Ramada Plaza JHV Varanasi

Arriving four and a half hours late wasnt exactly the best start to the day but at least we had a better nights sleep on the train in a slightly higher class with no screaming children!<br> After dringin around for an hour and a half, we finally found somewhere decent to stay and booked ourselves on a boat trip at sunset down the Ganges.<br ...

... hour and half to the start point of our boat trip. the boats were old shool wooden ones with one guy paddling, and the other guy snoring. we were greeted with chai and biscuits then set off. after a few hours just floating and reading/relaxing, we had lunch on the boats and it was amazing! delish curries, vege dishes, rice then banana, was amazing, so much better than what we were expecting. we arrived at a lump of sand in ...

... top restaurant (5 floors up no lift) and got a stunning view of the massive Ganga (Ganges) river from there. It is huge and half full with a massive silted sandbank across from our side. Yet the water level in the high monsoon season (just ended last month) the level rises massively and covers this silt. After some food (we had little more than chai, samosas and biscuits on the train overnight) we had a brief rest. I headed out at 5.30pm to wander down to the river and ...

Hello All,<br>After a long journey by car...where we had to pay a 'fine' in order to continue on our way, we arrived in Delhi, had a short rest, then boarded and overnight train to Varanasi. It was a delightful ride as we had are own little cabin. The only kind of surprising thing about the ride was the toilet that emptied directly onto the train ...

... story. Since the attack on my system, i've stocked up on Spirulina and Ayurvedic well being tonics to accompany my Chywampresh and Safi intake. Should be bouncing off the ceiling soon.<br><br>Street Food<br><br>The food options are good here, especially the cuisine on the street however sanitation conditions are poor and it's a bit of a risk endulging, of course we did anyway. Mangoes are hot property and we've still been munching out on the idlies, masala dosas ...

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

... My guidebook had this to say about the cleanliness of the 'The Great Mother':<br><br>'The Ganges River is so heavily polluted at Varanasi that the water is septic &#8211; no dissolved oxygen exists. The statistics get worse. Samples from the river show the water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100mL of water. In water that is safe for bathing this figure should be less that 500!'<br><br>Needless to say, taking a sin cleansing dip in the Ganges was removed from ...

... already pure so they don't need to be burnt, so they are simply sunk in the river tied to rocks; the lepers aren't burnt because of the poison smoke, so they just are taken over to the other side of the river and sunk (so they don't contaminate it!?!?) Apparently it's not uncommon to see bodies floating along downstream. Needless to say this river was astoundingly disgusting - the faecal count was 1.5 million where safe swimming levels are about 50. Didn't ...

... his first sermon revealing his Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. Finally, a third generation tree planted 300 years after Christ and culled from the original tree under which Gautama Buddha received enlightenment was just on the east side of Mulagandha Kuti Vihar.<br><br> <br><br> Varanasi was the one city I had hoped would be the highlight of my trip and while the Buddha tour was definitely something I'll not soon forget I regret that ...

... Ghat. The current was strong and the boatman eventually had to call over his brother, who he had spotted on the shore, to help with the rowing. We passed the funeral of the young woman we had seen earlier, who was by now being consumed by orange flames, black smoke billowing forth. After we had docked at Dandi the boatman demanded double the price we had agreed (saying the current was strong) and an avoidable argument ensued which resulted in him refusing to accept any money from us ...