Blogs from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia - page 65

Varanasi is a very ancient city, on the bank of the Ganges (Ganga) river. Indians consider it sacred, and come to bath, wash clothes, perform 'puja' (sort of like worship) and cremate their dead here. I came mostly just to see the Ganges river, though there are plenty of other touristy things to see and do. Varanasi can be a dangerous city though, and I only planned to stay the day. I arrived on the train from Calcutta at around 1030am, and with my friend Annie headed to the hotel that she was staying at. Thank goodness I had met her, as one man had even approached me on the train to try and get me to use him as a driver - he didn't leave me alone until we drove away (even after I told ... read more

Leaving behind my cozy little routine in Pushkar (it had gotten to the point where I was so well-known around my haunts that the local waiter gave me a bracelet!), I returned to the mayhem of Delhi to join up with my next Intrepid tour, which would take me from Delhi all the way to Kathmandu. Delhi felt a little different this time, a little less threatening, but it was still a wild experience and one I don’t feel particularly tempted to repeat… It’s just such a “full-on” city (as the Aussies would say) - a constant assault of people, smells, cars and rickshaws, cows, beggars, vendors, garbage, and piles of shit, making it easy to miss the spots of beauty. We saw different things this time around, as it had been decided that it had ... read more

Hello folks, Clare here. Oh my God, your God, everybodys' God. That was a journey that you would not want to do everyday - or ever again. 15 hours on a train from Agra to Varanasi, the ancient city of the God Shiva. We had lost one of our sleeping bags at the airport in Delhi, so we both had to share a bunk in the freezing cold of night. It was about 5 foot long and 2 wide (and no, we haven't lost any weight yet ), so saying cramped and uncomfortable would be a massive understatement. However we've made it here in one piece with about a hundred lessons learned. The city is situated along the banks of the holy river Ganges. Hindus come here from all over India to bathe, a ritual that ... read more

This is the place where people wash their sins away in the Ganges from the Gats on shore. Oh, they also burn their dead and do their washing on the shore amongst other things. Simple. It's also the place where they have a funny tradition of flying kites and all day there are loads of them in the sky. They use abrasive line to fight each other and cut each other down. Needless to say we had to have a go! We bought 10 kites (cost about 30p in total) plus some line and then spent an afternoon trying to learn to fly the bloody things. The only have one piece of string attached to them and the locals make it look easy to steer them but believe me it's not!... read more

The past couple of days in Varanasi have seemed almost dull, as there haven’t been any issues dealing with issues at hand. Maybe I’m getting acclimated. I was on the Sunday morning train out of Lucknow. I got into Varanasi about 3:30 PM. I had a minor detour in getting a hotel - due to bad advice at the Tourist Information. Nevertheless, I found a nice hotel (Suyra) for about $8.50standartd room (deluxe ones weren’t available) and settled in for three nights. This hotel is all the three Cs, that is, clean, comfortable and cheap! On Monday, I hired a bicycle rickshaw guy for the day. I went all over the city and saw several temples: Durga (18th century - not allowed inside), Tulsi Manas (1964 - white marble with a Disney-like character acting out Hindu ... read more