Varanassi
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2007
1
4
27
Trip End
Aug 21, 2008
Varannassi,
India
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Arriving in Varanasi was such a shock, we had a taxi who then chucked us out and we got on a push bike rickshaw which barely had room for us let alone our mahoosive bags, and it was driven by a one eyed man who was turning to stare at us more than concentrate on driving. There were some massive festivals going on with parades and people dancing down the streets and lights and music it was all very surreal.
After a lotta wandering around with our bags on our back (not fun!) we found our guest house and it had and AMAZING view of the Ganges river and all around the city, have never seen anything like it!There were monkeys jumping across the rooftops and stealing things, there were so much fun to watch. Our hotel also had this board game we saw throughout India, kind of a finger snooker which we got pretty good at!
We spent the next couple of days wandering around and buying cheap tshirts, watching the celebrations by the river etc. We went to 'The Monkey Temple' actually expecting to see some Monkeys but it was more of a shrine to one of the many many Hindu gods who is a monkey, but it was pretty good, a strange experience. There was a weird moving puppet room with lots of scenarios and music, kind of like a really crap 'its a small world after all' (you know what i mean).
We also saw a guy with a dancing monkey who demanded money off us but we were pretty disgusted with what he was doing, although we did take a picture.
Easily the best thing about Varanasi was the sunrise boat trip, it took 3 days to actually make Darren get up for it but in the last day we managed it, and it really was spectacular. Loads of boats were on the river to watch the day unfold for the locals of Varanasi. They use the river for washing their clothes and washing themselves and even swimming - there were people everywhere some going to work and some going to funerals. We had to light these flower candle things and send them off on the river, we watched the sun rise from the boat and at the end we went to the cremation site, which, even though it sounds gross, it was really touching, and you can see why they call Varanasi the most spiritual place in India, it was one of the most amazing things we have ever seen!
