generally cremated and their ashes are then spread in the river, except for certain classes of people who are placed in the river intact (I believe weighted down and left in the middle of the river). As a traveler visiting Varanasi you can hire a boat at the ghats to take you out at dawn to take in the sights and sounds of ancient Varanasi (claims to be longest continually inhabited city on earth).

Our time in Varanasi was an interesting mix of relaxing around the hotel, visiting the ghats and trying to avoid the local band of flycatchers who waited just outside the hotel doors to try to chat up everyone walking out of the hotel and get you to either buy a boat ride or some tour of the city… it got old quickly (to us anyway) but it was about par for the course. The other item of note was that while we were in Varanasi India won the World Cup of Cricket. That statement might not resonate with Americans but cricket is a BIG F’ing deal (As VP Biden would say) in India. All throughout the day there was a tension in the air as people were either glued to their tv’s or walked around with radios listening to the match and when India won there was an explosion of yelling, shouting and fireworks that went up all over the city as seemingly everyone celebrated the victory… I watched part of the match and I can say that I understand a little more about cricket now but I still don’t understand all the rules. All and all Varanasi was cool and visiting the river, walking the ghats and boating the river at dawn were all great experiences.

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