Jains Paying Guest House Varanasi

... sacred and people come to wash, drink and swim!! All in all a pretty stomach churning thought, particularly as i read somewhere that all that dead stuff has turned the local fish population carnivorous!!! Not a great option if your a swimmer!<br><br>Anyway...i've spent today and yesterday witnessing sunset and sunrise worship sessions on the river which was pretty special if a little tourist filled. For once though it was more Indian tourists here to ...

... we watched some local classical Indian music which was really impressive then went to set the mouse traps so we could sleep peacefully.<br> <br>Next day we walked the full length of the ghats, which run about 5km along the banks of the Ganges looking at all the different ghats and then got a row boat back. The different ghats all have different meanings and were built by different maharajahs , some were pretty quiet while others had hundreds of people there. It was ...

... The breeze came off the river and mercifully blew fresh air our way and not the smoke from the burning Ghats. <br><br>The next morning, around 5 AM, we got up and took a row boat out on the river. We moved along the waterfront close to the morning bathers. I was able to get a few shots in the hazy poor light of this misty morning. Bathers and worshipers were out in large numbers. <br><br>At one point, just down stream from the burning Ghat, I was taking in ...

On to the beautiful Taj Mahal which just took our breath away, it is such a magnificent piece of architecture and what a gesture of devotion! We had a lovely if not interesting time here yet again befriending local Indians and posing for numerous photos with them... at least these are the ones that are kind enough to ask first!<br><br>A grueling ...

... Hordes of workers ply their tiny trades on the streets, and in the gutters wrinkled eyes stare up at you as you career past in your sweaty shirt worth more than their entire livelihood. Toothless smiles beg for money as beguiling words tumble shamlessly into the street and the manic pressure of Indian life bears down on you again- it is an exhilarating place to be a part of. I found myself rather enjoying Delhi- perhaps that was because I knew I had a nice ...

... dairy cows in his house at night time. In the morning he becomes a baby specialist doctor and many ladies line up with their babies in his cow milking courtyard to see him, they take a number and wait all day with crying little ones that we can hear from our room.<br><br>The whole city has a magnificent energy, cosmic forces are at play. Afternoons on the ghats are a wonderful magical time to be on the Ganges, there's a purifying and uplifting energy there as was spending ...

... Shivas) and were on our way. This day there was lots of laundry being washed and laid out all over the steps of the ghats and ladies stopped their work to smile and wave at us. There were priests doing elaborate ceremonies, people bathing, some great urban art graffiti and the burning body ghat of Harishchandra behind which firewood was piled up in huge mountains with goats climbing over them and ready for cremation ceremonies. There's quite alot of goats and cows ...

... overall perception of a city. I commented on this to a local and they said that because the city is the holy home of Lord Shiva, the residents believe they need to take care of it. Of course, the centre piece for pilgrims and tourists alike is the sacred Mother Ganges. We ventured down to the river in the heat of the day with Maddie (Duncan being too under the weather), and observed the rituals at the Dasaswamedh Ghat. Pilgrims having ...

... of wood, and takes 3 hours. People save their whole<br>lives for this, and many people are starving to prevent them using<br>their precious firewood money. It's not unheard of for partially burnt<br>bodies to be floating in the Ganges as they didn't have enough money<br>for the correct amount of wood, but luckily we didn't experience this<br><br>It is a very busy city, with curving, winding alleys. Cows, people, store fronts, noise, beggars, drug ...

... at 'no extra cost') where his friend appeared and led me down a labyrinth of alleys, holding an umbrella over my head, until we appeared at a sturdy door with the name of our guesthouse painted gaily above it. Sure enough the door had a huge padlock on it and a small sign indicated that it had closed down for some unexplained reason. Luckily for us though, the driver knew a guesthouse we could stay in and drove us there whereupon a protracted exchange in Hindi took place between ...