As with most cities in India, we arrived in Varanasi at approximately 5 in the morning. A delicate negotiation with the rickshaw drivers ensued (What ya gunna do whitey...wait here in the freezing cold until the sun rises?) and we were driven off towards our chosen hotel. Which happened to be a long walk down dark and creepy alleys, and happened also to be full. So we ended up at Yogi's, in some indeterminate place in the great city that is Varanasi.
There is actually very little to do in Varanasi as far as tourist attractions go. You come here to see Indian life, in every aspect, on full display. As someone we met said, if there was a center to the chaos that is Hinduism, it would be here. The holiest city on the holiest river in India.
You can walk for a good hour along the steps (ghats) leading down to the river and get a supreme people-watching experience. Or you can veg out in a Western restaurant and order baked goods that you've been craving terribly. We did a little of both.
It wasn't all lazing around though, although Erin would have preferred it. I dragged her up for a sunrise boat ride on the river. We were driven through the cold to a certain ghat and hopped in with our friendly boatman. The sun had not yet risen and the water and the sky were both a silver gray color, making the boats appear to float in the air. Candles floated by on the water. People came down to the water to pray, bathe, and wash clothes. They wash clothes by beating them repeatedly against a rock. It looks tiresome. It would have been perfect except for the fact that it was freezing cold and Erin spent most of it shivering. Imagine the people jumping half naked into the water...
We spent a lot of time in Brown Bread Bakery, a very relaxing restaurant by the main ghat. Here we filled up on everything but rice and curry. It was nice. You could lie on pillows and keep ordering things all afternoon. This is what we did.
I did find time to wander the ghats however (Erin being too lazy for this). At the far end of the river is the cremation ghat. It is believed that if you are cremated in Varanasi you escape the cycle of rebirth (go straight to heaven as it were) so many people come here to die. This ghat cremates bodies around the clock. Our hotel was in the streets behind this ghat, so more than once we moved aside to let a shrouded body pass by with friends and family making up the procession. Wood is bought by weight (sandalwood being the best) and it is an art to use just enough wood to incinerate a body. The body is bathed in the Ganges, placed on the open pyre, and lighted. It is a strange thing to watch these bodies burning in plain view. A sobering experience.
There are more cheerful things along the ghats as well. Boys come here to play cricket, and boys and girls play with the simple but quite aerodynamic paper kites. People bring down soap to wash themselves, and beat their clothes against rocks and lay them on the steps to dry. People even bring their cows down here for a washing. Holy men sit under umbrellas and people crowd around them. More holy men walk around begging from tourists. The sellers are pretty bad. My personal pet peeve are the guys that come up to you and extend their hand as if to say hello. When you shake, they grab hold and start giving you a hand massage. This abuse of a friendly greeting is so sleazy. The worst is when they offer you a head massage (any massage that costs a quarter is probably not a good one) and when you refuse, they think for a minute and then stick out their hand and say hello.... Needless to say tourists refuse to shake hands on the ghats, even though it makes you feel really rude inside.
At one point we had just finished spending a couple of hours on the Internet and went upstairs to have some food and pay the bill. Our change was rather lacking. Apparently the computers downstairs were running on generator power (there was no indication of this) and the charge was higher. Both men claimed to have informed us of this, although I'm absolutely positive no one ever said a word to me. We couldn't get our money back and Erin rather lost her temper. As she left she said "I think I'm ready to be done with India." India really is an amazing country, but it wears you down and down and down. The constant dishonest game to drag money from you makes you cynical and mean.
We spent New Years in Varanasi, although I was sick and lying in bed. I heard the rather good drum band playing upstairs and the fireworks. We mostly took it easy here in preparation to head to Nepal.
Goodbye India...my love/hate relationship with you remains undimished.
~Travis
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