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Published: January 22nd 2012
Well, considering that Varanasi is India's holiest city, there's an awful lot of guns here. A bit disconcerting last night with a couple of people wandering around the hotel lobby carrying machine guns. I dunno, perhaps they're holy machine guns ?! They are police (or army, or both), but sometimes they're dressed so casually it's hard to tell.
Also a bit wierd that to get into many of the temples you have to go through electronic security and be frisked. Maybe its holy electronic security ?!
Dawn on the Ganges was amazing. It's a different world here. I feel as though I'm walking around with my gob open, just gawping at everything all the time. The sites, the sounds, the smells. I was a bit spooked at first it was so different, but starting to get into the swing of things. It's so wierd, people lving in abject poverty side by side with designer and mobile phone shops. Driving along in our air-conditioned 4x4 while a guy outside carries dried cow pats on his head to sell as fuel at the market !!
After the Ganges, a walk through old Varanasi, tiny streets, bustling with people and the
occasional cow (or is it bustling with cows and the occasional person?).
Then back for breakfast. I didn't fancy the Steamed Idli so I had a local dish known as "Beens-om-Turst". By 9:00am felt like we'd done a full day already.
Later more temples, specifically a Shiva temple and a Hanuman temple (which was overrun with monkeys, wasn't allowed to take any pictures though).
How to capture it all in words ? Perhaps some more poetry:
"Oh Varanasi, Holy City of Shiva,
On the banks of the Ganges Reever (sorry),
Incredible sllks and Indian cottons,
Essential oils and monkey's bottoms"
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Dave F
non-member comment
Hiya looks stunning great commentary and video hope the stools are still firm :-) Love from Snowy Scotland