Varanasi

The Ganges

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We only had a few hours to spend in Varanasi between getting off the overnight train from Jaipur in the morning and catching an overnight train to Calcutta that evening. We arrived feeling fairly paranoid from what we had read about the touts in Varanasi and from the hassle we had had in Agra and Jaipur.

Varanasi is famous for its ghats where bodies are cremated and where pilgrims come to bathe in the holy (and very polluted) Ganges river. We decided to visit the busiest ghat for some people watching before having some lunch back near the station. Having bought a ticket from the pre-paid autorickshaw booth to Dasaswamedh Ghat we thought we had secured ourselves against any rickshaw shenanigans. It wasn't entirely surprising though when, instead of arriving at a bustling ghat full of people and monuments, we arrived at a quiet ghat with a boat trip salesman for company. Already tired of Varanasi after about an hour we fought off the boat salesman and resigned ourselves to enjoying the (still very good) view down the Ganges from where we were. It was really strange to see the cremations happening in public at the side of the river and to see people bathing and going about their normal business in such close proximity to them. Feeling revived by lunch and excited in the knowledge that we had a room reserved in an exremely posh hotel in our next destination, we returned to the station to catch the overnight train to Calcutta.