Today we got to sleep in for once (7:30 for me and about 10 for the girls). We laid around for a few hours after a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes, lassi, and fresh fruit. We spent a couple more hours at an internet cafe just outside of our hotel before walking down to the main ghat. The walk took about 20 minutes. On the way, we passed t...

We arrived in Varanasi at 10am on Monday morning. We spent most of the day making up for our lack of sleep on the train. We went out on a boat on the Ganges at dusk. It was an unforgettable experience. We saw burning bodies, weddings, Hindus singing and chanting and we lit candles and put them into the river for luck. We spent around an hour and...

Well I'm on my last day in varanasi - yay! I'm really looking forward to moving on - i've seen all there is to see (well on my limited funds anyway) and the heat is intense (its getting boring having to sit in my room during the middle of the day so I dont get sunstroke!). I've got mixed views on Varanasi; Its such a beautiful place and you can ...

Varanasi is called the "City of Lights" and is one of the most sacred cities in India. It is the holiest of the Indian pilgrimages, the home of the god Shiva, where the devout come to wash away their sins in the Ganges river. Our guide says that it is the only city where people come to wait to die as to die in Varanasi is considered the best cha...

Lonely Planet writes in the Varanasi section, "The Ganges River, or Great Mother as it is know to Hindus... sees about 60,000 people EVERY DAY go down to the Varanasi ghats to take a holy dip. Along this same area, 30 large sewers are continuously discharging into the river. The Ganges River is so heavily polluted at Varanasi that the water is s...

After 3 seperate trains we arrived at Varanasi. The final train was for 18 hours overnight so we booked a 3 AC (Air con sleeper) and expected to be sharing with 4 others. As it happens we had the whole section to ourselves so got some pretty good sleep! Fortunatley we had pre arranged with our hotel in Varanasi to send someone to pick us up. We ...

varanasi - a holy city. people come to the gange river form all over the world to bathe, to pray, to be creamated. it was an amazing place.

Vlogabond Home | Connections | Map | Forum | FAQ | About Watch this episode here. Varanasi Arriving in Varanasi, we knew right away that this was the India we had come to see. After a short rickshaw ride, we were dropped off at the foot of the old city. No autos were allowed in the maze of vividly painted stone buildings towering over the narro...

I arrived in Varanasi yesterday and just got done with a 2 hour boat ride on the Ganga; better known to westerners as the Ganges. Our boat ride ended in front of a ghat (lengthy steps leading into the river) just as a ceremony was in session. It was beautiful to watch. Our boat ride took us down river past many ghats, and we got to see sadhus (h...