Varanasi! Acha! - Blogabond

okokok! After the most famous monument in all of India we go to another famous place and probably the most sacred For all the hindus! Varanasi, where many devout hindu pilgrims come to bathe in the Ganges! and wash away their sins!

We had already booked our train to leave Varanasi 2 days after we arrived, because our guidebook is strangely not so positive about the town so we thought that 2 days would be enough. To our surprise it was lovely, and the feeling of the place is very nice, or as the new saying goes, very shanti! Our guesthouse had ok rooms, but the best thing with it was the rooftop terrace where loads of travellers hang out and we met some really nice people that we spent our days there with! We would like to have stayed another day or two.

As in Pushkar there is alot of bathing ghats where the hindus come to wash away their sins, they do this very early in the morning. At other times the people who live here come

to swim, play, wash clothes and massage waterbuffalos(weird, I know...)

For us, being in this water without a very very good reason seems very weird. Actually, it

seems really weird even with a very good reason. It is the most polluted river in the world. And it shows, there is garbage everywhere, and the water is thick and dark. And we heard that an indian said that it is dangerous for people that are not from Varanasi to swim in it. Even so, the people who play and svim take the water in their mouth and spit it out, doing that would probably kill me. There is also a few special ghats where they burn bodies 24/7, one was close to our hostel. When a hindu dies and is cremated here it releases them from the cycle of rebirth. what they don't cremate is holy animals like cows and cobras and holy men. They just go straight in the river...another reason not to svim in it.

We went to the main ghat one night to see a Puja(prayer) ceremony. We met a indian lady there who was a professor in Mombai who had come too see the ceremony and to visit Varanasi. We asked what the ceremony was about and she said that we indians love

light and noise, so it will be a kakofoni of light and noise! She was very funny. We also asked if she had bathed in the Ganges and she said ARE YOU CRAZY! it is so polluted! So not all hindus come to bathe in it. She said that she thought she was a

good hindu by not doing it, to save the river. Not all people in India think like this, and not all of them have the education she does, she is a professor at the

university. But it is good to see that there is hindus/indians that are aware of the pollution problem. We had a great time watching the ceremony and chatting with her.

The day after it was time to take a rowboat in the morning to see people do the morning puja. This is when they come to wash away their sins. They start very early so the

boatride was at 6 in the morning. Just in time to catch the sun climb up over the earth and up towards the sky. It is an amazing thing to see, men and women bath, but at the main ghat you see mostly women in bright colorful sarees perform the ceremony and bath.
Still, it would take a couple of million euros to make me svim in that water. Apparently, if you have an open wound or a little scratch, you can get sick just from getting the water on it...

It is quite a hectic town, but along the ghats it is quite calm too walk, no cars or rickshaws, just people. And you meet alot of different people while walking there. It is cool. The rest of the town is mixed between narrow alleys in the old street to people and cowfilled big streets in the newer part. And with little interesting stores around every corner! even a german bakery, not a german in sight, but still... it had some great food!

On our last day we visited a place 15 km from Varanasi called Sarnath. This is where buddha held his first sermon and where he came after gaining enlightenment under a bodhitree in bodhgaya. There is a few temple ruins here but they are not very interesting. What is nice here is that it is sooooo calm. very non indian. It is a pilgrimsite for buddhists and there was many chinese and thai there. We sat down on the green grass surrounded by trees and meditating monks. It was a perfect getaway for a few hours before we went back to hustle and bustle of Varanasi.

So that is our Holy Varanasi visit...now we are in Delhi, waiting to take a train to Corbett National park for some Tigersafari...

Ciao!

Ola and Agnes!

written by

agnesola on March 17, 2008 from Varanasi, India

from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...

Send a Compliment

great. thank u for the information :)

written by sestry on October 17, 2011

comment on this...