Varanasi, holy cow!

I woke up, a little disorientated, and my watch said it was 8.  I remembered we were on a train, so when I realised we weren't moving, and that I couldn't hear or see anyone in our carriage, I began to wonder what was going on.  But before I had woken up enough to figure out what to do about it, we were moving again.  I sat up for a bit, which is about all you can do on the sleeper trains, but staring out the window for an hour made me a bit sleepy, so I lay down again.  I was woken up by Mike at around 10.30, as we pulled into Varanasi Junction.

Going against everything we had planned on doing, we didn't bother going to the prepaid station, and just took the first rickshaw guy who approached us.  His price seemed reasonable, and Mike figured that for the difference of 10 rupees, there didn't seem much point in queuing for a prepay.  I was happy enough with that, but I think we were both a little anxious about what scam was going to be pulled - I couldn't believe nothing had gone horribly wrong already at this stage in our Indian adventure!

We told the driver where we wanted to go, and the whole way there he chatted away to Mike.  He seemed friendly enough.  He dropped us at the guest house, and Mike went in to have a look.  We had been told by several people to stay in a place overlooking the Ganges, so that you can get a good view, and the first place seemed good.  We wanted to have a look round though, and get an idea of what kind of places were available, and what price they were, and our driver was only too happy to accommodate us with this.  Except that he had particular places in mind.  We did tell him that we wanted somewhere overlooking the river, but he kept taking us to places in different areas.  Mike jumped out at each one, and while some were nice, they either didn't have the view we were looking for, or were ridiculously priced.  In the end, after driving round for over an hour, we decided to go back to our original place.

That would have been fine, except that when we got there, the owner told us that he only had a room for 2 nights, not 3 like we needed.  We agreed to leave the bags there, have a look round and get back to him.  So we did, and headed out to have a look around.  Our driver was, of course, still standing by the door waiting to see if he could nab us for another job, and then proceeded to offer to take us to where we wanted to go for a stupid price.  We told him we'd walk, and headed down to the water.  The problem was, though, just like when we'd arrived in any new place, we didn't know where places were, the best way to get to them, how long it would take to walk, etc, etc.  We had a look at a guest house next door, and proceeded to spend 20 mins getting hassled by boat drivers and rickshaw drivers.  No matter how many times you tell someone that you don't want a boat, they still offer.  Even if you're enquiring about the best way to get to something that is clearly 5km inland, they'll still swear that they can take you by boat.  We were standing in the sun, dripping sweat, unfamiliar with an area and even the country, and hearing different fabricated directions from 10 different people.  It wasn't too long before we decided to sack it off, and just take a room for 2 nights, and sort it out later.

So we checked in, had a shower, and sat down to lunch overlooking the Ganges.  Varanasi is the holiest city in India, one of the reasons being that the Ganges - the holy river - flows through it.  One of the photos from Varanasi kinda sums up the river for me (I took it from a book of photos of India): 'Although the Ganges is filled with sewage, disease-carrying organisms, and the remains of incomplete cremations, pilgrims steadfastly regard its water as undefileable and bathe and drink from it freely.'  Seriously.

We headed out and walked along the Ghats, which are designated areas along the water.  We saw people out washing in the river, and buffalos having a bathe as well.  There were lots of people just milling around here, and it seemed as though it was quite the hub of activity.  Thousands of people come to the Ghats every day to wash, so it there always seems to be something going on down there.  Eventually we came across what we had heard so much about, and what many people come to Varanasi to see - the cremations.  At the time we didn't know much about them, but watched as another body was carried down on a stretcher, 'washed' with water from the Ganges, and then placed on a pile of wood.  All kinds of incense and liquids were sprayed on the body in some kind of ritual, and I couldn't help but notice the goats who appeared immediately the wreathes were removed to dig in to their floral feast.

After all the ritual was complete, the body was covered with more wood, and the whole thing set alight.  I had thought that I would find watching a body burn a bit more emotional, but it all seemed strangely normal.  There was a dead body in front of me, which normally would have caused me to at least consider squirming, but here I was, sitting watching a body burn, and didn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable about it.

