Day 20: Varanasi

Trip Start Sep 21, 2006
1
21
228
Trip End Jun 01, 2007


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of India  ,
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Varanasi, one of India's most holy cities, through which Mother Ganges, its most polluted river runs. We're based south of the hundred or so ghats (steps), some of which are used for prayer and bathing, some for cremations. It is an auspicious place to die. We are warned not to follow 'friendly' strangers for tours in the government's electric crematorium. Many visitors have disappeared in this city.
From the Temple on the Ganges hotel rooftop, the sweep of the Ganges with its white blocks of hotels and temples, resembles a riviera. At ground level, the ghats disappear into silt washed up during the monsoon but it's still possible to walk along the front. We set out before sunset as buffalo are led into the water to cool. Tourist boats drift by, some dropping marigolds and lit candles into the stream, with wishes. (Kids constantly tout these offerings to everyone at sunset.) Few ghats are lit up, so we turn back to Assi Ghat, near our hotel before it feels too menacing.
On cycle rickshaws we weave up to Godaulia, a busy crossroads, for dinner at Keshari. The area is predominantly muslim, the street food subtly different, so too the handicrafts and clothes. Capped men in white jellabehs sit drinking tea following evening prayers.
Slideshow Print this entry Varanasi hotels