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Varanassi, India
25° 20' N 83° 0' E
Oct 31, 2006 10:03
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Vārānasi

I have dead body in my eye!!!!!!

Text written in: English (UK)

He he - sorry the title just makes me laugh - as it is so true it should not be funny anymore!!!

So armed with our guide Raj (con man extraordinare) we take to the streets of Varanassi. The place is amazing.  People on the side of the maze like streets, cow poop everywhere (which we are told to avoid by Raj every two minutes) - and we were both thankful that we were not having to navigate the way by our two selves. 

The smell made an impression too - just something that you cannot describe - I think that we called it 'India' - those of you who have been there will know what I am talking about.

We decided that Varanassi was the indian version of Venice - without the lattes and bridges!!!

So we were taken to one of the main Ghats. Namely the place where people are burnt before they are put into the Ganges for their final journey.  As women are not allowed to the water level - we were led up a lot of stairs to the top of a building to look down on a ceremony.  To say that it was smoky was an understatment and that is the reason that we had dead body in our eyes - as the smoke from the corpse was wafting our way.  You would think that seeing such happenings would make us rethink life and how the end is treated in different cultures - but you just could not link the things under all the flowers and white sheet to being a body....strange (we were not getting any nearer to check it out though)

So after the burning bodies - we were shown the golden temple, walked along the front of the Ganges and both lit a candle and sent it off for good karma apparently spending money at the places that your guide tells you to also brings you good karma - trust me we were having non of it!!!!!

So eventually - after our first ride in a tuck tuck too - we were dropped back off at our hotel to get some food and let me tell you, there is nothing like sitting on the balcony of your hotel, over looking the Ganges after been shown most of Varanassi for 5 hours!!!

We thought that we had had all the fun that was possible until we had to put up our mosquito nets - I am trying to think how to describe the craziness that was said putting up of nets but suffice to say I think we nearly wet ourselves! This was deffo one of my top points in varanassi so far - laughing till we nearly wet ourselves

So the next day dawned and we were up 5.00am (yes you read that right) armed and ready for our 'not to be missed' Ganges cruise.....well i say that - we looked out of the window and saw that it was dark - being only our 3rd day we got back into bed for another 10 mins and made it downstairs for 5.30am.

We were taken down to the riverbank and borded our wooden boat - it was a weird feeling just floating down the river - well it would have been weirder if there were not a hundred more boats doing the same thing!!!

It was so peaceful and just looking at the people on the bank, washing themselves and their clothes, praying, playing, dancing and well just about everything you can imagine that could happen in a river and then some!!!

Our hour was over far too quickly but breakfast was calling and we had had enough of being taken to material shops, astrologers and well just about every sort of shop that you could think of - but not final shaking off our naive expressions we were not having any of it. I showed angry Sarah and little raj ran away!!(with a very BIG tip I hasten to add)

After our experiences here we have been assured that Varanassi is a very corrupt place and to be honest as our first city in the country we were a little miffed - why is it that no one is kind or just nice to you for the sake of being nice and not just seeing you as a walking pound sign!!!!

So after our breakfast we were to head back to the airport for our flight back to Dehli (yes again) only to be told that thanks to the local election that no traffic would be passing through as it is illegal for the local people to be seen working and of course 'drivers' are not doing it for the fun of it are they - so there we were crossing our fingers.  Step 1 - make sure taxi man arrives - check (he turned up) Step 2 leave the centre of Varanassi....well this one was a little trickier we got in the car only to be stopped at the end of the road by a road block and a very angry police man.  Thousands of thoughts were running through my head including numerous prayers too - so we had to turn back and the driver had to get some information from the hotel man - prob to say that no he is not really working and that tourists have a special 'get out of town' card.

So the hotel man came back with us - and he shouted at the policeman - this meant - finally - that we were able to escape the centre of town (which incidentally was deserted in comparison to the previous day) and made it back to the airport with lots of time to spare and not as much blazing of the horn as the previous day.

The first stage in our journey was complete and waiting in the airport, listening to the music game on Vicky's iPod we were heading back to Dehli and on our way (hopefully) to Agra.