Hotel Hindusthan International Varanasi

... FC - Momo's team!!! Absolutely crazy - small world!!! Hard to believe really!<br><br>The guys left at around 5pm as they had to catch a 16 hour train to Delhi. I went back to my room but ended up going out for dinner at a local restaurant which was ok and very cheap compared to the hotel!!<br><br>On my way back, a group of young guys on scooters drove past me and one of them put his finger up at me!! Random - I told them to **** off and they found it very amusing!

... members are in attendance. I was able to take a few photos with a long lens at a respectable distance. Other guests from our hotel witnessed the water burial of a young boy yesterday. He was apparently under 10, and was lovingly washed, weighted and given to the Ganges by his parents. Very sad, I am glad I wasn't there. There has been an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis here in Uttar Pradesh recently. More on that later. <br><br>While photos of the Ghats was ...

... that should you die in Varanasi, you are exempted out of the re-incarnation cycle and move on to be with the gods. Because of this, there are quite a few hospice homes set up to aid the dying, and to prepare them what is to come. And for those already past, it is the place all Hindus wish to be cremated, with their ashes then scattered into the Ganges. Along a few of the Ghats, bodies (as many as 200 per day) are burned. Bodies ...

... principle, and actually generally good fun, comes into play!<br><br>Varanasi takes you by surprise. It is madder, more chaotic, frenetic, and not the spiritual tranquil place I had as a preconceived idea. The roads are small and loaded with everything you can think of. Even more so than in the other cities you see the road pecking order; the low life is the pedestrian and nobody cares about them. Next are cycle rickshaws which can be very vulnerable to the auto ...

... commision had obviously adopted the often joked about 'claustro-****' system that plagues most Indian slums- at first it was charming, cultural and entertaining but after several hours lost in the labyrinthine maze of cow dung, trash and mopeds I had had enough and just wanted to be somewhere cool that didn't make me want to retch.The Ganjees is beautiful however (much more so once you've just escaped a date with a charging bull down a back alley) and the buring 'Ghats ...

... moment and then it curved southeast through the Pacific Ocean. The clouds stayed away for the duration of the event which meant we could see the total eclipse. This was magical too because every morning since we have been in Varanasi there's been cloud cover over the sun, except for today.Yippieee!!!<br><br>We made our way up onto our rooftop and joined five other eclipse gazers for the great celestial show. Many people of Varanasi flocked to the rooftops to share the ...

... were performing puja on the banks of the Ganges as offerings to the rising sun. At the moment there's a Shiva festival on so we were blessed to see the ghats filled with pilgrims, many of them dressed in orange, who had come a very long way to bathe in the Ganges and were celebrating in a jubilant Hindu frenzy. Some of them would have waited their whole lives to come here. Stare bear factor was high as was incense and burning cow dung aroma. We moved around to get the ...

When I tried to decide on two pictures for each city and send it all in one blog, I was stuck. I ended up with about 100 favorite pictures, so I will break them up in areas and try to give a short description of each one. I am starting with Varanasi.<br>

... and I could be taken directly to my hotel for a reasonable fee. Needless to say I remained skeptical. Though I couldn't locate the rep in the sea of people the train depot had a Foreign Travelers Centre where I was able to settle into briefly and make my phone call. Within 5-10 minutes the rep Harrish arrived and we were off to Hotel India, my Varanasi accommodations for the next three nights. The lateness of my arrival negated any opportunity to ...

... at one of the burning ghats (steps leading down to the river) and their ashes washed away by the holy water. In addition to the dead and the dying, many pilgrims also travel there to bathe in the Ganges and perform pujas (ritual prayers) to wash away their sins and enact devotions to the Hindu gods. The old part of the city crowds around a bend on the western shore of the Ganges and is a network of narrow alleys, most of which lead down to the ghats. It has been there since before the ...