Lara India Hotel Varanasi

After Agra i jumped on the night train to Varanasi. It's the holiest Hindu place in India and is on the banks of the river Ganges. It's considered holy because if you die or are cremated here it ends the life/death cycle. It's also one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities.

I'd met a few people who had been here and they warned me of some of the things i would see and the lonely planet gave a bit of a warning too so i thought i was ready ...

... ciudad más sagrada para los Hindúes en todo el mundo. Justo en ese momento ahí en la orilla estaban cremando dos cadáveres, se le veía la cabeza como ardía en llamas junto con otras partes del cuerpo, fue bastante impresionante. Le íbamos a sacar una foto para que vieran pero Amid me dijo que no estaba permitido sacar fotos durante las cremaciones. En los días que siguieron nos llevaron en canoa 2 veces por todo el Ganges; una a la mañana para ver cómo la gente se bañaba, se ...

... down to the ghats to watch the ceremonies that take place. First we went to the main burning ghat and watched the cremations taking place for about half an hour which was really atmospheric in the dark. Chris had his first chai which is Indian tea with tea, milk sugar and spices really unusual taste which was about 5p. We then went to the main ghat were the big ceremony where Indian guys were dancing and chanting with bells and fires. We watched it till the end but ...

... els and they top it up for you 30p a bargain!!!!
going to really miss the indian food so much just becaud the spices and the food is so fdifferent to what yo have at hoem
we went om a boat ride in the evening of last night, sadly the rain from agra was also in Varanasi so no sunset :( but still amzing to see the burnuing bodies and the all day funerals taking place on th eone of the ...

... doctor's clinic in Varanasi is basically a hole in the wall with space for six chairs, the doctor treats everyone in the same room in view of all the other patients. He uses medicines and tools that he keeps all jumbled up in a huge pile on his corner table, i was trying to avoid a blood test at all costs. If it was discovered that i had really contracted it then there was also a possibility that we would have been kicked out of town by people chasing us with pitchforks ...

... and animals. Instead, these beings are weighted down and sink to the bottom of the Ganges but we are told they often re-surface somewhere else, usually across the river where the corpses rot away dogs eat their flesh. True story.

The boat took us past the excitement and vibrance of the morning puja at the main ghat Dasawamedth then along to the depressing and dark Manikarnika Ghat further north.

That evening we hired another boat to take us to the aarti ...

... in life you might move up or down the chain once reincarnated. The primary goal, however, is to ultimately make your way off the treadmill of life and death known as samsara and make it into Nirvana where you can rest in peace. So it's easy to see why thousands of bodies are being burned every single day and night along the banks of the river. And in case you were wondering, people are bathing in the same areas the bodies are being burned and swept into the river.
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India nomadic1

... States but on examination from my own doctor he reached the same conclusion as his Indian colleagues. Oh!!. . . . .Just there. . . . . . .I can hear my ego shattering a little more!)



Needless to say, besides the first evening's aarti ceremony missed due to the lateness of arrival into Varanasi, I decided to err on the side of caution, gain some decent rest for a change and lose a day's schedule including, unfortunately, the much ...

... water bottles and bags, "Yes, no no no, no problem. No you're not holding us up. We love little kids too." Sometimes when teenage boys come and want their photos with Luc I deliberately position myself so that i'm in the photo in the background menacingly ("screw you") or try and ajm myself in the middle just to spite them. "yes we want a photo with you Sir too."

Ok love to you guys

xo

P (water and bag carrier) and Pricess L

... The rain had soaked the logs and it seemed that the chandal would having some difficulty lighting it. Although the boatman was intent on drifting as close to the body as possible and remaining there, we felt a little intrusive and asked to be rowed away from the scene.

Further down we passed other ghats, all perched with numerous ascetics and pilgrims. One such ghat, high up on the bank, seated only two people; one alive and the other dead. The living one was a cross legged ...