22.09.2009 to 29.09.2009
Varanasi was another place we had heard so much about. Many travelers love it and all agreed that if you don’t visit Varanasi it’s like you hadn’t been to India at all. Other people we met just hated the place, saying that it’s too noisy and dirty.
Our opinion : we loved Varanasi. It’s definitely true that it’s quite a noisy place but not any noisier than other cities we have been too. In fact, like anywhere else in India, you can choose to be in a quiet place even if it’s noisy, and this was our choice. Once out of the train station we went over to the pre-paid rickshaw stand and paid the fee for the driver to take us to Assi Ghat. We specified to him, more than once, that we wanted to go to Assi Ghat and then find a guesthouse ourselves. But, true their name he took us to a guesthouse of his own choice, one that obviously paid him commission. We had to fight with him to take us away from there and he kept insisting this was the place we wanted to go and that this was Assi Ghat. After much insistence he started driving again, before deciding to stop once more. This time he told us that he could not go through with his rickshaw as the road was not good. Obviously pissed off, we climbed out of the vehicle, telling him what a cheater he was! We tried asking our way around and everyone was kind enough to point us the way to Assi Ghat… which was on the total opposite side to where the driver took us. A guy we met on the street told us he could take us to the guesthouse we were looking for, he said we had no reason to worry as he was taking no commission, but if we did not like the place he would then take us to ‘his guesthouse’.
We followed the guy who, within ten minutes, through alleys full of cows and their shit, took us to the place we wanted to be, Sahi Riverview Guesthouse. We were relieved that this time we were not cheated. The guesthouse looked really nice but was above our budget given the rooms started off at Rs350. We had a lucky strike though as the receptionist offered us a small room without bathroom inside for Rs250…which was quite a bargain given that the toilet was just in front of our room and we had the key to it! We decided to stay. We had allowed eight days for Varanasi as Janet originally thought she would start learning an instrument here, but on second thoughts, she decided to wait for another time to do this.
The days in Varanasi were very hot… too hot to roam around the city, though we did go to some places. One day we went for a short walk to a couple of ghats and stopped looking at the preparation of a corpse for cremation in the small burning ghat. That same day we ended up in a beautiful shop, full of many souvenirs and clothing items. The highlight of this place was the locally handmade wooden merchandise which we fell in love it… we ended up spending over three hours in this shop, but bought a lot of stuff for our family and friends.
Two of our evenings were dedicated to visiting two of the most famous ghats in Varanasi, Daswadameth Ghat (more well-known as the main ghat) and Manikaran Ghat (more well-known as the Burning Ghat). In Daswadameth Ghat we saw the nightly ceremony called aarti. Basically six young men chant religious songs in front of an adorned diety and perform puja. Many people are present, both local and foreign, and the procession is quite a nice one, thought we preferred the one in Haridwar. Before the ceremony started many kids were roaming around trying to sell postcards, bindi (paint for the middle of the forehead) and the likes. They were really nice though, even if we did not buy from them they were all smiles. After some time we had to move away from the ceremony as we were being attaked by insects who had been attracted by light, under which we were sitting. Manikaran Ghat, the Burning Ghat, was a totally difference experience. We had to go through many alleys to reach it, until finally a well dressed man indicated the road to us and told us we could go in a particular building where we could view what was happening given only relatives of the persons being cremated could go close. The men escorting us inside made it a point to tell us he was a voluntary worker. So we watched what was going on with this man telling us many things on the background.
The sight was surreal. There were corpses lying on the floor, covered and adorned by golden colour cloth and other type of decorations. Other corpses were being burned and the smell in the air was similar to a barbeque… one of human flesh. In the water we could see some human bones of corpses which had already been cremated. We decided to leave after a few minutes, and the man who was ‘escorting’ us told us to leave a donation. When we did not agree, he said that we MUST give a donation… at this we walked down the stairs telling him that a donation is heartfelt not a must do. On our way out of the alleys we made way to two corpses being carried by chanting men. One was modestly wrapped up while the other was adorned in a regal way. Once out of the alley labyrinth we tried to find out a rickshaw but had to wait until a procession in the name of Shiva passed us by.
One day we also tried to visit the so-called monkey temple but we were not allowed inside as only Hindus could access… as if they knew what religion we practiced!! Oh well. The rest of the days were otherwise spent at our guesthouse, which had a very nice common area with fans, TV and a free internet which many times could not be used due to lack of electricity. Luckily enough our guesthouse had a generator which allowed fans to ran all day, otherwise the heat would have been a killer! During our stay in our guesthouse we met some nice people, mostly on their way out of Varanasi… an English couple, a Belgian one and a very nice woman from Melbourne, Australia, who was leaving the same days as us. Our last impression of Varanasi was a very good one. We were impressed by the police officers at the train station. They were very nice to us, offered us information, and even escorted us to our train. Whilst waiting for our train we met a girl and a guy who had just bought a train ticket from the train station and had no place to sit as a consequence. We offered them our upper bunk until we were tired enough to sleep. The train ride was quite fine and we arrived in Kolkata late on the next morning.