Meanwhile, the guy sitting beside Mike had got chatting to him, and obviously eventually got round to the 'my friend owns a scarf shop' or 'I have a boat' bit.  We had seen enough at that stage anyway, so we headed on.

We decided to walk back to the guest house through the town, which proved to be a veritable maze of short streets, the end of which was always blocked by another street running perpendicular, so that you could never see your way out.  And all sense of direction leaves you after two or three corners, so that after a couple of minutes, you have no idea which way you should be heading.  Finding ourselves in just that predicament, we concurred that the best thing to do would be to sit down and have a cup of chai.  So when Ravi stopped us on the street and offered us some, we did just that.

We took our seat on the doorstep opposite, and enjoyed a glass of the hot, sweet, slightly spicy tea.  I had had chai before in the States, and hadn't thought much of it, but people had raved so much about the chai in India that I thought it worth trying again.  It is pretty good.

We got chatting an English guy across the street - Ricky from Dorset, who claimed to be in the circus.  He was certainly eccentric enough.  He was with Lucy from Colombia, and had been in India for several months.  He knew Ravi, the owner, and told us about his book, which was proudly presented to us.  Apparently Ravi also had a boat, and did trips, and had, several years previously, taken the author of a book of photographs out for the tour of the Ghats.  She had subsequently named him as her boat driver in the acknowledgements section in her book, and sent him a copy, thereby making him the proudest and most famous man in all of Varanasi (move over Ravi Shankar).

Refreshed and rejuvenated, we made our way back, stopping off in a guest house for dinner on the way.  That evening, we had a look at the Ghats after dark, and watched one of the ceremonies that take place there.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast in the guest house, and spent a while chilling out on the balcony and playing cards.  We needed to get cash, and headed out to find an ATM that was marked on our map.  We knew it would be quite difficult to find, since the map wasn't particularly detailed, and the streets were such a jumble, but this was ridiculous.  We spent the morning wandering round  the maze of streets and alleys, which were crowded with people, cows, pigs, goats and dirt alike.  After several hours walking, we found an internet cafe, and set ourselves the task of finding some more detailed maps of town.  Mike got to work on sorting them out, and a half hour later we emerged, only to see the ATM directly across the road.  At least it worked.

We had a look at some of the shops there, and I picked myself up some bracelets.  After that, we got a cycle rickshaw to IP Mall.  I felt so sorry for the guy cycling - it was really, really hot, and he was quite old, and it soon became apparent that he didn't have a clue where we wanted to go.  He stopped and asked a few people, and then upped the price when he realised how far it was.  I think when we finally got there we paid him double - we were just relieved he hadn't had a heart attack trying to get us there!

We got food in the mall - Mike had a McD's, but I couldn't do it, so went to the foodhall upstairs! - and then had a bit of a wander round.  There wasn't much there to be honest, so we left and got a rickshaw to Dasaswamedh ghat.

We had a bit of a wander round there, and looked through the markets, until the rain started, so we took shelter in one of the market alleys.  Naturally, while we were there we were hassled by a guy to come look at his silk shop.  I told him that rather than selling silk, it would be more useful if he sold umbrellas.  He said he had umbrellas at his shop!  Ha ha, liar!  He also said he could sell us some 'super marajuana'.  We eventually got rid of him, and another guy pounced, trying to sell us powder stamp things.  I had a look at them, but didn't want any.  At that stage it had stopped raining, so we made our escape.  The guy followed us, but we got away, so I was pretty surprised when I turned round to find that Mike had gone and bought one of the things off him!!  So I said I could give it to someone as a present, and then had to buy a second one, so as not to case a row between the intended recipients!

We walked down to the river, and Mike got himself a massage, while I waited and got chatting to a young boy who was trying to sell the same powder stamp things that we had just bought.  He told us that his uncle had a shop (of course) and that he had met Goldie Hawn.  He wanted us to come to the shop and see the photos - and insisted that that was all, we didn't have to buy anything.  I agreed to that, but as soon as we set off he was all "Maybe you have some chai and look at the silk?"  Nice try kiddo, but no no no!  We had a look at the photos as promised, and we were also shown some letters that she had sent to the family, but at that stage we were both silked out.  We thanked the family and left.

