Long weekend in Varanasi

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Day 1:

The sun is setting to my left; I can see its dulling rays behind the buildings next to me. A cup of masala chai is also on my left on a table, still steaming away even though it was poured over ten minutes ago. I’m sitting on the rooftop terrace of Kedareswar Bed ‘n’ Breakfast, whose sign I can see below me stating ‘our aim is to keep always neat and clean’. I like the fact they are honest; being neat and clean is their aim, not a bonafide guarantee. The ghats of the holy city of Varanasi are opened up before me as I sit here, laptop on knee, listening to the sounds of Arcade Fire.

At school we’ve been granted a long weekend, so we have this coming Monday off. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to go somewhere outside of Bangalore once a month, and so far I’ve managed it! This time three other teachers and I have come up to Varanasi. We caught the 6am flight from Bangalore, connected at Delhi and now here we are. I need to go to bed early tonight though as typing this, I’ve been awake since 3.45am and it’s now 6.10pm.

We were recommended this b’n’b by a teacher couple who came here a month ago, and so far it seems fine; hot and cold drinks on demand and clean rooms with A/C and fan. By the time we arrived at Kedareswar it was close to 2pm, so since then we’ve wandered along some of the narrow lanes, had lunch at the Mona Lisa Café and that’s about it. In 20 minutes we’re all meeting downstairs to go on a boat trip along the ghat(s) to see..well some ceremonies, which will involve some pyres or similar I think..I’ve seen so many pictures of this place it’s quite weird to actually be here and I’m intrigued to see what goes on.

I’m hoping that this evening’s trip will take my mind off something, which has just turned up out of the blue, really. I was just talking this morning about how I was excited to go up to northern India this July, catching a mixture of train and bus and who knows what up to Ladakh and Leh, trekking for a little bit, going to Amritsar and taking my time to get back to Bangalore, probably all by train. This is now not going to happen so right now I have to think of a plan B, which is at the moment to change my UK flight to come back later (i.e. a week or so past the original departure date of 8th July), then fly up to Delhi, sightsee around Delhi, go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then catch the 6 hour train up to Amritsar, spend a couple or so days there and then head back to Bangalore.

I can’t help but feel disappointed as I was really excited to go up north this summer, more so than going back to the UK. Anyhow so it looks like I will aim to do that next June and July, not this year, with or without anyone. I have to now ask my school if they can change my flight, and what that will cost, but to be honest I am willing to pay an extra 100-200 quid if it means I can stay a little longer in the UK rather than having a month left here on my own when I get back. I might even be able to fit in a few days elsewhere in the UK than where I was going to go (London, Edinburgh, Wales) such as Dublin (love Dublin ☺) or even somewhere else in Europe..I’ll have to wait and see what they say.

Day 2:

The sunset trip along the Ganges was really good. One of the owners of the hotel asked us to be ready at 6.30pm for a 1.5 hour boat trip along the river and to see the main ceremony further up. We shared the boat with a couple from the USA. Our boatman, Lalu, introduced his boat first (‘Raju’) and secondly, himself. As you can see from his picture here, he was an older gentleman, wrinkles and cloudy eyes partly a result of the sun, but with a full head of hair and enough English to explain to us which bodies were ‘allowed’ to be burned before the Ganges and which weren’t, such as pregnant women, babies and those bitten by a scorpion.

The sun dipped quickly and before we knew it, the various electric lights along the ghats came on, along with dias being lit and placed in the water by hundreds of other boat-goers as we slowly made our way along the river. We saw lots of people swimming in the water and more and more boats making their way towards what turned out to be the ‘main event’, if you will, which was five men twirling various objects and throwing flowers into the throng. Hundreds and hundreds of boats were gathered in front of this spectacle, which also involved consistent but constantly changing rhythms, and people like us bending low into our boats trying to shield our matches from the wind as we tried to light the dias to send them on their way. At another point on the river we saw a body being brought down to the banks, wrapped up in what looked like layers of orange and red-coloured tin foil, laid on a wooden stretcher-type contraption. At one point the men carrying it tipped it at a precarious angle but quickly recovered it. There was no mourning taking place at all. The cows and dogs seated nearby looked away nonchalantly; this was an everyday (or rather, every night) occurrence, after all.

