Silk and sweat

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Afternoon readers it's 13.26 here in a hot and sweaty Varanasi but I'm in a cool AC room



Time for another thrilling instalment of my blog lol. So picking up from my last entry we arrived in Varanasi hot, tired and hungry. It was a short, but verynhot and sweaty walk from the train station to the hotel. As usual we had to dodge to maic traffic and avoid an early death on the roads lol but we managed it and all arrived at the air conditioned hotel all in one piece.



We headed to our rooms for a quick shower and then meet for lunch in the restaurant. I am sharing with Mary. In most hotel rooms on this trip we have had to insert the key fob in to a slot behind the door to activate the leccy and AC. So Mary popped the key fob in but nothing! However this is not unusual as through out our trip we have been experiencing power cuts from time to time, so we thought nothing of it. So our plan of attack was to open the curtains so we could shed some light on the subject, leave the bathroom door open so we could see to shower, then close the curtains again so we could get dressed as there were no blinds or net curtains at thecwindow, and we did not want to give the flats across the way a full on nude showing lol.

So then we tried to shower, but could not get any water from the shower despite our best efforts. So a strip wash at the sink it was to try to remove some of the sweat and grime of the last 24 hours. And can I say for the record my clothes were manky and had a funky smell - delightful lol.

So we made do and got washed and changed and went to the restaurant. We advised Dushyant of our dilemma and he got reception on it straight away. We were then advised we had not pushed the key fob in the right way or far enough so in fact all was ok with the leccy and it was also user error on the tap front too! Oh well, but in our defence all my fellow travellers also said they had problems with the shower taps too lol.

So after lunch we had a short rest and then we headed out for a tour of the part of the city where they make silk bedding, scarves, pashminas etc. we took a crazy tuk tuk ride to meet our guide who was an old man who had worked in the industry all his life. He explained to us about how many different processes were involved in the industry and that the man and women worked separately.



The area of the city we went to was a poorer area and was a Muslim community. he explained that they had been hand and machine weaving silk cloth in the area for many generations and the skills were passed down from farther to son and mother to daughter. We saw how they had made the cards to make the patterns for the machine to weave the cloth. We were shown how they spin the threads and weave the cloth both by hand and by machine. All the locations were in different parts of the area but were within wakling distance. It's hot sweaty and very noisy work. Going from place to place the kids said hello and we had to pick our way through animals of various descriptions, mopeds, street vendors, rubbish, cyclists, bamboo scaffolding and kids playing in the steet. Of course it was hot and there were the smells of food cooking and some not so nice smells too.



After our tour we visited a supplier of various silk items so we could see what he had to sell. He showed us some amazing bedding, scarves, saries, pashminas and cloth. Some very intricate, some one offs, some very expensive and some cheaper items. He told us about the various items and how they were made and how long it took. Obviously the more intricate items took longer to make and were more expensive especially when they were one offs, had lots of hand sewing or lots of beading work included. I ended up buying a scarf to kep me warm when I get beck lol.



So after our purchasers were complete we took another crazy tuk tuk ride back to the hotel. Then four of us went out for tea to a local restaurant. On the way we saw an Indian wedding (well no day is complete without an Indian wedding lol) but on this occasion we did not gate crash. Just as we arrived at the restaurant there was a power cut. So we had dinner by candle light and then as we're were leaving the lights came back in again, typical lol.



When we got back to the hotel guess what ......... Yes there was an Indian wedding in full flow, just the reception so the lobby was packed with guests and the sound of the party voices and music was coming up from the room the reception was being held in. No we didn't gate crash but headed off to bed as we had to up at 4am to see the sunrise over the Ganga (Ganges to you and me) as we took a boat ride along the shore line.

My next blog will be about that ......



Xxx

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