India Awaits: Varanasi- Part 1

One of the joys of having such fabulous expat friends is the fun we have planning trips together. We discussed a trip to Varanasi many times and agreed that a girls-only visit was the way to go!! (none of us thought our kids needed to see Varanasi at its best) So six, which unfortunately, became five girls planned the trip of a lifetime. We thought we had seen it all here in India, but this trip was extraordinary on so many levels.

I will break our trip in to two parts - the City of Varanasi and then the Sacred Cremation process on the Ganges.

Leaving the daddy's to deal with Daddy Day Care - we headed north to the land of spirituality. Our first impression - damn its cold....... after the balmy weather of Bangalore, it was very cold at 11 degrees ! After quite a congested drive into the city (thanks to the President of Bhutan being in town) we met the porters to carry our luggage to the guest house (how spoiled are we ?) - no cars are allowed along the riverside where most of the hotels are located. Even the walk to the hotel was an adventure - horns, whistles, auto-riks, pedal riks, cars, bikes, motor bikes, cows, dogs, goats, people selling food everywhere..... the noise and chaos was one of the craziest I've experienced. The Ganpati Guest House was fabulous and unbelievable cheep - total of 3 nights was under $40 per person, and every meal was about $4 per person - clean and in a fabulous location !! Varanasi is a dry city (not sure why I keep choosing dry cities....... maybe I should read something into that) but we were well organised and packed our own supply of wine ........ we expat girls use forethought.

On our first day we arranged a guide to join us to show us around the ghats, and the old town. An added bonus of having the guide was that we weren't annoyed very much by hawkers - this we only found out the next day when we went alone and every 2 steps we were asked if we wanted a 'boat', 'cheap boat'....... We did actually do the boat ride on the Ganges that evening and it was fabulous - the different view of the steps was wonderful. Anyway, we were all very excited about walking along the banks of the famous Ganges and seeing all these very spiritual followers taking a dip in the water. Hindus believe that the bathing in the Ganges will wash away sins, and water from the river is often collected to be used in other Hindu rituals. It is considered good luck to drink water from the Ganges prior to death, and then the ashes etc are immersed in the Ganges after cremation. So, the significance of the river was so very obvious with all these people risking the freezing cold to jump in!

Our walk along the steps gave us a real insight into the feeling and beliefs associated with the Holy Ganga. It was wonderful to see that men, women and children all bath together and that there was no segregation at this point - all people and animals were treated 'equal'. The amazing number of people can only be seen to be believed - it is a constant flow of pilgrims - from before sunrise to late into the evening - and it was winter, and damn cold ! I couldn't quite believe that they were happy to bath, drink and collect this water that was so highly polluted from the city's waste of chemicals, plastic, effluent, animal carcasses, garbage, etc but also with bodies and ashes which are placed in there. Their commitment was wonderful to see, and the images will stay with me forever.

As we moved along the river bank we got to see lots of cricket games, kites being flown (the favourite pastime in Varanasi for children and young men), animals of all kinds - goats, cows, buffalo, dogs, chickens, sheep, birds........... and they all share the space well. At the end of the steps we came to the smaller crematorium in Varanasi, and we saw 2 cremations taking place and also the 'burial' of a baby. It was incredibly moving to experience and I will explain more of the process in my next blog.

Even with so much death around, the city has a fabulous feel to it. Of course, the smoke is constant from the cremations, incense burning continuously and the lack of public amenities makes for some pungent odours but we managed to make it through without too much pain.

As we left the steps and moved into the old town we came across a holy man who hadn't spoken for 24 years - we all agreed that many of our husbands would like us to give this a go (hee hee), sadly for them, none of us were willing to take that challenge on.

The old town is similar to some of the other older Indian cities I have visited with very narrow streets and small shops selling the day to day goods, along with street vendors with vegetables. The real difference was where the shops were located - usually there was one above ground and then another below. This made for some interesting viewing.

I will end today by saying that Varanasi would have to be one of the major highlights of all my travelling in India - a must do if you can ever get there. I will continue with our adventure in my next blog.