11th Febuary 2005 - Agra to Varanasi 12 hours

11th Febuary 2005 - Agra to Varanasi 12 hours

When a train or bus pulls in to a station suddenly every Indian is in a rush. People will elbow you out of the way to get on and off, even if you are struggling with luggage, for some strange reason because they are never in a rush to do anything else apart from when they are driving of course so it is best to wait a while until the rush is over and then get off. This is what we did when our train pulled into Varanasi. When the train emptied a couple of families got on who were quite obviously poor. They frantically searched for any rubbish to salvage especially plastic bottles. The next thing we knew a policeman rushed on to give a couple of them a good beating. I assume these people have caused problems in the past but viciously beating somebody is quite unnecessary. Welcome to Varanasi!
On the journey to the hotel in the rickshaw the first thing I noticed apart form there being millions of people everywhere was how dirty everywhere was. I don’t mean a bit of litter lying around I mean thick mud and big piles of cow crap. When we were walking to the hotel from the rickshaw the next thing I noticed was the stench of the sewers. When we went for our first stroll around the next thing I noticed was that we were in the most bonkers place on the planet. I almost felt dizzy as there’s something going on in every direction with noises of bells ringing, music blaring, people singing, praying shouting and chanting. The old city of Varanasi is made up of narrow streets shadowed by the tall buildings either side. The locals still ride motorbikes down these packed streets with street stalls cooking with hot fat as you try and squeeze past an oversized cow with frightening horns. There were crowds of police walking around with their riffles and huge beating sticks, which they look like they are ready to use. In fact the people of varanasi seemed to like walking around with sticks even the kids, mostly to hit cows or monkeys or in some cases beggars along the ghats.
Varanasi has around 100 ghats along the river. It has 2 burning ghats where Hindus bring the dead to be cremated. The bodies are carried through the streets on a bamboo stretcher covered in a light cloth and decorated with flowers on their final journey to the ghats. Whilst sitting in an Internet place a couple of bodies were carried past the doorway which was a surreal sight. Varanasi is the most desired place for a Hindu to be cremated. You know you are approaching the burning ghat due to the amount of smoke from the cremations. Stacks of firewood stacked high surround the area. It is so surreal to us westerners to see bodies burning in a public place. The only bodies they don’t believe in burning are that of very young children, pregnant woman and Sadus who are put in the holy river. We didn’t see any bodies floating around but we did see a fresh water dolphin. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I didn’t think anything would survive in the polluted river. Regardless of the dirty water hundreds of people bath in the river everyday.
We found the best way to see the ghats was by boat. We hired a boat for 2 mornings one of them being at sunrise when the light is at it’s best. Even at that time the city was wide-awake. Varanasi just doesn’t seem to sleep.
As well as non-stop weddings the biggest festival that took place whilst we were there was a celebration of one of the Hindu goddesses who represents music. This was celebrated by parading huge models of the goddess followed by a cart stacked with blaring speakers through the city before throwing them in the holy river. This celebration went on throughout the night. Another example of how hard core the Indians are.
I found a great yoga class during our stay and it has made me eager to practice more. Varanasi really sums up India in so many ways all squeezed into one city. It was very intense but worth the visit I loved it.