Holy Cow its Holy Varanasi

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Our 12 hour journey to Varanasi turned into a miserable 15 hour journey thanks to the punctuality of the Indian rail. Plus, we had the pleasure of sharing our cubicle with a wheezing bull (well, he definately sounded and looked like a wheezing bull). Suffice to say we woke up that day rather grumpy.

To make matters worse, Indian Airlines had contacted us and told us that the flight we had booked from Varanasi into Nepal for the 14th had been rerouted via Delhi, so we now had to fly to Delhi on the 13th (today) at 3pm. Thus, instead of having 1.5 days in Varanasi, we now had about 6 hours. However, since the train decided to be 3 hours late, we now only had 3 hours. Plus we had to go collect our new plane tickets from the Indian Airlines office which should have reduced our time to only 2 hours. However, our rickshaw driver had no idea where he was going, thus wasting 30 minutes, and the Indian Airlines office decided to take 1 hour to reissue our tickets. The end result was that we had travelled 15 hours to Varanasi to have about 1.5 hours to see the actual city. Annoyed!!

Yet it was worth it. Varanasi is one of the most holy cities in India and is also a city where the most holy river, the river Ganges, flows through. Indian pilgrims regularly travel to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges, as it reputed for having healing powers. Additionally, it is believed that if you die in Varanasi, then you go straight to heaven, and thus lots of old people tend to loiter about waiting to die. Being cremated in Varanasi also assures you of a boost in your Karma, thus hopefully allowing you to be reborn as a donkey rather than a one-legged rat with no teeth.

I'm sure you've all seen images of Varanasi on TV. People bathing in a river with big wide staircases leading down the banks of the river. This is what we saw and it was splendid. There were people bathing all over the place, which was kind of gross because apparently the Ganges is the local sewerage outlet, and has about 200 times the standard amount of sewerage that is considered allowable in a river.

We also got to see the burning Ghats - a place where they cremate bodies 24 hours of the day. We even saw some burning bodies which was kind of creepy.

Also, in the short time we were there, Melenie managed to buy two really beautiful saris. If I haven't mentioned before, Melenie has managed to buy something in every shop and city we've been in so far, so she wasn't going to break her record now.

Finally we hopped on an autorickshaw to make a rather hurried journey to the airport to catch our plane to Delhi.

We arrived in Delhi in midafternoon and were pleased to find that Indian Airlines had booked us into a 5-star hotel for free. Yay!!

We dumped our luggage and then headed into Delhi city to see the Red Fort. Okay, just another big red fort, but what was cool about this one is that they had this awesome sound and light show that lit up all the buildings inside the fort while telling you stories from Indian history. It was really informative, interesting and most importantly extremely pretty.

Sadly, the mosquitos seemed to the like hanging around the sound-and-light show too, so we went home that night with about 30 bites each - and I'm not exaggerating. We could actually see swarms of them buzzing around our legs. Some people actually took to walking up and down, muttering to themselves and swatting themselves constantly. It all looked like a scene from the local mental hospital really.

That night we enjoyed a nice restaurant meal courtesy of Indian Airlines as well and then made full use of our free 5-star accommodation. That is - we used all the shampoo, all the conditioner, all the soaps, as well as the free comb and even the free shower cap.

The next day, we were off to Kathmandu, Nepal.

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Photos

Its a filthy river
It may be the most holy river in India, but its filthy as you can see by the debris strewn on the banks. And thats nothing compared to the stuff actually floating in the river, like dead animals and bodies.

One of the many Ghats
These are the gathering places where people come to bath, offer prayers and cremate the dead.

Its a crowded place
And this wasn't even peak time.

Bank-side business
Enterprising shopkeepers have set up businesses such as massage guys and barbers. You can see the guys at the bottom right - he's a lice picker I think (more likely he's a barber)

Burning Ghats
Its a bit of a distant shot but thats where they burn bodies 24 hours a day.

Comments

[quintessential]

amazing !
Hi, its amazing to know that you could make most of it in Varanasi in just few Hrs of time.. ! I really enjoyed the description and Thankx for the nice pictures and hilarious ( some ) captions to them :)