We headed back through town, through winding alleyways, past dozens of cows who remained totally unfazed by both traffic and people, and made our way back to the hotel along the river - only narrowly avoiding slipping in!

We chilled out in the hotel for a bit, before heading out for some dinner.  I made a phonecall home to wish my dad a happy birthday, and then hit the sack.

We were up at 5 the next morning to take a boat trip.  We had been advised not to book this, but to go to the water and bargain for it there.  Of course we only made it as far as the front door when one of the guys who worked in the hotel stopped us.  If you're up at that time, it's pretty obvious what you're doing.  So he ended up bringing us down and probably made a few bob selling us on to a guy with a boat, but we got a decent price for it, so we weren't too bothered.

It was really nice to see all the ghats at sunrise, even if we couldn't really understand what our guy was saying about each one!  The most amazing thing we did see though was a guy washing in the river - which wouldn't have been at all unusual if he hadn't been a Westerner!  I think he was one of those traveller types who had been in India too long and forgotten all the basic laws of hygiene and disease, or decided to forego them for the sake of his newfound religion.  In any case, he really should have known better.

We jumped out at Marnikarnika ghat, and some guy started to talk to us about the burnings.  I wasn't so sure that I wanted a tour of a funeral parlour, but Mike was pretty interested, so we let him take us round.  He gave a very interesting tour, and told us lots about the cremations.  Apparently not everyone gets burned - children, pregnant women, lepers and snake bite victims are exempt.  Children don't because they are innocent, pregnant women because they are carrying the innocent children, lepers because of 'bad karma' (not for any fear of spreading the disease), and snake bite victims (this one's my favourite) because - wait for it - they're 'not really dead'.  With the first three, when they die, a large rock is tied to them, and they are thrown in the Ganges.  The families don’t want to risk doing that to those who have been bitten by a cobra, however, since they might still pull through, so they get covered in banana leaves, and are sent off floating downstream until someone in the jungle sees them and releases the bad spirit. Apparently they just come back to life then.

Between 200 and 300 kilos of wood is needed for each burning, which masks the smell somewhat. At 185 rupees per kilo, that worked out at about £500. That was when we smelled a rat. This was followed by a plea for a contribution to pay for a funeral for a member of a poor family, at which point we were led to an old lady who begged us for money for a few kilos of wood. It felt like such a cruel set up that it made me really mad. We gave our ‘tour guide’ some money and told him to take whatever it was he wanted for his services, and to give the rest to the old lady. He made a big show of giving her all the money, then told me that he didn’t like me breaking his karma like that. I was beginning to think that I didn’t like him very much, but he still tried to get us to go to his silk shop!

We left, and had a bit of a wander round town, before deciding to go to Hotel Surya for breakfast. It had been recommended to me by Brad and Chelsi, and Mike had heard that they did massages! It was also near the train station, which was handy for leaving the next day, so we checked if they had rooms. They did, and after some hard bargaining we got a fairly good price. The room was fine, but the grounds were amazing! Massive lawns, and an outdoor pool! We had brekkie then went back and packed up our bags, checked out of our old place and into our new one. We chilled out for a bit in the room, then headed out to the pool!

By lunch, we realised that we were already a bit burned, neither of us had realised how long we had been in the sun. We had lunch in the hotel, and spent the afternoon in the shade. We had fully intended to do stuff during the day, but it was nice to just sit around and do nothing, after all it was to be one of the last few days we’d have the freedom to do so! That night we had dinner, played cards and scrabble, went on the net, and then to bed!

The next morning we got up and packed. We were planning on going to the Golden Temple, but when we stepped outside it was so hot, and the rickshaw guys seemed to be charging us what they thought we were willing to pay considering where we were staying, rather than the actual price to get there, so we decided to give it a miss, and spend another day lounging by the pool.

At 6pm we went to the train station. I fell asleep almost instantly, and was out for the count by 8pm! I woke up at about 4am, but dozed again, and, after travelling through the night woke up at 8am in Delhi.

Click here for the Varanasi photos