Palace on Steps Varanasi

A 90 minute plane flight and 40 minute cab ride later, Benji, Rachel, Fuj and I arrived at our Palace on Ganges hotel in the Holy Hindu City of Varanasi - on the Banks of the Ganges River aka "Mother Ganga" aka "Mother Ganja" aka "River of Ganja"...We're ...

...  into a windowless cupboard at the back of the hostel and there were no other rooms available; not the best start to Varanasi. A few phone calls later and we had found another hostel on the river which had a number of river ...

... do Gangy) a podle mnozstvi komarich mrtvolek na zdi jsme usoudili, ze bude asi nejlepsi hned vytahnout moskytieru. Varanasi je nejsvatejsim mistem Hinduistu, nachazi se zde vice nez 700 chramu a kaplicek, prevazne hinduistickych (zasvecenych bohu ...

... ) is officially the national river of secular India, but more importantly, it is an absolutely central element of Hinduism. The Varanasi stretch is holiest because the otherwise south-flowing river loops and runs north (ie, toward heaven) here. Also, in ...

... meet us there on Dec 16. The flight to Varanasi only took 1.5 hours. Papu the local guide and his driver greeted us at Varanasi airport with garlands of flowers. Varanasi airport is small but very modern. It took us 1 hour to reach Varanasi from ...

This is a fascinating place. It stretches for about 6 miles along one bank of the Ganges. All along its length are 'ghats' - steps down to the river, where people bathe, swim, wash their clothes and cremate their dead. Actually, there are 5 types of ...

... ¼ mile negotiating our way around people, bicycles, cows, dogs and dung until we get there.  “There” is Palace On Steps, which overlooks the ghats or steps down to the river where people go to bathe, wash their clothes and get cremated. ...

... Step-Aerobics class. This is because during monsoon season the water levels can get pretty high and half of the original ghats in Varanasi are submerged under water. Tonight I am off to attend the evening aarti at the main ghat with Lee. The  ...

... out the life that hangs out on her ghats! Due to the recent bomb scares around India & most recently around Delhi, Varanasi has been under high security this week to keep a watchful eye on the Durga Puja and Ramlila festivities. The Vishwanath ...

... by the Assi Ghat, it became apparent that the drive to from Delhi to Agra had been the rookie leagues compared to Varanasi, which immediately jumped to award winning status. I even told Charlie that he deserved a gold medal for maneuvering through the ...

... or the stairs of the ghat. Let's remember, cows walk freely everywhere. Two ghats are used as cremation spots. Most Varanasi residents will be cremated here and other Indians may choose these ghats as it is considered very auspicious to be cremated ...

We took our first night train from Delhi to Varanasi. First, a couple of comments regarding the trains here. Delhi has 17 million inhabitants and at least 4 train stations. Indian Railways are the largest train system in the world. It is also the most ...

... 's worth of dirty, skinny kids begging and collecting bottles at the train station. By the way, there's nothing like the Varanasi train station- cows were sleeping in the waiting area when we arrived! In town the ubiquitous cows block ...

Varanasi at 5am is not a place to mess with - religious ceremonies begin before sunrise and so along we popped to witness yet another confusing Hindu ceremony on the banks of the river. Once again it was conducted by a ludicrously handsome young priest ...

... is freezing as aircon is set so low, but the beds were dead comfy and we slept most of the way. Arrived in Varanasi, which has been permanently inhabited for over 6,000 years, about an hour ahead of schedule though actually nobody would confirm the right ...

... to try to get to Varanasi seemed to lead us in the wrong direction. But, 30+ hours later we are here in Varanasi and what a crazy, strange, disorienting city it is. Varanasi's principal attraction is the string of ghats that line the Ganges. The ghats ...

... us so far, leaving us to head into the oldtown bazaar alleyways on foot. Perhaps even more than some of the Rajasthan cities, Varanasi has a huge amount of cows navigating the same streets we were. Due to this i wouldn't exactly say that street hygiene ...

... oldest cities on the globe. Its origins are traced back to 1200 BC. Mark Twain wrote more than 100 years ago about Varanasi (earlier called Benares), “Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old ...

... in future some sense of the feeling of it.   I feel I should stop this section there, but I need to mention Varanasi before I head to the train station for our last collective journey.  During the wait at the Agra train station, we played ...

... the land as well as the cultural diversity truly justify the marketing slogan "Incredible India!" Now onwards with our itinerary: Varanasi Once over the border at Sunauli we crammed into a tight bus to ride to Ghorakpur from where we took ...