Take Me to the River
Saturday, December 10th, 2005Leaving Siliguri (New Jalpaguri Train Station) was about as much fun as hanging out there. Our train, the Amritsar Express via Varanassi, was scheduled to leave at 5AM, we would arrive around 11PM that evening. We stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the train station, but due to the fireworks exploding outside of our hotel and our anxiety about oversleeping, Fab and I both had a restless night. We arrived at the train station around 4:30AM, but couldn’t find our train on the boards. Then we heard an announcement, “the Amritsar Express due to arrive at 5AM is abnormally delayed.” 14 hours to be exact. After hanging around the train station for an hour chatting with other backpackers and trying to confirm the exact details of the delay, we decided to take advantage of our 12 o’clock checkout and go back to the hotel. The hotel reception was not at all surprised. We napped, had breakfast and went back to the train station where we whiled away the afternoon reading, playing cards, watching people and being watched by people. Our much awaited train arrived around 6 PM to take us to the River Ganges. We arrived around 1 o’clock the next afternoon.
Varanassi is the holiest place in India. Hindus make pilgrimages here to the city of Shiva to bathe in the River Ganges. To die here and be cremated here is to achieve karma and to escape the cycle of reincarnation. Tourists come here to participate and take it all in. When we arrived, we were prepared for the onslaught of touts, we had our defenses up. The moment we arrived at the train station we were acosted by men claiming to have the best hotel, the best restaurant, the best silk shop, the Indian helicoptor (which I guess is the fastest cycle rickshaw.) We were determined to do everything by our choice, so we went to the pre-paid taxi stand and were clear about our choice of hotels. Even this is not a sure way to avoid the sales pitch. Our driver took us to the old city and walked with us about 1km through the alleyways to make sure that we arrived at the door of our hotel (we had to sign a paper confirming that’s where he took us for him to get paid) but of course he waited for us outside in case we didn’t like the hotel and to try to sell us a tour of the city. We took a room at the hotel for the first night, mainly to escape the driver and went straight for the showers. [Budget travelers rarely make hotel reservations, the best is just to check out a couple of hotels and choose something you like, touts prey on this and they get hefty commissions when you choose their hotel.] It was December 1st, sunny and about 25 (80F) outside.
Having passed up lunch on the train, we were starving around 3 in the afternoon, so we ate a small lunch on the patio of the hotel (which looked out on the river) and then we took a walk along the river towards the main ghat. A “ghat” is something like a wharf, it’s a developed area of land next to the river. The ghats are lined with rowboats and their owners which are ready at any moment of the day or night to take you for a spin on the river. You hear “hello, boat” so often, it starts to sound like a ritual chant. Our afternoon stroll turned into a game of frogger, how to make it from one end to the other without being sold something, taken for a ride or getting an unsolicited blessing. At a couple of points they almost pushed Fabs to the limit, and I didn’t know if I would have to block him from throwing a local in the river or jumping in himself. But as the sun went down and the tempers calmed, the evening ceremony started, and we watched in a amazement as 10 men in synchrony performed a ritual honoring the great river. The performance was a stimulus for all senses. They moved in perfect harmony, as they lifted silver vessels bearing fire and flowers, they poured holy water from seashells, they sang prayers with the music and rang bells. Pilgrims put their floating candles (which were surrounded by a wreath of flowers) in the river and thousands of tiny candles lit the river in the background. Fabien and I watched in amazement at the discipline and reverence displayed and we put our own candle in the river.
The next morning, we moved to a new guest house which we had discovered the evening before. It had a nice rooftop restaurant, and a nice courtyard on the ground floor. The vibe was right. After having breakfast on the roof, we took a walk in the other direction along the river.
…Here we came to the burning ghat. This is where the cremations take place. Death, like everything else in India, is very “out in the open.” It is auspicious to die here (as I mentioned, to die and be burned here is to escape the cycle of reincarnation), so many people come to Varanassi to die, or if the family can afford it, they bring the body here. First they prepare the body using various oils and rubs, then they wrap it in a shroud and decorate the shroud with colorful flowers and ribbons. Then the body is carried on a stretcher through the old town, while the carriers are chanting and praying. When they reach the river, they dip the body in the water and then the place it on the pile of wood. Then they light the wood using fire from the Shiva temple and the body burns for several hours. When it is finished they put the remaining ashes in the river. It’s impossible to really describe the feeling you have in this place. It was all very surreal. The locals went about their daily activities, people were bathing, washing clothes, even selling souvenirs nearby.
The 3rd day, we woke around 5 AM to take a boat ride to see the sunrise. Morning is the busiest time, and many people come to the river to pray, bathe, be blessed. The colors were quite amazing, seeing the city change from complete darkness to gentle oranges and yellows to full color in the morning sun. We were energized when we returned to our guesthouse, so after a big early morning breakfast, we set off for Sarnath, a village about 10 km from Varanassi. Still on the subject of world religions, Sarnath was the site where Buddha gave his first teachings. It’s an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, and we visited several temples and ruins of a large gompa there. Varanassi (like many places in India) is really a meeting point of many religions. I watched Hindus performing puja to the rising sun (praying), Buddhists with their prayer beads walking around an ancient gompa, Jains making offerings inside of a temple, and Muslim women in burkahs wizzing by in cycle rickshaws on their way to the mosque…all in the same day.
The last day, a Sunday, we used our time to people watch on the ghats, visit a couple of temples and relax on the rooftop before our next big India stop, Agra…
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