Lalu having rowed us back to the banks of Chowki Ghat, just below our hotel, we ascended the steps and asked the hotel owner if we could take an early morning boat trip along the Ganges, having already asked Lalu, who said yes. He confirmed this would be possible, but that we’d need to be ready at 5am. So at 5am on Day 2, there we were stepping into the same boat less than 12 hours earlier, the sun already rising, a much lighter morning than it would have been in Bangalore at the same time. Compared to the night before, it was relatively peaceful on the river. We watched men beating their clothes into submission on the rocks, men, women and children washing and performing their morning rituals, goats clambering along the steps and even a white foreigner running along the ghats. The sunrise was beautiful, making silhouettes of passing boats and casting a pinky light on the Ganges.

After we got back to the hotel, we slept for a bit before having breakfast at around 9am (breakfast at this place was 7am-9.30am); I had a cup of very strong chai and a banana and honey pancake, which was yummy. For the rest of the day, we wandered along the narrow alleyways of the Old City where we were staying and hired an auto-rickshaw to take us around for a couple of hours. It turns out there’s not that much to Varanasi, which was fine by me as my main aim was to have a break from Bangalore and chill out a bit, not necessarily fill every day with activities from dawn until dusk. We ended up having lunch at a place called ‘Bread of Life’, which didn’t have a lot in despite having an extensive menu (a lot of questions we asked were answered by ‘No have, madam’) but I enjoyed a stuffed aubergine along with some delicious masala chai with a strong taste of lemongrass and ginger, which I will try to replicate at home but doubt I’ll be successful. We ended up playing the ‘guess all the states’ both in terms of the USA, Australia and all the countries of Africa..most of which we got without the help of the internet!

That evening we tried to walk to the burning ghats but soon ended up in a busy part of the town; it was the same in China, at night time, that’s when towns and cities really come to life. We bought some kitschy jewellery and found a boy (18) who knew where to find a place that sold bhang lassis, which our friends who’d been here before recommended we try! It took a while as originally he took Anna saying ‘special lassi’ to mean just that, special, very good, but eventually he took us to a tiny lassi place that sold them. I didn’t fancy it for several reasons, mostly because I hadn’t eaten yet and that was priority! But two were bought and tried, the effects taking around half an hour to feel. We ended up having takeaway pizzas from Mona Lisa, a place near our hotel, but I went to bed early as seeing people under the effects of either weed or alcohol when you are sober is annoying/boring after a very short time.

Day 3

I woke up at 7am and then intermittently until 8am, when I got up and with the girls had breakfast on the rooftop terrace. It was hot already but a breeze was blowing, a welcome relief from the heat. I had another banana and honey pancake washed down with a cup of chai, planned my English lessons for the week back in the room and then we set off, a couple of hours to kill before getting a taxi to the airport at 1.30pm. We wandered along the ghats again and along the main road, which was incredibly busy. Cycle and auto-rickshaws, goats, cows, motorcycles, bicycles, men, women and children, dogs, buses, taxis..you name it. It reminded me of the craziness of Dhaka! There were constant calls of ‘rickshaw, madam?’ which I tried to bat away politely. Eventually we made our way to Bread of Life again, where I had another pancake (lemon and sugar this time), a fresh lime soda and a pot of tea. A baking hot ride in a taxi later and we arrived at Varanasi airport. At present I’m typing away in Delhi airport, waiting for our flight back to Bangalore. It’s been delayed so it’s going to be late to bed before school tomorrow! I’m glad I’ve now been to Varanasi; after seeing so many images of it it’s good to actually have been there. You definitely need to bring sun cream, sunglasses, breathable clothes, good walkable shoes (but I just wore open-toed, so nothing fancy), a good book and as usual in India, a large amount of patience and open-mindedness.

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