Our opinion : we loved Varanasi. It’s definitely true that it’s quite a noisy place but not any noisier than other cities we have been too. In fact, like anywhere else in India, you can choose to be in a quiet place even if it’s noisy, and this was our choice. Once out of the train station we went over to the pre-paid rickshaw stand and paid the fee for the driver to take us to Assi Ghat. We specified to him, more than once, that we wanted to go to Assi Ghat and then find a guesthouse ourselves. But, true their name he took us to a guesthouse of his own choice, one that obviously paid him commission. We had to fight with him to take us away from there and he kept insisting this was the place we wanted to go and that this was Assi Ghat. After much insistence he started driving again, before deciding to stop once more. This time he told us that he could not go through with his rickshaw as the road was not good. Obviously pissed off, we climbed out of the vehicle, telling him what a cheater he was! We tried asking our way around and everyone was kind enough to point us the way to Assi Ghat… which was on the total opposite side to where the driver took us. A guy we met on the street told us he could take us to the guesthouse we were looking for, he said we had no reason to worry as he was taking no commission, but if we did not like the place he would then take us to ‘his guesthouse’.
We followed the guy who, within ten minutes, through alleys full of cows and their shit, took us to the place we wanted to be, Sahi Riverview Guesthouse. We were relieved that this time we were not cheated. The guesthouse looked really nice but was above our budget given the rooms started off at Rs350. We had a lucky strike though as the receptionist offered us a small room without bathroom inside for Rs250…which was quite a bargain given that the toilet was just in front of our room and we had the key to it! We decided to stay. We had allowed eight days for Varanasi as Janet originally thought she would start learning an instrument here, but on second thoughts, she decided to wait for another time to do this.
The days in Varanasi were very hot… too hot to roam around the city, though we did go to some places. One day we went for a short walk to a couple of ghats and stopped looking at the preparation of a corpse for cremation in the small burning ghat. That same day we ended up in a beautiful shop, full of many souvenirs and clothing items. The highlight of this place was the locally handmade wooden merchandise which we fell in love it… we ended up spending over three hours in this shop, but bought a lot of stuff for our family and friends.
Two of our evenings were dedicated to visiting two of the most famous ghats in Varanasi, Daswadameth Ghat (more well-known as the main ghat) and Manikaran Ghat (more well-known as the Burning Ghat). In Daswadameth Ghat we saw the nightly ceremony called aarti. Basically six young men chant religious songs in front of an adorned diety and perform puja. Many people are present, both local and foreign, and the procession is quite a nice one, thought we preferred the one in Haridwar. Before the ceremony started many kids were roaming around trying to sell postcards, bindi (paint for the middle of the forehead) and the likes. They were really nice though, even if we did not buy from them they were all smiles. After some time we had to move away from the ceremony as we were being attaked by insects who had been attracted by light, under which we were sitting. Manikaran Ghat, the Burning Ghat, was a totally difference experience. We had to go through many alleys to reach it, until finally a well dressed man indicated the road to us and told us we could go in a particular building where we could view what was happening given only relatives of the persons being cremated could go close. The men escorting us inside made it a point to tell us he was a voluntary worker. So we watched what was going on with this man telling us many things on the background.
The sight was surreal. There were corpses lying on the floor, covered and adorned by golden colour cloth and other type of decorations. Other corpses were being burned and the smell in the air was similar to a barbeque… one of human flesh. In the water we could see some human bones of corpses which had already been cremated. We decided to leave after a few minutes, and the man who was ‘escorting’ us told us to leave a donation. When we did not agree, he said that we MUST give a donation… at this we walked down the stairs telling him that a donation is heartfelt not a must do. On our way out of the alleys we made way to two corpses being carried by chanting men. One was modestly wrapped up while the other was adorned in a regal way. Once out of the alley labyrinth we tried to find out a rickshaw but had to wait until a procession in the name of Shiva passed us by.
One day we also tried to visit the so-called monkey temple but we were not allowed inside as only Hindus could access… as if they knew what religion we practiced!! Oh well. The rest of the days were otherwise spent at our guesthouse, which had a very nice common area with fans, TV and a free internet which many times could not be used due to lack of electricity. Luckily enough our guesthouse had a generator which allowed fans to ran all day, otherwise the heat would have been a killer! During our stay in our guesthouse we met some nice people, mostly on their way out of Varanasi… an English couple, a Belgian one and a very nice woman from Melbourne, Australia, who was leaving the same days as us. Our last impression of Varanasi was a very good one. We were impressed by the police officers at the train station. They were very nice to us, offered us information, and even escorted us to our train. Whilst waiting for our train we met a girl and a guy who had just bought a train ticket from the train station and had no place to sit as a consequence. We offered them our upper bunk until we were tired enough to sleep. The train ride was quite fine and we arrived in Kolkata late on the next morning.
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