Varanasi (Mar 30-31)

Well, we did move up the waiting list for the train to Varanasi to 1st position, but that just ain't good enough to get on the train, so with the help of a nice guy at a travel agency we were able to sort out the implications of all that during the hour or so before the train was supposed to have left. Turns out that about an hour before the train leaves, they 'post' the passenger list for the train. Luckily they have evolved to the point that this can be consulted via the internet...which is what we did. It turns out though (unknown to us), that when you are on the waiting list like that and don't make it in, that you must on your own initiative explicitly then cancel your ticket else you lose all your money (very strange if you ask me). And because we bought our ticket directly at the train station, the only way such a ticket can be cancelled is by going to the station. The travel agent explained this to us, in the nick of time and dispatched his father to the train station on his motorcycle to get our money back...well 75% of it, because Indian Railways keeps the other 25% because we 'cancelled' the ticket at such a late time. Not very nice if you ask me. The travel agent then managed to get us on the train for the next day and so off we went to kill another day in Agra...which meant mostly sitting around and reading (a.k.a. hiding from the touts).

So the next day, we made our overnight train arriving around noon in Varanasi, they say the holiest city in India, where the dead and dying go and are cremated along the banks of the river. Doing so here supposedly gets you out of the loop of death/reincarnation and sends you directly to Nirvana.


Varanasi is 1.3 million people with an old core city along the Ganges river with narrower, more maze-like and cow filled streets than any others we experienced so far in India (if it could be imagined that such a thing was possible!). Our guesthouse was right alongside the river with great views of the happenings along the river bank from a rooftop restaurant. Our guesthouse is the orangy-brown building in the photo below.



The thing to do here is to get a boat ride along the river bank to watch the going's on and so we duly took one in the evening and another again early the next morning. There you watch lots of people either washing clothes, washing themselves, playing (if you're a kid), or performing religious acts of washing if you're of that persuasion...in water that is not exactly something you or we would be comfortable going in.



There is one particular place along the river which is called the burning ghat and they truly are performing cremations here, 250 per day around the clock they say. We witnessed several bodies wrapped like mummies, laid on pyres of wood and burning (pictures prohibited).

The river bank is a series of 'ghat's which look like steps down to the water from a pedestrian way just above them. All of this is completely submerged during the summer monsoon periods, but presently they are well exposed with plenty of people spending time on and around them, including clusters of kids every 100m playing cricket so you have to keep your eye out for balls coming your way!



Maybe we were there at not the most significant time of the year or something, but all in all, I didn't pick up the sense that this was some super sacred place overwhelmed with pilgrims in deep religious fervour. There was some of that there, but also lots of people just going about living, lots of tourists, and plenty of locals harassing and/or conning us endlessly to buy anything and everything (boat rides, lotus flower candles, massages, silk shopping, etc, etc). For instance John was conned into a 10 Rs massage and before you know it , it turned into the whole enchilada for a mere 350 Rs). Below you see a photo of an act they put on each evening for the tourists ... some form of Hindu worship with lots of bells clanging and instruments of the Indian variety playing music. It seems a bit on the touristic side, but nevertheless was interesting to watch as there were also no shortage of Indian visitors/tourists clapping along.



The next day we wandered into the maze-like back alleys looking to buy some stamps and were 'picked up' and toured around, which included a visit to silk looms (interesting to see how that is done) in the Muslim quarter and the obligatory sit down in the show room, from where we emerged with an armful of silks. Here's to hoping us naive consumers ended up with something of genuine value for the money we spent!. Below you see a photo of one of these looms along with the usual curious children checking us out.



Wandering these backstreets you see just how much freight is still moved around town by human power here in India. The sight below is extremely common perhaps because in a lot of situations these pedal-powered vehicles are all that can fit throught the streets and spaces that are available!


Well, we didn't have much time here as our visas to India were running out so we were on another overnight train the next day to arrive in Delhi with a few days to spare before our departure. Ah Delhi....now that is a place where you have to be on your guard.